…AKA “Some stuff I pulled out of my inbox.”
Hey, I gotta get back in my groove somehow, don’t I?
First up:
…a couple of loose ends wrapped up. Beth Stroud writes to say thank you for this diary. Says she enjoyed being introduced to the Daily Kos community. Told her it was my pleasure, and she shouldn’t hesitate to ask for help if she needs it.
And then there’s this: the UCC won the first annual Commercial Closet IMAGES IN ADVERTISING AWARD last night. Thom Filicia and Kyan Douglas were the co-hosts. Take that, ABC!
(Oh, I don’t care if it is a phoney-baloney award given out by an advocacy group. What did you think the Tonys were?)
There’s also news from the Catholic world. Several congregations in Boston are filing suit against the Archdiocese:
They say that though Archbishop Sean O’Malley can terminate the churches’ standing as congregations, he can’t seize land and buildings.
They say those belong to parishioners who worked and paid to maintain them.
The archdiocese says it will respond to the suits through legal channels.
Above and beyond it being bad mojo whenever the church has to resort to settling its affairs in court, this follows on the heels of a similar situation in St. Louis, and represents a sea change for Catholics. We don’t need to get into a full exposition of ecclesiastical theology, so forgive me an oversimplified explanation: in Catholicism, the authority of the church comes from its unity. The thinking goes that Christ asked St. Peter to carry on his personal ministry, and Peter passed it on to someone else, and so on until we reach Benedict XVI. It’s now his ministry, as though he were the pastor of each and every church, and the priests his representatives.
But the American way is congregationalism, where the authority of the church derives from the local community. That’s the UCC tradition, and the Baptists, and, functionally, just about everybody else, too–with the exception of the Catholics. And now that they’re getting hold of the idea, there are a lot of traditionalist cardinals developing ulcers.
Because America, along with Germany, holds the Vatican pursestrings. Once the American laity fully grasp the amount of control they can exert, there will be no holding them back. The good ol’ USA will be able to pry back more power from the clergy than Marty Luther ever dreamed of.
And they say religion and politics don’t mix.
First stop on the American wish list? More priests, with better safeguards against sexual abuse a close second. In the short run, that’ll mean ever-increasing lay ministry, but in the long term, it’s hard to see how Rome can avoid married and/or female clergy.
Last up: apparently, the religious activists don’t believe the filibuster battle is over. From the UCC Justice and Peace Action Network:
Your voice made a difference! Your action helped convince the Senate to negotiate a compromise that protects the filibuster rule. JPANetwork members sent nearly 4,000 messages to senators in an effort to protect this historic check and balance on the power of the majority. On Monday evening, a bipartisan group of senators brokered an agreement that preserves the filibuster but allows for a majority vote on three of the President’s judicial nominees: Priscilla Owens, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor.
The Senate compromise represents an important move by senators away from highly partisan and ideological divisiveness toward fair and full deliberations on judicial nominations. The Senate agreement will insure that diverse points of view are heard during Senate debate, and will foster a spirit of bipartisanship and collaboration. This is especially important given the likelihood that the Senate will consider Supreme Court nominations in the coming months.
Yet important work remains to be done on pending judicial nominations. Many of those nominated for judicial appointments, particularly Priscilla Owens, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor, have troubling records with regard to protecting reproductive choice, consumer rights, worker rights and victims of discrimination. Your action will be needed in the next few weeks to preserve these and other important rights and freedoms as nominees come up for confirmation before the Senate.
For further background information on judicial nominees, click here. Check the UCC Take Action site for updates and action links as nominees are brought forward for a vote. Thanks for taking action!
And from that paragon of civilized discourse, Gary Bauer:
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
As you probably know by now, 14 Senate “moderates” struck a deal last night that pulled the rug out from underneath Majority Leader Bill Frist and President Bush on judicial nominations just as the Senate was about to end this debate. As is the case with most deals, the Senate Republicans in this deal gave up too much.
Here’s the good news: Senate liberals have agreed to allow confirmation votes on three of President Bush’s nominees – Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor. Now, this very fact alone demonstrates the utter lack of intellectual honesty on the part of Senate liberals. If these nominees were so bad that they justified filibusters for four years, as was the case with Priscilla Owen, how can they possibly consent to moving them forward now?
Only when confronted from a superior position of strength by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who was willing to restore Senate traditions by use of the “Constitutional Option,” did the liberals back down. I’ve said it before and it’s worth repeating again: liberals play hardball and they play to win. For once our side stood up to their bullying tactics. But…
That’s right, you thug, the Republicans won by being harder and stronger.
Right.
Anyway:
Here’s the bad news: The seven Senate Republicans also caved. They compromised the very principle they were fighting for – that every judicial
nominee deserves a fair hearing and a final up or down vote on confirmation. Two of President Bush’s nominees, Henry Saad and William Myers, are reportedly being sacrificed for this “deal,” which undermines the separation of powers and denies the Senate majority its constitutional obligation to provide consent in the form of a confirmation vote on judicial nominations.And now for the ugly: Senate liberals are still free to filibuster future Supreme Court nominees in “extraordinary circumstances.” What do you think that means? I can tell you. “Extraordinary circumstances” means that any judge who is pro-life will be filibustered.
In fact, listening to Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid this morning, it sounded as though he is operating on the assumption that Democrats gave up nothing, while Republicans submitted to unilateral disarmament. Reid suggested this morning that there will be filibusters of judges, but “the nuclear option is off the table. It’s gone.”
I suspect all this deal has accomplished is delaying the inevitable showdown that will come over a future Supreme Court vacancy, which will likely happen in the next few months. Thanks to seven Republican sellouts, the radical Left now has more time to organize and raise money for the upcoming Supreme Court showdown. What can you do now? See the last item on the next page.
We’ll skip a few paragraphs of bashing Hillary and praising Clarence Thomas, and get right to the challenge:
6 In ‘06
I’ve read a number of your emails this morning, and they are virtually unanimous in their disgust and frustration with “politics as usual” and backroom deals that sellout our values and your hard work. Many said that the Republican senators involved in the deal would never see another dime from you, and that is precisely the message they need to hear!
But the question remains: what do we do now? I have a solution: 6 In ’06! I want to elect six more strong pro-family, pro-life senators in 2006. Six more unapologetically conservative senators would not only give us a truly conservative majority, but most importantly, it would also give us a filibuster-proof majority of 61 seats! Just image what we could accomplish!
My friends, this is an extremely ambitious agenda and it won’t be easy. But I believe it is worth trying – especially if Senate liberals want to raise the bar to 60 votes for the confirmation of judges.
We’ve got six target seats in mind. What we need now are the resources to make it happen. Will you help me?
The maximum one person can donate to Campaign for Working Families is $5,000 per year. I know most people can’t give that amount, so let me suggest $60 – just $10 for each of these six races. If you can give more, that’s great!
Well, all you liberal extremists. This seems like some mighty fine extraordinary circumstances to me. Who do you think Bauer and his buddies are aiming to pick off? And what do you think we can do about it?
