Notre Dame news nibbles

A busy day here at AmP, so I'm switching on the stream-of-consciousness to fit all this in quickly...

Just checked - another 20,000 signatures on the petition ... past 120,000 now. My earlier outside estimate that the petition could pass 250k is now far too conservative. This is because the story has gone mainstream as I noted late yesterday. Just look at this updating Google News search. In the coming days, watch for a move to organize a live (peaceful) protest/march at the actual commencement in May.

I have been informed that a response from ND students will be forthcoming today - so stay tuned.

Don't forget to vote in today's new AmP Poll: "What do you think of Notre Dame's invitation to Obama?"

Coming-into-the-Church-on-Easter Newt Gingrich had this to say when the ND news broke:

"It is sad to see notre dame invite president obama to give the commencement address Since his policies are so anti catholic values" [on twitter, of course.]

Last night in Obama's white house press conference ... we witnessed total incoherence and tiresome double-speak when the question of embryonic stem cells came up. Dan Gilgoff has commentary (scroll down for the transcript of the exchange). Kmiec should be embarrassed about the position he took last week in an exchange with Robby George. Gilgoff moderated that debate and can't avoid agreeding with the side of reality (George, against Kmiec).

Thomas F. Roeser in the Chicago Daily Observer is imploring Bishop D'Arcy to consider employing the "nuclear option" of removing Notre Dame's Catholic identification (after D'Arcy announced he was boycotting the commencement exercises). I don't think it will happen in this case, but down the road ... next time .... somewhere else .... it's worth reading up on the possibility.

Over at The Catholic Thing, Fr. James Schall, S.J. talks about Charles Krauthammer on President Obama's embryonic stem cell decision. Only he's not talking about just him. Read it and see why. Good stuff.

I think William McGurn was just brilliant in his analysis of the situation in yesterday's Wall Street Journal.

If you're trying to find signs of hope, here's a little glimmer: "Several representatives of leading national pro-life groups held a meeting with President Barack Obama's top White House faith office staffer on Tuesday." However: "Pro-life groups aren't expecting much from Obama given his pro-abortion record." Still, we can at least try to hold him accountable to his promise of reducing abortions. Sadly, I think that's where we are at for now.

One last thought: it'd be very nice to top 700 twitter followers today. Yes it would. On busy days I'll tend to update twitter more often rather than spending the extra time for a full-out blog post. Like this one.