October, 2008

You know, the first five or six times you see right-wingers screaming that America will be doomed, cursed, or destroyed if Barack Obama is elected, it’s kind of entertaining.   But then it just starts to get annoying.

Here’s the latest [PDF] from Mat Staver and Liberty Counsel:

The future of America is at stake and its future rests with us … If we elect leaders who will not stand up for innocent unborn children, then America will be cursed. If we elect leaders who will not defend marriage as one man and one woman, the people will groan, and our great nation will decay … We could not have a more important election about America’s future than the one will we face this year. I am so burdened about this Country and our future that I cannot begin to express my concern. We already have the most liberal, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual Congress in the history of America. We cannot afford to unleash an unbridled leftist, secular, anti-religious agenda on America and our children. We must stand up now! … God has called each one of us to the Kingdom for such a time as this. Each of us are called to different roles, but all of us are commanded to be good citizens. To be a good citizen, we must vote. It is not an option. And, we must vote our Christian values. The future of America, our children, and grandchildren, are depending on us.

Fortunately we only have to put up with four more days of this … which will then be followed by four more years of it.

Buried on the National Journal’s Hotline blog is this intriguing little nugget:

Election Countdown: View from the Right features Townhall.com's Amanda Carpenter, Washington Times' Brian DeBose, Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes and ex-Romney press sec. Kevin Madden (CNN, SAT, 5pm).

It seems that CNN has decided that the weekend before the election is as good a time as any to give conservative commentators an hour of free airtime to lay out their agenda.  If CNN is also planning on giving liberals an hour to talk about the election, I haven’t heard anything about it.  

To make it even better, it’s being hosted by David Brody of Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network:

The Brody File will be hosting a one hour political roundtable show this weekend on CNN.

It will be an Election special devoted to how conservatives view this 2008 election and the future of the GOP.

I'll be hosting the show and the roundtable will include Kevin Madden, Stephen Hayes, Amanda Carpenter and Brian Debose.

It will air this Saturday from 5pm-6pm and again on Sunday at 2pm.

I’ve criticized Brody several times before, especially for his incessant coverage of the Jeremiah Wright issue, and wondered why CNN keeps giving him airtime, which Brody brags is a great opportunity to expose people to Pat Robertson’s worldview.

But apparently CNN has decided that what the country needs to hear before they go to the polls next week are the views of a bunch of conservatives moderated by Pat Robertson’s in-house journalist.

The Washington Post has a long profile of Liberty University students going all out to help John McCain win Virginia and how the volunteering for the campaign is preparing many for their own eventual entries into politics:  

Besides taking a full load of classes, [Claire] Ayendi has been putting in 40-hour weeks on behalf of McCain. She makes phone calls, canvasses, operates a database of student volunteers, uses Facebook as her bully pulpit and will talk to anyone about how she thinks that Obama's promise to redistribute wealth is an affront to the Constitution. The campaign has galvanized her friends and served as an excellent primer on what lies ahead in their adult lives.

Ayendi and [Meghan] Allen playfully dog one of their Liberty friends for wanting to go into the seminary.

"If you want to get anything changed around here, you have to go through the courts," Ayendi says. "You gotta be a lawyer."

Totally, Allen agrees. "My goal is not to make laws Christian but to make government as small as possible so you can be as biblically Christian as you so choose," she says.

Both plan on spring internships abroad and then law school. But an Obama victory would not send these them into the wilderness. To the contrary, the fight would begin anew.

I don’t even know what it means to create a country where people are free to be as “biblically Christian” as they choose, but when students from Falwell’s university say that is their ultimate goal for America, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to like whatever it is they have in mind.

Day Gardner of the National Black Pro-Life Union has sent out a press release entitled “Someone has to Say it ... Christians Who Vote for Obama are Voting Against the Word of God.”

We hate to break it to her, but she’s not the first one to make this important point.

John McCain and Sarah Palin haven't even lost yet, but it looks like the blame game has already started, with Gary Bauer blaming the campaign for failing to make more of Barack Obama's multitude of nefarious ties to America-haters and terrorists. That's right, Bauer is mad they didn't make it more of a focus in their campaign:

American Values president and McCain supporter Gary Bauer agrees with Palin that the McCain campaign should have made a concerted effort in the general election to highlight the Democratic nominee's ties to his longtime mentor. Bauer says the McCain camp missed some opportunities while zeroing in on Obama's associations with Wright and former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.

"These associations would have explained to us the economic philosophy we're now hearing from Senator Obama," Bauer explains. "That is, William Ayers is a socialist. Pastor Wright is a black supremacist, but also a socialist.

