May, 2008

The rise in popularity of the online, collaborative reference Wikipedia has posed a challenge to librarians and teachers who are trying to teach rigorous research methods to high school students. But while these educators have directed their students to use more traditional sources or, at least, to read Wikipedia with skepticism, one teacher decided the solution was to let his students write their own encyclopedia.

That teacher was Andy Schlafly—son of the famous culture warrior Phyllis Schlafly—the class was a group of home-school students, and the result, Conservapedia, immediately become the Internet equivalent of a laughingstock. The problem according to Schlafly was not Wikipedia’s fundamental unreliability—by design, there is no authoritative editing and factual inaccuracies may creep in despite a vigilant volunteer base—but its supposed bias against America and Christianity. Thus, Conservapedia’s obsession with right-wing politics, evolution, and homosexuality.

In spite of the ridicule, Schlafly and his young followers soldiered on, and they are still at it today. Eagle Forum just released a video promoting Conservapedia as an affirming alternative to the Wikipedia world:

STUDENT: They have an article about evolution, and when conservative or Christian editors tried to add information to that about the other side of the argument and the argument for creationism or Intelligent Design, it was censored or taken out of there.

SCHLAFLY: On Conservapedia, you’re going to get the other side of that. You’re going to get evidence against evolution. Same thing for homosexuality. We bring in all the health harm that’s caused by homosexuality, all the biblical quotes against it—you get that on Conservapedia. You’re not going to get that sort of fair treatment on the Wikipedia entries.

“I don’t have to live with what’s printed in the newspaper. I don’t have to take what’s written in Wikipedia,” said Schlafly. “We’ve got our own way to express knowledge.” Whether it’s the use of “A.D.” instead of “A.C.E.” to mark dates, or anti-gay propaganda instead of science, Schlafly’s “way of knowing” offers the Religious Right familiarity, and a respite from the oppressive world of newspapers and reference works. Or, as Stephen Colbert termed it, their own Wikiality.

You know that something odd is happening within the Republican Party when a high-profile Religious Right leader is publicly advising John McCain NOT to seek the endorsement of other high-profile Religious Right leaders.  

And you know that something really odd is happening when that figure is Ralph Reed, whose own political career tanked thanks to McCain’s own investigation into the corrupt world of Jack Abramoff.   Yet here Reed is, nearly two years later, doling out campaign advice to McCain as the candidate struggles to overcome the controversy generated by the endorsements of John Hagee and Rod Parsley:

John McCain should stop seeking endorsements from evangelical pastors and instead appeal directly to their church members, said Ralph Reed, the former Christian Coalition executive director.

“John McCain doesn't need to be standing at a bank of microphones next to a particular leader,'' Reed said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's “Political Capital With Al Hunt,'' to be broadcast today. “My advice would be stay away from endorsements and stick to the issues.''

…

Reed, 46, said McCain's strategy of wooing evangelicals shouldn't be “top down,'' and his meetings with leaders and activists should be held in private.

“He needs to connect with them'' by touting his opposition to same-sex marriage and his anti-abortion record, said Reed, a regional director of President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.

…

McCain has made “some real progress'' in repairing his relationship with evangelicals, Reed said. He cited a May 6 speech at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in which McCain promised to choose judges in the mold of U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Both were among the five justices who voted in June 2007 to weaken the senator's landmark campaign-finance law.

“It was one of the best speeches on judicial conservative philosophy from a Republican nominee in my career,'' Reed said.

McCain clearly needs some help on figuring out how best to woo the right-wing base he needs in November, but it’s not clear that he should be taking advice from a guy who lost his own Republican primary race because of his history of exploiting that base for professional gain.

Not too long ago, Paul Weyrich complained that he was duped into signing an anti-Mitt Romney letter and now he is complaining that he was duped into endorsing the Bible Literacy Project: "When I was made aware of the 'Bible Literacy Project' I rejoiced, thinking that this was a way for students to study religion in the Godless public schools. I endorsed the Project. Now that I have been made aware of what this Project is really about ... I hereby withdraw my endorsement. Once again liberals stole what began as a worthwhile initiative. This is worse than public schools without God. This may well cause young impressionable young people to lose their faith and to be contemptuous of those who have faith."

It’s been a while since Pat Robertson’s natural disaster obsession has led him to predict the end times. In fact, during “700 Club” coverage of the cyclone that hit Burma and Chinese earthquake, he almost seemed to be restraining himself. But as tornadoes racked the Midwest, Robertson apparently couldn’t help himself, suggesting that these disasters may be “the birth pangs of a new order”:

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Normally, people love it when other people link to their websites because it means they get more attention, more traffic, and their message reaches more people,. But the American Family Association has apparently decided that it doesn’t want the kind of attention our Right Wing Watch blog has been sending their way..

