Tag Archives: Topic: White House

Excerpt from a New York Times story on President Obama’s childhood in Indonesia: “His nanny was an openly gay man who, in keeping with Indonesia’s relaxed attitudes toward homosexuality, carried on an affair with a local butcher, longtime residents said. The nanny later joined a group of transvestites called Fantastic Dolls, who, like the many transvestites who remain fixtures of Jakarta’s streetscape, entertained people by dancing and playing volleyball.” Via the Daily Telegraph’s Toby Harnden.

Reuters: “President Barack Obama’s pledge on Wednesday to strive for better relations with the Muslim world drew skepticism in Cairo, where last year he called for a new beginning in the Middle East after years of mistrust.”

Terry Jeffrey writing at Townhall: “It is both ironic and instructive that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad not only made the same stops on a trip to Indonesia four years ago, but was greeted, according to press reports, as a ‘rock star.’”

CNN: “Indonesia and the United States share principles of unity and tolerance and both can benefit from strengthened ties that will bolster trade and combat terrorism, President Obama said in a highly anticipated speech Wednesday.” Partial video is included in article.

Full text of Obama’s prepared remarks can be found here.

Associated Press: “President Barack Obama’s every utterance in a speech Wednesday morning at the University of Indonesia was met with laughter, applause and a swelling feeling that he belonged to this nation of islands.”

Associated Press: “President Barack Obama has paid a visit to Indonesia’s largest mosque, one of the largest of its kind in southeast Asia.”

New York Times: “President Obama’s criticism of new Israeli housing plans for East Jerusalem, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s even sharper retort, have thrown the Middle East peace talks into jeopardy, with the dispute over Jewish settlements looming as a seemingly insuperable hurdle.”

Reuters: “Obama arrived on Tuesday on a twice-postponed trip to Indonesia, the world’s most populous majority-Muslim state. Before leaving on Wednesday, he plans a major speech reaching out to the Muslim world that would tout Indonesia as an example of an emerging democracy and tolerant society.”

LifeNews: “Though Kagan has been called upon to recuse herself in what is expected to eventually be one of the more monumental decisions of the Supreme Court, she participated in a case on Monday that is a precursor to the coming battle.”

Washington Post: “The Obama administration reiterated its support Monday for repealing the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) worked to strip language repealing the ban from the annual defense authorization bill.”

The Hill: “House GOP Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) threw cold water on the proposed plan, which would temporarily extend tax cuts for the wealthy while permanently extending tax cuts for the middle class. ‘Taxes shouldn’t be going up on anybody right now,’ Cantor said.”

Associated Press: “Defense Secretary Robert Gates is encouraging Congress to act before year’s end to repeal the ban on gays serving openly in the military. It’s a position shared by his boss, the president.”

Via Religion Clause, a response from President Obama to a question on his “opinion about jihad” [full text]: ‘Well, the phrase jihad has a lot of meanings within Islam and is subject to a lot of different interpretations. But I will say that, first, Islam is one of the world’s great religions . . . I think all of us recognize that this great religion in the hands of a few extremists has been distorted to justify violence towards innocent people that is never justified.’”

Reuters: “U.S. President Barack Obama defended the Federal Reserve’s policy of printing dollars on Monday after China and Russia stepped up criticism ahead of this week’s Group of 20 meeting.”

KWTX: “Thomas Farr, who was the first director of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, says President Barack Obama’s administration treats religious rights with indifference.”

The Hill: “Though Republicans are rattling their sabers with threats to repeal the new healthcare and financial regulatory laws, the White House feels safe with its buffer in the Democratic Senate.”

AFP: “President Barack Obama will not be protected by a vast armada of 34 US warships when he visits Mumbai this weekend, officials said, calling reports from India on security preparations ‘comical.’”

Blog of LegalTimes: “In an executive order signed today, President Obama switched up the line of succession at the Justice Department to add MacBride and two other U.S. attorneys.”

OneNewsNow: “James Gattuso, senior research fellow in regulatory policy at The Heritage Foundation, co-authored ‘Red Tape Rising: Obama’s Torrent of New Regulation,’ a study showing that $26.5 billion in new regulations have been imposed on the U.S. economy over the last 12 months. He says even though an increase was expected, what actually developed was surprising.”

