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President Obama led the ceremony Saturday marking the 50th anniversary of the Selma, Ala., "Bloody Sunday" march, hailing the men and women who fought for civil rights in the 1960s but also declaring that more work needs to be done for race relations in the United States.

There are places, and moments in America, where this nations destiny has been decided," the president said. "Selma is such a place."

He spoke from the Edmund Pettus Bridge on which police, using clubs and tear gas, attacked civil rights demonstrators on March 7, 1965. The event is considered a watershed moment in the civil rights movement and helped lead to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

In one afternoon 50 years ago, so much of our turbulent history -- the stain of slavery and anguish of civil war; the yoke of segregation and tyranny of Jim Crow; the death of four little girls in Birmingham, and the dream of a Baptist preacher -- met on this bridge, Obama said, turning to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who was present at the march. It is a rare honor in this life to follow one of your heroes.And John Lewis is one of my heroes.

Obama was joined by a delegation that included the first family, former President George W. Bush and roughly 100 members of Congress, including Lewis, who was seriously injured in the march. Members of the group, which also included former first lady Laura Bush, joined hands on stage after the president's speech.

Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Malia and Sasha, then walked about a third of the way across the bridge, accompanied by Lewis, who has given fellow lawmakers countless tours of this scene. Bush, his wife and scores of others came with them before a larger crowd followed.

"We have come to Selma to be reminded that we have do the work that justice and equality calls us to do," Lewis said.

Tens of thousands of others also attended the event. Congressional Republican leaders were absent from the event, but House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio released a statement.

"Today, 50 years after the Selma to Montgomery marches began, the House honors the brave foot soldiers who risked their lives to secure the blessings of liberty for all Americans," Boehner said.

Selma still struggles to overcome its legacy.

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Obama honors civil rights heroes in Selma - VIDEO: Obama honors civil rights heroes - JUAN WILLIAMS: 50 years after ...

President Barack Obama on Tuesday swiftly delivered on his vow to veto a Republican bill approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada, leaving the long-debated project in limbo for another indefinite period.

The Senate received Obama's veto message and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately countered by announcing the Republican-led chamber would attempt to overturn the veto by March 3.

Obama rejected the bill hours after it was sent to the White House. Republicans passed the bill to increase pressure on Obama to approve the pipeline, a move the president said would bypass a State Department process that will determine whether the project is in the U.S. national interest.

"Through this bill, the United States Congress attempts to circumvent longstanding and proven processes for determining whether or not building and operating a cross-border pipeline serves the national interest," Obama wrote in his veto message.

Republicans, who support the project because of its job-creation potential, made passing a bill a top priority after gaining control of the U.S. Senate and strengthening their majority in the House of Representatives in November elections.

The bill passed by 270-152 in the House earlier this month and cleared the Senate in January. Despite their majority in the Senate, Republicans are four votes short of being able to override Obama's veto.

They have vowed to attach language approving the pipeline in a spending bill or other legislation later in the year that the president would find difficult to reject.

Obama has played down Keystone XL's ability to create jobs and raised questions about its effects on climate change. Environmentalists, who made up part of the coalition that elected the president in 2008 and 2012, oppose the project because of the carbon emissions involved in getting the oil it would carry out of Canadian tar sands.

TransCanada Corp's pipeline would carry 830,000 barrels a day of mostly Canadian oil sands petroleum to Nebraska en route to refineries and ports along the U.S. Gulf. It has been pending for more than six years. (Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Obama Vetoes Keystone XL Pipeline Bill

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Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

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U.S. President Barack Obama jokes with the audience while signing an executive order at Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection at Memorial Auditorium at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. on Friday, February 13, 2015.

U.S. President Barack Obama jokes with the audience while signing...

President Obama meets with business leaders and government officials at the Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection at Stanford.

President Obama meets with business leaders and government...

Obama chats with Vicki Niu, a freshman computer science major at Stanford, while meeting with students at his appearance at Stanfords Memorial Auditorium.

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Obama calls for collaboration in cyberthreat battle

President Barack Obama said Sunday that the United States and Iran have narrowed their differences in nuclear weapons negotiations. In the face of a renewed Republican warning that any deal will face a tough congressional review, the President said in an interview with CBS News, quote: "We have made progress in narrowing the gaps, but those gaps still exist."

Washington, D.C. President Barack Obama says the United States would "walk away" from nuclear talks with Iran if there's no acceptable deal.

Obama says any agreement must allow Western powers to verify that Tehran isn't going to obtain an atomic weapon, and that even if Iran "cheated," the U.S. and others would have "enough time to take action."

The president tells CBS' "Sunday Morning" that "if we don't have that kind of deal, then we're not going to take it."

Big gaps remain to bridge if the sides are to reach a deal by the end of March deadline set by negotiators. The next round of talks is set to begin March 15.

Iran says the program is peaceful and exists only to produce energy for civilian use.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is insisting that Congress have a chance to review and vote on any deal, but acknowledges that he doesn't have the support yet to override a threatened veto by Obama.

"I'm hoping we can get 67 senators to assert the historic role of the Senate and the Congress in looking at matters of this magnitude. Obviously, the president doesn't want us involved in this. But he's going to need us if he's going to lift any of the existing sanctions. And so I think he cannot work around Congress forever," McConnell told CBS' "Face the Nation."

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Obama: US willing to 'walk away' from Iran nuclear talks

SEEING OBAMA
Obama was in SC speeking at a college. I happened to get it on tape. Enjoy!

By: Jimmy Maynard

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SEEING OBAMA - Video