Arizona Governor Jan Brewer for PRESIDENT

PHOENIX -- Arizona Governor Jan Brewer demanded Friday that a reference to the state’s new immigration law be removed from a U.S. government report to the United Nations’ human rights commissioner. http://www.azgovernor.gov/dms/upload/PR_082710_LetterSecretaryClinton.pdf
The U.S. State Department included President Barack Obama's Justice Department legal challenge to the law on a list of accomplishments that show the federal government is protecting human rights.
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/146379.pdf
In her memorandum to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Brewer stated that it was "downright offensive” that a state law would be included in the report, which was drafted as part of a UN review of human rights in all member nations every four years. “The idea of our own American government submitting the duly enacted laws of a state of the United States to ‘review’ by the United Nations is internationalism run amok and unconstitutional,” Brewer wrote. The Obama Administration made public its first-ever report to the United Nations Human Rights Council detailing the condition of human rights in America and subjecting the nation to criticism from countries like Iran, Cuba, China and others. According to the report, the United States violates human rights because of high unemployment rates, hate crimes, poverty, poor housing, lack of access to health care, and discriminatory hiring practices affecting Blacks, Latinos, Muslims, South Asians, Native Americans, and homosexuals. The report also discusses the rate of sexual assault in U.S. prisons and the detention of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. "It is a disgrace when this President denigrates his own country to curry favor with the despots and thugs at the United Nations. Obviously, President Obama sees America and a global villain," said former intelligence officer and police detective Sid Franes. "When the United Nations first approached U.S. officials about 'human rights inspections," the Bush administration refused to allow any infringement on national sovereignty. Of course, we had Ambassador John Bolton representing us in that corrupt institution and the liberals hated Bolton because he stood up to the UN establishment," he added. The report discusses Obama’s new healthcare and financial industry reforms, and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which gives women the right to sue employers if they are paid less than men are. Obama also announced his commitment to repeal the military’s so-called “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The report also discusses new regulations that increase accessibility for people with disabilities. The report says that it welcomes “observations and recommendations” from concerned members of the U.N. Human Rights Council, which includes countries such as North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Libya. President Obama is hoping these foreign nations “can help us on the road to a more perfect union.” The administration went on to say that “Although we have made great strides, work remains to meet our goal of ensuring equality before the law for all.”
What the Human Rights report did not mention were incidents of physical violence perpetrated against Tea Party participants. It also failed to mention voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party and the questionable activities of ACORN.

Brewer Pushes Back Against Human Rights Report

By Elise Foley 8/30/10 8:35 AM

Already the front-runner in the Arizona gubernatorial race, Gov. Jan Brewer continued to stake out her anti-Obama administration position on immigration Friday with a sternly-worded letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Brewer’s beef was with a report to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. As part of a 29-page summary of the state of human rights in the U.S., the report mentions concerns over Arizona’s disputed SB 1070 immigration law:

A recent Arizona law, S.B. 1070, has generated significant attention and debate at home and around the world. The issue is being addressed in a court action that argues that the federal government has the authority to set and enforce immigration law. That action is ongoing; parts of the law are currently enjoined.

In her Friday letter to Clinton, Brewer demanded the State Department remove the paragraph in SB 1070, calling the inclusion of the law “downright offensive” because SB 1070 includes provisions for human rights. She also argued the administration should secure the border to prevent high death rates of border crossers.

As Brewer moves closer to the gubernatorial election in November, her tough stance on immigration will make her hard to beat, experts told the Associated Press this weekend. Her opponent, Democrat Terry Goddard, must combat Brewer’s growing notoriety and newfound popularity. Brewer took over as governor after Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) left to join the Obama administration, but saw a boost in her approval ratings after she signed SB 1070.

An Aug. 25 poll put Brewer’s approval rating among Arizona voters above Obama’s. While 65 percent of Arizonans said they approved of Brewer, only 39 percent approved of Obama.

