Yesterday, the No on 1 campaign released this great new ad, featuring a Catholic mom who wants nothing more than for her gay son to have the same rights as everybody else.

It seems to have touched a nerve with the other side. A Catholic group is demanding that the ad be taken down, because:

“Everybody knows the Catholic Church is opposed to counterfeit marriages. The Church believes marriage is a natural institution, vindicated by common reason that serves both men and women, and the needs of children. The Church defends marriage as a civic institution believing marriage and family to be the fundamental unit of society,” explained Burch.

“For homosexual groups to suggest that the Catholic Church believes otherwise is disingenuous, dishonest, and an insult to the intelligence of Catholic voters in Maine,” said Burch.

We are on offense here in Maine, pushing back at the Catholic Church which has raised over $214k for Stand for Marriage Maine last quarter.

But the campaign needs your help to win this election, to be the first to protect marriage rights at the ballot box, to keep the momentum up that we have gained since Prop 8. And they need the resources to do it.

We are launching a "moneybomb" for Maine, with a big push to get as much cash in the door for No on 1 by Oct 15th, the last major financial filing deadline and the first day of early voting.

After that date money in the door just isn't as useful for the campaign. They need to figure out their budget for the last few weeks of the campaign.

Give now if you can on Blue America's ActBlue page. Maine is a cheap state. Here's a breakdown of what your donation will "buy".

$1,000 we can blanket the state with radio ads for 1 day

$800 pays for one field organizer for a week

$720 would fund 20 canvasses in key counties around the state on a Saturday

$550 pays for one channel of cable for a day

$420 pays for one much needed field organizer for a week

$330 is 2 radio commercials to beat back their lies

$210 pays for 70 $3/day cell phones to talk to targeted voters

$186 about the cost of 1 radio commercial

$137 will buy supplies for 4 door-to-door canvasses

$108 buys about 100 yard signs for visibility

$72 will pay for signage for visibility for one weekend on a targeted campus

$66 pays for about 20 $3/day cell phones to talk to targeted voters

$54 buys 50 yard signs for visibility

$36 will fund supplies for one door-to-door canvass

$24 buys 20 yard signs for visibility

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From Ted Kennedy's service at Arlington National Cemetary tonight, Cardinal McCarrick reads a letter that President Obama hand delivered to the Pope for him, and reads the Vatican's response as well. As Wolf Blitzer noted just after the service ended, it was known that the letter was sent to the Pope, but not what was in it, or that there was a response from the Pope before tonight.

Digby had this to say about it. All The Way To The End

Ted Kennedy "politicized" his own funeral, in his own words, written in a letter to the Pope and read by Cardinal McCarrick at Arlington National Cemetery:

I want you to know, your Holiness, that in my nearly 50 years of elective office I have done my best to champion the rights of the poor and open doors of economic opportunity. I've worked to welcome the immigrant, to fight discrimination and expand access to health care and education. I've opposed the death penalty and fought to end war. Those are the issues that have motivated me and have been the focus of my work as a United States Senator.

I also want you to know that even though I am ill, I am committed to do everything I can to get access to health care for everyone in my country. This has been the political cause of my life. I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field and will continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop an overall national policy that guarantees health care for everyone.

Go ahead. Wellstone that, wingnuts.

Sadly, I'm sure they will regardless of how ridiculous it makes them look. It seems nothing embarrasses them, so I don't know why this would be any different. They'll be calling Pope Benedict XVI a liberal commie before it's over.

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Earlier today, Rush Limbaugh said that he wasn't backtracking on calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist like Gingrich did, but now he's saying that he might possibly support her because he likes Catholics and she may like "life" or some nonsense. Now all the rats are running for cover from their racist rants against Sonia.
I imagine some GOP internal polls came out saying that Gingrich and Buchanan and Limbaugh were going too far in their attacks on Judge Sonia Sotomayor as a "racist" and they are all pulling back.

Limbaugh:You know she would be the sixth Catholic on the Supreme Court and there are a lot of people worried about that, that does not bother me at all. I know a lot of Catholics and I love Catholics, but Sotomayor is a Catholic and she doesn't have a clear record on abortion and I'm, youuuu....overturning Roe vs Wade, that would be huge. I don't know if it will ever happen. I can see a possibility of supporting this nomination if I could be convinced if she does have a sensibility towards life.

Hahahaha, what a joke.

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How does Ann Coulter, appearing on Gerald Rivera's Fox show last night, react to President Obama's speech at Notre Dame? Why, by attacking the faith of the students who attended and applauded, and especially that of Notre Dame administrators, of course:

Coulter: I don't think he was speaking to people who have any objections to abortion. I think more interesting than watching Obama give a speech for graduation, um, they should have had the administrators of Notre Dame onstage taking a polygraph test on whether they believe in God.

Um, apparently being a professor at a chic Catholic university is a good gig, and you're respected, and you get paid well. But no, I don't believe these people are serious, genuine, practicing Catholics.

Quoth the woman who has yet to have ever declared herself a practicing member of any faith, let alone Catholicism. She eagerly declares herself a Christian, while blithely uttering such Christian remarks as: "Those few abortionists were shot, or, depending on your point of view, had a procedure with a rifle performed on them. I’m not justifying it, but I do understand how it happened."

But Kirsten Powers -- herself a pro-life Democrat -- points out how crass Coulter's hypocrisy is about all this by noting that Catholics are every bit as opposed to the death penalty as they are to abortion. Coulter -- herself a fan of the death penalty -- erupts, interrupts, and tries to claim (sans evidence, as usual) that Catholics are much much much more anti-abortion than they are anti-death-penalty.

This is why Coulter doesn't go on shows very often where her co-conversants aren't friendly. She doesn't do well when challenged directly.