MAX BLUMENTHAL

Towards a Theocracy?
I'm almost out the door, on my way up to New York for the "Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right" conference, which is to be held on Friday and Saturday nights at the CUNY graduate center. This will be the first time I've been to a conference about that psuedo-religious authoritarian political bloc known as the Christian right that won't be full of members of the Christian right. I'm especially excited to meet some of the people who, for the last two decades, have been trying to warn America of the Christian right's theocratic intentions. One of the most notable of these people is Frederick Clarkson, who authored a seminal series of essays explaining Christian Reconstructionism, or Theocratic Dominionism. (If you don't read Fred's blog, you are insane.)

Recently, Clarkson wrote a post on his blog entitled, "The lights are coming on America." He wrote:

But I have good news. The darkness of denial, and the business-as-usual view that has enshrouded the entire political spectrum; the darkness of a blind-eye turned towards the looming threat of the end of the American experiment; the darkness, the darkness... is lifting.

The lights are coming on in America.

Clarkson pointed out a New York Times editorial explicitly denouncing "Justice Sunday" as a theocratic push (or better yet, a putsch). For a mainstream, albeit occasionally liberal, publication like the Times to affirm what Clarkson and many others have been trying to warn us of is a major development. "Those of us who sounded the alarm weren't alarmist," writes Clarkson. After withstanding over two decades of the Christian right's untrammeled attack on America's constitutional foundations, the mainstream press is waking up.

What's more, none other than Senator Ken Salazar is courageously standing up to the anti-democratic forces in his backyard (that's right, the same Democrat who provided cover for Alberto "Torquemada" Gonzales). Last week, he accused Focus on the Family of "hijacking Christianity" and fighting to establish "a theocracy" in the US. In my mind, he was just stating the facts. Then, after James Dobson sanctioned a barrage of personal attacks against Salazar -- and the Salazar family -- through demagogic ads and statements on his hate radio show, Salazar responded by calling Dobson "the anti-Christ." I don't know if I agree that Dobson is "the anti-Christ." An anti-Christ might be more correct.

Unfortunately, Salazar has retreated from his most recent comments about Dobson. But the damage has been done. I have yet to see any Christian right figures use the mainstream press as a platform to respond to charges of theocracy, but within their subculture, their leadership is doing its best to push-back. They don't want their flock of amateur activists to wake up and realize they've joined a authoritarian, anti-democratic movement. They need them to believe they're part of the majority, "the good people" who simply want to return America to that golden morning when boys wore pants, girls wore skirts, and gays got beat up in the locker room. "I miss John Wayne," James Dobson recently remarked.

On Justice Sunday, William Donohue of the Catholic League (an anti-Semitic faux civil rights org) declared, "The secular left saying we want to turn America into a theocracy. What are we? The Taliban?" Fair question.

In his daily email to his followers on Wednesday, "End of Day," Gary Bauer wrote,

Listening to some liberal U.S. senators this week you would think
America is in danger of becoming a "theocracy." Vicious attacks have been
leveled at churches, pastors, Focus on the Family, indeed, anyone who dares to
argue that President Bush�s judicial nominees, mostly conservative and
pro- life, deserve an up or down vote in the Senate.

Bauer went on to complain that the mainline religious group, Interfaith Alliance, had denounced Bill Frist's meeting with David Barton:

How left-wing is The Interfaith Alliance? Its president, Reverend C.
Welton Gaddy, recently wrote a letter to Senator Bill Frist demanding
that he disinvite David Barton from giving a tour of the Capitol. Mr.
Barton's sin is that his tour emphasizes the role of faith in America's
founding.

Emphasizing the role of faith in America's founding? Is that really Barton's sin? How about cynically twisting history to assert that America is a "Christian nation" which should be governed in accordance with the Christian right's moral standards? That does qualify as emphasizing the role of faith if you are a religious bigot who believes that Protestant Christianity is the only true faith, and should be constitutionally elevated above all other faiths.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto (That name sounds Canadian...maybe he's a traitor) attempted to discount my piece on Justice Sunday by writing the following:

What's interesting about Blumenthal's description of the Justice Sunday coalition is that, if true, it utterly refutes the hysterical left-wing cries of "theocracy!" (cf Robert Kuttner in today's Boston Globe).

In Blumenthal's telling, the "Christian right" unites everyone from Klan sympathizers to black Protestants, conservative Catholics to Catholic-hating evangelicals. It's as diverse as the Democratic coalition of blacks, feminists, union members, gays, etc., except that for the most part the Democratic subgroups have no fundamental reason to hate each other.

It's a miracle that such a motley crowd was able to come together for one night on one issue. Even if they wanted to impose a theocracy, anyone who thinks they could possibly be cohesive enough to do so might as well believe in the tooth fairy.

I sincerely doubt Taranto agrees with much of the Christian right's social program. Like most white-collar inner-Beltway Republicans, Taranto ostensibly sees the Christian right as a valuable utility to the GOP. And somehow, despite all the evidence before his eyes, Taranto believes the dog is wagging the tail. Taranto has convinced himself that the Christian right's vision for the country will never come to pass. He justifies his belief by pointing out the rifts in the Christian right's base. A quick glance at the Moral Majority's founding document, written by Paul Weyrich (a far-right Catholic), Richard Viguerie, Phyllis Schlafly, William Buckley and some other conservative activists highlights Taranto's willful ignorance:

There is no false unity based on papering over doctrinal differences.... Our very right to worship as we choose, to bring up families in some kind of moral order, to educate our children free from the interference of the state, to follow the commands of Holy Scripture and the church is at stake. These leaders have concluded that it is better to argue about denominational differences at another time. Right now, it is the agenda of those opposed to the Scriptures and the church which has brought us together.

That was written nearly 25 years ago. Today, the Christian right's cross-denominational unity is as strong as ever. Ultra-conservative Catholics and Protestants have banded together explicitly to eradicate American culture of liberalism and usher in a theocracy-lite.

