Forbes reported on a FEC complaint filed by blogger, Lane Hudson, against presidential candidate-maybe -- and, some are hoping, GOP Savior -- Fred Thompson.

Most candidates try to wait until they're officially running before running afoul of FEC regulations. Apparently, Fred's in a bit of a hurry.

According to the complaint, Fred Thompson raised $3.5 million dollars for his Presidential Exploratory Committee, but only spent $625,000. FEC regulations only allow an Exploratory Committee to raise funds necessary to "explore" the viability of a run. The regulations prohibit an Exploratory Committee from "hoarding the money for use during his actual campaign."

Now I know Fred only plays a prosecutor on T.V. He's not really a prosecutor. But he is a one-time Senator who's exploring a Presidential run. I have to believe he knows better. So if Fred, even before he officially declares a candidacy, is so blatantly attempting to skirt the law, what does that communicate about the integrity of his ethics?

Given more recent voting trends, though, I'm not sure voters much care about ethics. Let's hope that perception is not true. We really need people of integrity in our government in order to undo the incredible damage done to our government's reputation at home and abroad these past six years.

I got a "news" announcement in my email this morning claiming that Rude Giuliani is two percentage points ahead of Hillary in the polls. So I had a look. It seems Rude Giuliani is ahead of Hillary in a couple of the polls; as Hillary is ahead of him in other polls. Either way, they're essentially neck-and-neck.

Now I would take time to point out that not all the polls are from completely objective reporting agencies; e.g. Fox News. Fox News, however, reported Hillary as beating out Rude Giuliani. It might have helped, of course, that Rupert Murdoch donated to Hillary's campaign.

The point, here, is that this is a tight race, so far; and I don't see anyone pulling far ahead of the other any time soon. More work needs to be done on the part of those who know the evils of Rude Giuliani to make sure America knows what kind of ruler he is. President Rude will be the terrorist strike to Bush & Co's terrorist training camp.

Campaign ads have been airing already. You've probably seen a few of them. I thought I would post the two I like the best, so far. Actually, I don't think the John Edwards piece really counts as an ad. But I like it anyway.

John Edwards -- Who We're Fighting For

Hillary Clinton -- Invisibles

Obviously, the rating of these ads is subjective. So don't anyone email me a nasty-gram to the tune of, "That's your opinion." Post your own ad rating if you disagree.

This is a hilarious video; if for no other reason than it's based on true policy initiatives of the former mayor! Even more funny is the rumor that they will try to air this video on television in South Carolina and at least one other bible-belt state in the run-up to the Republican primary.

New York Post, on Saturday, printed a story from Times of London, about a second encyclical Pope Benedict XVI is currently working on. Key issues the article says will be included in the upcoming encyclical point to an effort, on the part of His Holiness, to make his own serious contribution to the body of Catholic social doctrine.

According to the article:

Pope Benedict XVI is working on a doctrinal pronouncement that would condemn tax evasion as “socially unjust,” Vatican sources said yesterday.

In his second encyclical, the pontiff plans to denounce the use of “tax havens” and offshore bank accounts by the wealthy, a tactic that reduces tax revenues’ benefit for society as a whole.

He intends to argue for a world trade and economic system “regulated in such a way as to avoid further injustice and discrimination,” said Vatican watcher Ignazio Ingrao.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, a devout Catholic, began a crackdown on tax evaders this week and urged church leaders to address the issue.

Of course, we know Pope Benedict to be much more complex than to think he is focusing an entire encyclical on the practical matter of "tax havens." Moreover, this is a doctrinal writing; so I expect it will cover much more profound philosophical and doctrinal arguments about society and individuals' obligations within society. Given that we know in advance it will be condemning "tax havens" because it "reduces tax revenues' benefit for society as a whole," the expected philosophical and doctrinal arguments should posit to bring balance back to the politico-economic order of our American society; at the very least, in the popular ideologies of Catholic Americans.

