American Family Association

How Unhinged Rhetoric Sank a Disabilities Rights Treaty in the Senate

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 12/4/2012 2:55 pm

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities failed to capture the 2/3 vote needed for ratification in the U.S. Senate today due to fierce Republican opposition. Many Republicans and their allies in the conservative movement claimed that the treaty codifies abortion into law, even though that preposterous claim was rejected by the National Right to Life Committee and Sen. John McCain. Along with the false charges about abortion, opponents of the treaty claimed it will undermine U.S. sovereignty and harm children. Critics like Rick Santorum warned that the treaty may kill his disabled daughter; Glenn Beck said it could create a “fascistic” government and Sen. Jim Inhofe alleged the treaty would help groups with “anti-American biases.”

One of the lesser-known but extremely active opponents of the bill was homeschooling activist Michael Farris.

During an interview with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, he claimed that the treaty will prompt the United Nations to ‘get control’ of children with glasses or ADHD and remove them from their families.

Farris: They’re called living documents, just like the disgraced living Constitution theory, which means the treaty doesn’t mean today what it’s going to mean tomorrow what it’s going to mean ten years from now. So you never know what you’re signing up for, that by itself is a good enough reason to leave it alone and to never enter into one of these things. But in particular, you hit the nail on the head Tony, the definition of disability is not defined in the treaty. My kid wears glasses, now they’re disabled, now the UN gets control over them; my child’s got a mild case of ADHD, now you’re under control of the UN treaty. There’s no definitional standard, it can change over time, and the UN, not American policymakers, are the ones who get it decided.

While speaking with the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer, the two warned that the treaty could lead to the deaths of disabled children, all the while admitting they have no evidence it would do such beyond their pure speculation.

Fischer: Disabled newborn babies in the UK are being put, oftentimes overriding the wishes of parents, on this death pathway where no matter what the parents want the doctors say this kid cannot live, severely disabled, too many congenital deformities, we think the best thing for this kid is just to be starved and dehydrated to death. It seems to me that although that’s not specifically contemplated in this treaty that could be an outcome.

Farris: Whether they thought about it or not, that’s exactly what Rick Santorum said in our press conference. He was holding his daughter Bella and she’s of the category of child that in Britain they would take that position because her official diagnosis is ‘incompatible with life.’ So when the doctor gets to decide, the doctor empowered by the government—these doctors aren’t doing it on their own, they are doing it because the government says they have the power to do it—the doctor/government deciding what they think is best for the child. It goes to the point of deciding whether the child lives or dies, it is that crazy. If we want to live in a Brave New World like that where the bureaucrats and the government and the UN all tell us what to do, fine, but this is the beginning of the end of American self-government if we go here, it’s just crazy, we cannot let this happen.

After warning that the treaty will kill children, Farris told conservative talk show host Steve Deace that the treaty will create a “cradle-to-grave care for the disabled” and said if the U.S. ratifies it “signing up to be an official socialist nation.” Farris claimed that the treaty will treat the parents of disabled children like child abusers in order to grow government power and implement “coercive socialism.”

“Everybody in America will be living under is socialism as an international entitlement” if the treaty passes, Farris maintained, “it’s a way to make the socialist, liberal, amoral element a permanent feature of our law.” Deace agreed and said the treaty will “due in freedom and liberty.”

Farris: Every parent with a disabled child is going to be in the same legal position as if they’d been convicted of child abuse. We are taking away parental decision-making power in that area. The other thing that everybody in America will be living under is socialism as an international entitlement. The United States resisted all the UN treaties of a certain category that began being proliferated in the 1960s; the first was the International Covenant on Economic and Social Rights. Our country said no that is coercive socialism, we’re not going to do that. So we rejected all those treaties ever since 1966. Yet we’re signing up now for our first economic, social and cultural treaty which means as a matter of international binding law that goes to the supremacy clause level in our Constitution, we’re signing up to be an official socialist nation, cradle-to-grave care for the disabled. Maybe Americans want to do that, but I think we’d want to do it as a matter of domestic law, not as a matter of international law. I personally don’t think that’s any business of Congress to do that sort of thing but I certainly don’t want to be doing it when the United Nations tells us to do it. So those are two big ways it will affect every American and there are more.

Deace: Michael Farris is here with us from Patrick Henry College, also from the Home School Legal Defense Association, talking about another attempt to usurp American sovereignty, to essentially do an end-run around the Constitution and then of course due in freedom and liberty through an effort through the United Nations.