Ed Whelan writing at the Ethics and Public Policy Center: “The recent district court ruling that the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ law governing homosexuals in the military is unconstitutional triggered speculation that the Obama administration, which is eager for Congress to repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ might choose not to appeal the ruling. That speculation proved mistaken — an appeal has been filed — but it provides an apt occasion to explore the principles that ought to govern a presidential administration in deciding whether to defend a federal law that it disfavors.”

Conn Carroll writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “The President just can’t help himself: he is addicted to federal spending. And it is the next Congress’ job to make him to stop. Congress must craft a solution for our nation’s long term entitlement spending problems. But our nation’s economy also needs a strong signal that this Congress is serious about cutting spending now. That will let job creators know that their taxes are not destined to be higher.”

NDTV: “The White House will, of course, stay in Washington but the heart of the famous building will move to India when President Barack Obama lands in Mumbai on Saturday.”

Associated Press: “President Barack Obama says he still sees an opportunity to overturn the military’s ban on gay servicemembers during Congress’ upcoming lame-duck session.”

ACLU: “This Friday, and for the first time ever, the United States will submit to a peer review of its human rights record as part of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s (HRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which is taking place this week in Geneva.”

MBTV: “The US would be spending a whopping $200 million per day on President Barack Obama’s visit to the city.”

CitizenLink: “Since President Obama took office in January 2009, his Department of Justice has managed to look like they’re working against the nation’s laws in federal lawsuits challenging two separate federal statutes: the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA); and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT). For explanations, see here and here.”

NY Daily News: “In the recent blowup over the release of teacher ratings, the United Federation of Teachers couldn’t even rely on the Democratic White House for support. Education Secretary Arne Duncan sided with the city – the latest blow to the once-mighty union, which has seen public support dwindle and has been forced to make concessions unthinkable just a few years ago.”

ACLU Press Release: “The U.S. will undergo the first-ever Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of its human rights record before the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) on Friday, November 5 in Geneva, Switzerland. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is in Geneva to observe the proceedings and participate in side events, welcomed the U.S. participation in the UPR process as an important step toward protecting and promoting human rights at home, and said there are still many areas that need significant improvement in the U.S. The ACLU called on the Obama administration to address existing human rights violations and urged policy reform in order to fully comply with U.S. human rights obligations.”

Lyle Denniston writing at SCOTUSblog: “Drawing a sharp distinction between ‘nature’s handiwork’ and human invention, the Obama Administration has urged a federal appeals court to rule that no U.S. patent can be issued to give sole rights to a natural gene taken out of the body and used for medical research. The stance is directly contrary to long-standing government policy. The issue almost surely is headed ultimately to the Supreme Court.”

Politico: “The White House is coming to the defense of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, after the leak Thursday of a year-and-a-half-old letter from Harvard Law Professor Larry Tribe questioning her intellect and discouraging her appointment to the Supreme Court.”

See this post for background: Laurence Tribe’s letter to Obama: Sotomayor “not nearly as smart as she thinks she is”

Christian Post: “Inboden says America is missing another opportunity to declare religious freedom’s importance in its national security policy. The 2010 National Security Strategy, detailing America’s plans to combat national security threats, does not mention religious freedom. In a section entitled, ‘Values,’ the document states, ‘The United States supports the expansion of democracy and human rights abroad because governments that up hold these values are more just, peaceful and legitimate.’ The document does mention the freedom to worship, but doesn’t integrate the subject of religious freedom into the definition of a democracy and human rights abroad.”

Baptist Press: “‘The government — and especially those who lead the faith-based initiative — ought to do everything they can to avoid the appearance and reality of politicizing the initiative,’ said Stanley Carlson-Thies, a former staff member with President Bush’s faith-based office.”

FRC Action: “[W]hen the President sat in the White House yesterday with liberal bloggers, he seemed perfectly comfortable ceding more ground on marriage. To soothe some hurt feelings that he hasn’t done enough for homosexuals, the President tried to please his base. Asked about his position on same-sex ‘marriage,’ the President Obama responded, ‘…[A]ttitudes evolve,’ he insisted, ‘including mine.’ He stopped short of supporting gay “marriage” but hinted that a public endorsement might not be far off. ‘The one thing I will say today,” the President said, “is I think it’s pretty clear where the [trends] are going.’”

