Fr. Robert Drinan, SJ Dies - Cross Posting

This is a cross posting from dailykos.com. I don't usually do that, but this was such an interesting diary, I had to link to it. Please follow the link:

HERE

What is it with you Republicans?

Ted Kennedy goes at the Republicans and their rider amendments, which are delaying the vote for an increase in the minimum wage. Move to the middle of the speech to get the full impact and if you just want the fireworks.

"Do you have such disdain for hard-working Americans that you want to pile all your amendments on this? Why don’t you just hold your amendments until other pieces of legislation? Why this volume of amendments on just the issue to try and raise the minimum wage? What is it about it that drives you Republicans crazy? What is it? Something. Something! What is the price that the workers have to pay to get an increase? What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?"

Yeah.

This is on KCTS RIGHT NOW: "Lives for Sale". So far it's pretty good, although my picture isn't coming in. (Sound is great.) Looks like it repeats on KCTS on 1/29 at 1 a.m.

Catholic warcast podcast

A friend brought to my attention a podcast put out by the Catholic Peace Fellowship called the Warcast for Catholics. It's primary focus is on conscientious objection and the war in Iraq, but recently they had a special edition of an interview with Sr. Helen Prejean. I've only listened to the first 3 podcasts or so, but what I've listened to has been good. The one episode was an interview with a former soldier, who was able to be discharged; a father whose daughter was taken in by false recruiting tactics; and a discussion of scripture relating to conscientious objection and peace.

A Not-So-Subtle Comment on My Blog

A Sneak Preview for 2008!

Are aliens the only Republicans left who support Bush and his policies? I'm beginning to think so. Good thing he still has Lieberman! But since we aren't Republicans here at Cascadia Catholics, let's move on to a more interesting topic:

2008 Sneak Preview. As you know, I'm a Kucinich supporter. But I'm also realistic. I like Edwards, but he's not my man. Clinton drives me nuts. Obama is refreshing, but what do we really know about him? And who are all those other guys?

I googled around and found a fantastic website. Check it out:

http://www.issues2000.org/2008_Speculation.htm

(You can even look at Republican voting records here, if you're so inclined.)

Most impressive are the Status Reports, what I consider to be some fair, objective and well documented histories of each candidate's voting record and speechifyings.

Last night I went through every Democrat on the list and was cheered to know that the Kooch still has my heart, but probably not my vote (in a close primary). Who does stand out?

Tom Daschle! (Who knew?) Tom Vilsack! (Come again?) and Barack Obama (I was just as surprised!) Edwards actually sank more than a few rungs in my estimation. He voted for the war (apologized, but still...). He voted for the Patriot Act! (No excuse there). He supports the Death Penalty. All bad things in my book, though it doesn't count him out. He is tough and aggressive, and is fighting poverty as a key issue (no one else is), so that's all good.

But you know what is also very interesting. Of all these Democrats, guess how many are Catholic?

Dennis Kucinich
Tom Daschle
Wesley Clark
John Kerry
Bill Richardson
Christopher Dodd
Tom Vilsack
Joe Biden

Wow. And even Obama at least was raised with a Catholic School education - as well as Muslim Schools (He's a convert to the United Church of Christ).

I just thought that was really interesting. Of course they are all pro-choice Catholics, and one can quarrel with that all one wants, but I was really surprised to see that so many of the Democratic Party leaders are Catholic. Reminds me of the good ol' days, before the Reagan bait-and-switch campaign stole so many and damaged so much.

And sorry the blog has been slow. I'll try to do better.

Panhandling Downtown

Apologies if people have heard this program before, but I've been out of town and am catching up on my podcasts. KUOW's "The Conversation" had a program a few weeks ago on curbing panhandling downtown. You can hear it at this link. I found it interesting that they tried to verify that incidents of aggressive panhandling were on the rise with the Seattle police, and the Seattle police were unable to verify that claim. Woo seemed rather patronizing, to me. A few other callers did mention that there are charities which will take donations to help the homeless, but none were specifically mentioned.