…

Farris: If they can get this one through, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, CEDAW, which is the women’s treaty with all kinds of junk in that one, and then a whole host of other UN treaties that the Obama administration wants to send our way, it’s a way to make the socialist, liberal, amoral element a permanent feature of our law through the use of treaties and they are going to do a full-force attack. We’ve got to stop them now. It’s not like just the camel nose in the tent, it is that too, but we don’t want a camel’s nose in our constitutional system, that’s what we don’t want.

Wilson: Courts may 'Force Christians to Not Be Able to Celebrate Christmas'

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 12/3/2012 5:40 pm

Buster Wilson of the American Family Association as of late has dedicated his radio program to fighting the so-called “War on Christmas,” railing against municipalities that don’t erect Nativity Scenes and stores that say “Happy Holidays.” Of course, Chick-fil-A has so far escaped his wrath even though the company easily fails the AFA’s “War on Christmas” test.

Last week, Wilson made the absurd argument that not having a Nativity Scene on public property is direct a violation of his First Amendment rights of freedom of religion and his God-given rights.

There are people who can put nativity scenes on their front lawns, it’s their private property and if they want to do that, they can do that, why do you have to have the public square as well? Here’s the reason why that’s a problem. The reason why we rebel against that is that the First Amendment of the Constitution gives every individual American the freedom of worship without any possibility of interference from the government. We don’t want the government saying you can do it here. The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, we declare that these rights are God-given; they are our unalienable rights from our Creator. They are not privileges granted by our government. If they are a privilege granted by the government then the government can number one, regulate it, or number two, take it away, we have unalienable rights.

However, nativity scenes and other religious symbols are allowed on public lands as long as they are part of a larger secular display and do not convey the state sponsorship of religion, something even the conservative American Center for Law and Justice admits:

In Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984), the Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of a government-erected crèche. Significantly, the Lynch Court upheld the constitutionality of the holiday display in that case because the crèche was a part of a larger holiday display in which there were a variety of secular symbols.

Today he took it a step further by saying that the courts are actually going to literally prevent people from “celebrating Christmas,” asserting that those pushing the “War on Christmas” are “using the court system of this country to force Christians to not be able to celebrate Christmas at Christmastime.”

He even suggested that President Obama’s attendance at Ramadan fast-breaking dinners shows that Christians are being slighted and Christmas marginalized.

I don’t understand, ‘you’re not the majority anymore, this is not a Christian nation and you’ve guys have got to quit trying to cram everything down people’s throats,’ nobody’s trying to cram—look, it is the folks who don’t want us celebrating Christmas that are cramming that view down our throats and using the courts to do it. So if we don’t want to start cramming things down people’s throats, then why don’t the folks who are opposed to us celebrating Christmas, why don’t they be quiet for a while because they are the ones that are using the court system of this country to force Christians to not be able to celebrate Christmas at Christmastime. I don’t understand it…I don’t get it, you know if you want to celebrate Ramadan, you celebrate Ramadan. The President of the United States of America has a Ramadan dinner with Muslims in the White House of the United States of America and celebrates Islam with those Muslims.

Fischer & Beisner Say That Not Using Fossil Fuels is an Insult to God

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 11/30/2012 12:26 pm

Earlier this month, the Religious Right's favorite climate change-denying "expert," Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance, appeared on American Family Radio where he declared that believing in climate change "is an insult to God."  Yesterday, when he joined Bryan Fischer on "Focal Point" for yet another discussion about the "myth" of global warming, both he and Fischer declared that failure to use coal, oil, and natural gas is an insulting rejection of the gifts that God has given to us - gifts which, incidentally, He buried deep in the earth because He delights in our search for and discovery of them:

Fischer: Obama is Intentionally Trying to Keep 'As Many Americans As Poor As Possible'

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 11/30/2012 11:20 am

On his radio program yesterday, Bryan Fischer made the entirely reasonable and logical argument that communists like President Obama "have a vested interest in keeping as many Americans as poor as possible" and to prevent them from succeeding in order to keep them dependent on the government.

In fact, Obama's push to help more students attend college, said Fischer, is really just an effort to saddle them with massive student loan debt and a worthless degree so that when they can't find a job, they become "helplessly, hopelessly, slavishly dependent upon government handouts." 

