For the gentle spirit and loving devotion to truth known as Father Richard John Neuhaus:

Some of you may have heard that Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor-in-chief of First Things, was diagnosed at Thanksgiving with a serious form of cancer (he has fought cancer once before). Over the Christmas holiday, he was hospitalized with complications:

Unfortunately, over Christmas, he was taken dangerously ill with what seems to be a systemic infection that has left him very weak. Entering the hospital the day after Christmas, he was sedated to lower an elevated heart rate and treatment was begun for the infection. Over the last few days, he has shown some signs of improvement, and there is a reasonable expectation that he will recover from this present illness—sufficiently, we hope, that he will be able to begin the chemotherapy for the cancer.

Fr. Neuhaus is not able at the moment to receive visitors or speak on the telephone or answer his mail, and he has requested that no flowers, candy, or other get-well presents be sent—just your prayers for his quick recovery.

Our prayers go out for Father Neuhaus, who has done such great work for the Church. May he be given the healing and strength to continue it.

UPDATE: The latest news is significantly more grim; Kathryn Lopez at the Corner reports that Father has deteriorated rapidly:

“His friends and family are keeping vigil and he was administered last rites shortly after midnight. Fr. George Rutler, who gave him the Catholic Sacrament, says that “he is not expected to live long” and suggests “that it is appropriate that prayers be offered for a holy death.”

For those of you unfamiliar with Father Neuhaus, go to First Things and just look around. This is a man who has devoted his life to Our Lord and his message and, in decades of reading his works, I don’t think I’ve ever come across an impatient word, let alone anything which could be construed as other than a loving admonishment when not a benediction. The world will lose a great soul and a great intellect, Our Lord will gain yet another devoted servant.

Well, Democrats, you went and ignored the massive illegal fundraising in the Obama effort, and look where its getting you:

President-elect Barack Obama took big money from a man at the center of a federal probe that has forced one of Obama’s top Cabinet picks to withdraw.

Financial records show the Obama campaign got more than $30,000 from California financier David Rubin, the target of an investigation into donations and possible “pay-to-play” deals involving New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama’s pick for commerce secretary.

Now, we can figure that Rubin was doing “pay for play” with Richardson, but only giving money to Obama because Obama is just a swell hope-n-change kinda guy, or we can presume that Rubin was figuring on cashing in during the Obama Administration. Which do you think it is?

Ah, what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive.

Had you liberals been a little more interested in, you know?, the safety and well being of the United States, you might have paid some mind to the fact that The One was awash in a sea of illegal campaign money…that, in fact, his storied fame as the recipient of the little guy donations was just so much BS, much as the whole Obama narrative would qualify as a fairytale, if it were a bit more believable. Rubin was just chucking some money into the Obama kitty – buying a seat at the table, as were so many other fat cats out there.

This is the key to the future of our nation – that you liberals start holding your side accountable. We conservatives have done it with our side. Our tainted members are out – and if any more arise we’ll give them the boot, too. But yours are in, and staying in…and there’s no reason for people like Rubin to think other than “business as usual” because you liberals have shown, again and again, that the only thing you care about is that the guy with a “D” after his name wins. You need to wake up from your liberal stupor and start realizing that the good of your nation requires you to hammer harder on your own than you do on the other side.

Or, you can just smugly assume that everything is fine…and we’ll see you in 2010. Your choice.

More at Democrat Corruption… The Obama File… The Richardson File…

As usual:

France and Egypt announced an initiative to stop the fighting in Gaza late Tuesday, hours after Israeli mortar shells exploded near a U.N. school sheltering hundreds of people displaced by the onslaught on Hamas militants. At least 30 Palestinians died, staining streets with blood.

The Egyptian and French presidents didn’t release details of their proposal, saying only that it involved an immediate cease-fire to permit humanitarian aid into Gaza and talks to settle the differences between Israel and the Islamic militants of Hamas who rule the small coastal territory.

They said they were awaiting a response from Israel.

Hopefully they’ll get a response by, oh, April or so. What everyone needs to do is step back, ignore Hamas propaganda and understand that Hamas has inserted itself deeply into the civilian community in Gaza for the purpose of having Israeli reprisals result in civilian casualties. Additionally: We don’t know if it was an Israeli shell that caused the deaths – could have been a Hamas rocket or mortar falling short or, indeed, a deliberate massacre by Hamas in order to have a pile of dead people to show to the media (remember, we’re dealing with inhuman savages in Hamas – they glory in killing the innocent in order to advance their sick ideology – you can’t put anything past them). To cause Israeli to stop short of the destruction of Hamas in Gaza because Hamas says that the Israelis bombed a school is the worst sort of asinine thing to do – even if one wishes to suppose the worst of Israel, all stopping Israel does at this point is ensure that more people will die at a later date at the hands of Hamas and then at the hands of the IDF in response.

