Brian Tashman's blog

Today on Washington Watch Weekly Family Research Council president Tony Perkins hosted California pastor Jack Hibbs, who is promoting a petition drive to overturn SB 48 through a referendum. SB 48 ensures that prominent LGBT historical figures are included in textbooks, and has been a major target of fierce opposition from Religious Right groups, including the FRC. “Our children are being under attack,” Hibbs told Perkins, “we need to stand up and take our schools back so we can rescue our children.” Hibbs concluded, “We’re fighting for our children’s lives, right here in California.”

What we need Tony of representatives across the nation is to stand for what’s right, we need to be very careful, we’re not standing for some political kingdom or some political direction, this has come to a point now Tony where our children are being under attack, on our watch. Jesus said, woe to the man who allows the littlest of these to be offended for it would have been better for him to have never been born. That’s a serious issue, as pastors, as Christians, as churches, for that matter, as concerned citizens no matter what your belief is, we need to stand up and take our schools back so we can rescue our children from quite frankly an ongoing group of people who I don’t think any longer has what’s best in my child in mine any longer. There is an agenda and we need to push back from that agenda.

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Get people in California that you know to sign the petition. You need to be a registered voter, at our church for example, you can register to vote and then move right on over the piece of paper and sign the petition. Signing the petition, dear friends, if we cannot sign a petition when it’s as easy as this then what are we going to do when things really get tough? So, you asked Tony how is it going, it’s going well but it can be going better. We need people involved, we need people to step up. We’re fighting for our children’s lives right here in California.

Before the upcoming election, the GOP is looking to restore its traditional polling advantage on national security with virulent criticisms of President Obama’s handling of foreign affairs. But as MSNBC’s Chuck Todd pointed out last September, “No president since George H.W. Bush has had more foreign-policy successes happen under his watch than President Obama,” and Americans have given Obama high marks for his counter-terrorism strategy.

So when some Republican officials and conservative activists need to lash out at President Obama’s foreign policy credentials, they turn to right-wing talk show host and anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney for help. Gaffney uses his Secure Freedom Radio program and Washington Times column to level outlandish charges against the president, including calling Obama “America’s first Muslim president” and alleging that he is likely a secret Muslim and raising doubts about his birth certificate.

On Wednesday, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) joined Gaffney in distorting a quote from an anonymous State Department official regarding the successful dismantling of Al-Qaeda and the administration’s aversion to using the phrase “war on terror.” West told Gaffney that the official’s words meant Obama had “signed a surrender agreement.” Later, he pointedly used the president’s middle name in calling for the defeat of “Barack Hussein Obama” and said that the president has been “absolutely horrible as far as the national security of the United States of America and the foreign policy relations in the Middle East.” Rep. West also suggested that “radical Islamist groups” have seized control of Libya after the rebellion and NATO effort which toppled Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, even though Libya’s National Transitional Council explicitly banned religious parties.

Gaffney: Congressman West, just in the past twenty-four hours as you know there is an unnamed State Department official who kind of has personified this witlessness or worse this submission to the Brotherhood with the comment, ‘the war on terror is over.’

West: I know, I’m going to pop a bottle of champagne tonight, I guess we just raised the flag. I don’t know who signed the surrender agreement but I guess it’s all done.

Gaffney: Well if anybody has I’m afraid it’s us, but the question I’m working to get at is, can we realistically expect from an administration that seems to be indulging in this idea, the sort of leadership that you’re talking about on so many of these fronts?

West: No. That’s the short answer to your question. The Obama administration has been absolutely horrible as far as the national security of the United States of America and the foreign policy relations in the Middle East, especially with these actors like you say, with the Muslim Brotherhood, totally misread what was happening in Libya, now we have more radical Islamist groups that are controlling these countries throughout the Maghreb, which is North Africa. So this is why we have to have a sure shift in the leadership of this country and it starts on high with President Barack Hussein Obama and we have to have him replaced.

