PLEAS

Religious Right Rebels Against Latest GOP Budget Proposal

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 3/15/2011 12:47 pm

It looks like it barely took two months for major Religious Right groups to panic over the GOP leadership’s agenda. Speaker John Boehner decided to pass another temporary continuing resolution that includes funding towards family planning and health services groups like Planned Parenthood, which anti-choice organizations fiercely opposed. With Republican leaders ready to ignore their pleas, many are now on the attack.

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association did not mince words in his attack on Republican leaders:

The new temporary Continuing Resolution, which will be voted on in the House tomorrow, is perfectly terrible. It does not defund Planned Parenthood, abortions in D.C., ObamaCare, NPR or the EPA. The GOP leadership right now is only agreeing to stuff that Obama said he didn't want anyway. This is an inkling that there may an alarming lack of spine in House GOP leadership. This is the optimum time to strike down funding for Planned Parenthood, after Lila Rose's undercover investigation exposed its willingness to aid and abet those who traffic in child prostitution by arranging for underage girls to get flatly illegal abortions. The question on defunding is simple: if not now, when?

The Family Research Council will score the vote on the continuing resolution in its ratings of members, and Tony Perkins called on the group’s allies in Congress to vote against it:

Much to the displeasure of voters and dozens of organizations like FRC, the proposal sidelines every pro-life provision for which we fought. Apparently, some Republicans are worried that the bill will get hung up by the language to defund Planned Parenthood and D.C. abortions. All the more reason to have this battle now and move on.

Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List said the defunding of Planned Parenthood was a “non-negotiable” issue:

If Congress can’t cut off taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood, a willing partner of the exploitation of women and young girls, how can it be serious about cutting spending anywhere else? The time to end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood is not next week, or in three weeks, or in a month, it’s now. Ending taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood in both short-term and long-term Continuing Resolution bills is a non-negotiable.

CPAC Leftovers - Peacemaking Pleas and Tea Party Coffee Table Books

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Wednesday, 2/16/2011 10:36 am

A few tidbits from the piles of stuff picked up at CPAC 2011:

The CPAC “Resource Guide,” a spiral-bound booklet with info about sponsors and participating organizations, included several essays, some of which were pleas for peace between libertarian-leaning economic conservatives and social conservatives. Some of the latter, of course, dropped their sponsorships and trashed CPAC leaders over the participation of GOProud, whose leader in turn derided the Religious Right groups as “loser” organizations. Former Reagan official Donald Devine contributed “Why We are Conservatives,” which includes:
 
Western civilization has been a harmony of both. Not a simple uniform tune, but a harmonic masterpiece, not simple libertarianism nor univocal traditionalism but both…The price of a successful conservatism must be a gracious acceptance of the traditional live and let live formula. If the modern scourges of brutal egalitarianism, debilitating fatalism and feckless progressivism are to be transcended, traditionalist and libertarian conservatives must learn again to work together in bold harmony.
 
Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery contributed “Social and Economic Conservatives Have Much in Common,” which notes (correctly) that there is much overlap between the Tea Party and Religious Right movements. And he warned libertarians that they should embrace the social conservatives’ morals-based policies as the only bulwark against chaos:
 
In the West, these principles find their source in the Judeo-Christian moral tradition, and if we lose that collective sense of “oughtness” then individual liberty degenerates into selfishness, and eventually into social chaos. And at that point it is only the loaded gun and the barbed wire fence that can preserve order.
 
On the lighter side, among the countless books available to CPAC participants were “Grandma’s Not Shovel-Ready,” a picture book of signs from 9-12 and Tea Party protests in 2009, and “The New Democrat,” a Dr. Seuss-style parody of “The Cat in the Hat” starring a Marxist-insignia-wearing Barack Obama as the chaos-provoking interloper. The editors of the picture book were clearly not worried about soft-peddling the movement’s message: the book is replete with signs depicting Obama as a Communist thug bent on destroying America and killing off the elderly.  Other signs attack the patriotism of the movement’s targets (“Beware of liberals posing as Americans”) or threaten violent revolution (“A Revolution is brewing. We will not subsidize tyranny. Violate our Liberty at Your Peril.” and “Now Look!! Nice people forced to protest!! This must be serious we came unarmed…this time”). There are a few signs joking about anal sex (“Obamacare. Bend Over. This is gonna hurt.” and “Taxation without lubrication!!!”). The “Cat in the Hat” parody includes explanatory information that Dr. Seuss – Theodor Geisel – was a leftist who injected his progressive polemics into the books on which our current leaders were raised.
 
