Archive for the ‘Obama administration’ Category

Obama hit from both sides on faith-based initiative

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

The natives are getting restless when it comes to the Obama administration’s Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships .

Today the Anti-Defamation League joined with 23 other national organizations  in a statement urging the administration to make sure federal funds distributed as part of the ongoing faith based initiative aren’t used to proselytize or discriminate based on religious beliefs.

Robert G. Sugarman, the ADL National Chair, said this in a statement:

President Obama made it clear during his campaign that the Bush Administration’s faith-based initiative lacked essential safeguards against proselytizing.  Yet, now, one year after the president’s own executive order framing his version of the faith-based initiative, almost all the Bush-era regulations and grant making rules for government partnerships with religiously affiliated institutions remain in place.  It is troubling that the White House and all the federal agencies are still operating under the inadequate rules and insufficient safeguards imposed by the previous administration.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post’s On Faith feature  reported that supporters of more faith based funding are also unhappy with the faith based office and the advisory council created by Obama last year.

“Critics say that the faith-based office isn’t enough of a priority at the White House and that faith leaders who were consulted regularly during the campaign are now simply copied on pro-forma e-mails,”  the Post  reports. “They complain that Obama is no longer using the faith language that he employed as a candidate to frame his policy goals, and that before the new faith council convened, some of the most controversial questions, including religious hiring and abortion, were taken off the table.”

Can’t win, can they?

Obama’s spending freeze: Band aid leadership?

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

APN call to Obama: Pressure Israel, Palestinians; ain’t gonna happen

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

The VERY last word on the White House Chanukah party - until tomorrow, maybe

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

New poll: Jewish support for Obama slipping, but Jews are still top supporters

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

NYT slams Obama Middle East policy

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Obama, Afghanistan and the Jewish agenda

Friday, November 27th, 2009

Bold choice for new anti-Semitism envoy?

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Netanyahu and Obama: is the Big Chill setting in?

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Tom Friedman to Obama: Let the Israelis and Palestinians stew in their own juices

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Washington Post on the Obama administration’s Israeli-Palestinian dilemma

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Obama administration concedes the obvious: Israeli-Palestinian talks stalled

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

J Street snags Gen. Jones for its national conference

Friday, October 16th, 2009

More on Obama’s Nobel: A weight around his neck?

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Obama’s Nobel

Friday, October 9th, 2009

Israel, the Palestinians and ‘final status’ silliness

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Good reading on today’s Obama-Netanyahu-Abbas meeting

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Few Jewish responses to Obama health care speech

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Obama conspiracy theory roundup: Soviet “czars” and a dangerous speech

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Will the Afghanistan mess affect Obama’s Middle East plans?

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009