• David Weigel: Tea Party Convention Marks Coming Out for a Movement.
• Tea Party activists loved Sarah Palin, while Joseph Farah went all Birther at the event.  What a surprise.
• Sarah Palin continues to prove that she is an absolute joke.
• As does Michael Steele.
• This is the sort of thing that goes on at the International House of Prayer.
• Republican legislators in Iowa want to undo marriage equality while Democratic legislators in Virginia want to undo the the state's constitutional amendment banning marriage equality.
• Finally, who ever would have guessed that the Illinois Family Institute would find its way back onto the SPLC's list of anti-gay hate groups?

• This was the Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad that caused all the fuss? Consider me unimpressed.
• Hooray! Sarah Palin says it would be "absurd" for her to rule out running for president in 2012.
• Speaking of Palin, she also spoke at a campaign event for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, where she shared the stage with David Barton of Wallbuilders.
• The AFA's Bryan Fischer is really intent on making his point that life would be so much better if homosexuality were criminalized.
• Carrie Prejean has gotten engaged.
• Mike Huckabee will be headlining a fundraiser for the Minnesota Family Council in late April.
• Finally, despite receiving undeservedly flattering coverage from the Washington Post for his anti-marriage efforts, Bishop Harry Jackson blasts the paper for its coverage of the marriage equality issue.

At the National Tea Party Convention, organizers announced that they would be starting a new PAC called Ensuring Liberty Corporation which would aim to "endorse, support and elect" conservative candidates for office ... provided they promised to be loyal Republicans: 

The announcement came with an official platform that could help define what the multi-faceted tea party movement stands for and expects from the candidates it supports. The group's leaders plan to support candidates who stand for a set of "First Principles."

Those principles are: fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, less government, states' rights and national security.

Prospective political candidates will be expected to support the Republican National Committee platform. If a particular candidate meets the proposed criteria he or she would be eligible for fundraising and grassroots support.

Once elected to office, members would be expected to join a congressional caucus of "like-minded representatives" who attend regular meetings and are held accountable for the votes they cast. Those who stray from the tea party path would risk losing the new organization's support and a possible re-election challenge.

That is one way of trying to take over the Republican Party. Of coruse, an even more efficient way would be to do what they are doing in South Carolina and simply merge the two:

The South Carolina Republican Party announced Monday that it’s uniting with tea party groups in the state to share resources, coordinate messaging and push the GOP in a more conservative direction.

The points of contact between the state party establishment and the grass-roots will be the Greenville County Republican Party — one of the most conservative wings of the state party — and the Upstate Coalition of Conservative Organizations, an umbrella structure of state tea party groups.

The agreement, as announced by South Carolina Republicans, is designed to serve four goals: increase precinct involvement, improve communication between the state party and grass-roots groups, create liaisons between the state party and the various tea party organizations and to work “closely to make the Republican Party more conservative.”

State Republican Party Chairman Karen Floyd told POLITICO that the arrangement came at the suggestion of a local activist who works with both the state party and local tea party groups.

“This is not something the state party by edict pushed down,” Floyd said. “This is something the grass-roots pushed up with an understanding that we are stronger together than apart.”

Floyd said that working with the groups accomplishes her goals of “growing the Republican Party, electing conservative Republicans and growing the strength of the party,” though she was careful in describing what the party intends to do in working with the tea parties to elect more conservative members.

Frankly, it is hard to see this as anything but a looming sign of the end of Tea Party activism as a movement as it gets entirely co-opted by the existing Republican power structure.  

I am utterly fascinated by the fact that seemingly nobody on the Right is willing or capable of decrying the fact that Lisa Miller has kidnapped her daughter and disappeared rather than abide by court ordered custody arrangements with her ex-partner.

So far, the National Organization for Marriage's Maggie Gallagher has been the only one even willing to say that she "cannot endorse what Lisa Miller has done," though even she followed that up by saying "but I understand it."

