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Tony Perkins: Being Compared To The Klan? That’s Manna From Heaven!

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Editor’s note: This guest post by Scott Wooledge was originally published at Daily Kos and is published here with his permission. Scott Wooledge writes at the Daily Kos under the handle Clarknt67.

So what would you do if a well-respected organization that was instrumental in shutting down the Ku Klux Klan called you on the carpet?

Well, if you’re Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council, you embrace the opportunity as Manna from Heaven! Sunday, I pointed out how ginning up hatred for gay people is a great cash cow for the rabid Fundamentalist crowd. And yesterday, the FRC proves me right by gleefully fundraising off the Southern Poverty Law Center’s naming them a hate group, imploring their followers to give, give, give, give, and of course, give.

The Letter

Tony’s beside himself because people figured out his hate speech sounds a lot like hate speech and categorized him with Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis. But it’s a totally different thing, because Tony is only saying hateful things about gay people, and we all know that’s OK. The letter asks:

How do you feel about you and FRC being lumped in with neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, racist skinheads, and other radical organizations?

In fact, there is good reason to associate Tony Perkins with the Ku Klux Klan, and it’s not just because he talks about gays in the same manner that Klansmen talk about blacks. It’s because the KKK is in fact, apparently a serious part of their target market for outreach. From Southern Poverty Law Center:

Perkins paid $82,500 to use the mailing list of former Klan chieftain David Duke. The campaign was fined $3,000 (reduced from $82,500) after Perkins and Jenkins filed false disclosure forms in a bid to hide the link to Duke.

Wow, so he does outreach activities to Klansmen, and then lies about it to the Federal Election Council resulting in a $3,000 fine. Is lying on FEC filings “bearing false witness?” Just asking.

So, Tony’s full of “outrage” from this “malicious” association with people that are, in fact, his business associates.

Tony’s panties are also in a bunch because he’s being lumped in with “other radical organizations.” But as I recall, the dude has defended the Uganda “Kill The Gays” bill. Federal Election Council filings show Family Research Council spent $25,000 lobbying on the bills behalf. What exactly would be a bridge too far for Tony Perkins if rounding up and executing gays is kosher? That sounds like a radical agenda to me, maybe I’m out of touch with the kids are saying these days?

But what to do about this? He offers,

“We can let the Left intimidate us into silence. Or…”

Or…? You could take it as a sign from God? You could take a thoughtful moment of quiet prayerful reflection? You could search your soul, and consider if your words and actions are, in fact, hurtful to kind, innocent people and not in keeping with God’s plan and Christ’s teachings for man on Earth? You could have an Epiphany?

No, of course not. Tony had a different reaction. And he’s got a plan, a better plan, the perfect remedy for this is, of course… I love this… wait for it….

Now I urge you to show you won’t be intimidated into silence. Please follow this link to take your place alongside these leaders and others in defense of FRC by making a tax-deductible donation to support our work.

Give, Give, Give, Give, Give!

It’s hard to miss the great big button saying “Consider Donating Today To Stand With FRC” But just in case you do, they offer not one, not two but FOUR additional hotlinks to their donation page.

Yes, give. Donate! Tax-deductible yet. Wait a minute? My tax dollars are subsidizing a hate group? I don’t remember signing on to that!

What So What Is The Truth That Must Not Be Silenced?

Perkins is encouraging folks to “sign the Statement of Support to join the many who are protesting this attempt at censorship.” So, what is this truth that the “ultra-liberal” SPLC is trying to “censor?” Here are some of the messages they need help to continue spreading (all from SPLC):

“homosexuals are overrepresented in child sex offenses”

“homosexuals are attracted in inordinate numbers to boys.”

Huh. Even the lesbians?

“One of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of consent laws and to eventually recognize pedophiles as the ‘prophets’ of a new sexual order.”

Now, I’d been told the primary goal was destroying straight peoples’ marriages. I’m very confused right now. Did I miss a memo?

Mark Potok of the FRC very recently appeared on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” to claim:

“If you look at the American College of Pediatricians, they say the research is overwhelming that homosexuality poses a danger to children.”