Arthur Goldberg Likens his Embattled Ex-Gay Therapy Group to Weight Watchers

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 11/29/2012 1:05 pm

Before founding the ex-gay therapy group JONAH, Arthur Goldberg was an investor convicted on felony charges and served time in prison for mail fraud and conspiracy. But the con man is being hailed as a hero by the Religious Right now that he is going up against the Southern Poverty Law Center in court, which is representing several customers of his New Jersey-based organization who are suing him for consumer fraud. Goldberg, however, will be unable to represent himself as he has been disbarred.

While speaking to American Family Association president Tim Wildmon and Family Research Council head Tony Perkins on AFA Today, Goldberg denied the SPLC’s claims that he defrauded customers by advertising that his group is able to “cure clients of being gay,” for example by instructing a group of men to “remove their clothing and stand naked in a circle” alongside a nude “counselor.”

Goldberg told Wildmon and Perkins that filing suit against an ex-gay therapy organization is like suing Weight Watchers for failing to lose weight through their program.

Fischer: Michelangelo Signorile Supports the Death Penalty for Gays

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 11/29/2012 11:25 am

Shortly before the election, gay radio talk-show host Michelangelo Signorile got into a discussion with a gay Mitt Romney supporter who called into the program to defend his vote for Romney, which prompted Signorile to tell the caller that he would be better off committing suicide than "waiting for the slow, painful death that Mitt Romney will bring you."

Signorile apologized the following day, saying there was no excuse for what he said and admitting that it was a "total botch up."

But that apology means nothing to Bryan Fischer, who has literally never apologized for any of the hundreds of bigoted things he has said on air because he means every word of it, and is instead proof that, unlike himself, Signorile approves of the death penalty for homosexuals:

AFA's Sandy Rios Wonders why Susan Rice Supports LGBT Rights: 'Is She Straight?'

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 11/28/2012 4:50 pm

American Family Association radio host Sandy Rios interviewed Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) to discuss Ruse’s efforts at the United Nations. Ruse is a staunch critic of the Obama administration’s initiative supporting LGBT rights abroad, even opposing efforts to prevent anti-LGBT violence. While speaking to Rios, he criticized the General Assembly for passing a resolution condemning extrajudicial executions, including killings based on “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”

Ruse then mocked UN Ambassador Susan Rice for tweeting, “We will not allow the remarkable progress the UN has made on LGBT issues in the last four years to be rolled back,” leading to Rios to ask: “is she straight?”

Ruse did not know, to Rios’s dismay. Rice is married to television producer Ian Cameron and has two children.

Rios: I remember her only vaguely but I remember bad things about her during the Clinton years, but I don’t remember what those things were. What’s your perception? What do you see in Susan Rice as the UN Ambassador?

Ruse: There was a big vote in the UN General Assembly last week, a new phrase entered into a UN document for the very first time called “gender identity” and I’ll give you a thousand dollars if you can define it. Gender identity has never appeared in a UN document, it appeared in a document last week. Immediately, Susan Rice tweeted that ‘LGBT human rights have made a major stride and we will not go back.’ They are very aggressive on sexual orientation and gender identity and Susan Rice is leading the charge.

Rios: Is she straight?

Ruse: I have no idea.

Rios: We don’t know do we [sigh].

Wildmon: Obama Should be Impeached Over Attack in Libya

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 11/28/2012 4:33 pm

Frank Gaffney was the guest on AFA's "Today's Issues" radio program this morning to discuss the Right's ongoing obsession with the conspiracy that there has been a systematic cover-up of the attack in Benghazi, Libya back in September.  The conspiracy theory now runs so deep that it prompted Tim Wildmon to go off on an extended rant about how President Obama and his administration lied and "intentionally misled the American people" about what happened in order to protect him ahead of the election.  As such, Wildmon asserted, this "scandal" is worse than Watergate and that had this happened back in 1973, Obama would have been unanimously impeached:

Right Wing Round-Up - 11/27/12

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 11/27/2012 6:33 pm

Rios: Penn State Child Abuse Scandal Part of the 'Whole Fabric' of Gay Rights

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 11/27/2012 5:55 pm

Peter LaBarbera and John Kirkwood hosted the American Family Association’s Sandy Rios on the Americans For Truth About Homosexuality Radio Hour to respond to the victories of marriage equality activists and Neal Boortz’s post-election rant against the Religious Right. Rios said that Boortz was just one of many conservatives trying to push the GOP to abandon social issues like abortion rights and gay equality in order to win elections. According to Rios, it isn’t that most people don’t oppose the gay rights movement anymore; it’s just that they simply don’t understand how horrible it is!

