Brian Tashman's blog

After months of campaigning through prayer rallies and television, radio and even aerial advertisements, proponents of Ohio’s extreme anti-choice Heartbeat Bill finally inched the process forward this week as the Senate president Tom Niehaus and Health committee chairman Sen. Scott Oelslager held committee hearings on the legislation. But now, the bill’s future is in doubt after Niehaus abruptly postponed hearings on the bill, first proposed by Janet Porter and State Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, over intense infighting among anti-choice activists and last-minute changes to the bill:

Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, pulled the plug today on House Bill 125, the so-called heartbeat bill that would have been the nation’s strictest anti-abortion law. He suspended hearings on the controversial legislation until 2012.

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Oelslager had planned to only take testimony on HB 125 and not make amendments to it. That indicated the bill would not get passed this year as Porter said she was promised by Niehaus.

Niehaus said he doesn’t remember making that promise only that there would be hearings before Christmas. He again blasted Porter and bill supporters for suggesting changes Tuesday after saying the Senate should pass HB 125 just as it was passed by the House in June. He discounted Porter’s contention that the changes were technical in nature.

“After five months of berating us and criticizing us, with no explanation they hand me a four-page document with 20 plus changes,” he said. “Where were they? It underscores how complicated and contentious this legislation is.”

The Dayton Daily News reports that the National Right to Life Committee’s James Bopp testified against the extreme legislation, which is also opposed by the Ohio Right to Life Society:

The bill has divided abortion opponents, and James Bopp Jr., general counsel to the National Right to Life Committee, testified against it Tuesday. He said in his prepared testimony that he believes the ban on abortions after a heartbeat would be unconstitutional under current court rulings and would not stand a U.S. Supreme Court challenge.

He said that the “informed consent” requirement in the bill — that a woman be informed that a heartbeat was detected — would be useful legislation that would be constitutional.

Porter, however, rejected Bopp’s argument and said taking the ban out of the bill would “take the heart out of the Heartbeat” bill. Ohio Right to Life does not support the bill for reasons similar to those outlined by Bopp, but Porter and supporters say now is the time to mount a challenge.

Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry appeared on The Steve Deace Show on Monday where he discussed his strategy of running for the Democratic nomination for president in order to use a legal loophole that allows him to run graphic ads against abortion rights. Terry told Deace that voters shouldn’t trust Obama on any issue because of his support for abortion rights, saying that Obama both “supports murder” and “supports slavery,” and will have you in his “slave labor force for his federal plantation.” He also informed Deace, a fierce critic of Mitt Romney, that he may include Romney, who was pro-choice and supportive of Roe v. Wade in the past, in his graphic ads in New Hampshire:

Deace: Couldn’t a case be made, if you can’t count on somebody to protect innocent life you can’t count on somebody to provide you a job?

Terry: Well one would make the case. I think that you could be someone who supports murder but also someone who supports slavery, and I think that’s Obama. He needs us as a slave labor force for his federal plantation, so if you escape the abortionist’s knife then he’s got a happy job for you at the federal plantation.

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Terry: We are discussing our ads for New Hampshire and the discussion me and my team are having is to whether or not we will put images of Obama and Mitt Romney in the ad, because in my opinion, Mitt Romney is Obama with white skin. There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between them on most issues. So, if I can go after Obama in New Hampshire and also hurt Romney a little bit in the process, I’d be happy.

Last week on Eagle Forum Live, Phyllis Schlafly’s guest host Bill Borst had WorldNetDaily researcher Brenda J. Elliott on to discuss her new book written with WND’s Aaron Klein. The book, Red Army, is the sequel to their book The Manchurian President. Red Army purportedly exposes “a radical socialist movement has been quietly infiltrating the major institutions of American power” and “the multipronged policy offensive aimed at disarming America.” Elliott told Borst that President Obama is merely a “useful idiot” of this shadowy, socialist network and didn’t hold back on the book’s conspiratorial nature, exclaiming, “it is a conspiracy!” “The word conspiracy theory has been really distorted,” Elliott said, “it’s been made to sound like something loony, and it’s not loony, it’s not loony!”

Borst: Brenda we were talking about President Barack Obama and the “Red Army,” how important is he to this army? Is he like the leader? Or is he a mere commissar or just a peon, so to speak?

