Legal

Huntsman Backer Seeks Gay Money with False Claim on Civil Unions

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Tuesday, 6/21/2011 3:24 pm

PFAW President Michael Keegan's recent Huffington Post commentary pointed out that former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, the latest to throw his hat in the GOP presidential ring, is more conservative than his media-generated image as a moderate. Here’s more evidence supporting Keegan’s claim that Huntsman’s campaign strategy is to try to be all things to all people: Huntsman supporters are making a big play for campaign contributions from LGBT donors -- but they aren't telling the truth about his record. 

According to Politico, California Log Cabin Republican official Charles T. Moran has sent a fundraising email that makes this claim:“Governor Huntsman signed into law Utah’s first Civil Unions legislation – a politically courageous move on his part given that state’s politics.”

That claim is simply false.  It is true that in 2009, Huntsman declared his support for civil unions, five years after he backed a state constitutional amendment that bans marriage and forbids recognition of any "other domestic union" that has the "same or substantially equivalent legal effect" as marriage. But civil unions never became law in Utah.

In 2008, Huntsman did sign a law, SB 299, that allowed local governments to have something like a domestic partnership registry as long as they did not describe it as a domestic partnership registry. That’s a far cry from a state civil unions law, which is still prohibited by a constitutional amendment that Huntsman supported.

Farah: Obama's Israel Policy Caused Deadly Tornadoes

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 6/15/2011 4:42 pm

Joining other Religious Right activists who have held President Obama responsible for the deadly tornadoes in the Midwest because of his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah is now directly linking Obama's speech on Israel's borders to the disaster in Joplin, Missouri. He even suggests that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans as a result of President Bush's foreign policy decisions:

Bible prophecy may have a bad name in the light of Harold Camping's misguided date-setting, but the biggest sign of the end may have been overlooked in all the rapture hysteria of the May 21st weekend.

Once again, we saw the U.S. hit with a series of deadly superstorms following Barack Obama's pledge to return Israel to pre-1967 borders.

Just days after Obama insisted Israel must give up lands it won through military victory with its enemies, some 200 people were killed by a tornado in Joplin, Mo.

There's a pattern here.

We saw it in Katrina, when George Bush forced Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. In fact, as everyone from Israeli rabbis to U.S. senators have noted, it seems to happen every single time the U.S. pressures Israel to divide the land.

...

It goes right back to Genesis and God's pledge to bless those who bless the children of Israel and curse those who curse them.

That is a prophecy that has seen every empire of the world come and go – yet Israel remains. It may be chastened by God. It may be dispersed. It may be divided according to His will. But God has punished every nation that has come against Israel. Each one has been judged.

Was Anthony Weiner An Unwitting Pawn Of An Islamic-Socialist Plot?

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 6/13/2011 11:26 am

Did Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, marry disgraced New York Rep. Anthony Weiner to usher in an Islamic, socialist, Alinskyist plot to takeover America? So says conservative Washington Times blogger Eliana Benador, who posits (in an article since pulled from the website) that the power-hungry Abedin may have married Weiner to advance the “pro-Muslim political agenda” backed by President Obama, George Soros, and her close friends Bill and Hillary Clinton, whose actions “signal their socialist agenda, which includes domination of the U.S. by a Muslim ruled world.” But their nefarious plans could be ruined by the congressman’s recent scandal.

Benador believes that Weiner may have even converted to Islam to marry Abedin, noting that no one can trust anything they say anyway because “an element of sharia that states there is a legal right and duty to distort the truth to promote the cause of Islam.” Good thing that Benador is asking the question everyone’s been thinking, “has Huma been groomed to access leading political movers and shakers to advance the cause of Islam in America, including a politically positioned marriage to Congressman Anthony Weiner?”

Congressman Weiner‘s indiscretions, however, might end up inconveniencing the present Administration’s plans. “How?” you might ask.

The clues may be found in the marriage of Huma Abedin, a devout Muslim, and Anthony Weiner, a Jew.

…

When looking broadly at the Anthony Weiner–Huma Abedin union, we have to wonder if the coupling of a Jewish American man and a Muslim woman of her pedigree was fostered by love or by a socialist political agenda.

…

Less than a year ago, in July 2010, Huma Abedin married Jewish U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY). Attesting to the strength of her relationship with the Clintons, former President William J. Clinton officiated at the ceremony. Not unlike President Obama, the Clintons, as well as powerful politicos such as George Soros, are devotes of Saul Alinksy, who is considered “the founder of modern Community Organizing.” From my position, I clearly see that the actions of this group signal their socialist agenda, which includes domination of the U.S. by a Muslim ruled world.

Which begs the question of whether Huma Abedin been groomed by family and political leaders to carry this agenda forward? It’s noteworthy that Time Magazine listed Huma Abedin in its “40 under 40” list of the new generation of civic leaders and “rising stars in American politics.” That certainly puts her in a position to move the Alinsky-group agenda forward.

The Imam of New York has stated: “I would tell her [Huma] to be a little bit patient. In our book, if you think your wife, or husband, is doing something unacceptable, you start by counseling her.”

Counseling? For whom, Huma or Anthony? The Imam’s statement seems to state that Huma is in need.

Regardless, those are words of compromise offered by a leading Muslim Imam trying to make us forget that the Koran actually advocates stoning wives for adultery while turning a blind eye toward the sexual mis-deeds of the husband.

It is also important, when looking at this situation, to remember that observant Muslims practice Taqiyya , an element of sharia that states there is a legal right and duty to distort the truth to promote the cause of Islam.

Given the defense articulated by the Imam, which would be offered only for a Muslim man, we must believe this opportunity to remove this Muslim woman from a union with an non-believer would be quickly taken. Therefore we must consider that Mr. Weiner *may* have converted to Islam, because if he did not, we have to consider the unlikely, that being that Ms. Abedin has abandoned her Muslim faith, even while she still practices.

However, we should also bear in mind that any who are Jewish by orthodox standards will always remain Jewish, even if they have converted to another faith. This may explain rumors that Mr. Weiner went to his synagogue looking for moral support.

The question that begs to be asked, however, is, has Huma been groomed to access leading political movers and shakers to advance the cause of Islam in America, including a politically positioned marriage to Congressman Anthony Weiner?

If that is so, Anthony Weiner may be proven to be the weak link in a pro-Muslim political agenda.

And the final test of that may be in Huma Abedin’s reactions to her husband’s lack of moral principals.

Update (2:01) the article has now been pulled from The Washington Times website.