She said that “education elites” are using gay rights to push “the most horrible trash down our children’s throats” and that even the child abuse scandal at Penn State is part of the “whole fabric” of gay rights. Rios went on to say that she wouldn’t want her family to have gay neighbors just as she wouldn’t like to live next door to a brother or an abortion clinic.

Rios: They find themselves totally shocked when a coach like Jerry Sandusky comes after little boys, that’s shocking, and yet that’s the very thing, the whole fabric of gay marriage is part of that issue of where we draw the lines on sexuality. We have very good reasons for feeling the way they do and they aren’t just scriptural, Scripture is the basis but all truth is God’s truth, we can make our case without Scripture. Most people naturally speaking abhor the things that homosexual activists really working towards, they just don’t know about them. So Neal Boortz is just speaking out of ignorance.

Kirkwood: You’re talking about a movement and activists but you like to be challenged so here’s my challenge to you. I’m going to put it in his leading words…he said he’s going to be waiting for a year for somebody to tell him one reason that the gay couple down the street from Sandy Rios will have any effect on your life.

Rios: Because I have children and grandchildren in school, at least not yet but I will, but I have kids that are going to be in school and because I know how the National Education Association and the education elites have been pushing, pushing, pushing the most horrible trash down our children’s throats in the guise of mainstreaming homosexuality and gay marriage is just a part of that. It may be that a couple next door to me doesn’t affect my life but on the other hand if I’m raising children and I care: do I want to live next door to a brothel? Do I want to live next door to an abortion clinic? There are things that we morally object to and we don’t want our children to consider as normal.

Rios also repeated her claim that the success of abortion rights and gay equality at the ballot box is proof that America is under divine judgment, warning that God is using a “a veil of deception” to confuse people and lamenting that the Republican Party is no longer “a champion of moral values.” She concluded by warning LaBarbera and Kirkwood that they may soon face jail time or a fine for preaching against homosexuality.

Rios: The confusion and the people that we look up to failing us and being confused themselves, I see God’s supernatural hand in this. I really do think that there is a veil of deception and I think that it’s kind of like the way we see God, the way he works in the Old Testament, how when people have chosen to be rebellious he eventually says okay, go for it, you can have it. I think the American people are getting what we want.

We want licentiousness, we do not want moral restraint, whether its homosexuality or living together or abortion or birth control so we can have all the sex we want without consequence. We desperately want that so badly, women want it so badly, it’s all that matters to them on the left, that’s all they can think about, is not having to give up abortion and birth control. Of all the issues it really does drive them and I think God is going to give it to them.

I think He is going to give us homosexual marriage; I don’t see it stopping. I don’t see the Republican Party surviving in any form or fashion in the way it has been. I don’t see it being a champion of moral values; it gave up that ground a long time ago. You’ve seen it happen in Illinois and certainly we’re seeing the death, like the last gasps of death, here in DC. I believe God is bringing judgment.

…

Kirkwood: Regarding homosexuality then, it is going to be transformed from a marriage issue, which it has been, to don’t you think the transformation is now that activism is going to center around religious freedom?

Rios: Absolutely, you better believe it. Pastors like you, you will be fined or jailed like they have been in Canada, that’s coming.

Fischer: The Way to Win Over Independents is for the GOP to Become More Conservative

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 11/27/2012 2:14 pm

Yesterday, Bryan Fischer was a guest on Steve Deace's radio program where the two commiserated over the state of the Republican Party and discussed just what options social conservatives will have if the GOP attempts to jettison their culture war issues in an effort to win over moderate and independent voters. 

In Fischer's assessment, such a move would be tantamount to political suicide for the GOP because, contrary to popular opinion, those who classify themselves as "independents" are not moderates, but rather hard-line conservatives who refuse to consider themselves Republicans because the party is not conservative enough ... and so the only way to win over "independents," especially white voters who are "naturally" a part of the Republican base, is for the GOP to become more conservative on all the issues: 

Fischer: There are a lot of people in America who are independents because the Republican Party as it currently exists is not conservative enough for them, it doesn't represent their values. So they're to the right, actually, of where the Republican Party is; they're independents. So if the Republican Party thinks they've got to move toward the center, well they're moving further and further away from these conservatives that are looking for a conservative voice; they're actually hurting themselves moving away from their base.

Deace: You know, you think if the GOP is so much more business-smart, Bryan, well, the first rule of business is the customer is always right, isn't he? I mean, wouldn't you actually cater to the customers you have rather than trying to make them into something their not?

