Among the stops on Obama’s itinerary when he visits New Orleans to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is a speech the president is scheduled to give at Xavier University, a Catholic school in New Orleans. You may remember that the last time Obama spoke at a Catholic university–giving the commencement address at Notre …
That’s not a rhetorical question, although the way some people have reacted to yesterday’s TIME and Pew polls about the percentage of Americans who think Obama is a Muslim, I wouldn’t be surprised if they took it as such. Sure, it’s possible that one-in-four (or five, depending on the poll) Americans actually believe in their hearts of …
But not only has that fact not gotten through to many Americans, the percentage of adults who believe he is a Muslim has now risen sharply after holding steady for two years, according to a new Pew poll out today. For my money, though, the real headline–and the news that should be causing heartburn over at the White House right now–is …
After Obama’s strong statement on Friday in defense of religious freedom and the right of Muslims to build Cordoba House near Ground Zero, I wondered if other Democrats would feel they now had cover to come out in favor of the planned construction as well. After all, up to that point, the “debate” had really been dominated by Republican …
Fleshing out Jeff Goldberg’s observation that Joe linked to earlier, our TIME colleague Bobby Ghosh takes a look at Feisal Abdul Rauf, the moderate imam behind the proposed Islamic center near the World Trade Center. As Bobby points out, Rauf is “just the kind of ‘peaceful Muslims’ that Sarah Palin, in her now infamous tweet, asked to …
Last week, Newt Gingrich suggested that Americans were being wusses for practicing religious tolerance while the Saudi Arabias of the world play hardball with other faith traditions. Maybe this is more what he had in mind. A conservative church in Florida is organizing “Burn a Qu’ran Day” to commemorate September 11, which happens to …
Joining Sarah Palin (perhaps “affirmiating” her position?), Newt Gingrich issued a statement last night opposing the proposed building of a mosque at the World Trade Center site. Gingrich took a break from his busy no-really-I’m-running-for-president-this-time-and-while-I-have-your-attention-have-you-bought-my-new-book-slash-movie? …
James Verini has a fascinating profile of Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in the latest issue of The Washington Monthly that should be must-reading for anyone who wants to understand the major political players in Washington. How powerful is the Chamber? According to Verini’s reporting, in 2009 the Chamber spent …
Washington Post blogger Dave Weigel, who was hired three months ago to cover the conservative movement, resigned from the paper earlier today after some of his private emails mocking conservatives were leaked. Weigel previously sparked an uproar in May when he called gay marriage opponents “bigots.” Reaction to Weigel’s resignation is …
Will Saletan has a fascinating piece up at Slate right now about the extent to which the borking of Robert Bork at his Senate confirmation hearings involved questions about his religious beliefs. I had completely missed that part of the confirmation battle (in fairness, I was in ninth grade and seem to remember that I spent part of the …
Today is the National Day of Prayer, which by tradition is celebrated not with cake and balloons but with some attendant controversy. Just a few weeks ago, it looked as though the White House’s biggest problem regarding the day (first designated by Congress in 1952) was the fact that a federal judge ruled in April that the law directing …
From the Supreme Court’s oral arguments in a sexting case earlier today (via the NYT):
Chief Justice Roberts warned against devising a legal rule that “would require people basically to have two of these things with them, two of whatever they are — the text messager or the BlackBerrys or whatever.”
Since when did Supreme Court …
Okay, so the president didn’t go all Buzz Lightyear in his NASA speech today, but he might want to consider it next time. Instead, Obama soberly announced his goals for “revitalizing” the U.S. space program, including a manned spaceflight to Mars by the year 2030. To get an idea of how challenging it will be to reach Mars (hint: it’s not …
