Obama Against Abortion Language In Health Care Bill

White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod suggested Sunday that President Obama will intervene to make sure a controversial amendment restricting federal funding for abortion coverage is stripped from final health care reform legislation.

In doing so, the president would be heeding the call of abortion rights supporters like Planned Parenthood that have called the White House their “strongest weapon” in keeping such restrictions out of the bill.

The abortion amendment was tacked on to the House health care bill and was a key factor in securing the votes of moderate Democrats before the bill was approved by a narrow margin last weekend. The amendment, authored by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., went beyond preventing the proposed government-run plan from covering abortion to restrict federal subsidies from going toward private plans that offer abortion coverage.

Axelrod said in an interview Sunday that the amendment changes the “status quo,” something the president cannot abide.

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Obama To End Military Policy of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

US President Barack Obama has said he will end the ban on gay people serving openly in the military. He said he would repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that allows gay people to serve in the military if they do not reveal their sexual orientation.

Mr Obama was speaking to America’s largest gay group – the Human Rights Campaign – in Washington.

He had been criticized by some in the gay community for the lack of action on gay marriage and the military issue.

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Obama Goes After Israel In UN Speech

In declaring that it is time for Middle East peace “without preconditions,” President Obama used his speech to the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday to fire a warning at Israel that “America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.”Obama’s stark declaration, which drew applause, was coupled with a call for Palestinians to end their “incitement of Israel.

“But it was the use of the U.N. forum to carry the settlement message to Israel that drew the most enthusiastic response on the floor — and incredulous reaction outside its walls.Obama just put Israel “on the chopping block,” said former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton.

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Dismay in Europe as Obama Ditches Missile Defense

President Obama dismayed America’s allies in Europe and angered his political opponents at home today when he formally ditched plans to set up a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The project had been close to the heart of Mr Obama’s predecessor, President Bush, who had argued before leaving office in January that it was needed to defend against long-range ballistic missile attacks from rogue states such as Iran and North Korea.

But it had hobbled relations with Russia, which considered it both a security threat and an unnecessary political provocation in its own backyard.

At a White House appearance today, Mr Obama confirmed that the defense shield envisaged by the Bush Administration, involving a radar base in the Czech Republic and interceptor rockets sited in Poland, was being abandoned.

Instead, after a comprehensive review, he had decided to accept the advice of both the Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, and of the Chiefs of Staff opt for a “smarter, stronger and swifter” system involving both sea-based and land-based mobile interceptors.

Mr Obama said that latest intelligence suggested that threat of long-range missile attacks from Iran had receded, but the threat of short- or medium-range attacks was a real one.

via Source.

Palestinians: State Within 2 Years With Obama’s Support

Following meeting with Mitchell in Ramallah, senior Palestinian officials say US committed to peace deal within two years. According to them, former President Bill Clinton’s plan again put on table

US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu twice on Wednesday. Senior Palestinian officials who met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas after his meeting with the American statesman Tuesday told Ynet that the US commitment to reach a peace deal within two years was clarified during the meeting.

The Palestinians estimate the Americans are adopting de facto the plan presented by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayya

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Obama Is Pushing Israel Toward War

Events are fast pushing Israel toward a pre-emptive military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, probably by next spring. That strike could well fail. Or it could succeed at the price of oil at $300 a barrel, a Middle East war, and American servicemen caught in between. So why is the Obama administration doing everything it can to speed the war process along?

At July’s G-8 summit in Italy, Iran was given a September deadline to start negotiations over its nuclear programs. Last week, Iran gave its answer: No. Instead, what Tehran offered was a five-page document that was the diplomatic equivalent of a giant kiss-off. It begins by lamenting the “ungodly ways of thinking prevailing in global relations” and proceeds to offer comprehensive talks on a variety of subjects: democracy, human rights, disarmament, terrorism, “respect for the rights of nations,” and other areas where Iran is a paragon.

