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July 24, 2008
More Signs of Hope for Keyes?
From Politicker: "A group of Pennsylvania residents concerned about U.S. Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) stance on abortion is trying to put former GOP presidential candidate Alan Keyes on the ballot."
Posted by Kyle at 4:12 PM | Permalink
May 14, 2008
Eagle Forum Endorses Barletta
No surprise here: "Eagle Forum PAC supports the outspoken Hazleton mayor in his 11th Congressional District race against incumbent Democrat Paul Kanjorski. 'I am happy to endorse Lou Barletta,' said Eagle Forum founder and president, Phyllis Schlafly. 'Lou's championing of the illegal immigration issue has been truly inspiring. His fight to protect his community from the crime and overcrowding caused by illegal aliens highlights the need for stronger enforcement of our immigration laws.'"
Posted by Kyle at 3:45 PM | Permalink
April 10, 2008
More On Keyes' Major Announcement
The Standard Speaker reports that Alan Keyes has chosen Hazleton, PA to make his major announcement because of the city's infamous anti-immigration policies ... and also that Keyes hasn't yet gotten around to reserving the space for his press conference: "He is planning a press conference at the Best Western hotel in Hazleton, Pa., the site reports. A representative of Genetti Best Western Inn and Suites on Route 309 in Hazle Township said, as of Wednesday afternoon, the Keyes campaign had not reserved space for Tuesday."
Posted by Kyle at 2:53 PM | Permalink
April 8, 2008
Perkins for Senate in 2010?
Matt Lewis, writing for Politico, suggests that Pat Toomey might be considering making another Senate run Pennsylvania while the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins might be considering his own run against embattled Louisiana Senator David Vitter in 2010:
Former Louisiana state Rep. Tony Perkins, president of the socially conservative Family Research Council, and former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), president of the fiscally conservative Club for Growth, are both rumored to be considering leaving their positions to run for the U.S. Senate — an office both have unsuccessfully sought before.
Perkins would presumably seek to “primary” Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter, who was linked to the “D.C. Madam” prostitution scandal last summer. After all, who better to challenge the first-term senator than the head of the Family Research Council? “Social conservatives in Louisiana would be pleased to support a candidate like Tony Perkins, who would have just as strong or stronger of a voting record than Sen. Vitter has had in the Senate but who comes to the race without all the personal baggage,” said Gary Marx, who has served as conservative coalitions director for the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and Mitt Romney.
And if Vitter’s personal peccadilloes aren’t enough of a contrast to satisfy fiscal conservatives, Perkins can also bring up the fact that the senator opposed the one-year ban on earmarks recently championed by presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).
Of course, Perkins might have a hard time attacking Vitter, since has claimed that he would gladly vote for Vitter, provided he can prove he has "moved on" from his scandal and that Vitter last year earmarked $100,000 for the Louisiana Family Forum, which was founded by Perkins in 1999, for its efforts to “combat evolution.”
Posted by Kyle at 12:04 PM | Permalink
July 27, 2007
Hazleton's Anti-Immigrant Ordinance Struck Down
As the judge wrote: "The genius of our Constitution is that it provides rights even to those who evoke the least sympathy from the general public. Hazleton, in its zeal to control the presence of a group deemed undesirable, violated the rights of such people, as well as others within the community."
Posted by Kyle at 11:29 AM | Permalink
July 17, 2007
Club for Growth President: Movement 'All About Protecting Our Christian Heritage'
In 2004 and 2006, the Club for Growth emerged as a major factor in a number of Republican primary races, specializing in challenging incumbents from the Right. The group spent millions in direct contributions and independent advertising to nearly unseat Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter in 2004 and Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee in 2006, and they succeeded in ousting Michigan Rep. Joe Schwarz. Chafee, who narrowly survived the brutal primary challenge only to lose in the general election, accused the Club of backing a hidden social agenda, but the group insisted it was strictly business, with a public focus on advocating for policies like tax cuts on investment income.
