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University of California President Mark Yudof defended Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s right to speak at the university’s Berkeley campus. Farrakhan’s speech Saturday was billed as being about black empowerment, but was also peppered with anti-Semitic and hate speech, students told The Daily Californian student newspaper. A petition circulated after the speech by Jewish student leaders, which opposed Farrakhan’s speech and character, but not the Black Student Union’s right to bring him to campus, garnered more than 350 signatures, the student newspaper reported. “Louis Farrakhan is a provocative, divisive figure with a long history of racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius argued Monday that a new rule that requires many religious employers to cover birth control in employee health plans respects those with “deeply held beliefs opposing the use of birth control.” “We specifically carved out from the policy religious organizations that primarily employ people of their own faith. This exemption includes churches and other houses of worship and could also include other church-affiliated organizations,” wrote Sebelius in an op-ed in USA Today. The policy put forward by the Obama administration exempts Catholic churches but doesn’t carve out other religious institutions such as

President Barack Obama says the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade is the chance to recognize the “fundamental constitutional right” to abortion and to “continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.” The 1973 U.S. Supreme Court nationalized abortion law, prohibiting states from deciding on the matter. In his written statement, Obama acknowledged that abortion has been a divisive political issue. Obama, while serving in the Illinois State Legislature and as president of the United States, has taken a hard line on abortion rights. In his...

January 20, 2012 Gingrich's record on the hot seat in SC debate Republican rivals target House ethics violations

The Transportation Security Administration defended the decision of one of its workers to confiscate a passenger's cupcake Monday, saying the pastry that was taken was not a normal piece of dessert. During the Christmas travel season, when between 1.6 million and 2.3 million people were estimated to have taken a trip by airplane, TSA was heavily criticized for reportedly not allowing a passenger to carry a cupcake through security at Las Vegas's McCarran International Airport. On Monday, the agency said the cupcake in question was in a jar,

Poor, much-maligned Eric Holder. He should be able to implicitly approve an ultimately lethal operation without anybody ever asking questions about it. Luckily for him, the tax-exempt “watchdog” group Media Matters agrees with him. You know the story so far: The Attorney General received memos that clearly outlined the controversial tactics employed in Operation Fast and Furious, a program to funnel firearms to straw purchasers in a purported attempt to track the weapons from the hands of the straw purchasers and into the hands of the leaders of Mexican drug cartels. The program’s credibility was called into question because the...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Monday defended his administration’s efforts to cover its electronic tracks with the purchase of hard drives from state computers, saying he had no intention of providing ''opposition research teams'' with electronic communications from his term as governor. Meeting with the editorial board of the Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph, Mr. Romney was questioned about a Boston Globe story (snip) Last week, Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades accused Mr. Patrick of running a ''dirty tricks''shop for the president’s benefit and requested documents on any contact his administration has had with top Obama White House or campaign operatives.

Mitt Romney may be the GOP presidential candidate that is most often criticized for flip-flopping , but as Newt Gingrich rises to challenge him at the top of the polls, the former House speaker may also be giving him a run for his money on that label of inconsistency. When it comes to global warming, Gingrich’s position seems to have changed faster than the climate. ... In the more than 30 years since Gingrich was first elected to the House, he has said there is both sufficient evidence to prove the climate is changing and also that there is no...

The State Department on Wednesday defended spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on books authored by President Obama, while White House spokesman Jay Carney called the book-buying an “embassy-based decision.” The comments followed a report Wednesday by The Washington Times that found the State Department had spent more than $70,000 on books by Mr. Obama. Most of the purchases came in the months after Mr. Obama won the White House, though the embassy in Paris spent more than $8,000 for copies of “Dreams From My Father” as recently as March.

NLRB Chairman’s Former Law Partner Defends Union Violence A little over a month ago, in a case that drew national attention, a man was targeted at his home, shot and injured, all because he dared to run union free business. Now, in Buffalo, New York, a case involving outrageous allegations of labor-racketeering and union violence aimed at non-union construction workers and company owners is proceeding through the judicial process. Its outcome, however, may have wide-ranging ramifications on a national level. Forget for a moment that a man was stabbed in the throat, hot coffee thrown on non-union workers, sand put...

