Free Republic

CLIFF KINCAID: The New York Times reports that, at Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s recommendation, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted “unanimously” to [continue investigating the cause] of Dorothy Day, even though “[s]he had an abortion as a young woman and ... flirted with joining the Communist Party.” President Obama called Dorothy Day a “great reformer in American history." Cardinal Dolan is described as conservative and has strongly criticized Obama’s attacks on religious liberty and federal intrusions into church affairs. He nevertheless invited Obama to the Al Smith Dinner.... Obama received 54% of the Catholic vote in 2008 and 50%...

At least it was cordial. But the 150 or so "movement conservatives" gathered at Paul Pressler's this weekend (1/13-14) were a fractured lot. Maybe 10% were for Perry. Almost all of them were against Romney. Well, sort of. Caveat below. There was an official Romney guy there who explained that "You'll either work with us now or work with us later, but you'll all have to get on Mitt's train, because we have the money and the organization, so there's no stopping us." This did not go over well. It just made everyone more determined than ever to do whatever...

There are some pretty scary statistics contained in AlterNet’s 15 Signs American Society Is Coming Apart at the Seams. A sample: 1) The inequality of wealth in the United States is soaring to an unprecedented level. The U.S. already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis. Since the crisis, which has hit the middle class and poor much harder than the top 1 percent, the gap between the top 1 percent and the remaining 99 percent of the U.S. population has grown to a record high.[...]10) Although the government’s official figure...