"And so the fact that Barack Obama was comfortable spending time and being allies with those individuals makes a lot of sense when we realize now -- from Barack Obama's own words -- that he believes in socialism."

Bauer contends that the country is on the cusp of electing "the most radical candidate for president in American history."

Considering that the Right is already plotting how to grab the reins of the GOP and make the "culture war" the centerpiece of their agenda moving forward, this sort of myopic focus suggests that we could be in for a long four years if Obama wins next week.

I mentioned yesterday that David Barton was out on the campaign trail, speaking at official McCain/Palin campaign events along with Fred Thompson, actor Robert Davi, and Republican National Committee Deputy Chairman Frank Donatelli and so it seemed like a good time to dust off this video we put together to accompany our 2006 report on Barton and his pseudo-history.

The focus of the report was on Barton's "Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black and White" DVD, in which he examines the Democratic Party's historical hostility to African Americans and insinuates that similarly racist views are still held by the party today. Barton runs through a litany of Democratic sins - ranging from slavery to Jim Crow to segregation to the Ku Klux Klan - while praising the Republican Party as the party of abolition and civil rights ... until his history lesson suddenly ends after the Civil Rights Act of 1965, after which Barton makes absolutely no mention of the political transformation that overtook the country in its wake or the rise of the Republican Party’s “Southern Strategy.”

The video concludes with Barton telling his audience that African Americans cannot be bound blindly to one party or the other, but must cast their votes based on the “standard of biblical righteousness … the principles of Christianity … and an awareness that voters will answer to God for their vote."

Apparently, the McCain camp thought it would benefit from potential voters hearing this sort of biased and fraudulent message from Barton himself during the final days of their campaign.

At least that seems to be the message of this mailer, posted by Jonathan Martin, being sent out by the Susan B. Anthony List:

So a word of warning to all of those intending to abandon their babies on the railroad tracks with the expectation that Barack Obama will come along and save it: don't do that.

A valuable parenting tip from the good folks at SBA.

[You can see the PDF of the mailer here.]

As we’ve noted, the organizers of a massive stadium rally pushing the anti-gay initiative in California have snagged for the stage the biggest name in the Religious Right universe. No, not Sarah Palin, but James Dobson of Focus on the Family. One benefit might be to draw media attention from the event’s organizer, Lou Engle. He’s far less well-known than Dobson, and organizers might prefer to keep it that way.

Engle is an unabashed “dominionist” – someone who thinks the church, under the leadership of modern-day apostles like him, should rule over government and other institutions of society. He thinks of himself as a John the Baptist who badgers Christian teens to adopt a radical lifestyle of fasting and prayer that will bring God’s intercession against gays, liberal judges, and the like. And his style – screaming at the top of his lungs and rapidly rocking back and forth – is a sharp contrast with Dobson’s polished media-star demeanor.

A new report by People For the American Way Foundation documents some of his other charms, which include:

• praying for God to “terrorize” judges until they fall like stars from the sky>
• believing that the appearance of the goddess Minerva on California’s state seal is a sign of demonic domination over the state by the “Jezebel spirit”
• suggesting that marriage equality is Satanic and legal abortion spells America’s doom>

Though, given Prop. 8 leaders’ tendency to describe their campaign in apocalyptic terms, and the increasingly shrill and panicky proclamations of doom from the Right over the prospect of an Obama presidency, Dobson and Engle are likely to feel right at home in each other’s company.

You know, for a guy who, not too long ago, was planning on sitting out this election, James Dobson and his organization sure have gotten active in the last week:

And not to pat ourselves on the back or anything, but last year when Dobson first started pretending that he was going to sit on the sidelines, we called his bluff and noted that issuing empty threats was becoming a pattern for him but that, when it came down to it, he always fell back in line. And, once again, Dobson has not disappointed us.

James Dobson dedicated his radio program today to explaining his sudden decision, which we mentioned earlier, to go to California this weekend to join Lou Engel, Tony Perkins and others for a massive "The Call" rally of prayer and fasting in the name of saving "traditional marriage."

In the clip below, Dobson has just explained that he received a letter from Rev. Jim Garlow, one of the leading organizers of the "yes on 8" movement pleading with Dobson to attend and, after reading it, felt God's hand on his back telling him to attend "The Call."  Dobson chokes up explaining that despite having been on the go for weeks and being exhausted, he knew God wanted him there.  Dobson had to call his son to tell him he couldn't babysit for his grandson this weekend as planned and his son Ryan then confirmed that God wanted him in California instead.  Dobson could barely keep it together when he explained that "the Lord must be involved in this" and then hands over the program to Garlow, who also gets choked up and speaks of their level of spiritual desperation and their constant "crying out to God" to save California because they are "watching the destruction of Western civilization."

