Abby Zimet on a Tale of Two Men

Abby Zimet at Common Dreams on how the two presidential candidates spent last Tuesday night and Wednesday morning:

Steven Hahn on Political Racism in Age of Obama

Steven Hahn in the New York Times on political racism in the age of Obama:

Also in the News: The New America and Challenges Ahead

And yet more end-of-week snippets of news on themes political and religious, from commentary that caught my eye in recent days:

Vatican Response to Marriage Equality Victories: We're Winning!

And the Vatican's response to the news that Maine, Maryland, and Washington have chosen to permit civil marriage for gay citizens, while Minnesota voted down an amendment that would have inscribed anti-gay prejudice in its constitution--despite millions of dollars spent by the bishops and their allies to prevent these outcomes: we're winning the battle!  As Alessandro Speciale notes at Religion News Service (via National Catholic Reporter), historian Lucetta Scaraffia proclaimed in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano on Friday that 

2012 Elections as Day of Reckoning for Catholic Bishops: Recent Commentary

His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan, President of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Now that the 2012 U.S. elections are over and the dust settling, there's weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth among the religious right, which failed to deliver the vote promised by long-time activists like Ralph Reed.  Reed had foretold that the nation would turn solid red as right-wing evangelicals and right-wing Catholics swept to the polls to elect Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan (on Reed's promises, see Rob Boston at Talk to Action).

Gerald T. Slevin: About Obama's Papal Victory--Are Bishops and the Pope Now Chastened? Is Constantine's Curse Now Lifted? Are Catholic Children Now Protected?

Another brilliant posting by Jerry Slevin, which asks what will happen now with the leadership of the Catholic church, after a geo-political strategy which absolutely required it to defeat the current U.S. president has just failed spectacularly in the 2012 U.S. elections.  Here's Jerry's response to that question:

Dogs Who Committed Voter Fraud on Tuesday

And to offset my political-religious blathering with a bit of levity: Jason Gilbert's shocking rogues' gallery of dogs convicted of voter fraud on Tuesday.   In case you missed this on election day itself . . . .  I find the sassy minx who's #7 in the line-up especially reprehensible, as she attempts to commit double fraud.