Religious Right Leader Blames Obama's Israel Policy For Tornadoes

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 6/13/2011 10:43 am

Laurie Cardoza-Moore, the head of the Christian Zionist group Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN), blames President Obama’s recent speech on the Mideast crisis for the deadly tornado outbreak in May. Cardoza-Moore is a Tea Party and anti-Muslim activist who is funding the lawsuit to block the construction of a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, which argued that Islam is not a religion and that consequently Muslims shouldn’t have the constitutional right to build a house of worship. Congresswoman and likely presidential candidate Michele Bachmann addressed PJTN last year just before Cardoza-Moore held a fundraiser for her campaign, and Religious Right radio host Janet Parshall won the group’s “Tree of Life” award earlier this year.

Like Janet Porter, another Christian Zionist leader who said President Obama’s approach to Israel and support for legal abortion caused the tornado outbreak, Cardoza-Moore holds Obama responsible for the recent tornadoes and the resulting deaths of hundreds of Americans:

The head of a pro-Israel group says that country's prime minister has replaced the president of the United States as leader of the free world.

Laurie Cardoza-Moore, president of Nashville-based Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN), is trying to mobilize Americans to take a stand for the nation of Israel. (See earlier story) She is concerned that Muslim countries are trying to muster U.N. support for a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood, which could be approved by the General Assembly in September.

…

The PJTN president believes that Obama's treatment of Israel has already had consequences.

"President Obama is bringing us down. If you look at what happened after Obama made that speech, look at the weather patterns that we had. Day after day, horrific tornadoes [came] blazing across this country [and] hundreds of people [lost] their lives," she recalls. Cardoza-Moore adds that history shows that every nation that has ever turned its back on Israel was brought down to ruin.

Personhood Bill Flounders In Louisiana

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 6/10/2011 3:03 pm

In another stinging defeat for the burgeoning “personhood” movement, a Louisiana personhood bill which would ban all abortions was defeated in the state legislature. The legislation, sponsored by Republican State Rep. John LaBruzzo, was hailed by Personhood USA as one of their best chances to pass a personhood law this year.

Personhood legislation gives legal rights to zygotes, banning all abortion without exception along with procedures to treat problem pregnancies, certain forms of contraception, and even in-vitro fertilization. Incidentally, the federal Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funds for abortion procedures, was the rationale used by the bill’s opponents to table the measure to send it back to committee. Personhood USA lamented that “The Hyde Amendment had a chilling effect on prolife legislators.”

Personhood USA is still counting on Mississippi voters to pass a personhood amendment this November, a referendum backed by other Religious Right groups like the American Family Association and Liberty Counsel along with top Republican politicians. The Mississippi effort is led by a proponent of Christians creating their own separate, theocratic country in America. In 2006 and 2008, personhood amendments were overwhelmingly defeated in Colorado.

The Associated Press reports:

A Metairie lawmaker's attempt to force a direct challenge to the Roe v. Wade decision by banning abortion outright in Louisiana was derailed Wednesday to the House budget committee.

The 65-30 vote of the House to send Rep. John LaBruzzo's bill to the House Appropriations Committee could shelve the measure for the legislative session.

"This would basically defeat the bill by running out the clock," LaBruzzo said. Only two weeks remain in the legislative session. LaBruzzo is proposing to define a fetus as a person from the moment of conception, which would ban abortion entirely, in violation of current federal law. Anti-abortion groups are split on the worth of the idea.

Lawmakers who supported sending the bill to the Appropriations Committee cited the possibility it could jeopardize $4.5 billion in federal health care funding Louisiana receives for its Medicaid program. A financial analysis said the proposal would put Louisiana at odds with a 1976 federal law requiring Medicaid to cover abortion services to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest. Rep. Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, pushed for the diversion of the bill.

"I am truly and completely opposed to abortion, but that's off the table," he said.

LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, disagreed with the financial analysis done by the Legislative Fiscal Office.

Bryan Fischer's Two Modes Of Operation: Bigotry and Denial

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 6/9/2011 1:41 pm

The AFA's resident spokesbigot Bryan Fischer operates on a very consistent pattern:  he spends months saying and writing outrageously bigoted things but when some pressure starts to mount over all of the bigoted things he says, he lashes out and accuses his detractors of lying about what he said.

He has done it several times before, and now that Gov. Rick Perry is getting some heat for associating with Fischer and the AFA, he has done it again, taking issue with this Tim Murphy piece in Mother Jones.  Fischer claims that Murphy "strung together a litany of lies and distortions" and then proceeds to try and set the record straight.

In three instances Fischer fully admits to the views attributed to him - gays should be banned from public office and Muslims should be banned from the military and from building mosques:

- "gays should be banned from holding public office" — This is accurate. I do believe this, for the same reason that I believe Anthony Weiner should resign, as did Larry Craig, John Ensign and Mark Foley and numerous other Republicans caught in sexual misconduct. Aberrant sexuality morally disqualifies a practitioner from public office, and whatever else homosexual behavior is, it is aberrant sexual behavior.

- "there should be a permanent ban on mosque construction in the United States" — Partly true. What I have recommended is that local planning and zoning boards no longer issue permits — what about the word "permit" do people not understand? — for the building of mosques. This is because 81% of the mosques in America distribute literature that supports violent jihad and the imposition of sharia law by force, and 95% of Muslims who attend prayers regularly attend one of these mosques. I have suggested our policies toward Islam should be the same as our policies toward the KKK and white supremacist groups, since they are equally and violently antisemitic. Whatever the NAACP thinks ought to be done to halt the spread of the KKK and white supremacists I'll be happy to adopt as our policy against the spread of Islam.

- "Muslims should be prohibited from serving in the armed forces" — True. Serving in the United States military is a privilege not a right, and we should have no room in our military for those whose religion teaches them to "slay the idolaters wherever you find them" (Surah 9:5). If you don't think this policy suggestion makes sense, ask the families of Major Nidal Malik Hasan's homicidal rampage at Ft. Hood, done in the name of Allah.

But Fischer takes issue with several other assertions ... and, in typical Fischer fashion, attempts to clarify the record by more or less reiterating the very thing he claims he never said in the first place:

1. "gays caused the Holocaust." False. What I spoke is the simple truth: the Nazi Party was responsible for the Holocaust. If the question is then further asked, who was responsible for the Nazi Party, the answer, as a matter of simple historical truth: homosexual thugs. The Nazi Party was actually formed in a gay bar in Munich, and virtually all of Hitler's early enforcers in his rise to power were homosexuals.

Here is what I wrote in my column on what Nazi Germany teaches us about the wisdom of allowing open homosexuals in the military:

"Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews. Gays in the military is an experiment that has been tried and found disastrously and tragically wanting. Maybe it's time for Congress to learn a lesson from history."

