Illinois

Who Are The New Sons of Liberty?

A mysterious group is poised to spend a $1 million on anti-gambling ads in Alabama's primary election and nobody seems to have any idea who is behind the group, where the money is coming from, or what they want: 

Something subversive is afoot in Alabama's Republican primary.

A shadowy outfit called the New Sons of Liberty Inc. is poised to launch a major, statewide advertising campaign in connection with the race. The group has committed more than $1 million toward the purchase television air time on networks in the state's five largest media markets, beginning May 21.

The Mobile Press-Register's George Talbot says "the group apparently is related to a grass roots organization called New Sons of Liberty Society," which is a Birther group formed recently in Illinois, but the organization's website provides no information at all, consisting solely of the ad, links to email various candidates running for Governor (except Roy Moore because, as the site says, he "opposes all forms of gambling,") and this message: 

Only when the true corrupting effects of gambling, alcohol, and drug use are widely known will the children of our nation be free to turn away from their lure. Our elected officials hear from those who promote and profit from these so-called industries. Our courts are full of lawyers who are hired to do their bidding.

But when do the people get heard?

Before you support a candidate for governor, make sure you know where he stands. Take just a minute to send an e-mail asking for a clear statement from each candidate. Make them know you are paying attention. Put them on the record.

If you don’t, we all must live with the consequences.

Randy Brinson of the Christian Coalition of Alabama says their research shows that the money is coming from out of state interests though Connecticut, but wouldn't say more, while press investigations have turned up only bits and pieces:

The Associated Press has reported that the New Sons of Liberty was organized April 29 in Washington as a charitable group that can engage in political activity. Listed as directors were Jenny Ann Hunter of Arlington, Va.; Emily Kay Stephenson of Bentonville, Ark.; and Robert Price of Tallahassee, Fla.

Hunter and Stephenson told the Press-Register that the group is a "health care organization." They declined further comment.

Strangely, the address used on the website registration is the same as the headquarters of Concerned Women for America:

The website is registered to a Robert Adams of Washington, D.C., and lists the same address as the Conservative Women of America, which supported Moore's efforts to display a 10 Commandments monument in the lobby of the Alabama Judicial Building.

Insane, Even By Birther Standards

We've written about James David Manning, pastor of Atlah World Missionary Church, once or twice before noting that even by the standards of the Birther movement, Manning is completely off the deep end:

Manning came to public attention in the 2008 presidential election after ATLAH posted several sermons of his that were harshly critical of Democratic candidate Barack Obama on the website YouTube. Among other accusations, he called Obama a "good House Negro" in one sermon while in another he referred to Obama as "trash" due to circumstances surrounding his mixed race heritage and accused him of being a "pimp" (pimping "white women and black women") and "long-legged mack daddy," and an "emissary of the devil", citing the viral video "I Got a Crush... on Obama". He stated that Obama "has the cadence of an Islamic person,"and he called Obama's mother "trash" for becoming pregnant by a black man out of wedlock. Manning revisited this latter issue during a press conference at the National Press Club on 8 December 2008: "Generally the most noble of white society choose not to intercourse sexually with African men. So it's usually the trashier ones who make their determinations that they're going to have sex."

Manning defended his sermons in an interview on Fox News, saying that "we also have to talk about his character."He compared TV personality Oprah Winfrey, who supported Obama's campaign, to the Whore of Babylon, the "Queen of the Universe", and an Antichrist.

For the last several days, Manning and his supporters have been hosting a "trial" of President Obama [PDF], claiming that he never attended Columbia University but was actually a CIA agenda who used it as cover so he could go to Pakistan to provide money, weapons, and logistics to the Mujahideen:

The only reason I even found out about this is because I came across an interview with one of the participants discussing how Alan Keyes was supposed to participate but then backed out because of his fears that his own Birther lawsuits could be compromised by attending. 

And that is not even the craziest part.  Just try and follow this exchange between Sharon Rondeau, the interviewer, and Miki Booth, who is running for the U.S. House seat in Oklahoma:

SHARON: Do you know how Dr. Manning or any of the witnesses prove that Obama did not attend Columbia? Can he actually prove that he was in Pakistan or wherever he was instead of at Columbia?

MIKI: I don’t know how we prove it, but the only thing that makes sense is that it’s all the CIA. That would explain why all the records are scrubbed. There’s one thing that they can’t hide, and that’s the Social Security numbers. Again, how do you prove that he used those to launder money?

SHARON: Is the theory that the CIA gave Obama a new identity?

MIKI: Absolutely.

SHARON: Did they actually assign him all of these social security numbers, or do you think he did that on his own?

MIKI: Again, if the CIA was behind it, they would be involved in every single aspect of it, because the money that he was getting went to help the Mujahadeen fight the Russian invasion. Here’s another really interesting thing: the story is out there that he attended Patrice Lamumba University. About three weeks ago, I finally found the website for Patrice Lamumba, and it said, “Distinguished Alumni,” and on the list was “Barry Soetoro.”