Donna Hanover -- the legitimate wife of Rudy Giuliani -- and Hillary Rodham Clinton have a lot in common. Both are highly intelligent women who could garner respect in their own right, apart from their respective husbands. Both bore the title "First Lady," albeit at different levels of government. And both were publicly humiliated by the disgraceful acts of their wayward husbands.

That is where the similarities end, though. When Mayor Rudy Giuliani stood in front of City Hall and publicly announced that he was having an affair and that he was filing for divorce from his wife so that he could pursue that affair with the nod of civil law, Rudy selfishly took away from Donna any say in whether or not they would sustain their relationship. And Rudy did not even have the common decency to discuss the matter with his wife before publicly broadcasting his affair.

Rudy's daughter knows, as many of us do now, that there's something very refreshing and inspiring about the junior senator from Illinois. I'm especially impressed by how he offers a new rhetoric of, go figure, courage and democratic responsibility, as antidote to the Bush Administration's stoking of fear and quiescence.

In that spirit, I'm hoping that Senator Obama will get behind and encourage his supporters to participate in the mass marches now planned for Washington, D.C. in September, just as the Bush Admin is trying to dominate the Iraq debate with the release of the Petraeus Report. Obama makes a point of asking we the citizens to step up and exercise our democratic responsibility. This September, as Congress returns to work and considers war funding anew, is the perfect time, not just perfect but vital time, for Americans to directly demand of their elected representative that they immediately force an end to the war in Iraq.

Congress has the power but lacks the gumption. That's where we come in. I'm encouraging the Obama campaign to make participation in the September mass marches a matter of civic duty. I hope others will encourage him too.

For info on September actions in D.C., visit http://www.bigseptember.org.

Robert Michelson
BIGSEPTEMBER.ORG

According to Slate, Rudy Giuliani can forget about support from his daughter Caroline. She's backing Obama! 8)

I guess that's one more Republican politician who won't be having his daughter up on the stage with him at the Republican National Convention.

She lists herself as a liberal. I guess fruits can fall quite far from the tree! I don't blame Caroline, though. If I had grown up in Rudy's household, I would probably have jumped from GOP to Communista Internationale. }:)

It's early, I know. And I could be wrong… or I could be right. But I now have a prediction about the match-up for the '08 Presidential general election race. It's not the lineup I wanted to see. But the stars are all coming into alignment, and it's becoming very difficult to envision a different match-up. This general election race will be a battle between the two contending titans from New York: Rudy vs. Hillary. And it's going to be an ugly battle!

Don't get me wrong. I was let down when Rudy Giuliani's colon cancer forced him to drop out of the Senate race in 2000. I was looking forward to Hillary creaming Rudy in that race (sorry... that was my payback wish for Rudy's cold-hearted, self-serving approach to ruling New York City and the arrogance with which he did it). But this is not a race to determine who will be the Senator from New York. This is a race to determine who will be the next President of the United States. The political dynamics are far different now and the consequences of the race's outcome so much more staggering. Rudy did not have the "9/11 card" in his hand in the 2000 Senate Race and could not have effectively played it if he did. New Yorkers already knew his track record in New York City; and Hillary would have easily spanked him over it. But the only thing the rest of America really knows about Rudy is his "9/11 mystique." Rudy is combining that mystique with some really convincing deception about his track record in New York City and the philosophical meaning of his claimed successes.

This is an appeal for you to call or write the Senators from your State immediately and tell them to join Senators Jack Reed, Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer and seventeen other senators in co-sponsoring S.1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act of 2007.

This bill, a long time coming and a significant improvement over the weaknesses in the prior McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, aims at moving away from managing the homeless and towards providing the necessary support to aggressively reduce homelessness.

Under the McKinney-Vento Act, considerable sums of tax payers dollars went to maintaining shelters to warehouse homeless people. In New York City, alone, a vast, multi-million dollar non-profit(?) homeless services industry has grown around doing just that, while the cost of housing in New York City was consistently ignored and allowed to sky-rocket.