Their theocracy will be nothing like Saudi Arabia's. Women will not be stoned in public squares for committing adultery, for instance. It will simply be difficult for women to divorce as Covenant Marriages become mandatory. Reproductive rights will be non-existent (What happened in Congress yesterday?). Books will be banned. TV programming and radio will be strictly censored. Government social services will be delegated to proselytizing churches. Homosexuals will be barred from teaching in public schools and will have no civil rights. That is the Christian right's stated agenda. Now how does the fulfillment of this agenda represent anything other than the establishment of a theocracy?

If you don't read Mike Tidmus's blog, you are a meshuganeh.

Tony Perkins, Bill Frist, Justice Sunday, and David Duke: Which One Doesn't Fit?
In case you're wondering why my posting has been lighter than it usually is, I've been trying to punch out a piece on "Justice Sunday" before everyone forgets the whole thing ever happened. So now that it's out, here's the lede, which I always try not to bury:

Senate majority leader Bill Frist appeared through a telecast as a speaker at "Justice Sunday," at the invitation of the event's main sponsor, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. "Justice Sunday" was promoted as a rally to portray Democrats as being "against people of faith." Many of the speakers compared the plight of conservative Christians to the civil rights movement. But in sharing the stage with Perkins, who introduced him to the rally, Frist was associating himself with someone who has longstanding ties to racist organizations.

Four years ago, Perkins addressed the Louisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), America's premier white supremacist organization, the successor to the White Citizens Councils, which battled integration in the South. In 1996 Perkins paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,000 for his mailing list. At the time, Perkins was the campaign manager for a right-wing Republican candidate for the US Senate in Louisiana. The Federal Election Commission fined the campaign Perkins ran $3,000 for attempting to hide the money paid to Duke.

Now read the rest.

I'll be covering "Justice Sunday" for Media Matters and probably for the Nation. Then I'll be having Passover dinner with my family, which, according to the Family Research Council, is not comprised of people of genuine faith. (Would FRC have scheduled a rally for Easter Sunday?)
Stay tuned for my reporting. And have a good Passover. The Hebrew God is mad as hell!

I hear Bill Frist is taking questions on an abstinence-only website this week. "Whenever you masturbate, God kills a kitten," Frist says.

Salazar: Calling The Christian Right By Its Name
Ken Salazar has made up for his conduct during Alberto Gonzales's nomination -- and then some. To my knowledge, he is the first Senator to call James Dobson by his name:

"I think the kind of attack that is being used against (Democratic senators) and against me has the potential of moving our country to abandoning the freedom of worship which we enjoy in this country, and moving toward the creation of a theocracy," Salazar said.

It's about time somebody stood up to the Christian Right's most influential member. And who better than a Democrat from Dobson's home state? In many respects, Dobson is a paper tiger. So many of the candidates he's endorsed have been defeated, including Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, who ran a failed campaign for the US House from Louisiana in 1998. Hopefully, Salazar's courageous stand will set a precedent for other Democrats who have been targeted by Dobson -- and will hasten the ever-arrogant Dobson's inevitable fall from grace.

The GOP Flat-Earthers Love the Grand Inquisitor
Calling Pope Benedict XVI, aka Joseph Ratzinger, a "medievalist" is not just an empty insult. This guy literally believes the Earth is the center of the universe, or perhaps something even crazier. Check out what he said about Galileo in a speech in Parma, Italy, on March 15, 1990:

"At the time of Galileo the Church remained much more faithful to reason than Galileo himself. The process against Galileo was reasonable and just."

I guess it's no wonder the flat-earthers in the GOP are so enthused about Ratzi's election.

Here's Santorum's statement:
“This is a wonderful and historic day for the Catholic Church as Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger, a holy and humble man who is a great thinker, leader and faithful
servant of the Catholic Church, is selected to lead the Catholic Church as its Holy
Father."

...and Sam Brownback:
“Today the people of the world welcomed, congratulated and prayed for Pope Benedict XVI. He will be a strong unifying voice and will provide moral leadership for the world.

“I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with then Cardinal Ratzinger at the Vatican, and he is a godly and prayerful man, who will be a wonderful spiritual leader and continuing voice for peace and compassion.”

...and of course, our Dear Leader, George W. Bush:
"He's a man of great wisdom and knowledge. He's a man who serves the Lord. We remember well a sermon at the Pope's funeral in Rome, how his words touched our hearts and the hearts of millions."

What about science and the spirit of discovery that has been the engine of civilization? Goodbye to all that.

Newsweek takes notice of my reporting, citing my quotation in the Nation of Sen. Tom Coburn's chief of staff, Michael Schwartz, at the "Judicial War on Faith Conference:" "I'm a radical. I'm a real extremist. I don't want to impeach judges. I want to impale them."
It's about damn time somebody in the mainstream press did.

Ted Nugent on spreading freedom:

"To show you how radical I am, I want carjackers dead. I want rapists dead. I want burglars dead. I want child molesters dead. I want the bad guys dead. No court case. No parole. No early release. I want 'em dead. Get a gun and when they attack you, shoot 'em."

Ratzinger and the N Word
Please don't say the new Pope is a Nazi. It's wrong and it's not true. Cardinal Ratzinger was a Nazi. He no longer belongs to the Nazi party. Nor does he belong to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, also known as "The Inquisition." (He did belong for 23 years, however). Let's choose our terms carefully when we discuss this Pope. Is he a Nazi? No. Fascist? Probably. Anti-democratic Medievalist? Definitely.

The mainstream press needs to be equally careful in its characterizations. Only credulity or disingenuity would lead a reporter to call Ratzinger a "conservative." As much as the American conservative movement has become a reactionary, theocratic entity, the term "conservative" serves to obscure Ratzinger's extremist past. As Rabbi Michael Lerner correctly observes, while Ratzinger may have abandoned the Hitler Youth, he "apparently absorb[ed] the deep patriarchal and authoritarian character structure that the fascists did so much to foster in youth."