SHARON: Really?

MIKI: Yes. And it took you to the Wikipedia page all about “President” Barack Obama and his history.

SHARON: Could that have been set up as a hoax?

MIKI: That was set up as a red herring to throw everyone off the trail of the Pakistan connection. Anyway, I saw it, and they mentioned that, and someone might have testified about it earlier in the trial. However, it was brought up again today, and I remember when I first heard about that, it was right after Rev. Manning put out the word about the trial, and right after that, he did a YouTube video where he said, “They’re lying. They’re going to say that he was actually in Russia attending Patrice Lamumba University” to throw us off. He also said, “You watch; they’re not going to deny it; they’re going to let you think that that’s where he was, but don’t fall for it. He was really in Pakistan.”

SHARON: If the CIA gave Obama a new identity or identities, why was he not stopped when he put his hat in the ring to run for president? Has anyone discussed how he got as far as he did if all his records were scrubbed?

MIKI: We can probably find out. I heard that he signed an Executive Order to seal all of his records.

SHARON: He did; I recall reading about it shortly after his “coronation.”

MIKI: So no one can get his Punahou or other records. The ones that they absolutely don’t want anybody seeing are those that were scrubbed such as the passport records which involved Brennan, who worked for that company which worked with the CIA. They have the means, the wherewithal, to be able to scrub those passport records, and it’s known and reported about that breach where all three, McCain, Clinton and Obama’s records were breached. So the theory is that the late Lt. Quarles Harris knew something and he was supposedly working with the investigator, but which investigators we don’t know; perhaps just the local cops. And then he ended up being murdered. The only person who had a key to open that door was snuffed out. So that was discussed, and this is material that we had already heard. But again, there is the CIA connection. There’s Brennan, and now what’s Brennan doing now? So it’s just all too cozy.

SHARON: No one could have known 20 years ago that Obama was going to run for president. Is there a theory that he was recruited by the CIA because he could speak the language?

MIKI: Yes.

SHARON: Why would there have been a need to provide Obama with a fake past? Others have worked undercover for the CIA but the CIA perhaps doesn’t go to these lengths to hide it. What is your theory about that?

MIKI: Well, tomorrow they’re calling a witness who is an ex-KGB agent who wants to talk and feels that his life is in danger and he may as well get it out there. But getting back to the CIA, we know that the United States was financing the pushback against the Russian invasion. We were working with them and gave them money and guns. So where do you find these people to recruit to get them to do that? You look for someone who will fit, with a Muslim background who can speak at least a dialect of their language. And where do they recruit these people? They find these loners like Barack Obama at Occidental who are on a foreign-student status (again, those records were scrubbed), but he probably held a passport under the name of “Barry Soetoro” from Indonesia.

SHARON: Has any evidence come out about that yet that you’ve heard?

MIKI: No. There again, those records were either scrubbed…it’s all hidden. And it’s only the CIA that can do all of this. No matter how much they did, things have still leaked out. Almost everything that we’re hearing now we already knew. It had been leaked out, or we knew about it, and they couldn’t hide that. But wherever they could hide stuff, they did. But I think what happened was that they never expected that he would run for president. First he was a state senator in Illinois, and he used thug techniques to knock off the competition.

Right Wing Leftovers

  • Last week, I joked that the fact that the Denver Broncos drafted Tim Tebow was good for Focus on the Family.  Turns out, it's not quite a joke.
  • In related news, Jim Daly reasserts that the primary difference between himself and James Dobson is a matter of tone.
  • In related news to that, the Illinois Family Institute goes after Focus for this very reason.
  • And in final related news, James Dobson's new radio program is scheduled to start next week.
  • Gary Bauer announces that he's launching a $2 million campaign targeting 22 House and Senate Democratic-held seats.
  • In her new book, Laura Bush says she asked George not to make a gay marriage a significant issue in the 2004 election.
  • AIM gives us the real story of the Oklahoma City bombing: it was really the work of Middle Eastern terrorists.
  • Jill Stanek takes her "aborted babies = vaccine = autism" nonsense to the pages of WorldNetDaily.
  • Finally, the quote of the day from Elijah Friedeman on the AFA blog: "I want to preface this blog by saying that I believe radical Islam is evil. Quite frankly I believe that any form of Islam is wrong. And I don't want to just pick on Islam. Believers of any other religion besides Christianity are living in sin; they are evil."

