I'm cute - and God I hate that. Because that's not cool. I'm like your niece and nobody wants to date their niece. It's the chubby cheeks. The whole reason people voted for me on American Idol is because I'm an everyday normal girl.

The simple truth is that balding African-American men look cool when they shave their heads whereas balding white men look like giant thumbs.

I think I was lucky to come of age in a place and time - the American South in the 1960s and '70s - when the machine hadn't completely taken over life. The natural world was still the world and machines - TV telephone cars - were still more or less ancillary and computers were unheard of in everyday life.

I am a huge supporter for cash for caulkers - which allows people to make improvement for energy efficient in their homes. We should do the same for Americans purchasing appliances and computers and for that matter new air-conditioner and heating units.

China has legally purchased high performance computers advanced machine tools and semiconductor-manufacturing equipment from several American companies.

The eventual place the American army should take on the western front was to a large extent influenced by the vital question of communication and supply.

On the other hand the American public possesses a great resilience and strength and good risk communication strategies can tap into and even amplify those assets.

As everyone in Louisiana knows there was often no communication or coordination between the state and federal government in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The Bush-Cheney administration had betrayed some basic American values. So there was hunger for change.

Obama has no power to change American policy because there are people who specialize in drawing these policies which have been and still are hostile towards Islam.