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry has taken a lot of heat for his critical comments toward Social Security. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says that Social Security shouldn’t just be jettisoned but that the Texas governor is right to call for reform. "Well there's no need to frighten or throw under the bus our esteemed elders who have paid all of their working lives into the Social Security system. And the question should be asked of the politicians, where the heck is their money?" Palin said on Fox News. "What Rick Perry was trying to say I believe is that...

<p>It seems that Newsweek’s cover photo of Rep. Michele Bachmann has already proven to be a game-changer: it got Jon Stewart to defend the Republican presidential candidate for an entire segment– not an easy feat. Stewart blasted the magazine for deliberately finding an unflattering photo of the Congresswoman, arguing “you’ve got to go pretty far” to find an unflattering one, listing examples of Bachmann making “yelling into a bullhorn” look attractive, and giving editor Tina Brown a dose of her own medicine.</p>

Jesusopatriot crusader Anders Breivik (aka Andrew Berwick) comes to the defense of Our Lady of the All Caps Screech, Pam Geller and friends in his Manifesto (p. 625): I have watched, for the better part of a year, a number of decent human beings including, but not limited to, Pamela Geller, Paul Belien, Diana West, the Baron and Dymphna from the Gates of Vienna blog and many others, being at the receiving end of a vicious smear campaign from Charles Johnson and Little Green Footballs which is unlike anything I have seen in my life.

In a letter to several pro-life groups complaining about President Barack Obama’s decision to drop some of the conscience protections for medical professionals, the administration is defending the decision. Several pro-life groups sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warning her of the alarming effects on patients that will follow the Obama administration’s recent move to strip the medical community of key conscience protections on abortion. As LifeNews.com reported in February, the Obama administration overturned some of the conscience protections the Bush administration put in place to protect pro-life medical workers who don’t want to be involved in certain...

President Barack Obama’s former “green jobs czar,” Van Jones, currently a staffer at the left-wing Center for American Progress, used and defended the term “Obamacare” Wednesday evening on Twitter. Jones said that “Obamacare is WORKING,” when retweeting a House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi comment – she claimed that “being a woman” is no longer considered a pre-existing condition because of the president’s health care overhaul. In a follow-up tweet, Jones defended his use of the term saying he “never condemned it,” that “normal folks don’t know what ‘#ACA’ [the Affordable Care Act] is,” and that “Obama’s good” and “care’s good,”...

Veteran reporter Helen Thomas turned up in Playboy magazine this month (fully clothed, don’t worry) as part of her ongoing anti-Semitic publicity tour. The former “dean” of the White House Press Corps sat down for an interview (link is to the Sun Herald’s summary) about her recent controversy. First she weighed in on the aftermath of her remarks about Israel last May (“I went into self-imposed house arrest”) and her views on the situation in the Palestinian territories (“the Palestinians have been shortchanged in every way”). But then the interview took an uglier turn.

In which the President of the United States uncorks one bald, falsifiable claim after another regarding his calamitous budget proposal: "[My budget] puts us on a path to pay for what we spend by the middle of the decade." To the average American, that sounds like we'll balance the nation's ledger within five years. If you parse the sentence carefully, though, you'll notice that the president only makes the questionable claim that his blueprint will "put us on a path" toward that goal -- which it never comes close to achieving. I'm once again compelled to quote ABC News' Jake...

In an exclusive statement, famed attorney and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz defended Sarah Palin’s use of the term “blood libel” from multiple detractors. As the Media Matters/MSM/Democrat narrative on the Tucson tragedy unravels, they are getting a lot more desperate in their attacks on Palin. Fortunately, there are still plenty of honest liberals around: The term “blood libel” has taken on a broad metaphorical meaning in public discourse. Although its historical origins were in theologically based false accusations against the Jews and the Jewish People,its current usage is far broader. I myself have used it to describe false accusations...

Sarah Palin found a very strange ally on Monday. With media outlet after media outlet disgracefully accusing the former Alaska governor of inciting Jared Lee Loughner to go on a shooting rampage in Tucson Saturday, Barbara Walters said on "The View," "To blame Sarah Palin as some are doing I think is very unfair to her" (video follows with transcript and commentary): CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR VIDEO

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says people should "be fair" to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper after he revealed in an interview last week that he was unaware of a string of terror arrests that happened in Britain hours prior. Clapper had been working on Capitol Hill on issues involving START and North Korea and went into the interview before his briefer had a chance to relay the information, Napolitano told CNN Sunday.