President Barack Obama- - - - - - - - - - - - -Apostate NOW!!!!!

President Apostate?
"Apostate"

Apostasy (pronounced /əˈpɒstəsi/) is the formal religious disaffiliation, abandonment, or renunciation of one's religion, especially if the motive is deemed unworthy. In a technical sense, as used sometimes by sociologists without the pejorative connotations of the word, the term refers to renunciation and criticism of, or opposition to, one's former religion. One who commits apostasy is an apostate, or one who apostatizes. The word derives from Greek ἀποστασία (apostasia), meaning a defection or revolt, from ἀπό, apo, "away, apart", στάσις, stasis, "stand", "standing". The term is sometimes also used to refer to renunciation of a belief or cause by (generally facetious) extension of the religious connotation, such as in reference to a political party or a sports team. Apostasy is generally not a self-definition: very few former believers call themselves apostates and they generally consider this term to be a pejorative. Many religious movements consider it a vice (sin), a corruption of the virtue of piety in the sense that when piety fails, apostasy is the result. Unlike apostasy, heresy is the rejection or corruption of certain doctrines, not the complete abandonment of one's religion. Heretics claim to still be following a religion (or even to be the "true believers"), whereas apostates reject it entirely. Many religious groups and some states punish apostates. Apostates may be shunned by the members of their former religious group[1] or worse. This may be the official policy of the religious group or may happen spontaneously. A church may in certain circumstances respond to apostasy by excommunicating the apostate, while some Abrahamic scriptures (Judaism: Deuteronomy 13:6-10) and Islam: al-Bukhari, Diyat, bab 6) demand the death penalty for apostates, although capital punishment for any offense is no longer permitted under Judaism, except for enemies of Israel.

By EDWARD N. LUTTWAK

BARACK OBAMA has emerged as a classic example of charismatic leadership — a figure upon whom others project their own hopes and desires. The resulting emotional intensity adds greatly to the more conventional strengths of the well-organized Obama campaign, and it has certainly sufficed to overcome the formidable initial advantages of Senator Hillary Clinton.

One danger of such charisma, however, is that it can evoke unrealistic hopes of what a candidate could actually accomplish in office regardless of his own personal abilities. Case in point is the oft-made claim that an Obama presidency would be welcomed by the Muslim world.

This idea often goes hand in hand with the altogether more plausible argument that Mr. Obama’s election would raise America’s esteem in Africa — indeed, he already arouses much enthusiasm in his father’s native Kenya and to a degree elsewhere on the continent.

But it is a mistake to conflate his African identity with his Muslim heritage. Senator Obama is half African by birth and Africans can understandably identify with him. In Islam, however, there is no such thing as a half-Muslim. Like all monotheistic religions, Islam is an exclusive faith.

"I asked a British history buff I know if he could find out who the colonial registrar was for Mombasa in 1961.

He called me up a few minutes ago and said "Sir Edward F. Lavender"
Source(s): "Kenya Dominion Record 4667 Australian library."
Posted by Alan Peters at 11:56 PM

Testimony from a Mombasa science teacher and the Mombasa Registrar of births that Obama's birth certificate from Mombasa is genuine. A copy of President Obama's birth certificate that Lucas Smith obtained through the help of a Kenyan Colonel who got it recently directly from the Coast General Hospital in Mombasa , Kenya .

As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.

Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.

His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).

With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings. (Some may point to cases in which lesser punishments were ordered — as with some Egyptian intellectuals who have been punished for writings that were construed as apostasy — but those were really instances of supposed heresy, not explicitly declared apostasy as in Senator Obama’s case.)

It is true that the criminal codes in most Muslim countries do not mandate execution for apostasy (although a law doing exactly that is pending before Iran’s Parliament and in two Malaysian states). But as a practical matter, in very few Islamic countries do the governments have sufficient authority to resist demands for the punishment of apostates at the hands of religious authorities.