Of course, the American College of Pediatricians is not the respected, mainstream American Academy of Pediatrics, (which says nothing of the kind) but rather a discredited, Christian Fundamentalist breakaway fringe group with no creditability among doctors and scientists or anyone. But quoting junk science from junk scientists is what they do best, when not quoting the ancient Book of Leviticus.

“[t]here is a strong current of pedophilia in the homosexual subculture. … [T]hey want to promote a promiscuous society.”

And Family Research Council’s Yvette Cantu has shared these serioius concerns about gays parenting:

“If they [gays and lesbians] had children, what would happen when they were too busy having their sex parties?”

Silly, everyone needs a night off from the kids, sex parties are just like Bridge Night to the gay community. No problem, you just call the Nanny Service. We’re all so rich, after all. Help is easy to hire.

So what are FRC’s thoughts on gays’ fight for immigration equality? FRC’s Peter Sprigg told Matthews:

“I would much prefer to export homosexuals from the United States than to import them.”

To Uganda no doubt. How about here in the US? Should gays be jailed or executed? FRC’s Peter Sprigg told Chris Matthews:

“I think there would be a place for criminal sanctions on homosexual behavior.” “So we should outlaw gay behavior?” Matthews asked. “Yes,” Sprigg replied.

I wish Matthews had thought to asked Sprigg to weigh in on whether they should be capital offenses.

Seems Family Research Council longs for the good old days. Like when we jailed great artists like Oscar Wilde or heroes like Alan Turing, who may well have saved the free world in WWII, and was thanked by the oppressive hand of government meddling in his love life, until he finally killed himself.

So Is The Family Research Council Bearing False Witness?

In truth, the American Psychological Association, among others, has concluded that “homosexual men are not more likely to sexually abuse children than heterosexual men are.”

Dr. Gregory M. Herek, Ph.D. from UC Davis University of California fleshes out what is the consensus of psychological and medical community in on the University of California website, he says:

The empirical research does not show that gay or bisexual men are any more likely than heterosexual men to molest children. This is not to argue that homosexual and bisexual men never molest children. But there is no scientific basis for asserting that they are more likely than heterosexual men to do so. And, as explained above, many child molesters cannot be characterized as having an adult sexual orientation at all; they are fixated on children.

So wait, they aren’t child molesters by default?

But Why Would They Want To Repeat Such Awful Lies Over And Over?

Herek says it’s all about demagoguery:

Members of disliked minority groups are often stereotyped as representing a danger to the majority’s most vulnerable members. For example, Jews in the Middle Ages were accused of murdering Christian babies in ritual sacrifices. Black men in the United States were often lynched after being falsely accused of raping White women.

Ah, yes, that would be that whole “blood libel” thing.

So that’s why they’re always imploring us to “think of the children!” And why Maggie Gallagher, National Organization for Marriage and other anti-gay groups are always featuring children in their ads! They call that a dog-whistle, don’t they?

Though, oddly, these paragons of propriety didn’t seem to be very thoughtful of the children when they used the kids’ images without permission in their hateful propaganda prompting outrage from the children’s parents.

So Why Is Family Research Council Always On Respectable News Programs?

That’s a really good question, why is a hate group welcomed onto MSNBC? Why are they allowed to go on the TV and spread this nonsense? They wouldn’t invite a well-known Klansman on to discuss affirmative action or neo-Nazi to discuss immigration reform, would they? So why are Tony Perkins and his friends the go-to for gay issues “balance?” Why are the media complicit in helping him spread lies, hate and misinformation from their junk scientists? Why are they helping him bamboozle the ignorant and hateful out of their money?

How about we tell MSNBC to stop inviting them?

Tell CNN too.

Tell ABC here.

Tell CBS here.

You can tell Fox News too, I hear they’re very responsive!

The dude can fundraise to his little choir all he wants off his hateful rhetoric, but he shouldn’t be allowed to weigh in, as though he’s a sane, rational person on matters that concern my civil rights. These snake-oil salesmen demagogues have no place in polite society or the table of serious discussion.