But Club for Growth President Pat Toomey struck a different chord speaking at a recent meeting of a Christian conservative group in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he said the Club continues to “scour” for right-wing challengers:
The featured speaker was former U.S. Congressman Pat Toomey, who provided the crowd with an update on the conservative movement.
Toomey lost in the primary Senate race against U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter. He is also the president of the Washington-based conservative group The Club for Growth, which promotes economic freedom and raises funds for conservative candidates.
"It's all about protecting our Christian heritage," Toomey said. "And, a culture that is under assault."
Posted by Ezra at 5:07 PM | Permalink
July 16, 2007
Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee to Speak at Right-Wing State Legislators Conference
Also appearing at ALEC next week: Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, and Miss America.
Posted by Ezra at 3:36 PM | Permalink
March 30, 2007
Pennsylvania Anti-Gay Activist Decries Anti-Bullying Bill
Would “open the door” for “pro-homosexual organizations” in schools. Meanwhile: “Ex-gay” Stephen Bennett calls for mass hooky on “Day of Silence.”
Posted by Ezra at 6:01 PM | Permalink
March 29, 2007
Religious Right Claims Hate-Crimes Law an Attack on Christianity
With the reintroduction of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act in the House and the prospect that it may pass in a Democratic Congress, religious-right groups are waging a sizeable campaign to portray the bill as part of a mythical persecution of Christians. Although hate-crimes laws expand penalties for violent crimes causing bodily injury or death (as well as attempts through firearms and explosives), the Religious Right is labeling them “thought crimes” laws the “only effect” of which “is to gag people of faith.” Although federal law has punished hate crimes based on race for more than a decade, the Religious Right is incensed at the prospect of using the law to protect gays as well.
This reaction follows a pattern of asserting that gay rights – or a so-called “homosexual agenda” – will lead to the “repression” of religion in America, an anti-gay marketing effort typified by last year’s “Values Voter Summit” in Washington, where speakers from Mitt Romney to Tony Perkins claimed that, in the words of Alan Sears of the Alliance Defense Fund, “The homosexual agenda and [freedom of] religion are on a collision course.” “They know they must silence the church,” warned Perkins. At that time, the issue was same-sex marriage; the co-sponsor of the federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), said that “"If we have gay marriage, our religious liberties are gone!”
“The ultimate goal of Conyers’ bill is to silence all opposition to the homosexual/transgender political agenda,” claimed Andrea Laffery, director of the Traditional Values Coalition. “So-called ‘hate speech’ will be suppressed because it supposedly incites individuals to violence against homosexuals/ transgenders. Defined by homosexuals, hate speech is any verbal or printed materials that criticize the normalization of sodomy in our culture. The goal is to undermine the First Amendment and persecute Christians who oppose homosexuality.” She added that “Most Christians might as well rip the pages which condemn homosexuality right out of their Bibles because this bill will make it illegal to publicly express the dictates of their religious beliefs”; in addition, TVC published a bizarre cartoon on the issue featuring a talking letter “t.”
Rev. Ted Pike of the National Prayer Network warned that the bill is “the most dangerous legislation ever to come before Congress,” claiming that it would “lead inexorably to the end of free speech.” Michael Marcavage of Repent America claimed that “it will be used to put Christians behind bars.” And the American Family Association asserted that the bill would “open the doors” to any number of outcomes: “Polygamy will be legalized,” the group warned. “Landlords will be forced to rent to homosexuals.”
Indeed, religious-right activists opposing the bill go to great lengths to avoid mentioning that it deals with violent crimes, and not speech or policy. As the Center for Moral Clarity, run by Ohio televangelist Rod Parsley, put it, the bill “represents the intense culture war between those who trust the Bible as a manual for life and those who reject it. This is a battle from which God's children cannot retreat.” Parsley added, seemingly out of nowhere, that “the everyday world of the American homosexual is a very unhappy world,"
And it's not just the emotional health of gays that suffers. Given that their sexual practices and lifestyle choices make health and hygiene a practical impossibility, ill health is an escapable part of the gay lifestyle. Therefore, the life expectancy of gays is substantially lower than that of heterosexuals.
