he took the test and he aced it and ben franklin said you're in charge of building forts and he builtforts across the delaware river from philadelphia at forts mercers and while he was building these forts they realized that the british ships would sail into the delaware and try to bombard philadelphia. so he started building what's known is a chevaux de frise and they were tree trunks that were shaved sit down and they would put iron tips on the end and put these under water so that when the british ships would sail in, they would puncture the bottom of the ship and then they would sink. the americans said this guy knows what he's doing so they made him a colonel of the engineers and they paid him a reward. and ben franklin went off to paris and suddenly there was a battle who would kosciuszko work for next? well, he got the attention of general gates who was the commander of the northern army for the continental army and general gates was in charge of new york. and he knew that the british would be coming down from canada and attacking from three sides. so he sent kosciuszko up here

and ben franklin looked at him like he was from mars and said we're a country of farmers and merchant and don't have an army, much less a test for what is it? military engineering and we do have somebody who knows a lot about gee yorment and come back and we'll give you a geometry test and he came back and took the test and he aced it and ben franklin sid are in charge of building forts and he built forts across the delaware river from philadelphia, at forts mercer and billingsport and while he was building these forts, they realized that the british ships would sail into the delaware, and try to bombard philadelphia. so he started building what is known as a chevaux de frise, they were tree trunks, saved down and put iron tips on the end and put them under water and when the ships would sail in, they would puncture the bottom of the ship. and then they would sink. the americans said, this guy knows what he is doing and made hum a colonel of the engineers and paid him a reward, and ben franklin went off to paris and suddenly there was a battle, for who would kosciuszko work for next.

isn't wild speculation, what is done is to carry your imagination back to the colonial days in ben franklin's america, where the possibilities were not created by task force of experts but by everybody getting a chance at a term, just as soon as they felt able. in an environment where possibilities were everywhere. [applause]. >> now, i want to tell you about a city that actually exists and i know a lot of you passed through amsterdam, take a couple hours off and rent a car and go to drachten, the dutch city of drachten had an immense traffic problem. it took hours to get through the small place. lots of accidents occurred, and the motorists got caught under the car and i see someone laughing who knows the story of drachten. what drachten did after discussing the many genius ways of putting up signs to discipline parking and motoring through town, was simply to go in the opposite direction. it did away with all traffic signs, all parking meters, and even parking spaces. the result so far is -- has been shocking. traffic safety has improved dramatically. speed of transit is five times faster t

those of you who saw the theater in the ben franklin room, when the secretary and i unveil the report, heard me talk about nigeria. i can't talk about nigeria enough. this is the country who within 5 years have gone from watch list, on the cost of tier 3, because of political will, because of some talented detectives, willingness to work with ngos, has seen an upward trend in prosecution and how they treat victims. as a result, a welcome addition to the list of speewun countries. one of the things we find very important that i can't stress enough is the fight against human trafficking is something that was established in the clinton administration, through the passage of the trafficking victims protection act, which is something they worked very hard on, it was a bipartisan lot, bipartisan affect. it was something the bush administration was very committed to working on once they came in. the same is true of the obama administration. today's press event upstairs, the cable that the secretary is sending to the diplomatic corps in the united states and abroad, is something that is a mar

fortunately forked ben franklin, he didn't get his will on everything, because he did propose the turkey as our national symbol and i think the bald eagle was a much, much better choice. in fact, the eagle you'll see in my pictures actually has a name. this is a eagle where you get closeups and i had to get a model release out of him, we call them an eagle release in the trade and he's bald too, but his name is challenger, and i did ins during the presidential inaugural, they showed old challenger. i found him at dolly parton has her own, dollywood and i went to dollywood because i thought that was part of americana and they had an eagle refuge location there and challenger was there and apparently challenger was shot out of an airplane, not a good way to -- good way to end up in the federal penitentiary if you do that, but anyway, i photographed him. over the years, i've been kind of picking my way, trying to get i've conic america. one of my best stories possibly is mt. rushmore, going there early in the morning at 5:00 a.m. to get your tripod spot, you think everything is completely s

this guy knows what he's doing so they made him a car all of engineers and paid him a reward and ben franklin went to paris and suddenly there was a battle for who would kosciuszko work for next. well, he got the attention of general horatio gates, the commander of the northern army for the continental army. and general gates was in charge of new work and he knew the british would be coming down from canada and attacking from the three sides. so he sent kosciuszko to a place called fort ticonderoga and said figure out of the fort secure and if it's some place we can make our stand the rigors of kosciuszko got up to the fort ticonderoga and said you have this for to buy you have a hill and of the british come down and put antennas on the hill they can shoot into the fort. americans didn't listen because they said how are we going to get kamins up the steep hill and they didn't do it. well, the british came down and the generals army came down and sure enough general collapse who was with him said let's get a cannon up there. the british soldiers also minded and they said were ago it can go a m

it is the basic views of thomas jefferson and ben franklin who called for us to give decent respect to the opinions of mankind. and most importantly, it is necessary and unavoidable that we be able to understand and manage the relationship between our law and other law." mr. president, those aren't the words of an ideologue. they aren't the words of a radical. it is the broad perspective of a deeply knowledgeable and pragmatic and committed advocate for our nation's interests. it reflects how we represent our interests. it reflects our real challenge, which is how we best use international law and institutions to advance national security interest and promote our core values. that is exactly what dean koh has spent his career working on and is one of the world's leading experts on international law. there is nobody better qualified to meet this challenge. yesterday my colleague from texas suggested that dean koh somehow created a moral equivalence between the united states and iran's brutal and deadly crackdown after the recent election. this is what our colleague said "koh appears to