But let's not harp on Ratzinger's Nazi past, or his refusal to shelter Jews or join the resistance as thousands of brave Germans did. Let's focus on what he has done as an adult. Ratzinger supports the fascist cult, Opus Dei, and advocated canonizing its founder, Josemaria Escriva, a self-avowed fascist who served in the dictatorship of Franco, and openly praised Hitler. Ratzinger also lobbied aggresively for the sainthood of Pius XI, the Pope who refused to condemn Hitler and provided cover for the Holocaust. And finally, Ratzinger wrote a document in 1987 claiming Jewish scripture only reaches fulfillment with the acceptance of Christ. "Only in the Catholic Church is there eternal salvation," he wrote in 2000.

Let's not imagine incinerated Jewish bodies in the white smoke that rose from the Vatican yesterday, though. At least, not only Jewish bodies. After all, the Nazis came for the homosexuals first. While Ratzinger's views on gays are not much different from those of leaders of America's Christian right, they are not much different from those of National Socialist ideologues either. Homosexuality is an "objective disorder," Ratzinger once wrote. Further, he's certain to work for the further marginalization of women in the Church. And he will continue denying birth control to billions, because according to him, sex is only for making babies. (Some priests for whom Ratzinger afforded "pontifical secrecy" must have misunderstood this to mean making it with babies).

Finally, we shouldn't neglect to mention Ratzinger's role in decimating the vital communities engendered in Latin America by the Liberation Theology movement. It wasn't all Ratzinger's doing; he had numerous collaborators, including friends of Augusto Pinochet and the CIA. What Ratzinger and his counter-revolutionary clerics did had terrible consequences, not only for liberal Catholics, but for the Church in general. Pentecostal scammers have eagerly filled the void created by Ratzinger and company's cynical scheme. The Church is now bleeding members in Latin America.

The crisis in Latin America presages what will come of the Church in North America and Europe under Ratzinger's leadership. The splits that emerged under John Paul will widen and the Church will lose members in droves as veteran liberal clergymembers are increasingly treated as rogues by the Vatican. Ratzinger is a disaster not only for the world, but for the Church as well.

I just heard Mark Potok of SPLC on the local NPR affiliate here in New York make a pretty bold prediction: "There will almost certainly be another Oklahoma City [referring to Tim McVeigh's bombing] in the future." The Washington Post is running a good piece today on the lingering threat of domestic terror:

In some ways, observers say, the domestic terrorism threat is broader today because of recruitment on the Internet, and because it comes not only from the radical right but also from left-wing radical environmental groups, which have caused tens of millions of dollars in property damage but no fatalities.

The Southern Poverty Law Center reported the existence of more than 762 hate groups last year, an increase from previous years. According to the Anti-Defamation League, 15 law enforcement officials have been killed by anti-government extremists in the past 10 years.

"What has changed is that the numbers of the committed have steadily dropped since the Oklahoma bombing, but those who are committed have hardened views," said Daniel Levitas, author of "The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right."

David Trochman of the Militia of Montana said in an interview that members are "much more private" about belonging to a militia since the bombing but that his members remain unhappy about what is happening in the country, particularly what he sees as liberal border policies.

A Million Marla Ruzickas
When I stepped into a friend's barbeque in Brooklyn today, someone told me "an activist" they knew had been killed in Baghdad. In fact, one of the activist's close friends was out back taking press calls on his cell phone. Her family was too overwhelmed to deal with the deluge of interviews and had delegated him as their ad hoc spokesman. Another casualty of a lost and pointless war, I thought. Then the friend came inside and mentioned "Marla."

Marla? The same Marla for whom friends of mine in D.C. had hosted a fundraiser a year ago? The same Marla who sent me email correspondences from Baghdad, each one signed, "You are so kind to me," even though I could never seem to get an L.A. fundraiser together for her. What a devastating coincidence. I thought about the last email Marla sent me. She had gone to stay with a friend in India to relax after months in Iraq, where she had been dashing across the country to wrangle aid money for average Iraqis whose lives and property were shattered by US bombings. I remembered her describe feeling the impact of a bomb so strong it shattered the glass of an athletics facility she was jogging in in Baghdad, so I was relieved to hear she had left the country.

But Marla went back. From what I understand, she began going door to door in towns and cities across Iraq documenting civilian casualties. She planned to do the most comprehensive count of Iraqi civilian casualties to date. She was working 15 hour days; her work was the inspiriation behind Congress's approval of $20 million in humanitarian aid to Iraq. Marla's crusade reflected not only her selflessness, but her deep moral opposition to the war, an aspect of her personality that was cynically whitewashed in last evening's national news coverage of her death.

In her quest to end the war, Marla came to reject reactionary posturing and shrill rhetoric. Instead, she went to Iraq to work to assuage the wounds America had exacted on innocent Iraqis. She went to help. And she found herself working hand in hand with occupation bureaucrats, journalists and military officers, all to get help where it was needed. It's true Marla had a background as a protester. But in the end, she was not a screamer or a bomb thrower. She was a healer. And she was only 28.

This war is like a tumor that keep growing. It is a malignant lie that chews up young bodies like they never contained souls. And when it is declared over and official amnesia is prescribed, its legacy will poison hearts for generations to come. That's inevitable. Only a million Marla Ruzickas will be able to fix the damage this war has done. As impossible as that sounds, just look at how much one was able to do.