I haven’t yet had the time (or stomach) to read Phyllis Schlafly’s latest attack on feminism (The Flip Side of Feminism: what conservative women know – and men can’t say written with Suzanne Venker, a columnist for David Horowitz). Not helping is the list of people blurbing the book, which includes Horowitz, Ann Coulter, David Limbaugh, and the shouldn’t-be-treated-seriously-ever-again-after-his-latest-book Dinesh D’Souza.

CPAC Leftovers - Peacemaking Pleas and Tea Party Coffee Table Books

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Wednesday, 2/16/2011 10:36 am

A few tidbits from the piles of stuff picked up at CPAC 2011:

The CPAC “Resource Guide,” a spiral-bound booklet with info about sponsors and participating organizations, included several essays, some of which were pleas for peace between libertarian-leaning economic conservatives and social conservatives. Some of the latter, of course, dropped their sponsorships and trashed CPAC leaders over the participation of GOProud, whose leader in turn derided the Religious Right groups as “loser” organizations. Former Reagan official Donald Devine contributed “Why We are Conservatives,” which includes:
 
Western civilization has been a harmony of both. Not a simple uniform tune, but a harmonic masterpiece, not simple libertarianism nor univocal traditionalism but both…The price of a successful conservatism must be a gracious acceptance of the traditional live and let live formula. If the modern scourges of brutal egalitarianism, debilitating fatalism and feckless progressivism are to be transcended, traditionalist and libertarian conservatives must learn again to work together in bold harmony.
 
Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery contributed “Social and Economic Conservatives Have Much in Common,” which notes (correctly) that there is much overlap between the Tea Party and Religious Right movements. And he warned libertarians that they should embrace the social conservatives’ morals-based policies as the only bulwark against chaos:
 
In the West, these principles find their source in the Judeo-Christian moral tradition, and if we lose that collective sense of “oughtness” then individual liberty degenerates into selfishness, and eventually into social chaos. And at that point it is only the loaded gun and the barbed wire fence that can preserve order.
 
On the lighter side, among the countless books available to CPAC participants were “Grandma’s Not Shovel-Ready,” a picture book of signs from 9-12 and Tea Party protests in 2009, and “The New Democrat,” a Dr. Seuss-style parody of “The Cat in the Hat” starring a Marxist-insignia-wearing Barack Obama as the chaos-provoking interloper. The editors of the picture book were clearly not worried about soft-peddling the movement’s message: the book is replete with signs depicting Obama as a Communist thug bent on destroying America and killing off the elderly.  Other signs attack the patriotism of the movement’s targets (“Beware of liberals posing as Americans”) or threaten violent revolution (“A Revolution is brewing. We will not subsidize tyranny. Violate our Liberty at Your Peril.” and “Now Look!! Nice people forced to protest!! This must be serious we came unarmed…this time”). There are a few signs joking about anal sex (“Obamacare. Bend Over. This is gonna hurt.” and “Taxation without lubrication!!!”). The “Cat in the Hat” parody includes explanatory information that Dr. Seuss – Theodor Geisel – was a leftist who injected his progressive polemics into the books on which our current leaders were raised.
 
I haven’t yet had the time (or stomach) to read Phyllis Schlafly’s latest attack on feminism (The Flip Side of Feminism: what conservative women know – and men can’t say written with Suzanne Venker, a columnist for David Horowitz). Not helping is the list of people blurbing the book, which includes Horowitz, Ann Coulter, David Limbaugh, and the shouldn’t-be-treated-seriously-ever-again-after-his-latest-book Dinesh D’Souza.