Fischer: Well, and you look at the turnout this year, Steve, where President Obama's vote totals dropped by X number of million votes, I don't know exactly what the final total was  - I think it's between six and seven million fewer votes Obama received this year than 2008. So here's a guy that's ripe for being picked off, but Romney barely matched the vote totals of John McCain in 2008 and we know from some of the other exit polling that probably six to seven million white voters stayed home: they naturally would be a part of Romney's base. So he just wasn't sending any message to them that was convincing them, as part of the Republican base, that it was worth even showing up to vote.

Wildmon: There's Nothing GOP Can Do to Win Over Black and Hispanic Voters

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 11/26/2012 3:10 pm

This morning on AFA's "Today's Issues," Tim Wildmon took issue with the prevailing wisdom among conservatives and Republicans that the party needs to do a better job of reaching out to minority voters if it wants to win future elections, saying that there really isn't much point in trying to do so because African American voters will always vote Democratic and there is nothing the GOP can do to change their minds.

As for Hispanic voters, Wildmon asserted that most of them care mainly about getting amnesty for their fellow Hispanics ... plus, "they are used to a socialist form of government in Mexico, which is big government welfare programs, so that is what they're going to vote for":

Fischer: Only Eyewitness Testimony Can Determine the Age of the Earth

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 11/21/2012 10:55 am

We would like to thank Michael Hainey of GQ magazine for recently asking Sen. Marco Rubio about how old he believes the world to be, mainly because it has resulted in entertaining attempts to defend the young earth view, like this exchange between Bryan Fischer and Terry Mortenson from Answers In Genesis on yesterday's radio program when the two insisted that scientists can never determine the age of the earth because they weren't there and "the only way we can know the age of the earth is if we have eyewitness testimony of somebody who was there, and that's what we have in the Bible": 

Right Wing Round-Up - 11/20/12

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 11/20/2012 6:34 pm

Fischer: 'If the Republican Party Comes Down for Amnesty, It's Done'

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 11/20/2012 1:19 pm

Last week, Bryan Fischer said that Republicans need to "clamp down" on immigration because Hispanics are "are socialists by nature" and tend to vote Democratic. But as leading voices in the Republican Party and conservative movement continue to work to soften the GOP's traditionally hardline approach to the issue of immigration, Fischer is warning that how the party comes down on this issue will determine whether it survives because "if the Republican Party comes down for amnesty, it's done":  

Fischer: The 9/11 Terrorists Were 'Agents of God's Wrath'

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 11/16/2012 11:46 am

As he traditionally does at the beginning of every radio program, Bryan Fischer dedicated the opening segment yesterday to a reading and discussion from the Bible. In this case, he was reading from Isaiah 10 in which the prophet explains that God had sent the Assyrians to invade Israel as judgment, which prompted Fischer to declare that the same thing happened to America as "the jihadists on 9/11 were the agents of God's wrath in order to get our attention as a people."

And it was a rather effective technique, Fischer explained, because ever since major league baseball games have sung "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch and "one of the reasons we haven't been hit since 9/11 is that we did learn that lesson, we needs as a people to go before God and ask for his protection": 

Fischer: Anti-Islam Filmmaker was Sent to Prison for Violating Obama's 'De Facto' Blasphemy Laws

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 11/15/2012 12:43 pm

On yesterday's radio program, Bryan Fischer speculated that now that former CIA Director David Petraeus has resigned from his position following revelations that he had engaged in an extra-marital affair, he'd now be free to tell the truth about what happen in Benghazi, Libya and, by doing so, "could bring Obama presidency down." 

The real tragedy, Fischer insisted, about the whole Benghazi issue was that the "completely innocent civilian" behind the anti-Islam film that was initially blamed for setting off riots in Muslim countries has now been sent to prison for violating an "Obama de facto blasphemy law against criticizing Islam, criticizing the prophet":

Of course, the man in question was really sent back to prison for violating the terms of his probation stemming from a bank fraud conviction by "using aliases, fraudulently obtaining a California driver's license under an assumed name and lying to probation officers."

Chick-fil-A Declares War on Christmas

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 11/15/2012 12:30 pm

For many Religious Right groups, Christmas is not so much a time to celebrate Immanuel than it is to raise money by fomenting outrage when shops use slogans like “happy holidays.” The American Family Association has a “Naughty or Nice” list to stir up consumers to boycott companies which are “against Christmas” and yesterday Liberty Counsel announced its “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign,” targeting public spaces which “censor” Christmas and selling their “Help Save Christmas Acton Pack.”

