Why my sister and I were baptised in two different churches is a long story but she recently decided to return to her Catholic roots. She’s been going to whatever classes they make you take so she will be able to receive communion and confess her sins and all that other stuff Catholics do.

A main focus of every class is abortion. My sister said the instructors (nuns) get on it and stay on it, week in and week out. This bothers her because she is pro-choice, and as a hospice professional, also believes in a person’s right not to have to go through what Terri Schiavo did.

Catholics are one-trick ponies when it comes to abortion. I don’t mean to offend but there is simply no dissention in the church about this. There are no degrees or shades when looking at this issue.

Whatever else you can say about Alito, he will be Catholic No. 5 on the Supreme Court bench, along with Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Chief Justice Roberts. I don’t see how this can be a good thing for women.

In taking the Senate into special session today, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid exhibited what has been missing on the national stage since the Bush era began: real gravitas:

SEN. HARRY REID: America deserves better than this. They also deserve a searching and comprehensive investigation into how the Bush administration brought this country to war. Key questions that need to be answered include:

– How did the Bush administration assemble its case for war against Iraq? We heard what Colonel Wilkerson said.
– Who did the Bush administration officials listen to and who did they ignore?
– How did the senior administration officials manipulate or manufacture intelligence presented to the Congress and the American people?
– What was the role of the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, a group of senior White House officials tasked with marketing the war and taking down its critics? We know what Colonel Wilkerson says.
– How did the administration coordinate its efforts to attack individuals who dared to challenge the administration’s assertions? We know what happened to them — I listed a few.
– Why has this administration failed to provide Congress with the documents that would shed light on their misconduct and the misstatements?

Unfortunately, the Senate committee that should be taking the lead in providing these answers is not. Despite the fact that the chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee publicly committed to examine these questions more than a year and a half ago, he has chosen not to keep that commitment. Despite the fact that he restated the commitment earlier this year on national television, he has still done nothing. …

Mr. President, enough time has gone by. I demand on behalf of the American people that we understand why these investigations aren’t being conducted, and in accordance with Rule 21, I now move that Senate go into closed session.

SEN. DICK DURBIN: Mr. President, I second the motion.

“[Those] people in the White House, especially [Scooter] Libby and the Vice President, working as a team, ‘connected as a root’ to use Libby’s favorite phrase, basically pulled off an Alleyoop play to get us into war in Iraq, by feeding to the New York Times stories about nuclear potential in the hands of Saddam Hussein, to get it into the Sunday paper, and then deploying the Vice President on Meet the Press and other Administration officials like Condi Rice on the other Sunday talk shows in a kinda Alleyoop play. So they put the ball in the air, and then on Sunday mornings, these guys put it in the basket, and then all of a sudden we’re at war over Iraq because a lot of Americans in the middle politically say, ‘I don’t know how we’re getting into that mess or why we’re getting in it, but I guess we have to protect ourselves against a mushroom cloud,’ that is Condi’s phrase.

“So having pulled this masterful move of moving the undecided middle into the war, they then became very sensitive to the charge by Joseph Wilson that they had done the very thing, pushed the nuclear button and then covered up any threat to that nuclear button, and Wilson was that threat, and then, going volcanic against anybody including me, who dared to say ‘Wait a minute, there is a pattern here of how we got into the war, and how they promoted the nuclear case and how they protected the nuclear case against Wilson.’

“They didn’t like me doing that, I know that a number of Administration officials were screaming at my network at all levels about me raising this issue, the very points I’ve just made. They don’t like hearing it, Libby is in trouble now because he doesn’t like hearing it, the Vice President is very much a part of this.”

– Chris Matthews, host of “Hardball” on MSNBC

Frist’s worst hour: Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid just invoked a “closed session” of the Senate to demand to know why Republicans have refused to complete the investigation into the faulty intelligence in the run-up to the war.

Sen. Majority Bill Frist is losing it, calls the whole thing a stunt and accuses Reid of stabbing him in the back.

Give ’em hell, Harry!

Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questioning intelligence that led to the Iraq war and deriding a lack of congressional inquiry.

“I demand on behalf of the America people that we understand why these investigations aren’t being conducted,” Democratic leader Harry Reid said.

Taken by surprise, Republicans derided the move as a political stunt.

“The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership,” said Majority Leader Bill Frist. “They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas,” the Republican leader said.

Reid demanded the Senate go into closed session. The public was ordered out of the chamber, the lights were dimmed, and the doors were closed. No vote is required in such circumstances.

Reid’s move shone a spotlight on the continuing controversy over intelligence that President Bush cited in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Despite prewar claims, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, and some Democrats have accused the administration of manipulating the information that was in their possession.

Tom DeLay’s campaign to get off on charges of conspiracy and money laundering is moving into frontrunner status. Fundraising for DeLay’s endless legal fees is brisk, a sure sign of Our Guy’s popularity with his constituency. AP:

…this was the fund’s best quarter since it was started in June 2000.

Is it me, or does this slag really think he’s running for Innocent (R-Texas)? He’s already attempted to redistrict his trial and screen the judge for political affiliation. Hey Tom, this is a trial, not politics.

The fund spent $278,466 during the three-month period that ended Sept. 30, but most legal costs for the Texas case are yet to come as the former majority leader prepares for a possible trial…In prior years, the trust paid legal expenses for a now-closed civil racketeering lawsuit filed by Democrats and for several ethics investigations that led to criticism of DeLay by the House ethics committee.

The maximum annual donation under House rules is $5,000. Of the $318,000 raised, $141,000 came from corporations, political committees and one union – a $1,000 donation from the United Transportation Union PAC in Cleveland.

Buying a share in Tom Delay must still look like a good investment to these types. We’ll find out if they’re right when the campaign moves into the debates – whoops – trial.