White House stirs the pot and Rick Santelli goes from simmer to steaming!
Hot Air answers Huffington Post’s question: “Why would Gibbs single out Santelli for a reply when conservative pundits have spent weeks dumping on the stimulus?”… “Maybe it’s because of the huge play Drudge gave the story yesterday ?”
Charles Krauthammer pulls no punches.
President Obama bobs and weaves all over the ring, but punches keep coming. Putin’s in rare form. If only Krauthammer were in the ring with Putin. But no, it’s Putin and Obama.
The Russian is landing his punches left and right straight to the mid-section. Obama is taking it on the ropes. Weak response as Putin slams:
Putin puts the gloves to Kyrgyzstan and shuts down a US air base.
Putin forms a “rapid reaction force” to keep the muscle on muslim areas north of Afghanistan.
Putin flaunts plans to establish a naval base in recently conquered Abkhazia.
Putin, Putin, Putin!
Obama is dazed.. He doesn’t seem to know he’s in the ring. He’s smiling, waving. Campaigning!?
I can’t watch!
Krauthammer calls it “Supine Diplomacy.”
A response to Rick Santelli , it seems, is underway. The American Freedom network writes:
Most of you have already seen the wonderful,passionate speech by Rick Santelli among the traders in Chicago today. He decries the way the Obama policies for mortgage support reward the “water drinkers” instead of those who carry the water. It is one of the most truly inspired speeches I have ever seen or heard, and well worth viewing if you value capitalism. I love how Santelli dismisses the traders are “putty in his hands”, but are real Americans who want to enjoy the fruits of their hard work.
Party Hardy!
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Gateway Pundit calls it a rebuke , while Speaker Pelosi avoids the obvious in her release:
“It is with great joy that my husband, Paul, and I met with his Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI today,” Pelosi said in a statement released hours after the meeting. “In our conversation, I had the opportunity to praise the Church’s leadership in fighting poverty, hunger and global warming, as well as the Holy Father’s dedication to religious freedom and his upcoming trip and message to Israel. I was proud to show his Holiness a photograph of my family’s papal visit in the 1950s, as well as a recent picture of our children and grandchildren.”
Victor L. Simpson, AP writer, reports:
The Vatican’s attempts to keep the Pelosi visit low-profile displayed its obvious unease with the new U.S. administration. Benedict and Bush had found common ground in opposing abortion, an issue that drew them together despite their differences over the war in Iraq.
Wednesday’s meeting, in a small room off a Vatican auditorium after the pope’s weekly public audience, was closed to reporters and photographers.
The Vatican also said — contrary to its usual policy when the pope meets world leaders — that it was not issuing either a photo or video of the encounter, claiming the meeting was private.
The Anchoress writes: Pope Punks Pelosi Pix
It’s confirmed, Nancy Pelosi has her date. According to the Vatican’s Press Office, Pope Benedict will be receiving U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in an audience at noon on Wednesday.
Though a self-described “ardent Catholic,” Speaker Pelosi is confused about what it means to be Catholic.
Hopefully many of you are praying for her. Monumental efforts appreciated!
After her Meet the Press appearance the US Conference of Catholic Bishops responded via this statement issued by, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia and Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport:
In the course of a “Meet the Press” interview on abortion and other public issues on August 24, 2008, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi misrepresented the history and nature of the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church against abortion.
The Church has always taught that human life deserves respect from its very beginning and that procured abortion is a grave moral evil. In the Middle Ages, uninformed and inadequate theories about embryology led some theologians to speculate that specifically human life capable of receiving an immortal soul may not exist until a few weeks into pregnancy. While in canon law these theories led to a distinction in penalties between very early and later abortions, the Church’s moral teaching never justified or permitted abortion at any stage of development.
These mistaken biological theories became obsolete over 150 years ago when scientists discovered that a new human individual comes into being from the union of sperm and egg at fertilization. In keeping with this modern understanding, the Church has long taught that from the time of conception (fertilization), each member of the human species must be given the full respect due to a human person, beginning with respect for the fundamental right to life.
WITH PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING TO
ALMIGHTY GOD
THE ARCHDIOCESE OF SANTA FE
ANNOUNCES
THE ORDINATION TO THE
SACRED PRIESTHOOD OF
JEFFREY N. STEENSON
THOUGH THE IMPOSITION OF HANDS AND THE INVOCATION OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT
BY HIS EXCELLENCY
MICHAEL J. SHEEHAN
ARCHBISHOP OF SANTA FE
SATURDAY,THE TWENTY-FIRST OF FEBRUARY,TWO THOUSAND AND NINE
AT TEN-THIRTY O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING AT ST.THOMAS AQUINAS CATHOLIC CHURCH, RIO RANCHO, NM
Jeffrey M. Steenson will be new to the Roman Catholic priesthood, but not new to our Lord’s vineyard. When ordained February 21, 2009 by Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of the Santa Fe Diocese of New Mexico, Steenson will continue a faith adventure that still astounds him.
It was much more than the divisions within the Anglican Church over issues such as the affirmation of the openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop, and the election of Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first female presiding bishop, that coaxed the then Bishop Steenson onto a new path. These issues were monumentally troubling to his church and he was himself, “deeply troubled about where the Episcopal Church is heading.” Bishop Schori had also blessed same-sex unions. Though grave, still more important issues than these motivated his faith journey to the Roman Catholic Church. No less than the Fathers of the Church held great sway in this matter of faith, conscience and desire.
Before he even entered the ministry, Jeff thought about entering the Roman Catholic Church. One of his professors, a nun, did a very good job showing him that the early Church looked and was as it continues to be very Roman Catholic. She also pointed out that she thought he might have a vocation to the priesthood but he was married and so that was then not to be. Years passed, Jeff became an priest and then a bishop in the Anglican Church .
The Church Fathers still sounded Roman Catholic but life got very complicated. It took the powerful personage of the inimitable Pope John Paul II to re-ignite his Catholic leanings. He made a promise to himself that he would revisit his Catholic inclinations and act if that meant becoming a Roman Catholic. Acting on the promise was tougher and so a bit late in being fulfilled. He meant to act while JPII was still alive, and not doing so troubled him, but life as Rt. Rev Steenson of the Rio Grande Diocese of the Anglican Church made serious decisions too serious to rush. Prayer, study, meetings and mentors, more prayer and more study, soon demanded that conscience be honored. The promise he made to himself ended with his resignation as bishop. This was not without pain. There were explanations to be given and loose ends, at all ends. In his customary gentle manner, Jeff reached out as best he could to make clear with persuasive reason and Patristic history the underpinnings of his choice.
Happily, eventually the sun did shine on the road ahead for Jeff and his wife, who shared these dilemmas and discoveries. Soon came his entry into the Roman Catholic Church. and now, more promises to be made, the promises of the sacred priesthood. Jeff goes forward carrying his faith-filled past in his heart, grateful for loved ones in his Anglican Church family and his beloved deep Anglican roots. At this, a new beginning on a continuing faith journey, may God bless Jeffrey Steenson and his family.
Be Holy! 