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After tonight's debate, in which Ron Paul and Mitt Romney repeatedly attacked Rick Santorum over his 16-year record in Congress, the former US Senator for Pennsylvania hinted that something nefarious was going on. "You have to ask Congressman Paul and Governor Romney what they've got going together," Santorum told reporters in the spin room in Mesa, Arizona. "Their commercials look a lot alike and so do their attacks." Santorum's top strategist John Brabender went even further, charging that the two men had "joined forces" and were coordinating attacks against his man "Clearly there's a tag team strategy between Ron Paul...

Rick Santorum’s front-runner status in the GOP presidential race is predicated on the idea that he is the consistent conservative alternative in the field. And that image had some serious holes poked in it at Wednesday’s debate in Arizona. Mitt Romney and Ron Paul tag-teamed the former Pennsylvania senator much of the night, calling into question his conservatism on issues ranging from earmarks and fiscal policy to his endorsements and even what is often considered Santorum’s most solidly conservative credential — social issues.

an Francisco (AP) -- A federal judge in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that the U.S. government cannot deny health benefits to the wife of a lesbian court employee by relying on the 1996 law that bars government recognition of same-sex unions. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said that because the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally discriminates against same-sex married couples, the government's refusal to furnish health insurance to Karen Golinski's wife is unjustified. "The Court finds that DOMA, as applied to Ms. Golinski, violates her right to equal protection of the law ... by, without substantial justification or rational basis,...

Newt Gingrich took debate moderator John King to task for asking the candidates about contraception. Gingrich said King and the rest of the "elite media" did not bother to ask the 2008 Democratic candidates about "infanticide."

Catholic bishops are warning that if the Bashar al-Assad (left) regime in Syria falls to Islamists, there may well be a mass genocide of Christians, such as seen in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Though Christians cannot support the brutality of the Assad dictatorship, few believe that rule by Muslim extremists will be any better. Syria — home to Damascus, one of the most important cities of the ancient world and of special religious significance to Christians — has long had a tolerant attitude toward religious minorities. Syria's Christians — estimated to be about 10 percent of the...

President Obama and his West Wing aides ignored a subpoena of documents pertaining to the Solyndra loan guarantee even after congressional investigators met with White House officials to negotiate the scope of the subpoena, according to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "The White House's failure to comply with today's document deadline is a sad milestone on the path chosen by this administration to obstruct and delay our investigation rather than cooperate and help deliver answers for taxpayers," committee chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee chairman Cliff Stearns R-Fla., said in a statement this evening. House investigators...

Gasoline prices could soar as high as $7 a gallon this summer thanks to supply threats stemming from Middle East unrest as well as OPEC policy, says real estate mogul Donald Trump. Iran has already cut off supply to France and to the U.K. to protest sanctions from the west, who accuse Tehran of developing a nuclear weapons program. U.S. military officials have said they feel they can ration with Iran, although fears are growing that Israel may consider a unilateral strike on Iran anyway, which is sending crude oil skyrocketing.

The United States can no longer reign supreme as the world’s sole superpower, says Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s National Security adviser and a prolific foreign affairs scholar. “The era of global supremacy by a major power . . . is over,” he tells Yahoo. “The world is now much more diversified. There is now the new East in Asia. There is now a globally, politically awakened population.” But that doesn’t mean the demise of the United States, as long as we’re willing to make some changes, Brzezinski, says. “We have to accustomize ourselves to that world. If we want...

"I'm not a manager. I'm not a visionary," he told the crowd in an apparent reference to his GOP rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. "I'm a guy from a steel town who grew up understanding what made this country great and for the years that I've been involved in public life, put my heart and my effort on the line to make this country the kind of country that we all want to hand on to our children and grandchildren." Santorum also touched on the fight over who's the real "Washington insider," saying the only reason Romney wasn't a...