Quick thinking and a cool head! Alyssa Gutierrez bravely defended her home and her life with her Mom's rifle. She was not going to end up, if she could help it, another victim of criminal violence. She first tried to hide from the criminal intruders, but when they discovered her, she ran quickly to a bedroom and retrieved her Mom's little pink single shot bolt action 22 caliber rifle to defend her home and life.

On NPR's weekend show On The Media (produced by radio station WNYC), New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller reacted badly to NPR's Bob Garfield suggesting Julian Assange of WikiLeaks was a "looter" or a smasher of windows. Keller insisted the document dump has "more value" than that metaphor, that the dump is "absolutely fascinating...like a graduate seminar" on international relations. It's a "ridiculous standard" to insist these finds must be Earth-shattering to be a positive development: BOB GARFIELD: Now, the stories so far have been revealing but unsurprising, it seems to me, and not especially indicting.

WASHINGTON – Facing a Democratic rebellion, President Barack Obama on Tuesday staunchly defended his decision to compromise with Republicans and temporarily extend about-to-expire tax cuts for all Americans. "There are some who would have preferred a protracted political fight," the president said at a White House news conference a day after the deal was announced. "And I understand the desire for a fight. I'm sympathetic to that." But, he said, a long political battle "would be a bad deal for the economy. And it would be a bad deal for the American people." Still, he promised a fight during 2012,...

Vice President Joe Biden is defending the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) controversial new pat-down technique, calling it a "necessary policy."

Meghan McCain went on Rachel Maddow last night to, er, discuss her ‘nutjob’ remarks about Christine O’Donnell on This Week. And to further respond to certain elements of the conservative blogosphere that defined her as a “self-indulgent set of mega-breasts.” Said McCain: I’m over when women say anything in any kind of public forum. It automatically go back to what I look like and how much i weigh. I don’t know at which point, it no longer bothers me but I worry about young women. I have a lot of young women followers,

Not many authors on a book tour manage to snag a visit with the president of the United States. But Condoleezza Rice is no ordinary book author. The former secretary of state and onetime national security adviser met one-on-one with President Obama at the White House on Friday afternoon, after a week of television appearances promoting "Extraordinary, Ordinary People," her memoir about her parents. The White House said Obama wanted to discuss a range of foreign policy issues with her.

Not many authors on a book tour manage to snag a visit with the president of the United States. But Condoleezza Rice is no ordinary book author. The former secretary of state and onetime national security adviser met one-on-one with President Obama at the White House on Friday afternoon, after a week of television appearances promoting "Extraordinary, Ordinary People," her memoir about her parents. The White House said Obama wanted to discuss a range of foreign policy issues with her.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is defending President Barack Obama's efforts to combat the recession and unemployment, saying his focus has been on helping the jobless and underemployed. In a Labor Day appearance on ABC News' "Good Morning America," Solis said Obama is doing a good job. Solis says the Obama administration knows people are hurting from the weak economy. She pointed to last year's $814 billion economic recovery act and administration proposals for job training and hiring incentives for businesses. On CBS' "Early Show," she said that over the last eight months, the U.S. economy has added some 90,000 private...

While Newsweek's David Graham is hard at work defending President Obama's summertime leisure -- "A Short History of Presidential Vacation Outrage" -- by insisting that the press corps always complains about any president's vacation habits, it's instructive that he failed to indict his own magazine. "War on terrorism stalled, economy on precipice, time for a month on the Crawford ranch." Accompanied by a disapproving down arrow, that's how the August 5, 2002 Newsweek feature "Conventional Wisdom" derided President Bush's working vacation a mere three months before midterm elections in his first term.

LONDON (AFP) – Scottish ministers on Wednesday defended their decision to free the Lockerbie bomber after renewed US anger over the release threatened to spoil the new British premier's first visit to the White House. Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said he did not regret freeing Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds last August. And Salmon denied claims from US lawmakers that the release formed part of an oil deal between BP and resource-rich Libya. "If you take a decision in good faith, you don't regret it," Salmond, the leader of Scotland's devolved government, told BBC radio. He...

