torture

Writing for the American Family Association’s One News Now, Michael Youssef of Leading The Way ministries is urging Christians to quit the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) after the denomination voted to allow the ordination of gay and lesbian ministers. Youssef, who previously declared that the Episcopal Church couldn’t be Christian because of its support of gay rights, is now insisting that Presbyterians and Episcopalians leave their churches because “these denominations have chosen darkness” and are committed to “the spread of apostasy.” Youssef lamented that the churches submitted to “this Chinese water torture method of homosexual lobbying,” they have sealed their own demise:

All true Christian believers, whether they are Presbyterians or not, must be weeping right now over the spread of apostasy. Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, accurately refers to it as "following Jesus while rejecting the Bible."

Many of us have seen this Chinese water torture method of homosexual lobbying in both denominations coming for many years. We have known that it's only a matter of time. And yet, when it becomes reality, it is so hard to comprehend.

Today, I'm appealing to all faithful Presbyterians in the PC(USA) and Episcopalians to vote with your feet and get out of these churches as fast as you can. As I mention in my latest book The Greatest Lie, this type of preaching is now invading many mainline and evangelical churches.

There can be no excuse.

No, you cannot stay and be a witness.

No, you cannot stay and try to change things.

No, you cannot stay and hope that you will be a light.

These denominations have chosen darkness, and they need to experience what true darkness is all about by not having any believers inside their walls.

To modify slightly the words of the apostle Paul, the faithful believers ought to deliver these institutions to Satan by walking out as fast as they can. (1 Corinthians 5:4-5)

Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

While Sarah Palin tries to make herself out as the real victim of the shootings in Arizona, even going so far as to compare herself to Jewish victims of “blood libels,” the right-wing echo-chamber has been busy spinning the shootings in Tucson. After Tea Party Nation head Judson Phillips called Jared Lee Loughner “a liberal lunatic,” conservatives eagerly promoted his claims. NewsMax claimed that Loughner has links to “left-wing politics” since his favorite books include “‘The Communist Manifesto’ by Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf,’ and the fiction classic ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest.’” The American Family Association’s news service declared the “AZ shooter a leftist, not tea party supporter,” quoting Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America who “believes there is substantial evidence to show that suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, is an angry leftist who hates America and Christianity.” The RightNetwork’s Gateway Pundit maintained that Loughner is a “Left-Winger” because he “likes watching US flags burn & favorite book is ‘Communist Manifesto,’” and WorldNetDaily said Loughner may have been influenced by a “liberal group founded by Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers and funded by President Obama.”

Rush Limbaugh even alleged that Loughner “has the full support of a major political party in this country. He's sitting there in jail; he knows what's going on. He knows that a Democrat [sic] Party -- the Democrat [sic] Party -- is attempting to find anybody but him to blame.”

But when the Right isn’t attempting to paint Loughner as a liberal, they try to demonize Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. Right-wing writer Michelle Malkin today called Dupnik “The Worst Sheriff in America” and condemned his “vulture-like exploitation of the shooting rampage.” Dupnik, who has spoken out against the role of violence and hate mongering in politics, has found himself in the crosshairs of conservative pundits and politicians. Now, Malkin seeks to blame the Sheriff for the shooting and accuses him of seeking publicity for himself and attempting to “criminalize conservatism”:

Dupnik's mouth has done more to stoke self-inflicted ire against elected government clowns than anything the right could muster against him. Had the hyper-partisan Democrat been more in tune with his job than the media airwaves, the murderous, maniacal gunman might have been stopped.

As Dupnik himself has now admitted, Loughner leveled death threats against others that were investigated by law enforcement -- and then apparently shrugged off. Locals note that Loughner's mother worked for the county and may have had some pull. Pima County College campus police reported five serious confrontations with the mentally unstable young man before he was kicked out of the school, which he decried as an unconstitutional "torture facility." Classmates said they feared for their lives. His friends say he was a pothead, a 9/11 Truther and a UFO conspiracist so kooky that even flying-objects adherents spurned him.

Despite zero evidence that Rush Limbaugh, cable news, the tea party movement or immigration enforcement activists had anything to do with Loughner's warped attack, shameless Sheriff Dupnik shows no signs of shutting up.

The worst sheriff in America is walking in the footsteps of another infamous law enforcement official who put fame, ambition and ideology above public safety: disgraced Montgomery County (Md.) Police Chief Charles Moose, the publicity-hungry Keystone Cop who grossly bungled the Beltway sniper attacks in 2002.

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Dupnik is now following the same ill-gotten path. But decent Americans understand that he and his civilian counterparts have traveled a smear too far. Despite desperate attempts by the progressive left to pin the massacre on the "harsh tone" of its political opponents, a vast majority of Americans reject the cynical campaign to criminalize conservatism, suppress political free speech and capitalize on violent crime for electoral gain.