For example, in Iran in 1994 the intervention of Pope John Paul II and others won a Christian convert a last-minute reprieve, but the man was abducted and killed shortly after his release. Likewise, in 2006 in Afghanistan, a Christian convert had to be declared insane to prevent his execution, and he was still forced to flee to Italy.

Because no government is likely to allow the prosecution of a President Obama — not even those of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the only two countries where Islamic religious courts dominate over secular law — another provision of Muslim law is perhaps more relevant: it prohibits punishment for any Muslim who kills any apostate, and effectively prohibits interference with such a killing.

At the very least, that would complicate the security planning of state visits by President Obama to Muslim countries, because the very act of protecting him would be sinful for Islamic security guards. More broadly, most citizens of the Islamic world would be horrified by the fact of Senator Obama’s conversion to Christianity once it became widely known — as it would, no doubt, should he win the White House. This would compromise the ability of governments in Muslim nations to cooperate with the United States in the fight against terrorism, as well as American efforts to export democracy and human rights abroad.

That an Obama presidency would cause such complications in our dealings with the Islamic world is not likely to be a major factor with American voters, and the implication is not that it should be. But of all the well-meaning desires projected on Senator Obama, the hope that he would decisively improve relations with the world’s Muslims is the least realistic.

Edward N. Luttwak, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is the author of “Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace.”

Hawaii's Three-Way Race Will Remain Just That Republican Djou will win

In Hawaii, intra-party feud may cost Democrats a seat in Congress

By Philip Rucker
Friday, May 7, 2010; A02

HONOLULU -- Across the country, Democrats are on the defense, laboring to put out political fires sparked by angry voters and emboldened Republicans. Even Hawaii, the bluest of blue states, where a Democratic machine has controlled politics for the five decades since statehood, has become a dangerous hot spot for the party in power.

But here's the catch: The Democrats started this fire themselves.

Democrats here might lose a House seat in a special election this month because of a feud between two candidates that has inflamed tensions within Hawaii's ethnic voting blocs and between the state's Democratic establishment and the party's national leaders.

The result could be a victory by plurality for the GOP candidate. That would upend Hawaii's political order and, like the recent Senate race in Massachusetts, simultaneously hand Republicans a compelling narrative of Democratic defeat -- this time in President Obama's birthplace.

"It's a nightmare for Democrats," said Dan Boylan, a University of Hawaii history professor.

There is no primary to replace Neil Abercrombie, a 10-term congressman who resigned to run for governor. So the race in Hawaii's 1st Congressional District will be decided in a winner-takes-all election on May 22.

For weeks, the two leading Democrats -- state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and former congressman Ed Case -- were locked in a dead heat with Republican Charles Djou, but a new poll shows Djou pulling ahead in the 14-candidate contest. He led with 36 percent of likely voters in a Honolulu Advertiser poll released last Sunday, followed by Case at 28 percent and Hanabusa at 22 percent.

Neither Democrat has shown signs of bowing out. The national party has not publicly endorsed a candidate but believes Case has a better chance of winning. The White House this week leaked to reporters an internal memorandum by pollster Paul Harstad concluding that the seat is "more likely than not to fall into Republican hands" and that Case is "the only candidate" who can beat Djou.

Hanabusa dismissed the pressure from Washington and told supporters on Wednesday: "I'm in this race until the end -- and I'm in this race to win."

Djou's supporters were just as bullish when they gathered for a fundraiser one recent evening overlooking Waikiki Beach. Djou, a Chinese American City Council member, said a victory in this overwhelmingly Democratic district could add to the GOP's momentum heading into November's midterm elections.

"The American people want to know: Do the people of Hawaii want more of the same, or do they want something different?" Djou said. "The mantra in Washington is 'Spend, spend, spend, and if that doesn't work, spend some more.' Well, enough is enough with the spending."