Elliott: He’s a useful idiot. He doesn’t bring anything to the table except for a willingness to go along with the agenda. You could’ve plugged in somebody else but he’s just a guy who was in the right place at the right time.

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Borst: They want to cripple America I guess, right?

Elliott: Absolutely. America, you know, is just too good of a country, we’re just too arrogant and we need to lower our standards to help out other country so they can prosper as well. Barack Obama has set back American history and American exceptionalism to almost day one, it’s very frightening. Do we have an absolute reason for why they want to do this? Stupidity is my answer. Honestly folks it is a conspiracy, two people is all it takes for a conspiracy and an intent to make something happen, that’s a conspiracy. The word conspiracy theory has been really distorted, it’s been made to sound like something loony, and it’s not loony, it’s not loony!

As the backlash against Lowe’s decision to pull ads from the TLC reality show All-American Muslim grows, right-wing activists are rallying to the company’s defense.

Brigitte Gabriel’s ACT! for America launched a petition to boost Lowe’s that ironically defends the right of businesses to “be free to make advertising decisions” even though Lowe’s withdrew their ads after a pressure campaign from the extremist Florida Family Association:

We the undersigned join to stand with Lowe's Home Improvement stores in their decision to cease the flow of their advertising dollars to The Learning Channel's (TLC) television show "All-American Muslim."

We believe that American businesses should be free to make advertising decisions without fear of repercussion from radical Islamist groups.

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Therefore, we the undersigned, join with others across America, to let Lowe's Home Improvement know that:

• We support Lowe's Home Improvement's decision to end paid advertising on TLC's "All-American Muslim."

• We thank Lowe's Home Improvement for their position in the face of unwarranted and unfair criticism.

Religious Right radio host Janet Mefferd railed against the company’s critics on her show yesterday, where she hosted FFA president David Caton, arguing Lowe’s decision has absolutely nothing at all to do with anti-Muslim sentiments! According to Mefferd the show was plainly “controversial,” because apparently filming the lives of real Muslim families is controversial: “This has nothing to do with bigotry against Muslims, it has to do with the fact that the company didn’t want to advertise on this particular show because it was so controversial. So what! Get over it! Not everything is religious bigotry!”

The leader of the California Republican Assembly also defended Lowe’s in response to a California State Seantor Ted Lieu’s criticism of the company:

Lieu criticized the chain store, calling their action "un-American" and "naked religious bigotry," adding that he plans political action if the store does not apologize to Muslims and re-broadcast the ads.

Cathy Carlson of the California Republican Assembly points out Lowe's was just one of several companies that made the same decision. "Lowe's is a business -- and yes, it's the right business decision," she tells OneNewsNow. "And they're not the only ones -- there were dozens of advertisers who pulled their sponsorship."

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"He is a lawyer -- and what he said to cover himself was that he was going to look into seeing if any laws have been broken; and he knows there aren't any laws that are broken," says Carlson. "So I just think he's posturing. I think he is playing to his base so he gets re-elected. This is typical California politics."

In another edition of why no one should take Pamela Geller seriously, the far-right columnist today claimed that “our pro-jihad president” is bolstering the creation of an Islamic “universal caliphate” and trying to destroy America from within. According to the Associated Press, the Obama administration yesterday targeted two leading Iranian officials with sanctions and is working with Congress on placing sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank that would mitigate “unintended consequences,” including increasing the price of oil that would end up boosting “the value of Iranian oil sales.” For Geller, the administration’s attempt to make sure that the sanctions don’t end up helping Iran while destabilizing world markets proves that President Obama is “pro-Iran” and is intent on pursuing an “anti-American agenda,” contending, “The United States under Barack Obama is like Secretariat being ridden by Rosie O’Donnell”:

From Egypt to Libya, Tunisia to Morocco, the story is the same: Pro-Shariah Islamic supremacists are taking power. But most of all, this is the story of the failure of Obama as president. This development has been obvious for years. Obama was given a golden opportunity when the Iranian people begged for his help. Instead, he backed the murdering mullahs.