So I clearly lay the blame for the Holocaust on the Nazi Party, but attribute the rise of the Nazi Party to homosexual brutes. That's not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of historical fact, as inconvenient as that fact may be to the mavens of political correctness on the left.

2. "gays...are planning on doing it (the Holocaust) again." False.

Here is the transcript of my remarks:

"Homosexual activists, when it comes to freedom of speech, are Nazis. When it comes to freedom of religion, they are Nazis. There is no room in their world for dissent, there is no room in their world for disagreement, there is no room in their world for criticism. You criticize homosexual behavior, they tag you as a bigot and a homophobe and then they go to work to silence you just like the Roman Catholic Church did in the days of Galileo — it's no different; it's the Spanish Inquisition all over again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, they are Nazis. Do not be under any illusions about what homosexual activists will do with your freedoms and your religion if they have the opportunity. They'll do the same thing to you that the Nazis did to their opponents in Nazi Germany."

Clearly the parallel I was drawing here is that homosexuals are out to suppress freedom of speech, religion, and dissent just as the Nazis did. This is indisputable.

So Fischer never said that gays caused the Holocaust and they are going to commit another one against Christians - he simply said that the Holocaust was the fault of the Nazis (who were all gay) and that, if given the chance, gays would do the same thing again today.

So you can see that that is totally different. 

Fischer also claims he never called for the forced conversion of Muslims or their deportation from America:

5. "foreign Muslims should either be exterminated or forced to convert to Christianity" — Horrendous distortion. What I said was that, if we are attacked from or by a Muslim nation, we should go in with military force and neutralize the threat. Then I suggest we bring missionaries in, since it is Christianity that has made the United States the freest, strongest, and most prosperous nation on earth. If they don't want to listen to our missionaries, fine. We'll bring them and our soldiers home. But we let them know that if you attack us again and we have to come back, this time we'll come back not with missionaries but with overwhelming lethal force.

6. "American Muslims should be deported" — Wrong again. What I have written is that American Muslims who have been naturalized of course should remain, as well as American citizens who convert to Islam. But I do believe we should not extend citizenship any longer to immigrant Muslims, even the ones who are here legally. When their legal immigration provisions expire, we should happily bear the cost of repatriating them to their homelands. Immigration is a privilege, not a right, and the god of Islam teaches his followers to kill Americans. It's simply bad policy to extend citizenship to people who have a solemn, sacred, religious obligation to exterminate us.

Fischer was quite clear when he said that when the US goes into a Muslim nation, it must try to convert them to Christianity but if the Muslims refuse to convert, then the next time the US returns, it will be to kill them. 

Likewise, Fischer has asserted that simply by virtue of being a Muslim, they are guilty of treason and that Muslims living in the US ought to be deported.

Yet, somehow Fischer thinks it is an unfair distortion of his views to claim that he supports forced conversion and the deportation of Muslims.

Fischer has a long history of saying openly bigoted things on an almost daily basis ... and he has just as long a history of claiming that all of the bigoted things he said were taken out of context or misrepresented.

As I have said before, it is utterly pointless to try and have any sort of rational debate with Fischer ... and this is further evidence of just why that is the case. 

Massachusetts Republican Wants Rape Victims To Stay In The Shadows If They're Undocumented Immigrants

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 6/8/2011 3:56 pm

In a speech berating Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s opposition to a controversial federal immigration program, a Republican state legislator said that illegal immigrants who were victims of rape should be afraid to come forward. State Rep. Ryan Fattman brushed aside the claims of immigrant advocates that the program, which would allow local police officers to refer undocumented immigrants they arrest for any reason to federal authorities, would damage the relationship between law enforcement and immigrant communities or lead to racial profiling.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports that Fattman even claimed that undocumented immigrants who are victims of rape should be afraid to talk to the police:

Mr. Fattman dismissed concerns of some law enforcement officials — cited by the governor — who said using local police to enforce immigration laws could discourage reporting of crime by victims who are illegal immigrants.

Asked if he would be concerned that a woman without legal immigration status was raped and beaten as she walked down the street might be afraid to report the crime to police, Mr. Fattman said he was not worried about those implications.

“My thought is that if someone is here illegally, they should be afraid to come forward,” Mr. Fattman said. “If you do it the right way, you don’t have to be concerned about these things,” he said referring to obtaining legal immigration status.

…

“If they are here illegally, they have committed a crime,” he said. However, under federal law, illegal status is usually a civil offense.

“My philosophy is a little different,” Mr. Fattman said. He said he believes all illegal immigrants should be deported, including the children of immigrants who came with their parents to the U.S.

Mat Staver Flaunts His Ignorance About Goodwin Liu

Submitted by Anonymous on Wednesday, 6/8/2011 12:07 pm

(cross posted to the People For Blog)

Mat Staver of the ironically named Liberty Counsel has a new video up where he takes credit for the shameful filibuster of Goodwin Liu. That clears up so much.

Was it Mat Staver who "exposed" the "extremism" of this extremely qualified nominee? Was it Mat Staver who convinced every Republican senator but one to ignore Liu's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, his detailed written submissions, and his many articles, all of which disproved the lies being told about him? Was it Mat Staver whose keen legal arguments completely discredited conservative legal figures like Ken Starr, Clint Bolick, Richard Painter, and John Yoo, all of whom were part of the vast network of support Liu received from the nation's legal community across the ideological spectrum?

Yeah, right.

No, it was naked partisan politics at its worst and not Mat Staver that sank Goodwin Liu's nomination.

But the video does raise an interesting question: If Staver knows so much about Goodwin Liu, why does he repeatedly call him "Godwin"? Don't you think he would know the man's name after all of his exhaustive research and outreach to senators?

WND: Conservatives Losing Marriage Debate Because They Weren't Anti-Gay Enough

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 6/7/2011 3:27 pm

Only a writer for the ultraconservative WorldNetDaily would believe that the Religious Right is too soft on the issue of gay rights.

WND’s Josh Craddock of the Institute for Cultural Communicators claims that the reason more Americans support marriage equality is because social conservatives haven’t fought gay rights or attacked the LGBT community enough. Responding to Focus on the Family president Jim Daly’s recent claim that the Right Wing “probably lost” the debate over equal marriage rights, Craddock alleges that organizations like Focus on the Family simply didn’t fight gay rights hard enough.