Terry Kicks Off Anti-Communion Tour

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 12/8/2009 2:27 pm

Randall Terry converted to Catholicism a few years ago and that apparently gives him the clout to set off on yet another nationwide tour, this time aimed at getting Bishops to deny Communion to any Catholic member of Congress who doesn't share his right-wing views:

Beginning Wednesday, December 9, Insurrecta Nex team members will travel to 13 Cathedrals in 9 states to hold vigils and press conferences. The tour will finish at the Boston Cathedral, the seat of Cardinal O'Malley, the site of decades of scandal with the Kennedy and the Kerry families.

They will ask Catholic Bishops: "Your Excellency, if any Catholic US Senator from your state, or member of the United States House of Representatives from your diocese votes to fund the murder of children by abortion in any 'health care reform' bill, will they be denied Communion?"

Randall Terry, founder of Insurrecta Nex, States: "Child-killing in 'Healthcare' may be the biggest battle for Catholic Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy in US history. It is certainly the fiercest battle for Babies Lives since Roe versus Wade.

"Will Catholic Bishops truly defend babies -- not with mere lip service, but with true valor -- and hold pro-death Catholic Congressmen accountable? Or will they turn a deaf ear to the cries of innocent blood, the pleas of the faithful, and the canons of the Catholic Church that obligate them to withhold communion from Catholic politicians who promote the murder of babies by abortion?"

The Pro-Life Educators and Students (PLEAS) Pick-Up Right-Wing Support for NEA "Prayer and Picket"

Submitted by Anonymous on Thursday, 6/25/2009 4:50 pm

Bob Pawson, national coordinator for Pro-Life Educators and Students (PLEAS), has announced that he's added a few familiar faces to his "prayer and picket" planned for the National Education Association's annual conference in San Diego on July 2nd.

Earlier this month, I wrote about Pawson's personal vendetta against the NEA, a group who is hardly an outspoken abortion advocacy group (they dedicate three sentences of their 462-page charter to reproductive rights).

Now, he's gained some support from, among others, the recently jailed Rev. Walter B. Hoye, president of Issues4Life Foundation. Along with Hoye, Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, and Rev. Patrick Mahoney of Christian Defense Coalition have pledged their support:

Bob Pawson of Pro-Life Educators and Students (PLEAS), announces, "Our growing team of pro-life coordinators now includes Jeff White from Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, Rev. Patrick Mahoney of Christian Defense Coalition, and Troy Newman of Operation Rescue, for the July 2 prayer-and-picket demonstration during the NEA teacher union convention at the San Diego Convention Center and NEA-State-Affiliate offices across America.

"These esteemed pro-life leaders are promoting and recruiting for our peaceful, prayerful demonstrations regarding the NEA leadership's pro-abortion track record. They are speaking at the Rally for Life at New Beginnings Church in Norco, CA, this Tuesday evening alongside Rev. Walter B. Hoye II, president of Issues4Life Foundation."

While Pawson didn't re-affirm his belief that abortion caused the current economic crisis, he did downplay the size of the protests at state-level NEA offices. He also advised parents to bring their children, because hey, they make for good marketing:

"Gather together your family members and a few pro-life friends and just go to your state's NEA-affiliate offices with pro-life posters. Pray and picket for an hour. Children are especially effective messengers highlighting the hypocrisy of teacher-union leaders supporting abortion," said Pawson.

"The number of locations nationwide is more important than the number of picketers at any location. We don't necessarily need hundreds of picketers at each state's NEA-HQ. A dozen or two would be sufficient -- multiplied by many sites across 50 states. Pro-Lifers far from state capitals can picket their county or town's local NEA-affiliate listed in telephone book white pages."

Pro-Life Educators and Students (PLEAS) Announces Protest of the National Education Association, Blames Recession on Abortion

Submitted by Anonymous on Wednesday, 6/10/2009 8:21 pm

The Pro-Life Educators and Students (PLEAS) have announced the first major anti-abortion demonstration since the killing of Dr. George Tiller. While the demonstration is nothing out of the ordinary, PLEAS isn't focusing its effort on a traditional target of anti-choice groups. Instead, they'll be protesting... the National Education Association. In a press release, Bob Pawson, a coordinator for PLEAS, announced that the group is organizing a July 2nd "prayer & picket" that will involve many different pro-life groups.