The other day we noticed that all of our links back to the AFA’s OneNewsNow website no longer take readers to the link in question, but instead redirect them to the Good Person Test (go ahead and click the OneNewsNow link above or any of these other links to see what we mean.)

So instead of being taken to a specific OneNewsNow article, our readers are directed to a website that challenges them to take a quiz to determine if they are indeed a “good person.”  Not surprisingly, the answer is “no” and that they are in fact going to hell.  

Answer a question about honesty and you are told you are a liar; answer a question about lust and you are told you are an adulterer; answer a question about anger and you are told you are a murderer:

And don’t think of trying to fool the test either, because if you claim to have never stolen, been angry, dishonest, lustful, or taken the Lord’s name in vain, it calls you a liar:

The end result of the quiz is that no matter how you answer the questions, you are told that you do, in fact, deserve to go straight to hell:

We’ve noticed that this special redirecting service is something AFA seems to have reserved for Right Wing Watch, because, for example, Street Prophets excerpted one of our posts the other day that included a link to a OneNewsNow article that, from their blog, takes readers to the article quoting Gary Bauer whereas those clicking through from our post get redirected.

So until AFA removes this clever little redirect, we’ll just have to stop linking to them because there is no way we’ll ever be able to figure out some sort of work-around.

CNS reports that a slew of conservative bigwigs—Limbaugh, Norquist, Bill Donohue, Ralph Reed, Morton Blackwell—really like Bobby Jindal.  Norquist: “Bobby Jindal is a great American.  He is great on guns, great on taxes, a Roman Catholic, a Southerner and an Indian-American.  Bobby Jindal would be great for the GOP and perfect for McCain.” Crist, on the other hand, does not energize conservatives like Connie Mackay: “We have concerns about Governor Crist. While he claims to be pro-life he has not been an advocate…We would not be supportive of his candidacy for Vice-President…I think it would not help him. McCain needs to continue to try and energize the base. I think that would certainly not energize the base and I think I could go one step further and say it would de-energize the base."

Steve Hotze, one of Huckabee’s more extreme Texas backers, freaks out over the California marriage ruling: “What if you do not approve of a person's sexual orientation? Why should you be deprived of your discretion on whether or not to work with or hire that person? What about the rest of us? Why should your right to freedom of association be infringed upon?...In Massachusetts the Catholic adoption agencies were forced to close because the state mandated that they had to allow homosexuals to adopt children. In Canada, it is a hate crime to speak against homosexuality. What about the rights of those who do not approve of these activities?”

Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family weighs in on the continuing story of Colorado’s SB 200, the bill which seeks to “normalize all varieties of sexual orientation” with coed restrooms and fundamentally alter Colorado’s culture: “With SB 200, however, we no longer have two 'sexes'; we enter a brave new world with a myriad of 'sexual orientations' that must not be discriminated against, upon pain of the substantial civil and criminal penalties contained in the bill.”

Last year, we tried to untangle the complicated legacy of the militant anti-abortion protest group Operation Rescue, famous for its massive clinic blockades in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Nothing so abstract as its role in shaping the debate over reproductive choice—no, it was hard enough trying to figure out which small, bickering group using the OR name was which.

Now Randall Terry, who founded Operation Rescue back in 1988, is adding another level of confusion: He’s claiming trademark infringement by Wichita-based Operation Rescue (also known as Operation Rescue West), headed by Rev. Troy Newman.

Bo Jackson, Twiggy, Marc Chagall, Jimmy "Margaritaville" Buffett and Randall Terry find themselves in the same company: a pretender tried to steal their identity. …

Mr. Terry seeks to regain control of the name Operation Rescue, which is his moniker.

Mr. Troy Newman lied under oath to the Trademark Office when he filed his registration of the name, Operation Rescue. Moreover, Mr. Newman has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars by falsely claiming a connection with Operation Rescue. …

Randall Terry states: "Mr. Newman mistook my patience for a lack of resolve. His identity theft of a name, a heritage, and a history over which he has no right is as offensive as it is ludicrous."

Terry dropped out of the anti-abortion protest scene after declaring bankruptcy during drawn-out litigation against the National Organization of Women, but he resurfaced to help create the media circus around the death of Terri Schiavo in 2005. More recently, he returned to protesting—albeit with a more modest-sized crowd—to oppose Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign.

