The GOPrelates can untwist their undies

Barack Obama's first official act as President wasn't signing FOCA (which isn't even up for consideration by the Congress). Instead, he proclaimed a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation:

NATIONAL DAY OF RENEWAL AND RECONCILIATION, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
As I take the sacred oath of the highest office in the land, I am humbled by the responsibility placed upon my shoulders, renewed by the courage and decency of the American people, and fortified by my faith in an awesome God.

We are in the midst of a season of trial. Our Nation is being tested, and our people know great uncertainty. Yet the story of America is one of renewal in the face of adversity, reconciliation in a time of discord, and we know that there is a purpose for everything under heaven.

On this Inauguration Day, we are reminded that we are heirs to over two centuries of American democracy, and that this legacy is not simply a birthright -- it is a glorious burden. Now it falls to us to come together as a people to carry it forward once more.

So in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, let us remember that: "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 20, 2009, a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation, and call upon all of our citizens to serve one another and the common purpose of remaking this Nation for our new century.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

Who can disagree with that?

Tell Me Again Who's Serious About "Life"

The next time you anyone from the Criminalization Caucus claims that anyone who refuses to throw women in jail isn't "serious" about eliminating abortions, remind them of this.

That's right. According to the American Life (sic) League, somehow the fact that Krispy Kreme is giving away free donuts on Inauguration Day to celebrate the fact that Americans are "free" to "choose" their President makes the company the purveyor of "pro-abortion donuts".

And remember that this isn't some looney-fringe group within the "pro-life" movement. This group claims to be "the largest grassroots Catholic pro-life education organization in the United States."

Scary.

Doug Kmiec's Response to Wingnut Criticism

is up at the Commonweal website:

Unless the sore losers of November 4 manage to poison the well, the Holy See and the Obama administration should be working more closely together in service to others than any administration in modern memory.

As it is, however, right-wing Catholic bloggers, acting as a thinly disguised political front for the GOP, remain fixated on the goal of precipitating an unnecessary war between the Holy See and America’s next administration. It is dismaying to see a few American prelates and their “anonymous” Vatican commentators acting as witting or unwitting coconspirators in this divisive action.

The entire piece is worth a read.

No Torture

Introducing his National Intelligence Team on Friday, President-Elect Obama forcefully reiterated his promise to do away with the torture regime instituted by George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfled:

"I was clear throughout this campaign and was clear throughout this transition that under my administration the United States does not torture," Obama said, when asked at the news conference whether he would continue the Bush administration's policy of harsh interrogation. "We will abide by the Geneva Conventions. We will uphold our highest ideals."

But what about those Jack Bauer, ticking-time-bomb right-wing fantasies?

Obama has criticized interrogation practices he says amount to torture and also has promised to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The president-elect, who takes office Jan. 20, said he has given the men the clear charge to restore the United States' record on human rights.

"We must adhere to our values as diligently as we protect our safety with no exceptions," Obama said.

Priorities

Yesterday I listed the priorities for the incoming Democratic Congress. Among them, the environment, education, health-care, the economy.

What was the new Congressional Republicans' first order of business?

The Rush Limbaugh Protection Act.

I guess at least they're concerned about some jobs.

Why Criminalization of Abortion Will Never Work

Those who believe any and all efforts to eliminate abortions must include criminalization, and who accuse anyone who refuses to push for criminalization of being "pro-abortion" or "pro-death" or whatever the inflammatory rhetoric of the day happens to be, have to deal with these facts:

The pills were misoprostol, a prescription drug that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for reducing gastric ulcers and that researchers say is commonly, though illegally, used within the Dominican community to induce abortion. Two new studies by reproductive-health providers suggest that improper use of such drugs is one of myriad methods, including questionable homemade potions, frequently employed in attempts to end pregnancies by women from fervently anti-abortion cultures despite the widespread availability of safe, legal and inexpensive abortions in clinics and hospitals.

The articles describes the ease with which women seeking to terminate pregnancies are able to do so in a way far removed from the doctors' office:

Physicians say that women can obtain the pills either through pharmacies that are willing to bend the rules and provide the medicine without a prescription or by having the drugs shipped from overseas.

The article focuses on the pressure that women from certain cultures experience which leads them to these "private" abortions. However, the phenomenon demonstrates that the criminalization of abortion will be almost entirely ineffective, and ultimately unenforceable, in actually reducing the number of abortions.
Remember these facts when the Bishops start their rhetoric against the FOCA strawman.

The Agenda - House Version

The word is that one of the first items on the new House of Representatives' agenda will be reversing the egregious Supreme Court decision in the Ledbetter case, which held that if a employer can hide its wage-discrimination from an employee for at least 180 days, the employee can never sue to enforce their rights under The Civil Rights Act of 1964.