Updated by Clarknt67 at Tue Feb 22, 2011, 12:54:11 PM

My friend David Badash cross-posted my similar article on Maggie Gallagher to his blog. The Maggster herself deigned to post a comment (he assures me it’s authentic). Fun times! Join it here, if you’re inclined.

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‘Scared to Death’: Trump’s Prison Panic Admission Means He Knows He’s Doomed Says Legal Expert

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Reacting to a report that Donald Trump has been quizzing his attorneys about what type of prison he likely will be sent to, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner stated that is not only an indication that he knows he’s going to be convicted but also an admission of guilt.

Speaking with MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart, the attorney was asked about a recent Rolling Stone report about Trump’s prison panic.

As Rolling Stone reported, Trump asked if he’s “be sent to a ‘club fed’ style prison — a place that’s relatively comfortable, as far these things go — or a ‘bad’ prison? Would he serve out a sentence in a plush home confinement? Would government officials try to strip him of his lifetime Secret Service protections? What would they make him wear, if his enemies actually did ever get him in a cell — an unprecedented set of consequences for a former leader of the free world.”

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

According to the attorney, Trump is revealing himself by asking for so many details.

“What does this tell you about Trump’s mindset?” host Capehart asked.

“It tells me he is scared to death” Kirschner quickly answered. “It tells me he has overwhelming consciousness of guilt because he knows what he did wrong and he knows he is about to be held accountable for his crimes. So it is not surprising that he is obsessing.”

“If he was confident that he would be completely exonerated, would he have to obsess about what his future time in prison might look like?” he suggested. “I think the last refuge for Donald Trump can be seen in a recent post where he urged the Republicans to defund essentially the prosecutions against him. which, to this prosecutor, Jonathan, smells a lot like an attempt to obstruct justice.”

Watch below or at the link.

 

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‘Vulgar and Lewd’: Trump Judge Cites Extremist Group to Allow Drag Show Ban

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A federal judge in Texas known for a ruling that attempted to ban a widely-used abortion drug is citing an extremist anti-LGBTQ group in his ruling allowing a ban on drag shows to stay in place.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a former attorney for an anti-LGBTQ conservative Christian legal organization, and a member of the Federalist Society, in his 26-page ruling dated Thursday cited the “About” page of Gays Against Groomers to claim, “it’s unclear how drag shows unmistakably communicate advocacy for LGBT rights.”

Judge Kacsmaryk, appointed by Donald Trump twice before finally assuming office in 2019, suggests the First Amendment does not provide for freedom of expression for drag shows, calls drag “sexualized conduct,” and says it is “more regulable” because “children are in the audience.”

READ MORE: ‘The Public Deserves to Know’: Abortion Pill Banning Judge Redacted Details About Millions of Dollars in His Stock Portfolio

Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern adds, “Kacsmaryk’s conclusion that drag is probably NOT protected by the First Amendment conflicts with decisions from Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Montana which held that drag is constitutionally protected expression. It also bristles with undisguised hostility toward LGBTQ people.”

Calling the judge “a proud Christian nationalist who flatly refuses to apply binding Supreme Court precedent when it conflicts with his extremist far-right beliefs,” Stern at Slate writes that Kacsmaryk ruled drag “may be outlawed to protect ‘the sexual exploitation and abuse of children.’ In short, he concluded that drag fails to convey a message, while explaining all the reasons why he’s offended by the message it conveys.”

Stern does not let Kacsmaryk off the hook there.

“From almost any other judge, the ruling in Spectrum WT v. Wendler would be a shocking rejection of basic free speech principles; from Kacsmaryk, it’s par for the course. This is, after all, the judge who sought to ban medication abortion nationwide, restricted minors’ access to birth control, seize control over border policy to exclude asylum-seekers, and flouted recent precedent protecting LGBTQ+ equality,” Stern says.

READ MORE: Far-Right Judge Under Fire for Failing to Disclose Interviews on Civil Rights – but LGBTQ Community Had Warned Senators

“He is also poised to bankrupt Planned Parenthood by compelling them to pay a $1.8 billion penalty on truly ludicrous grounds. And he is not the only Trump-appointed judge substituting his reactionary beliefs for legal analysis. We have reached a point where these lawless decisions are not only predictable but inevitable, and they show no sign of stopping: Their authors are still just settling into a decadeslong service in the federal judiciary.”