Frist: Leading the GOP Deeper in Debt to Dominionists
In the battle over the judiciary, the Republicans have hit a fork in the road. One path, to the far-right, is paved by the White House and the Senate leadership. It leads to an un-Constitutional rule change that would end the filibuster. The other path, to the far-far-right, has been paved by the House GOP and the conservative base, in particular, the Christian right. It leads to the end of the Constitution itself, in the name of the "Constitution Restoration Act," which would authorize congress to impeach judges who fail to abide by "a standard of good behavior." (In other words, who are insufficiently theocratic.) While the path to the far-far-right is simply too perilous for Bill Frist and the White House, the path they have paved for themselves is still nettlesome and fraught with risk. So, as usual, Frist and Bush have enlisted their base to do a little bushwacking. It is an act of desperation that will render the GOP even further beholden to the Christian right.

On April 24, Frist will be the face on a typically demagogic simulcast held by the Family Research Council designed to portray opponents of Bush's federal bench picks as opponents of people of faith. As David Kirkpatrick reports...

As the Senate heads toward a showdown over the rules governing judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as "against people of faith" for blocking President Bush's nominees.

Fliers for the telecast, organized by the Family Research Council and scheduled to originate at a Kentucky megachurch the evening of April 24, call the day "Justice Sunday" and depict a young man holding a Bible in one hand and a gavel in the other. The flier does not name participants, but under the heading "the filibuster against people of faith," it reads: "The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias, and it is now being used against people of faith."

Organizers say they hope to reach more than a million people by distributing the telecast to churches around the country, over the Internet and over Christian television and radio networks and stations.

These type of telecasts have proven devastatingly effective at motivating the evangelical base, as James Dobson demonstrated completely beneath the media's radar last July with his "Battle for Marriage" event. Only after John Kerry took an unexpected whupping did the media start paying attention to these high-tech pseudo-revivals. But that was then, this is now. Bush is hovering just above a 40% approval rating, and that's entirely because of the unwavering (and unthinking) support of the Christian right's flock. Playing to the base is a great strategy for winning elections, but now more than ever, Bush needs to reach out to the center, especially after the Terri Schiavo charade backfired. That's not going to happen, and as such, he's trapped for the remainder of his presidency.

As for Frist, he faces a tough primary fight in 2008. Sen. Sam Brownback will probably challenge him for the presidential nomination, and so will Rick Santorum. Both are probably more popular among right-wing Catholics than Frist, and Santorum, after his inevitable defeat in 2006, will have nothing to lose. Expect these two to run the most demagogic campaigns since George Wallace. And I'd expect a dark horse candidate who will exploit the anti-immigrant sentiments that have been brewing within the GOP base for about a decade. Newt Gingrich could be that dark horse, but I wouldn't put brown-baiting past Brownback. In the context of his inevitable primary fight, Frist must use his leadership role to cast himself as the figurehead of the Christian right and outflank his challengers.

Behind the scenes, Frist has been kibitzing with David Barton, a veteran Republican operative and evangelical counter-historian who has been instrumental in cultivating the theory of America as a "Christian nation." As savvy as Barton might be, at his core his is a pure theocrat who has bridged the gap between the far fringes of the right (including violent militia elements) and the mainstream GOP. I recently wrote about him for the Nation...

In 1989 Barton published a book titled The Myth of Separation, which proclaims, "This book proves that the separation of church and state is a myth." The Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, in a critique of his 1995 documentary America's Godly Heritage, stated that it was "laced with exaggerations, half-truths, and misstatements of fact." Barton is on the board of advisers of the Providence Foundation, a Christian Reconstructionist group that promotes the idea that biblical law should be instituted in America. In 1991 Barton spoke at a Colorado retreat sponsored by Pastor Pete Peters, an adherent of racist Christian Identity theology with well-established neo-Nazi ties. During the 2004 presidential campaign, the Republican National Committee hired him as a paid consultant for "evangelical outreach." The RNC sponsored more than 300 events for him.

On April 12, Frist invited Barton to give him and a group of GOP senators a special tour of the Capitol. This instance reflects Barton's close advisory role in Frist's camp. It also begs the question: is the tail wagging the dog?

If the Christian right's posturing in the aftermath of the election is at all instructive, then the answer is yes. After Barton, Dobson and company helped shepherd droves of followers to the polls for Bush, they demanded their due. When the White House called Dobson to thank him for his support during the election, he responded tersely that the White House "needs to be more aggressive" about pressing the religious right's anti-abortion, anti-gay agenda, or it would "pay a price in four years."

Bush has yet to reintroduce a call for a Constitutional ban on gay marriage. The anti-abortion agenda is moving at a snail's pace while Bush seems pre-occupied with Social Security. Meanwhile, Frist hasn't delivered anything of note in the Senate on behalf of the Christian right. But once again the GOP leadership finds itself beholden to the Christian right to move its agenda forward. As devastating as a failure to change Senate rules would be for the Republicans, success would mean yet another demand for payback from Dobson. A few ornery federal judges will never be enough for the Christian right. As the rightist evangelical theologian George Grant said, "It is Dominion we are after."

As one of my final acts before I left Los Angeles, I voted for Antonio Villaraigossa in the mayoral primary. And I'm damn glad I did it. Mayor Jim Hahn is disgusting.
Viva Antonio!

John Bolton's Qadafi Connection
I managed to gloss over the cast Frank Gaffney assembled to sign a letter provided some PR cover for John Bolton and was amused to see that a handful of them (most notably, Reagan's former education secretary and professional moral-monger William Bennett) actually have no foreign policy experience at all. But I did not realize that one of letter's most internationally experienced signatories, Abraham Sofaer, is the lawyer who defended Qadafi and Libya against a suit brought by family members of the Lockerbie bombing victims. This guy is a certified diplomonster, a legal mercenary whose support for Bolton calls both Bolton and Gaffney's morality into question. Here's a letter Steve Clemons wrote to the Wall Street Journal on August 29, 2003:

THROWING A LITTLE LIGHT ON 'DARK SIDE' COMMENT

Abraham Sofaer's late-in-the-day report on a dinner held 18 years ago between himself, Richard Fairbanks, Donald Rumsfeld and Tariq Aziz ("Arab Nationalism Self-Destructs," editorial page, Aug. 21) entertains not only because we learn more about the colorful interactions between America's and Iraq's empowered elite decades ago, but because it shows how frequently those who hold positions of power in Washington refashion their own images.