Right Wing Leftovers

  • An Arkansas judge has struck down Act 1, which was passed in 2008 in order ban against unmarried couples [i.e., gays] from adopting or foster-parenting children.
  • The Department of Justice has asked a federal judge to dismiss the right-wing lawsuit against the Hate Crimes Act, saying "the Act does not proscribe speech. It prohibits only violent conduct and includes specific provisions ensuring that it may not be applied to infringe any rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.”
  • Larry Klayman is now a columnist for WorldNetDaily where he'll fit right in.
  • Did you know that David Barton's son, Tim, is carrying on the family tradition of spreading pseudo-history throughout the land?  Well, he is.
  • Tim Goeglein always wanted to be a journalist ... until he got caught plagerizing.  So then he had to go work for President Bush and Focus on the Family.
  • Behold the latest White House scandal:  President Obama isn't a real baseball fan!
  • Finally, the quote of the day from the Illinois Family Institute's Laurie Higgins opposing efforts to end bullying: "But the part they leave out is it's trying to end bullying by normalizing homosexuality."

The Pathetic Sadness That Is Karl Rove

How pathetic is Karl Rove?  This pathetic:

[Rove] uses his memoir, “Courage and Consequence,” to settle some scores with Obama, including a shot that Obama once took at Rove in his own memoir, “The Audacity of Hope.” Specifically, Obama accused Rove and fellow conservatives Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist in the 2006 book of declaring, “We are a Christian nation.”

“I certainly don’t believe and have never said, ‘We are a Christian nation,’” Rove insisted in “Courage,” which is scheduled for publication next week. “What happened to the Jews? The Muslims? The Hindus? The Buddhists? The skeptics and nonbelievers?”

Rove, now a Fox News contributor, said he confronted Obama, then the junior senator from Illinois, about the quotation during a chance encounter in the White House cafeteria. According to Rove, Obama initially denied attributing the quote to Rove, who then showed Obama the page in question.

“He looked surprised and began insisting he really wasn’t saying what he had quoted me as saying,” Rove wrote in “Courage,” which will be released Tuesday. “After a few moments, the conversation drew to an awkward and unsatisfactory conclusion; he was unwilling to acknowledge the mistake or apologize. It seemed to me he didn’t much care that he had attributed to me something I had never said and found offensive.”

Here is the passage in question from Obama's book:

But for a younger generation of conservative operatives who would soon rise to power, for Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove and Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, the fiery rhetoric was more than a matter of campaign strategy. They were true believers who meant what they said, whether it was "No new taxes" or "We are a Christian nation." In fact, with their rigid doctrines, slash-and-burn style, and exaggerated sense of having been aggrieved, this new conservative leadership was eerily reminiscent of some of the New Left's leaders during the sixties. As with their left-wing counterparts, this new vanguard of the right viewed politics as a contest not just between competing policy visions, but between good and evil.

As anyone with an IQ above 4 can see, Obama never attributed that as a direct quote to Karl Rove, yet Rove not only confronted Obama about it and seemingly demanded an apology for something Obama never did ... but then he wrote about it in his new book as if the exchange somehow makes Obama look bad. 

Right Wing Round-Up

  • David Weigel: Bunning’s Blockade Became a Conservative Rallying Cry.
  • Wayne Besen: Ryan Sorba’s Poorly Researched Book Shows He Is Not Ready For Prime Time.
  • Andy Birkey: Twenty of Bachmann’s 47 missed votes coincide with media appearances.
  • Greg Sargent: Karl Rove’s Phony “Admission” On Iraq Isn’t A Concession At All.
  • Mark Leon Goldberg: One Senator is Blocking a Bill to Support Peace Efforts in Northern Uganda.
  • HRC  Backstory: Pro-LGBT Clergy Drown Out Protesters At DC Courthouse.
  • Joe.My.God: Pete LaBarbera Is Running For GOP Office In Illinois.
  • Finally, behold Molotov Mitchell, rap superstar:

Right Wing Leftovers

  • FRC goes after Dick Cheney for supporting the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
  • Contrary to earlier reports, the Illinois Family Institute is not back on the SPLC's list of anti-gay hate groups.
  • The next Tea Party convention will be held in Las Vegas in July.
  • Focus on the Family claims that its Super Bowl commercial caused 5 million people to "reconsider their views on abortion."
  • HuckPAC announces a new director ("Hogan Gidley, former executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party and communications director for former U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole's re-election campaign") to replace Mike Huckabee's daughter Sarah, who left to run Rep. John Boozman's Arkansas Senate campaign.
  • Finally, Quote of the Day from the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer: "Bottom line: let's not get stuck on stupid. No more Muslims in the military."

Right Wing Round-Up

Atheist Sign In Illinios A Violation of the Establishment Clause?

The traditional defense from the Religious Right whenever the government places, or allows others to place, a religiously themed message or display in a public building is that such displays are not an "endorsement" of that religion by the government but rather a recognition and accommodation of the citizens' right to freely express their religion in public.

