Tag Archives: Topic: White House

Life News: During an emergency hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives about the tenuous situation of forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng in China, pro-life Congressman Chris Smith said he has been prevented from visiting China and was not allowed to talk to Chen while he was at the U.S. Embassy.

Religion Clause Blog: President Obama has issued a Presidential Proclamation (full text) declaring tomorrow to be a National Day of Prayer . . .

Washington Post: A new White House report that offers guidance on public/private partnerships between the government and faith-based groups leaves critical questions unanswered and does not resolve the issue of religious groups’ ability to discriminate in hiring and firing, church-state watchdogs said.

Metro Weekly: On Friday, April 27, Stuart Ishimaru stepped down from his post as one of five commissioners on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The bipartisan panel is responsible for enforcing federal nondiscrimination laws, including issuing the April 20 decision that an employer who discriminates against an employee or applicant on the basis of the person’s gender identity is violating the prohibition on sex discrimination contained in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Religion Clause Blog: Last Friday, the White House issued the Recommendations of the Interagency Working Group on Faith-Based and Other Neighborhood Partnerships (full text) which provides federal agencies with guidance on carrying out Executive Order 13559 (Nov. 17, 2010)– the executive order that adopted a number of recommendations of the President’s faith-based task force.

LifeNews: Likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called on President Barack Obama today to provide any diplomatic protection possible for Chinese forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng, who escaped house arrest this past week.

LifeNews: An Obama administration official today would not say whether the Obama administration plans to provide political asylum or some sort of other diplomatic protection for Chen Guangcheng, the forced abortion opponent in China.

Washington Post: Since the beginning of his term, state and local governments have shed 611,000 employees — including 196,000 educators — according to government statistics.

FRC Washington Update: For now, it looks like the nanny goat state is on hold. After U.S. farmers, FRC, and other groups hollered our disapproval over new rules, the Labor Department finally relented. The regulations, which would have dictated children’s chore charts, were so overbearing that teenagers would have needed Washington’s approval to operate a power washer.

One News Now: “Students of all shapes, sizes and types all face bullying,” Cortman notes. “The glaring question is why does this bill only protect students regarding bullying as it pertains to their sexual orientation?” . . . “The problem is that the president shouldn’t be politicizing the issue of bullying solely to benefit those wishing to indoctrinate children regarding homosexual behavior,” the ADF attorney contends. “These [types] of policies should broadly prohibit bullying against all students, regardless of the reason for the bullying.” [more]

The HIll: The Republican National Committee is asking the Government Accountability Office to examine President Obama’s “misuse” of government funds to benefit his reelection campaign.

CNSNews: “Two years ago, we made history together by finally passing health reform,” said Mrs. Obama. “And because we passed this law, insurance companies will now have to cover basic preventive care–things like prenatal care, mammograms, contraception–at no extra cost.”

Fox News: The Corps said Sgt. Gary Stein will be given an other-than-honorable discharge for violating Pentagon policy limiting speech of service members.

Steve Aden at Life News: Barack Obama enjoyed the robust support of Planned Parenthood and the abortion lobby throughout his campaign for president. As president, he has . . .

Washington Times: Two weeks of protests, from July 21 to July 4 have been called by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops which has sought to end the administrations’s contraception mandate, among other policies.

Baptist Press: Perhaps trying to send a message to gay activists who want him to do more, President Obama’s re-election website has posted a timeline of 40 specific accomplishments his administration has made for the gay community — a timeline that no doubt will be referenced both by his supporters and opponents in the coming months

One News Now: “This case is challenging President Obama’s executive order to really ignore the federal law that protects American tax dollars from being used to destroy human embryos and goes ahead and has funded millions and millions of dollars’ worth of destructive research,” Bowman shares.

Newsmax: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says President Barack Obama’s political machine is pulling out all the stops to defeat him in the pivotal June 5 recall election — a race that could determine the future of many efforts around the country to curb runaway government spending.

Michael Stokes Paulsen at Public Discourse: President Obama’s recent quips about “judicial activism” do not amount to arguments. They are shallow sloganeering.