He points to the case of the campaign for Colorado’s Amendment 2, the unconstitutional law that barred anti-discrimination ordinances from covering gays and lesbians, protections that anti-gay activists said granted “special rights” and ceded too much ground to the gay-rights movement. Craddock argues that Religious Right activists should have more vigorously and forcefully opposed the decriminalization of homosexuality and letting anyone who was gay or sympathizes with gay rights from serving in public office:

Rewind to 1992's Colorado campaign on Amendment 2, designed to ban homosexuals from receiving special rights based on their sexual orientation. It was then that Dr. James Dobson and the vice president of public policy for Focus on the Family, Tom Minnery, adopted the unwise but politically opportunistic pro-Amendment 2 campaign slogan "Equal rights, not special rights." If homosexuals are entitled to "equal rights," then why should homosexual couples be prohibited from marrying? Focus on the Family lost the gay-marriage debate in 1992 when they broke with 3,500 years of Judeo-Christian history and sided with Hillary, Hollywood and the humanists by legitimizing homosexual behavior.

Incidentally, that victory was short-lived. It was overturned in Romer v. Evans (1996) with the help of a prominent Washington, D.C., lawyer who specialized in oral arguments before the Supreme Court. Less than a decade later, Dr. Dobson actually supported that attorney's bid to become the nation's next chief justice. In 2005, John Roberts was confirmed to the Supreme Court.

Most recently, Focus on the Family announced that they wouldn't oppose a homosexual nominated to the Supreme Court over sexual orientation. A spokesperson for the organization commented in 2009 that the nominee's sexual orientation "should never come up" because "it's not even pertinent to the equation." Not even relevant to know if an individual appointed for life to the highest court in the nation has a traditional view of the family, or is a self-avowed homosexual? Where did that come from? Certainly America's Founding Fathers would be shocked, since they followed lock-step with Christian Western tradition that criminalized homosexuality.

Today's conservative Christian leaders believe what was scandalous just 30 years ago: that homosexuality should be legal. Back in the Dark Ages, way back in 1986 when the Supreme Court upheld Georgia's anti-sodomy law, Christian leaders actually believed that homosexual behavior should be criminal. Their beliefs have changed rather quickly with the culture, preferring to garner social acceptance through a moral fluidity that reminds me of Groucho Marx's quip: "If you don't like my principles, I have others."

Despite victories for traditional marriage in states across the Union, social conservatives are losing because they've missed the heart of the issue. Same-sex marriage is a diversion. The real battle is over the morality of homosexuality itself.

At Ralph Reed Confab, Obama Portrayed as Enemy of Faith and Freedom

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Monday, 6/6/2011 8:59 pm

Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition gathering in Washington, D.C. this past weekend was essentially a relentless repetition of the GOP’s 2012 attack themes on the Obama administration, mixed with Religious Right leaders’ demands that the Tea Party not abandon social conservatives’ priorities and conservative politicos’ appeals for unity behind whichever candidate emerges from the presidential crowd.  Just about everyone running, or thinking about running, for the presidency on the Republican side was in attendance with the exception of Newt Gingrich.

One of the easiest, and most frequently used, ways to get applause at F&F was to pledge that Obama will be a one-term president.  Among the other major themes:
 
American Exceptionalism
 
Former Senator Rick Santorum, who officially announced his presidential bid this morning, said his campaign theme will be American exceptionalism.  Unfortunately, for Santorum, it seems that every Republican candidate is talking about American exceptionalism – and the claim that President Obama, Democrats, and “liberal elites” don’t believe that the U.S. is the God-ordained greatest nation in the history of the world – so it’s going to be hard to break away from the pack on that score.  Gary Bauer claimed that American elites don’t believe the words of the Declaration of Independence. 
 
‘Obamacare’ = Socialism = The End of Freedom
 
Many speakers cited health care reform as the ultimate example of the Democrats’ commitment to freedom-destroying socialism.  Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network said it was one example of progressives’ tendency to say “to hell with the Constitution” when it got in the way of their policy goals.  Rep. Allen West even attacked the notion of “shared sacrifice,” which he said was code for “redistribution of wealth,” which is how the right-wing looks at progressive taxation.  Rep. Tom Price, who clearly needs to spend some time studying American history, called the health care reform bill “the furthest reach of oppression that this society has ever seen.”  Others similarly insisted that the implementation of the law would mean the end of liberty in America.  Michele Bachman shouted, “I will not rest until we repeal Obamacare. America will not rest until we repeal Obamacare.”  Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said the fight against Obamacare is just one sign that federalism is reemerging.  He argued that Americans need to understand that there is a “liberty pie” that does not grow – and it has only two slices, government power and individual liberty – and one necessarily grows at the expense of the other. 
 
America Needs More Religion (as long as it’s not Islam)
 
The FFC was long on Religious Right rhetoric on religion and politics.  The pastor who gave the opening prayer for the conference gave thanks for “a nation founded for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.”  The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins exulted that it was good to be among folks who are “not ashamed to defend the Christian principles on which this nation was founded.”  The Republican National Committee’s Reince Priebus said America’s greatness is “rooted in our faith” and that “faith in our God, and faith in our savior” is “not a convenience, it is the foundation of a good life.” But Islam was clearly deemed a threat, with one participant telling a contentiouspanel on Sharia law that in Minnesota “we practically have a Muslim state.”  
 
Reproductive Rights and Gay Rights = Big Government
 
In the “Social Issues: Why They Still Matter” panel, John Fund of the Wall Street Journal discussed “the psychology of those who are trying to undermine the moral fiber of this country,” arguing that liberals are compelled by a lust for power and therefore need to “control people” and “lower standards of society as a whole.” Fund explained that “if you can lower standards” by permitting legal abortion and gay equality, then liberals can gain control over society, and insisted that “we have to bring back shaming” of women who had abortions because “we need to be judgmental about this issue, we need to call out people for the choices that they made, ‘shaming’ is not a bad word in this society.” On a separate panel, National Organization for Marriage founder Maggie Gallagher said, “When you redefine marriage, you also redefine the relationship between Genesis and the American tradition,” which would jeopardize freedom because “in some cases, the power of government is already being used to marginalize and stigmatize people who disagree with the foundational ideas of same-sex marriage.”
 
Obama as Enemy of Israel
 
Michele Bachman was one of several speakers who misportrayed recent Obama administration comments about Israel, calling them a “shocking display of betraying our greatest friend and ally.” One participant commented that “life, liberty, and Israel” were the elements that make up “the pursuit of happiness.” Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice said Obama may soon be referring to Israel as “the Zionist regime” and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission implied that Obama may bringing upon the country the curse of God for his policy towards Israel. Peter Roff of U.S. News and World Report lamented that “the American Jewish community is for some reason enamored of Democratic politicians in general and Barack Obama specifically.”
 