A different election

Despite some similarities, the Hawaii contest is unlike January's Senate election in Massachusetts, where Scott Brown, a little-known GOP state senator, rode a wave of discontent and "tea party" support to win the late Edward M. Kennedy's seat. Here, the tea party movement is hardly visible, and voter anger seems confined largely to the Republican base, traditionally about 30 percent of the electorate.

Abercrombie dismissed as "Eastern fiction" the suggestion that Hawaii's race is a referendum on the president. "Obama has a 70 percent approval rating out here," he said, "and if he were on the ballot, he'd probably get 80 percent."

In this metropolis, where whites are in the minority, strategists said elections often are decided by ethnic voting blocs, including Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Filipino Americans and native Hawaiians.

Hanabusa, 58, is a labor lawyer who was elected to the state Senate in 1998 as an outsider but quickly ingratiated herself with her party's elders, including Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, a Japanese American who has represented Hawaii in Congress since it achieved statehood in 1959.

Hanabusa, who also is Japanese American, has been backed by Inouye; the state's junior senator, Daniel K. Akaka; and unions representing teachers, government employees and the longshoremen. This organizational support could be critical, considering the race will be decided by mail-in ballots sent out this week.

"Turnout will be a tremendous factor," said Randy Perreira, president of the Hawaii AFL-CIO. "It's a big question . . . because it's so out of kilter with the normal election cycle, whether people will be looking for a ballot."

Hanabusa said in an interview that she would help Inouye, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, continue to direct federal resources to the state.

"The federal government is what has equalized the ups and downs in our economic swings," she said. By contrast, she said, Djou is "clearly 'no' on taxes, 'no' on health care, 'no' on stimulus. It's just 'no, no, no.' . . . Because of that, he's not displaying the knowledge that you need to recognize how sensitive Hawaii is and the need for the expenditures."

Yet, although Hanabusa is considered a skillful legislative operator, she has been slow to connect with voters. For instance, it is required practice in the state for candidates to stand on the sides of major roads waving signs. One afternoon last week, dozens of Hanabusa's labor-union supporters waved signs in the rain for nearly two hours until she arrived. Hanabusa waved for about 20 minutes before returning to campaign headquarters.

Case, by contrast, was at the side of a road with his wife, Audrey, and a few supporters before dawn the next morning, waving to commuters for hours.

Case, 57, has an independent streak -- Hawaii's Democratic establishment effectively blacklisted him when he challenged Akaka in a primary four years ago. "We have the largest-running machine in the country, and it's had a good run," Case said of Inouye's operation. "But it's obstructing progress now, not allowing for transition, new people, new ideas."

Case, a cousin of AOL founder Steve Case, has solid name recognition, having represented Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District from 2002 to 2007. He says he's receiving strategic help from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, although the DCCC has not publicly endorsed him. In robocalls he recorded to drive up Democratic turnout, Obama does not mention a candidate but merely asks Hawaiians to vote for "a Democrat."

Dangerous scenario

Inouye, trying to protect Hanabusa's standing, sought and received an agreement from national party officials that they would not endorse Case or call for Hanabusa to quit. But that has not kept them from highlighting a scenario they consider dangerous.

"This race should be a layup for Democrats, but the home-state senators are allowing local politics to trump national Democratic interests," said a senior party official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. "They're underestimating how this will impact us all heading into the midterms."

Hanabusa is spinning claims of Washington favoritism -- as well as the GOP's backing of Djou -- in her favor, aware that Hawaiians tend to resent mainlander influences in local campaigns.

Djou understands this, too, and has kept his rhetorical distance from the national GOP, even as he delivers boilerplate lines about repealing a health-care law he calls "a terrible prescription for the American people."

The DCCC has funneled more than $300,000 to the race, airing ads attacking Djou. But Abercrombie said the spots serve only to rev up the GOP base. "It's free advertising for Djou," he said.

Yet with Case and Hanabusa continuing to split the vote, DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) signaled to reporters Thursday that the national party may abandon its efforts in Hawaii.