Mr. Sofaer correctly writes: "However intelligent and refined he seemed, Aziz committed himself to the dark side. Like all other ideologies based on tyrannical rule, Iraq's Nazis did far more harm than good." I have no problem with Mr. Sofaer's depiction of Aziz, but his admonition about the "dark side" applies equally to himself.

Abraham Sofaer served as Libya's legal counsel against the legal action brought by families of the Lockerbie bombing victims -- and he did this at the law firm of Hughes, Hubbard & Reed that was in fact the very same firm working on behalf of these bombing victims' families.

Mr. Sofaer's analysis of Iraq's current circumstances may be solid, and his dinner dance with Messrs. Rumsfeld and Aziz worth reporting, but his failure to disclose the dark side he once chose undermines his status as a judge of these matters.

Steven Clemons
Executive Vice President
New America Foundation
Washington, D.C.

Pray for DeLay
Only a very forgiving God can save him now...

One senior Republican spoke sympathetically of DeLay after the closed-door meeting.

“I hope he survives, and I hope he will stay in there and do his job,” said Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss.

“The power of prayer is the only thing that will sustain you” in the circumstance DeLay is in, Lott added, and he spoke disparagingly of any Republicans who fail to stand by the Texan.

How can a Christian right icon like Don Wildmon be an anti-Semite? I thought the Christian right was Israel's best friend...
In the March issue of American Family Association Journal, a publication of Donald E. Wildmon's right-wing evangelical activist group, the American Family Association (AFA), author Randall Murphree suggested that a Jewish upbringing leads to hatred of Christians, and by extension, a criminal lifestyle. Describing the background of a man who has a "ministry to the homeless," Murphree wrote in his article, "Homeless by Choice":

"The Athens, Ohio, man grew up in a Jewish home and developed a hostile attitude toward Christ. As a teenager, he used drugs, sold drugs and accumulated quite a juvenile crime record. But after a high school friend persistently witnessed to him, Keith accepted Christ during his junior year in high school."

Haven't had much time for blogging recently but I should later this week. In the meantime, I thought these comments from an email by Gary Bauer are interesting:

I am more convinced than ever that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
will attempt this month to go for a rules change to end the filibuster of
President Bush’s judicial nominees. The vote will be close, but I
think we can win it. The margin could literally be one vote.

Meanwhile, rumors abound that some moderate Democrats are getting
nervous about the hard-line stand being taken by their leadership. Some of
them are reportedly negotiating behind the scenes with Senator Trent Lott of
Mississippi to work out a deal to allow Bush’s judicial nominees to be
voted on after a set time of debate.

I wonder if Lieberman is among those "moderates" Bauer claims are negotiating with Lott. Actually, I don't see why any Democrats would get nervous about saving the filibuster if polls are to be believed. Bauer might be getting a little over-optimistic.
As for Frist bringing the rule changes to the Senate floor this month, that almost certain.

Hear Me
I'll be on the Ed Schultz show today at 5:30 pm ET.
Tomorrow, I'll be a guest on the Michaelangelo Signorile show at 3:30 pm ET.

Jim Dobson is taking the lead on the Christian right's judge-bashing campaign and I suspect his histrionics will embarass him nearly as much as his juvenile attack on SpongeBob did. Just take a look at his latest blow-up at those Frankurt School radicals on the Supreme Court:

"I heard a minister the other day talking about the great injustice and evil of the men in white robes, the Ku Klux Klan, that roamed the country in the South, and they did great wrong to civil rights and to morality. And now we have black-robed men, and that's what you're talking about."

My latest is up. Read the lead:

Michael Schwartz must have thought I was just another attendee of the "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith" conference. I approached the chief of staff of Oklahoma's GOP Senator Tom Coburn outside the conference in downtown Washington last Thursday afternoon after he spoke there. Before I could introduce myself, he turned to me and another observer with a crooked smile and exclaimed, "I'm a radical! I'm a real extremist. I don't want to impeach judges. I want to impale them!"

Now read the rest.

On covering hate groups:

Take care in giving credit to an organized supremacist group for any incident. For example, racist flyers might be passed out in a neighborhood signed "KKK." But the act might have been done by a troubled teenager looking for attention.

However, coverage of the impact of a racial taunt or incident like a flyer is necessary. Often, it does not matter if an organized group is behind the act. A threat or act can be frightening regardless of the source.

The opposite also can be true. Note if there is a disparity in reaction to an incident by different racial groups. For instance, in 2001, someone sent racist letters to 14 black churches in the Kansas City area.

The white community, largely led by white ministers, were outraged and wanted to organize rallies.

Several black ministers, however, said such letters were not uncommon. They were much more concerned about racism that affected people's ability to find employment or gain an education. As one black minister calmly commented, such letters are "why I keep a shredder by my desk."

This is what a bunch of mercenary wannabees with social anxiety disorder...I mean, patriotic neighborhood watch volunteers, are doing in Arizona:

Three volunteers patrolling the border for illegal immigrants were being investigated after a man told authorities he was held against his will and forced to pose for a picture holding a T-shirt with a mocking slogan.

The volunteers said they were members of the Minuteman Project - a monthlong effort that has people from around the country fanned out along the border to report undocumented migrants and smugglers.

I don't know if the NY Times's assiduous conservative movement man, David Kirkpatrick, was able to capture just how surreal the "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith" was. He quoted Sen. Tom Coburn's chief of staff, Michael Schwartz, advocating the "mass impeachment" of judges, but left out Schwartz's denunciation of the Supreme Court for legalizing "the right to commit buggery." I'm not faulting Kirkpatrick; the Times's squeamish editorial board would have never let him print that.

