Texas

Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), whose Tom DeLay-engineered district runs from the Houston suburbs to the Louisiana border, compares the U.S. to the Roman empire in decline. Poe writes in Human Events that the “invasion” in the Southwest may lead America to “the smoldering ash heap of historical insignificance”:

Our government has voiced empty words of border security and protecting our nation from foreign invasion, much like the empire of Rome in 364 A.D. when the Goths encroached into Roman lands. There were not enough border security agents to keep them out. They were not required to assimilate into the Roman culture. The Romans did nothing. Blind to Goth occupation, Rome created its own downfall and disappearance as a nation. Inability to protect borders and keep intruders out has led to the extermination of civilizations throughout history. Our government has failed with empty words of meaningless political promises to protect the American people from border invasions.

Americans are tired of the hollow, hapless words. They are demanding secure borders to keep our nation sovereign. It's the moral responsibility of this nation to protect its citizens from invasion, to secure borders from foreign invaders before we become just another Rome and pass into the smoldering ash heap of historical insignificance, all the while the sun sets in the Southwest.

Texas Rep. Bonilla gets little support from fellow Latinos.

When they appeared, fully armed, on the national scene, the self-appointed border vigilantes known as Minutemen had no greater ally in the news media than the right-wing Washington Times newspaper. Today, with media attention shifted elsewhere and a new Congress less friendly to the anti-immigrant fringe, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps probably wishes the paper would just leave it alone.

With House out, Washington Times looks to more Hazletons. Meanwhile: Taneytown, MD (pop. 5,000), with 37 residents identified lacking English skills, goes English-only. Also: Farmers Branch, TX passes Hazleton-style crackdown.

Rick Scarborough “think[s] the evangelical community is being targeted.”

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.

It looks as if the folks at Focus on the Family were a little hurt by Dick Armey’s recent statement that “[James] Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies” who rely on “demagoguery” to manipulate the “intellectually lazy” – so much so that FOF went out and found a few members of Congress who would fight back against Armey while kissing Dobson’s boo-boos and making it all better  

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., who served under Armey's leadership, said it was sad that someone of Armey's stature would call Christians a "gang of thugs."

"That would be your listeners and readers, (he's talking about)," the congressman told CitizenLink. "That would be the many Christians around the United States who devoutly hold conservative moral beliefs — and he's acting like this is just some kind of political game. And it's disgusting. I was incredibly disappointed to read these comments."

Souder said it is important for people to understand something about Dr. Dobson.

"When Dr. Dobson speaks out, he takes the hits and bullets for all of us," Souder said. "He becomes the easy punching bag. And when someone sees trends changing or they want to pick on somebody, by Dr. Dobson becoming a public figure and taking the lead, he will get the criticism, but he's really taking it for everybody."

…

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who also served under Armey when he was a member of the House, said the former Texas congressman and fiscal conservative has no business making such comments.

"I don't know why he's mad now, but his characterization is totally inappropriate," Coburn said. "I'm sorry Dick Armey feels that way.

"Dr. Dobson has done more to advance the cause of moral excellence than anybody I know in this country," Coburn said.

Apparently Armey’s assessment of Dobson and his ilk as a “bunch of thugs” wasn’t entirely accurate – thugs don’t usually get others to fight their battles for them. 

Rick Scarborough, who pioneered the "Patriot Pastor" machine in Texas, offered Values Voter Summit activists a sermon-like exhortation for pastors to get their churches more involved in politics. "I am convinced what is missing in the culture war is the involvement of pastors," said Scarborough, who quit his church in 2002 to work as an activist full-time. According to Scarborough, "America is dying" because "the church is sleeping" during high-stakes political campaigns -- specifically, he called attention to the upcoming referendum on a total abortion ban in South Dakota (where "the forces of hell have marched in with their millions of dollars") and a referendum on stem-cell research in Missouri, where he has been holding rallies since July. Scarborough warned of what he believes he is facing: ruthless corporations bent on destroying America for profit. "What drives the abortion industry, what drives the gambling industry, what drives the embryonic stem-cell industry is money. ... They will kill you if they have to to maintain their trade of evil." Scarborough said that "The leading edge of the culture war is in Missouri and South Dakota," and he warned that, even though "we're living in the last days," if "the people pull the lever and approve of abortion and approve of creating to kill, then we may have stepped over the line" with God. He called on pastors to disregard concerns about political activists not being tax exempt, and said, referring to Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, "God is looking for courageous men who will look the Devil in the eye and say, 'Shoot me if you will, but I'm not going to stop!'" And, echoing a previous fundraising pitch for his newly-formed political action group (a 501(c)4 non-profit classed to advocate for or against legislation), he said (somewhat melodramatically, given that the issue is whether donations are tax-deductible or not):

I'll go to prison before I quit preaching about what I believe to be the moral issues of our day. If that means we have to burn our 501(c)3s, let's burn 'em!

Texas “Patriot Pastor” organizer Rick Scarborough is continuing his campaign against a referendum to allow stem-cell research in Missouri, with his latest rally in Kansas City. Once again, guest speaker Alan Keyes – a former Republican presidential candidate and talk show host – compared stem cell research to slavery. And as Scarborough writes in an e-mail to supporters, they continue to argue that the amendment – which allows whatever research the federal government allows, in order to counteract a Right Wing state legislature – is “endowing scientists with a constitutional right to clone to kill,” as Scarborough said at the St. Louis rally. From the e-mail:

Proponents of Amendment Two, which they refer to as the Missouri Cures Amendment, deny that they are proposing the cloning of human beings, but as Dr. Chang so succinctly proves from science, that claim is a factual lie.  Increasingly now, the proponents of this devilish idea are retreating to rhetoric that in effect says, “but the embryo is so small and early that it really doesn’t matter,” an argument which taken to its inevitable conclusion so devalues human life that men of Christian character must oppose it…and we are!

This is certainly a counterintuitive claim, given that the first requirement listed in the text of the amendment is “No person may clone or attempt to clone a human being.”

Scarborough’s next rally “against this all out assault on the unborn” – which he promises will be the “biggest rally yet” – will be September 21 in Springfield.

Watch Vision America’s clips from its previous rally in St. Louis.