The NEA is hardly an outspoken reproductive rights group, rather an organization dedicated to advancing and improving the public school system. They devoted a mere three sentences of their 462-page handbook to "Family Planning":

The National Education Association supports family planning, including the right to reproductive freedom. The Association urges the government to give high priority to making available all methods of family planning to women and men unable to take advantage of private facilities. The Association also urges the implementation of community-operated, school-based family planning clinics that will provide intensive counseling by trained personnel.

Even stranger than PLEAS' choice to target the NEA are remarks made by Pawson in the press release. Pawson unveils the catalyst behind the economic recession: federal abortion policy. Oh, it's also why we don't have a cure for AIDS:

Abortion is the primary factor causing America's economic recession, said Pawson. America is suffering the consequences for killing fifty-million people who are supposed to be among us today as teachers, producers, consumers, taxpayers, leaders, inventors, and problem-solvers. It's no surprise that a nation which slaughters nearly twenty percent of its future customers, investors, and entrepreneurs also kills its own economy. Wrong moral choices have negative consequences. Evil acts generate their own punishment.
Abortion has led to the destruction of fifty-million students and simultaneously eliminated hundreds of thousands of teaching careers and education-related jobs. Surely, some of those dead students were the ones God sent to cure AIDS, end world-hunger, and create clean-energy technologies, said Pawson

Putting aside his "economic argument", Pawson should strongly consider protesting a group that devotes more than three sentences of their 462-page charter to reproductive rights.

Santorum Tells Specter He's On His Own

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 3/26/2009 4:02 pm

Back in 2004, when Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter was running for re-election, he faced a stiff primary challenge from Pat Toomey.  To his rescue came President Bush and his home-state Senate colleague Rick Santorum and managed to eke out a win which, in turn, made right-wing Republicans ... with Santorum:

Mr. Santorum campaigned on behalf of his colleague, despite pleas from notable conservative groups. And fueling their anger is the considerable help that the White House and the national Republican leadership gave Mr. Specter, even though during his 24 years in the Senate he often voted with Democrats against Republican-sponsored legislation backed by Republican presidents, including President Bush.

Even in Mr. Santorum's home state, anger abounds over what some fellow conservatives regard as his apostasy.

"Santorum and his staff are really going to have to work hard to heal the wounds they caused," said Bob Sevcik, a member of the state party central committee and self-described Reaganite.

Two years later, Santorum lost his own re-election bid and has since re-made himself into a tireless critic of the insufficiently conservative members of the Republican party, something that has now come into full view in his latest column, where he tells Sen. Specter, whom is facing yet another primary challenge from Toomey and is currently trailing badly in the polls, that his goose is cooked and that Santorum can't wait to watch as he goes down:

Pennsylvania's political Houdini has escaped similar predicaments in the past by burnishing his conservative credentials in the run-up to the primary - hence the announcement on card check this week. So, too, his potentially crucial vote against Solicitor General Ellen Kagan, which conservatives are touting as a death knell for her chances of being named to the Supreme Court.

...

The argument that Specter has the best chances in a general election will become more persuasive next year, when the GOP faithful face the harsh reality that they are more than a million registered voters behind the Democrats. However, thanks to the prospect of facing Specter, whoever wins the primary will not face an A-list Democratic opponent.

In 2004, President Bush and a Senate colleague from Western Pennsylvania made the difference for Specter. Those dogs don't hunt anymore. This year, his help may come from Peg Luksic, Larry Murphy, and anyone else who helps split up the vote next spring - anyone other than Pat Toomey, that is.

It will be fun to watch. And watch I will.

Her Non-Racist Eyes Couldn't Save Her

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 10/23/2008 2:28 pm

It looks like Diane Fedele, the women responsible for the racist "Obama Bucks" newsletter has realized that she wasn't convincing anyone with her "I'm not racist" pleas and decided to step down:

The president of a San Bernardino County Republican club resigned after apologizing for distributing a newsletter with a caricature of Barack Obama on a fake food stamp surrounded by ribs, watermelon and fried chicken.

