Free Republic

Brothel visits revealed as confirmation gifts in Austria following police investigation. 162 charges made

Clarifying Certain Misunderstandings About ConfirmationBy: Msgr. Charles Pope Yesterday we discussed a bit about baptism and some of the pastoral practices surrounding it. Today in a kind of companion piece I’d like to address some of the distortions and confusion that often surround the Sacrament of Confirmation.Some one once said that Confirmation is the Sacrament in search of a theology. While not true, the statement does capture that there is a lot of incorrect and sometimes silly teaching about this sacrament to young people. And since it is the season for Confirmations, it may be helpful to explore what...

Bishop Samuel J. AquilaBishop Samuel J. Aquila of Fargo in a recent lecture examined the sacrament of confirmation and explained his reasons for believing children should receive it before First Eucharist. “One can speak of the many effects of confirmation and the impact it makes upon one’s life, but it is always important to remember that the divine person of the Holy Spirit is received in confirmation,” he said in July 6 remarks at the Liturgical Institute at Mundelein Seminary. “We need the gifts of the Holy Spirit, every day, every hour, every minute and every second to live...

Four Republican senators seek to cut off money to czars in the Obama administration and force current and future czars to undergo a Senate confirmation. The senators, David Vitter of Louisiana, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Dean Heller of Nevada and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, have introduced the amendment in the Nominations Process Reform Bill. Heller said the amendment, which defines czar as the “head of any task force, council, policy office or similar office established by the president that has not been confirmed by the U.S. Senate,” excluding the National Security Advisor, could return some accountability to the current administration’s...

ISLAMABAD, May 6 : Al Qaeda confirmed Osama Bin Laden was dead on Friday, dispelling some of the fog around the killing of the “holy warrior,” and vowed to mount more attacks on the West. The announcement by the Islamist network, which promised to publish a taped message from Bin Laden soon, appeared likely to silence doubts expressed by some that he had died at all. In a statement online, it said Bin Laden’s blood “is more precious to us and to every Muslim than to be wasted in vain.” Supporters of the Pakistani religious party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam burn a...

I surprised our son one day. He was preparing for his Confirmation, and I felt it was important to have a heart-to-heart talk. I explained that while he will still need instruction in the Faith, that, in fact, it would become his responsibility to open his heart to the catechism and take it seriously. It was no longer just something Mom wanted. Confirmation should be something he wanted. I needed to know: Does he want to say Yes? His first thought came out right away and I knew it had been looming for a few years: “Hey, Dad’s not Catholic...

Featured Term (selected at random):SEALING The sacrament of confirmation as a perfection of baptism, in which the confirmed person receives the indelible character or seal of a soldier of Christ, ready to undergo any hardship in the preservation and profession of his faith. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

With Congress on recess until after the November elections, much of news in the political world has focused on campaigning, margin of error polling, controversial stump statements, off-the-record / now on-the-record statements, and run-of-the-mill election run-up commentary.  Noticeably absent from the chatter of election season with Congress on adjournment is talk of "recess appointments" - those made when the Senate is adjourned for more than three days - that usually rule the news-day during times such as these. In a last-minute deal brokered by Senate Leaders before adjournment, Majority Leader Reid agreed to convene the Senate in pro forma session Tuesdays and Fridays...

Her confirmation assured, Elena Kagan is on the brink of becoming the fourth woman ever to serve as a Supreme Court justice. The Senate is set Thursday to confirm President Barack Obama's nominee, whose addition to the court will mark the first time three female justices have served concurrently. Nearly all Democrats, the Senate's two independents and a handful of Republicans are backing her. The vote is to be one of the Senate's last actions before its members depart for a monthlong vacation. Republicans have harshly criticized Kagan, 50, as a political activist who would be unable to put...

Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson announced late Friday he would vote against the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. In a statement released this evening, Sen. Nelson said, "I have heard concerns from Nebraskans regarding Ms. Kagan, and her lack of a judicial record makes it difficult for me to discount the concerns raised by Nebraskans, or to reach a level of comfort that these concerns are unfounded. Therefore, I will not vote to confirm Ms. Kagan’s nomination." Nelson is the only Democrat to oppose Kagan at this point. Five Republicans, on the other hand, have said they will support...

Democratic Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska said he will vote against confirming Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first in his party to announce opposition. Also today, Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire said he will vote for President Barack Obama’s nominee, the fifth Republican to do so. Nelson said he had heard “concerns” from people in Nebraska about Kagan.

From a purely tactical stand-point, the implications of what Estrada is saying are obvious: If the Democrats block nominees on ideological grounds -- as they did with Estrada -- and the Republicans rely on traditional credentials, eschewing ideology, we will wind up with a court of well-credentialed liberals.

Should Elena Kagan be confirmed as the next Supreme Court justice? Yes. She's proven that she's going to be a fair jurist. No. She's too liberal for the court. I think I need more information.

US President Barack Obama's Republican foes on Tuesday forced a largely symbolic one-week delay in a key Senate panel's vote on his second US Supreme Court pick, Elena Kagan. The US Senate Judiciary Committee will now take up the nomination on July 20, when the panel is set to send it to the full Senate for all-but-certain confirmation as just the fourth woman to reach the highest US court. The justices serve lifetime terms as the final arbiters of the US Constitution, setting precedents for all US courts and adjudicating bitter disputes, often in narrow 5-4 rulings that can take...

In announcing the recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services -- and two other nominees -- today President Obama said in a statement that “It’s unfortunate that at a time when our nation is facing enormous challenges, many in Congress have decided to delay critical nominations for political purposes.” That claim is reasonably true for the other two nominees given recess appointments today. Republicans long objected to the nomination of Philip Coyle, now the associate director for National Security and International Affairs at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy,...

Fourteen years ago, to protect President Clinton's position on partial-birth abortions, Elena Kagan doctored a statement by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Conservatives think this should disqualify her from the Supreme Court. They understate the scandal. It isn't Kagan we should worry about. It's the whole judiciary. Kagan, who was then an associate White House counsel, was doing her job: advancing the president's interests. The real culprit was ACOG, which adopted Kagan's spin without acknowledgment. But the larger problem is the credence subsequently given to ACOG's statement by courts, including the Supreme Court. Judges have put too much...

Is this the kind of person we want serving on the Supreme Court?During her time in the Clinton White House Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan worked to undermine opposition to the barbaric practice of partial birth abortion. She was able to get a contact at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) to insert a few lines in a report that was later used as the basis for legal challenges to a state ban on the practice. National Review has the full story. It's sort of a similar and equally dishonest tactic as that used by Obama officials at...

"I keep wanting to ask you about the famous case of Edward versus Jacob... [but] I know you can't comment on future cases." -- Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), brazenly courting the Twi-hard vote, in her questioning of Elena Kagan at the confirmation hearing Wednesday. See the Klobuchar-Kagan video at 44.

"fair-minded Americans" should be disturbed... and rational people should be very afraid because, as The Times states, Kagan is "disrespectful toward existing law" (read: the Constitution). And that makes Kagan a very dangerous nominee... and, for that reason alone, the American people must work to ensure that the Senate doesn’t rubber-stamp her confirmation.

ABC News' Rick Klein reports: Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn has provided some of the most contentious exchanges of the rather tame Elena Kagan confirmation hearings. He's raised questions about Kagan's generally liberal political beliefs, and contends that Kagan would usher in vast expansions of government power as a member of the Supreme Court. On ABC/Washington Post’s “Top Line” today, Coburn ratcheted up his critique of Kagan, saying she hasn’t been as forthcoming about her views as she should be, and questioning her interpretation of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause as well as her expressed willingness to follow court precedents. “I think...