Last week Gary Bauer warned that at some point down the line, God will "take his hand of protection off of America" if the country doesn't get its act together and stop coddling gays, finally outlaw abortion, and elect John McCain.

And it looks as if that GOTV strategy is being picked up by others on the Right, judging by Jane Chastain's latest column in WorldNetDaily.

Chastain admits that many Christian voters might be confused about things like the economy, healthcare, or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and so they should just get "back to basics"

Examine the stands of these two candidates —and more important, their records – on the moral issues, and vote accordingly. Then, you can rest assured that this country will be in good hands.

The Ten Commandments given to Moses are not suggestions. They represent God's moral law – and it has never changed. The first commandments are about honoring God and your earthly parents. Next comes God's law against murder. God leaves us no wiggle room when it comes to the shedding of the innocent blood of another human being.

It is no accident that abortion is the most divisive moral issue in America today. God's law may be inconvenient at times, but it is still God's law.

But just in case they are still confused over how to vote, Chastian concludes with a pretty straight-forward argument that God will destory America if Obama is elected:

If you call yourself a Christian and you are still flirting with abortion, or flirting with voting for a candidate who condones the taking of an innocent life, no matter how small, sick or vulnerable, you are only fooling yourself about your Christian commitment – but you will not fool God!

...

If 9/11 wasn't a wake-up call for America, then the financial meltdown of 2008 should be. How many more warnings will God give us before he lifts his hand of protection that has been over this country for more than 200 years? He did not spare the children of Israel. He will not spare the United States of America!

We wrote about Gordon Klingenschmitt's latest crusade to save Virginia police chaplains and his threats to hold a pre-election rally on their behalf earlier this month. Klingenschmitt is holding Gov. Tim Kaine presonally responsible for the decision made by State Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty, despite Kaine's repeated explanations that Klingenschmitt's crusade is misguided and misleading and that nobody "has lost their jobs or positions because of this."

Of course, Klingenschmitt is not backing down and has now announced that a rally is planned for this weekend

News media are invited to cover the big crowds expected on Saturday November 1st, at the "Virginia, Stand Up For Jesus!" State-wide Prayer Rally outside the Governor's mansion, at the Capital Square Bell Tower (900 Bank St) from 10-11am (arrive 9:30), honoring the six Virginia State Police Chaplains forced to resign for praying "in Jesus name."

All pastors and news media are also invited to a PRE-RALLY PRESS CONFERENCE on FRIDAY, October 31st at 10am, at the same outdoor location, where event organizer Chaplain Klingenschmitt (and some pastors) will address the media one full day before the event.

...

The free, non-partisan Virginia rally will include pastors, policymakers, political, civic, and church leaders, a praise band, and a time of prayer for the chaplains, our nation and our government.

According to a separate press release, he will be joined by the likes of Mat Staver and Rick Scarborough, as well as a bunch of people we've never heard of:

All reporters and media are invited to cover the big crowds expected at the Saturday rally. Event speakers include Mat Staver, Rick Scarborough, Gerald Glenn, Darryl Husband, Bill Carrico, Victor Torres, Jeff Ginn, Council Nedd, and several state-trooper chaplains.

We knew that David Barton was out there doing his part to help elect Republicans, raising money for Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, explaining to Christian audiences the importance of the Supreme Court and how the GOP and God both share the same agenda. 

We also knew that he was supporting John McCain but we had no idea that he was actually out there on the trail on behalf of the McCain-Palin campaign: 

Fred Thompson, former U.S. senator from Tennessee, told a local crowd Wednesday that the chance to talk about guns and God is his kind of event.

But though the title of the rally was "Guns & Religion," the politician/actor spent more time talking about the economy.

...

Thompson, actor Robert Davi, Republican National Committee Deputy Chairman Frank Donatelli and David Barton, president of the religious-based organization WallBuilders, spoke at the Wednesday afternoon rally at McCain/Palin headquarters in Springettsbury Township.

"I love the guns-and-God mantra, because both are God-given rights," Barton said, telling the crowd to encourage others to vote. "Get people of faith back in the polls."

Dawn Balcom of Springettsbury Township said it was nice to hear religion addressed.

"It was good to hear that these politicians are thinking God is important," she said. "When we get away from God . . . the whole country goes down."