Daniel Henninger writing at The Wall Street Journal: “Presidencies and parties decline for lots of reasons, but looking back, one of the pivotal events in writing the history of the first Obama term is likely to be the tongue-lashing he gave several Supreme Court justices seated before him at his 2010 State of the Union message . . . Insofar as we now see in the current election that the biggest spenders roaring through the Citizens United floodgates are the public unions, the Obama-Pelosi tantrums seem overwrought, even phony. Freed to spend their own funds, AFSCME, the SEIU, and the National Education Association have spent $171.5 million, compared to political outlays of $140 million by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Crossroads and Crossroads GOP.”

Ann Althouse links to the transcript and comments at her blog: “He wonders why the Log Cabin Republican are pursuing their court case, when they could instead try to get a few Republican Senators to vote for repeal. He says he doesn’t ‘understand the logic of’ using the courts when you could go to Congress, but of course he does. People conceive of their equality in terms of their individual rights — which don’t depend on the support of political majorities and supermajorities. As a Harvard-trained lawyer and sometime law professor, he knows that. He knows why people go to courts. I don’t buy his understanding of the logic. Or should I say his understandings of the logics?”

“But there is also a deeper disjunction. There is an ‘otherness’ about Mr. Obama, the sense that he is somehow not truly American.”

Conn Carroll writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “On issue after issue, this administration has dressed up their political proposals behind the mantle of ‘science,’ and on every issue there simply is no scientific consensus to support their political positions.”

Washington Post: “Now, the Obama administration has entered the politically sensitive debate, promising to put scientific evidence before political ideology. A $110 million campaign will support a range of programs, including those that teach about the risks of specific sexual activities and the benefits of contraception and others that focus primarily on encouraging teens to delay sex.” | See comments from Conn Carroll at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry.

Washington Times: “Within weeks, the federal government, through the Department of Education, will have the regulations in place to control potentially what’s taught in our nation’s private colleges and universities . . . The new regulations, to be finalized Nov. 1, will mandate that America’s private higher-education institutions must follow new federal guidelines in order to be accredited. Also at stake is whether those private institutions could accept students with government loans or grants.”

ABC News: “European air officials accused the United States of imposing useless and overly intrusive travel security measures, calling Wednesday for the Obama administration to reexamine policies ranging from online security checks to X-raying shoes.”

Steve Benen writing at The Washington Monthly: “We learned this week that President Obama, after less than two years in office, has already ‘appointed more openly gay officials than any other president in history’ . . . The far-right Alliance Defense Fund isn’t happy . . . To the far-right opponents of gay rights, President Obama is a disaster, advancing LGBT equality in ways conservatives have feared for years. At the exact same time, progressive supporters of gay rights are also convinced that President Obama is a disaster, failing to advance LGBT equality in ways they’d expected.”

Conn Carroll writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “[I]f you total up all of the new regulations already passed by the Obama administration last year, using their own cost estimates, fiscal 2010 saw the largest increase in regulatory burdens placed on the U.S. economy in the nation’s recorded regulatory history.”

EducationNews.org: “Today’s article shows how the Obama administration is deliberately taking the Title IX federal law and distorting the verbiage to include gender identity . . . the Obama administration is threatening public school educators with the USDOE’s misinterpretation of the Title IX law and making educators fear prosecution unless they promote the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) lifestyle as normal.”

Roger Clegg @ NRO: Anti-Gay Bullying Is Not Sex Discrimination

At the constitutional level, defending acts of Congress is viewed as part of the president’s Article II duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” presumably including laws with which the president disagrees. And allowing a law to die simply because a single judge strikes it down is also viewed as bad form — a backdoor way for a president to veto a law.”

City Watch: “The theft, a federal crime under the Veterans Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act of 2003, remains unsolved. The Mojave National Reserve has prohibited the replacement of a memorial on the VFW’s land, citing a court order . . . On October 5, FamilySecurityMatters.org sent a second letter . . . asking the White House to allow the VFW to replace their memorial . . . ‘If we are not allowed to replace memorial crosses that are stolen or destroyed, then your administration will rightly be seen as openly encouraging attacks on religious symbols.’”

