Posts on South Dakota

The Associated Press previews the likelihood of a “Swift Boat”-style campaign against Barack Obama, focused on race, religion, and patriotism—cruder versions of Cal Thomas’s recent article denying Obama’s Christianity. The AP mentions a so-called “Coalition Against Anti-Christian Rhetoric” (their website, registered anonymously, is now gone, but here’s a temporary cached version) that managed to air an ad on a South Dakota TV station featuring a turbaned Obama and a spliced speech, as the ad asked, “What kind of nation would Barack Obama want us to be?” (“Muslim Nation?” suggested text on the screen.) “It’s time for people of faith to stand against Barack Hussein Obama.”

Another group is raising money for a similar ad that asks, “Was he Muslim?” This effort is led by the creator of the infamous Willie Horton ad of 1988. "Maybe it doesn't matter if Obama were a Muslim back then but it does matter if he is not telling the truth about it now,” the unsubtle ad states.

Both these ads are being promoted by right-wing websites such as WorldNetDaily (which speculates whether Obama is a “Manchurian candidate”).

For next efforts.

State AG: “It's not a German shepherd, is it?" Jane Chastain: Planned Parenthood opposes because of “bottom line.”

Today marks the theatrical release of “Amazing Grace,” a film about leading British abolitionist William Wilberforce, whose efforts in Parliament led to Britain’s ban on slavery and the slave trade 200 years ago. The company that produced the movie has launched a campaign, called “The Amazing Change,” to raise awareness of modern-day slavery and human trafficking and to promote groups that fight against them, and religious groups from the National Association of Evangelicals to Sojourners have endorsed the movie and its anti-slavery message. The concern over human trafficking extends to many groups and activists normally focused on right-wing wedge issues, like Concerned Women for America the Heritage Foundation. Others, however – like Sam Brownback – seek to latch their own agenda to the coat-tails of the movie.

Brownback, struggling for recognition as a viable presidential candidate, has tried to link his candidacy to Wilberforce by linking the historical figure not just to Brownback’s work on trafficking and Darfur, but also to abortion and gay marriage, issues more politically marketable to the religious-right base he hopes to motivate: “If William Wilberforce were alive today, I believe he would be passionately fighting for the dignity of every human life everywhere, without regard to race, wealth, or status. He would also feel compelled to take up the vital cause of renewing the family and the culture,” the senator said in his announcement.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) went further afield from the issue of modern-day slavery, alluding to his own congressional campaign against pork-barrel spending:

Wilberforce’s focus on his “two great objects” of abolishing slavery and reforming the morals and manners of his day challenges me to discern the “great objects” of our times. There are many legitimate “great objects” in our day such as the rise of Islamic extremism, the disintegration of families, abortion, and the dominance of moral relativism. I’ve felt a particular calling to focus on the “great object” of preventing the bankruptcy of our republic because if we fail in that challenge, our efforts in all other areas will be undermined. For instance, our ideas about freedom and human dignity have relevance in large part because of our unparalleled economic power.

And Troy Newman, president of the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, attempted to coin a new phrase. Criticizing a South Dakota legislator (and chair of SD Right to Life) who dropped his support for an abortion ban likely to be rejected by the Supreme Court and similar to one voters in the state rescinded last year, Newman said, “He's no Wilberforce.”

While the equation of abortion and slavery is hardly new – George W. Bush famously alluded to it in his last presidential campaign – it seems even more tasteless in this context, where activists are seeking to change the subject from actual, modern-day slavery.

“We have heard what the voters of South Dakota said,” claims sponsor. Also: Utah considers ban.

Less than three months after ban passed in SD was rejected by voters, this measure would go into effect if Supreme Court overturns Roe.

Ward Connerly – who ten years ago spearheaded California’s successful ballot initiative to end affirmative action in education, two years later worked to end it in Washington state, and this year joined the effort in Michigan, where a ban on affirmative action also passed – announced today that he is exploring nine more states: Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah. “Three down and 20 to go,” he said in a conference call this morning, referring to the number of states that have ballot initiative procedures.

Connerly was joined by Jennifer Gratz, a white student who sued the University of Michigan after being rejected for admission and who later led the ballot initiative to ban affirmative action outright. Gratz will join Connerly’s American Civil Rights Institute to work on the expansion of these bans. “We've always felt that if we could win in Michigan, we could win anywhere,” she said.

Despite the name of Connerly’s group, efforts like the Michigan ban have been opposed by major civil rights organizations. Connerly did pick up support from one major group: “If the Ku Klux Klan thinks equality is right, God bless them,” he said.

Following Michigan referendum; next target could be Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Missouri or South Dakota.

Says militant Operation Rescue. FRC’s Perkins failures in SD and parental-consent measures in CA and OR “need only minor adjustments,” meaning exceptions. But American Life League says ban failed because of exceptions. National Pro-Life Action Center still optimistic.

So-called “family policy councils.” More here.

FRC cites “desperate need”; Idaho, Wisconsin and Colorado groups cite NJ decision; South Dakota group mobilizes churches.

In Colorado, Oregon, Montana, and South Dakota (“Jail 4 Judges”), reports Washington Times.

Texas “Patriot Pastors” organizer Rick Scarborough has been holding rallies across Missouri this summer, featuring Alan Keyes, to build opposition to the state’s upcoming vote on stem cell research. At the recent “Values Voter Summit” in Washington, D.C., Scarborough said that Missouri wasn’t the only state he was worried about: if voters in Missouri approve stem cell research, and voters in South Dakota reject a total ban on abortion, then “we may have stepped over the line with” God.

So Scarborough and Keyes are taking their act on the road again, with a series of rallies across South Dakota this week. They also feature Laurence White, a Houston pastor who founded the Texas Restoration Project. In Rapid City on Monday, speakers railed against both abortion and same-sex marriage, although only the former is on the ballot. According to Keyes, the former presidential and senatorial candidate, the two defining issues of the modern Religious Right are inseparable because they are “one and the same issue.” “Abortion does at the physical level what homosexual marriage does at the institutional level,” he explained.

And yesterday, Scarborough told a crowd in Aberdeen that the referendum is “both a promised blessing” as well as “a certain assurance of a curse” – if voters do not approve the ban. White said that approval of the ban would augur “the beginning of a new awakening in America.”

Texas “Patriot Pastor” organizers Rick Scarborough and Laurence White will join Alan Keyes in three-day campaign; Scarborough has warned unsuccessful ban may “step over the line” with God.

Claims former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of a South Dakota measure (reg. req.).