Others who have weighed in, like Peter Sprigg and Gordon Klingenschmitt, fully support Miller's actions, while Miller's lawyers at the Liberty Counsel have quietly been trying to wash its hands of the case and steadfastly refusing to even comment.

And now, via OneNewsNow, we find yet another activist, Peter Heck, condoning and justifying Miller's action:

It's interesting how "civil unions" are always portrayed as the happy middle ground in the battle over same-sex marriage. Even some pro-family advocates are willing to accept the legitimacy of civil unions as some sort of victory for them since they stop short of conferring the semantic title of "marriage" upon homosexual partners. And yet, this tragic story involving the innocent Isabella demonstrates that "civil unions" are not effective compromises, but rather weapons used by social activists to assist in their ongoing struggle to undo cultural norms and moral standards through legal confusion.

Consider also that Janet's attorneys are attempting to use the 1980 Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act to benefit their client. The PKPA was enacted to prevent a disgruntled parent who lost a custody hearing from taking their child into another state to try to get a different custody ruling. In other words, this law was intended to prevent a rightful biological parent from having their child taken from them. Yet, thanks to what the homosexual lobby has accomplished, this law is now being twisted into a tool to do exactly what it was intended to prevent.

When Hollywood portrays or the mainstream media reports on those practicing homosexuality, they paint a picture of normalcy that does not exist, and they engage in grotesque mischaracterizations that equate sexual behavior (that is always a choice) with genetic identity (that is never a choice). The consequence is a fundamental reshaping of society -- families reconstituted, laws rewritten, mores restructured.

Despite the propaganda campaign to portray homosexuals as passive victims and those with traditional moral values as aggressive oppressors, the "gay rights" movement is seeking this very type of cultural revolution. But don't take my word for it. Paula Ettelbrick, the former legal director for the homosexual Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, said: "Being queer is more than setting up house, sleeping with a person of the same gender, and seeking state approval for doing so....Being queer means pushing the parameters of sex, sexuality, and family, and in the process transforming the very fabric of society."

Indeed it does. And little girls like Isabella have their lives ruined in the process.

I have to take issue with Andrew Sullivan's assertion that the Tea Party movement is "Christianist" at its core.

By "Christianist," Sullivan means essentially the Religious Right and the idea that the Religious Right's anti-gay, anti-choice political agenda has played a central in Tea Party activism is ludicrous. 

When the movement began last year, the "TEA" in Tea Party stood for "Taxed Enough Already" and was aimed at the bailouts and stimulus measures put in place in an attempt to stabilize our economy.

At first, the Religious Right more or less watched from the sidelines as the fiscal conservative groups like Freedomworks, National Taxpayers Union, Americans For Tax Reform, and The Club for Growth started to institutionalize the Tea Party effort. 

Eventually, groups like the American Family Association climbed on board, as did leaders like Ralph Reed, but that was done in order to try and capitalize on the Tea Party success and tie their "Christianist" agenda to the already established Tea Party activism.  

The presence of Religious Right fringe figures like Roy Moore and Rick Scarborough at the National Tea Party Convention is more a sign of the power of the Tea Party narrative than it is of Religious Right control or influence over the movement or its agenda.

Perhaps nothing better illustrates the fundamental merging of overall right-wing movement under the banner of the Tea Party than the fact that the Tea Party front-runners at Freedomworks recently partnered with Religious Right powerhouses like the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America despite that fact that, just a few years back, Freedomworks' founder Dick Armey was calling the socially conservative wing of the movement a bunch of stupid, lazy demagogues.

At the moment, Tea Party activism is the face of the conservative movement and so it is no surprise that Religious Right groups are climbing aboard the bandwagon in an effort to try and utilize it to press their own agenda.  

The Tea Party movement does not have a Religious Right agenda at its core, but rather as a component ... and that is only because Religious Right groups have set out aligning themselves with the movement in order to co-opt and exploit it.