Unified Conservative Movement
 
FRC’s Perkins was among many Religious Right speakers who argued for keeping social conservatives’ priorities at the forefront of the movement in the name of conservative movement unity.  Perkins used a strange mixed metaphor, saying it is the “bottom of the ninth for our beloved country” and no time to lapse into an undisciplined orchestra, calling for a “rousing symphony” – drums of national defense, the horns of economic abundance, and the strings that bind a strong family.  Among others who sounded the same theme were Indiana gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence, who said, “we have to recognize that our present crisis is not just economic or political but moral in nature” and touted the importance of the sanctity of life, “traditional marriage,” and the importance of organized religion in our daily life.
 
Haley Barbour, one of the potential presidential candidates who decided not to run, devoted his remarks to lecturing attendees about the need to rally behind whichever candidate was nominated even though the nominee won’t be perfect.  “In politics,” he said, “purity is the enemy of victory.” Tony Blankley warned that the media and Democrats would love to “divide and conquer” the movement.
 
Advocating for social issues at the FFC was clearly preaching to the choir.  But some Tea Party activists were clearly annoyed by the “you’re nothing without us” attitude of Religious Right activists Jordan Sekulow and Matt Barber at a panel on the “Teavangelicals” that was moderated by the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody.

West: "Gay Marriage Is An Oxymoron" And Will End Society

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 6/3/2011 12:18 pm

Congressman Allen West (R-FL) joined Phyllis Schlafly at Eagle Forum Collegians to slam marriage equality, saying: “the term ‘gay marriage’ is an oxymoron.” He even tried to link gay marriage with the country’s debt and legal abortion. West, who recently criticized the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell because he believes that gay and lesbian servicemembers “can change [their] behavior,” warned the audience of young conservatives that if gay marriage becomes legal then “it just becomes a matter of time before we don’t have society.”

Watch:

The term ‘gay marriage’ is an oxymoron. Because marriage is a union and a bond between a man and a woman to do one thing: the furtherance of society by procreation, through creating new life. Have you ever read the book America Alone by Mark Steyn? It’s about demographics. And if we continue with a cycle of debt and punishing our unborn then it just becomes a matter of time before you don’t have society.

Hartzler: Gay Marriage Is Like Incest, Letting Three-Year Old Children Drive

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 6/3/2011 11:42 am

Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) built her political career on opposing gay rights: she spearheaded the Missouri campaign to enshrine discrimination in the state constitution and since her election to Congress last November has fought to preserve the Defense of Marriage Act and block the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Yesterday, Hartzler addressed Eagle Forum Collegians 2011 Summit in Washington on why young people should oppose marriage equality.

Joined by Eagle Forum head Phyllis Schlafly, Hartzler compared gay marriage to polygamy and incest, and later argued that we shouldn’t give equal marriage rights to gay couples just as “it’s not a right of a three-year old to drive a car.”

Watch:

Opposition to marriage equality was a major theme at the conference, due in part to fears that young people disproportionately favor legalizing gay marriage. Participants even received a pamphlet “77 Non-Religious Reasons to Support Man/Woman Marriage” from Jennifer Roback Morse of The Ruth Institute, a project of the National Organization for Marriage. The pamphlet harshly criticized gay families as “unjust and cruel to the child” and argues that “we will not be able to maintain a free society” if gay marriage is legalized.

Lisa Miller Is Still On The Run

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 5/31/2011 10:25 am

Last month we noted that a legal defense fund had been set up for Timo Miller, the man charged with assisting Lisa Miller in kidnapping her daughter and fleeing the country.

The defense fund also created email list to disseminate updates on what is happening in the case and over the weekend sent out an email from the "Waslala Christian Brotherhood" reporting that US authorities were closing in on Miller, but that she managed to flee from where she was living in Jinotega, Nicaragua and elude capture, which is hailed as proof that God is protecting Miller in order to prevent her former partner, Janet Jenkins, from taking Isabella to a "satanic church":

During the last month the US detectives, the US embassy people and the local police have been harassing the Jinotega brethren. (They have also questioned Alvino and Edna and two of Timo’s brothers.) They are constantly watching and trailing the Jinotega brethren and again and again ask them a lot of questions. They have even said that if they do not help them find out where Lisa is, they could deport some of them, or put them in jail or do what the local police do here when they investigate. (And that is not nice. It's a vicious threat!) They are not very nice about the whole thing and almost force people to talk. This has been a very tiring time for the brethren there.

Toward the beginning of all this they had come to the Jinotega school/church house combination to pick Lisa up, but God had sent her away already. Later they brought in a bunch of Special Forces to invade the house she had been living in. But she was gone.

Lisa herself was having a spiritual struggle earlier, during the time she was with the church in Jinotega. She had some difficulty submitting to authority, battled with some rebellion and suffered depression. She had a feeling that once she totally surrendered her life to God, he was going to do something big. With the help of the brethren she had a spiritual break though. It was not very long after that, that she heard the news that Tim Miller was caught in the US.

So praise the Lord that she was right with God and the church when she left. We believe God will be able to bless her now. She is under His protection. Although men seek to take away Lisa’s motherly care for her daughter, Isabella, God is in control and loves them dearly. He will not allow anything to happen to them that will not bring glory to His Name.

It’s sad to think that poor, nine year old Isabella, after living a happy and a very normal life while with the church in Jinotega, might now be deprived of those joys because of having to run. She learned the language well and had been so happy there. Oh let us pray that she would not be forced to be taken back into a situation where she is taught all the perversions of lesbianism and where she would be taken to a satanic church. (Lisa knows that before, when Janet had Isabella over weekends, she would take her to a satanic church.) Let’s pray that soon these two could live a normal life again.

Pierce: Obama's Middle East Speech Proves My 2008 Vision

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 5/23/2011 1:27 pm

As we noted in our earlier post about Janet Porter's "Israel: You Are Not Alone" coalition announcing that it would begin running television ads, the group initially formed to run an ad in the Wall Street Journal.

That ad ran last week and among those signed their name to it was Chuck Pierce of Glory of Zion International Ministries.

Today, Pierce put out a letter announcing that President Obama's speech on the Middle East and North Africa last week was a sign that a vision God gave him back in 2008 was beginning to come true.

Pierce reports that Obama's speech will literally split the United States into two camps consisting of 20+ states that will stand with Israel while the remainder will oppose Israel, setting off a full-blown spiritual war during which God will raise up a "might army" that will "tear down, raise up, overthrow, [and] rebuild" our society:

On May 31, 2008, I was preparing to speak at a large gathering at Liberty State Park in New Jersey near Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Suddenly, the Lord gave me a vision of our nation. He took me three years into the future and began to let me hear and see what our future would look like. He first showed me my own bloodline and the glory and iniquity of its history. He then showed me three years ahead and the two iniquitous spirits that would try to capture my children and children's children.