This is a battle – fight it out to the end.

Anyone want to start a pool on how short Obama’s honeymoon period will be?

The chairman of the Senate Rules Committee has parted with many of her Democratic colleagues and says that the Senate should seat former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said Tuesday that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, however tainted by corruption charges, has the right to appoint someone to President-elect Barack Obama’s former seat. The Rules Committee decides whether Burris is qualified to serve.

Feinstein said that blocking Burris would have ramifications for other governors’ appointments.

It will also have ramifications for black turnout in 2010, possibly costing Democrats a large number of House and Senate seats. As I said before – eventually, Reid will back down. Only a voluntary Burris surrender will alter this iron-clad eventuality.

And, drat it all, when an Islamo-fascist buys you he darn well insists you stay bought:

Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader lashed out at President-elect Barack Obama in a new audio message Tuesday, accusing him of not doing anything to stop Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to an intelligence monitoring center.

The recording purportedly by Ayman al-Zawahiri was al-Qaida’s first comments on the Gaza crisis since Israel launched its offensive against the Islamic militants of Hamas on Dec. 27.

On a more serious note – liberals, they hate us for what we are, not what we do. There is nothing Obama can do which will get those who hate us to stop hating us. Only God can so move hearts – all we can do is fight them and hope to convince the non-haters that we will emerge victorious.

…and he just went on for several minutes saying a whole lot without actually saying anything.

This what we’re going to have to put up with for four years?

Can’t think of anyone better:

Meg Whitman fired the starting gun on the race to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as California governor on Monday when the former chief executive of eBay abruptly resigned from the boards of three companies.

Ms Whitman, who continues to own a 2 per cent stake in eBay, the internet auction site, worked on John McCain’s presidential campaign and has privately expressed interest in running for California governor in 2010 as the Republican candidate.

Her resignation on Monday from the boards of eBay, Procter & Gamble and DreamWorks Animation is the clearest signal yet that she is considering a run for the post.

“She’s potentially a very credible candidate,” said Dan Schnur, a Republican strategist who worked on Mr McCain’s presidential campaign in 2000. “She attracted very positive views as a surrogate for McCain last year and has developed a very extensive political network.”

The election in November next year for one of the most powerful positions in American politics promises to be hotly contested. Term limits will prevent Mr Schwarzenegger from running a third time but a range of other candidates are contemplating campaigns for governor of a state that would be the world’s eighth largest economy if it were a separate country.

In the Democratic corner, Antonio Villaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles and an ally of Barack Obama, and Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, are considering running.

Diane Feinstein, California’s senior senator, would be the overwhelming favourite if she stood as the Democratic candidate. However, she was recently nominated chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, becoming the first woman to lead it in its 32-year history. Having secured that role, she is considered unlikely to mount a campaign for state governor.

Liberal as California is, I can’t imagine Whitman losing to Villaraigosa or Newsom, while Feinstein would be a heavy favorite to win if she were the Democratic nominee. Villaraigosa’s racist, anti-American background does him no harm in Los Angeles and would be a plus for him in San Francisco, but won’t play in the rest of the State. Newsom would probably lose Los Angeles (though doing very well in the ultra-liberal ‘burbs of Brentwood, Malibu, West Hollywood, etc.). Feinstein would entirely shut the GOP out in San Francisco and Los Angeles and make a huge play for the GOP strongholds of the inland empire and Orange County. Meanwhile, Whitman is the sort of person a California GOPer and moderate likes – successful, but not brash; sort of conservative, but not too much.

In a Feinstein/Whitman contest, I’d lay money on Feinstein, but wouldn’t count Whitman out – though even against the weaker candidates, Whitman will carry the millstone of Schwarzenegger ’round her neck just as McCain had to carry Bush’s legacy in to November. On the other hand, California Democrats have been making such a hash of things, and Schwarzenegger has moved so far left, that it might be possible for the GOP in 2010 to tie the Govinator to the Democrats and run against the whole mess in Sacramento (and, Arnie – love ya, buddy…but you should have stuck to your fiscal conservative guns).

This is just the first in what I believe will be many strong GOP candidates to announce for major offices in 2010 – in the normal course of events, the GOP will have a bounce-back from our drubbing in 2006/08. Add in a possible recession stretching in to 2010. Add in possible Obama meltdown as President. Add in a strong GOP message with interesting and new faces and voices. Mix that all together and we could get the perfect GOP wave.