Conspicuously absent from the document is any mention of Iran’s nuclear program, now at the so-called breakout point, which both Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his boss Ali Khamenei insist is not up for discussion.What’s an American president to do in the face of this nonstarter of a document? What else, but pretend it isn’t a nonstarter. Talks begin Oct. 1.

via Bret Stephens: Obama Is Pushing Israel Toward War – WSJ.com.

Suddenly, Netanyahu Is Popular and Obama Is Not

Later this month, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, U.S. President Barack Obama will take the podium at the United Nations General Assembly and, flanked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, declare the resumption of the Middle East peace process.

He will set an ambitious goal: to achieve, within two years, a “comprehensive regional peace” that will end the Israeli-Arab conflict and replace it with new and friendly relations between the states and peoples of the region. In contrast to his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, who instructed the parties to talk and asked only that they report to him on the results, Obama intends to be involved: His emissaries will sit in the conference room and put forward compromise proposals and solutions.

Obama will have to work hard to persuade people that with him it will be different, that peace is possible, that a Palestinian state will be established, that the Syrians will return to the Golan Heights and Israel will dwell in the region in safety – and all of this by September 2011.

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After another decade of wars and disappointments, it’s tough to sell the “New Middle East” in a new wrapping to cynical populations that have long since lost all belief in impassioned speeches promising peace and change. But Obama’s declaration will have immediate strategic importance. By presenting a two-year timetable for the peace agreements, the president will make it clear that dealing with Iran is more urgent than establishing an independent Palestine alongside Israel.

That will be a major diplomatic achievement for Netanyahu. In his visit to the White House in May, the prime minister’s main aim was to persuade Obama of “Iran first and the Palestinians afterward.” It was convenient at the time for Obama to present a disagreement with Netanyahu in order to strengthen U.S. credibility in the Arab world. One hundred days later, it turns out that on the crucial issue – setting the foreign affairs agenda – Netanyahu’s view prevailed.

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President Obama Praises US Muslims At Ramadan Dinner

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday praised American Muslims for enriching the nation’s culture at a dinner to celebrate the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

“The contribution of Muslims to the United States are too long to catalog because Muslims are so interwoven into the fabric of our communities and our country,” Obama said at the iftar, the dinner that breaks the holiday’s daily fast.

The president joined Cabinet secretaries, members of the diplomatic corps and lawmakers to pay tribute to what he called “a great religion and its commitment to justice and progress.”

Attendees included Congress’ two Muslim members – Reps. Keith Ellison and Andre Carson as well as ambassadors from Islamic nations and

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Poll: 4% of Jewish Israelis Think Obama Is pro-Israel

The number of Israelis who see US President Barack Obama’s policies as pro-Israel has fallen to four percent, according to a Smith Research poll taken this week on behalf of The Jerusalem Post.

Fifty-one percent of Jewish Israelis consider Obama’s administration more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israel, according to the survey, while 35% consider it neutral and 10% declined to express an opinion. The poll of 500 people representing a statistical model of the Jewish Israeli population had a margin of error of 4.5%.

A much-cited Post poll published on June 19 that put the first figure at 6% had been cited by top officials in both the White House and the Prime Minister’s Office as the catalyst for recent American efforts to improve the American-Israeli relationship. But the new poll proves that those efforts have not improved Obama’s reputation among Israelis.

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Obama Plan – Temple Mount Under Arab-Muslim Sovereignty

The Middle East peace plan that United States President Barack Obama will unveil soon involves the creation of a Palestinian Authority state by 2011 and the transfer of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem [presumably including the Temple Mount – ed.] to Arab-Muslim sovereignty, Saudi newspaper Al-Ukaz has learned.

According to the report published Sunday in Al-Ukaz, the Obama plan also includes the following elements:

• Some parts of eastern Jerusalem [presumably Neveh Yaakov, Pisgat Ze'ev and the like - ed.] would be transferred to Israeli control.
• There would be an international presence in the Jordan Valley and other parts of Judea and Samaria.
• The Palestinian Authority terror organizations would be disbanded and turn into political parties.
• The large settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria would not be dismantled.
• The fate of smaller Jewish settlement areas would be decided in a three-month-long negotiation period.