Smell that? Smells like redemption: Gen. David H. Petraeus was confirmed by the U.S. Senate Wednesday as the new Afghan war commander, replacing ousted Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who was dismissed by President Obama after publication of a magazine article in which McChrystal and his aides were quoted making insubordinate remarks. The Senate vote followed a hearing Tuesday in which members of the Senate Armed Services Committee praised Petraeus's leadership of the war in Iraq and lauded him as the nation's premier warrior-diplomat. Of course, that's just political redemption, which is rather unimportant stuff when compared with the hard work...

It's official. President Barack Obama has nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. Most experts are anticipating a smooth confirmation process leaving just one big question: Will Ms. Kagan's decidedly negative comments about Supreme Court confirmation hearings have any affect on her own?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator John McCain plans to vote against the nomination of Ben Bernanke to serve another term as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, a congressional aide said Monday.

With a whole lot of posturing in the Senate today, long-winded monologues, and propaganda, there was little actual coherent Q&A with the Chairman. Which is why the segment below with Senator DeMint (courtesy of Austrian Filter), is quite valuable, as the South Carolina Republican asks so many of the right questions which his colleagues seem to believe they know the answer to (hint: you don't). Bernanke's responses, of course, leave much to be desired, but at least he is on the record with his arrogant evasiveness. Video at site

If you think Ben Bernanke's confirmation hearing went smoothly today, think again. Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) lays into Bernanke with furor over the subprime crisis. Click to watch

Sonia Sotomayor has to be the wisest Latina in the room at the Senate Supreme Court Judicial Confirmation Hearings because the redaction of her original statement was so patently false that only stupid white men and women would believe her new explanation. Speaking of stupid white men and women see for yourself (see 1:12min video) According to Sotomayor now, what she really meant was only intended to inspire young Latinas before you imbeciles misunderstood her words "I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than...

I could not approach being nearly as eloquent as Georgetown law professor Louis Michael Seidman in an on-line debate over at the Federalist Society.Believe me, this guy is as liberal as they come. He not only defended SS's statements about being empathetic and being a wise Latina but also the irrelevancy of not being able to find a single case in which partial-birth abortion was medically necessary.But at least the guy is calling this nomination procedure like he sees it. On July 14 he wrote:"...I was completely disgusted by Judge Sotomayor's testimony today. If she was not perjuring herself, she is intellectually unqualified to be on the Supreme...

Correspondents Andrew Kilberg and Alexandra Cahill are liveblogging the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor all week. Daniel May may jump in as well today. You can watch the live feed of the hearing here. Live blog below. Andrew Kilberg: Sotomayor: "The SCOTUS is also looking at its precedents... and the Court takes a new direction." She says this is because lawyers force the Court to look at it in a new way. 9:46 Andrew Kilberg: Cornyn finally jumps in to draw Sotomayor back to the question. 9:46 Alexandra Cahill: "Do you believe that judges ever change the law?" 9:50 Alexandra...

I have a question I have been pondering lately, and it is a question I would love to see just one Republican Senator ask. You see the "wise latina" quote has been spun every which way to Sunday, but there is one rhetorical which has not been asked yet. Here it is: Lets imagine it 2006 and we are having the Roberts confirmation hearing and it is uncovered that he had said that "A wise white man, with the richness of his experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion" than a judge from a more mixed background."...

In calling Roe v. Wade “settled law,” Sotomayor affirmed a woman’s right to choose based on the Supreme Court’s decision. Here are a few other Supreme Court decisions that, in the past, could have equally been called “settled law”: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) – Against the backdrop of growing tension between sections of the United States, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of a slave who, having lived with his master in a free state for a period of time, wished to be considered a free man. The Supreme Court heard the case and ruled against the enslaved...

Her appointment could further shrink the property rights of homeowners and small businesses, says law professor Ilya Somin in an editorial. Somin says that Sotomayor takes the Supreme Court's controversial 5-to-4 Kelo decision, which allowed homes to be seized for the benefit of developers, and expands it beyond even what the Supreme Court intended:

July 14, 2009 Fred Thompson: Judicial Hearings a Waste of Time Former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson explains why he believes that the Senate confirmation hearings are largely a waste of time. He believes they are only used to try and get the nominees to commit gaffes.