Over at USA Today, a self-employed massage therapist from Austin, TX has a letter to the editor responding to an editorial suggesting that Occupy Wall Street has lost its way. (Snip) '' So maybe they should take up their Second Amendment-sanctioned guns and storm Wall Street and our nation’s capitals. If our country doesn’t change, it could very well come to that one day.'' Notice the language here. Rich Latta, the author, threatens outright to head to Wall Street with firearms. Janet Napolitano, where are you? He says they out to head to Washington, D.C. packing heat. Secret Service, you’re

Sleight Of Hand: Obama To Propose 28% Corporate Tax Rate…But Increase Dividend Tax Rate To 64.1% February 22, 2012 Mr. Obama is proposing to raise the dividend tax rate to the higher personal income tax rate of 39.6% that will kick in next year. Add in the planned phase-out of deductions and exemptions, and the rate hits 41%. Then add the 3.8% investment tax surcharge in ObamaCare, and the new dividend tax rate in 2013 would be 44.8%—nearly three times today’s 15% rate. Keep in mind that dividends are paid to shareholders only after the corporation pays taxes on its...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is the top choice of Republicans if the party nominates its presidential candidate at a "brokered" convention this summer, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released Wednesday. Mr. Christie is favored by 32 percent of Republicans, followed by former Govs. Sarah Palin of Alaska and Jeb Bush of Florida with 20 percent each, the poll found. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is fourth at 15 percent. Some conservatives are contemplating a so-called brokered Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in August, in which none of the current candidates would have gained enough delegates to win...

An Ohio woman who compared animal-welfare work to the liberation of World War II concentration camps has been charged with soliciting a hit man to fatally shoot or slit the throat of a random fur-wearer, federal authorities said. Meredith Lowell, 27, of Cleveland Heights, appeared Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, where a magistrate judge ordered her held by the U.S. Marshals Service pending a hearing next week, court records show. One of her defense attorneys, Walter Lucas, declined comment when reached by phone after the court appearance. Investigators say the FBI was notified in November of a Facebook...

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, who has recently shifted his focus from the economy to gas prices and energy policy, is set to air a 30-minute speech on those issues in several states that vote on Super Tuesday on March 6. As prices at the pump continue to inch upward, the former House speaker has seized on the issue and blamed President Obama's energy policies as part of the problem. He routinely calls for a new "American energy program" that will allow energy development on federal property and in federally controlled waters. "I think our goal should be simple," Gingrich...

Meredith Lowell of Cleveland Heights was arrested for allegedly soliciting a hitman to kill any adult who walked out of the local public library and was wearing fur, according to CBS News. Lowell allegedly included these details in an email to an undercover FBI agent who contacted her: "I am paying you $730 to kill one person wearing fur who is 12 or older - hopefully at least 14 years, however 12 years old or older is fine. I want them to be dead in under two minutes"

TAMPA (CBS Tampa) — Talk about pain at the pump! Some Florida drivers are spending nearly $6 a gallon to fill up their gas tanks. According to GasBuddy.com, motorists are shelling out $5.89 for a gallon of regular gas at a Shell station in Lake Buena Vista, topping out at $5.99 a gallon for premium. It doesn’t get better at a Suncoast Energy station in Orlando, where drivers are paying $5.79 for a gallon of regular. “Prices over in the Disney World area are much higher than any other place in Florida,” Jessica Brady, AAA spokeswoman, told CBS Tampa, adding...

Corporate tax reform has long been an opportunity for a win-win bipartisan effort in Washington. Everyone agrees that the corporate code needs significant changes, if not a complete overhaul; it's too complicated, too costly, and rewards the larger companies that can afford to analyze it for every possible benefit. Both parties have made corporate tax reform part of their plartforms, Democrats arguing that we need to close loopholes, Republicans that we need simplification and lower rates.The White House decided to go first on corporate tax reform: The Obama administration Wednesday will unveil a framework for reforming the corporate tax code...

-excerpt- Valérie Pécresse, the French government spokeswoman, identified the dead as Marie Colvin, an American reporter working for The Sunday Times of London, and Rémi Ochlik, a French photographer. -excerpt- Video footage posted on social networking sites showed what seemed to be two bodies lying face down in rubble inside a building identified in news reports as a makeshift media center in a beleaguered neighborhood of Homs, where rebels have been under sustained fire for almost three weeks. Three other Western journalists were injured in the attack, activists said. According to his Web site, Mr. Ochlik, in his late twenties,...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is starting to shut down a program that deputized local police officers to act as immigration agents. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have trained local officers around the country to act as their agencies' immigration officers. Working either in jails or in the field, the officers can check the immigration status of suspects and place immigration holds on them.