Still, there is hope. That is made clear by this latest struggle by our pro-jihad president and the majority of pro-freedom patriots in the Congress. The Washington Post reported Friday that "Republicans and Democrats determined to look tough on Iran and avoid any election-year challenges to their pro-Israel bona fides are rebuffing Obama administration pleas to ease proposed sanctions on Iran's Central Bank."

Why would Obama want to ease sanctions on Iran? He sounds mentally ill. Or he wants a universal caliphate.

Compare the revolutions under Bush: the Rose Revolution, the Cedars Revolution and all true freedom revolutions to remove the shackles of oppression, subjugation and persecution. Conversely, the revolutions across the world during the Obama rout are all Islamic supremacist movements. And he sanctions them all except the only one that was truly a freedom movement – Iran's freedom revolution.

Obama's assault on our allies and support for freedom's enemies is so egregious that he has managed to unite the Congress. Despite Obama's pleas to go soft on a nuclear Iran, Republicans and Democrats are going ahead with sanctions that would target foreign banks that do business with Iran's Central Bank.

The congressional rebuff to our pro-Iran president best illustrates the importance of securing a super majority in the Congress, and why we must win the Senate in 2012.

In the disastrous event of an Obama win (certainly made possible by voluntary state-run media and his goon armies ACORN, SEIU, the George Soros-funded propaganda machine, et al.) the Congress will be the only thing that stands between us and the destruction of the greatest, freest nation in the history of man.

Be prepared for more Obama ugliness. A billion-dollar marketing campaign of ugliness coupled with an activist media deceiving the American public to advance their uber-left anti-American agenda, the re-election of Obama. We are entering what is certain to be an incomprehensibly ugly year, full of the politics of destruction – courtesy of Barack Hussein Obama.

And when it comes to Iran, pray for Israel at this critical time. It's all on them. The United States under Barack Obama is like Secretariat being ridden by Rosie O'Donnell. A tremendous machine under the control of a destructive malcontent. Disaster. And the worst is yet to come.

David Caton of the Florida Family Association appeared on The Janet Mefferd Show yesterday where he mostly played the victim over the national controversy that was started by his group’s pressure campaign against advertisers on TLC’s All-American Muslim. He said that his group started the pressure campaign before the show even went on the air because he couldn’t “wait and see” what impact the “propaganda” would have. Upset that the show didn’t conform to his stereotypical beliefs that Muslims in America are extremists and terrorists, Caton criticized the show’s logo and casting because it makes people think that “all Muslims are all American and all Muslims in America are like this”:

Caton: This program was selecting in a manner and not only reflecting a manner, if you go to The Learning Channel and you look at the website and you look at the logo for ‘All-American Muslim’ it has the symbol of Islam in the ‘e,’ in the ‘a’ of ‘American,’ or in the ‘c’ of ‘American,’ the symbol of Islam and the symbol of American. You start watching this program and you realize they’re trying to persuade the public, the general public, that all Muslims are all American and all Muslims in America are like this, and they’re not…. And so it’s propaganda that needs to be called on. It’s the first show of its kind, and so if we had sat back and said ‘let’s wait and see,’ we can’t wait and see any more with this issue, this issue is too critical to the future of our country.

Later in the interview, Caton said that “all of America would rejoice and be doing handstands and high-fives” if Muslims renounced Sharia, or the moral and religious code followed by Muslims, arguing that Sharia “defies and destroys our values system.” He added that people should pray for him to “be in God’s will” and shed “light on darkness”:

Caton: If the core leadership, the Imams, the leadership of Islam in this country, in the mosques, of the mosques of America, were all like some of the people portrayed on this program I think all of America would rejoice and be doing handstands and high-fives because that would be true liberty for us all, they would be liberated from the bondage of Sharia law. But that’s not the case and our concern is one of concern for life and the preservation of life, and Sharia law is the opposite to that…. I can just keep going on with the number of tenants of Sharia law which is inconsistent with American law and which defies and destroys our values system.

Mefferd: Mr. Caton, how can we pray for your organization right now?

Caton: I just hope I would be in God’s will and that I would be continue to be willing to stand where I’m standing if you continue to stand with me and I don’t do anything apart from shedding light on darkness.