Young Bush:

President Bush's professor from his days at Harvard Business School reports in today's Harvard Crimson that Bush "called former president Franklin D. Roosevelt a 'socialist' and spoke against Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other New Deal innovations."

I'm headed to a conference here focused on "fighting judicial tyranny from a faith perspective." Tom Delay dropped out two days ago as keynote speaker and according to Americablog, Doctor Coburn and Sam Brownback just dropped out, too. Although Brownback is a conservative Catholic, unlike Tom Delay, he won't be part of the congressional delegation headed to the Pope's funeral.
Hopefully I'll be able to generate some coverage of the conference for Media Transparency or another publication. It should be colorful, even without Delay.

The Great Battle of Their Time
The Christian right is gearing up for what Gary Bauer called in a mass email, "the great battle of our time." They are using the Schiavo charade as fodder for their campaign to pack the courts with arch-conservatives -- despite the fact that the judge they love to hate, George Greer, is a state circuit judge and thus, has nothing to do with the federal bench.

Bauer recently held a conference with leading conservatives to prepare strategy and fired off a letter with 150 signatures to Bill Frist, who has been insuffiently bellicose on attacking "judicial tyranny." Tomorrow and on Friday in Washington, an interesting ad hoc group called The Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration is hosting a conference for those who want to "fight back" against tyrannical judges who are "undermining democracy, devastating families and assaulting Judeo-Christian morality."

Newsweek and the New York Times are reporting that Tom Delay was to be headlining the event until he conveniently decided to attend the Pope's funeral. Maybe the GOP doesn't want him out front on this one...

And the Times notes that before he changed his plans to attend the Pope’s funeral, DeLay was “scheduled to be a headline speaker this week at a conservative conference, ‘Confronting the Judicial War on Faith,’ sponsored by the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration. According to its organizers, potential steps to be discussed are impeaching federal judges who let personal values influence decisions, reducing or eliminating court financing, and giving Congress and the states the power to vacate Supreme Court rulings.”

Instead, attendees will have to settle for the likes of Alan "change the locks" Keyes, Phyllis Schlafly and Janet Folger, who authored the masterpiece, "The Criminalization of Christianity: Read This Book Before It Becomes Illegal!"

Yeah, activist judges are going to ban Christianity and feed Folger to the lions while the blame America first crowd sips mochacinno lattes and cheers from the seats of a Castro district coliseum. Right.

I'm a loser, lout, even a traitor. So says a self-avowed "white separationist. My day just got a little bit brighter:

----- Original Message -----
From: Abernethy, Virginia Deane
To: letters@thenation.com
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 9:30 AM
Subject: Please consider for publication

To the Editor

Were I not mentioned in Max Blumenthal's The Minister of Minstrelsy:
Meet
Jesse Lee Peterson [The Nation, April 11, 2005], I might not be
writing
now. As it is, my first objective is to sing the praise of Jesse Lee
Peterson, my second is to defend myself, and the third is to correct
misinformation regarding the Council of Conservative Citizens.

Regarding the Rev. Peterson, I have heard him say that his life was
almost
ruined during the period that he became a white-hating and
self-doubting
non-believer in Jesus Christ. The West Coast crowd who turned him
toward
hating as a primary focus of life did him no favor. The Rev. Peterson's
rediscovery of the brotherhood of man led directly to his rediscovery
of
manliness, pride, and responsibility -- which are the chief tenets of
his
teaching today. I count Jesse Peterson as my friend and applaud the
work he
does for B.O.N.D., which he founded, and America.

It can be no coincidence that Max Blumenthal attacks the Rev. Peterson
as
well as myself as well as the Council of Consevative Citizens because
we do,
in fact, hold one salient public policy issue in common. We all are
aware,
talk about, and write about the high costs that mass immigration
imposes on
the average working American.

Economists Geroge Borjas and Edwin Rubenstein calculate that mass
immigration costs American workers between $200 and $300 billion
annually
through depressed wages and displacement from jobs. When compensation
is
driven down because hundreds of immigrants compete with an American for
the
same job, it becomes true that the job at those wages with no benefits
no
longer interests the American. But formerly, this was an American job
that
an American valued.

Professor Frank Morris testified before Congress that black Americans
were
the first and worst hurt by mass immigration. The soaring unemployment
rates
among black youth bear out his words. Similarly, the late Richard
Estrada
of the Dallas News wrote that immigration harms both black Americans
and
established Hispanic immigrants -- and for the same reasons: depressed
wages
and displacement from jobs.

At Northeastern University, Andrew Sum and his colleagues documented
that,
between 2000 and 2004, immigrants took all net new jobs. By 2004,
after a
period of economic recovery, fewer Americans had jobs and more
immigrants
were employed than at the beginning of the recession. How does this
transfer of jobs to immigrants help America?

Working Americans are hurt by mass immigration -- how often must one
say
the same thing?

Regarding myself, I have repeatedly cited the above authors, and all
but Ed
Rubenstein and Andrew Sum I know [knew] personally and very much
admire. On
the contrary, Max Blumenthal's enthusiasm for mass immigration and
mindless
attacks on those who oppose it put him, in my books, in the column
labelled
"traitor."

The ubiquitous charge of "racist" levelled against opponents of mass
immigration is patently ridiculous. Peter Brimelow famously observed [I
paraphrase] that the slur of "racist" is the only arrow left to people
who
have lost the intellectual argument.

We of many races stand together in opposing mass immigration. Only the
brain-dead do not see [or maybe will not admit] that mass immigration
harms
America, and in more ways than what it does to the earnings of working
Americans.

The Council of Conservative Citizens, whatever it may have been before
or
since my time as a member, has at no time asked applicants for
membership
to identify themselves by their race, ethnicity, or religion. How can
it be
"white supremacist" and yet welcome members of all races and religions?
The
Council was from my perspective one of the few national, politically
active
organizations willing to take seriously the threat that mass
immigration
poses to America. I was pleased to speak at their conferences and be an
advisor on the immigration issue.