Which makes this latest lawsuit rather unique:

A candidate for Illinois Comptroller has sued the state for allowing an atheist group to post a sign alongside the religious holiday displays in the State Capitol. William Kelly, a Republican, claims Capitol Police unjustly "detained (him) and escorted him from the building" because he turned the atheists' sign face down. Kelly calls the sign "hate speech.

Kelly's federal complaint against the Illinois Secretary of State claims: "In December 2009, a sign was placed in the Capitol Building, approved by the Defendant, that read as follows:

"At the time of the winter solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is just a myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

Kelly's complaint does not object to the several holiday displays "celebrating various observances" in the State Capitol. He objects only to the atheists' sign, which, he says, stood near a Nativity scene and next to a decorated Christmas tree.

Kelly claims that for the two weeks the sign was displayed, visitors, including young children, could get the impression that the sign is "endorsed" by the state as an "opposing view to the displays."

He says the state's administrative code demands that displays be approved on the basis of "symbolic expression in the exercise of free speech," but that signs are prohibited.

Kelly claims that by allowing the sign, the state approved expression of "hostility towards religion," which he says is unconstitutional.

...

Kelly sued Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, claiming that placing the atheists' sign in the Capitol violates the Establishment Clause.

He demands an injunction prohibiting atheists from "placing or allowing to be placed the sign at issue or any such similar sign in the Capitol Building of the State of Illinois and any other State of Illinois Buildings".

So the presence of a Nativity scence was perfectly fine, but a sign from an atheist group was a government endorsement and violation of the Establishment Clause? 

Good luck with that line of argument in court.

Illinois Family Institute Tries to Rewrite History

Last August, we wrote a post about a piece penned by Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute entitled "Christians Should Fight Homosexuality Like It Did Nazism" in which Higgins argued exactly what the title stated: 

We reassure ourselves that if we had lived during the age of slavery or in Germany during the rise of Nazism or during the post-Civil War era when virulent racism still poisoned American life, we would never have stood idly by and done nothing, but I'm not so sure. Look at the church's actions today when homosexuality and gender confusion are affirmed to and in our nation's children through our public schools using our hard-earned money. Where is the church? Where is the outrage? Where are the church leaders who rejoice in being persecuted?

I've asked this question before and I will ask it again: How depraved does the behavior have to be and how young the victims before the church, starting with those who have freely chosen to assume the mantle of pastor or priest, will both feel and express outrage at the indecent, cruel, and evil practice of using public money to affirm body and soul-destroying ideas to children?

Will the contemporary American church rise to this occasion to defend children and biblical truth, or will we become like the acquiescent church that failed to help William Wilberforce battle slavery, or the atrophied "moderate white church" that failed to help Martin Luther King Jr. battle racism, or the apostate Protestant church in Nazi Germany that failed to help Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer battle Nazism?

Now, Higgins has contacted us saying she never wrote a piece with such a title and demanding that we correct our "error":

You have stated that I wrote an article entitled "Christians Should Fight Homosexuality Like It Did Nazism." I have never written any article with that title. The title is now and always has been "Anger and the Church." Please correct your error.

Of course, when I wrote the initial post, I put the title of Higgins' piece in quotes because that was its title, and the URL we provided in the post proves it:

http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/opinion-church-should-fight-homosexuality-like-it-did-nazism-r-1248637577

That link now redirects to the same piece, though it now carries the new title "Anger and the Church." 

If that has "always been" its title, then maybe Higgins can explain to us how the original URL we used ended up with "church-should-fight-homosexuality-like-it-did-nazism" in it. 

UPDATE: Higgins wants it made clear that her article was originally entitled "Anger and the Church," and that it was Opposing Views which picked up and retitled it without her permission until she contacted them and asked them to use the original title.

Lisa Miller Gets More Support From The Anti-Gay Right

It has now been more than a week since Lisa Miller disappeared with her daughter Isabella rather than abide by a court order transferring custody to her former partner, Janet Jenkins, due to Miller's consistent refusal to abide by custody arrangements, and still her attorneys at Liberty Counsel remain "unavailable for comment."

But others on the Right are weighing in and they seem utterly unwilling to condemn Miller's actions.  Take, for instance, this blog post by Victoria Cobb of the Virginia Family Foundation:

The circumstances of this case are as heart wrenching as they are frustrating. It is our belief that the courts have failed to apply the law correctly, relying on Vermont’s civil union statute over Virginia’s constitution and the federal Defense of Marriage Act that is supposed to protect Virginia’s marriage laws. Instead, judges at nearly every turn have ignored our law in favor of Vermont’s.

..

One thing is for certain, the homosexual lobby’s attempts to portray civil unions as something less than marriage have been destroyed by their own words.

It’s interesting to note that I was asked over and over again by CNN about Lisa’s decision to “violate the court order,” but I was never once asked about the judges in this case who over and over again violated Virginia law. Instead of asking about Lisa’s actions, we should ask how judges simply can ignore the parts of the law and constitution they don’t like in favor of other parts.