As we explained, Rev. Flip Benham took over OR after Terry left, eventually changing the name to Operation Save America/Operation Rescue—apparently to try to elude further lawsuits. Meanwhile, Newman moved Operation Rescue West—which moved in the same small circle of hard-core activists—to Wichita, Kansas, the place of OR’s infamous 1991 “Summer of Mercy” protest. Newman then dropped the “West” from his group’s name—much to the objection of Benham, who claimed to have never given up the OR appellation. “Troy owning the name Operation Rescue is no more legal than abortion is,” complained Benham. The two groups apparently also disagree on strategy and tactics: They released contradictory statements about James Dobson and the Partial Birth Abortion Ban.

It’s not clear where Terry fits in to all this, other than as a sui generis publicity hound. While Benham’s group is apparently the same one Terry founded, Terry makes no mention of it in his press release. Indeed, Benham has no love for Terry: He published an article on his web site entitled “Please Remove Randall’s Feeding Tube.” “Giving more money to Randall Terry is like giving booze to an alcoholic,” Benham is quoted is saying.

Despite the fact that John McCain was forced to publicly reject the endorsements of both Rod Parsley and John Hagee last week, it doesn’t look like his campaign surrogates are willing to follow suit and repudiate Hagee’s remarks as “deeply offensive and indefensible.” 

In fact, not only are they not repudiating Hagee, they are actually joining him for his 2008 Christians United For Israel Washington-Israel Summit in July.  

As Max Blumenthal first reported yesterday, Senator Joseph Lieberman, who has long been one of McCain’s most ardent supporters, is scheduled to headline this year’s Night To Honor Israel Banquet where he is scheduled to share the stage with Hagee

Sen. Joe Lieberman says he'll speak at a July conference hosted by Rev. John Hagee, whose endorsement was recently rejected by Republican John McCain because of Hagee's controversial remarks about religion.

Lieberman, one of presumed GOP presidential nominee McCain's strongest supporters, said Wednesday while Hagee's comments were unacceptable and hurtful, he will judge him on his life work fighting anti-Semitism and building bridges between Christians and Jews.

With Lieberman announcing that he will in fact stick with his scheduled commitment, we've started a petition calling on him to cancel this appearance, which can be found here.  

Also joining Hagee at the event will be Gary Bauer, who has also been a vocal advocate for McCain, having supported his campaign back in 2000 and then endorsing him again this time around.  When not busy earning his paycheck as a right-wing political operative - marshalling support for the GOP by trading on wedge issues, decrying hate crimes legislation, fighting efforts to address climate change, pushing voter ID requirements, and calling for the monitoring of mosques – he’s been hard at work selling McCain to the Religious Right and defending him against the so-called biased liberal media.  

Bauer also happens to be a board member of Hagee’s CUFI and, according to the itinerary, is scheduled to speak at no less than four separate panels:

10:00AM-11:30AM: Supporting The Jewish State - Now Or Never?

Pastor John Hagee, Founder & National Chairman Of Christians United For Israel (Cufi)

Gary Bauer, CUFI Executive Board Member

1:30PM- 3:00PM: Break Out Session One

Israel 101: The Basics Of The Arab Israeli Conflict

Gary Bauer, President of American Values

Charles Jacobs, Founder & President of The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership

Roz Rothstein, International Director of StandWithUs

3:30PM- 5:00PM: Break Out Session Two

Israel 101: The Basics Of The Arab Israeli Conflict

Gary Bauer, President of American Values

Charles Jacobs, Founder & President of The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership

Roz Rothstein, International Director of StandWithUs

1:30PM- 3:30PM: Middle East Briefing

Gary Bauer, President of American Values

Congressman Elliot Engel (D-NY)

William Kristol, Editor of The Weekly Standard

Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN)

When McCain announced Bauer’s endorsement, he stated that Bauer’s “advice and counsel [would] be critical” to his campaign.  Presumably, given Bauer’s close ties to Hagee, his advice and counsel was to encourage McCain to seek Hagee’s support – support that McCain has now embarrassingly had to disavow.  But Bauer is standing by Hagee and obviously thinks that sharing the stage with him is nothing to be embarrassed about, so it raised the question of just how much more of Bauer’s “advice and counsel” the McCain campaign will be seeking in the future.

Soon after breaking with televangelist John Hagee, John McCain rejected another right-wing pastor who had campaigned with him, Rod Parsley. While Parsley, like Hagee, subsequently withdrew his endorsement, it remains to be seen whether he will put his Ohio-based “Patriot Pastors” machine in motion on behalf of the Republican candidate before November.

