Author Archive: Bill Black

Another reason to love Barack. Asked his favorite movie, he says, “The Godfather.” Then proceeds to do a quick imitation of Brando as Vito.

Watch CBS Videos Online

For the record, it wasn’t a “caretaker” that came to see the Don, it was an undertaker.

I endorse his other movie picks, as well.

Regarding McCain’s lies:

Despite having its claim exposed in nearly every media outlet, the McCain campaign continued to assert it anyway, day after day, dozens of times in all. It was as if Bill Clinton had persisted in his claim that he did not have sexual relations with that woman even after the appearance of the semen-stained dress.

Jonathan Chait, New Republic

Here is Douglas Kmiec powerful account of his experience of being denied communion for endorsing Obama. An impressive man. I do not understand how a priest devoted to a Church among whose primary teachings is the virtue of humility can be so arrogant.

Here are his “Catholic” reasons for supporting Obama:

Condemned for announcing to the world that I intended to vote for a man who I thought lived the Beatitudes. A black man; a caring man; a talented man. A man different from my conservative self and yet calling me to find the best of that self. A man who, in so many ways, asks to care for the least advantaged as he seeks the public responsibility to carry with him, as if it was his own burden the plight of the marginalized and unemployed worker, the uninsured, the widowed mother grieving over a son lost in Iraq. Their hurts, far worse than mine. It was wrong to be damned; to be excluded from the grace of the sacrament of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all I could think was the old Tolstoy folk wisdom “God knows the truth, but waits.”

I usually like Dan Balz of the Washington Post. He seems like a straight ahead reporter without the ego of people like Dana Milbank. But he has a line in today’s paper that is just shocking. In a piece mostly devoted to the problems that McCain confronts in the election he says:

As in the primaries, he has been reduced to basics, and they have served him well over the past two months. His best hope of winning is to make the campaign a test of character.

Has he not been paying attention? Can he still suggest that McCain possesses the superior “character” in this race? With all the deceit and hypocrisy pouring out of the McCain, how can he possibly run on “character?”

Come on!

Here’s a nice encapsulation of McCain’s lies. Doesn’t include the Palin lies, i.e. the Bridge to Nowhere, earmarks, etc. I expect there’ll be an updated version. But it’s worth watching all the way through.

Douglas Kmiec was a familiar legal expert during the Clinton impeachment. He would argue the case in favor of impeachment and, as far as I was concerned, defend the indefensible. I considered him an unprincipled hack who would conjure up sophisticated legal rationales for anything and everything the Republicans chose to do on that and other issues. I frankly didn’t know that he was also a prominent Catholic.

Now, I learn he has endorsed Obama and atributes his endorsement to his dedication to Catholic teaching. Of course, that forces me to totally re-evaluate my opinion of him. I now realize he is an honorable scholar.

It’s times like these when I have to ask myself, am I the political hack?

Could it be????

Nah!

Here’s his very persuasive answer on the question of abortion in a column by the Times Religion correspondent, Peter Steinfels:

Q. Given those views, why do you support Barack Obama?

A. There is a widespread misconception that overturning Roe is the only way to be pro-life. In fact, overturning Roe simply returns the matter to the states, which in their individual legislative determinations could then be entirely pro-abortion. I doubt that many of our non-legally-trained pro-life friends fully grasp the limited effect of overturning Roe.

Secondly, pundits like to toss about the notion that the future of Roe depends on one vote, the mythical fifth vote to overturn the decision. There are serious problems with this assumption: first, Republicans have failed to achieve reversal in the five previous times they asked the court for it; and second, it is far from certain that only one additional vote is needed to reverse the decision in light of the principles of stare decisis by which a decided case ought not to be disturbed. Only Justices Thomas and Scalia have written and joined dissenting opinions suggesting the appropriateness of overturning Roe.

So given those views, the better question is how could a Catholic not support Barack Obama?

Senator Obama’s articulated concerns with the payment of a living wage, access to health care, stabilizing the market for shelter, special attention to the needs of the disadvantaged and the importance of community are all part of the church’s social justice mission.

Applying this to the issue of abortion, the senator has repeatedly indicated that he is not pro-abortion, that he understands the serious moral question it presents, and, most significantly, that he wants to move us beyond the 35 years of acrimony that have done next to nothing to reduce the unwanted pregnancies that give rise to abortions.

Interestingly, Kmiec has been denied communion by at least one priest for his apostasy. He has become a hero of mine.

John McCain loves a good fight. He even loves a bad fight. Is that what we need in the White House? More fighting using other people’s blood?

Good column in the Times today by Rachel Kleinfeld. Key quote:

Senator McCain’s temper, renowned in Washington, may occasionally be principled when he is speaking as one of 100 senators, but it’s dangerous in higher office. A man who enjoys fighting as much as John McCain does, who is combative in his personal relations within his own country, that is not a temperament we need in the Oval Office. He wanted Thursday’s speech to be about character — and Americans should pay attention to his. A reckless man is a danger in a volatile world.