Gingrich on Sovereignty and the Law

I only tuned into the debate for a few minutes but was lucky enough to catch Gingrich taking a sniveling Pelley to the woodshed about the Law. What a shining moment.

Sign me up.

It never dawned on me before, but I think Bish is right in the comments below that the Obama's class warfare occupy riots is the DNC get-ready for what they think will be a Romney nomination. There isn't a dime's worth of difference between Romney and Obama - except Romney fiscal agenda is taking care of the rich. The only people in the GOP who are behind him - are the rich. Even if Romney's affect was not weird and he was a prolifer and a conservative - which he most emphatically is not - his nomination is going to result in an increase in the class warfare riots. Fugghetabout Romney. He is a loser.

We've got to face the facts. What we are left with, is Gingrich. Judging from his performances, I think he is a candidate I could actually even get enthusiastic about. Apparently, I am not alone as he is rising in the polls.

The man of the moment appeared utterly at ease as he signed autographs and posed for pictures with people on the Furman campus amid football tailgaters on a beautiful fall weekend. He jokingly explained that he has no need to attack Romney. So many in the party aren’t with Romney at this point, he said, that all he needs to do is get most of them, not try to take people away from the former governor.

This is absolutely spectacular:



I am in kiddies!

Herman Cain and the Catholic Vote

With my finger on the pulse of the Catholic Vote, as it stands today, Herman Cain is coming out at the top of the list.

Up until the last few weeks, there hasn't been an palpable energy. Cain seems to be picking up some momentum in the grassroots.

If Christie joins the fracus, we'll have another option. Frankly, my gut tells me there's some kind of skeleton or two in the closet and he's just not going to take the chance of scandalizing his family and his career. Hope I'm wrong but there's something about his no thank yous - given the state of affairs - that make me wonder if there's some video of him while in college in his underpants and a toga with a bong in one hand and a beer in the other making some regretful remarks.

Romney is a trainwreck. His affect is too weird. As Dylan lyrics go, he just wants to be on the side that;s winning. When it comes to moving prolife agendas, we experienced his real convictions here in Massachusetts. He is THE master of political charades. He works against us under the radar. He is full of dung.

Perry is calibrated a couple of hundred notches to left of George Sr. Not a bad man, certainly a man of prayer, a lover of God - but his discretion is just not there. Killing 300 people is way over the top. He supported Guiliani in the last race and the HPV thing tells us his convictions about the poor and women are way off base. In the end, if we are stuck with him, he's shown he can come to the party and we will have to get on the ship but he is just too tardy to get out in front with him in a Catholic effort.

Santorum is a good man, but the Spector spectacle leaves me less than edified about his discretion and his book will become a boogeyman. The rest just don't have any momentum at all.

Perhaps we should do some diligence on Cain and see what's beneath the surface.

Is Rick Perry a Candidate for Practicing Catholics? Fugghetaboutit!

Several months back, I came across Rick Perry's supposed conservative and pro-life credentials in blogosphere. Admittedly, I didn't know a lot about him and the write up made him sound like a perfect candidate for us.

He's just foisted STD vaccines on female children starting at age 11.

Women are too dumb, you see, to teach them how to recognize a man who isn't a pig. And, since we start sleeping around at 11, the government must force us to be vaccinated.

What a sexist heel.

When I smelled something stinky, I googled a bit.

Guess who he endorsed for President in 2008. Guiliani.

See ya later, alligator.

Pope Tells Bishops To Educate Faithful to Vote Against Abortion

We better rush this over to the Massachusetts Bishops.

 Bishops must guide their faithful to use their vote to oppose efforts to legalize abortion and euthanasia, Pope Benedict XVI told bishops from Brazil.

"Dear brother bishops, to defend life we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, and we must refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might conform us to the world's way of thinking," the pope said Oct. 28 during a meeting with bishops from northeast Brazil.

The bishops were making their "ad limina" visits to report on the status of their dioceses.

By the way - this just in:

Question # 2 on the November Ballot - Catholics Should Vote "No"

A YES vote repeals the 40B statute.
A  NO vote keeps  the status quo on the 40B statute.

Here's essentially how 40 B works:

Under the existing law, the ZBA holds a public hearing on the application and considers the recommendations of local agencies and officials. The ZBA may grant a comprehensive permit that may include conditions or requirements concerning the height, site plan, size, shape, or building materials of the housing. Persons aggrieved by the ZBA’s decision to grant a permit may appeal it to a court. If the ZBA denies the permit or grants it with conditions or requirements that make the housing uneconomic to build or to operate, the applicant may appeal to the state Housing Appeals Committee (HAC).

A ZBA’s decision is “consistent with local needs” if it applies requirements that are reasonable in view of the regional need for low- and moderate-income housing and the number of low-income persons in the city or town, as well as the need to protect health and safety, promote better site and building design, and preserve open space, if those requirements are applied as equally as possible to both subsidized and unsubsidized housing. Requirements are considered “consistent with local needs” if more than 10% of the city or town’s housing units are low- or moderate-income units or if such units are on sites making up at least 1.5% of the total private land zoned for residential, commercial, or industrial use in the city or town. 