Finally, we need to continue to pray for Lisa, Janet — and perhaps most importantly Isabella — in this entire mess. It’s difficult to predict the effect this situation will have on Isabella’s future, but it’s hard to believe that it will be positive.

Instead of condemning Miller for violating court orders and disappearing with her daughter, Cobb lays the blame entirely on the judges.

But that is nothing compared to this truly remarkable screed by Deacon Keith Fournier in Catholic Online in which he blames everyone and everything but Miller for the current situation:

This tragic case sets up what is called a conflict of laws issue, pitting the law of one State against another. This specter hangs over many such homosexual relationships as the patchwork of court enforced schemes of calling them a “marriage” unfolds. It is a deliberate result of the strategy of cultural revolutionaries in the Homosexual Equivalency movement who are setting up what they hope will be their vehicle for enforcing their cultural revolution Nationally through the Courts ... These activists are advancing their Cultural Revolution not by vote of the people but by judicial and legislative fiat in a kind of new alchemy ... These new Caesars call a relationship which is constitutively incapable of accomplishing the ends of marriage to be a marriage ... They have developed a verbal strategy and a legal strategy. Their goal is to use the Police Power of the State in order to force a new social and legal order whether we all want it or not.

...

Lisa Miller is a mother who could no longer stand to see her child force fed what she contended was poison. She felt that after each visit the harm that was being inflicted on her daughter was increasing. The record indicates that even though Lisa asked the Vermont Judge to listen to evidence of the violent reactions of Isabella after each of these few visitations, the Judge refused. He treated this case like an ordinary domestic breakup between a husband and a wife. After all, that is what happens when a State treats such living relationships in a manner equivalent to marriage.

...

The Lisa Miller Case brings together the misuse of fertility technology, the new Cultural Revolution, the threat of Judicial Tyranny and the assault on the authority of the Family in a case of monumental societal implications. It sounds a clear warning which must be heard before it is too late.

It seems that the unrelenting opposition to all things gay is rendering those on the Right fundamentally incapable of so much as acknowledging that disappearing with your child might be a rather improper reaction to a court ruling that you do not like. 

Amazingly, anti-gay groups are simultaneously trumpeting a story about an Illinois woman who wants to take her children to live with her partner in Oregon, calling it "radical, subversive, insidious, pernicious, and stupefying."

Unbelieveable.

LaBarbera and Martin: Birds of a Feather

I've tried to ignore the latest nonsense from Senate candidate Andy Martin and his allegations that Rep. Mark Kirk is gay because, frankly, Martin is a certified nut. 

If I posted on every crazy thing Martin said, this blog would consist of nothing else ... like his claims that Max Baucus is a "habitual sex offender" or that Wikipedia "is a tax-exempt protosocialist scam that seeks to harass Republicans, conservatives and Obama opponents."

But Peter LaBabera doesn't think that Martin is a loon, which is why Martin participated in the Americans for Truth fundraising banquet earlier this year:

David Smith, Executive Director of the Illinois Family Institute, accepted an award on behalf of Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman of the American Family Association (AFA) and American Family Radio. [Wildmon, who is recovering from encephalitis, was the recipient of AFTAH's first annual American Truth Teller Award; his son, AFA President Tim Wildmon, thanked Americans For Truth with a video message played at the banquet.]

Though the AFTAH banquet was not a political event, two candidates seeking statewide office were present. Dan Proft, who is running for Governor in the GOP primary and Andy Martin, who is seeking the Republican Party nomination in the U.S. Senate race, joined pro-family supporters at the AFTAH fundraiser.

So that is why it comes as no surprise that LaBarbera seems to think Martin's claims and antics are perfectly acceptable, even though he doesn't mention him by name:

Do voters have a right to know that their Congressman — especially one that bills himself as “pro-family” — is having adulterous affairs with women? Yes. Do the same voters have a right to know if their Congressman is himself a homosexual — especially since he will likely be voting on “gay”-related legislation predicated on the (false) assumption that homosexuality is a “civil rights” criterion? You bet they do.

In this post-Will & Grace age in which vulgar sodomy jokes are aired uncensored on primetime TV, it is unfair, hypocritical and simply odd to enable homosexual candidates to hide their pet sexual sin behind the “gay” “closet” — or to demand that any questions on the topic are inappropriate. I write this as one who hoped for the defeat of Republican “pro-family” politicians who were exposed as philanderers.

So our question to any candidate around which “gay” rumors are swirling is this:

Are you a homosexual — i.e., or have you practiced homosexual behavior or been in “gay” relationships?