Before it received national attention for its pressure campaign against TLC’s All-American Muslim, in April the Florida Family Association launched a pressure campaign against advertisers on the TeenNick show Degrassi because of the show’s “irresponsible affirmation of a transgender lifestyle” and negative portrayal of “ex-gay” reparative therapy. The FFA was also outraged that Degrassi ran PSAs for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and The Trevor Project, an anti-suicide group that focuses on at-risk LGBT youth.

In an interview today with the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow, FFA president David Caton claimed credit for convincing Macy's and Target to stop advertising on Degrassi and said that the group is redoubling its efforts to pressure other advertisers as a result of the show’s supposed promotion of “immoral behavior”:

In response to pressure from concerned parents, more sponsors are withdrawing their support from a pro-homosexual cable television show for teens.

Because the work of the Florida Family Association (FFA), Macy's and Target have stopped advertising on Degrassi (see earlier story). David Caton explains why MTV's Teen Nick show is not appropriate for kids and why his organization is urging businesses to pull their sponsorship from the program.

"It has content that is very extraordinarily explicit towards transgender and homosexual lifestyles," he details. "It often has promotions on there that direct teens to organizations that will encourage them to embrace and accept the transgender or homosexual lifestyle," particularly TheTrevorHelpline.org -- a website that describes itself as "a free and confidential service that's open for gay and questioning youth," and claims to be "saving lives" by encouraging confused kids to "be proud of who you are."

His organization is currently targeting Mars and Wrigley, both owned by the same company, as they continue to run Orbit gum, Skittles, Snickers, Starburst, and Twix commercials during the show.

"We're challenging Mars-Wrigley to stop advertising and stop supporting this kind of content that is aimed at an immoral behavior that children would embrace," reports Caton.

After narrowing their decision to four candidates in the Republican field, The Family Leader is set to announce their endorsement on Monday…or their decision not to endorse at all. With the caucus less than a month away, Bob Vander Plaats claims that their desired candidate must not only be conservative but must also have the strength to defeat Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination and ultimately President Obama. While Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry have all signed The Family Leader’s pledge, Newt Gingrich recently penned a letter committing to their right-wing agenda and pledging faithfulness to his third wife. The conservative Iowa Republican reports:

Bob Vander Plaats and his Family Leader organization plan to make a decision on whether or not to make an endorsement, and whom they might endorse, by next Monday. The group’s backing is one of the most sought after in the GOP presidential race, especially in Iowa.

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“That’s going be a great question, because if you read the pledge that he wrote and submitted, there’s a lot of our verbiage in there,” Vander Plaats said. “He takes some strong stances on life, marriage and religious freedom. As we read it, we wondered why he didn’t sign the pledge, but he did almost everything we talked about and used a similar language.”

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Vander Plaats says he is looking for an “authentic conservative”, but adds that viability is one of the issues The Family Leader will consider when picking their candidate. “If you’re going to beat Obama, then you also have to beat Romney to get the nomination,” The Family Leader CEO said. “If we were to endorse on what we’re looking for, we’re looking for a very conservative principled, but we’re also looking for someone who can win.”

While Vander Plaats may be concerned about electability, the campaign of the very-unelectable Michele Bachmann organized a group of the state’s Religious Right leaders, including Danny Carroll of The Family Leader, to promote her struggling campaign:

A group of conservative Christian faith leaders are hitting the road to urge conservatives to caucus for Michele Bachmann – not the race’s frontrunner, Newt Gingrich.

 

“Frankly, we’re looking to shake things up a little bit,” former Iowa Rep. Danny Carroll, a conservative Republican from Grinnell, told reporters at a news conference at the Iowa Capitol this morning.

The pastors delicately made it clear that they don’t think Gingrich is the best choice for president. Nor is Rick Santorum, a religious conservative who has been courting the evangelical vote in Iowa.

“(Gingrich) is tremendous in debates,” said Brad Sherman, an evangelical Christian minister with Solid Rock Christian Church in Coralville. “Part of me wants to say I’d love to see him debate Obama because I think he would chew him up. But I have to live by principle – and Michele Bachmann has proved it.”

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Carroll said during the news conference: “We have determined that Michele Bachmann is Biblically-qualified to be the president, to be a leader. She is capable. She is trustworthy. She fears God and she hates dishonest gain.”

Iowans should to go to the caucuses on Jan. 3 “unless you support someone other than Michele Bachmann. Then you should take the night off,” he said.