Next, He showed me that within three years (by May 31, 2011), a statement would be made regarding Israel in this nation that would realign the nation and determine the future of this land. (With President Obama's speech yesterday endorsing the Palestinians' demand for their own state based on borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war, this has now happened. I believe this statement will create a split in the United States for the next three years as individual states make choices on how they will align.)

The Lord then revealed His remnant in this nation, which states had covenant roots, which states were anti-covenant, and the divine war that would arise over the future glory of this land. He showed me 21 states that would stand strong with the God of Israel, two states that hung in the balance, and one state that could turn the nation.

The Lord also showed me how financial systems would realign and nations would have different allegiances than we have known in the past. This begins now. Like the frog in the kettle, you will see gradual changes starting June 5.

...

He showed me how the communication system in the United States was linked with systems internationally and how a new form of global communications was forming in the demonic world. This communication would control financial and legal structures.

However, He showed me that His remnant was building new freedom outposts. He called this remnant His 'triumphant reserve.' I saw twenty-three freedom outposts in twenty-three states. He then showed me other outposts that needed to form in some places, and still others where the spiritual atmosphere was now not conducive to freedom. A new type of war would have to develop to regain that portion of the land .... It was as if David's mighty army for this hour was being chosen in a threefold generational alignment. When they aligned, their hearts became one with His, and the strength to overcome was released. God has deposited revelation and vision within you that will be called up for such a time as this.

We have now done research on each State. Janice Swinney looked at the covenant roots of each state in America and their relationship with Israel. The Lord is raising up and realigning His people to possess a new level of glory in the earth realm to possess the harvest fields. This will be a people who are triumphant against the enemy. We will tear down, raise up, overthrow, rebuild and stand firm as we transform society for the generations to come.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 5/19/2011 5:38 pm
  • Noted cool guy Matt Barber informs us that it is cool to be conservative.  Cool!

  • Tim Pawlenty is running for president because he doesn't want to sit around playing hockey, drinking beer, and getting rich.

  • Gary Bauer does not support Mitch Daniels.

  • Kimberly Daniels won her race for a seat on the Jacksonville City Council. This ought to be good.

  • Two Kentucky counties owe nearly a half-million dollars in legal costs for trying to post the Ten Commandments.

  • Finally, an aid worker is suing Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse for allegedly refusing to ransom her after she was kidnapped in Sudan despite the fact that the organization had an insurance policy that could have been used to free her.

Porter Brings Religious Right Leaders, Dominionists And Prophets Together For Israel

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 5/18/2011 4:16 pm

Janet Porter of Faith2Action has started a new website, IsraelYoureNotAlone.com, and has managed to gather a whole host of names for a Wall Street Journal ad condemning President Obama’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

Porter, who last week blamed the deadly tornadoes in the South on Obama’s approach to Israel and legal abortion, garnered signatures from Religious Right luminaries like Mike Huckabee, James Dobson, Lou Sheldon, Mat Staver, Tim Wildmon, and Roy Moore, along with dominionists like herself such as Jerry Boykin and Rick Scarborough, and New Apostolic Reformation ‘prophets’ like Rick Joyner, Che Ahn, Mike Bickle, and Chuck Pierce. Other prominent Religious Right signatories include Gordon Klingenschmitt, Don Feder, Rob Shenck and Paul Blair.

Many Christian Right leaders believe that Israel must refuse territorial compromise and a two-state solution in order to accelerate the End Times. The ad warns, “We believe Israel's ancient prophets who warned of dire consequences to any nation who would divide your land.”

Porter sent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 10,000 yellow roses to protest Obama’s “horrendous treatment” of Netanyahu, and Glenn Beck recently announced that he will hold a rally in Jerusalem to fight against the two-state solution.

View the ad here [pdf]:

Right-Wing Groups Make Desperate Last-Minute Attacks On Goodwin Liu, Demand Filibuster

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 5/18/2011 1:45 pm

Even after Republicans in the Senate and their conservative allies railed against filibusters of judicial nominees during the Bush administration and pushed to give even the most far-right nominees up-or-down votes, it appears that they have made an exception for President Obama’s nominees.

The Senate is expected to vote tomorrow on UC Berkley Law Professor Goodwin Liu, who is nominated to serve on the 9th Circuit Court. While many conservative legal scholars support Liu, many in the GOP “appear to be opposing his nomination because he is too qualified.” Republicans have worked for over a year to denounce Liu with discredited attacks, and now right-wing groups are pressuring Senators to filibuster his nomination.

Mario Diaz of Concerned Women for America claims that Liu is a “real danger to our freedoms” and Republicans must do everything possible to prevent his confirmation:

"To everything there is a season," says Ecclesiastes 3:1, and the time for Republican senators to fight on judicial nominations is now!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has filed cloture on the nomination of radical professor Goodwin Liu to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Simply put, Mr. Liu must never be confirmed to this lifetime appointment, and senators should use every tool available to make sure he is stopped.

…

Those views help expose the real danger to our freedoms with this nomination: Mr. Liu's judicial philosophy. He believes those constitutional rights must be developed, because he believes the Constitution is a "living, breathing" document that the more enlightened judges (like him, presumably) should continue to mold.

…

Liu's judicial philosophy cannot be more dangerous, since it could mean something different at any given point in time. Any senator who doesn't stand firmly against such a rogue nomination violates his oath to "support and defend the Constitution."

The Committee for Justice also demands Republicans have a no holds barred approach to Liu’s nomination after they failed to obstruct district court nominee John McConnell:

If all 53 Democratic senators follow the party line and vote for cloture, they will need to add seven Republican votes to prevail. The key to this vote are the 11 GOP senators who voted for cloture on Rhode Island district court nominee John McConnell earlier this month. They include Sens. Alexander, Brown, Chambliss, Collins, Graham, Isakson, Kirk, McCain, Murkowski, Snowe, and Thune.

Several of these GOP senators justified their vote for cloture by arguing that the President’s district court nominees deserve more deference or that McConnell did not quite meet the “extraordinary circumstances” threshold. The former argument is not available for appeals court nominee Liu. The latter argument, if applied to Liu, would logically require a GOP senator to answer the question “If Obama’s most radical nominee is not extreme enough to meet the extraordinary circumstances threshold, when would it ever be met?” If the answer is “never,” because the senator believes that judicial filibusters are never justified, that senator must then explain why Republicans are obliged to unilaterally disarm no matter how atrocious the nominee is.