People in favor of repealing 40B may have some legitimate complaints.  They claim there is corruption.  This may be true.   Wherever you have town and city government, bids and construction - there is room for cronyism, corruption and pig fests.      But most of the time, the real objections of the people are about aesthetics and taxes.

Affordable housing projects bring families into town whose children will need to go to our schools.   The families may need services that deal with the consequences of poverty.     It may decrease our property values  and increase our taxes.  It may affect traffic patterns or impact our routines in other ways.

But, it gives numerous families clean, decent housing in towns where their children have access to decent school systems - away from crime and violence in a ghetto.

This is where the rubber meets the road in social justice.

Kansas City Bishops on Moral Responsibility and Voting

Could a Catholic in good conscience vote for a candidate who supports legalized abortion when there is a choice of another candidate who does not support abortion or any other intrinsically evil policy?"

Dear Friends in Christ,

With the approaching general election this November, we believe this to be an important moment for us to address together the responsibility of Catholics to be well informed and well formed voters....

Could a Catholic in good conscience vote for a candidate who supports legalized abortion when there is a choice of another candidate who does not support abortion or any other intrinsically evil policy? Could a voter’s preference for the candidate’s positions on the pursuit of peace, economic policies benefiting the poor, support for universal health care, a more just immigration policy, etc. overcome a candidate’s support for legalized abortion? In such a case, the Catholic voter must ask and answer the question: What could possibly be a proportionate reason for the more than 45 million children killed by abortion in the past 35 years? Personally, we cannot conceive of such a proportionate reason.

If you can reach beyond the massacre of 45 million infants, you go!

Giuliani: Palin More Qualified Than Obama

He also said Obama “is the least experienced candidate for president in the last 100 years.

“I mean, he's never run a city, he's never run a state, he's never run a business, he's never administered a payroll, he's never led people in crisis,” Giuliani said.

“I think here he wanted to send the message, get somebody fresh, somebody really who represents the other America outside of Washington where people don't care whether you have an 'R' or a 'D' after your name, they just want you to get something done to help them deal with the problems they have,” Lieberman said. “And Sarah Palin comes from that other America.”

In the mad dash between throwing away the talking points the Dems had for vp candidate Romney and drumming up new ones, the following jewels from the emergency broadcasts at NPR:

Obama hearts polar bears (but not infant survivors of botched abortions).

McCain is jaded from too many years experience in Washington.

Obama lacks experience but represents change.

Palin lacks experience.

What happens if something happens to McCain.

Joe Biden is a good pick because he has a lot of experience in Washington and balances out Obama's lack of experience. (Isn't the more important question, what happens if something happens to Biden?)

The Repugs don't care about victims of hurricanes.

The Democrats spent gazilliion dollars on a glitzy convention.

The Repugs are toning down their convention to put efforts into victims of the impending hurricane Gustav, must be a sign.

A mystifying puzzle I hope some crackerjack at the Kennedy School of Government can solve at some point?

Doug Kmiec, trying to hold off the Friday morning post convention stampede to McCain has a new article up on the bastion of orthodoxy, Slate.

He explains on his way home from the losing battle of selling Romney to Catholics he came up with the next best thing to Romney for Catholic sensibility, Obama. Obama is the new Reagan.

"Now, don't think me daft,...", he says, which surely indicates he's aware selling a candidate who supports infantcide to practicing Catholics is as offensive as selling the common good policies of Karl Marx, Adolph Hilter and Joe Stalin.

"Much of the Catholic primary vote has been in the Democratic column, going at first to Hillary Clinton over Obama, as in New Hampshire, where she won 44 percent to 27 percent."

No, actually, if you take the number of Catholics in every diocese in these states, you'll actually find that most Catholics didn't find a compelling reason to go to the polls to vote between Obama and Clinton.

" Catholics or reveals that rare gift of empathy that defined Reagan and that one glimpses in Obama. "

I'm not sensing empathy, I'm getting a strong sense of ambition from a couple well-healed, well groomed with clips of Jack and Jackie O for the last four years, and lurking under that veneer is a couple filled with rage.

While McCain ran a commercial congratulating Obama for a job well done on the night of his acceptance speech, the Obama campaign made a snide/duplicitous remark in response to the announcement of Palin. This the politics of hope and unity?

Kmiec's article draws the conclusion that teachings of the Catholic Church are on a collision course with the culture and therefore we are released from It's prohibitions on voting and, in fact, there really are no prohibitions:

"While no papal instruction will ever condone the "right to choose," the church does ask for a consistent and realistic defense of life that actually takes steps to reduce the incidence of the practice, not just condemns it. Catholics will note that McCain and Huckabee's pro-life postures collapse when it comes to the death penalty."

Kmiec avoids the Papal instruction to refrain from voting for promoter of killing at will and he knows full well that the death penalty for convicted war criminals or mass murderers and sociopaths is not in conflict with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Deliberate deception.

Catholics should rise to the occasion and contact Kmiec's Bishop.