Following last Tuesday's election, RWW will bring you our list of the "The Ten Scariest Republicans Heading to Congress." Our fourth candidate profile is on Florida's Allen West:

In one of the Tea Party’s biggest victories, Florida’s Allen West defeated incumbent Democrat Ron Klein in a rematch of their 2008 race. West, an Army veteran, became a YouTube sensation by criticizing “this tyrannical government” and crying out: “if you’re here to stand up to get your musket, to fix your bayonet, and to charge into the ranks, you are my brother and sister in this fight.” He said that the country was engaging in “class warfare” between “a producing class and an entitlement class,” which is composed of Obama supporters.

While serving in Iraq, he was forced out of the Army for his violent handling of an investigation of a police officer. During the interrogation, West dragged “him outside, pushed his head into the sand, and fired a gun next to his face to get him to sing.” According to West: “It wasn’t torture. Seeing Rosie O'Donnell naked would be torture.”

West also has close ties to the Outlaws motorcycle gang, which an NBC News report found had criminal-ties and a website that features a page honoring members who are in prison, extolling “members convicted of violent crimes, including murder.” In a letter, West wrote: “Please, no more references to ‘criminal’ because I can tell you, they have the utmost respect for me and that which I seek to achieve. I was never more amazed at how members of the Outlaws guarded me during a one hour cell phone radio interview.”

Moreover, he addressed events sponsored by Outlaws-linked organizations, used Outlaws members to harass his rival’s campaign workers, and writes a column for their magazine. Their magazine, “Wheels on the Road,” has also used anti-Semitic, racist and sexist material, and once called women “oral relief stations.”

West encouraged his supporters to use violence in suppressing the votes of opponents, saying, “You've got to make the fellow scared to come out of his house.”

He maintains that it is “unfortunate” that gays and lesbians are serving in the military, and compares homosexuality to adultery. West is also radically anti-choice. On abortion rights, he has said “I believe all future discussion on this issue should move us toward the elimination of abortion except in the most extraordinary of circumstances,” and accused pro-choice groups of “promot[ing] abortion as a means of birth control.”

West wants to eliminate the progressive tax system. He supports tax cuts for the rich, and calls Wall Street Reform a “sham.” He’s advocated for eliminating the Departments of Energy and Education.

On immigration, he claims that illegal immigrants should not have access to care in emergency rooms, and that Muslim terrorists are coming through the border with Mexico. West’s first decision as Representative-elect was to choose as his chief of staff right-wing radio talk show host Joyce Kaufman, who called for illegal immigrants to be “hung on the central square. ”

A Republican partisan, West said: “I hate big-tent. I hate inclusiveness. And I hate outreach.” West uses extreme rhetoric against Democrats and liberals. He said that liberals resented the fact that he saved the lives of American soldiers. On the anti-Islam blog Atlas Shrugs, he wrote that progressives “detest anyone who has the courage of conviction and love of America, something which they find unconscionable." In the same post, he wrote, “"Liberals seek to destroy any institution of intrinsic value: God, country, family, honor, valor, courage, VIRTUE... Why? Because if such things exist, then they must be defended, which brings them back to their fear of action." He also claims that Democratic combat veterans Joe Sestak and Patrick Murphy “hate the military.”

West says that Obama does not “care for this country” and wants to “make it like some type of third world socialist cesspool,” and is not an American since he grew up in Indonesia and “never played little league baseball.” He compared Obama and his “tyrannical government” to the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany, and dubbed the Obama Administration a “thugocracy.”

Militantly anti-Muslim, he consistently criticizes Arabs and Muslims, and he told Atlas Shrugs’ Pamela Geller that the Bible is evidence the Arabs are a “wild” people: “the Angel of the Lord said to [Hagar]: Behold you are with child, and you shall bear a son, you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against everyman, and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.' Ishmael of course became the beginning of the Arab people....and God's word is immutable truth.”

He has suggested that there are “thirty-six training camps” run by terrorists inside the US, and that soldiers are becoming “brainwashed” by terrorists who “infiltrated the military.” According to West, Islam is “not a religion” but a “theo-political belief system and construct” that must be destroyed.

Watch:

• TPM: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell Rolls Back Non-Discrimination Protections For Gay State Workers.
• Sarah Posner: Conservative Activist Says Tea Party Movement Needs "Reverence to God."
• Andrew Sullivan: "May The Judgement Not Be Too Heavy Upon Us."
• Sam Stein: McCain Challenger: Birther Questions Are Legit In Days Of Identity Theft.
• Eric Boehlert: James O'Keefe and the myth of the ACORN pimp.
• TFN: How the Far Right ‘Guides’ Voters with Lies.
• Finally, David Frum weighs in on The Mount Vernon Statement: Conservatives to Voters: We Don’t Feel Your Pain.