Critics who complain about his favorable depiction of Hugo Chavez and other Latin American leaders are spreading “mythologies,” director Oliver Stone said Friday night after a Santa Monica screening of his film “South of the Border.” Stone participated in a Q&A session at Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex after the screening, which was picketed by protesters who felt that his documentary’s positive look at anti-imperialist leaders in Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina and other countries overlooked the economic ills and repressive policies of countries like Chavez’s Venezuela. Actress Maria Conchita Alonso, who earlier in the week told theWrap that Stone’s depiction of Chavez was...

n a rare moment of drama in her confirmation hearings, Supreme Court Justice nominee Elena Kagan was forced to defend her revision of an obstetrician group's policy statement on partial-birth abortion while she was an adviser in the Clinton White House. As a Republican-controlled Congress in the 1990s debated whether to ban the controversial procedure, Kagan wrote a memo in which she expressed concern about a statement that the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologist was going to release that revealed its panel of experts found no circumstances in which the procedure was the only option for saving the life...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Vice President Joe Biden took off his suit coat, rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt and told dozens of GE Appliances and Lighting employees Monday that the federal government's stimulus package has been good for their company. Biden spoke about 20 minutes in a warm production plant at GE. Near the end of the speech, GE Appliances and Lighting President James P. Campbell fell from his chair on the stage and collapsed. Biden asked if there was a doctor in the house, but Campbell was able to leave the stage on his own power.

Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert on Wednesday defended Helen Thomas's anti-Semitic remarks by attacking conservative talk radio hosts Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, John Gibson, and Michael Savage. Addressing the comments that led Thomas to resign her position with the Hearst News Service, Colbert said, "Jesus Christ on a matzo cracker, Helen. What were you thinking?" He continued, "You don't just blurt out racially charged comments on camera." As pictures of the four conservative talkers appeared on the screen, Colbert quipped, "You do it on your radio show" (video follows with commentary):

I've noticed a few recent news articles are reporting Rand had the following exchange with Rachel Maddow. Maddow: Do you think that a private business has the right to say, "We don't serve black people"? Paul: Yes. I'm not in favor of any discrimination of any form... If you go to the video however, Rand obviously never said the word "yes". Here it is, cued up to the exact moment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VGdP2mNPeo#t=8m1s It was merely some sort of insignificant vocalization to maintain the flow of conversation that was already made difficult by the satellite delay. Now he WAS laying out what...

Blumenthal defends service record By Ted Mann Publication: The Day Published 05/19/2010 12:00 AMUpdated 05/19/2010 06:45 AM Jessica Hill/AP Connecticut Attorney General and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal stands with veterans as he addresses a report that he has misstated his military service during the Vietnam War at a news conference held in West Hartford on Tuesday. Jessica Hill/APMerrick Alpert, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks to the media after Attorney General Richard Blumenthal addressed a report Tuesday in West Hartford that he had misstated his military service during the Vietnam War. of COMMENTS ( 4 ) AG regrets...

"I am proud of my service in the United States Marine Corps," Richard Blumenthal (D), candidate for US Senate, said. "Hoo-rah" and "Semper fi" was uttered several times. "I take full responsibility" for misspeaking he said. "I will not allow anyone to take a few misplaced words and impugn my record of service to our country," he stated. "I served in the United States Marine Corps reserves and I am proud of it," he concluded. "I did misspeak on a few occasions," he admitted. He also added that he "regretted" it.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Connecticut Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal is defending himself against a report he misstated his military service in Vietnam. Blumenthal's campaign on Monday night called a report on the New York Times website, which includes video of him at a 2008 event saying he had served "in Vietnam," an "outrageous distortion" on his record.

Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday defended the Mirandizing of Faisal Shahzad, the suspect in the attempted Times Square car bombing, while senators had a mixture of praise and criticism for the timing of Shahzad’s arrest. Asked during an Appropriations hearing whether the reading of Miranda rights had impeded the investigation, Holder said, “No, it did not. As we have seen in prior investigations, the giving of Miranda warnings has not deterred people from talking to us, and Mr. Shahzad is, in fact, continuing to cooperate with us.”

NEW YORK (AP) - As Congress debates sweeping legislation aimed at guarding against another financial meltdown, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has become Wall Street's spokesman and defender amid a chorus of populist voices. With President Barack Obama set to visit New York to push for passing financial reform, the billionaire mayor, who got his start on Wall Street in the 1960s and is considered a national expert on financial matters, argues that too much regulation could endanger the economy as much as others say it would protect it.