There is no easy way to ask this awkward question, but it is as relevant as asking a candidate rumored to be a cad if he has been faithful to his wife. From a Christian perspective, sexual sin is sexual sin, and the politics of homosexuality and “outing” should not be dictated by the needs and wants of pro-homosexuality advocates or the GLBT Lobby.

The problems and ethical implications of secretly “gay” politicians are also exacerbated by the policy of homosexual activist “outers” who specialize in exposing the homosexuality on only the candidates they regard as hypocritical (read: anti-homosexual-agenda) on homosexual issues. This creates an incentive for covertly homosexual pols to vote pro-”gay” on GLBT legislation because that will lessen the likelihood of an embarrasing [sic] “outing” episode.

This is another reason why voters deserve to know if their representative or potential representative has a conflict of interest on homosexuality issues.

If you are a Republican and you think it’s unfair for homsoexual politicans [sic] to have their homosexuality revealed, here’s three words for you: Mark Foley scandal. As one who monitors the “gay” press, I knew about Foley’s homosexuality years before the page scandal happened — and had GOP leaders not swept that under the rug, perhaps the whole sordid Foley episode could have been avoided, and all its bad consequences for the Republican Party in the 2006 elections.

Any candidate hit with the “gay” question can simply answer my question above. We hope they wouldn’t lie about it, but that seems to have happened with one Republican candidate in Illinois who I sought answers from on the homosexual issue.

The Big Con: How Matt Barber Swindled Me Out of $30

Yesterday, I wrote a post taking issue with right-wing outlets that were claiming that people were giving Matt Barber's new book, "The Right Hook: From The Ring To The Culture War," negative reviews without have read it, claiming that the book isn't even going to be released until next week.

As I noted, I already received a copy that I ordered from Amazon last week.  But now that I've started to read it, I made an interesting discovery: namely, that anybody who has read his columns doesn't need to actually read the book before they review it ... because they have literally already read it, since the book consists entirely of his republished columns! 

Nowhere on the publisher's website or the Amazon page is there any sort of disclaimer that this "book" is really just a collection of Barber's past columns.  Had that been made clear, I certainly would have saved myself the $32.00 I spent on this bound edition of his inane columns.

So, to save prevent anyone else who was thinking of buying this "book" from getting conned and ripped-off, here is the entire Barber book in links:

President Algonquin J. Calhoun?

Did anyone on Mike Huckabee's webteam bother to actually read this article which they are promoting on Huckabee's website?

Tom Roeser has an excellent observer in the Chicago Daily Observer about Governor Huckabee. The article, titled "Thought While Shaving: It Just May Be Huckabee's Time" focuses on the Governor's appearance before the Illinois Family Institute. Mr. Roeser says "I must say that the performance delivered by Mike Huckabee at the Illinois Family Institute was unrivaled." Mr. Roeser goes on to say "In summary, I think it's becoming Mike Huckabee's time."

Roeser does indeed say that it might be Huckabee's time ... and does so while comparing President Obama to a character from Amos 'n Andy:

In 2008 it seemed to many that Obama was the embodiment of sweet reason on race: a highly cultured Sidney Poitier type who starred in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"-the 1967 soft-liberal rendition that showed us a black physician who was every bit as sophisticated as the upper-class family played by Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. But to many Obama has emerged as a dangerously unskilled president... maimed by his soft-hidden but nevertheless demonstrable black radicalism... to show himself as an immature, consummate narcissist really uneducated-and for all his suavity--a boob. He's wearing very thin.

He's even wearing thin with the Left: Howard Fineman of Newsweek and George Herbert of The New York Times editorial page... not to mention Frank Rich of the NYT. In short he's beginning to be lampooned on Saturday Night Live as an unskilled orator who substitutes speech-ifying for strategy. With his speeches, he is coming very close to the caricature of Algonquin J. Calhoun, the fast-talking lawyer on radio and TV's old Amos `n Andy... someone who can stretch definitions beyond the breaking point. Lawyer Calhoun was an egotist too... remember, people who are old enough?... who believed he could spin words faster than listeners could compute.

For those who are not "old enough" to remember, here's a refresher:

Johnny Lee is best known as the shyster lawyer Algonquin J. Calhoun in the Amos 'N' Andy TV Series. In some of the 1948-49 radio episodes where the Calhoun character is introduced, he is referred to as "Five Percent Calhoun" because his fee was 5% of whatever he got for his clients. Calhoun was often enlisted by The Kingfish to get him out of legal trouble or to help Kingfish rip Andy off with one of his investment schemes ... This portrayal of a "coon lawyer" was perhaps one of the most offensive to middle class African Americans. The NAACP complained bitterly about the portrayal of "Negro lawyers ... as slippery cowards, ignorant of their profession and without ethics."