Just as Rick Santorum has pointedly and repeatedly reminded voters that Mitt Romney supported an individual health care mandate and the Wall Street bailouts, so Mitt Romney has sought to remind voters that Rick Santorum has been cozy with Big Labor in the past. In his attacks on Santorum, Romney has sounded unequivocally anti-labor, which no doubt has not helped him much in Michigan. Today, though, the former Massachusetts governor displayed a nuanced perspective on labor unions, characterizing himself as pro-union-worker but anti-union-bosses. His first line — “Labor unions play an important role in our society” — might seem to...

Presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said on Sunday that opponent Mitt Romney has the best “management style” out of all of his remaining Republican contest rivals.... ...“I think he certainly would have a more acceptable management style when you consider what I have seen and experienced from the other two candidates. I don’t think they qualify there...

Roll Call's Jonathan Strong reports that Ron Paul's office has a history of billing both US taxpayers and outside groups for the same flights -- and that he's been confronted about it: In March 2005, David James called Rep. Ron Paul's (R-Texas) Congressional office for some documentation. James's nonprofit group, the Liberty Committee, had paid for one of Paul's flights, and James needed a receipt or boarding pass to document the expense. He'd been pushing Paul for the paperwork and now, on the phone, he was "putting his foot down.... ....David James wants Liberty Committee's money back, and is really...

"I believe today's hearing is a sham," said Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., of the first of two session held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during the day. His tone sharp and finger pointed, Connolly went on to declare the witnesses -- who included a Catholic bishop, a Lutheran reverend, an Orthodox rabbi, and two Baptist theologians, all opposed to the administration's recent ruling -- "complicit" in the Republicans' "trampling" of House traditions that would, if observed, have produced a more balanced panel. "You are being used for a political agenda," Connolly told the holy men, after Republicans...

All 11 active judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St. Louis recently heard one of the most important abortion cases in the federal courts today. The case, Planned Parenthood v. Rounds, involves a South Dakota statute requiring informed consent before a woman undergoes an abortion. While many in the media have focused on the controversies surrounding President Obama’s health care law, this case actually is one of the most significant events on the life issue today. The hearing focused on what the courts have called “the suicide advisory”: the statute’s requirement that abortion providers...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's re-election campaign regularly rips Mitt Romney, long viewed as the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, for his economic policies. On Tuesday, it added Romney's rival Rick Santorum to its list of top targets. In a sign of the growing seriousness with which the president's team takes the former senator from Pennsylvania, Obama's campaign gave equal billing to Santorum in a memo criticizing the two Republican candidates' tax and deficit-reduction plans."Governor Mitt Romney and Senator Rick Santorum claim they will champion spending cuts deep enough to cut taxes and balance the budget," Obama campaign policy...

Theft, deceit and outright lies: How ugly can climate science get? Prominent climate scientist Peter H. Gleick relied on deceit and subterfuge to solicit a cache of sensitive internal documents from conservative think tank The Heartland Institute before leaking them to the press -- a fresh scandal that further darkens the highly charged debate on planetary climate change. Gleick -- an internationally recognized hydroclimatologist and author of the respected annual report “The World’s Water” -- said he received an anonymous document in the mail that tipped him off to what he described as Heartland’s efforts to muddy public understanding of...

White House press secretary Jay Carney says Republicans "forced" President Obama to deny the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. Later in his press briefing, Carney says Obama didn't turn down the pipeline. "In terms of Keystone, as you all know, the history here is pretty clear. And the fact is because Republicans decided to play political with Keystone, their action essentially forced the administration to deny the permit process because they insisted on a time frame in which it was impossible to completely approve the pipeline," Carney said when asked about the pipeline by ABC News' Jake Tapper. Later...

The Tea Party Express traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio this week to proudly endorse Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate. . . Josh Mandel, US Senate Candidate from Ohio. It is the focus of the Tea Party Express to take conservative control of the U.S. Senate, and we are proud to announce our endorsement of Treasurer Josh Mandel in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race. Josh is the perfect candidate to replace Sherrod Brown, Washington’s most liberal senator according to National Journal. . . Josh Mandel accepting the Tea Party Express endorsement from Chairman Amy Kremer and Chief Strategist Sal...

Michigan lawmakers who have endorsed Mitt Romney are worried about his prospects in the state with only one week to go before the critical primary there. Polling shows a tight race in Michigan, despite the fact Romney was born and raised there and his dad was a former Michigan governor. “I think Romney is going to do a good job. Will he do enough to win as strong as he needs to in Michigan? It remains to be seen,” said Michigan GOP Rep. Tim Walberg, who resides in the southeastern 7th District. Concern among Romney’s Capitol Hill backers hasn’t yet...