The 9th Circuit court in California has rejected the left's latest attempt to silence and eradicate Christianity from American culture.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger defended the state's greenhouse gas reduction law today, dismissing a Legislative Analyst's conclusion that determined the measure would cost the state jobs in the near term. "I travel up and down the state, unlike others that only have theoretical opinions," the governor said during a brief sidewalk news conference after giving a speech at a downtown Sacramento hotel. "I see first hand ... that all kinds of (green industry) places want to expand, all we have to do is give them the incentives, the tax incentives and the job creation packages. I know that AB 32 will...

On the floor of the Senate, Republican Jim Bunning of Kentucky just defended the position he's taken that has delayed an extension of jobless benefits for the nation's unemployed and has forced the furlough of about 2,000 federal workers. Saying that he has blocked votes on the legislation to underscore his opposition to the ongoing growth in federal debt, Bunning read a letter from "Robert in Louisville," who told the senator that even though he hasn't been working regularly in the past two years he supports what Bunning is doing.

The White House on Friday defended Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's move to scuttle a bipartisan jobs bill and replace it with a Democratic-written measure, arguing that Mr. Reid's bill will end up drawing Republican support. The Nevada Democrat's decision to scrap bipartisan legislation -- after it had drawn praise from the White House on Thursday -- along with his blocking of amendments to his bill have sparked criticism from Republicans as well as moderate Democrats. Asked if President Obama approves of Mr. Reid's actions, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs would not address the chain of events on Capitol...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Called a prostitute by conservative talk show hosts, a Louisiana Democrat on Thursday defended a deal she cut for her Hurricane Katrina-ravaged state in the Senate health care bill. Sen. Mary Landrieu insisted the Medicaid boost worth $300 million wasn't the price for her vote for President Barack Obama's sweeping health care plan and she noted that state Republicans backed the deal. Defiantly, she said she would do it all over again if she had to. "I don't need this job badly enough—maybe some people do, I don't—to throw the people of my state under the bus...

Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina stood by her now infamous “demon sheep” ad on Thursday morning, arguing that the online video, widely panned by pundits but also widely viewed, did what it was intended to do – challenge the underpinnings of primary opponent Tom Campbell’s candidacy. “Look, what I like about the ad is first, it’s funny, but it’s also factually correct. Despite all the commentary about this ad, no one, including Tom Campbell, has even attempted to dispute the facts because the facts are true,” .. Fiorina’s campaign caused an uproar on Wednesday when it released a three-minute, 21-second...

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) defended her role in the $300 million “Louisiana Purchase” Thursday, saying she attached it to the healthcare bill at Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R-La.) request and that it was not a condition of her support for the bill. Landrieu used a floor speech, press conference and private e-mails from Jindal to fire back against critics of the $300 million-plus in Medicaid funds that became known as the “Louisiana Purchase.” “Nothing about this effort was secret — it was public from the very first meeting that happened at the governor’s mansion in January,” Landrieu said. “It was a...

WASHINGTON – The White House on Monday defended President Barack Obama's support for taxing high-value insurance plans to help pay for health care overhaul, a levy the AFL-CIO president angrily said "drives a wedge between the middle class and the poor." Obama is scheduled to meet with labor leaders on the issue Monday afternoon. Labor opposes the tax, arguing it would hurt union members who negotiated good health benefits instead of salary increases. Hours before the meeting, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka lashed out at the so-called "Cadillac" tax in the Senate bill. "The benefits tax in the Senate bill pits...

It's not every day that Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, a liberal Democrat from Texas, says "I agree with Sarah Palin." She acknowledged the rarity in an interview with The Hill, but said she agrees that the Newsweek magazine cover with a photograph of Palin in running shorts is sexist. "I've never seen Governor Palin dressed in that kind of attire at a political event," Jackson-Lee said. "What is the necessity of highlighting that picture among the thousands that have been taken of her?"

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday defended $11.1 billion in new borrowing as a critical investment in the state's water future while at the same time insisting California must cut its way toward a balanced budget in the short term. In an interview with The Bee's editorial board, the Republican governor also took aim at the state's prison employees and advocated for a constitutional change allowing California to rely more on private workers. After reaching a deal last week with state lawmakers to bolster California's water infrastructure, Schwarzenegger is trying to build popular support for the plan, knowing voters will have...