Tom McClusky of the Family Research Council insisted that Republicans block an up-or-down vote:

Perhaps in Senator Reid’s fantasy world Goodwin Liu is a fantastic nominee. Most people agree that the nomination of Goodwin Liu is one of those rare instances constituting “extraordinary circumstances” where the U. S. Senate should reject this nominee as unsuitable for a lifetime appointment. “Extraordinary circumstances” is the standard agreed to by the bipartisan “Gang of 14” U.S. Senators in 2005 for opposing judicial nominations.

Even the Tea Party Nation is getting in the game with this alert from president Judson Phillips:

Goodwin Liu is a radical leftist. He is a professor at the University of California Berkeley. He maybe the most radical lawyer ever nominated for a federal appeals court.

…

If the cloture vote fails, Liu’s nomination is dead again. This is why we need to take a few minutes today and call our senators to tell them to vote against cloture. Harry Reid needs to peel off seven Republicans in order for cloture to pass. That is of course, if all Democrats vote for cloture. Unfortunately, we are dealing with the GOP, so the possibility of losing seven votes is real.

Who Will Pick Up Huckabee's Baggage?

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 5/17/2011 12:20 pm

Ever since Mike Huckabee announced that he would not be running for president in 2012, countless pieces have been written speculating which remaining candidate benefits the most from his decision.  Is it Michele Bachmann?  It is Tim Pawleny? Is it Herman Cain or Rick Santorum? 

But I have a different question:  which remaining candidate will be the one to welcome the support of the fringe Religious Right leaders who made up Huckabee's Faith and Family Values Coalition the last time around?

In 2008, Huckabee could get no love from the "establishment" Religious Right leaders, but he was adored by the ultra-radical fringe leaders of the movement like Janet Porter, who believes that America has been cursed for electing President Obama and that Obama wanted to commit genocide against the American population and lock conservatives up in internment camps. Porter also believes that Christians should be in complete control of government and that tornadoes are God's wrath against us our nation for our positions on abortion and Israel.

Or what about Rick Scarborough, the self-proclaimed "Christocrat" who believes that AIDS is God's judgment and that it is his duty to "mix church and state God's way" in order to stop the country's "slide further into Communism/Socialism [and] sexual anarchy led by sodomites."

And let's not forget Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, who is reportedly teaching law students to break the law in order to fight the gay agenda while working to keep "moral perverts" out of the military, defeat the "Antichrist spirit" that seeks to destroy marriage, and prevent Obama from becoming a global dictator.

These kinds of activists were Huckabee's bread-and-butter, along with End Times obsessives like Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, Homeschool champions like Mike Farris, and the boycott-happy head of the American Family Association Don Wildmon.

Where are these activists going to go now that Huckabee is not running? 

They certainly are not just going to sit on the sidelines, so some lucky GOP candidate is eventually going to pick up their endorsement ... and all the crazy right-wing baggage that comes right along with it.

Random Book Blogging: The Biblical Guide to Light Bulbs and Playground Equipment

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 5/16/2011 4:46 pm

Lately I have been working my way through Wayne Grudem's textbook-like tome "Politics According to the Bible: A Comprehensive Resource for Understanding Modern Political Issues in Light of Scripture" because I have seen it mentioned by several of the organizations and people we monitor and it's been blurbed by the likes of Chuck Colson and Timothy Goeglein.

In it, Grudem lays out the proper Biblical position on everything from abortion and taxes to tariffs and farm subsidies ... but I haven't gotten to those issues yet as I am still working my way through the introductory chapters where Grudem lays out how the government is stealing precious seconds of his liberty and making the nation's children fat and cowardly:

Every incremental increase in governmental regulation of life is also an incremental removal of some measure of human liberty. When small losses of liberty occur again and again and again over a period of years, people can become essentially slaves to the government without ever realizing its happening.

Here are some examples: If my local government would prohibit grocery stores from providing plastic bags, as San Francisco did in 2007, it would force me to use paper bags. This deprives me of my liberty to choose which kind of bag I want. But I cannot carry nearly as many paper bags as plastic bags from the car to the house, because the paper bags break and tear more easily. Therefore every trip to the grocery store will now require some additional trips between the car and the house, an incremental loss of human liberty for every citizen. The paper bags also take up more storage room an don't work as well for certain other tasks, so there is another small loss of liberty. Perhaps some people thing this is insignificant, and perhaps others think there is an environmental benefit that comes from avoiding plastic bags, and that is worth the price of depriving the citizens of a small amount of liberty in this way. I do not. But my point is simply to note that my freedom to use my time as I wish has been eroded a bit, and no one seems to notice that this has happened.

Almost all of the really fun playground equipment that I loved as a boy growing up in Jim Falls, Wisconsin, has disappeared from playgrounds across America. there are much fewer merry-go-rounds or teeter-totters or high slides or high swings. Because of the threat of bankrupting lawsuits (and the lack of laws that place commonsense limitations on liability and damages for injuries), everything is padded and "safe," and children are growing fat and timid and lazy, and they have lost the excitement of that great adventure of testing your courage and strength and balance and endurance against the playground equipment and against every else playing on it. Because of our nation's failure to have some commonsense legal reforms, our children have lost much of their freedom (and health!) and nobody seems to notice or care.

...

Recently the US government required that all incandescent light bulbs (that fully light instantly) have to be discontinued by 2014. We have started to switch to cheaper energy-efficient bulbs, but when I walk into the closet or the kitchen pantry and turn on the light, it now takes several seconds until the room is fully lighted. So I wait, and another tiny bit of my liberty has been eroded - liberty to choose the kind of light bulb I prefer for each room, and liberty to use those few seconds of time as I wish. 

Is Liberty Law School Teaching Students to Break The Law?

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 5/16/2011 10:21 am

For over a year now we have been covering the story of Lisa Miller, who kidnapped her daughter and fled the country rather than abide by court-ordered custody arrangements with her former partner, Janet Jenkins.

From the very beginning, when Miller began attending Jerry Falwell's church and renounced homosexuality, she has been represented by Mat Staver and Rena Lindevaldsen at Liberty Counsel while the were simultaneously serving as Dean and Associate Professor, respectively, of the Falwell-founded Liberty University School of Law.

Ever since Miller disappeared, Staver and Lindevaldsen have insisted that they have no idea where she went and had nothing to do with her disappearance - a position they continue to maintain even after an FBI affidavit claimed that Miller and her daughter were living in a house in Nicaragua owned by the father of an administrative assistant who works in the Liberty Law School office.