Advocate.com: “A White House official tells The Advocate that pro-repeal groups are scheduled to meet Tuesday with White House officials to discuss the path forward on repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ during the lame-duck session following the midterm election.”

News on 6: “The heated debate over health care reform has added new fuel to the fire over another controversial issue — abortion. The News On 6 reported Wednesday the leaders at local Catholic hospitals are concerned the health care bills in Congress right now could fund abortions. But President Obama says that’s not true.”

CNSNews: “On the campaign trail for Democrats in recent days, President Barack Obama said the word ‘Creator’ when quoting the Declaration of Independence, although he omitted the word in several earlier speeches this year. The addition of ‘Creator’ came after press reports noted the omission in Obama’s earlier speeches.”

The New American: “The Obama administration has aligned the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI with militant abortion advocates in a concerted effort to target peaceful pro-life activists as terrorists and to characterize their lawful, free-speech activities as ‘violence’ . . . [Matthew S. Bowman], legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a pro-life/pro-family organization, told The New American he finds this “extremely disturbing” in that it indicates the FBI and DOJ are working hand-in-hand with the pro-abortion lobby to squash the constitutionally guaranteed right to peaceful political dissent.”

“Gay activists say the estimate of more than 150 appointments so far – from agency heads and commission members to policy officials and senior staffers – surpasses the previous high of about 140 reached during two full terms under President Bill Clinton.”

Wall Street Journal: “At stake, in addition to the mortgage-interest deductions, are child tax credits and the ability of employees to pay their portion of their health-insurance tab with pretax dollars. Commission officials are expected to look at preserving these breaks but at a lower level, according to people familiar with the matter.”

Lambda Legal: “Lambda Legal has released a short guide aimed at tax professionals and California’s registered domestic partners explaining the consequences of a significant shift in federal tax policy as they file their tax returns for 2010.”

Lambda Legal: “Lambda Legal client Dr. Robert Franke, who was evicted from a Little Rock, Arkansas, assisted living facility because he has HIV, has been invited by the White House to participate this week in a conference on HIV and aging. Dr. Franke, a retired educator and former minister, will attend the meeting with his daughter, Sara Bowling, and Lambda Legal HIV Project Staff Attorney Scott Schoettes. Schoettes will speak on a panel addressing issues likely to affect seniors living with HIV.”

Jude Brown writing at Renew America: “Obama’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is joining Planned Parenthood and The National Abortion Federation in a project designed to train abortion chamber workers in the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The goal of this training is quite obvious. By hosting these sessions, the idea is further embedded in the minds of abortion mill workers and volunteers that pro-life demonstrators could be a real threat to the thriving abortion business . . . [A]ccording to ADF attorney [Matt Bowman], the guide also propagates a ‘bias against free speech that the abortion movement has been trying to promote for years.’”

Jerry Markon and Krissah Thompson writing at The Washington Post: “Interviews and government documents reviewed by The Washington Post show that the case tapped into deep divisions within the Justice Department that persist today over whether the agency should focus on protecting historically oppressed minorities or enforce laws without regard to race.”

Guardian: “Barack Obama has released a video to draw attention to the pressures facing gay teenagers, lending his weight to a campaign that has attracted more than 2,000 video contributions and 10m views on YouTube.”

Conn Carroll writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “$154 billion. That is the amount of taxpayer money that will be needed to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac according to a new ‘stress test’ performed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency . . . The Progressive Corporatist partnership between the Obama administration and a few of the nation’s largest financial institutions represents a fundamental threat to our nation’s economy.”

ABC News: “‘I don’t know what is going through the [Obama] administration’s thought process on “don’t ask, don’t tell,”‘ Olson said. ‘It would be appropriate for them to say “the law has been deemed unconstitutional, we are not going to seek further review of that.”‘”

ADF attorney Matt Bowman appeared on the Janet Mefferd Show to discuss the lack of justice for the 14th victim at Ft. Hood.| MP3 audio 18:50 mins

Associated Press writer Mark Sherman: “President Barack Obama opposes the Pentagon’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy on gays in the military, so why are Obama administration lawyers in court fighting to save it?”