Last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) appeared on Gaffney’s show to discuss a recent executive order regarding INTERPOL. In the interview, Paul attempted to link INTERPOL to Egypt’s prosecution of American NGO employees, who have since left the country. Paul blatantly distorted the executive order by insisting that Obama gave INTERPOL “diplomatic immunity.” ABC’s Kristina Wong points out the executive order does not give INTERPOL agents diplomatic immunity and only extends to them privileges regarding different federal taxes and custom duties.

Paul also suggested that INTERPOL is involved in investigations of “religious crimes,” even though the group is prohibited from “political, military, religious or racial” interventions and on Monday “refused a request by Egypt to issue worldwide arrest warrants” for the fifteen US employees. The senator later claimed that Obama “has very little regard for the rule of law or for the Constitution”: very little regard for the rule of law or for the Constitution”:

Paul: As you’ve pointed out in some of your articles that INTERPOL’s been given diplomatic immunity here, INTERPOL has also extradited religious people who are accused of religious crimes from other countries.

Gaffney: This business about the executive order that the President issued concerning INTERPOL is again a place where we have I think we have very, very much the same concerns. Do you believe Senator Rand Paul that we are looking at a President who is disposed, at least in principle, to having this extra-constitutional role played by INTERPOL, perhaps in this case, perhaps in some others, might result in American citizens not being allowed to have the protections that the Constitution affords them from unreasonable search and seizure, among other things.

Paul: Yeah, I think this President has very little regard for the rule of law or for the Constitution.

In another case of right-wing paranoia, sports-reporter-turned-“terrorism analyst” for the Christian Broadcasting Network Erick Stakelbeck told Gaffney in an interview yesterday that Obama is intentionally bringing the Muslim Brotherhood to power in the U.S. and abroad so he and “the rest of his compadres on the radical Marxist left” can work with “hardcore Islamists” to push “the downfall of Judeo-Christian Western civilization.” Gaffney agreed and went even further, saying that Obama has “not only a deep background in the radical left but also of course considerable experience with Islamists, certainly with Islam himself” and is the “personification” of the “Red-Green” axis between the left and radical Islamists:

Stakelbeck: They are welcomed in to the inner sanctum and they are whispering in our leaders’ ears, telling them, ‘Hey the Muslim Brotherhood has reformed, they have renounced violence, we can deal with these guys, you need to embrace them and use them as a counterweight against the really bad guys and Al-Qaeda.’ That’s exactly what’s happening, our leaders are letting them in through ignorance in many cases, but in other cases and I believe in the case of President Obama, he knows exactly what the Brotherhood is all about, and for him and the rest of his compadres on the radical Marxist left, empowering Islamists is just a case of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Hardcore left, hardcore Islamists, both seek the downfall of Judeo-Christian Western civilization, so they must be embraced by the left.

Gaffney: Wow. This is of course a very powerful indictment, Erick Stakelbeck of ‘Stakelbeck on Terror,’ and I must tell you the only quibble that I guess I would have with what you’ve said is the President brings to the party of course not only a deep background in the radical left but also of course considerable experience with Islamists, certainly with Islam himself, and in a way he kind of is the personification of what’s been called the Red-Green axis, it comes together with him.

Before sharing her thoughts on how paganism is making its way through public schools by means of diversity lessons and dreamcatchers, Linda Harvey of Mission America used her radio bulletin yesterday to criticize Ohio’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teachers who are organizing a caucus in their union. Harvey, who once urged parents to reject care for their children from gay doctors and nurses, called LGBT teachers a “danger to our kids” for trying to “proudly” represent “God-dishonoring behavior” to “make sure students can go down this road also.”

Harvey: The [Ohio Education Association] has endorsed and officially recognized a caucus of the union called the GLBT Caucus, which stands for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. Let me translate, this means that among the teachers who are representatives to this teacher professional group, there’s a subgroup of openly homosexual, bisexual and either transvestite or gender-changed teachers who are proud enough of all this that they’ve formed their own group. Are all your red flags on high alert at this point as mine are? Do you sense danger to our kids? Not to mention one sad lie upon another?