Carroll and various faith leaders are embarking on an eight-city tour of Iowa – Oskaloosa, Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Mason City, Council Bluffs and Sioux City – to call on Christians “to be informed.”

Liberty Counsel chairman Mathew Staver appeared on In the Market with Janet Parshall to discuss the organization’s latest case against Macy’s, which terminated an employee, Natalie Johnson, for refusing to follow company policy regarding the rights of LGBT customers. Staver, who last week told Vic Eliason of VCY America that the case is a result of the “LGBT sexual anarchist agenda gone awry” and that adults will begin identifying as children so they “can go and use the little kiddies restroom,” contended that the trans-friendly policy could lead to an increase in rape and sexual assaults as women in fitting rooms now “may be watched by a peeping tom or even worse, sexually assaulted or raped.” He went on to say that people who are transgender are similar to anorexics and bulimics, and do not deserve legal rights.

Staver: But even if they bring Natalie back that fixes one problem, but the big problem and the major problem is this policy. As you mentioned before the break, this really puts every woman at risk. A father doesn’t want to take his twelve, thirteen year-old daughter there to go to Macy’s and let her go into a woman’s fitting room, not knowing whether there may be some pedophile, pervert, or some other kind of person who’s waiting to do a sexual assault on this young woman, or your wife. Any woman does not want to go into a men’s restroom, a men’s fitting room, or a woman’s fitting room, thinking that they may be watched by a peeping tom or even worse, sexually assaulted or raped, and in fact this is a liability waiting to happen and Macy’s needs to fix this problem.

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We’re going to see this unless we ultimately wake up and stop this radical agenda, because what this so-called movement, they keep changing the alphabet around, now it’s LGBT and it’s LGBTQ, and now I just came across LGBTQQI, there’s all kinds of new alphabets to this, bottom line is this though: they believe that you should be able to be anyone you want to be in your mind. So, objective biology and physiology, how you’re actually born and how you look, really doesn’t make any difference. What makes a difference is what you think in your mind. It’s kind of like anorexic bulimia, obviously someone they believe they are overweight when they’re really not, here, if they believe that they are a woman and they’re really a man, well instead of addressing the issue, they want you to have some legal protection for it.

As we’ve previously reported All-American Muslim is far from the first show that was in the crosshairs of the Florida Family Association, in fact, just two years ago the FFA went after advertisers on Family Guy:

Family Guy, a Fox network cartoon which airs on Sunday evenings, has turned to denouncing God, mocking the Born Again Experience and embracing perversion to “entertain” viewers.

The March 29th episode of Family Guy denounced God’s existence, mocked the born again experience and embraced perversity. The March 8th episode condoned bestiality, gay orgies and gross perversion. A more detailed description of the content of both episodes is provided at floridafamily.org because the content is too disgusting to print.

Florida Family Association launched an email campaign on March 31st that asked supporters to send emails to the following Family Guy advertisers: Sprint-Nextel (Boost Mobile), Unilever (Axe), Brinker International (Chili’s Grill), KIA (Spectra), Yum Brands (Taco Bell), Volkswagen, Ford (Southern Ford Dealers), Amscot and Pepsi (Mountain Dew.)

The group has also attacked Modern Family, Dancing With the Stars, and Degrassi for positively portraying the LGBT community.

WorldNetDaily reported that the American Family Association joined the FFA’s efforts to protest Family Guy over the show’s flatulence:

"We have prepared an e-mail for you to conveniently send by the press of one button that will encourage the CEOs and VPs of all of these companies to stop supporting Family Guy with their advertising dollars," the family group said.

The organization said the March 29 episode further featured the character Stewie trying to beam the "Star Trek" cast into his home. But failing, the character instead beams "four semi nude dominatrixes with their all nude and bound male prey into [the home]."

Stewie also "pulls his pants down and passes gas into the air hose of his father’s diving apparatus," the group said.

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"This should be disturbing to a lot of American families," said AFA spokesman Randy Sharp.

"It's beyond me how a network finds humor in the deviancy of human nature," he continued. "The writers of this program, you really have to question who are these people who come up with this and call it entertainment."

The group has also attacked Modern Family, Dancing With the Stars and Degrassi for positively portraying the LGBT community.