“It comes down to changing the culture, and top brass say they need more time. The military has been long resistant and, at times, hostile to gays, and it draws much of its 2.4 million members from socially conservative parts of the country.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “Just think of the progress made by women just during my lifetime by women, or ethnic, racial and religious minorities over the course of our history —and by gays and lesbians, many of whom are now free to live their lives openly and proudly. Here at the State Department, I am grateful every day for the work of our LGBT employees who are serving the United States as foreign service officers and civil servants here and around the world. It wasn’t long ago that these men and women would not have been able to serve openly, but today they can—because it has gotten better. And it will get better for you.”

President Barack Obama stripped the word ‘Creator’ from the Declaration of Independence when giving a speech again.

Washington Blade: “The White House has rejected the recommended nomination of a New York attorney who would have become the first openly gay man to sit on the federal bench, because of comments he reportedly made about the Pledge of Allegiance and Christmas that were deemed anti-Christian.”

Associated Press: “Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday it’s up to each member of the Supreme Court to decide whether to attend the president’s State of the Union addresses, but he wouldn’t discuss whether he thinks the speeches should be a forum for the executive branch to critique the court’s decisions.”

“In court documents filed in San Francisco, California, the administration asked that the status quo prevail with the policy known as ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’”

Conn Carroll writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “Monday was the third time in a little over a month that President Obama wrote the Creator out of one of our nation’s founding documents . . . And the President is not alone. MSNBC’s new ‘Lean Forward’ Progressive Movement branding campaign also leaves out ‘by their Creator’ from their reading of the Declaration. Again, this is no accident . . . For far too long the American people have allowed the Progressive Movement to read out of existence the checks that America’s Founders placed on government in our founding documents.”

CBS News: “New numbers posted today on the Treasury Department website show the National Debt has increased by more than $3 trillion since President Obama took office.”

Washington Post: “When Supreme Court justices enter the House of Representatives in their black robes for the president’s next State of the Union address, Samuel Alito does not plan to be among them. The justice said the annual speech to Congress has become very political and awkward for the justices, who he says are expected to sit ‘like the proverbial potted plant.’”

The Daily Caller: “Republicans will have President Barack Obama’s czars and his use of regulatory powers to circumvent congressional inaction on issues such as cap and trade in GOP crosshairs if the party takes control in January.”

Thomas R. Saving and John C. Goodman writing in The Washington Times: “The health care reform law enacted in spring will have a devastating impact on elderly and disabled Medicare enrollees if its provisions are not substantially changed. The law creates a new mechanism to reduce the rate of increase in Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals. As a result, Medicare payments will fall below Medicaid rates before the end of this decade, and they will fall increasingly behind the rates paid by all other payers in succeeding decades.”

Lyle Denniston writing at SCOTUSblog: “Accusing the Obama Administration of “hypocrisy at its highest levels” for trying to keep in force the ‘don’t ask/don’t tell’ policy that the government opposes and wants ended, a gay-rights group told a federal judge on Friday that maintaining the policy even temporarily will weaken the military services and national security. Using strong and often accusing language on every one of its 12 pages of argument, the group — the Log Cabin Republicans — said the Administration ‘should be ashamed to be seeking’ that effect. (The document is here.)”

Althouse: “Gibbs doesn’t say whether Obama thinks the law is unconstitutional . . . If the statute is unconstitutional, the courts should declare it a nullity. If the President think the process is repeal by Congress, then he must think the act is constitutional. Right? . . . ‘MR. GREGORY: But does he believe it’s unconstitutional? . . . MR. GIBBS: You know, David, he thinks it’s discriminatory and it’s unjust and most of all it harms our national security. It’s…’”

Windy City Media Group: “‘In the very same week, the administration says that it absolutely must appeal a federal court’s decision on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” while it orders the Justice Department not to appeal a federal court’s ruling in favor of the conservative Alliance Defense Fund. This contradiction is simply incomprehensible and insulting,’ said Alexander Nicholson, Executive Director of Servicemembers United and the sole named veteran plaintiff in the case along with the Log Cabin Republicans.”

LezGetReal: “A case brought by the Alliance Defense Fund has removed the restriction on small gatherings under a few dozen wishing to congregate at national parks, including the National Mall in DC. This case, which the Administration will not be appealing makes a lie out of the fact that the Justice Department has to appeal the ruling by Judge Virginia Philips regarding Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”