Well, take this piece of information and add the following, the same GLBT Caucus in this latest proposal are to have a representative sit on all the committees on the Ohio Education Association and one of the reasons they will serve on these committees is to ‘advance GLBT students’ constitutional rights.’

Sometimes it’s hard to cut through the layers of deception but here’s my take on all this: certain teachers who are open and proud homosexuals, bisexuals, or are confused about their God-given gender, are simply because of their involvement in sinful, God-dishonoring behavior, being given the opportunity to proudly represent this behavior and make sure students can go down this road also. And apparently in our Ohio teachers union there simply is no other viewpoint. Now this hasn’t passed yet so we can pray that it doesn’t. Where I wonder is the Christian Caucus? The Tea Party Teachers Caucus? The Abstinence-until-marriage Caucus? We won’t find them, friends, in our Ohio teachers union.

Yesterday on the American Family Association’s radio show Today’s Issues, Mission America president Linda Harvey told listeners that public schools promote “pagan ideas” and “occult spirituality” to children. Harvey, who last month in an interview with Truth in Action Ministries said that the Harry Potter series was leading children into the occult, now blames schools’ “multiculturalism and diversity” curriculum, particularly lessons that include making dreamcatchers, for pushing children into “occult spirituality.”

Watch:

Harvey: Our children learn whatever we put in front of them, they are, to some extent, sponges. They’re learning from us as well but if you turn them over to the public school, they’re going to get a healthy dose of this, it’s whirlwind throughout the materials that are presented to them, it’s in some of the literature, it’s in the concepts about multiculturalism and diversity, will bring in pagan ideas. The units they’ll do on Native American spirituality, for instance, you’ll get a healthy dose of what is basically an occult spirituality and it’s given a lot of respect. It’s one thing to read about it, it’s another thing to make a dreamcatcher or go on a vision quest and things that are occult-techniques that are part of Native American spirituality. That’s frequently in the Fall when it they’re coming up to Thanksgiving, that’s what you’ll get in the public schools. You have to think ahead, do you want your children to be immersed in all this? Because they will be immersed in it.

Peter LaBarbara’s and the Religious Right’s long war against Glee has not gained traction outside of the frantic rants of conservative activists, so he has decided to take matters into his own hands and censor a picture of Glee characters Blaine and Kurt kissing:

LaBarbera, the head of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, also republished an article by Pass the Salt Ministries’ Coach Dave Daubenmire on the upcoming vote to restore same-sex marriage in Maine where he refers to gays and lesbians as “pigs” and “thugs.” Daubenmire also praises anti-gay activist and Ron Paul’s former Iowa campaign director Mike Heath and his fellow marriage equality opponent Paul Madore for working “to take on the sodomites in Maine” and “homo-queen Elton John.” Later, Daubenmire asked readers to imagine Barney Frank having sex with the singer-songwriter, asking, “Would you let them put YOUR grandchild into a sodomy-based family?”

The boys are back in town.

Not that they ever went anywhere. But Mike Heath and Paul Madore are teaming up once again to take on the sodomites in Maine.

That is bad news for the gay-rights thugs, and they know it. Heath and Madore are like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Batman and Robin, or the Lone Ranger and Tonto.

They are the homosexual movement’s worst nightmare.

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But at least they have scars. Rare is the man willing to take the arrows that come for standing publicly for what he believes. With all due respect to homo-queen Elton John, Madore and Heath can sing “I’m still standing” as they enter the ring in what they believe is the final round against the sodomy crowd.

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Permit me to clarify the definition. Sodomy is one MAN inserting his genitals into the mouth or anus of ANOTHER MAN.

Say it again. Say it out loud so your ears hear it. Picture it in your mind. Picture Barney Frank and Elton John in action…Barney Frank putting his genitals into Elton John’s…

That is what they want to tell us is normal…no wait…tell our children is normal. Into that “union” they are asking permission to place children. Would you let them put YOUR grandchild into a sodomy-based family? Why would you let them do it to someone else’s child? Have normal people lost their minds?”

