Today is December 19. Tomorrow evening, people of the Jewish faith begin celebration of Chanukah – eight days and nights commemorating a miracle given them by God. Four days later is Christmas Eve, the evening before the celebration of the Christian world of the birth of the Man we believe to be God’s Son, the Messiah Promised the Jewish people.

In recent years and decades, we in America have seen a decided trend towards the secularization of the December holiday season. Songs are sung about snow and winter wonderlands and jingle bells rocking. TV specials tell the stories of reindeer whose noses glow (doesn’t the EPA have an issue with incandescent noses?) and talking snowmen while the Little Drummer Boy takes a back seat. And when was the last time we saw a mainstream cartoon teaching our kids that God made one day’s worth of lamp oil last eight days?

Father Frank Pavone, Director of Priests for Life, has been ordered to remain within his Diocese because the Bishop is unwilling to accept the fact that he has no financial authority over the $10 million annual donations received by Priests for Life. My letter to the Diocese follows:

Deacon Floyd Ashley – Executive Assistant To
The Most Reverend Patrick J. Zurek, STL, DD – Bishop of Amarillo

Dear Deacon Ashley:

Please forgive me writing to the Bishop through you. Your Diocesan website lists no e-mail address for the Bishop.

It is with great sadness and consternation that I read of the steps taken by your Bishop and Diocese as pertains to the ministry of Father Pavone. The reasons given are completely specious and lacking in legitimacy. The simple fact is, Priests for Life is NOT a Diocesan organization. It is a non-profit corporation over which your Bishop has no ethical claim to oversight. Nor – for that matter – does any other Catholic Bishop. The simple fact that Father Pavone is a Priest in your diocese does absolutely nothing to change that basic truth.

Your Bishop has nor right whatsoever to have any say in any way, shape or form in the operations of Priests for Life.

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Wow! Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to the United Nations. Even we cannot add anything to what he tells the world through their representatives in the UN.

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe predicted before a gathering of Republicans this summer that the GOP would win control of both chambers of Congress in 2012 if the elections were held today.

That would mean Republicans would retain control of the House and win a majority in the Senate.

McAuliffe, a longtime Democratic adviser who unsuccessfully ran for governor of Virginia in 2009, made the comments in July as an invited speaker before the group Republicans Associated for Mutual Support (RAMS), The Daily Caller was told on Friday.

READ MORE:
http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/02/former-dnc-chair-gop-would-win-control-of-congress-in-2012-if-elections-held-now/

For the Arizona Department of Corrections, crime has finally started to pay.

New legislation allows the department to impose a $25 fee on adults who wish to visit inmates at any of the 15 prison complexes that house state prisoners. The one-time “background check fee” for visitors, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, has angered prisoner advocacy groups and family members of inmates, who in many cases already shoulder the expense of traveling long distances to the remote areas where many prisons are located.

READ MORE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/us/05prison.html

It’s been a tough summer for swing-district Democrats seeking reelection in 2012 with a president at the top of the ticket whose approval ratings are in the weeds.

As these members begin to focus on their reelection bids after Labor Day, they are increasingly calculating how close is too close to an unpopular President Obama.

Take Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who represents a district that nearly went for Republican George W. Bush in 2004. In a recent local TV interview, DeFazio said of Obama that the word “fight” isn’t “in his vocabulary” — and he then repeated the criticism to constituents at a town hall. Or Rep. Bill Owens, D-N.Y., who won a Republican-friendly district in a special election last year and pointedly declined to endorse the sitting president last week.

READ MORE:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/democrats-distancing-themselves-from-obama-20110901

Sagging consumer confidence probably discouraged already skittish U.S. businesses from stepping up hiring in August, keeping pressure on the Federal Reserve to provide more monetary stimulus to aid the economy.

While the government’s closely watched employment report on Friday will likely underscore the frail state of the economy, analysts say the expected hiring slowdown would not be a recession signal given that layoffs are not rising that much.

READ MORE:
http://news.yahoo.com/slumping-u-confidence-likely-curbed-august-hiring-040159335.html

“It’s not going to be a ‘Morning in America’ campaign, it’s going to be a darkness at midnight campaign about the Republicans. It’s going to be about the fact that the Republicans in Congress pushed Paul Ryan’s bill Medicare, about how they pushed Cut, Cap and Balance. It’s about how Republicans wanted to dismantle Wall Street reform. It’s going to be about how the Republican presidential candidates have embraced the Tea Party.”

READ MORE:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/09/01/fineman_dems_tell_me_campaign_will_be_down_and_dirty_attack_on_gop.html

The federal agency that oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is set to file suits against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold at the height of the housing bubble, and seeking billions of dollars in compensation.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency suits, which are expected to be filed in the coming days in federal court, are aimed at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, among others, according to three individuals briefed on the matter…

Besides the angry investors, 50 state attorneys general are in the final stages of negotiating a settlement to address abuses by the largest mortgage servicers, including Bank of America, JPMorgan and Citigroup. The attorneys general, as well as federal officials, are pressing the banks to pay at least $20 billion in that case, with much of the money earmarked to reduce mortgages of homeowners facing foreclosure.

READ MORE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/business/us-is-set-to-sue-dozen-big-banks-over-mortgages.html?_r=2&partner=MYWAY&ei=5065

World stocks slumped Friday and core government bonds rallied after closely watched data showed U.S. employment growth ground to a halt in August.

U.S. crude oil was down 2.7 percent at $86.53 a barrel as concerns grew that a weaker economy would hit demand.

READ MORE:
http://news.yahoo.com/equities-rally-fizzles-u-data-055029735.html