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani navy took delivery Tuesday of two state-of-the-art, US-made surveillance aircraft nine months after Islamist militants destroyed two similar planes, officials said. Pakistan said the P3C aircraft, modified with the latest avionics, are designed to improve surveillance in the North Arabian sea, one of the world's most important shipping routes deeply troubled by Somali piracy. "The two aircraft have been delivered to the Pakistan navy. These aircraft have been provided under the foreign military funding programme," a spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad, told AFP. Relations between Pakistan and the United States were severely damaged last year...

The Michigan Republican Primary is just a week away, and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum is holding on to a small lead over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters in Michigan shows Santorum with 38% of the vote to Romney’s 34%. Well behind are Texas Congressman Ron Paul with 10% support and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at nine percent (9%). Only one percent (1%) prefers some other candidate in the race, while eight percent (8%) are undecided. The margin between the top two candidates is little changed from last...

It’s normal to wonder if anyone is paying attention. As humans, our lives don’t seem to have meaning absent our communications and interactions with others. And as Christians, the influence our own lives has on others is of great import; our salvation in some way depends on whether we are channels for and bearers of His love. This goal is summed up in the lyrics of the alma mater song for Ave Maria’s law school, the Ave Maria project (in its many forms) serves as a “beacon in darkness, voice for all to hear.” Of course we typically toil away...

WASHINGTON (AP) - This time around, President Barack Obama's message can sound decidedly down-to-earth. Four years after winning the White House, Obama is dealing with a different economic and political reality as he seeks re-election. He's focused less on a lofty vision for overcoming divisions and remaking Washington, and more on the most basic building blocks of middle-class economic security: a job, a house, a college education for the kids, health care, money for retirement. What Obama describes as the American Dream can seem a spare, fundamental aspiration, tailored for a campaign that looks to be fought over who is...

A new report from the Council of Europe’s Anti-Racism Commission (ECRI) says that Iceland should be doing more to combat discrimination, in part by granting permission for Muslims to build a mosque and by filling in gaps in current immigration legislation.

Denise Hunnell February 20, 2012 (HLIAmerica.org) - It is time to do some fact checking about President Obama’s “compromise” on attacking religious liberty. First of all, telling Catholics to just close their eyes and keep paying their insurance premiums that will ultimately cover morally objectionable services is not addressing respect for conscience and religious liberty. No matter how you spin it, Catholic institutions will be paying for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. The end result is no different than the original Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate, since insurance companies are not going to just throw these services in for...

Earlier this month, I referenced Barack Obama’s remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast in an Obamateurism a couple of weeks ago, but alert OOTD reader Ken K spotted one I missed in the same speech. The President spoke about the hardship of our men and women in the military who are now leaving the service but not finding jobs in the current economy. Unfortunately, Obama offered a reprise of one of his earliest gaffes on the national political stage, emphasis mine: Our economy is making progress as we recover from the worst crisis in three generations, but far too many...

Carney: GOP cancelled Keystone, not Obama By Neil Munro - The Daily Caller 1:49 PM 02/21/2012 WASHINGTON – The president didn’t stop the Keystone XL oil pipeline — Republicans did. That’s the message on Tuesday from White House spokesman Jay Carney as gas prices rise above $4.00 per gallon. “The president didn’t turn down the Keystone pipeline,” Carney said, because the proposal to construct the pipeline was reviewed by the Department of State. President Barack Obama’s decisions to nix construction of the pipeline has been repeatedly attacked by the GOP, and by some Democratic-allied unions representing construction workers. They say...

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued an apology for "inappropriate treatment" of Islam's holy book at the base to try and contain fury over the incident - a public relations disaster for Washington as it tries to pacify the country ahead of the withdrawal of foreign troops in 2014. Protesters started to gather after Afghan laborers found charred remains of copies of the Koran as they collected rubbish from Bagram airbase, the provincial governor's office said in a statement. As many as 2,000 Afghans massed outside several gates to the base, the main center for NATO-led forces just north of the...