Rev. Mike Heath and “Mr. Maine” Paul Madore are taking the gloves off. They are putting the pictures on mobile trucks and are taking the truth of sodomy to every city, every school, and every home in Maine. Here is the picture they will put on the trucks that they will drive throughout Maine.

Oh, how the pigs will squeal. The sodomites will cry “hate” as if the truth of a picture can be hateful. The Christians in pretty suits will cry “mean” as if being nice ever won a war.

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Hey! Listen to me! Send them some money!! They are on the front lines. They know the people of Maine. They are battle tested and uncompromising. David taking on Goliath. Put some gas into their tanks. Redirect all of your giving from the “national ministries” to the two manly men in Maine. Their gloves are off. This is Clay against Liston III, Lewiston, Maine 2012.

If you trust me, trust them. I wouldn’t steer you wrong. Help deliver a knockout to the homosexual agenda

Earlier this month we posted a segment of Bishop Daniel Jenky’s Homily comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, arguing that the President is “following a similar path” as the two dictators:

Jenky has faced criticisms from groups including the Anti-Defamation League and Faithful America, which organized a petition asking Jenky to apologize. Over eighty faculty members of the University of Notre Dame, where Jenky serves as a member of its Board of Fellows, in a letter said that they found it “profoundly offensive” to “compare the president’s actions with those whose genocidal policies murdered tens of millions of people,” asserting that “it would be in the best interest of Notre Dame if Jenky resigned from the University’s Board of Fellows if he is unwilling to renounce loudly and publicly this destructive analogy.”

Unsurprisingly, Operation Rescue founder and “presidential candidate” Randall Terry is rushing to Jenky’s defense with a planned press conference at Notre Dame and a letter demanding the faculty members protesting Jenky to resign or repent before they face God’s judgment:

Dear esteemed faculty of Notre Dame,

Have you actually read Bishop Jenky's homily that you so forcefully condemn?

There was not one word in his homily - not one syllable - that was not true. With pathos and charity, he upheld the teachings of the Catholic Church, defended human life and liberty, and rightly rebuked the President for his actions.

You stated that Bishop Jenky showed an "ignorance of history, [and an] insensitivity to victims of genocide." It is you who show a profound ignorance of the history; it is you who show a calloused insensitivity to the victims of the abortion holocaust...the millions of babies who are being murdered under Obama's policies, whose mangled bodies are thrown in sewers and landfills.

Obama is clearly at war with the Catholic Church's teachings on human life and liberty; he is clearly promoting the genocide of millions of babies; and he is clearly seeking to coerce the Church to participate in his crimes against humanity.

Have you no shame? You clearly have little honor, and even less regard for innocent human life. There was not one word - not one syllable - in your letter that condemned or confronted the atrocities being committed by Obama. By your words and your omissions, you show your own treachery against innocent human life, and the teachings of the Church. You have betrayed Jesus Christ, Mother Church, and the babies who are being slaughtered.

The souls of the innocent - who have been dispatched into eternity under Obama's evils - will testify against you.

We call on you to repent, or to at least have the decency to resign from a University that bears the Holy Name of the Mother of God.

May God have mercy on your souls. You are going to need it.

National Organization for Marriage chairman John Eastman talked to conservative radio talk show host Steve Deace yesterday where he assured Deace, a vocal critic of Mitt Romney, that NOM is confident that Romney will actively oppose marriage equality if elected president and dismissed fears that his donors who favor legalizing same-sex marriage might influence his views:

Deace: John, I want to ask you about a story that came out over the weekend, three men, Paul Singer, Dan Loeb, Cliff Asness, they are hedge fund managers, they are major Romney donors, and they each cut six figure checks toward the effort to redefine, or destroy, marriage in the state of New York. Is that a concern of your group that the Republican nominee has major donors in his camp that are funding the other side of this debate?