While Ledbetter itself involved wage discrimination on the basis of gender, it has been used to deny justice to plaintiffs alleging discrimination on the basis of age as well as race. And in addition to wage-discrimination claims, the precedent has been used to bar claims for housing discrimination.

The House passed a Bill reversing the Ledbetter decision last term, but it died in the Senate when the Republicans filibustered.

The Catholic Church's support for equal pay is well-established. Once again, how each Party and each politician act on this issue will say much about their commitment to The Common Good.

The Common Good Comes To Congress

Faith in Public Life reminds me that today also marks formal entry of probably the most direct and outspoken proponent of The Common Good to the Halls of Congress. Congressman Tom Perriello, whom I blogged about here.

Happy New Year - The Agenda

So today is the day most people are getting back to work for the New Year, including the United States Senate and House of Representatives.Via Tapped comes the first ten Bills to be introduced by the new Democratic Senate:

S.1 -- American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. "To create jobs, restore economic growth, and strengthen America’s middle class through measures that modernize the nation’s infrastructure, enhance America’s energy independence, expand educational opportunities, preserve and improve affordable health care, provide tax relief, and protect those in greatest need, and for other purposes." The stimulus bill; no surprises here.
S.2 -- Middle Class Opportunity Act of 2009. Sound familiar? This is a retread of a bill sponsored by Senator Chuck Schumer in the last Congress that has a variety of tax reform goals; the additional descriptions in this bill include hints at union support ("ensuring workers can exercise their rights to freely choose to form a union without employer interference") and perhaps another go at the Ledbetter law ("removing barriers to fair pay for all workers").
S.3 -- Homeowner Protection and Wall Street Accountability Act of 2009. This bill will include a moratorium on foreclosures, Senator Dick Durbin's plan to allow for easier reworking of troubled mortgages by bankruptcy judges, new regulations for the credit card and financial industry, and investment in the Small Business Administration to provide loans for small businesses in need. It also makes TARP -- the Wall Street bailout -- a larger part of foreclosure reduction.
S.4 -- Comprehensive Health Reform Act of 2009. "It is the sense of Congress that Congress should enact, and the President should sign, legislation to guarantee health coverage, improve health care quality and disease prevention, and reduce health care costs for all Americans and the health care system." Paging Ezra!
S.5 -- Cleaner, Greener, and Smarter Act of 2009. This is a bill that focuses mainly on green investment and updating infrastructure to be more efficient and less polluting. But since a lot of those priorities are expected to be rolled into the stimulus package, one wonders if this is a vehicle for cap-and-trade and the Kyoto Protocols, given this provision: "requiring reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases in the United States and achieving reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases abroad."
S.6. -- Restoring America’s Power Act of 2009. This is basically the Democrats' '08 foreign policy consensus: Refocus on Afghanistan, transition in Iraq, strengthen alliances, WMD non-proliferation in Iran and North Korea... you get the idea. Most of this is in the executive branch's bailiwick so this legislation may just be a supportive resolution indicating that if Obama needs new authorities or resources to accomplish these goals, he'll get them. The bill also includes goals of providing proper training and equipment to the Armed Forces, and medical care when they return from duty.
S.7 -- Education Opportunity Act of 2009. "To expand educational opportunities for all Americans by increasing access to high-quality early childhood education and after school programs, advancing reform in elementary and secondary education, strengthening mathematics and science instruction, and ensuring that higher education is more affordable." An education omnibus bill that will no doubt be split up into separate pieces of legislation.
S.8 -- Returning Government to the American People Act. "To return the Government to the people by reviewing controversial 'midnight regulations' issued in the waning days of the Bush Administration." A sentiment we can all get behind, which promises to provide the new administration legislative authority, if it doesn't have it already, to review (and presumably deny) the last administration's late regulations.
S.9 -- Stronger Economy, Stronger Borders Act of 2009. Seems to be a placeholder for comprehensive immigration reform, including stronger border and employment security to crackdown on illegal immigration while "reforming and rationalizing avenues for legal immigration."
S.10 -- Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009. Gosh, this one is interesting. It's one part congressional hand-wringing over the fact that "the Federal budget is on an unsustainable path of rising deficits and debt," and it calls for a study of this. It's one part fiscal hawkery, supporting "strong pay-as-you-go rules, to help block the approval of measures that would increase the deficit." And it's one part ... populist? "A review of the current system of taxation of the United States to ensure that burdens are borne fairly and equitably." That could be the justification for the Bush tax cut rollback in 2010.

Middle-Class and Homeowner relief, Healthcare reform, Economic and Wall-Street accountability, Environmental Protection, Educational Opportunity, and a sane Foreign Policy.

There's much in that agenda which directly furthers Catholic Social Doctrine, and nothing that's directly contrary to the Doctrine.

How each Party, and each politician, address these bills will say much about their commitment to The Common Good.

I'll look into each Bill in more detail as it's formally introduced.