Last week, the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs announced that it had set aside an outdoor worship area for Pagans, Wiccans, Druids and other believers.

Today, via AU, we see that Robert Jeffress (best known for his militantly anti-Mormon opposition to Mitt Romney) has penned a response for the Washington Post's "On Faith" in which he warns that such accommodation of the "worship of pagan deities is an open invitation for God to send His harshest judgments against our nation":

What we label today as "pluralism," God called "idolatry." The first commandment from God was, "You shall have no other gods before Me." There is no evidence that God has changed His mind on the subject. To openly violate this most basic law is to invite God's judgment upon our nation. God has judged idolatry in the past through military invasions, earthquakes, a flood, and a mixture of fire and brimstone. The book of Revelation prophesies that God will employ the same agents of His wrath during the final seven years of earth's history. There is no reason to think God is on hiatus during this present age.

"But doesn't our Constitution demand that all religions be treated equally?' you might ask.

Since God is not an American, there is no reason to think He has a particular affinity for our ideas about the separation of church and state. Nevertheless, although the First Amendment guarantees the right of every American to worship however they choose, it does not require government to provide a stone monument to facilitate that worship - even if the same government provides a chapel for Christians.

...

I don't know the cause of the Haitian earthquake, the Indonesian tsunami or 9/11. But I can say without hesitation that any nation that officially embraces idolatry is openly inviting God's wrath.

This past week government officials testified they are "certain" of another terrorist attempt on our soil within the next three to six months. One would think this would be a good time to seek God's protection rather than kindle His anger.

Last week we noted that the Thomas More Law Center had filed suit against Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 on behalf of right-wing activists and pastors in Michigan. One of those pastors was Levon Yuille, who tells OneNewsNow that he opposes hate crimes protections for gays because he finds it "demeaning [to] the black community": 

A black pastor who is challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted federal "Hate Crimes Act" says he's offended by comparisons to the civil rights struggles of African-Americans with those who engage in homosexual behavior ... Yuille tells OneNewsNow that he also finds it insulting to equate the supposed "civil rights" struggle of homosexuals with the real civil rights struggle of African-Americans.

"I feel like individuals [are] demeaning the black community in trying to equate us to what someone chooses to do sexually," Yiulle remarks. "The totality of black people is far greater than what one would prefer to do in expressing themselves in the manner I've already stated."

The Michigan pastor says the spotlight should be on how the HIV virus is devastating his community -- women in particular. "I'm most certainly disheartened to see that there's so little focus being placed on this issue relative to so many black men participating in heterosexual and homosexual behavior -- and ultimately and regrettably a lot of black women contract AIDS through this type of behavior," he shares.

Pastor Yuille says he is taking a stand for truth, and believes he is doing what is right from a biblical, social, and health perspective.

Tom Tancredo kicked off the National Tea Party Convention last week by complaining that President Obama was elected only because America no longer requires literacy tests for voters; a position which he defended as an attempt to stand up to the "cult of multiculturalism."  In that effort, he received support from Vision America's Rick Scarborough, who declared that America would cease to exist if it becomes more than 30 percent Hispanic:

In an interview, Mr Tancredo defended his remarks, insisting they had "nothing to do with colour or ethnicity or any of that crap" but "has everything to do with people coming to America and wanting to be American". That, he explained, means stopping talking your native language and doing everything to blend in. "Under the cult of multiculturalism, we don't make them do that and that will have great implications," he said. Looking at a British reporter, he galloped on: "When the Archbishop of Canterbury says there is nothing wrong with Sharia law being practised as well as British law, you say wha-a-at?"