At the Djou fundraiser, attendees were hopeful that Djou will become the third Republican ever to represent Hawaii in Congress.

"It's almost divine intervention," said Anita Bruhl, a real estate agent who moved to the state from Boston in the 1970s. "The same unusual election here is very similar to the one in Massachusetts, no? . . .

"The first one rippled through the world. Wouldn't it be something if this one rippled through the world, too?"

Staff writer Chris Cillizza in Washington contributed to this report.

Hawaii's Three-Way Race Will Remain Just That

Chris Good - Chris Good is a staff editor at TheAtlantic.com, where he writes for the magazine’s Politics Channel. He has previously reported and blogged for The Hill newspaper. May 6 2010, 10:39 AM ET

It's not easy to win a House race when you're a Democrat running, not just against a Republican, but a fellow Democrat as well. That's exactly what Democrats are finding out in Hawaii, where two of their own, former Rep. Ed Case and state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, figure to split the Democratic vote in a three-way May 22 special election with Republican Hawaii City Council member Charles Djou.

The party establishment in Washington has sided with Case, and things have gotten pretty ugly. The Case campaign circulated a Democratic National Committee poll showing Case in the lead, and, in an e-mail to supporters, the campaign offered up this quote:

"It is clear from this data -- as from all the public polling - that Ed Case is the best chance that our party has of holding on to that seat," said a senior White House official.

Well, Hanabusa is evidently unfazed: she's not getting out of the race anytime soon. She held a press conference yesterday and said she's in the race "'til the end," Tim Sahd reports at Hotline OnCall.

So Hawaii's race will remain a three-way contest, and it's likely, as recent polling indicates, that the Republican Djou will win. Which won't be the end of the world for Democrats, since they will probably re-take this mostly Democratic district in November, when the winner of this special election will have to defend his or her seat. But it's the district where President Obama was born and raised, and right now it looks probably that it will be under GOP control for at least a few months.

Dem vows to fight on in Hawaii special election

Posted: May 6th, 2010 09:46 AM ET

From CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser

Polling in a three-way Hawaii special election indicates that the two Democrats in the race are splitting their party's vote to the benefit of the Republican candidate. (Photo Credit: Getty Images/File)

(CNN) – Borrowing a phrase from one-time presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, Hawaii Democratic congressional candidate Colleen Hanabusa says she's "in this race to win it."

Hawaii's state Senate president say she's not dropping out of a contest for former Rep. Neil Abercrombie's seat in Hawaii's 1st congressional district, telling reporters Wednesday that "I'm in the race until the end."

Along with former Rep. Ed Case, Hanabusa is one of two Democrats in the May 22 special election. In a contest for what should be a safe seat for Democrats, recent polls indicate the two Dems are splitting the vote, with the Republican candidate, Honolulu city councilman Charles Djou, in first place in the surveys. The special election is a winner takes all contest, with only a plurality needed for victory.

Hanabusa is in third place, according to the polls. But she disputes the surveys' findings and says they are wrong, according to local reports.

While national Democratic Party organizations may favor Case, they have not formally endorsed either of their party's candidates. Meanwhile, the state's two Democratic Senators, Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye, are pushing for Hanabusa. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is running ads that criticize Djou and is also pushing efforts to get out the Democratic vote.

Abercrombie, who stepped down earlier this year to run for governor, won more than three-quarters of the vote in his 2008 re-election, and then-Sen. Barack Obama, who spent much of his childhood in Hawaii, took 70 percent of the vote in the district in the 2008. But, four years earlier, Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, won the district by only six points. The district covers Honolulu and some surrounding suburbs.

Voting in the contest is underway, and ballots in the all-mail special election need to be returned to the state Office of Elections by May 22.

And, as for the Clinton comparison: In early 2007, when then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, announced her bid for the White House, she said "I'm running for president and I'm in it to win it."