Franks: I Meant Obama Was An Enemy of "Unborn Humanity"

To follow-up on our last post about Rep. Trent Franks calling President Obama an "enemy of humanity," a spokesperson for his office attempts to clarify:

Trent Franks of Arizona said in a speech to conservatives Saturday in St. Louis that given Obama's decision to fund international family planning organizations that support legal abortion, "we shouldn't be shocked that he does all these other insane things."

"A president that has lost his way that badly, that has no ability to see the image of God in these little fellow human beings, if he can't do that right, then he has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity," Franks said to the "How to Take Back America" conference.

Bethany Haley, spokeswoman for Franks, said the congressman was referring to "unborn humanity" and should have clarified his statement. She also said that Franks meant to say that Obama's abortion-related policies have no place in government, rather than that Obama has no place in government.

Haley said she spoke to Franks early Tuesday before he boarded a plane from Arizona to Washington.

"He was just referring to the way President Obama has set himself up as the most pro-abortion president in America's history," Haley said. She ticked off a list of the president's policies and appointments she said were favorable to abortion rights.

"It's a trend — it's not just one or two things. Ever since his days in the Illinois Senate, President Obama has been radical on the issue of abortion," Haley said.

Glad they cleared that up.

Right Wing Leftovers

  • Will this become the new Religious Right cause célèbre?  We'll have to wait and see.
  • The full text of the frantic Operation Rescue fund-raising letter warning that they are about to go out of business.
  • Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee wants to know when "will media expose duplicitous tone of the president?"
  • Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute warns that bullying and harassment prevention programs are "one of the central ways to get pro-homosexual information and resources into public schools."
  • Pastor Phil Magnan of Biblical Family Advocates: "I have come to realize that the reason why the homosexual and the abortion movements remain strong; is that the church of Jesus Christ has lost most of its true saltiness, its desire to suffer loss for Christ and its reverence for the Word. We have lost that weeping, passionate cry of the soul to abide in Christ daily and reach out to those headed for hell. We have instead embraced a weak, lazy view of our faith and our Lord."

LaBarbera Worries About His "Reputation"

There is just something amusing about Peter LaBarbera crying that the "reputation" of his organization has been sullied by a hotel's refusal to accommodate its conference:

Americans for Truth About Homosexuality had scheduled an annual event two years ago at Holiday Inn in Naperville, Illinois. But when the hotel learned that demonstrators could be present, it cancelled the event. The group has now filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the hotel. The suit, filed on Friday, seeks an unspecified amount from the hotel in damages and attorney fees.

Peter LaBarbera is founder of the pro-family organization.

"We went out of our way to accommodate the hotel," LaBarbera explains. "We even said we would not put on our website the actual hotel where the event was held. Despite that, they dropped us like a hot potato," he notes.

"It really caused a lot of trouble to us. It hurt our reputation, and we want to send a message that this is not appropriate. You can't ban discrimination against all groups in society but let hotels and other businesses discriminate openly against people of faith."

On a related note, LaBarbera appeared on Alan Colmes' radio program last night to discuss his anti-gay activism and, specifically, his attack against Ben and Jerry's.  Among the revelations was LaBarbera's declaration that "we don’t support anal sex for anybody":

The Inane State of The Healthcare Debate - Part II

To follow-up on the post I wrote yesterday, here are a few more.

Why do we need healthcare reform when we already have free healthcare?

Bruce Engelman is pastor of Baptist Temple in Fort Worth, Texas, and is also a spokesperson for American Inspirational Ministries. Engelman, who often travels the country as part of his ministry work, says he has made an observation about available healthcare.

"Why do we need socialized medicine or healthcare when there is already free healthcare?" he wonders. "In Grand Rapids, Michigan, Mary Free Bed Hospital; in Pittsburgh, children's hospital; St. Jude's in Memphis, Tennessee; Shriners hospital in Kentucky, Cook County hospital in Chicago, Illinois."

The pastor believes the healthcare option is being pushed for two reasons. "Number one, to increase the voting bloc for the liberals -- of both parties, by the way -- of illegal immigration," Engleman says, "and the other reason is there's no question that the other side wants to advance a radical, and I emphasize radical, social agenda."

Engelman says those who are speaking out against the healthcare plan are heroes, much like the Founding Fathers of the nation.

Churches are the key to healthcare reform:

The head of a coalition of evangelical churches says healthcare reform should focus less on government and more on marshaling churches to meet community needs.

Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., who chairs the High Impact Leadership Coalition, says large churches could work together to provide diagnostic screening and care for people with diseases like HIV-AIDS.

Jackson says the contrast between government and faith-based relief was striking when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans four years ago. He says, "When the government failed, the church stepped up."

Instead of government healthcare, Jackson believes "there has to be a community-based answer that includes a faith community component."