But the McCain campaign may be more concerned about fallout greater than these two pastors and their television audiences. In working for the Hagee endorsement and incorporating Parsley into the campaign, McCain was no doubt hoping to solidify the Religious Right credibility he has been sweating over for the past two years. While Hagee and Parsley are influential and well-connected, meeting with the president and lobbying Congress, they are active primarily outside of D.C., in the megachurch, “prosperity gospel” world of Trinity Broadcasting Network. As this blog and others revealed some of the pastors’ rough edges—just a sample—McCain was forced to walk a fine line between losing his “maverick” reputation among independent voters and alienating the right-wing base he feels he needs.

McCain’s decision to dump Parsley and Hagee has prompted some warning shots from the Right. “This move may cost him the mainstream evangelical vote. At the very least it will make the Senator suspect to other pastors and millions of unconvinced believers,” wrote Bishop Harry Jackson, who added that the two televangelists have “10 times the outreach muscle” of Barack Obama’s controversial ex-pastor Jeremiah Wright.

Star Parker wrote, “John McCain wants Americans to elect him to provide tough leadership in a dangerous world. But when it just takes some mud slung from a few left-wing websites to drive him under a rock, you have to wonder.”

And Gary Bauer, an ally to both McCain and Hagee, said that “radical left” blogs managed to “drive a wedge” between evangelicals and McCain.

But as CBN’s David Brody reports, the McCain campaign is at the same time stepping up its efforts to woo the Religious Right by running weekly meetings with Bauer and other activists and consulting right-wing groups such as the Family Research Council and the Eagle Forum. Brody writes:

Look, here's the bottom line: The McCain campaign is gearing up for a true battle over Evangelicals this fall. They are NOT taking them for granted. They know they have work to do but what we are seeing here is a ramped up effort that is fully supported by the head guy, John McCain. The Hagee endorsement and subsequent retraction was not the campaign's best moment but the system they have in place now is starting to make headway.

It’s likely McCain’s efforts will pay off in getting the support, explicit or implicit, of the Religious Right groups and activists who have long wedded their politics to the GOP’s—especially if he keeps meeting their demands on judges and other issues. But as they continue to pull McCain to the right, the conflict between the base and independent voters—the conflict McCain saw with Hagee and Parsley—will expand.

At the same time that John McCain was rejecting the endorsement of John Hagee and Hagee was un-endorsing McCain, the televangelist's taped show just happened to be addressing the subject of how all those politicians who make friends with him don't really know him.

Get the Flash Player to see this video clip.

I've had lunch alone with President George Bush. I've met his father. I've met the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. I've met the vice president of the United States. I've met and talked with every Israeli prime minister since Menachem Begin. I've met Mikhail Gorbachev, premier of the Soviet Union. I've even met Rush Limbaugh and Larry King, but the point is, I've met them--I don't know them, and they don't know me.

Back in February of 2007, John McCain was proud to be developing relationships with far-right leaders such as Jerry Falwell, Richard Land, and John Hagee. In particular, McCain pursued Hagee—whose Armageddon-driven Middle East war advocacy seemed to mesh well with McCain’s neoconservative foreign policy ideas—and eventually scored his endorsement.

When the Catholic League pushed back against Hagee’s anti-Catholic reputation, McCain tried to distance himself from the pastor while still bragging about the endorsement. McCain further admitted it was a “mistake” to court Hagee, but insisted he was still “glad” about it. But while Hagee was making time with the Catholic League, more and more of the televangelist’s views were coming out: on Katrina, on the economy, on welfare, and so on.

McCain had apparently decided that his path to the Republican presidential nomination lay with people like Hagee or Rod Parsley, but perhaps he wasn’t prepared for the rough edges of these megachurch pastors compared to media-savvy D.C.-based activists. The last straw, it seems, was Hagee’s explanation that God had appointed Hitler in a prophetic role to “hunt” the Jews and spur the creation of Israel. CNN reported today:

“Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them. I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well,” McCain said in a statement to CNN Thursday.

Within minutes, Hagee responded with a version of “You can’t fire me! I quit!”

Ever since I endorsed John McCain for president, people seeking to attack Senator McCain have combed my records for statements they can use for political gain.  They have had no qualms about grossly misrepresenting my position on issues most near and dear to my heart if it serves their political ambitions. 

I am tired of these baseless attacks and fear that they have become a distraction in what should be a national debate about important issues.  I have therefore decided to withdraw my endorsement of Senator McCain for President effective today, and to remove myself from any active role in the 2008 campaign. 

I hope that the Senator McCain will accept this withdrawal so that he may focus on the issues that are most important to America and the world.