Behold the morality of those who proclaim themselves the "moral majority":

A former presidential candidate and conservative activist says the only people who are happy about the recently announced White House terrorist interrogation policy will be the Islamofascist enemies who want to kill Americans.

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Gary Bauer, chairman of American Values, says America's enemies are jumping for joy at the president's decision ... The Obama administration has defined torture down to the point of absurdity, says Bauer. "Even things like depriving a prisoner of sleep or playing loud music would no longer be allowed. Depriving people of sleep and playing loud music -- that's a fraternity party!" exclaims the conservative spokesman. "This administration is now so defining torture down that we're now including things that are absolutely absurd."

Last week we noted that Richard Land had become the first (and only, as far as we know) leader of the Religious Right to state unequivocally that he believes waterboarding is torture and decry its use:

"I consider waterboarding torture," Land said. "One of the definitions of torture is that it causes permanent physical harm. I can't separate physical from psychological. And I can't imagine that being repeatedly subjected to the feeling of drowning would not, in some cases, cause lasting psychological trauma."

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Land explained that while he supports capital punishment for convicted killers, he denounces torture in all cases because he's compelled to honor the image of God as reflected in all human beings -- even suspected terrorists. To justify waterboarding on the grounds that it helps save lives is to suggest that ends justify means, Land said, adding: "that is a very slippery slope that leads to dark and dangerous places."

"If the end justifies the means, then where do you draw the line?" Land said. "It's a moveable line. It's in pencil, not in ink. I believe there are absolutes. There are some things we must never do."

Today, the AP reports that Gary Bauer does not agree and really thinks that the important question is not so much "would Jesus torture?" but rather "would Jesus allow his followers to torture?"  And Bauer declares that he certainly would:

Gary Bauer, a former Republican presidential candidate affiliated with several Christian right groups over the years, said the discussion should not come down to "Would Jesus torture?"

"There are a lot of things Jesus wouldn't do because he's the son of God," he said. "I can't imagine Jesus being a Marine or a policeman or a bank president, for that matter. The more appropriate question is, 'What is a follower of Jesus permitted to do?'"

Bauer said the answer is "it depends" — but the moral equation changes when the suspect is not a soldier captured on a battlefield but a terrorist who may have knowledge of an impending attack. He said he does not consider water-boarding — a form of interrogation that simulates drowning — to be torture.

"I think if we believe the person we have can give us information to stop thousands of Americans from being killed, it would be morally suspect to not use harsh tactics to get that information," Bauer said.

So not only would Jesus approve of the use of torture, he might even consider anyone who refused to do so "morally suspect."

Here is your "moral majority" in action.

Last week, Andrew Sullivan wrote a post linking to a Senate Intelligence Committee Report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation techniques which claimed that “In July 2003 … NSC Principals met to discuss the interrogation techniques employed in the CIA program” and that, according to CIA records, those in attendance included the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel.

Sullivan pointed out that “in the spring of 2003, that post was held by M Edward Whelan III, an arch-Catholic. Whelan is the head of - wait for it - the Ethics and Public Policy Center.”

Whelan immediately responded with a post of his own, calling Sullivan’s assertion a “vicious lie" and categorically stating "that I never attended the meeting that Sullivan refers to and that I never had any knowledge of or involvement in any of the matters involving interrogation techniques."

What does this have to do with us?  Nothing really, other than the fact that I happened to mention it in one of the round-ups I did last week:

Andrew Sullivan says that Ed Whelan was involved, during his time in the Bush Administration, in discussions of torture, but Whelan denies it, calling it a vicious lie.

Whelan has since been on a mission to get Sullivan to retract this “libelous attack” on him, which Sullivan has now done, personally apologizing “for causing Mr. Whelan any distress.”

But apparently that isn’t enough, because we have now been contacted by Schuyler Smith of the Ethics and Public Policy Center demanding that we make prominent note of Sullivan’s retraction here and, if we don’t, face libel charges of our own:

You recently linked to a blog post by Andrew Sullivan that falsely and libelously accused Ed Whelan of support for, and involvement in, torture (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/right-wing-round-42). Andrew Sullivan has now entirely retracted his libelous charge http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/04/nros-ed-whelan-ctd.html). 

In order not to be committing libel against Mr. Whelan by perpetuating a charge that has been retracted, I ask on Mr. Whelan’s behalf that you immediately (1) publish a post noting Mr. Sullivan’s retraction, (2) prominently link to that correcting post on your original post, and (3) e-mail me a link to your correcting post.  Thank you.

