National Security vs. Individual Liberties?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Amid the uproar over National Security Agency phone intercepts, 59 percent of Americans say the legal system is tilted too far in favor of individual liberties at the expense of national security or is well balanced between the two. That's according to a new Rasmussen poll, which reveals that 29 percent think there is too much concern for national security at the expense of individual freedoms.

Meanwhile, 50 percent of Americans say the president broke no laws in authorizing the NSA to intercept phone conversations between terror suspects in other countries and people living in the U.S. Thirty-three percent believe the action was illegal.

Europe Should Pay Price?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who's been the subject of international criticism for calling the Holocaust a "myth" is no longer denying a European plot to exterminate the Jews. But now, he says creating Israel was Europe's plan to finish the job.

Iran's official news agency reports Iran's leader accused Europeans of "ethnic and religious cleansing" by "throwing the Jews out of Europe,” adding, "Don't you think that continuation of genocide by expelling Jews from Europe was one of their aims in creating a regime of occupiers of [Jerusalem]?" He added that if the Holocaust was indeed real, then Europeans, not Muslims, should pay the price.

Marion Mugged

D.C. council member Marion Barry was robbed at gunpoint inside his home this week, but he's not angry. Instead, he says his feelings are hurt. Barry, who went to jail after he was caught smoking crack during his third term as mayor, says, "There is a sort of an unwritten code in Washington, among the underworld and the hustlers and these other guys, that I am their friend," adding, "I was a little hurt that this betrayal did happen."

He's calling for his assailants to give themselves up, saying, "I don't even want you prosecuted, really. I love you."

Political Eviction

Ted Hayes, an advocate for the homeless who also happens to be a black Republican, says the 35 men, women and children who reside in the Los Angeles shelter he founded 12 years ago are being kicked out because of his political beliefs. In a Wall Street Journal Op Ed, Hayes writes that his landlord raised the Dome Village's rent from $2500 to more than $18,000 a month when he learned Hayes' political leanings and said the cause of his "eviction" was "because you are Republican,” adding that as a Democrat, he was tired of helping Hayes or his shelter.

— FOX News' Aaron Bruns contributed to this report