Franklin		May 6th, 2010 11:14 am ET The first candidate to promise they will get the schools open year round and get the school buses picking up all children again should be the easy winners. That is something that the media doesn't talk about when they help the POTUS claim that he is from Hawaii; the fact that he is doing nothing about the state being so broke that they can't afford to transport children to the schools that only stay open 3 1/2 days a week.
Anonymous		May 6th, 2010 11:02 am ET Maybe she should run as an independent
POTUS OBAMA		May 6th, 2010 10:46 am ET DemS are known for destroying themselves. A supposed safe seat and they're giving it away.
The Republican Dictionary		May 6th, 2010 10:39 am ET Democrats are ALWAYS in-fighting. This is why they are missing an opportunity to GOVERN the United States for 20 to 40 years after the debacle that was George Bush. Somebody (Rahme) needs to put one in the political head of this woman. Republicans love Reagan ... Democrats need to steal a page from his playbook ... thou shall not criticize another member of the party.
Willy Brown		May 6th, 2010 10:30 am ET To pick a democrat all you need to know is which one lies the best.
Beef King		May 6th, 2010 10:30 am ET Hawaiians know Colleen Hanabusa to be dishonest and corrupt. Too bad for the voters because Ed Case is known to be honest and not corrupt. Mr. Djou is lucky indeed, because Mr. Case would be the clear winner if Hanabusa was gone. She is power mad.
Fair is Fair		May 6th, 2010 9:52 am ET You mean she just won't roll over for a democrat? Must be a racist.

Are you still happy about Obama and Hillary Clinton

Now that North Korea has tested a second nuclear bomb?

Are you still happy about Obama and Hillary Clinton being in charge of our foreign policy?


Not at all.

0bama will talk.. . just like Neville Chamberlain.

SEOUL — President Obama wrapped up his eight-day Asian visit Thursday with tough talk for Iran and North Korea over nuclear weapons, but he gained no major policy breakthroughs after meeting with leaders of four nations in the region.

Speaking at a news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, Obama warned that the U.S. and its allies are discussing possible new penalties against Iran for rejecting a United Nations-backed plan that would halt its nuclear program.

Since Iran has been foot-dragging in accepting the U.N. proposal, "we have begun discussions with our international partners about the importance of having consequences," he said.

"Over the next several weeks, we will be developing a package of potential steps that we could take that will indicate our seriousness to Iran," Obama added.

THREATS: N. Korea says Obama trying to pick a fight

The U.S. is meeting Friday in Brussels with five other nations — Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany — to discuss what measures could be used against Iran, European Union foreign affairs spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said.

On North Korea, Obama and Lee agreed on a common strategy to reward the reclusive nation with a package of economic assistance only after the North takes a concrete step to eliminate its nuclear weapons program.

Obama also announced that special envoy Stephen Bosworth will make his first trip to North Korea on Dec. 8 to see whether the country is willing to resume nuclear disarmament talks.

PROGRESS: No breakthroughs made, but China keeps Obama busy

AT ISSUE: Obama's censorship talk unheard by many in China

INTERACTIVE MAP: Track Obama's Asia trip

Obama warned North Korea against repeating its typical pattern of provocation, followed by on-again, off-again negotiations.

The Bosworth visit, which marks the first direct talks with the communist country of Obama's administration, is "a very symbolic gesture, and the moment the North has been waiting for," said Paik Hak-soon, a North Korea expert at Sejong Institute near Seoul.

Even if North Korean leader Kim Jong Il does resume negotiations, "the sticks are not sharp enough and the carrots are not sweet enough" to persuade the North to drop its nuclear weapons program, said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea watcher at Seoul's Kookmin University.

"The North Korean government is not terribly interested in economic growth. They feel they need nuclear weapons more than money," he said.

The White House played down any expectations of clear-cut breakthroughs during Obama's trip, which also included Japan, Singapore and China. Instead, Obama's visit was meant to mark the U.S. re-engagement with the growing economic region. "We didn't come halfway across the world for ticker-tape parades," senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said Thursday. "We came here to lay a foundation for progress. We've done that."