In a letter sent Wednesday to members of the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated, Diane Fedele said she was sorry for showing "poor judgment and lack of insight and sensitivity."

...

Fedele denied racist intent but in her letter defended the message: "The point, that has been lost in the subsequent discussion over images, was that Obama will 'take from the rich and give to the poor' and that we ALL would be buying food with his 'Obama Welfare Dollars.' An ideological statement, not a racial one."

The best part of all of this? The fact that the original image was reportedly made by a Democrat in order to satirize the Right's over-the-top attacks on Obama:

The Riverside Press-Enterprise said the cartoon was created by Tim Kastelein, a 31-year-old Minnesota Democrat who said he made it in a satirical attempt to make fun of right-wing pundits afraid of a Democratic presidential candidate.

Fighting It Out on the Pages of WND

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 3/18/2008 4:25 pm

Just because Mike Huckabee has dropped out of the presidential race doesn’t mean Janet Folger is done campaigning for him, penning an open letter to John McCain urging him to tap Huckabee as his VP:

I'm not telling you whom to pick, but if you want the vice presidential candidate who in addition to winning the "must win" states in the primary, who has the best cost/vote ratio, who has proven he can energize the base of the party, who defended (not attacked) you even before you won the nomination, who is honest, consistent and according to Rasmussen, has the least opposition among American voters, Mike Huckabee is your guy.

Ask him, I'm sure he would be honored to be your vice president, and I'm sure millions more would be honored to vote for you if you do.

While Folger has already made peace with her principles by deciding to throw her support behind McCain, her one-time comrade-in-arms Gordon Klingenschmitt is having none of it, taking to the pages of WorldNetDaily to chastise Folger for selling out:

In a recent WND column, Janet Folger begs social conservatives to vote for John McCain. She believes McCain will rescue "most everyone" from our political "burning building" – when in fact McCain has already locked arms with the Kennedys, Feingolds and liberal Democrats to keep social conservatives "out" of politics while they burn our constitutional republic to the ground.

…

McCain not only refused to participate in Janet Folger's Values Voter Presidential Debate, he has repeatedly distanced himself from religious groups. He won the Republican nomination without faith-based voters. So, if he wins the White House, will he suddenly listen to our pleas? No chance! Only by treating ourselves with respect can we demand respect from others. Have we no dignity?

Klingenschmitt and Folger have a long history together, as she was one of his staunchest defenders when he was fighting to keep his job as a Chaplain in the Navy, with Folger regularly citing Klingenschmitt’s legal fight as evidence of the on-going “criminalization of Christianity."

After being discharged from the Navy, Klingenschmitt linked up with Vision America’s Rick Scarborough and Alan Keyes for their “70 Weeks To Save America Crusade” and then quickly lined up to support Keyes’ own vanity run for President (he’s currently listed at the top of the “Honor Roll” on Keyes’ website for his efforts to secure 104 pledges to support his campaign.)  

But it looks as if now Klingenschmitt and Folger are on the outs.  In fact, it looks like Klingenschmitt is on the outs with the Republican Party altogether, announcing that Keyes is reportedly leaving the GOP and that he intends to follow suit so that he may “continue to support Dr. Keyes wherever he leads our Exodus”:

Abandon McCain's sinking ship! Man your lifeboats! I cannot violate my conscience in November. I'll make a statement with my vote, instead of wasting it on Clinton, Obama or McCain. Faith-minded people cannot tolerate evil, whatever its degree, since Christ taught us, "Be ye perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect." Show some self-respect and have faith in God. America needs principled leaders who have borne the battle for liberty and are unashamed of the wounds received in doing so. I'll vote for Alan Keyes, writing in his name if necessary. Join us, and someday you'll stand before God with your head held high, blameless and unashamed of your vote.

Racketeering Case against Militant Anti-Abortion Activists Comes to a Close

Submitted by Anonymous on Wednesday, 5/9/2007 5:33 pm

According to the National Organization for Women, Joseph Scheidler once likened his militant Pro-Life Action Network to a “pro-life mafia.” Now, Scheidler is celebrating the final dismissal of a lawsuit that sought to hold his group’s (sometimes violent) intimidation activism accountable to an anti-mob racketeering law. “I’ve waited 21 years for this news!” said Scheidler. The ruling following a Supreme Court decision last year that federal racketeering laws don’t apply to organized crime without extortion or robbery.