Does this satisfy EPPC’s requirement?  We sure hope so, because we’d hate to be sued for merely writing one sentence mentioning the issue.  

Sullivan says he has been assured that Whelan “does not support torture” and Whelan himself says that he has “never defended torture." But since he was Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice until 2004, during which time the administration was debating the use of torture, perhaps this presents a good opportunity for him to explain just what, if any, his role was in this debate.

[Update: Smith has contacted us, insisting that Whelan did answer this question, pointing to this post from September 2007 in which he said he was "not well positioned to comment on the issues in immediate dispute, as my own involvement at OLC in opinions on national-security matters generally ranged from non-existent (especially on the opinions that have been the subject of greatest controversy) to marginal."]

Over the weekend, Dave Neiwert posted video of Glenn Beck and Sandy Rios discussing hate crimes legislation, with Beck seemingly not understanding the need for it because he wouldn’t personally beat up a man in a dress … or something – it’s almost impossible to figure out Beck’s point (which, I suspect, stems for the fact that Beck is clearly losing him mind.)

But while Beck’s point was rather unclear, Rios was quite insistent that this was an effort by the “thought police” to “control how we feel … about the homosexual lifestyle.” That sort of claim is nothing particularly new, but Rios’ appearance alone tells you something about the depth to which Beck and the entire movement have sunk in their unhinged panic about the state of the nation during the Obama administration’s first one hundred days that people. It’s strange to hold up as the voice of reason, considering that her most recent column accuses Obama and the Democrats of attempting to destroy George Bush, Dick Cheney, and others just as the Nazis, Stalin, and Pol Pot did to their enemies:

Totalitarian movements have always destroyed their enemies. Peter the Great of Russia murdered members of the Streltsy military corps by taking the ax of the executioner to cut off their heads one by one himself. The Bolsheviks murdered the last Russian Czar—along with his wife and family—by telling them they were going to have their picture made. As they smiled into the camera, they were shot, buried and had acid poured over their remains.

Stalin continued the blood bath of the Russian Revolution by murdering thousands of his own who didn’t agree with Marxism. The Nazis had their gas chambers, not just for Jews, but also for dissenters. Fidel Castro turned his popularity into tyranny and brave Cubans gave their lives trying to free their beloved island. The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia tortured and murdered the intelligentsia in the S21, the regular folk in the Killing Fields. The slightest lack of support for Pol Pot and the new regime earned one a place in a mass grave.

There was a dreadful logic in all of this: By killing the opposition, you eliminated any possibility of future resistance, and you eradicated any personality who could possibly remind or rally future generations to any other way of thinking. Power was—at least for a time—absolute in each situation.

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Now the president, however coyly, and the Democratic leadership, boldly, are seeking to prosecute the last administration for political disagreements by calling them crimes. They want to punish Bush officials who gave legal advice and permission to proceed with interrogation techniques including water boarding that documents show most assuredly saved American lives.

They have released top secret documents, jeopardizing American safety further by making the people who protect and defend us worried sick both for fear of retribution and the very real potential harm that could be done to the nation as a result.

Former President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, Karl Rove and attorneys at Justice and the CIA won’t be lined up and shot, but they will, if this insidious method of taking power has its way, be destroyed financially and personally—with their reputation in shreds.

And then who will stand up to speak against the dominant left? No one. And that’s the point.

We have come to point where the Right is claiming that exposing the use of torture makes President Obama just as bad as actual torturers and mass murders, while the people responsible for the sanctioning the use of torture are held up as the real victims.

• Our own Peter Montgomery has a post up on Religious Dispatches on the recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling.
• The Daily Beast reports that Republicans are threatening to filibuster President Obama's nominees if he moves to release the infamous Bush administration's "torture memos" - Drew has more over on the People For Blog.
• Nate Silver says that if Iowans were given the opportunity to vote on a marriage ban today, "it would pass with 56.0 percent of the vote. By 2012, however, the model projects a toss-up: 50.4 percent of Iowans voting to approve the ban, and 49.6 percent opposed. In 2013 and all subsequent years, the model thinks the marriage ban would fail."
• John Aravosis reports that Think Progress founder Judd Legum is running for office in Maryland.
• Tips-Q reports on both Alan Keyes and Steve Deace freaking out over the Iowa marriage ruling.
• Good as You has the audio of a rather remarkable discussion between Matt Barber and Steve Crampton of Liberty Counsel and a caller on their radio program.
• AU doesn't like efforts by David Lynch, with support from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, to get Transcendental Meditation taught in schools.