Why practicing Catholics should vote for Barack Obama, not for John McCain

I am a practicing Roman Catholic, and will vote for Barack Obama for President of the United States. Not only will I vote for Senator Obama, I will do so gladly and with a clear conscience.  The reasons are many.  This lengthy post enumerate many of those reasons, providing ample links in support.

I accept the Roman Catholic teachings on the sanctity of human life and, to the degree the views of Senator Obama and the Democratic Party platform depart from Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life, I disagree with Senator Obama and the Democratic Party on their positions. I will work inside the party to change the positions of Senator Obama and the Democratic Party, and I will pray for change. I see my vote for Senator Obama as informed by my conscience to support a candidate not totally acceptable to Catholics but, who nonetheless poses a far lesser evil to the dignity and sanctity of life than a vote for Senator John McCain.

In my own life, I strive always to have compassion for those who disagree with me and seek to make a world where all children are recognized for the contribution they are to their families and the world, even before they are born. I will yet find a world where choice will mean whether one raises their child with the support necessary to allow the entire family to succeed, or a child will be placed for adoption by a family capable of the …

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15 Reasons John McCain is Too Ignorant To Be President

John McCain is… 1.) Ignorant on the economy. And see here. 2.) Ignorant on foreign policy. And see here. 3.) Ignorant on birth control. 4.) Ignorant of the truth. And see here and here. 5.) Ignorant of what’s important to veterans and votes against veterans. 6.) Ignorant of the laws…

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John McCain shows the media that access comes with a price

Check out this video:  McCain is pointedly reminding the Wall Street Journal that media access isn't free.  If you don't write nice things about McCain, you might not get any story at all. The accompanying article and video provide both the incident and the motive.   If reporter Elizabeth Holmes shapes…

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Go see “Body of War,” in order to viscerally feel the injustice of the U.S. involvement in Iraq

Tonight, I had the privilege to attend a private screening of Phil Donahue’s new movie, “Body of War.” The film was shown to several hundred people attending the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In his introduction to the film, Donahue indicated that “We have the most sanitized war in our history.” His point was that the American people cannot deal appropriately about this war if they can’t see the images related to the war. He implored, “Show the people the sacrifices the men and women of this country are making.” The American people cannot feel the pain caused by this war, because the full story of the war is not available to them, thanks to the continuing media blackout of all inconvenient images and stories. Instead of learning about what’s really happening in Iraq, the American people keep getting distracted with things like entertainment parading as news or tax cuts.

Donahue stated that the US involvement in Iraq has caused more than 20,000 “grievous injuries,” a fact which he finds “beyond horrible.”

What are the kinds of images that the American people are denied? Everyone knows about the government’s attempt to keep Americans from seeing pictures of coffins of soldiers returning from Iraq. There are equally dramatic pictures available, however. One of those was briefly shown in the film, and it was run only in the Rocky Mountain News. It is a photo of a woman who wanted to sleep next to the coffin of her …

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Al Jazeera takes a look at Kentucky voter attitudes regarding race

This is a fascinating video, which I learned of at Daily Kos. Now that we've dragged some of those wacko preachers out into the limelight, maybe it's time to focus those cameras on the bigots.  Sunshine is great disinfectant. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8J9laUNgL4&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/22/142132/498/133/520573[/youtube]

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