A presidential trip "is not an immediate gratification business," Axelrod said. "We didn't have expectations that Barack Obama arrives in China or anywhere else and things change overnight. But all this is about moving in the right direction."

Before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington, Obama spoke to U.S. troops at Osan Air Base near Seoul. About 28,500 U.S. servicemembers are in South Korea.

South Korea gave Obama one of the warmest welcomes of the trip. Thousands of people waved flags and cheered the president's motorcade.

His meeting in South Korea also proved to be a relative breeze compared with his stop in China, where Communist Party leaders gave little ground on key issues of economic recovery and climate change. China's government also restricted coverage of Obama's town-hall-style meeting with students, which was designed to win over the Chinese public.

And there is less tension in South Korea over the U.S. military presence than in Japan, where a new administration seeks to renegotiate U.S. arrangements there. Obama's stop at the Osan base was his third visit with U.S. troops during the Asia trip, as he continues to weigh sending more troops to Afghanistan.

US and South Korean envoys were set Tuesday to begin a new diplomatic initiative to bring North Korea back to the nuclear disarmament talks it quit 10 months ago.

The US's special envoy Stephen Bosworth and its chief nuclear negotiator Sung Kim were to leave Tuesday US time for China, South Korea and Japan, the State Department said.

South Korea's chief negotiator Wi Sung-Lac departed for Beijing Tuesday afternoon on a similar mission.

The State Department said the Americans have no plans to meet North Korean officials, and there is no sign Pyongyang is ready to return to the six-nation disarmament forum.

"We are looking for a signal from North Korea, and we?re still waiting for that signal," spokesman P.J. Crowley said Monday.

It was unclear when Bosworth and Sung Kim would be in each country.

China, the communist North's sole major diplomatic and economic ally, is trying to bring it back to the talks hosted by Beijing since 2003.

Senior Chinese party official Wang Jiarui visited Pyongyang this month for talks with leader Kim Jong-Il and China's nuclear negotiators met their North Korean counterparts in Beijing.

But media reports said the North is sticking to its preconditions for returning to dialogue: the lifting of United Nations sanctions and a US commitment to discuss a formal peace treaty on the Korean peninsula.

The United States, South Korea and Japan -- the other members of the talks which also include Russia -- say the North must first return to dialogue and show it is serious about denuclearisation before other issues are dealt with.

"The (Seoul) government maintains that discussions on a peace treaty will be possible only after we make progress in denuclearisation," Wi told reporters.

Yun Duk-Min, professor at Seoul's Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, said China was trying to narrow the gap between North Korea and the other countries, notably the United States.

"It remains to be seen how things will end up, as North Korea wants to extort as many gains as possible from others before returning to six-party talks while China plays good cop and the United States bad cop," he told AFP.

But Yun said he believes it would come back to the talks eventually.

Under deals in 2005 and 2007 the North agreed to scrap its nuclear weapons in return for aid and major diplomatic and security benefits, including a formal peace pact.

But the talks became bogged down by disputes over ways to verify disarmament and in April last year the North quit them altogether.

Pyongyang, which tested atomic weapons in October 2006 and May 2009, says it developed nuclear weaponry because of a US threat of aggression, and it must have a peace pact before it considers giving them up.

The 1950-53 Korean War ended only in an armistice. Seoul officials suspect talk of a peace treaty is an excuse to delay action on the nuclear programme.

During his two-day stay in Beijing, Wi said he would meet chief nuclear negotiator Wu Dawei, who held the talks with the North Koreans this month.

Either Bosworth or Sung Kim will return to Washington in time for a meeting Friday between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said a senior official of North Korea's ruling party arrived in China Tuesday and may deliver a letter from Kim Jong-Il to President Hu Jintao.

The visit by Kim Yong-Il, director of the party's international department, follows Wang's visit to Pyongyang.