I think that role is no longer necessary because immigration has
arrived
on the political front burner. Today, most Americans see in mass
immigration
a threat to their livelihoods, the fiscal integrity of their
communities,
national security, the environment [from rapid population growth], and
America's culture and language.

Max Blumenthal will go on fulminating no doubt. Good luck to him,
Morris
Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, writers for the Phoenix
Anarchist
and others of their ilk. I wish them well personally because, no doubt
about it, they are losers all, louts on the losing end of history.
Virginia Deane Abernethy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232.

615 936 0720 [office] .

Jeb Touching L. Ron
If you've been to the L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition, you know what an insidious scam Scientology is. I'd even go as far as calling it evil if I didn't find L. Ron and his followers so amusing. I remember watching them mill around the Dianetics center just off Sunset Blvd. with their blue shirts on. I was informed by a follower that those with the lightest shade of blue had reached the highest sector -- and had thus kicked in the most money. In heaping praise on this bogus cult, Jeb Bush shows how cynical he can be:

Florida Governor Jeb Bush raised eyebrows among the critics of the sometimes controversial religion recently when he honored Scientology volunteers who helped victims of hurricanes in his state.

Members of the group — which was put in the spotlight this week by the New York Daily News for its alleged anti-homosexual philosophy — were given a “Points of Light Award” as Hurricane Heroes. Scientology volunteers have been high profile at disaster scenes recently, distributing food and water, as well as delivering controversial “touch assist” healings that supposedly help victims through the laying on of hands.

By the way, here's a definition of "touch assist" from the Dianetics glossary:

Touch Assist: an assist action which reestablishes communication with injured or ill body parts. It brings the person’s attention to the injured or affected body areas. This is done by repetitively touching the ill or injured person’s body and putting him into communication with the injury. His communication with it brings about recovery. The technique is based on the principle that the way to heal anything or remedy anything is to put somebody into communication with it.

The touch assist is a standard remedy prescribed by Scientology fronts like Narconon, which boasts Kirstie Alley as its spokesperson. I don't know if Scientology has a weight loss front, but Alley might consider starting one and enrolling immediately.

Quiz: who called the Pope "naive and detached from reality?" The answer reflects the problems the American right has had in casting him as one of their own.

My piece for the Nation on black conservative front-man, Jesse Lee Peterson, and Project 21, "The Minister of Minstrelsy," can be accessed by non-subscribers now.

Teens Find Loopholes in Bush Policy
I guess I missed this one a few weeks ago, but I thought it was worth drawing attention to:

Although young people who sign a virginity pledge delay the initiation of sexual activity, marry at younger ages and have fewer sexual partners, they are also less likely to use condoms and more likely to experiment with oral and anal sex, said the researchers from Yale and Columbia universities.

So, how does the Bush administration explain the failure of abstinence-only education? By blaming Hollywood, of course. Here's Harry Wilson, the associate commissioner of the Family and Youth Services Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

Nevertheless, he acknowledges that choosing abstinence is a difficult in challenge for youth in contemporary America, remarking that "the air young people breathe" is filled with casual attitudes toward sex.

Wilson feels commerce, media, and the advertising industry are partly to blame for this. "It's older people that have figured that they're trying to sell a product or a service," he contends, "or they're trying to promote a show, and they believe the only way they can really promote that show is by appealing to young people's more 'carnal desires.'

That's the first time I've heard the term, "carnal desires," used outside of a theatrical production about early colonial life in New England. In fact, if there is a difference between the sexual mores of the colonists and those the Bush administration is using tax dollars to promote, it might be that the White House's policy has ruined many more lives than the Salem Witch Trials.

A Neighborhood Watch?
Horowitz on the One Minute Men:

They will not enforce the immigration laws by apprehending illegal border-crossers, their spokespeople say. They intend to serve as eyes and ears for the Border Patrol, a kind of non-confrontational national "Neighborhood Watch."

Maybe Horowitz likes the MM (from a distance, of course) but I don't know if they're the kind of guys I would want watching my neighborhood. From the Arizona Daily Star:

The stories of illegal entrants abused by Cochise County vigilantes are buried in sheriff's deputy reports - complaints of guns drawn, dog bites, shouts and humiliation - in official language, using terms such as aggravated assault and disorderly conduct.

Since 1999, the Mexican consul in Douglas, Miguel Escobar, has documented 65 cases in which illegal border crossers reported being detained by U.S. citizens in Cochise County.

In at least six reports taken by Cochise County Sheriff's Department deputies, illegal entrants have reported being kicked, shouted at, bitten by dogs and had guns pointed at them - yet there's never been a single Cochise County resident prosecuted in these cases.

For the first time, I think I agree with Michelle Maklin.

A Culture of Life
Randall Terry, to abortion doctors, in a speech to the U.S. Taxpayers Alliance, May 9, 2000:

"When I or people like me are running the country, you'd better flee because we will find you, we will try you and we'll execute you. I mean every word of it. I will make it part of my mission to see to it that you are tried and executed."

Why does W.E.B. DuBois have a profile on David Horowitz's "Discover the Network," the site that claims to "have leftists screaming up and down the web?" Is he getting money from Soros, too?