We could write about the slow disintegration of Team Obama, but we prefer to just watch it and laugh up our sleeves about it.

So, have at it on your own, boys and girls.

It does exist, and it is growing:

Bahrain will donate a plot of land to build a new Catholic church in the country. The decision by King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa comes in response to a request Pope Benedict XVI made to the Gulf State when its new ambassador presented its credentials last 18 December.

“Everyone is aware today that because of the rising number of Catholics, it would be desirable for them to have more places of worship,” the Pope said during the audience with Naser Muhamed Youssef Al-Belooshi, first representative of the Arab kingdom to the Vatican.

About 80 per cent of the 800,000 people living in the country are Muslim (60 per cent Sunni and 20 per cent Shia). Catholics represent about 10 per cent, mostly foreign workers from Asian nations.

Bahrain became the first country in the Persian Gulf to build a Catholic church, the Sacred Heart Church, which will celebrate its 70th anniversary this year, since it was inaugurated with a Christmas Midnight Mass in 1939.

Relations between the Holy See and the Gulf kingdom saw significant progress in 2008. Not only did the Vatican receive the first ambassador from Bahrain, but King Hamad met Pope Benedict XVI as well. After the meeting on 9 July the sovereign issued an official communiqué inviting the Holy Father to visit the country.

Over the past year, we’ve had as our associate pastor a foreign priest who has spent time in the Gulf Region and it was he who first brought to my attention the tacit approval given to Christian worship in some of the Gulf States – the Gulf States have imported a great deal of labor and, as it turns out, a lot of it hails from Catholic areas of Asia. Meanwhile, Evangelicals have also been busy and have, indeed, gained converts in the Islamic world. Boiled down, the concept of the Arabian penninsula being entirely Moslem is rapidly collapsing in the face of the demographic facts of Christian immigration. And for these Moslem nations, its either become tolerant or lose their labor force. Most are turning towards toleration – and there is even some discussion about opening a Catholic Church in Saudi Arabia, something which would have been entirely unthinkable even just a few years ago.

A good deal of this progress is resultant upon the quiet diplomacy of the Holy See – patience and tact do go a long ways. But, additionally, there are also the winds of change blowing…including those winds brought forth by the US actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The times, they are a-changing, and wise Moslems know they have to bend a bit with the wind, or break. The Islamo-fascists, of course, refuse to bend – but they are more and more being marginalized as Islam begins to develope hope for a better tomorrow, and becomes ever more familiar with the inhuman and, indeed, un-Islamic savagery of the Islamo-fascists.

There should be no turning back from this, and only the most cowardly surrender on the part of the United States can undo the good work well begun.

Seems that Obama didn’t mention this to Feinstein:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Senate’s incoming Intelligence committee chair, slammed President-elect Barack Obama’s choice of Leon Panetta as director of the CIA Monday.

“I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA Director. I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read,” Feinstein said in a statement. “My position has consistently been that I believe the Agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”

A Feinstein spokesman told CNN’s Dana Bash that the California senator found out about Obama’s pick after her staff showed her a New York Times report.

“The President-elect will now have a chance to make his arguments,” the spokesman said. “Her next move is to listen.”

Feinstein is the new chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. While Panetta’s political career — as a congressman, and as President Clinton’s chief of staff — spans three decades, he has little hands-on intelligence experience.

Curiously enough, when I first heard of the Panetta appointment, I was pleased. Now, don’t get me wrong – Panetta is just another liberal, as far as that goes, but he’s also one of the few adults in the senior ranks of the Democratic party and if we’re to have a liberal in charge of CIA, might as well have one who knows the difference between, as it were, poop and shinola. But DiFi seems displeased – allegedly on grounds of Panetta not being a career intel person. As for me, that is one of the grand advantages of our way of government – we can get people from outside the asylum to check up on the inmates from time to time (that said persons are sometimes crazier than the internal loons is a risk we run – but Panetta isn’t one of the screwballs).

Its not like the Democratic bench is chock full of talent, ya know? Any party which can’t find replacements for Byrd and Ted Kennedy is a party facing a famine of talent. With Richardson out (yes, he’s got his questionable activities, but he’s also one of the few adults in the party) it becomes more important than ever to obtain and retain the few first rate Democrats we have. It would be a sad thing if DiFi obtains Panetta’s scalp over a pettifogging (and rather cowardly) bias towards alleged experts.