NY Post: Call it President Obama’s Committee for the Re-Election of the President — a political slush fund at the Health and Human Services Department. Only this isn’t some little fund from shadowy private sources; this is taxpayer money, redirected to help Obama win another term. A massive amount of it, too — $8.3 billion. Yes, that’s billion, with a B.

MSNBC: One Saturday last fall, President Obama interrupted a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not on the agenda. He declared, aides recalled, that the administration needed to more aggressively use executive power to govern in the face of Congressional obstructionism.

ACLU: Earlier this afternoon, following a screening of the documentary Bully at the White House, the Obama administration officially endorsed the Student Non-Discrimination Act. The Student Non-Discrimination Act would provide LGBT students.

LifeNews: The Obama administration has hired the former top spokeswoman for the Planned Parenthood abortion business as deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Nineteen Sixty-Four Blog: Today, Pew released results that also show a tight race with a slim lead for President Obama. It is still a long, long time before any of these polls are predictive of anything. But as a first look, the Obama campaign might be second guessing some of their recent decisions that may have alienated religious voters. (see the chart)

Daniel Henninger at the Wall Street Journal: The differences between America in 1936 and America 76 years later hardly matter. In a time of genuine economic anxiety, as now, Team Obama has chosen a plausible strategy: During tough times, the government will be there for you.

Washington Times: But the most explosive allegation in the news story comes from former Democratic congressman Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Ted Kenney, who calls what the Obama White House is doing “quid pro quo.”

Washington Times: Escalating a simmering constitutional feud, Senate Republicans on Tuesday said they’re joining a lawsuit against President Obama’s January recess appointments, which were made even as Senate Republicans said they were still in session.

AP: The Cuban government is criticizing U.S. President Barack Obama for calling for democratic change in Cuba.

CNSNews: Although he has served less than a term, Obama is now the first American president to see the federal government’s debt increase by more than $5 trillion during his time in office.

Education News: “Budgets are about choices,” stated President Obama in recent remarks to governors about his massive fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget request. Nothing more clearly demonstrates the Administration’s priorities than Obama’s decision to once again place the successful D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP) on the chopping block while simultaneously growing the Department of Education’s (DOE) budget more than any other federal agency. In so doing, President Obama is showing low-income D.C. families that his priority is maintaining the unacceptable status quo . . .

NOM: “The American people are entitled to know how a confidential tax return containing private donor information filed exclusively with the Internal Revenue Service has been given to our political opponents who also happen to be co-chairing President Obama’s reelection committee.”

Nina Shea at National Review: This violence comes out of the growing community of Salafi Muslims, adherents of the radical brand of Islam that is Saudi Arabia’s official doctrine and which Saudi Arabia exports throughout the Sunni world. We’ve also come to expect the willful blindness of the Obama administration about the religious implications of these horrific events. Last weekend’s Easter Sunday was no exception.

NY Times: President Obama disappointed and vexed gay supporters on Wednesday with his decision, conveyed to activists by a senior adviser, not to sign an executive order banning discrimination by employers with federal contracts.

Daily Caller: According to the Harvard Law School course catalog, professor Charles Ogletree will be teaching a reading group called “Understanding Obama” for one classroom credit during the 2013 spring term

Richard M. Salsman at Forbes: Mr. Obama’s legal reference to Lochner is apt, but ridiculous too, given his fear that SCOTUS may scotch ObamaCare. In Lochner v. New York (1905) the Court rightly jettisoned a state regulatory scheme that violated commercial rights; yet that was the last it so ruled. Thereafter, and especially after being intimidated by FDR and his thuggish New-Dealers in the 1930s, the Court dropped its obligation to uphold economic and property rights. In effect the Court denied what the Founders had earlier argued; that liberty is indivisible, that violations of economic liberty eventually spilled over into violations of civil liberty. The Founders were right. After 80 years of losing our commercial liberties – losses that Obama only applauds – perhaps Americans are starting to glimpse the loss of their civil liberties too.

Politico: President Obama’s reelection campaign announces his opposition to an anti-same-sex marriage ballot initiative in Minnesota, Metro Weekly reports . . .