Why is the McCain campaign associating itself with a right-wing pseudo-historian who believes that Christians should "start breaking fingers" of those who don't vote Republican and warns them they'll have to answer to God for their failure to vote properly. 

Did they not learn anything from their Hagee/Parsely debacle?

Via OpenLeft we get this video of Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute telling a rally of Prop 8 supporters that failure to pass Prop 8 is akin to failing to stop Hitler:

There was another time in history when people, when the bell tolled. And the question was whether or not they were going to hear it. The time was during Nazi Germany with Adolf Hitler. You see he brought crowds of clergy together to assure them that he was going to look after the church. And one of the members, bold and courageous, Reverend Niemoller made his way to the front and boldly said "Hitler, we are not concerned about the church. Jesus Christ will take care of the church. We are concerned about the soul of Germany." Embarrassed and chagrined, his peers quickly shuffled him to the back. And as they did Adolf Hitler said, "The soul of Germany, you can leave that to me." And they did, and because they did bombs did not only fall upon the nation of Germany, but also upon the church and their testimony to this very day. Let us not make that mistake folks. Let us hear the bell! Vote on Proposition 8!

Just yesterday I was writing about Lou Engel and his prayer warriors, noting that in this election cycle he had become far more openly political and had started linking up with DC's Religious Right insiders like Tony Perkins and Mike Huckabee.

And now today comes word that James Dobson himself is set to participate in Engel's rally of prayer and fasting this weekend in opposition to gays getting married in California:

On Saturday, tens of thousands of people will gather at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium for corporate prayer and fasting for the protection of traditional marriage and the soul of our nation.

Family advocates from across the nation are expected to travel to California to be a part of the day of prayer and worship. Joining them will be Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family.

"It is not a festival, it is a fast," Dr. Dobson said on Wednesday's radio broadcast. "It's a day of concerted prayer from 10 o'clock in the morning till 10 o'clock at night."

Dr. Dobson said he hoped thousands would join him at the free gathering.

Jenny Tyree, marriage analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said Dr. Dobson's presence in California is significant.

"Dr. Dobson is a recognized champion of marriage," she said. "His listeners know his heart for nurturing marriages, as well as his passion for strengthening the definition of marriage in our laws.

"His steadfast stance in support of traditional marriage gives strength to voters in California and across the country who share his esteem for our most pro-child institution."

The San Jose Mercury News has more:

"This vote on whether we stop the gay-marriage juggernaut in California is Armageddon," Charles Colson, the former Nixon administration official turned evangelical leader, said in a video that is being quoted by pastors around the state. On Saturday some of the nation's best-known evangelical leaders are hoping to fill Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego for a rally on behalf of the proposed ban.

Lou Engle — the charismatic founder of TheCall, an evangelical 12-hour gathering of prayer and fasting with a strong following among young people — will be one of the evangelical leaders at the rally, along with James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.

That combination of leaders is "extraordinary. It just tells about the significance of the moment and the real need to pray," Engle, whose ministry is based in Kansas City, said in an interview Wednesday. "I spoke recently with a man from a Muslim country, who said to me, 'Lou, we're praying for you all over the world, for what you're doing, because if same-sex marriage stands in California, it will sweep all over the world.' "

Despite the votes in Arizona and Florida, "California is the focus, because everybody knows that California is the influential one," Engle said.

The global reach of Silicon Valley is another means California has to spread its influence on gay marriage, a senior leader of one prominent Christian group said.

By publicly opposing Proposition 8, companies like Google and Apple have "irritated" people across the country who buy their products, said Carrie Gordon Earll, senior director of public policy for Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based group that has donated more than $350,000 to back Proposition 8. Apple last week said it would contribute $100,000 to the No on 8 campaign, and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have made large individual donations.

The issue "has become national in part because those corporations have made it so," Earll said. "People may think twice about buying that iPod."

Below is are photos and the text of a flyer being sent to voters in Florida, paid for by the Republican National Committee and authorized by McCain-Palin 2008.

It reads: 

Terrorists Don't Care Who They Hurt

Why Should We Care What They Have to Say?

Barack Obama Thinks Terrorists Just Need a Good Talking To.

Barack Obama said, "I Would" meet unconditionally with leaders of Iran, Syria and other state sponsors of terrorism. (Source: CNN/YouTube Democrat Presidential Candidate Debate, Charleston, SC, 7/23/07)

"We need to send a strong signal that we are going to talk directly to not just our friends but also our enemies." - Barack Obama (Source: 2007 Des Moines Register Democratic Debate, 12/13/07)

"The threat that we face now is nowhere near as dire as it was in the Cold War. We shouldn't allow our politics to be driven by fear of terrorism." - Barack Obama (Source: The Contenders, by Laura Flanders, p.82, 11/11/07)

Islamic extremists want our laws changed, our culture destroyed and our families converted . We don't.  What is there to talk about?