Among the first keynote speakers yesterday, meanwhile, was Rick Scarborough, the pastor and firebrand founder of Vision America, which had its own stall here yesterday laden with books he has written, among them Liberalism Kills Kids. He also wanted to discuss the Tancredo speech which he apparently liked very much. "I didn't hear racism," he told this reporter, before spelling out his worries. "America is a country of legal immigrants but the Left has turned it into a country of invaders," he offered bluntly. "Look at Europe and the rampant invasion of England. They are practising Sharia law and I think this crew is going to fight that." Mr Scarborough also outlines how the US is a "special country" – more than any other in the world – and that is how God intended it. He adds: "If we are to become 30 per cent Hispanic we will no longer be America." (And therefore no longer special.) "That would be a bad thing."

[The Times quotes Scarborough as saying "If this country becomes 30 per cent Hispanic we will no longer be America," which is where I got the title.]

Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal produced yet another story about how Focus on the Family is becoming kinder and gentler under the leadership of new President Jim Daly, with Daly asserting that, unlike Dr. Dobson, he will not be endorsing political candidates, saying "I don't think that's helpful. Who cares, really, what I think?":

Mr. Daly, 48, said he wasn't backing away from Mr. Dobson's conservative social agenda, as the Super Bowl ad shows. The ministry collected more than $2.5 million just days after Mr. Daly proposed the idea.

But, Mr. Daly said, he has no use for the sharp personal attacks on politicians employed by Mr. Dobson.

"I don't see evil behind everything," Mr. Daly said. Mr. Dobson declined to be interviewed for this article.

Mr. Daly said he preferred to build bridges with others. While Mr. Dobson blasted President Barack Obama for "fruitcake" ideas, Mr. Daly praised the president for his devotion to family and last summer attended a White House event celebrating fatherhood.

On abortion, Mr. Daly said he wouldn't spend much energy fighting for a ban—though that remained his ultimate goal—but would emphasize adoption.

The ministry's political action budget is about $10 million, the same as in years past. Mr. Daly said he hasn't yet decided what role the organization will play in this year's elections.

Mr. Daly said he would reinvigorate the organization's central mission—"helping marriages, helping parents"—which he said had been overshadowed by Mr. Dobson's activism.

Politically, that may lead the group into surprising new territory. The ministry has never dealt much with immigration, for example. But Mr. Daly said he planned to take a fresh look at the issue because "families are being torn apart" through deportations.

In a related blog post, the WSJ notes that one of Focus's newest efforts is an on-line video series called "Jelly Telly" which is aimed at teaching Biblical Principles to children:

• PFAW Statement: Tancredo Sets the Tone For Tea Party: Extreme, Racist, Nativist.
• Think Progress: Ollie North On What Happens If Gays Are Allowed To Serve Openly In Military: ‘NAMBLA Members’ Are Next.
• Box Turtle Bulletin: AZ Senator Jack Harper discusses the details of a gay soldier’s life (without permission) in order to advance his anti-gay agenda.
• Minnesota Independent: Bachmann: Obama ‘wants to annihilate us!’
• Finally, the Orlando Sentinel's Scott Maxwell blasts the Florida Family Policy Council for its "dirty tactics," and the FFPC responds by attacking Maxwell for not giving them enough time to apologize.

• National Tea Party Convention organizers announced plans to form a group called "Ensuring Liberty Corporation" that will seek to raise $10 million to help conservative candidates running for office.
• An interesting race in Texas to keep an eye on between a Log Cabin Republican and the husband of former Eagle Forum president/Texas GOP Chair Cathie Adams.
• White House Office Faith Director Joshua DuBois tells David Brody that questioning President's Obama's Christian faith goes "beyond the boundaries of what's acceptable."
• Randall Terry is unimpressed with Focus on the Family's Super Bowl ad because it is not explicit enough about abortion.
• For some reason, this quote from Joseph Farah just cracked me up: "My dream is that IF Barack Obama even seeks re-election as president in 2012, he won't be able to go to any city, any town, any hamlet in America without seeing signs that ask, 'Where's the birth certificate?'"
• Finally, I will never understand the mindset of people like Peter LaBarbera and what compels them in all seriousness to write things like this: "Men were never intended to have sex with men, nor were they intended to try to turn their bodies, as God made them — into female bodies, as God made them. Wake up, America: your judicially-approved tax code is now creating incentives for one of the most tragic manifestations of rebellious man’s claim to know better than God."