Eastman: You know, people running for president accept donations from all sorts of people who don’t always agree with them on all issues. The fact of the matter is, Governor Romney has signed our pledge where he will defend the Defense of Marriage Act, where he will support an amendment to protect traditional marriage nationwide. He has signed that pledge and we fully expect that he will honor his pledge in that regard.

Indeed, Romney, a NOM donor, in August signed NOM’s presidential candidate pledge [pdf] and committed to not only push for a Federal Marriage Amendment and defend the unconstitutional DOM, but also to nominate anti-equality judges, put Washington DC’s marriage equality law up to a popular referendum, and “establish a presidential commission” to “investigate harassment of traditional marriage supporters”:

One, support sending a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification.

Two, nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court and federal bench judges who are committed to restraint and to applying the original meaning of the Constitution, appoint an attorney general similarly committed, and thus reject the idea our Founding Fathers inserted a right to gay marriage into our Constitution.

Three, defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act vigorously in court.

Four, establish a presidential commission on religious liberty to investigate and document reports of Americans who have been harassed or threatened for exercising key civil rights to organize, to speak, to donate or to vote for marriage and to propose new protections, if needed.

Five, advance legislation to return to the people of the District of Columbia their right to vote on marriage.

Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality hosted Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute and Barbara Anderson of the Parents Action League and the Minnesota Family Council. Higgins railed against the “homosexual agenda” as the “greatest threat to First Amendment speech and religious liberty in America today” and later Anderson, who called anti-bullying efforts “child abuse,” said that Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin school district’s new guidelines regarding sexual orientation will turn kids gay:

Higgins: This is not about sound pedagogy, it will do the exact opposite; it will interfere with intellectual exploration and critical thinking. And I don’t think there is a greatest threat to First Amendment speech and religious liberty in America today than that posed by the homosexual agenda.

LaBarbera: And it just keeps going on and on and they want to go younger and younger.

Higgins: That’s right.

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Anderson: They want school children to be bombarded with homosexual references in math, geography, science, English, all of this to promote the gay agenda. I think kids are going to get so sick of this, but unfortunately it’s going to brainwash many of the children with this propaganda and will bring many of the kids into the gay lifestyle as they experiment with this and are told that this is normal and a choice that they can make as well.

During the interview, LaBarbera also congratulated Anderson after she informed him that the Parents Action League was designated as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and LaBarbera repeated his claim that organizations working “to counter the homosexual activist movement” should strive to find a place the SPLC’s hate group list. Anderson, who has warned that “homosexual teachers” are targeting “creative” students and that gay rights advocates will “increase bullying as more kids get into this kind of a lifestyle,” told LaBarbera in 2010 that AFTAH’s hate group designation was a “badge of honor.”

LaBarbera: Barbara, I wouldn’t be surprised if SPLC started labeling Minnesota Family Council or your Parents Action League as a hate group.

Anderson: They already have.

LaBarbera: Oh they did? I’m behind the times. Which one?

Anderson: Parents Action League has been added to their ridiculous catalogue of haters.

LaBarbera: Congratulations, Barb! We decided that if you’re not labeled a hate group by the SPLC you’re not really doing anything to counter the homosexual activist movement.

While some columnists like to believe that it is only people on the “far fringes of the evangelical right” who oppose the Romney campaign’s hiring of an openly gay staffer, now two major Religious Right figures have joined the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer in denouncing openly gay foreign policy spokesman Richard Grenell’s employment in the Romney campaign.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins in his Washington Update stated that “there is strong evidence that Grenell would lobby” in favor of the pro-LGBT rights stance of President Obama’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. While Romney himself is an opponent of LGBT equality, Perkins said that Grenell’s hiring is troubling for conservatives:

Most conservatives have been anxious to see how the Romney campaign would react now that the strongest social conservative, Sen. Rick Santorum, is out of the race. Would the Governor try to fill the void left on values issues or would he stick to his more moderate approach? Some people believe that question was answered last week with the selection of Richard Grenell as Mitt Romney's foreign policy spokesman. Grenell, who served in President Bush's administration, specialized in the U.N., but the areas where he disagreed with his old boss are what concern conservatives most.