This Bill proposes to help fund solutions to housing for the homeless and to hold local governments and homeless service providers accountable to route homeless to housing, rather than warehouse them in self-sustaining shelters.

Catholic League reported on Monday about a vociferous group of blow hards in San Diego calling themselves the San Diego Minutemen. True to the broader Minutemen movement, these folks engage in spiteful and xenophobic protest against undocumented immigrants to the United States. In this case, the group is opposing the work of mercy provided to day laborers, who need support to enjoy a sense of personal dignity, by St. Peter's Catholic Church in Fallbrook, CA. In conducting their protests, the group has turned its hatred towards immigrants to the parish community and its pastor; even to the point of disrupting First Holy Communion.

Apparently, the San Diego Minuteman heard Catholic League's complaint. Catholic League reported yesterday that the San Diego Minuteman accused the League of creating "hatred amongst Catholics nationwide against Americans standing up for what's right and legal."

The members of the SDM must be smoking something strong to accuse the League of fomenting hatred... after their obscene behavior!

I don't share William Donohue's surprise, though, at their behavior. Someone predisposed to hatred -- as those in this group demonstrate towards the day laborers -- is going to act out that hatred in as many ways as possible. I can say, though, that hatred cannot win out in the war of ideas. Justice and mercy must win out; and saner minds must prevail.

Vatican Information Service, July 11, 2007

Made public yesterday afternoon was a speech delivered by Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, during the Global Forum on Migration and Development, held in Brussels, Belgium from July 9 to 11.

Speaking English, the archbishop recalled how "migrants contribute to their host country's well-being, and also because of this their human dignity must be respected and their freedoms guaranteed: the right to a dignified life, to fair treatment at work, to have access to education, health and other social benefits, to grow in competence and develop humanly, to freely manifest their culture and practice their religion.

"But rights and duties go together," he added. "Therefore, at the same time, migrants have the duty to respect the identity and the laws of the country of residence, strive for proper integration (not assimilation) into the host society and learn its language. They are to foster esteem and respect for their host country, even to the point of loving and defending it.

"Unfortunately, among them there are immigrants in an irregular situation, who, however, independently of their legal status, have inalienable human dignity. Therefore their rights must be safeguarded and not ignored or violated. An irregular migration status, in fact, does not mean criminality. The solution is better international cooperation that discourages irregularity, with increased legal channels for migration."

Archbishop Marchetto concluded his talk by renewing the call made by the Pope in his Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees for "governments who have not yet done so, to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and the Members of their Families."

According to Reuters, Cindy Sheehan is challenging Nancy Pelosi to support Articles of Impeachment against the President or she will be running against Nancy Pelosi for her Congressional Seat in 2008. Here's a tidbit...

The 49-year-old, whose soldier son Casey died in combat in Iraq in 2004, told Reuters she would run for Pelosi's house seat in 2008 if the California Democrat fails to endorse impeachment proceedings against Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney by July 23.

That is the date when Sheehan and a group of supporters are due to arrive in Washington as part of a cross-country caravan and walking trip for humanity, set to begin from Bush's hometown of Crawford, Texas, on Tuesday.

"If Nancy Pelosi doesn't support articles of impeachment ... by the time we get there, then I will announce my candidacy against her," she said in a telephone interview from Crawford.

Sheehan said Bush and Cheney should be impeached for lying to the American people about Iraq and anti-terrorism policies that she believes violate U.S. law and international treaties banning torture.

It will be interesting which side of that fight the conservatives will attach to... since conservatives love to hate both equally.

While we're discussing Rudy...

Actually, I've been on the look out for this since Rudy threw his hat in the ring. After the incredible amount of energy spent attacking John Kerry during the last Presidential campaign, I had to wonder whether there would be any consistency among those Catholics in dealing with Republican Catholic candidates -- like Rudy -- with objectionable positions on life. Steve Dillard, and his coalition of blogs, has answered that question with Catholics Against Rudy, a new site being launched to challenge Rudy on his life position.

