May 2011

Pennsylvania State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe has introduced an amendment to the State Constitution to ban equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. Same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania is already banned by statute, and the amendment would need to win the approval of the state legislature in two consecutive terms, which would result in a popular referendum. Republicans currently control both chambers of the Pennsylvania legislature and Metcalfe chairs the House State Government Committee. A committee in the Minnesota State House passed a similar amendment earlier today.

A longtime opponent of gay rights who opposed a resolution condemning domestic violence because he said it was part of the “homosexual agenda,” Metcalfe is one of the most fervently right-wing lawmakers in Pennsylvania. He founded and chairs State Legislators for Legal Immigration, which seeks to overturn the right of birthright citizenship, and also introduced legislation to forcefully undercut the right of workers to form a union. I addition, he introduced a “Birther bill” in Pennsylvania, attacked veterans who protested climate change as “traitors,” and voted against an honorary resolution for a Pennsylvania Muslim group because “Muslims do not recognize Jesus Christ as God.”

He said in a statement that Obama, “bureaucrats” and “special interests” forced him to introduce an amendment:

"Pennsylvania House State Government Committee Chairman State Representative Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) announced today the introduction of a Constitutional amendment to allow the citizens of Pennsylvania to precisely define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

“The institution of traditional marriage has never been under greater attack,” said Metcalfe. “This not only includes the special interests who want to permanently redefine marriage, but unfortunately the executive branch and the federal Department of Justice who have blatantly and recklessly refused to uphold and defend its Constitutionality. Once again, it falls to the responsibility of state lawmakers to restore the rule of law and carry out the will of the people.”

…

To date, voters in 30 states have ratified similar amendments to their state constitutions.

“Pennsylvania voters deserve the opportunity to do the same,” Metcalfe said. “The definition of marriage as ‘the union of one man and one woman,’ defended and upheld by this legislation, is the traditional definition of marriage that has been recognized and accepted throughout history and the world for centuries. It should not be the Obama administration’s Department of Justice and the executive branch bureaucrats that decide this critical issue for our Commonwealth, but rather the voters.”

During AFA Report on the American Family Association’s American Family Radio, the hosts discussed how the handling of the mission to kill bin Laden shows America’s continued weakness under President Barack Obama. Fred Jackson, the AFA News Director, and co-hosts Buster Wilson and Teddy James, a writer for AFA Journal agreed that the mission and the burial showed that the US was “intimidated” by terrorists.

Jackson and James said that since the military had upset a number of Islamic scholars who were angry at the burial of bin Laden’s body at sea within 24 hours; the US was actually appeasing them by burying the body in a way that offended certain clerics. James suggested that instead of being politically correct (again, U.S. forces are facing criticism criticized by some clerics for not adhering to proper tradition); the country should go back to the days of Japanese internment, asking two days after bin Laden’s death, “What have we done lately for the protection of the country at large?”

Jackson, who confuses Obama with bin Laden, and Wilson were also surprised that young people, particularly students from The George Washington University, were celebrating the news outside the White House. Wilson asserted that the majority of college students are liberals who mostly believe in 9/11 conspiracy theories and blamed the United States for the terrorist attacks, comparing them to weak-willed followers of Christ.

Later, Wilson blasted Obama for taking credit for the successful mission because he used words “I” and “me” in his address to the nation.

Jackson: The American government apparently took the body into custody, did some DNA testing on it, took some pictures which we probably will never see or as somebody said this morning until Wikipedia releases it at some point. But then the body was taken to a US warship somewhere and that body was thrown overboard; the American government is saying it did that to honor Islamic tradition. Islamic clerics are already upset because they say [in] Islamic tradition the head of the corpse needs to be pointed towards Mecca and they feel that probably didn’t happen, which raises a couple of questions here. We are continuing to signal, TJ, to the Islamic world that we are intimidated by them. That causes me great concern. The United States is the most powerful nation in the world, but, and I’ll use the language that is often used, the small group of Islamic terrorists continue to intimidate us.

James: Well, we’re afraid. Our government is afraid of offending the small group and that’s what I’m not understanding. There’s a small amount of people who are radical Islamists who like this guy, who is already clamoring about Osama’s head may have not been lined up with Mecca. And yet we are so afraid of offending them that we hurry through our own procedures, we quickly do things, we do things sloppily at times, and it’s all in an effort to neglect the 99% and to appease the 1%.

Jackson: I’ve never seen this kind of thing before. I mean, this country has faced foes before but we have not been intimidated by them. But, I think maybe its some of the element of reasoning here has to do with political correctness in the world that we live in.

James: Well what amazing is this in World War II we were absolutely politically incorrect. We had the Japanese, the Nisei, in our own types of camps. I wouldn’t call them concentration camps, but we had them sequestered off, we had them quarantined, because of the fear or rather the protection of the larger group. You can debate the right and wrongness of that all day long, but the point is they threw political correctness out the window for the protection of the country at large. What have we done lately for the protection of the country at large? I believe that holding on to this idea of political correctness as tightly as we’ve held on to it, it’s put the larger group in a great amount of danger.

Jackson: Another aspect of this reaction to this last night, Buster, the networks were switching to cameras that they had out in front of the White House. And what you had there was quite a throng of young people, I think, some were identifying as students at George Washington University. And it surprised me, and maybe it should not have surprised me, that these young people were acting in a very patriotic way. It was, hollering “USA! USA! USA!” and they were waving American flags. And I thought: these are university kids, and maybe again I allowed myself to stereotype many of the university kids particularly from a university that is quite liberal, that they would be cheering the death of even a terrorist. And it struck me as somewhat odd, given what we hear the ideology of today’s typical university student particularly from a liberal university, and I began to think about that, and were they really celebrating the victory of Osama bin Laden [sic]? Because we know from 2008, and still the polling shows, he enjoys great support from young people. And so was it because they felt Osama bin Laden had scored, pardon me, President Barack Obama had scored a major victory here. And they were willing to celebrate the death of a terrorist?

Wilson: I have to admit that I am, if you’re cynical I’m cynical too, because I thought the very same thing as I watched that unfold on television last night, what is it that they’re cheering? These are the same people who, its almost like what you saw in the life of Christ where on Palm Sunday they were cheering him on shouting Hosanna putting their cloaks down for his donkey to walk over and then five days later the same crowd was shouting “Crucify him! Crucify him!,” this crowd is usually the crowd that is saying “9/11 was an inside job!” This is usually the crowd that’s saying, “The Bush Administration actually caused 9/11!”

Jackson: Yeah, the Bush Administration caused the Islamic world to hate us and that’s why they attacked us.

Wilson: Oh, this is the crowd that’s saying, “America’s chickens have come home to roost!” You know, now they’re over there, “USA! USA!” and saying the Star-Spangled Banner. I was impressed with the speech of President Obama last night, as he was making the announcement; how many times he actually used the word “God” in his speech, it was quite impressive. But there was something else that makes me think maybe; maybe they were celebrating him as opposed to the destruction of this man who caused so much harm. ’Cause when you look at his speech, there is no doubt about it that the President has taken absolute, personal responsibility for this happening. He says “shortly after taking office I directed Leon Panetta to make the killing or the capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war,” that’s been the top priority for the last ten years, “then last August after painstaking work by our intelligence community I was briefed,” and it goes on, he says, “today, at my direction the United States launched a targeted,” it just goes on and on and on about “I,” “me,” “I,” “I directed,” “it’s my direction,” “I did,” “I did,” and so it may be the Obama supporters simply cheering him on.