Barack Obama

The Pew Hispanic Center published a report Wednesday showing that Latinos dislike President Obama's deportation policies. Obama has roughly doubled the number of deportations of illegal immigrants since taking office. Regardless, Latinos do not see Republican candidates as offering a better alternative and will likely vote for Obama in high numbers again.

Fifty-nine percent said they disapprove of the way Obama is handling deportations, according to the Pew Hispanic Center's survey of 1,220 Latinos in the United States. Only 27 percent approve, and 13 percent said they do not know or refused to answer the question.

The number of deportations of undocumented immigrants has risen dramatically under Obama. On average, the Obama administration has deported close to 400,000 immigrants each year he has been in office. This is about 30 percent more than the number of deportations during President George W. Bush's second term and about double the number of deportations during Bush's first term. This is despite the fact that illegal immigration, and apprehensions of illegal immigrants, is lower than during the Bush administration due to the economic recession. more >>

For Republicans, the Solyndra scandal is ready-made to feature five of the main arguments they will use against President Obama in the 2012 election.

1. Wasteful Spending

The federal government loaned solar power company Solyndra $535 million before watching the company go bankrupt in 2011. The loan guarantee was part of the 2009 “stimulus bill,” which was supposed to, according to Obama, save the economy and keep unemployment below eight percent. more >>

A New Hampshire pro-life group is suing the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) because it believes the department funneled grant money to Planned Parenthood facilities despite state legislation defunding abortion providers in the state.

New Hampshire Right to Life (NHRTL) is suing HHS for documents they believe will expose the Obama administration favoring Planned Parenthood for grant money after the state’s executive council denied funding to its clinics in six cities.

The $1 million HHS grant was announced in September. NHRTL argued local clinics and hospitals that don’t offer abortions were not allowed to apply for the grant and filed a Freedom of Information Act request in October asking the department to explain how grant recipients are chosen. more >>

The Catholic Church has begun to formally review the Obama administration and progressive state regulatory policies to identify and combat what it considers a steady increase in government encroachment on religious freedom.

“One of the things that our conference of bishops has done in response to some of the regulations and some of the difficulties that our Catholic institution are finding is to call all of us to reflect again on the importance that in a pluralistic society, the importance of respecting the religious traditions, the religious freedom, the freedom of conscious of everyone," Archdiocese of Washington D.C. Cardinal Donald Wuerl told FOX News in a Christmas interview.

Multiple Catholic entities have encountered increasing difficulties this year reconciling its faith-based policies with new state, local and federal regulations. The most visible is the Catholic Church battle with the Obama administration over a health care reform regulation that requires free contraceptives as part of all health plans, effectively constricting the ability of Catholic hospitals to offer health care coverage. more >>

President Barack Obama and his family attended Christmas services Sunday with U.S. military members at the chapel of a marine base in Hawaii and later returned to the base to thank them for their service to the nation.

The Obamas made a short trip from their rented house in Kailua Beach near Honolulu to the chapel at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on the island of Oahu for church service, according to The Associated Press.

In Hawaii on vacation since Friday, Obama was dressed in dark khaki pants and a short-sleeve blue shirt Sunday. His wife Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha were wearing sundresses. more >>

An evangelical leader countered Newt Gingrich’s argument against negative super PAC ads, saying that candidates should be allowed to use attack ads, as long as the ads are factually correct.

Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr., of the High Impact Leadership Coalition told The Christian Post that in a perfect world, candidates would not need to attack their opponents’ record in order to get ahead politically. But since the world is not perfect, Jackson said it is acceptable for candidates to use negative advertising as long as they state facts about an opponents’ record.

“They must be direct, factual ads that make people be accountable for their record,” he said. more >>