Barack Obama. Not Who You Think He Is.

Ed Whelan takes to the pages of the National Review to discuss the importance of the Supreme Court as it relates to the election and warn that “the survival of the historic American experiment in representative government will be in serious jeopardy if Barack Obama is our next president.”

Whelan helpfully explains that everything you think you know about what might happen to the Court under either an Obama or McCain administration is mistaken:

If you’ve been paying attention to the media’s scant coverage of the impact of the presidential election on the Supreme Court, you’ve been hearing that we currently have either a “conservative” Court or a Court delicately balanced between its “liberal” and “conservative” wings. Electing Obama as president is unlikely to change anything, you’re told, because he’d probably just be replacing liberal justices. The real threat, Obama himself tells us, is that John McCain would appoint justices who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and thereby (supposedly) make abortion illegal.

Wrong on all counts.

So McCain wouldn’t appoint justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade?  Well, that is a relief.  Oh, wait:

I hope very much that a President McCain appoints justices who will help to overturn Roe v. Wade, and although it won’t be easy to get good nominees confirmed by a heavily Democratic Senate, I think that it’s definitely possible. Overturning Roe, of course, wouldn’t make abortion illegal. Rather, it would restore to the citizens of each state the power to establish abortion policy through their elected representatives — and to revisit that policy over time. That’s the system our Constitution established, and it’s the system that all citizens faithful to our Constitution should welcome. The democratic processes may at times be messy and contentious, but they offer the only real hope of working out a consensus on abortion policy.

Roe v. Wade has corrupted and distorted American politics and Supreme Court decisionmaking for 35 years. All Americans, irrespective of their positions on abortion policy, should welcome its long-overdue demise.

I see.  McCain will appoint justices who will overturn Roe but that is okay because it is a bad decision that has “corrupted and distorted American politics” and “all Americans” will rejoice when Constitutional protections for reproductive choice get eliminated.

And Obama’s claim that McCain would appoint justices who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade is wrong, how?

Biblical Family Advocates has issued a press release so that its president, Pastor Phil Magnan, can tell all the gays who want to get married that, even if they do get the right, it’s not going to change the fact that Jesus still hates them:

Regardless how people package it, Christ hates the lawlessness of homosexuality. Homosexual marriage is a lawless relationship whether it's legal or not. And I have news for the homosexual community and those who have joined their unholy alliance; God owns the sacred institution of marriage, not the State, so they should stop tampering with what God has joined. Government and the people have a responsibility to uphold what God has instituted.

Should I feel discriminated against because I cannot marry my brother or sister or a 12 year old girl? Should I feel discriminated against because society chooses to be godly or moral? Discrimination based on good moral judgment is a protection for the stability of society and upholds godly morals for future generations. A government that allows homosexuals to marry would be endorsing the unnatural.  Equal protection under the law should never mean the protection and promotion of what is immoral or harmful. Keeping same sex couples from marrying restrains them from corrupting the wholesome sanctity of marriage.

It is eternally reprehensible that the pro same sex marriage movement is working to codify their perversion of the marital union; which has an even broader agenda. This agenda will end up being forced into the religious institutions around us, as well as force children to accept immorality in every venue of education. Evidence for this is already painfully known in the forced homosexual indoctrination of kindergarteners' in California and Massachusetts. Acceptance of same sex unions will inevitably punish families who oppose it. As a Pastor and Minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the homosexual community must be warned that they are at odds with Jesus Christ Himself, who condemned those who cause children to stumble into sin.

One of the things I find most entertaining about the Religious Right is their vehement opposition to any effort to broaden the so-called “evangelical agenda” to include anything beyond the Right’s core anti-gay, anti-abortion agenda and their constant attempts to justify their rigidly narrow focus.  

Starting back in 2006 after the GOP got thumped in the mid-term elections and the media stopped talking about “values voters” and began to write about the emergence of a “new evangelical” movement, right-wing leaders were telling anyone who would listen that religious efforts to help the poor or protect the environment were all well and good but were just way less important than opposing gays and abortion:

"It's not a question of the poor not being important or that meeting their needs is not important," said Paul Hetrick, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, Dobson's influential, Colorado-based Christian organization. "