As Jeremy Hooper noted yesterday, it appears that the Religious Right’s most beloved fast food chain, Chick-fil-A, has indeed declared war on Christmas. In their horrific assault on Christmas, the company released a statement celebrating the “holiday season” that doesn’t once include the word “Christmas” and also pushed out a press release about “holiday gift giving,” again failing to mention “Christmas.” Even their online ads are clear affronts to Christmas!

We will wait to see whether LC or the AFA decide to be consistent with their boycott calls and paint Chick-fil-A as the season’s latest Grinch, but we won’t hold our breath, especially since Newt Gingrich, a proud foot soldier in the “War on Christmas,” escaped judgment when his company Gingrich Productions declared war on Christmas, and both LC chairman Mat Staver and AFA founder Don Wildmon endorsed him.

Wilson Twists Turnout Numbers to Charge Democrats with Voter Fraud

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 11/14/2012 1:00 pm

We were expecting conservatives to immediately blame their election defeats on voter fraud, and predictably their claims don’t have a leg to stand on. Yesterday, Buster Wilson of the American Family Association on AFA Today said that Rep. Allen West lost his campaign for re-election because of Democratic voter fraud, a point also made by AFA spokesman Bryan Fischer. Just like when Wilson thought he discovered Obama’s student ID proving he wasn’t born in the U.S. or exposed the militarization of the National Weather Service, Wilson now believes he uncovered massive voter fraud in Florida.

Allen West is one of the greatest Americans I’ve ever met. I just love this guy. I want to tell you, Allen West is the kind of American that after being around for just a few minutes you just go, man, I’m proud to be an American! Just being around him does that to me. His life story is awesome, his conservative politics is admirable, I’m not happy to see this. However, Rep. West is unwilling to concede because of the fraud in the voting in his district. He said there is one voting district there that had 141 percent of registered voters voting. 141 percent? That’s a little bit over the right number, isn’t it?

But Wilson’s claim, which is also touted on conservative sites like Townhall and WorldNetDaily, that a county in West’s district had “141 percent of registered voters voting” is not true.

The number Wilson points to is actually the percentage of “cards cast.” Since the ballot contains two cards, or the number of pages on the ballot, the voter turnout rate is approximately half of the cards cast [PDF].

As Chris Haire explains:

As for the case of St. Lucie, Fla., where 141 percent of registered voters apparently voted, I talked to a source there who says that only 70 percent of registered voters cast ballots. The reason for the mix up: This year's ballot was two-pages long, and for whatever reason, the St. Lucie Election Commission election day report notes the number of "cards" cast and not the number of ballots. Which means that the number of votes that were actually cast were half of what WND and others are now reporting.

And the county supervisor of elections notes:

Turnout percentages will show over 100% due to a two page ballot. the tabulation system (GEMS) provides voter turnout as equal to the total cards cast in the election divided by the number of registered voters. Also note that some voters chose not to return by mail the second card containing the amendments.

UPDATE: Wilson’s colleague at AFA Sandy Rios also claimed on her radio show that the presidential election and West’s race were “stolen,” making the same exact false claim that in “Allen West’s congressional district, initially on the first count, I think 140 percent of the people registered to vote, voted.” Rios added that the overwhelming support Obama received in inner-city precincts is proof of fraud, even though such overwhelming margins are neither without precedent nor evidence of fraud.

I just heard Paul Ryan in the news, in an interview he was saying that President Obama deserves to be congratulated because he won fair and square. I am not quite sure why he would say that, I don’t agree with that. I find myself increasingly believing that this election was indeed stolen and I’ll tell you why, I’ve been telling you why. Allen West alone in Florida, 4,000 voters were added to his opponent's tally just in mere minutes late at night, 1:00 in the morning, 4,000 votes were flipped to his opponent and at that time Allen West was ahead by like 2,500 votes or something like that. In many precincts Ohio, in over one hundred of them, President Obama got over 99 percent of the vote, which is statistically impossible. In Allen West’s congressional district, initially on the first count I think 140 percent of the people registered to vote, voted. So you see what I’m saying?