Similarly, Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America took time out of his specious argument that “This bill irrefutably sets the table and places us on the slippery slope toward widespread government persecution” to discuss “male-on-male anal penetration which exposes ‘gay’ men to extremely high risk of deadly and infectious disease.”
Meanwhile, the Right’s campaign is ramping up. Janet Folger is raising money for television ads misleadingly depicting two elderly ladies as being “thrown in jail for sharing the gospel.” (In fact, the far-right group Repent America staged a protest of a gay-rights rally in Philadelphia; the protesters sat down in the street to block the rally, which had a permit, and were charged with a number of violations, but they were not convicted of any hate-crimes offense. Read more here.)
And the Family Research Council has a new website devoted to “gearing up for a major confrontation with homosexual activists over so-called hate-crimes laws, which are actually thought crimes laws, and Christians are the primary target.” According to FRC’s Perkins, “If federal thought crimes laws are passed, your right to share politically incorrect parts of your Christian faith could become a federal crime.” That is – if “sharing” your faith involves targeting gays for violent bodily injury.
Posted by Ezra at 6:37 PM | Permalink
March 16, 2007
Hazleton Mayor Has Trouble Backing up Claims of Immigrant Crime Wave: 'The People in My City Don't Need Numbers'
Hazleton, Pennsylvania Mayor Lou Barletta made national headlines last year when he pushed through an ordinance cracking down on undocumented immigrants, not only setting penalties for employers who hire them but also fining landlords who rent to them $1,000 per day. “Illegal immigrants are destroying the city,” declared the self-styled “small town defender,” who also signed an English-only measure. “I don't want them here, period.” As this blog pointed out, this was a sudden transformation for Barletta, who just months before had cited “the region’s new ethnic and cultural diversity” as cause for Hazleton’s unprecedented economic boom and “urban rejuvenation.” As Barletta testified before Congress and appeared on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs,” while cutting robocalls for Sen. Rick Santorum’s failed reelection campaign, his ordinance and copy-cat measures in other small cities began to tear apart communities.
How did Barletta come to decide on this dramatic course of action? Well, he poked around the Internet and found the website of Save Our State, run by Jim Turner, a “proud nationalist” who unsuccessfully pushed the measures in San Bernadino, California in order to ward off the threat from inferior cultures who would turn ours into a “Third World cesspool.”
This governance technique of finding model legislation by lurking on nativist Internet forums was one interesting fact revealed Wednesday during Barletta’s testimony in a federal lawsuit challenging the ordinances. Far more damning was Barletta’s inability to support his rhetoric accusing undocumented immigrants of “destroying the city”:
During five hours on the witness stand, Mr. Barletta said Hazleton is being ruined by violent crime, crowded schools and a clogged emergency room at the city's private hospital. He attributed many of the problems to what he called "illegal aliens," even though he admitted he had no idea how many such immigrants are in his city.
Lawyer Witold Walczak, of the American Civil Liberties Union, got the mayor to concede that he could not name a single instance where illegal immigrants had received service from Hazleton's fire department or health offic[e]. Mr. Barletta also was forced to admit he had no proof that illegal immigrants were the source of schools so crowded that numerous classes have to be taught in trailers. …
Mr. Barletta said crimes committed by illegal immigrants led to the controversial ordinances. … Mr. Walczak, though, said Hazleton's own statistics show that illegal immigrants have committed only a handful of serious crimes. Of the 8,575 felonies in the city since 2000, about 20 were linked to illegal immigrants, Mr. Walczak said.
Barletta came back yesterday to face evidence of the lack of an immigrant crime wave:
“When you have violent crimes committed, it takes away and chews at our quality of life. I don’t need numbers. These people,” he said, motioning to the opposing attorney, who have criticized his lack of statistics, “need numbers. The people in my city don’t need numbers.”
Posted by Ezra at 12:20 PM | Permalink
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