I don't have any special plans lined-up for this weekend's Super Bowl, but I can assure you that one thing I will not be doing is showing my support for Focus on the Family and opposition to reproductive choice by sporting my very own Tim Tebow mask:

To demonstrate support for the message of an issue ad to be aired during Sunday's CBS broadcast of the Super Bowl, a Wisconsin pro-life group is urging spectators at the game and viewers at home to wear a Tim Tebow mask to show their appreciation for life and strong family values.

...

"Tim Tebow's life matters," exclaimed Barbara Lyons, Executive Director of Wisconsin Right to Life. "And we can all have a little fun and show the public that Tim and his Mom and Dad are an inspiration to all of us."

"To show your support for Tim, his mother and father, and Focus on the Family for providing an inspirational message to the world's largest television audience, Wisconsin Right to Life invites everyone who cares about life and strong family values to download a Tim Tebow mask and wear it during the Super Bowl game on Sunday," said Lyons. The Tim Tebow mask is available at www.wisconsinrighttolife.org.

"The Super Bowl is America's biggest party," said Lyons. "So have fun, don your Tim Tebow mask when the Focus on the Family television ad airs. Wear it proudly. And make a statement for life. And maybe it's not just a coincidence the Saints are playing Sunday."

I didn't realize that in joining the military, women agreed to give up their right to medical treatments to which the Religious Right objected ... but apparently they do:

Late Thursday, the Obama administration issued a new order for the U.S. military requiring all military hospitals and health centers to stock the morning after pill. The Department of Defense will soon begin having military medical facilities stock the Plan B drug, which can sometimes cause an abortion.

...

Obama's decision is not going over well with Wendy Wright, the president of Concerned Women for America.

"The military needs to focus on its prime mission, yet leftists view it as a means to promote their agenda," she told LifeNews.com. "The morning-after pill is highly ineffective in preventing pregnancies and completely useless in preventing sexually-transmitted diseases. But it's a political tool for abortion advocates."

Wright worries the decision is the first step to pushing abortions at military hospitals.

"By making this drug required, the next step will making drugs like RU-486, the abortion pill, mandatory," she said. "And doctors or pharmacists who have objections will be purged from the ranks."

"The military needs to focus on discipline and proper behavior - because lives depend on it - not promoting risky behavior," Wright continued.

The Family Research Council is likewise demanding that women in the military be denied access to this option:

"Family Research Council opposes requiring military bases worldwide to carry Levonorgestrel, or 'Plan B,' because the drug can prevent a fertilized embryo from implanting in the uterus and thereby destroy a human life. We can all agree that there is a huge difference between preventing and destroying human life. And women in uniform deserve to know the truth about their medications.

"In the last year we have witnessed the Obama Administration move from the status quo of abortion as legal and available in health care plans to aggressively promoting U.S. government funded abortions. In the same way, the fact that Plan B is optional for military facilities is not sufficient for the Obama Administration, so now military facilities will be compelled to carry and disseminate Plan B.

"Moreover, a requirement to carry this drug would be a violation of the conscience rights of military personnel who have moral objections to providing it, not to mention the majority of American taxpayers supporting military operations. Taxpayers should not be required to pay for military medical personnel to carry Plan B anywhere in the world ... Forcing military professionals to carry over-the-counter Plan B will make it more difficult to enforce age requirements for a drug not widely tested on young girls.

"Finally, the requirement to carry Plan B on military bases doesn't include a parental notification provision in cases in which a minor obtains Plan B by prescription. This new policy undermines the right of parents to properly care for their daughters' physical well-being. In a society that requires teachers to send students to the nurse for a band-aid, the Administration's approach on something profoundly more important than a paper cut defies common sense."

Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid has become a one-man cheer-leading squad for Uganda's "Kill the gays" bill, having come out in defense of the legislation twice in the last two days.