" ... Franken told Sotomayor that she was "the most experienced Supreme Court nominee in 100 years." He said her story is inspirational and one in which "all Americans should take great pride in ..."

WASHINGTON -- Opponents of Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court suggested they would consider it a victory if more than half of the Senate's 40 Republicans voted against her in this week's confirmation hearing, as the GOP grapples with how aggressively to challenge the nominee. Many Republicans said they viewed 23 "no" votes as a benchmark, because that would be one more than Chief Justice John Roberts received in 2005 and would reflect a significant protest vote. Others said that if the Senate GOP were to split roughly in half, that would signal support to conservatives who oppose...

On her most recent program, leftist MSNBC host Rachel Maddow summed up all conservative and Republican opposition to Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination for Supreme Court Justice as nothing more than a “campaign” that “is substantially about race.” “Thus far,” Maddow sneered, “Republicans have attacked [Sotomayor's] ‘Wise Latina’ comment, they have called her an affirmative action nominee, [and] they have singled out her ruling in an affirmative-action discrimination case.” And for good measure, added Maddow, “[t]hey have chosen to inveigh against [Sotomayor's] work for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.”

No doubt the liberal Journo List of bloggers, reporters, and columnists thought this up. It's just their speed - smearing a private citizen who gets in the way of their agenda. In this case, the victim is firefighter Frank Ricci from New Haven, CT who sued after he was denied promotion when test results were thrown out because no minority fire fighter passed. This case was going to be a prime topic of testimony during the upcoming Sotomayor confirmation hearings and the liberals want to make sure that Ricci can't damage the far left judge's chances.

So the Sotomayor confirmation hearings begin and we now get to see if the Republicans will just roll over and wag their tail, as they have proven to do over the years, or actually grow a pair and take her and her racist beliefs head on. Technically it won't matter, since she has the votes anyway, but during the tenor of the last Democrat President we got Ginsburg and Breyer. Two horrible, ultra-liberal, justices and how many Republicans voted no on them? 3 and 9 respectively. With Sotomayor there is no reason for any Republican to vote yes on someone...

Here is video from the NAACP Convention this weekend where they issued a warning to Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions that he should "tone down his rhetoric" about Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor, whose confirmation hearings begin today. Sessions is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and will have opportunity to question Sotomayor. The NAACP essentially told Sessions "we are watching you," and are seeking to cow him into silence. It won't work. Jeff Sessions is a man of tremendous character and integrity. He won't be intimidated by the radical NAACP, an organization with a proud history, but one that...

The leading Judiciary Committee Republican is charging that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is "out of the mainstream" of legal thinking and has a very activist judicial profile. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama made the assertion just hours before Sotomayor, who would be the third woman to join the court, was to face her initial confirmation hearing.

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor got a boost on Tuesday in what is expected to be a relatively easy road to Senate confirmation when an influential U.S. lawyer's group gave her its top rating. The American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary based its unanimous "well qualified" evaluation on a review of the integrity, competence and judicial temperament of Sotomayor, a federal judge for 17 years who seems headed to become the first Hispanic on the highest U.S. court. "When the Judiciary Committee hearings to consider this nomination begin next week, Americans will hear from Judge Sotomayor herself,...

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2009 – The Senate confirmed Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal yesterday to receive his fourth star and serve as commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. The Senate also confirmed Navy Adm. James Stavridis as commander of U.S. European Command and supreme allied commander for Europe, NATO’s top military post. Air Force Lt. Gen. Douglas M. Fraser was confirmed for promotion to general and to take the post Stavridis will vacate as commander of U.S. Southern Command. All three nominations were confirmed unanimously. McChrystal will succeed Army Gen. David D. McKiernan as...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy announced Tuesday that confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor will convene on July 13, considerably earlier than Republicans wanted. Leahy said the date presents a "fair and adequate" schedule that would give members of the committee several more weeks to prepare. President Barack Obama has urged the Senate to vote on confirming Sotomayor to the high court before it leaves for a congressional recess in August. Republicans have pressed for more time to consider the nomination.,p> But Leahy, D-Vt., said there was "no reason to unduly delay consideration of this well-qualified nominee....