A reporter for the Saudi newspaper received the information from Hassan Harisha, the Second Deputy Speaker of the Palestinian Authority Parliament. Harisha told him that the U.S. has handed over a draft of the peace proposal to the PA and other Arabs for their perusal.

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Obama Comes Down On DOMA

A pro-family leader says the Obama administration is playing dishonest “Chicago-style politics” by defending the Defense of Marriage Act while undermining the law in a court filing.

The Obama Justice Department today filed court papers claiming the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act discriminates against homosexuals. In the meantime, the DOJ lawyers are seeking to dismiss a suit brought by a homosexual California couple challenging DOMA. (See Associated Press story below)

Gary Bauer 1Gary Bauer, president of American Values, says President Obama is committed to repealing DOMA — but does not want to take the political flak that would come along with it.

“What the White House wants is for a court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act so that the White House and the president don’t have to take the political damage for undermining a law that protects normal marriage,” he explains.

Bauer argues Obama is contradicting a campaign pledge. “President Obama ran promising he would be open and transparent, and no longer practice the usual politics of Washington, DC,” he notes. “Millions of people voted for him because they thought he would be more honest and more open in the way he governed.”

According to Bauer, that is not happening. “What we’re seeing here is something more reminiscent of the way they do politics in the wards of Chicago — saying one thing and then doing something else behind the scenes,” he states.

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Abortion Mandate Slipped Into Obama Healthcare Bill

At a committee hearing last week, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland Democrat, provided a classic example of a morally bankrupt legislator seeking to insidiously force Americans to cooperate with and fund an objectively evil cause.

On July 9, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee met to consider amendments to the legislation it is drafting to rearrange the entire U.S. health care system. While chairing the hearing, Miss Mikulski offered an obscurely worded, two-part amendment.

The first part required literally all health insurance companies in America to provide unspecified “preventive care and screenings” for “pregnant women and individuals of child-bearing age.” The specific services involved would be determined later in guidelines approved by a federal agency called the Health Resources and Services Administration.

This part of the amendment said: “A group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage shall provide coverage for, and shall not impose any cost-sharing requirements (other than minimal cost-sharing in accordance with guidelines developed by the secretary) for, with respect to women (including pregnant women and individuals of childbearing age), such additional preventive care and screenings not covered under section 2708 as provided for in guidelines supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration.”

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Regulatory Czar Wants to Give Animals Right To Sue?

President Obama’s nominee for “regulatory czar” has hit a new snag in his Senate confirmation process a “hold” by Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who’s says he’s not convinced that Harvard professor Cass Sunstein won’t push a radical animal rights agenda, including new restrictions on agriculture and even hunting.

Senators are permitted “holds” to prevent a vote on a nominee from coming to the floor. They are often secretive and for very specific reasons.

“Sen. Cornyn finds numerous aspects of Mr. Sunstein’s record troubling, specifically the fact that he wants to establish legal ‘rights’ for livestock, wildlife and pets, which would enable animals to file lawsuits in American courts,” the Republican’s spokesman, Kevin McLaughlin, said in a statement to FOXNews.com.

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Obama Hopes To Convice Americans To Accept Homosexuality

President Barack Obama says that while he’s dedicated to expanding homosexual rights, many Americans still cling to what he calls “worn arguments and old attitudes.”

 

 At a White House celebration of Gay Pride Month, Obama said he hopes to persuade all Americans to accept homosexuality. “”There are good and decent people in this country who don’t yet fully embrace their gay brothers and sisters — not yet,” said the president. “That’s why I’ve spoken about these issues — not just in front of you — but in front of unlikely audiences, in front of African-American church members.”

Obama acknowledged that many Americans still disapprove of homosexuality. “There are still fellow citizens, perhaps neighbors or even family members and loved ones, who still hold fast to worn arguments and old attitudes,” he stated.

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