Of course, Kincaid won't say that he supports legislation's odiously draconian punishments, claiming instead that the bill is being misrepresented by gay activists with an agenda:

Journalist and media critic Cliff Kincaid said today that coverage of the so-called "Kill the Gays" bill in Uganda has been completely one-sided, inaccurate, and distorted beyond belief. Kincaid, president of America's Survival, Inc., and editor of Accuracy in Media, says the legislation is designed to save lives by discouraging homosexual practices which spread disease and death.

"The purpose is completely at variance with what the U.S. media have reported," he said. "It is not a 'Kill the Gays' bill. Rather, it is designed to kill the disease that some homosexuals spread through their reckless and irresponsible conduct and lifestyle."

Kincaid said that the much-publicized death penalty provision in the bill is for deliberately spreading AIDS and engaging in homosexual behavior that threatens children and society.

Let's just take a look at the text of the legislation, shall we:

The offence of homosexuality.

(1) A person commits the offence of homosexuality if-

(a) he penetrates the anus or mouth of another person of the same sex with his penis or any other sexual contraption;

(b) he or she uses any object or sexual contraption to penetrate or stimulate sexual organ of a person of the same sex;

(c) he or she touches another person with the intention of committing the act of homosexuality.

(2) A person who commits an offence under this section shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for life.

Aggravated homosexuality.

(1) A person commits the offense of aggravated homosexuality where the

(a) person against whom the offence is committed is below the age of 18 years;

(b) offender is a person living with HIV;

(c) offender is a parent or guardian of the person against whom the offence is committed;

(d) offender is a person in authority over the person against whom the offence is committed;

(e) victim of the offence is a person with disability;

(f) offender is a serial offender, or

(g) offender applies, administers or causes to be used by any man or woman any drug, matter or thing with intent to stupefy overpower him or her so as to there by enable any person to have unlawful carnal connection with any person of the same sex,

(2) A person who commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality shall be liable on conviction to suffer death.

(3) Where a person is charged with the offence under this section, that person shall undergo a medical examination to ascertain his or her HIV status.

Attempt to commit homosexuality.

(1) A person who attempts to commit the offence of homosexuality commits a felony and is liable on conviction to imprisonment seven years.

(2) A person who attempts to commit the offence of aggravated homosexuality commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for life.

As the legislation makes clear, conviction for any homosexual act carries a life sentence, while conviction for committing such an act with someone under 18 or with any sort of disability or for doing so if one has HIV carries the death penalty, even if such acts were entirely consensual.   The mere "attempt to commit homosexuality" carries a seven year prison term.

Only to rabidly anti-gay bigots can draconian legislation aimed at harshly punishing and killing gays be presented as a noble effort "designed to save lives."

The Media Research Center's Scott Whitlock, writing on NewsBusters, accuses MSNBC of unfairly linking Tea Party activists with Birthers:

On Thursday, MSNBC continued its quest to link conservatives with the birther movement- people who don't believe Barack Obama is constitutionally eligible to serve as President. Previewing an unrelated segment on this weekend's tea party convention, Norah O'Donnell played a clip of Obama criticizing those who raise the issue. She then compared, "President Obama sends a message to those who question his citizenship, this as the tea party movement gets ready for its first big convention."

At no point did O'Donnell explain or justify the connection, other than her apparent assumption that tea partiers equal birthers. The MSNBC host interviewed author Rick Scarborough, one of the speakers at the convention in Nashville. During the piece, this MSNBC graphic appeared in large font at the bottom of the screen: "Obama: Okay to Question My Policy, Not My Citizenship."

Again, this was not the topic of the segment and there was no attempt made to explain what it had to do with a tea party convention.

Gee, maybe MSNBC was linking Tea Party activists to Birthers because Rick Scarborough is speaking at the National Tea Party Convention and he just so happens to be a full-on Birther.

Just a thought.