Piero A. Tozzi at the Christian Post: In a major foreign policy address last December in Geneva before United Nations delegates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton identified “deeply-held … religious beliefs” as among “the obstacles standing in the way of protecting the human rights of LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender] people.” Criticizing those who “cite religious or cultural values” to oppose “LGBT” rights, she then made a doctrinal point: if properly understood, “religious traditions” actually support the progressive march of “human rights” and sanction homosexual behavior.

The Hill: HHS has transferred almost $200 million to the IRS over the past two years and plans to transfer more than $300 million this year, according to figures provided by a congressional aide.

Volokh Conspiracy: The letter is here . . .

Huffington Post: The key in Lochner is that we were talking about regulation of the states, right, and the states are not limited to enumerated powers,” Roberts said. “The federal government is. And it seems to me it’s an entirely different question when you ask yourself whether or not there are going to be limits on the federal power, as opposed to limits on the states, which was the issue in Lochner.”

The text of the remarks are at WhiteHouse.gov.

Politico: The Republican backlash against President Barack Obama’s health care-SCOTUS remarks shows no sign of subsiding. In a noon speech today to the Rotary Club of Lexington, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell continued the GOP counteroffensive, telling the president to “back off” the Supreme Court.

The Hill: The coal industry will suffer the same fate as Osama bin Laden under new climate regulations proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the head of the United Mine Workers of America said this week.

AP: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that the Justice Department will respond “appropriately” to a federal appellate judge in Texas who demanded a letter recognizing the authority of the federal courts to strike down laws passed by Congress.

CNN reports (includes video): The point I was making is that the Supreme Court is the final say on our Constitution and our laws and all of us have to respect it,” he said. “But it’s precisely because of that extraordinary power that the court has traditionally exercised significant restraint and deference to our duly-elected legislature, our Congress.”

ACLU: On Tuesday afternoon, over 70 members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama urging him to sign an executive order to ensure that federal contractors receiving tax dollars do not discriminate against applicants and employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

CBS: In the escalating battle between the administration and the judiciary, a federal appeals court apparently is calling the president’s bluff — ordering the Justice Department to answer by Thursday whether the Obama Administration believes that the courts have the right to strike down a federal law, according to a lawyer who was in the courtroom.

Huffington Post (includes video): “I think if President Obama came out as gay he wouldn’t — President Obama is not going to lose the black vote no matter what he does,” Jones quipped Monday on MSNBC, responding to a question from host Alex Wagner about a potential loss of support among African Americans if Obama came out in favor of marriage equality

Charles C.W. Cooke at National Review quoting Thomas Jefferson: Our peculiar security is in possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction. I say the same as to the opinion of those who consider the grant of the treaty making power as boundless. If it is, then we have no Constitution.

LifeNews: The pro-abortion president added, “I just remind conservative commentators that for years we’ve heard that the biggest problem is judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint. That a group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law. Well, this is a good example. And I’m pretty confident that this court will recognize that and not take that step.”

James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal: Cardinal Dolan thought he heard Barack Obama pledge respect for the Catholic Church’s rights of conscience. Then came the contraception coverage mandate.

One News Now: “This is a lose-lose for the American people,” he decides. “We are the Saudi Arabia of coal, and yet President Obama through the EPA is preventing us from using that natural resource.”

Life News (includes video): In a weekend interview, pro-abortion Vice-President Joe Biden claimed pro-life advocates who are opposed to the new Obama administration mandate forcing religious employers to pay for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions are “out of touch with reality.”

AP: President Barack Obama could be caught in an election-year bind on gay marriage, wedged between the pressure of supporters who want him to back same-sex marriage and the political perils of igniting an explosive social issue in the midst of the campaign.

The Hill: In return, Republicans allowed passage by unanimous consent of several of President Obama’s noncontroversial nominees . . .

Washington Times: So, in one week, Mr. Obama got caught whispering promises to our enemy, incited a race war, raised serious questions about his understanding of the Constitution, and then got smacked down over his proposed budget that was so wildly reckless that even Democrats in Congress could not support it.