...We don't know what the exact grade was, as far as I've seen, but an award-winning history professor -- K.C. Johnson of Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center -- who read it at my request concluded that "the thesis would probably receive an A/A minus or an A minus." (Johnson and I co-authored a 2007 book on the Duke lacrosse rape fraud.) Here is Johnson's detailed assessment: There are also a few jarring elements that contrast to the pedagogical approach. First, I'm curious as to when Sotomayor ceased being a Puerto Rican nationalist who favors independence -- as she says...

In 2001, Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor, now a nominee of President Barack Obama for the U.S. Supreme Court, delivered a lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, -- the Judge Mario G. Olmos Memorial Lecture. Entitled "A Latina Judge's Voice", it included the now notorious statement I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life. Many have already reacted to this statement, condemning what they perceive as manifest racism, or explaining it as...

Leahy: No worries, Sotomayor told me she’d follow the law posted at 4:25 pm on June 2, 2009 by Allahpundit Send to a Friend | Share on Facebook | printer-friendly Small comfort that she’s unwilling to admit outright she’ll be applying The One’s “empathy” standard in close cases. Even those who profess a belief in forms of racial superiority have a limit to what they’ll say publicly, I guess. As for whether The One was correct in insisting that she misspoke when she made her “wise Latina” comment or whether, as anyone who’s thought about it for five seconds would...

Some amused -- OK, irritated and amused -- Republicans on Capitol Hill are sending around a line from the President's radio address today. "What I hope is that we can avoid the political posturing and ideological brinksmanship that has bogged down this process, and Congress, in the past," Obama said. Political posturing and ideological brinksmanship? "Anyone know to whom this line was referring?" asks a GOP aide. "Maybe someone involved in the debate on the last Supreme Court nomination? Maybe this?" The "this" that followed was a quote from Sen. Barack Obama on the Samuel Alito nomination. "I will be...

Kenny Rogers’ classic Country hit, “The Gambler,” advises that “You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away and know when to run.” Good advice in both poker and politics. Anyone inclined to gamble a political future on opposing Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court nomination should take heed: this round is one of those times when you’ve got to know when to fold ‘em. Barring the discovery of a major skeleton in her closet, Sotomayor has a lock on the Supreme Court seat.

1. Many legal experts say that the nominations process is a wholly political question and not a question that would ever come before the Supreme Court. Would you agree that a U.S. senator can vote for or against a nominee to the Supreme Court for any reason? 2. Nominees frequently come before the Senate Judiciary Committee and treat the committee questioning of a nominee as a test of how much the nominee knows about the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent. Would you agree that the nomination process should be more than the functional equivalent of a pass fail examination on...

While popular speculation held that President Obama's first Supreme Court vacancies would arise in the seats of two of the most liberal Associate Justices (the nearly post-octogenarian John Paul Stevens and the frail Ruth Bader Ginsburg), it turns out that Associate Justice David Souter (pictured left), a slightly younger liberal member of the Court, is the one providing President Obama with his first nomination opportunity. With Senator Arlen Specter's recent defection to the Democratic Party (Did the wiley Specter possess a bit of insider info about this impending vacancy? He will certainly bask in the limelight of leading from the...

The Catechism of St. Thomas Aquinas CONFIRMATION The second Sacrament is Confirmation. The matter of this Sacrament is chrism made from oil, which signifies the bright lustre of conscience, and from balsam, which signifies the odor of a good name; both of which are blessed by the bishop. The form of this Sacrament is: "I sign thee with the sign of the cross, and I confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."[18] The minister of this Sacrament is solely the bishop.[19] It is...