Now, Sarah Poser of Religion Dispatches sheds even more light on this story with a great piece revealing that Staver and Lindevaldsen have been using Miller's case in the Foundations of Law course they teach at Liberty Law School ... and been teaching students that the "right" thing for a lawyer in case such as this is to counsel their client that they have an obligation to ignore the law and engage in "civil disobedience" in order to uphold God's law:

Students at Liberty Law School tell RD that in the required Foundations of Law class in the fall of 2008, taught by Miller’s attorneys Mat Staver and Rena Lindevaldsen, they were repeatedly instructed that when faced with a conflict between “God’s law” and “man’s law,” they should resolve that conflict through “civil disobedience.” One student said, “the idea was when you are confronted with a particular situation, for instance, if you have a court order against you that is in violation of what you see as God’s law, essentially... civil disobedience was the answer.

This student and two others, who all requested anonymity for fear of reprisal by Staver (who is also the law school’s dean), recounted the classroom discussion of civil disobedience, as well as efforts to draw comparisons between choosing “God’s law” over “man’s law” to the American revolution and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. According to one student, in the Foundations course both Staver and Lindevaldsen “espoused the opinion that in situations where God’s law is in direct contradiction to man’s law, we have an obligation to disobey it.”

...

That semester’s mid-term exam, obtained by RD [see excerpts of the actual exam here], included a question based on Miller’s case asking students to describe what advice they would give her “as a friend who is a Christian lawyer.” After laying out a slanted history of the protracted legal battle, the exam asked, “Lisa needs your counsel on how to think through her legal situation and how to respond as a Christian to this difficult problem. Relying only on what we have learned thus far in class, how would you counsel Lisa?”

Students who wrote that Miller should comply with court orders received bad grades while those who wrote she should engage in civil disobedience received an A, the three students said. “People were appalled,” said one of the students, adding, “especially as lawyers to be, who are trained and licensed to practice the law—to disobey that law, that seemed completely counterintuitive to all of us.”

Still, some knew what they needed to “regurgitate,” in order to get a good grade. “It was obvious by the substance of the class during the semester the answer that they wanted,” said one of the students. “The majority of people that I am acquainted with who did get As wrote that because that was expected of them.”

One of the students who got an A said, “I told them she needed to engage in civil disobedience and seriously consider leaving the country,” adding, “I knew what I needed to write.”

Given what was expected of them on the exam, and the tenor of the class, there is “not a lot of shock among the students about the current developments,” said one of the students, referring to the revelation that Miller is in hiding in Nicaragua. “Everybody semi-suspected that Liberty Counsel had something to do with her disappearance.”

So if Staver and Lindevaldsen were teaching students at LU that the proper course of action for a lawyer in a case like this was to counsel their client to ignore court orders, it seems logical to wonder just what sort of counsel Staver and Lindevaldsen were giving to Miller before she kidnapped her daughter and fled the country.

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Legal Posts Archive

Schlafly Mocks NEA for Opposing Discrimination in Schools
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Thursday 09/08/2011, 2:18pm
Phyllis Schlafly is a longtime critic of the National Education Association and LGBT rights, and today in The Phyllis Schlafly Report she ridicules the teachers’ union’s endorsement of resolutions calling for a safe and diverse work environment and opposing discrimination against LGBT school employees, families and students. While Schlafly mainly lists excerpts from the NEA, she dubs their anti-discrimination policies as “radical” and leaves no confusion over where she stands: Eagle Forum always sends an observer to the annual convention of the National Education... MORE
Bryan Fischer Explains His Love For Gays
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 09/08/2011, 1:51pm
It is hard to imagine how Bryan Fischer can think that anyone would ever believe that all of the anti-gay rants he unleashes on an almost daily basis could be driven by anything other than bigotry ... but yesterday on his radio program he attempted to convince everyone that he is really motivated by love and that it is those who support gays who are the true bigots: That’s the reason we oppose the normalization of homosexuality, it’s not because we don’t like homosexuals it’s because we love them. I mean listen to me, if you love people, if you care about people, if... MORE
Rick Perry Endorses Janet Porter's Radical 'Heartbeat Bill'
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Tuesday 09/06/2011, 3:15pm
After passing the Ohio State House, Janet Porter’s ‘heartbeat bill’ is now poised to have a vote in the Republican-controlled State Senate. Porter, an avowed dominionist who thinks supporters of President Obama are destined to Hell and that legal abortion is responsible for tornadoes, has been leading the fight to pass the ‘heartbeat bill,’ a patently unconstitutional measure that would “ban abortion as early as 18 to 24 days after conception.” She told James Dobson yesterday on his program Family Talk that she thinks her bill will eventually lead to... MORE
The Secrets Of Jay Sekulow - The Sequel
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 09/06/2011, 12:04pm
Several years ago, Tony Mauro wrote an article for The Legal Times entitled "The Secrets of Jay Sekulow" which examined how "through the ACLJ and a string of interconnected nonprofit and for-profit entities, [Sekulow] has built a financial empire that generates millions of dollars a year and supports a lavish lifestyle -- complete with multiple homes, chauffeur-driven cars, and a private jet that he once used to ferry Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia." The article went on to note how "Sekulow's wife, brother, sister-in-law, and two sons have been on the boards or... MORE
Right Wing Leftovers
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 09/01/2011, 5:28pm
Michael Youssef actually praises NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg for not including any clergy in the 9/11 memorial service, thereby saving Christians from committing the "abomination of syncretism." Typing in tongues? Just a reminder that Scott Lively is still an anti-gay activist. It sure is amazing how nobody even knows what dominionism is. Finally, Concerned Women for America takes a bold stand against insurance coverage for breast pumps. MORE
Activists Want to Pass Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment to Stop Satan's Attack on Marriage
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Thursday 09/01/2011, 3:10pm
Ron Baity of Return America, the group behind the campaign to pass an amendment to North Carolina’s constitution that would ban same-sex marriage, which is already barred by statute, joined right-wing radio host Janet Parshall yesterday on her show In The Market. Parshall said that marriage equality efforts come from “the Father of Lies and the Accuser of the Brethren,” two names for Satan (John 8:44; Revelation 12:10). She said that Satan has marriage in his “crosshairs” because he wants “to tear down the idea of Christ’s unconditional love for us.... MORE
Religious Right Makes Michael Bloomberg Enemy Number One For His "Insult To God"
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Wednesday 08/31/2011, 3:17pm
In planning a ceremony to mark the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has kept a policy observed in previous years and declined to invite religious leaders to speak at the events, which a spokesman says is to make sure “the focus remains on the families.” Of course, the Religious Right is now apoplectic and using their outrage at Bloomberg as their latest fundraising tool. The Traditional Values Coalition emailed members today pleading for donations to stop Bloomberg’s attempts “to exterminate expressions of faith”... MORE