Wall Street Journal: Something’s happening to President Obama’s relationship with those who are inclined not to like his policies. They are now inclined not to like him. His supporters would say, “Nothing new there,” but actually I think there is. I’m referring to the broad, stable, nonradical, non-birther right. Among them the level of dislike for the president has ratcheted up sharply the past few months.

Washington Free Beacon: A former Chinese security official, whose attempted defection to the United States was rejected by the Obama administration, officially requested asylum during his 10-hour stay at the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, China, according to an official Chinese report.

Washington Times: Minutes earlier, the House also defeated Mr. Obama’s own budget, submitted last month, on a 414-0 vote arranged by Republicans to embarrass the president and officially shelve his plan.

The Washington Free Bacon: Keeping up with its longstanding policy, the State Department refuses to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s official capital—despite a U.S. law stating otherwise. Obama faced criticism on the issue last year, when it was revealed that the White House had scrubbed all references to Jerusalem being part of the Jewish state from a collection of photos on its website.

AP: President Obama has given himself the powers to declare martial law — especially in the event of a war with Iran. It is a sweeping power grab that should worry every American.

Washington Post: Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Friday that President Obama gives people reason to believe that he’s a Muslim.

Washington Post: Obama’s top political advisers have held serious discussions with leading Democrats about the upsides and downsides of coming out for gay marriage before the fall election, a Democratic strategist who has discussed these matters directly with Obama’s campaign inner circle tells me.

WorldNetDaily: The most well-read news story anywhere got no mention on Fox News, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times or any other so-called “mainstream” news outlet – a laughable adjective.

Charlotte Observer: Charlotte Bishop Peter Jugis and his Raleigh counterpart have criticized President Barack Obama’s opposition to the upcoming N.C. marriage amendment, calling his comments last week “a grave disappointment.”

Politico: The AFP, the Huffington Post and other websites have scrubbed a report about first daughter Malia Obama’s school trip.

One News Now: ADF filed suit on behalf of New Hampshire Right to Life late last year, and attorney Michael Tierney tells OneNewsNow a . . . Another ADF attorney, Catherine Glenn Foster, says the administration was required by law to release the documents more than 125 days ago, but it kept dragging its feet. “Planned Parenthood is already being investigated by Congress and is the subject of other litigation of potential fraud in the use of taxpayer dollars,” she notes. “It is a shame to see more money from American wallets go to Planned Parenthood as part of an illegal funding process that the state of New Hampshire didn’t even want.” . . .

FP.com: The State Department announced on Tuesday that it would exempt 10 European countries and Japan from penalties for doing business with Iran’s central bank, because those countries are making significant progress toward weaning themselves off of Iranian oil.

Engage Family Minute: Events throughout the last three years have given credibility to anti-religious, anti-Christian, and other antagonistic claims against the president. But a recent article by faith and American freedom historian David Barton might just solidify these claims.

Rep. Lamar Smith at Washington Times: Now, on the eve of one of the most important Supreme Court arguments in our nation’s history, the stonewalling that has become the hallmark of the Obama administration may call into question the legitimacy of the court’s ultimate decision.

Paul.House.Gov: In what history likely will record as a turning point, Attorney General Holder bluntly explained that this administration believes it has the authority to use lethal force against Americans if the President determines them to be a threat to the nation. He tells us that this is not a violation of the due process requirements of our Constitution because the President himself embodies “due process” as he unilaterally determines who is to be targeted.

LifeNews: The White House announced today that colleges and universities will also be forced to join religious employers in instituting the new HHS mandate that requires them to provide coverage for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions.

Huffington Post: While many high-profile figures have publicly advocated for including strong language in the platform, the Obama campaign and the allied Democratic National Committee are searching for ways to split the difference: showing support for equality but stopping short of a full-fledged endorsement.

LifeNews: The Obama administration is getting grief from a pro-life group for approving an experiment using the remains of the bodies of unborn children victimized in abortion for research continues in U.S. laboratories.

The Hill: President Obama’s 2013 budget would add $3.5 trillion to annual deficits through 2022, according to a new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).