McCain has been trying to have it both ways, walking a line between the far Right and the mainstream. While the candidate has apparently abandoned the uncouth Hagee—and is downplaying his association with firebrand Ohio televangelist Rod Parsley—there’s only so much of the Right he can slough off without alienating its leaders or its constituency. Unless they swallow their pride and count on his promises of a far-right Supreme Court.

With Senate Bill 200 on its way to the desk of Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, right-wing groups in the state have gone into battle mode to get him to veto the legislation, claiming that it will somehow protect sexual predators by forcing everyone to share the same bathroom.

Equal Rights Colorado explains that SB 200:

[W]ill expand language prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, including transgender status, in housing practices, public accommodation, eligibility for jury service, availability of family planning services, as well as many other areas. This is a chance to update the current laws in order to have consistency and predictability in the way Colorado's anti-discrimination laws are applied. It will also add sex, marital status, disability, age, national origin, ancestry and religion as needed."

That sounds like a good thing ... unless, of course, you are Focus on the Family, in which case you choose to interpret the legislation in a far more ludicrous fashion and then run this radio ad in the state:

"Mom..."

If the Colorado legislature has its way...

"A man in a dress came into the girl's restroom at school today."

We could all be dealing with a new type of predator.

"Honey, there was a man in the women's showers at the gym today, and the management said it was, it was Colorado law."

And instead of our kids worrying about class work, they'll be worrying about who might be in the restroom with them.

"No way I'm going in there (school bell), I'd rather wait all day if a guy's in there."

Our children must be protected from predators, but if Governor Ritter won't veto Senate Bill 200, all public restrooms, including those in our public schools, will be open to anyone of any sex.

Colorado's Democrat-controlled legislature has already passed this bill, but Governor Ritter still has time to veto it. Call him now and ask him to protect our kids and veto SB 200. Call 303-866-2471. 303-866-2471.

So says the Christian Defense Coalition: "For all his talk on change and social justice, Senator Obama clings to and embraces archaic and radical pro-abortion policies that most Americans find appalling. Simply stated, if elected Senator Obama would be the most radical and extremist President in American history on the issue of abortion. While the majority of Americans are growing more and more uncomfortable with abortion rights, Senator Obama wants to radically expand them and even ask people of faith to pay for abortions. Senator Obama this is change we can live without."

After a month, “Expelled”—the anti-evolution film starring Ben Stein—is fading from the scene with disappointing sales (although associate producer Mark Mathis says he’s pleased). The movie’s efforts to portray Intelligent Design creationism as a valid scientific field being persecuted by the authorities probably never had a chance with academics familiar with these dubious creationist arguments, but then again, it probably wasn’t the movie’s intention to convince scientists that ID was a legitimate scientific theory. Instead, “Expelled” took its battle against evolution to the political arena.

This was apparent in the film’s marketing strategy of reaching out to right-wing media outlets and activists, who embraced the half-baked Darwin-Hitler connection at the center of “Expelled.”

And—regarding the strange subplot of Yoko Ono suing over the film’s use of John Lennon’s song “Imagine” without getting the rights—a lawyer for the movie recently argued that the film’s message is pegged toward influencing this year’s presidential election, according to the AP:

A lawyer for the movie's distributors has warned that the litigation could wreck the movie's political message by preventing it from impacting viewers in the lead-up to the U.S. presidential campaign.

While it’s too early to say how creationism will figure into the presidential race, the political impact of “Expelled” can be seen more directly in state legislatures, with a rash of new legislation challenging science education in public high schools. “I think Expelled definitely has played a role,” said ID-advocate Casey Luskin of Discovery Institute.

According to the National Center for Science Education, anti-evolution bills were recently introduced in Florida, Missouri, and Alabama, but the legislative sessions in those states ended before the bills could pass. Versions in South Carolina and Michigan also appear to be stalled for now. But a bill in Louisiana to undermine classroom teaching on the topics of “evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning” was passed unanimously in the state Senate and has already passed through a committee in the House.

The major claim of “Expelled” is that scientists working to provide some—any—legitimacy to Intelligent Design are facing persecution. The stories told in the movie don’t seem to pan out, but as Stein and company are surely aware, the debate over creationism is not taking place at research universities but at school boards, state legislatures, and public high school science classes. A newly published survey of high school teachers found that 25 percent address creationism or Intelligent Design in the classroom, and 12 percent call creationism a “valid scientific alternative” to evolution. Ben Stein’s rants about Nazis seem unlikely to chance the basic course of scientific inquiry into the natural world, but the legacy of “Expelled” may be bills, like Louisiana’s, to put the supernatural world into the science classroom.