Troy Newman, president of the current incarnation of Operation Rescue, praised Scheidler as a “true American hero.” The original Operation Rescue, run by Randall Terry, was also part of the NOW v. Scheidler lawsuit, but Terry agreed to a permanent injunction against his brand of clinic blockades and a monetary settlement back in 1998. (Terry, who declared bankruptcy to evade the settlement, found himself in the news again two years ago as the spokesman for Terri Schiavo’s parents.)

Throughout the period of militant anti-abortion protesting, when clinic bombings and murders of doctors spotted the headlines, Scheidler was unapologetic about his group’s tactics. “I’m doing what I have to do. So what? I’ve got some misdemeanors … I don’t consider myself a criminal,” he said (AP, 12/5/93). He bragged about his unusual actions, such as absconding with fetal remains (Wash. Post, 12/6/93) or picketing the homes of doctors (“Home Pickets Work,” USA Today, 10/19/95).

The Right’s Short Memory

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 1/10/2007 5:34 pm

As was to be expected, the Right is none-too-pleased about the announcement that a few controversial judicial nominees have asked to have their nominations withdrawn now that the Democrats have taken control of the Senate.

Pat Robertson lamented the news, but used it as an opportunity to urge President Bush to push ahead with the nomination of ideologues and provoke a confrontation in order to remind the Democrats and “the American people … what happened to Sen. Daschle in South Dakota.”  [Watch the video: Broadband or Dial-Up.]  

Bruce Hausknecht, a judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, likewise weighed in, saying “it's a shame that the nominations of these fine men languished for years without good reason" and complaining that "the [Senate Judiciary] committee became a black hole in 2001 and 2002 for court of appeals nominees under Leahy's last tenure as chairman, so at this point I remain deeply skeptical concerning the fate of the president's future appeals court nominees.” 

For someone who holds the position of “judicial analyst,” Hausknecht sure doesn’t seem to know much about the history of judicial nominations.  

In the 107th Congress, when Democrats controlled the Senate, 17 appellate court nominees were confirmed.  In the 108th and 109th, when Republicans controlled the Senate, 18 and 16 were confirmed respectively.  

When Bill Clinton was president and the Democrats controlled the Senate during the 103rd Congress, 19 of his appellate court nominees were confirmed.  During the next three Congresses under Republican control, 11, 20, and 15 were confirmed respectively.  

Thus, the supposed “black hole” for President Bush’s appellate court nominees under Leahy was nothing of the sort and actually resulted in more confirmations than in three of the five most recent Congresses in which Republicans controlled the Senate.    

In addition to ignoring these statistics, nobody on the Right ever seems to mention the nearly 50+ Clinton administration nominees who never received a Committee hearing or a floor vote, thanks largely to the Republicans. 

And while they are outraged by the so-called “obstruction” that has lead a handful of Bush’s nominees to ask that their nominations be withdrawn, no one on the Right appears to have much regret about the various Clinton administration nominees who withdrew their nominations because of Republican opposition or lengthy delays:

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PLEAS Posts Archive

Religious Right Rebels Against Latest GOP Budget Proposal
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Tuesday 03/15/2011, 12:47pm
It looks like it barely took two months for major Religious Right groups to panic over the GOP leadership’s agenda. Speaker John Boehner decided to pass another temporary continuing resolution that includes funding towards family planning and health services groups like Planned Parenthood, which anti-choice organizations fiercely opposed. With Republican leaders ready to ignore their pleas, many are now on the attack. Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association did not mince words in his attack on Republican leaders: The new temporary Continuing Resolution, which will be voted on... MORE >
CPAC Leftovers - Peacemaking Pleas and Tea Party Coffee Table Books
SUBMITTED BY: Peter Montgomery, Wednesday 02/16/2011, 10:36am
A few tidbits from the piles of stuff picked up at CPAC 2011: The CPAC “Resource Guide,” a spiral-bound booklet with info about sponsors and participating organizations, included several essays, some of which were pleas for peace between libertarian-leaning economic conservatives and social conservatives. Some of the latter, of course, dropped their sponsorships and trashed CPAC leaders over the participation of GOProud, whose leader in turn derided the Religious Right groups as “loser” organizations. Former Reagan official Donald Devine contributed “... MORE >
CPAC Leftovers - Peacemaking Pleas and Tea Party Coffee Table Books
SUBMITTED BY: Peter Montgomery, Wednesday 02/16/2011, 10:36am
A few tidbits from the piles of stuff picked up at CPAC 2011: The CPAC “Resource Guide,” a spiral-bound booklet with info about sponsors and participating organizations, included several essays, some of which were pleas for peace between libertarian-leaning economic conservatives and social conservatives. Some of the latter, of course, dropped their sponsorships and trashed CPAC leaders over the participation of GOProud, whose leader in turn derided the Religious Right groups as “loser” organizations. Former Reagan official Donald Devine contributed “... MORE >
Terry Kicks Off Anti-Communion Tour
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 12/08/2009, 2:27pm
Randall Terry converted to Catholicism a few years ago and that apparently gives him the clout to set off on yet another nationwide tour, this time aimed at getting Bishops to deny Communion to any Catholic member of Congress who doesn't share his right-wing views: Beginning Wednesday, December 9, Insurrecta Nex team members will travel to 13 Cathedrals in 9 states to hold vigils and press conferences. The tour will finish at the Boston Cathedral, the seat of Cardinal O'Malley, the site of decades of scandal with the Kennedy and the Kerry families. They will ask Catholic Bishops: "Your... MORE >
The Pro-Life Educators and Students (PLEAS) Pick-Up Right-Wing Support for NEA "Prayer and Picket"
, Thursday 06/25/2009, 4:50pm
Bob Pawson, national coordinator for Pro-Life Educators and Students (PLEAS), has announced that he's added a few familiar faces to his "prayer and picket" planned for the National Education Association's annual conference in San Diego on July 2nd. Earlier this month, I wrote about Pawson's personal vendetta against the NEA, a group who is hardly an outspoken abortion advocacy group (they dedicate three sentences of their 462-page charter to reproductive rights). Now, he's gained some support from, among others, the recently jailed Rev. Walter B. Hoye, president of Issues4Life... MORE >
Pro-Life Educators and Students (PLEAS) Announces Protest of the National Education Association, Blames Recession on Abortion
, Wednesday 06/10/2009, 8:21pm
The Pro-Life Educators and Students (PLEAS) have announced the first major anti-abortion demonstration since the killing of Dr. George Tiller. While the demonstration is nothing out of the ordinary, PLEAS isn't focusing its effort on a traditional target of anti-choice groups. Instead, they'll be protesting... the National Education Association. In a press release, Bob Pawson, a coordinator for PLEAS, announced that the group is organizing a July 2nd "prayer & picket" that will involve many different pro-life groups.The NEA is hardly an outspoken reproductive rights group,... MORE >
Santorum Tells Specter He's On His Own
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 03/26/2009, 4:02pm
Back in 2004, when Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter was running for re-election, he faced a stiff primary challenge from Pat Toomey.  To his rescue came President Bush and his home-state Senate colleague Rick Santorum and managed to eke out a win which, in turn, made right-wing Republicans ... with Santorum:Mr. Santorum campaigned on behalf of his colleague, despite pleas from notable conservative groups. And fueling their anger is the considerable help that the White House and the national Republican leadership gave Mr. Specter, even though during his 24 years in the Senate he often... MORE >
Her Non-Racist Eyes Couldn't Save Her
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 10/23/2008, 2:28pm
It looks like Diane Fedele, the women responsible for the racist "Obama Bucks" newsletter has realized that she wasn't convincing anyone with her "I'm not racist" pleas and decided to step down:The president of a San Bernardino County Republican club resigned after apologizing for distributing a newsletter with a caricature of Barack Obama on a fake food stamp surrounded by ribs, watermelon and fried chicken.In a letter sent Wednesday to members of the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated, Diane Fedele said she was sorry for showing "poor judgment and lack of... MORE >