Huckabee Hearts the Illinois Family Institute

Until just last month, the Illinois Family Institute had been listed as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Just days after the organization was removed from the SPLC list, IFI's Laurie Higgins penned a piece entitled "Church Should Fight Homosexuality Like It Did Nazism" (see this updated post for Higgins' explanation about why she was not responsible for this title and insisted that it be changed): 

We reassure ourselves that if we had lived during the age of slavery or in Germany during the rise of Nazism or during the post-Civil War era when virulent racism still poisoned American life, we would never have stood idly by and done nothing, but I'm not so sure. Look at the church's actions today when homosexuality and gender confusion are affirmed to and in our nation's children through our public schools using our hard-earned money. Where is the church? Where is the outrage? Where are the church leaders who rejoice in being persecuted?

I've asked this question before and I will ask it again: How depraved does the behavior have to be and how young the victims before the church, starting with those who have freely chosen to assume the mantle of pastor or priest, will both feel and express outrage at the indecent, cruel, and evil practice of using public money to affirm body and soul-destroying ideas to children?

In October, IFI is holding its "Family, Faith and Freedom Banquet" and guess who has been tapped as the keynote speaker:

Family, Faith and Freedom Banquet

Crowne Plaza O'Hare
5440 N. River Road
Rosemont, Illinois

Tuesday, October 6 at 6:30 p.m.

Dinner tickets are $100 each.
Tickets for dinner and a private reception with Gov. Mike Huckabee are $250.

Jeremy has the audio of the announcement in which Huckabee urges activists to attend because "I've got a lot to tell you about what I see happening as I travel across this nation and how, together, we can bring back the values that we all share: family, faith, and freedom. More importantly, by attending this banquet, you'll be helping the Illinois Family Institute continue to stand strong in promoting pro-family values across this great state. More than ever, we need to support organizations like IFI who boldly stand for the sanctity of life, religious freedom, and natural marriage."

This event comes just days after Huckabee is scheduled to appear at the How To Take Back America Conference, which features another SPLC hate group, MassResistance, and raises anew the question of just how radical an organization has to be before Huckabee will refuse to be seen with them.  At this point, there is seemingly no limit.

Tornado Was a "Warning" to Lutherans Not to Approve Gay Pastors

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in American has been meeting at the Minneapolis Convention Center all week for its 2009 Churchwide Assembly. And today, those in attendance are scheduled to participate in a key decision:

Following the Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians into one of the thorniest social debates of contemporary Protestantism, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is to decide today whether to allow sexually active gays and lesbians to serve as pastors.

Meeting this week in Minneapolis for its biennial convention, the nation's seventh-largest denomination is considering a policy that would allow its 10,000 congregations to hire as pastor any properly ordained person "in a lifelong, committed, monogamous, same-gender relationship."

And apparently God is not happy with this effort, which is why, according to John Piper, he sent a tornado earlier in the week to let them know:

A day after tornados and storms slammed the Midwest, John Piper, a prolific author and preaching pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, called an out-of-the-blue tornado that struck downtown Minneapolis Aug. 19 a "warning" from God to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, whose delegates were meeting there to debate a liberalized policy on homosexuality.

The tornado tore off part of a 90-year-old steeple of the Central Lutheran Church and ripped apart large outdoor tents set up to serve breakfast to the delegates to the ECLA convention which has been holding its meetings this week next door at the convention center. Some meetings also are taking place at the church. The tornado also damaged the convention center, where delegates were at the time.

...

Piper then listed six points and accompanying texts as to why he thinks the tornado was providential:

1. "The unrepentant practice of homosexual behavior (like other sins) will exclude a person from the kingdom of God. 'The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.' (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

2. "The church has always embraced those who forsake sexual sin but who still struggle with homosexual desires, rejoicing with them that all our fallen, sinful, disordered lives (all of us, no exceptions) are forgiven if we turn to Christ in faith. 'Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.' (1 Corinthians 6:11).

3. "Therefore, official church pronouncements that condone the very sins that keep people out of the kingdom of God are evil. They dishonor God, contradict Scripture and implicitly promote damnation where salvation is freely offered.

4. "Jesus Christ controls the wind, including all tornados. 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?' (Mark 4:41).

5. "When asked about a seemingly random calamity near Jerusalem where 18 people were killed, Jesus answered in general terms -- an answer that would cover calamities in Minneapolis, Taiwan or Baghdad. God's message is repent, because none of us will otherwise escape God's judgment. Jesus: 'Those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.' (Luke 13:4-5)

6. "Conclusion: The tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin. Turn from the promotion of behaviors that lead to destruction. Reaffirm the great Lutheran heritage of allegiance to the truth and authority of Scripture. Turn back from distorting the grace of God into sensuality. Rejoice in the pardon of the cross of Christ and its power to transform left and right wing sinners."

Interestingly, tornadoes also reportedly hit parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana on Wednesday as well, but Piper has not yet clued us in to what message God was trying to send to the people in those areas who had their homes and businesses destroyed.

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