Rios: 'One of the Most Tragic Results' of the Gay Rights Movement is 'the Gay Community Itself'

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 11/13/2012 5:45 pm

Sandy Rios of the American Family Association invited Americans for Truth about Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera on her radio show to discuss what went wrong with the four state ballot initiatives won by gay rights advocates. She said the problems began when Religious Right leaders such as James Dobson and the late Chuck Colson were pressured by Karl Rove and Republican establishment during the fight over the Federal Marriage Amendment to only talk about marriage but not discuss homosexuality and same-sex relationships, which she compared to using the word ‘chattel’ instead of ‘slavery.’ “They though it was okay just to protect marriage, not to talk about homosexuality, that was banned from the discussion, we could only talk about the word marriage,” Rios explained. “My point was always, if we were talking about slavery, we would say we would allow ‘chattel’ just not ‘slavery,’ ‘chattel’ is the same thing, the word doesn’t matter.”

Probably one of the most difficult battles I faced as president of Concerned Women for America was the issue of same-sex marriage. I was there during the time when Massachusetts passed it, Peter worked for me in the Culture and Family Institute and we were into this up to our knees, up to our shoulders. Let’s go back ten years and the polls were showing that people were not, there was no way they were ready to accept same-sex marriage, and not only that but they were not willing to accept legalized same-sex partnerships: no civil unions, domestic partnerships, they were sill wildly unpopular in polls. So when we pushed for a federal marriage amendment that would outlaw acknowledging through law any kind of same-sex coupling, we had all the stats on our side and that’s what we were pushing for.

But the Republican establishment pushed back, Karl Rove pushed back, and he managed to pressure some people that we all love and respect dearly here in Washington, D.C., to buckle, I would include Chuck Colson, who I love dearly, I would include James Dobson, they decided that it was enough to protect the word marriage. That was the battle. They though it was okay just to protect marriage, not to talk about homosexuality, that was banned from the discussion, we could only talk about the word marriage. My point was always, if we were talking about slavery, we would say we would allow ‘chattel’ just not ‘slavery,’ ‘chattel’ is the same thing, the word doesn’t matter.

She even tied the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to the scandal surrounding David Petraues, saying that more military officials will be “distracted with issues of sexuality” and the country “will be less protected.” Later, Rios argued that homosexuality itself causes depression, high suicide rates and violence and that a “tragic” consequence of the gay rights movement “is the gay community itself,” which she described as a dysfunctional and sad place. LaBarbera, meanwhile, said that the “the Glee kiss that was on national TV” told him “that America was in deep, deep trouble” as gay rights supporters are “taking away the natural revulsion that most people have or used to have toward homosexual behavior.”

Rios: The military is going to transform tremendously and I don’t think when men are distracted with issues of sexuality, just like David Petraeus just had to step down because he was having a long term affair after as far as I can see did a terrible job of overseeing Benghazi, perhaps because he was distracted, we can expect we will be less protected. Peter, take it from there, what other things do you see coming?

LaBarbera: It’s just unbelievable Sandy that young people are going to be exposed to more and more homosexual behavior. I keep going back to the Glee kiss that was on national TV, that told me that America was in deep, deep trouble. We had two boys kissing for twenty or thirty seconds in a romantic set up on Fox’s Glee during prime time. It’s getting so bad that they’re taking away the natural revulsion that most people have or used to have toward homosexual behavior. To understand the homosexual agenda it’s this pathological drive for acceptance and they will use the government to force acceptance on people if necessary. There’s a drive by people practicing homosexuality, trying to rationalize that sin, I believe that deep down at least at one point they knew it was a sin but they are trying to overcome that. So that’s why we see this tremendous push in the corporate world, in society by government, to push the acceptance of homosexuality on people and it will reach the church, it already has, and it will only get worse like you said.

Rios: I would be remiss without saying this, what I always say, because I believe it with all my heart, one of the most tragic results of this is the gay community itself. The men who are dying early of diseases, who are having their hearts broken over and over again because it’s not satisfying, men are not meant to be with men and women are not meant to be with women, so there’s depression, and you know people who date and break up and date and break up, this is what happens: rejections, suicide rate and violence.
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American Family Association
The American Family Association (AFA) has been a long-time promoter of "traditional moral values" in the media, particularly television. AFA built its reputation on organizing boycotts against sponsors of TV shows with "anti-Christian" messages and ideas, or against companies it claims support the so-called "homosexual agenda" or marriage equality. MORE >