Grenell, who has been very open about his homosexual lifestyle, publicly condemned the Bush administration (shortly after leaving it) for opposing a U.N. resolution urging the full acceptance of homosexuality. While Bush (like nearly two thirds of the U.N. member states) refused to endorse the measure endorsing homosexuality, President Obama signed it shortly after taking office. Since then, his State Department, under the direction of Hillary Clinton, has tossed aside the cultural and religious beliefs of other countries to promote homosexuality as a basic human right, while downgrading the importance of religious liberty. Clearly, the strategy is for the State Department to force these policies (which most U.S. states reject) on the international stage and then build pressure on the U.S. to adopt measures like Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and same-sex "marriage."

In a recent column for the Washington Blade, Grenell hinted at where he falls on the marriage issue when he criticized gay and lesbian Democrats for supporting President Obama despite the fact that he hasn't done enough to redefine marriage. Still others point to Grenell's long-time partner and his desire to tie the knot, "It's not an option for us... but hopefully someday soon it will be." While past performance is not a guarantee of future results, there is strong evidence that Grenell would lobby for foreign policy more in line with the current administration than the last Republican one.

Gary Bauer, in his daily email to Campaign for Working Families members, called the hire an “unforced error” and a “disappointment.” Bauer said he is not upset that Grenell is gay but is angry that he wants to marry his longtime partner, claiming that it would only be acceptable if Grenell would oppose his own right to marry:

Unforced Error, Governor

While Governor Mitt Romney is clearly enjoying a bounce in the polls and a boost in momentum, his campaign still has some work to do when it comes to reassuring the conservative base and values voters. That's why his appointment of Richard Grenell, who worked in the Bush Administration, to be his spokesman on national security issues was a disappointment to many conservatives.

I share their disappointment not because Grenell is gay. He is not weak on defense. In fact, former Ambassador John Bolton is defending Grenell today. Conservative pro-family leaders are disappointed because Grenell has been an outspoken advocate of redefining normal marriage. For the overwhelmingly majority of folks who support Governor Romney that issue is starkly clear -- marriage is the union of one and one woman. But Grenell once caused a controversy by trying to have his partner listed as his spouse when he worked at the U.N.

Thankfully, Grenell is not going to be making policy on domestic issues. But his appointment was disappointing because it comes at a time when the Romney campaign should be reaching out to the conservative base. Instead, this appointment seems like a slap at the base.

Moreover, Grenell is known for having an acerbic personality, and critics have described his comments in social media as being "catty." He may be competent, but he is creating controversies on multiple fronts where the Romney campaign can least afford them.

That said, we should not exaggerate this. Homosexuals were part of the Reagan Administration and the Bush Administrations. Our concern is policy. One of the ways Governor Romney can reassure values voters is to make more statements in his speeches that speak to their concerns about the sanctity of life, the meaning of marriage and the importance of faith and family.

Pointing this out does not hurt Mitt Romney. I am making this observation precisely because it is so important that he defeat Barack Obama. There is no path to victory for a Republican presidential candidate that does not involve massive turnout by pro-family voters. The only way Mitt Romney will end up with a majority on Election Day -- and I will do everything I can to make sure that happens -- is to unite economic, defense and social conservatives behind his candidacy.

• Steve Benen @ Maddow Blog: Rubio thinks Bush did ‘a fantastic job.’

• Ian Millhiser @ Think Progress: Notre Dame Professors Call For Bishop To Apologize or Resign From Notre Dame Board For Comparing Obama To Hitler.

• Julie Ingersoll @ Huffington Post: Kirk Cameron’s Growing Circle of Reconstructionist Friends.

• Good As You: Does Liberty University even *want* Mitt Romney?

• Truth Wins Out: Dr. Robert Spitzer Apologizes to Gay Community for Infamous ‘Ex-Gay’ Study.