The federal website Regulations.gov released the first round of public comments on the administration’s proposed anti-conscience mandate on Wednesday. The comments were overwhelmingly opposed to the measure: out of 211 comments submitted, only six, less than 3%, offered support for the mandate.

The mandate would require all organizations that offer health insurance to facilitate coverage of contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs, even if such drugs violate those organizations’ religious or moral beliefs.

The vast majority of the comments submitted focus on the mandate’s violation of Americans’ right of conscience, while a few discuss the health hazards of the medical procedures the mandate covers, and some call for full Obamacare repeal.

“As a Democrat, I will vote Republican if religious freedom is not protected and respected,” said one commenter, who identified herself as Arlene from Colorado.

An anonymous commenter from Missouri insisted that the mandate constitutes “a religious freedoms issue, not a women’s issue.”

Read More at heritage.org. By Lachlan Markay.

After a week where the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden effectively dominated the political news arena, Republicans are looking to shift the message back to a critical examination of President Obama’s economic record.

The Republican National Committee and Romney campaign are launching a new messaging effort centered around the theme of “hype and blame,” a play on the Obama campaign’s 2008 “hope and change” slogans.

Republicans will sell bumper stickers emblazoned with the faux slogan, and accompany that with a digital, radio, and television advertising push. The effort will focus on Virginia and Ohio, the two crucial swing states the president will hold campaign events in on Saturday.

Read More at The Hill. By Justin Sink.

(CNSNews.com) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in China on Wednesday, knee-deep in human rights issues.

Clinton, along with Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Michael Posner and other top State Department officials, met with Chinese officials about human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who is now believed to be under U.S. protection in Beijing.

Diplomats are scrambling to resolve the thorny issue presented by the blind legal activist, who made a daring escape from house arrest.

Ironically, Clinton, who is in the position of having to choose whether to defend the human rights of a human rights activist, is now 67 days late in sending to Congress the latest State Department reports on Human Rights conditions in China and other countries.

Chen was prominently mentioned in the last human rights report on China — the 2010 report — which was released by the State Department last year, and covers activities in the year 2009.

Read More at CNS News. By Pete Winn.

Photo Credit: Aaron Webb Creative Commons

Thousands of protesters in New York demanded an end to income inequality and housing foreclosures. Police fired tear gas to disperse marchers in Oakland, Calif. And black-clad demonstrators smashed windows in Seattle and occupied a building owned by the Catholic archdiocese in San Francisco.

Activists across the U.S. joined in worldwide May Day protests Tuesday, with anti-Wall Street demonstrators leading the way in some cities as they tried to recapture the enthusiasm that propelled their movement last fall.

While some protesters clashed with police, the melees were far less violent than ones that erupted last fall when the movement was at its peak. Marches and strikes led to a handful of arrests but no major disruptions.

Many of the rallies, which drew activists pushing a variety of causes, also did not have the same drawing power that gatherings had last year for the Occupy movement or a half-dozen years ago for May Day rallies for immigration reform.

In recent years, activists in the U.S. used May Day to hold rallies for immigrant rights, but the day has been associated for more than a century with workers’ rights and the labor movement both in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Read More at OfficialWire. By Terry Collins, AP.

Photo Credit: DoctorTongs (Creative Commons)

The Obama campaign apparently didn’t look backwards into history when selecting its new campaign slogan, “Forward” — a word with a long and rich association with European Marxism.

Many Communist and radical publications and entities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries had the name “Forward!” or its foreign cognates. Wikipedia has an entire section called “Forward (generic name of socialist publications).”

“The name Forward carries a special meaning in socialist political terminology. It has been frequently used as a name for socialist, communist and other left-wing newspapers and publications,” the online encyclopedia explains.

The slogan “Forward!” reflected the conviction of European Marxists and radicals that their movements reflected the march of history, which would move forward past capitalism and into socialism and communism.

The Obama campaign released its new campaign slogan Monday in a 7-minute video. The title card has simply the word “Forward” with the “O” having the familiar Obama logo from 2008. It will be played at rallies this weekend that mark the Obama re-election campaign’s official beginning.

Read More at The Washington Times. By Victor Morton.