OKLAHOMA CITY — A special guest speaker adressed today's joint session of Oklahoma Legislature. Newt Gingrich only spoke to lawmakers for just over 10 minutes, but his message was focused. He said, "I want to talk about three examples of the change we need." At the top of the list, he touted a movement started by Gingrich and managed by Texas Givernor Rick Perry to strengthen the 10th amendment and return power and tax money to the states. It's something Ronald Reagan tried to do 30 years ago and failed. Gingrich says times have changed. "And there's a lot deeper...

A family court judge who ruled that a pregnant woman with schizophrenia should undergo an abortion and be sterilized sharply defended her decision yesterday, while denouncing Boston University for withdrawing what she said was a job offer amid the controversy. In a rare personal defense of the reasoning behind a court ruling, Christina Harms, who retired from the bench last month after 23 years, said she concluded that the woman, a 31-year-old who suffered from delusions, would choose to terminate her pregnancy if she were mentally competent, chiefly so that she could resume antipsychotic medication that would have harmed the...

While most voters continue to strongly support border control to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into this country, they also remain concerned that legal citizens will be caught up inadvertently in these efforts. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 59% of Likely U.S. Voters are at least somewhat concerned that efforts to identify and deport illegal immigrants will also end up violating the civil rights of some U.S. citizens.

The director of the National Security Agency warned that the hacking group Anonymous could have the ability within the next year or two to bring about a limited power outage in the US through a cyber attack. Gen. Keith Alexander, the agency's director, provided his assessment in meetings at the White House and in other private sessions, according to people familiar with the gatherings.

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When Republican Assemblyman Cameron Smyth decided to leave the Legislature rather than run for the state Senate this year, it virtually guaranteed that Democrats will achieve a two-thirds supermajority in the Senate, changing the Capitol's political dynamics. Having already won – via a 2010 ballot measure – the right to pass budgets by simple majority votes, Democrats would gain more power in the Senate over other issues, such as taxes. That would, in turn, isolate Republicans in the Assembly, who are likely to retain more than a third of the lower house's 80 seats this year, and could even gain...

On front page of website, no registration required.Shockingly, neither Carter nor the present occupant of the White House are choices...

Gingrich Archives Show His Public Praise, Private Criticism of Reagan By Jerry Markon February 19 CARROLLTON, Ga. — In an unnoticed 1992 speech, Newt Gingrich in a single utterance took aim not only at a beloved conservative icon but also at a core tenet of the conservative movement: that government must be limited. Ronald Reagan’s “weakness,” Gingrich told the National Academy of Public Administration in Atlanta, was that “he didn’t think government mattered. The Reagan failure was to grossly undervalue the centrality of government as the organizing mechanism for reinforcing societal behavior.” A review of thousands of documents detailing Gingrich’s...

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Ron Paul (R.-Texas.), who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, told Candy Crowley on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that social conservatism is "a losing position" for the Republican Party. "Do you--are you uncomfortable--certainly Rick Santorum is the one who has been in the forefront of some of this talk on social issues, but there have been others in the race," Crowley asked Paul. "Are you uncomfortable with this talk about social issues? Do you consider it a winning area for Republicans in November?" "No," said Paul. "I think it's a losing position. "I mean,...

President Obama's re-elect team defended White House energy policy on Sunday as gas prices shoot toward the $4 mark and beyond, a level that could devastate voters' pocketbooks as well as Obama's chances for a second term. Nationally, gas prices are $3.53 a gallon, up 25 cents since Jan. 1, and likely headed to $4.25 a gallon by late April. Republicans have demanded more oil production at home, as well as building the Keystone XL pipeline across the middle of the U.S. to allow oil from Canada to reach Texas refineries. Obama rejected the plan, but one of his spokesmen,...

U.S. President Barack Obama will host a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on March 5, the White House said on Monday, a session that will likely center on the West's efforts to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions. A White House statement rounding up the recent Israel visit by Obama's National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, which announced the date for the upcoming meeting, indicated that the top advisor discussed the "full range of security issues of mutual concern" during his meetings with Israeli leadership.

China accused Western countries of stirring civil war in Syria and two Iranian warships docked at a Syrian naval base, underscoring rising international tensions over the near year-long crisis. -excerpt- "Hama is cut off from the outside world. There are no landlines, no mobile phone network and no internet. House to house arrests take place daily and sometimes repeatedly in the same neighborhoods," an opposition statement said.