Christian Reconstructionism...in Moscow
This is what's been going on at a curiously tax-exempt "classical Christian school" empire in Moscow, Idaho:

For the past two years, a concerted effort has been made by the community of Moscow, Idaho to confront what many residents perceive as the anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-government, theocratic agenda of preacher, writer, publisher, and theologian Douglas J. Wilson. Among other controversial stances regarding gays and lesbians, women and the right to vote, women in the military, so-called Federal husbandship, and convental Reformed Christianity, Pastor Wilson has unblushingly described the institution of slavery as acceptable to God. Wilson has claimed that slave-holding in the antebellum South (though not the "sinful" slave trade) was a Biblically sound practice, and that the Confederacy was a genuinely and authentically Christian nation, unlike the "Unitarian" North. In his 1996 pamphlet, “Southern Slavery As It Was,” co-authored by Louisiana Pastor Steve Wilkins and published by Wilson’s Canon Press, Wilson/Wilkins write:

“Slavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity. Because of its dominantly patriarchal character, it was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence. There has never been a multi-racial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the history of the world. The credit for this must go to the predominance of Christianity.” (Wilson and Wilkins, “Southern Slavery As It Was,” page 24....)

Over the course of more than twenty years, Doug Wilson has quietly developed a mini-empire in Moscow which includes a that sports close to 1000 members, a K-12 Christian Classical school, a Christian college, a publishing house (the aforementioned Canon Press), and a vigorous national recruiting program designed to draw like-minded people to Moscow to attend and support the various arms of the greater Wilson enterprise....

The Southern Poverty Law Center has done a valuable profile on Wilson's partner in theocracy, the Rev. Steve Wilkins. Here's a sampling of what he believes:

All of history is a struggle between "biblical faith" and "non-biblical faith." White colonists made early America a godly nation, agreeing that "all areas of life must be ruled by His law," that democracy was to be "despised and condemned," and that theocracy was "the only proper role of government."

Wilkins notes in approving tones that the death penalty in early Massachusetts was prescribed for blasphemy, "devilish practice," homosexuality, adultery, and rebellion.

The Salem witch trials really weren't so bad. "Only" 23 people died as a result. Anyhow, "there was a large amount of occultic experimentation at the time." There were also "a number of seemingly inexplicable events" to explain. Yes, there were mistakes, but the Puritan clergy was dead set against these excesses.

The One Minute Men Project is getting more ridiculous by the day -- and it only officially began a few hours ago. MM leader Chris Simcox claims the mayor of Douglas, Arizona, Ray Borane, is covertly spreading white supremacist propaganda around town to embarass him and the rest of his fellow vigilantes. Then the Tucson Citizen asked the National Alliance who the source of the propaganda actually was...

"I feel like the rest of the country thinks we're a bunch of gun-toting rednecks ready to shoot Mexicans," said Dixie Van Asch, who rents rooms at the Tucson Motel. Van Asch questions the economic impact the project will have on the community, which annually draws up to 500,000 tourists. And she worries about the type of people the project has attracted.

Last Sunday morning, she walked out of her house to find a plastic bag weighted down with rocks. Inside, she found an anti-immigrant flier from the National Alliance, considered one of the country's largest white supremacy organizations.

The fliers also showed up in Douglas, Nogales, and Bisbee.

Chris Simcox, the editor of a local newspaper and a project organizer, has refuted any link between the Minutemen and white supremacists or any other racist organizations. Simcox has accused Douglas Mayor Ray Borane, a frequent critic, of distributing the fliers in an attempt to smear the project.

"I wonder what he's smoking," the mayor replied. "He has no idea the kinds of people they're going to be attracting."

National Alliance chairman Erich Gliebe, who refers to the group as "white separatist," confirmed that local members of the group distributed the fliers in an attempt to build on the efforts of the Minuteman Project. Reached by phone in West Virginia, he said he didn't know if they would participate in the project.

"We have found that a lot of people in the area are sympathetic to our message, but won't admit it," Gliebe said.

I don't know what Simcox is smoking, but when I met him in his cluttered office in Tombstone two years ago, he told me he'd been working 18 hour days. Then, two months later, when I saw him speak at a gathering of anti-immigrant fanatics and John Birch society members, he mentioned to the crowd that he hadn't slept in 26 hours. Maybe Simcox just needs a little Ambien.

If it's Murder, Act Like It, Right?
Frank Pavone can scream bloody murder about Schiavo, too:
This is not just a death. This is a killing.

And we have to ask ourselves, has our nation now begun to go down the road of killing those who are disabled, simply because somebody says that they want to be killed?

Terri didn’t die today from anything except the fact that her food and water were withheld for the last two weeks. She had no other underlying illness whatsoever. This is a case of throwing away a disabled person.
The Vatican has been working with Pavone on growing his Priests for Life in the US and abroad for some time. With the Pope in a coma now, (the Vatican denies it; they want to prolong his death until it becomes Weekend at Bernie's Part III), will his successor be as supportive of Pavone and the anti-abortion movement in the US? I would assume so. But it's curious how little discussion has been given to who will succeed John Paul.

The One Minute Men Report For Duty
I hear from people monitoring the border vigilantes of the "Minutemen Project" that only a small percentage of those expected have actually showed up. But that shouldn't stop them from becoming a media spectacle. Nor should it stop professional publicity hound Rep. Tom Tancredo from joining white supremacist groups in supporting these April fools.

Still, for days, an assortment of volunteers, most of them retirees, has been trickling into the headquarters, on Toughnut Street, to get assignments that will begin Saturday and last a month. Reporters from as far away as Europe and Mexico have also descended.

Mr. Simcox said he would refuse to allow extremist groups to join his campaign and promised a peaceful protest that he compared to a neighborhood watch program. But the project has attracted support on Web sites of groups like Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group that says the patrol "is a call for action on the part of all Aryan soldiers."

Many of the volunteers are armed, which Mr. Simcox is not discouraging....

Conservatives, like Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, and Bay Buchanan, the sister of the former presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan, are offering support and will address weekend rallies here, Mr. Simcox said.

Okay, so Tancredo hasn't actually joined with Aryan Nations in any conscious manner. But it's ironic so many of his pet causes are also theirs. Not to be self-aggrandizing, but I did a lengthy piece about two years ago breaking down the financial and political network behind Simcox and some of the other harlequins of hate involved in this border freakshow.