Personally, I thought we already had Catholics against Rudy. I know we have a unanimous opposition to Rudy among Catholics for Democracy's steering committee; and very many Catholics I speak to, frequently, oppose Rudy. But it doesn't hurt to have a website, consisting of a coalition of blogs, to get the word out that Rudy should not be the Republican candidate. Besides, I get the idea that Steve and most of the people among his coalition of blogs are actually Republican. That would be a little more helpful when speaking to the Republican debate. After all, I'm a Democrat (I think people know that already). I don't think too many Republicans read my blog; though they might read Michael's blog here, he's married to a soccer mom.

If Steve Dillard gets nothing else, he gets kudos for consistency.

It's apparently Washington Post's turn to pick on Rudy Giuliani. In today's paper, they highlighted the impact a potential Michael Bloomberg run for President would have on Giuliani's bid. In the article, Alec MacGillis contrasted the differences in leadership style between the two. More importantly, he points out that a Bloomberg run would shed light on the assumptions Giuliani would have the American electorate make about the quality of his leadership in NYC.

It's a good read; though I believe the article understates many the falsehoods behind Giuliani's claims to leadership. For example, the article demonstrates a continued drop in crime in NYC during the terms of the Bloomberg Administration, without the need for aggressive policing tactics that undermine the civil rights of people on the street. Alec should have gone further. After all, most of the crime-reducing busts in NYC throughout the 90s were carried out by ATF and the FBI respectively. The last I checked, those two agencies were Federal agencies, under the control, at the time, of President Bill Clinton, not Mayor Rudy Giuliani. So Rudy's storm troopers, while certainly contributing to those efforts, unnecessarily violated civil rights and antagonized communities without producing substantial results on their own. So of course Bloomberg was able to demonstrate that you could bring down crime without using Giuliani's tactics.

I know this is old news, but I feel I have to weigh in about Congressman Mark Kirk's (R- IL10th) comments about birth control and immigration. Kirk, a pro-choice republican who has studied in Mexico and is usually considered moderate, joined with democrats to circumvent the so-called gag rule which prohibits family planning funds to international organizations which give any abortion services. It wasn't enough for Kirk to argue that the rule blocks information and supplies such as condoms to those who want and need them, he felt he had to point out the added benefit to the immigration problem. "A slower rate of growth of Mexico's population would improve the economy of Mexico. It would also reduce the environmental pressure on Mexico's ecosystem. But a slower rate of growth would also reduce the long-term illegal immigration pressure on America's borders."(Rueters)

Kirk's comments are off-base for three reasons. First, they simply ignore the fact that that the Mexican birth rate has plunged to a level comparable to ours (2.5 births per mother compared to our 2.1). Second, many have seen these remarks as racist. It's like saying that Mexicans wouldn't be such a problem if they didn't like rats. Third, Kirk's comments are anti-Catholic. The comments imply that fewer Mexicans would have to cross our border if they would stop acting so Catholic and start using condoms like Americans.

Congressman Kirk owes apologies to all Mexicans and all Catholics. The President and Congress owe our hemisphere some real solutions to a difficult problem. Economic and political improvements in Mexico are likely to do more good than handing out condoms.

Sometimes, the Village Voice hits a home run. The cover story in this week's edition analyzes Rudy Giuliani's professed Catholic credentials. Rudy's credentials collapse on several fronts in this article; and his effort at embracing the label, "Catholic," is shown to be the politically cynical maneuver it is.

On abortion, the article goes point-by-point in Giuliani's public career to demonstrate a man embracing the so-called right to abortion much more than politically necessary to get elected into office. In fact, as a matter of policy, Giuliani continued Mayor Ed Koch's practice of having the city fund abortions at city hospitals for women who could not afford it -- no questions asked. According to the article...

