In Maine, Paul vies to extend Romney losing streak
(AP)
 AP - Mitt Romney hoped to avoid a fourth straight election setback Saturday in the GOP presidential nomination race, but feisty Ron Paul could extend that losing streak with a victory in Maine's caucuses.
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Santorum's surge means new strategy for Romney
(AP)
AP - Staggered by Rick Santorum's surge, Mitt Romney is trying to reset his presidential campaign by defining himself as a strict conservative.
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Analysis: Obama's course correction shifts dynamic
(AP)
 AP - President Barack Obama's opposition is now the divided one.
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Deadline nears, Obama wants payroll tax cut action
(AP)
 AP - President Barack Obama is pressuring Congress to extend a payroll tax cut for the rest of the year as another deadline nears for Congress to act or see taxes go up for millions of working people.
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Q&A: Obama and the birth control controversy
(AP)
 AP - What birth control debate? A half-century after the introduction of the pill, acceptance of birth control by American women is virtually universal.
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Conservatives shrug at Obama birth control rewrite
(AP)
 AP - President Barack Obama's political shifting over contraception coverage has united conservative Republicans in protest even as they split over which GOP presidential hopeful should face him in the general election.
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First lady: Girls can choose to have campaign role
(AP)
 AP - Michelle Obama says her daughters'main concern about the coming presidential election is all about them.
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Romney and Paul: Not allies but not foes, either
(AP)
 AP - Mitt Romney and Ron Paul rarely even acknowledge each other in the Republican presidential race, focusing their attention and attacks on rivals Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum instead. That curious detente is being tested in Maine's caucuses this week, where Romney's reputation as a political shape shifter is going head-to-head with Paul's consistent libertarian views.
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Bishops: Contraception deal 'unacceptable'(Politico)
Politico - They say the Obama administration's compromise still intrudes on religious liberty. |
Top Marine apologizes for SS photo
(Politico)
Politico - The picture shows Marines in front of a flag resembling the insignia of the Nazi SS. |
Obama holds private fundraiser at Washington hotel
(AP)
AP - President Barack Obama is raising money for his re-election campaign from a small group of wealthy donors who each paid $35,800 to meet with him at a hotel near the White House. |
Under fire, Obama adjusts his birth control policy
(AP)
 AP - Under fierce election-year fire, President Barack Obama on Friday abruptly abandoned his stand that religious organizations must pay for birth control for workers, scrambling to end a furor raging from the Catholic Church to Congress to his re-election foes. He demanded that insurance companies step in to provide the coverage instead.
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Dwindling time, rising tension make Iran top fear
(AP)
 AP - The United States and its allies believe the window to stop Iran from building a bomb is quickly closing, pushing conflict with the Islamic republic to the top of the Obama administration's national security worries in the midst of an election year.
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Syria forces shell Homs, Saudis push U.N. resolution
(Reuters)
Reuters - Syrian forces unleashed new tank and rocket bombardments on opposition neighborhoods of Homs on Saturday while diplomats sought U.N. backing for an Arab plan to end 11 months of bloodshed in Syria. |
Obama budget declares election-year tax battle
(Reuters)
Reuters - President Barack Obama will seek billions of dollars for jobs and infrastructure in his 2013 budget, an appeal to voters that draws election-year battle lines over taxes and spending as Republicans slammed him for "debt, doubt and decline." |
10 things you need to know today: February 11, 2012
(The Week)
The Week - Obama caves, Syria bleeds, Madonna unloads — and more in our roundup of the stories that are making news and driving opinion1. OBAMA COMPROMISES ON CONTRACEPTIONIn an attempt to calm a weeks-long "furor,"President Obama backtracked on a "rule that would require health insurance plans — including those offered by Roman Catholic hospitals, universities and charities — to provide free birth control to female employees."The tweaked rule now requires insurers, not religious organizations, to offer the cost-free contraceptives. "Religious liberty will be protected, and a law that requires free preventive care will not discriminate against women,"the president said. [New York Times] |
David Brooks to Mitt Romney: âBreak the Mormon tabooâ
(Daily Caller)
Daily Caller - On Friday’s “NewsHour” on PBS, New York Times columnist David Brooks had some suggestions for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, particularly after his three-state loss last week in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota to former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. |
Gun-toting father shoots daughterâs laptop over Facebook post
(Daily Caller)
Daily Caller - A Facebook post went viral Wednesday after the father of a 15-year-old girl decided her online activity was disrespectful, but it’s bringing her a kind of fame she probably never imagined. Her punishment? Eight exploding, hollow-point rounds from a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol, straight into her laptop. |
Rick Santorum’s CPAC speech: ‘It’s not about contraception. …It’s about government control of your lives.’(The Ticket)
The Ticket - Fresh off his three-state election night sweep, Rick Santorum spoke to CPAC on Friday morning. "As conservatives and tea party folks, we are not just wings of the Republican Party,"he said. "We are the Republican Party."Santorum criticized the Obama administration's health care regulation that would require Catholic hospitals and universities to provide birth [...] |
Social Issues Are Back in 2012
(ContributorNetwork)
ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | Just in time for the 2012 presidential election, America's tradition of cultural warfare appears to making an unwelcome resurgence. Uncertain, though, is whether this revert is just a brief departure from the economic debates that were so prominent in 2010, when fiscal conservatives touting the tea party brand were elected in spades to Congress. On the other hand, these social issues may be of high political significance. Certainly, with the economy in the process of improvement, critics of President Obama may be looking towards the perceived flaws of him and his party in another sphere altogether: the sociocultural realm of abortion, gay rights, and religious freedom. |