American Family Association Posts Archive

Fischer: Obama Has No Soul; Gays Have No Place in the NFL
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Friday 03/01/2013, 4:15pm
Yesterday on Focal Point it took American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer just a few minutes to transition from praising NFL teams for asking about players’ sexual orientations to talking about why he believes President Obama has no soul. First, Fischer said that the NFL shouldn’t sign gay players because they would cause a “grenade-like explosion” that would destroy the team. He said that the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is doing such damage to the military, even though all the reports so far show that the new policy has had zero negative... MORE >
FRC's Tony Perkins: Democrats Aligned with 'Jewish Lobby,' 'Enjoy the Money' Coming from Jews
SUBMITTED BY: Josh Glasstetter, Thursday 02/28/2013, 6:17pm
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, made an interesting observation on his radio show yesterday. Speaking about the confirmation of Chuck Hagel, Perkins mused about the ‘irony’ that Hagel, whom he considers to be anti-Israel, was backed by Democratic senators who are “mostly aligned with a lot of the Jewish lobby” and “enjoy the money coming from the Jewish community.” Hmmm, “Jewish lobby,” where have I heard that before? Hagel has been savaged in recent weeks for having used the phrase in a 2006 interview. He has since... MORE >
Fischer: Liberals Are Modern Day Pharisees
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Thursday 02/28/2013, 5:25pm
Without even a hint of irony, Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association on Focal Point claimed that the Pharisees whom Jesus used as an example of self-righteous, judgmental, power-seeking, sanctimonious and empty religiosity are still around today… and are liberals. “If you look for the group of people today who are doing what the Pharisees did in the Jesus did, you have to look at secular fundamentalists, you have to look at liberals, you have to look at progressives,” Fischer said. Watch: MORE >
'Project 2026' to Fight the Gay-Muslim-Atheist Alliance Destroying America
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Thursday 02/28/2013, 12:10pm
American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer spoke yesterday with fellow AFA radio host Alex McFarland about Project 2026, which McFarland explained is a long-term initiative to save America from annihilation at the hands of “the four groups that are actively working to secularize and destroy America: humanists; atheists; militant homosexuals; and Muslims.” McFarland: There is a remnant, there is hope, there are still some people who know how to pray and call on Heaven but we are right now ripe for either a manifestation of God’s judgment or God’s mercy.... MORE >
Fischer: Liberals Are Like 'Vultures Feeding on the Carcass of the American Economy'
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Wednesday 02/27/2013, 11:18am
On his radio program yesterday, Bryan Fischer cited a comment made by Charles Krauthammer based on a quote in a Washington Post article about the possible impact of the sequester to declare that liberals want bad things to happen because that is good for their political agenda and, as such, they "actually want bad things to happen to our country."  "They are like scavengers," Fischer proclaimed, "they're like vultures feeding on the carcass of the American economy, so they want it to die so they can eat.  I mean, that is how perverse their worldview is... MORE >
Fischer: 'There Is No Right to Engage in Immoral Behavior'
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 02/26/2013, 12:32pm
On yesterday's radio program, Bryan Fischer went after President Obama for refusing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act before the Supreme Court, calling it a violation of his oath of office before declaring that people do not have any right whatsoever to engage in homosexual acts: "They don't have a moral right to do it, they don't have an ethical right to do it, they don't have a right to do it according to the laws of nature, and most importantly they do not have a right to do it according to the laws of God; and beyond that they do not have a right to do it... MORE >
Fischer Declares That Robert Jeffress Is Now 'the Most Important Man in America'
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Monday 02/25/2013, 4:27pm
After Tim Tebow canceled his scheduled speaking engagement at Robert Jeffress' church last week, Bryan Fischer lashed out at the "bigoted bullies at Big Gay" who were supposedly responsible for pressuring Tebow into backing down. Jeffress' addressed the controversy in a defiant sermon on Sunday that apparently send a thrill up Fischer's spine, as he played a lengthy excerpt from it on his radio program today ... but not before declaring that Jeffress is now "the most important man in America" and predicting that the Tebow controversy represents a "turning... MORE >
Rios: Grades Dropping Due to LGBT-Inclusive Education in Public Schools
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Friday 02/22/2013, 5:30pm
On her radio program today, the American Family Association’s Sandy Rios read listener responses to her recent interview with anti-gay activist Brian Camenker, who claims that bullying-prevention programs and LGBT-inclusive curricula are ruining American education. Rios praised one email from “Margaret,” who wrote that “basic skills” like reading and writing are being “pushed aside in favor of teaching moral choices and left-wing agenda. It is no wonder American students have fallen so far behind other nations.” Margaret lamented that schools “... MORE >