One of [Giuliani's] prime claims to the presidency, emphasized on the stump, is his slashing of the city's welfare rolls. But even as he found brutal new ways to cut the poor off the dole, he was using millions in city funds to subsidize abortions for women whose incomes were too high to meet [Federal subsidy] eligibility standards.

There are a lot more juicy bits about Rudy in this article. You should take time to read it. Warning, though, it's a relatively long article; so you might want to brew a pot of tea and be ready for a sit down.

Don’t you hate it when you go to a retreat or a seminar expecting a particular experience or objective; then when you get there you find that what the retreat or seminar is offering is far different than your expectations? Those occasions can be particularly frustrating when you feel as if you have a particular need to get something out of them; and what you’re getting is not what you felt you needed.

Father John D. Dreher from Rhode Island apparently had just such an experience during a retreat where he was introduced to centering prayer. His description of centering prayer as he experienced it at his retreat does not sound at all like centering prayer. He recounts that, at the retreat, the retreat director “conducted us into centering prayer.” Anyone who has ever studied centering prayer (I say studied, rather than practiced, intentionally; you can be introduced to the concept and practice of centering prayer without ever having engaged in it yourself.) knows that it is not something one is “conducted into.” There are exercises in centering prayer retreats to quiet down and focus, but that is hardly the totality of centering prayer; and it is hardly anything that could be described as hypnosis, as Fr. Dreher claims. That aside, Fr. Dreher describes his experience at the retreat as one of discomfort. Fair enough. Differing personalities approach prayer and communication with God through different means. That is why we have so many alternative approaches to prayer in our Church.

I had the opportunity to be re-directed to Petersnet.net -- now called, CatholicCulture.org -- again today. I haven't wasted my time with that site in quite awhile. For anyone who doesn't know about them, Petersnet.net is a website that presumes to rate Catholic websites on a number of issues, but mostly on the websites' fidelity to the magisterium.

CatholicCulture.org caught my attention today, more so than in the past, because they gave negative ratings to some very positive Catholic organizations and websites; essentially slandering them on their fidelity to the magisterium for no other reason than the organizations or sites have takes on issues that differ from those of CatholicCulture.org. Surprisingly, even Catholic.org got a negative rating from them; and I would have thought they would be on the same page. So I took a mosey around CatholicCulture.org to see if I could find a bishop, say, or a diocesan censor who could be weighing in on other people's fidelity to Church teaching

As listed on their site, they have nine staff members; none of whom are even clergy, much less a bishop or diocesan censor. Admittedly, they have a lot of programmers and web developers among the staff. I guess that qualifies them to analyze a web site's technology; and, by extension, a web site's fidelity to Church teaching. And of course their President and Founder, Jeffrey Mirus is especially qualified to evaluate other people's fidelity to Church teaching. He has a PhD, after all, from Princeton University in, of all things, Intellectual History! You couldn't ask for better credentials than that.

This is already a month old, but worthy of presenting anyway. Franciscans International published a speech given by Fr. Jerry Zawada, OFM to the presiding judge after having been arrested in John McCain's office for unlawful assembly. Apparently, like His Majesty King George III, Senator John McCain doesn't have time for dissenters. Here are some excerpts of that speech....

Here are some excerpts of that speech....

Just this past week in the Washington Post it was revealed that 10 percent of an official survey of 1,767 troops “had mistreated civilians in Iraq, such as kicking them or needlessly damaging their possessions.” Human rights activists remarked that “abuse of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Military personnel was not isolated to a ‘few’ bad apples.”

Senator John McCain foolishly expresses that “a date for withdrawal is a date for surrender” and warned that “a timetable would precipitate chaos and genocide.”

Senator McCain, what do you think is happening now? We’ve already lost the war and any credibility regarding our stay in Iraq. Civil war there continues to worsen each day that we’re there.