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Note: the following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _____________________________________________________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 30, 2009 President Obama Names Medal of Freedom Recipients 16 Agents of Change to Receive Top Civilian Honor WASHINGTON – President Obama today named 16 recipients of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom. America’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom is awarded to individuals who make an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. This year’s awardees were chosen for...

Obama to give Kennedy Medal of Freedom @ 12:30 pm by Hill Staff President Obama will award Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) next month with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor. In announcing the award for Kennedy, a nine-term senator who is fighting brain cancer, the White House called him "one of the greatest lawmakers — and leaders — of our time." The award comes as Democrats in Congress and Obama are pushing for healthcare reform legislation, which has long been Kennedy's top issue, the White House noted in its release. "He has called health care reform...

JACKSON, Miss. - Former Rep. Gillespie V. “Sonny” Montgomery, who during his 30 years in Congress pushed through a modernized GI Bill that boosted recruiting for the all-volunteer force, died Friday. He was 85. SNIP On Thursday, the House voted to name a national defense authorization bill in his honor. A conservative Democrat, Montgomery represented an east-central Mississippi district in Congress from 1967 to 1997, and for 13 years chaired the House Veterans Affairs Committee. He himself was a 35-year military veteran, serving in the Army in Europe during World War II, then returned to active duty during the Korean...

Bush has chosen retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who oversaw combat in Afghanistan and the initial invasion of Iraq, former CIA Director George Tenet and former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The president will hand out the awards at a White House ceremony Dec. 14, press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Doris Day chatted with President George W. Bush about their mutual love of dogs when he phoned to congratulate the iconic performer and animal welfare advocate on receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. The Prez told Doris that he's an animal person, and talked about his Scottish terrier Barney and about the critters on his ranch. And then Day advised the president that he'd get more votes if he'd quit hunting. She tells us that her sentiments about Bush's hunting won't stop her from voting for him. "I'm pulling for him every step of the...

This morning President Bush flew to Philadelphia to speak to People for People at the Greater Exodus Baptist Church about the HIV/AIDS pandemic. He was enthusiastically introduced by Pastor Herb Lusk.This afternoon back in the East Room at the White House, the President awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to outstanding Americans, and got a few golf tips as well. Enjoy your trip to Sanity Island on the Daily Dose!

President Bush awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor to Norman Podhoretz, the Jewish political theorist. President Bush awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor to Norman Podhoretz, the Jewish political theorist. Podhoretz helped cultivate neo-conservatism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and he has steered its flagship publication, the American Jewish Committee-published Commentary, since then. Neo-conservatism was founded by former liberal intellectuals, many of them Jews, alienated from the American left because of its perceived appeasement of Communism.

Doris Day, Estee Lauder, Arnold Palmer Among Medal of Freedom Honorees Elizabeth Wolfe/Associated Press Jun 18, 2004 WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush has selected a dozen people, including an actress, a golf champion and a former senator, to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House announced Friday. Two of the recipients will be honored posthumously, while the others are invited to receive the nation's highest civilian honor at a White House ceremony with Bush next Wednesday. The Medal of Freedom, established by President Truman in 1945 to recognize civilians for their World War II service, was reinstated by...

<p>We hope our readers will allow us a moment of pride and gratitude today as we extend our heartiest congratulations to Wall Street Journal columnist and Editor Emeritus Robert Bartley, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom yesterday by President Bush.</p>

EDITOR'S NOTE: Today, 95-year-old physicist Edward Teller will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, described by the White House as "the nation's highest civil honor." Selecting Teller as one of this year's ten medal winners takes courage — the man is reviled on the Left as the father of the H-bomb, an early supporter of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, and a stalwart anti-Communist. Yet he is fully deserving of the award as one of the 20th century's most important scientists and for his important role in winning the Cold War. Unfortunately, Teller's health will keep him from picking up...

Charlton Heston, the Academy Award-winning actor who headed the National Rifle Association and now has Alzheimer's, was awarded the Medal of Freedom on Wednesday by President Bush. An eclectic group received the nation's highest civilian award, including master chef Julia Child, whose television show brought gourmet cooking into millions of American homes, and the late Dave Thomas, the Wendy's hamburger magnate and philanthropist. Others included nuclear bomb pioneer Edward Teller, concert pianist Van Cliburn, former Czech Republic president and playwright Vaclav Havel, former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, the late Hall of Fame baseball player Roberto Clemente and the late...

The presidential Medal of Freedom awards this year provide yet another contrast between George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. THIS AFTERNOON, a ceremony will be held for the 2003 Medal of Freedom recipients in the East Room of the White House. President Bush's list is uniformly excellent, and incredibly revealing when compared with some of Bill Clinton's picks for the nation's highest civilian honor. Clinton's choices, of course, included several remarkable and deserving man and women. But he placed them on equal footing with other, lesser lights, including Jesse Jackson (2000), Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter (1999), George McGovern (2000), and...