West Texas A&M University President Walter V. Wendler penned the letter that sparked the lawsuit.

Titled, “A Harmless Drag Show? No Such Thing,” Wendler wrote: “I believe every human being is created in the image of God and, therefore, a person of dignity. Being created in God’s image is the basis of Natural Law. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, prisoners of the culture of their time as are we, declared the Creator’s origin as the foundational fiber in the fabric of our nation as they breathed life into it. Does a drag show preserve a single thread of human dignity? I think not.”

Journalist Chris Geidner concludes, “It’s an extremely biased ruling by a judge who has established that he does not care about being overturned — even by the most conservative appeals court in the nation.”

READ MORE: ‘Corruption of the Highest Order’: Experts ‘Sickened’ at ‘Definitely Bought’ Clarence Thomas and His ‘Pay to Play’ Lifestyle

 

 

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Gaetz Praises GOP Congressman Who Echoes His Call for Change ‘Through Force’

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U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL). largely seen as pushing Speaker Kevin McCarthy‘s Republican-majority House of Representatives toward shutting down the federal government, is praising and promoting remarks made by a freshman GOP lawmaker that appear to suggest the use of violence. U.S. Rep. Eli Crane‘s comments, posted Friday (below), call for change “through force,” remarks echoing Congressman Gaetz’s recent comments which were denounced by an expert on authoritarianism as fascistic.

“The only way we’re going to see meaningful change in this town is through force,” wrote Congressman Crane, Republican of Arizona atop a three-minute video in which he frames what is now an almost guaranteed government shutdown as a “spending fight.” In his video he says, “the only way you’re gonna get any change in this town is through force.” Gaetz in August had said, “we know that only through force do we make any change in a corrupt town like Washington, D.C.”

Congressman Crane is a former Navy SEAL. He has promoted the false “Big Lie” conspiracy theory that there was massive fraud in the election President Joe Biden won, and called “on the state legislature to decertify the 2020 election.” He is one of six House Republicans who voted against McCarthy’s speakership all 15 times in January.

READ MORE: White House Mocks GOP With ‘Worst Person You Know’ Meme After Matt Gaetz Blames McCarthy for Shutdown

“Congressman Eli Crane is a fountainhead of political courage,” said Rep. Gaetz Friday afternoon. “He holds the line.”

Crane recently came under fire for calling Black people “colored,” during debate on his legislation that would force the U.S. Armed Forces to not use any diversity requirements in its hiring practices.

READ MORE: ‘Corruption of the Highest Order’: Experts ‘Sickened’ at ‘Definitely Bought’ Clarence Thomas and His ‘Pay to Play’ Lifestyle

Just days before he won his House seat last year, The Washington Post reported Crane had urged an “audience to look up an antisemitic sermon at a recent campaign stop.”

“Crane said that he was motivated to run because of ‘radical ideologies that are destroying this country’ and that he was most concerned about ‘Cultural Marxism,’ which the Southern Poverty Law Center has described as an antisemitic baseless claim gaining traction on the American right.”

“He encouraged the audience to watch a speech by a right-wing pastor who blamed cultural change on a group of German Jewish philosophers and condemned Barack Obama for having a ‘homosexual agenda.'”

“If we don’t wake up,” Crane said, according to the Post, “if we don’t study what they’re doing, and if we don’t put people in influential positions that understand what this war is all about, what they’re trying to do and have and have the courage to call it out, we’re going to lose this country.”

In August, while standing next to Donald Trump at a campaign rally, Congressman Gaetz said, “Mr. President, I cannot stand these people that are destroying our country. They are opening our borders. They are weaponizing our federal law enforcement against patriotic Americans who love this nation as we should.”

“But we know that only through force do we make any change in a corrupt town like Washington, D.C. And so to all my friends here in Iowa, when you see them come for this man, know that they are coming for our movement and they are coming for all of us.”

At the time, Raw Story reported, “historian and author Ruth Ben-Ghiat called Gaetz comments alarming.”

READ MORE: Pete Buttigieg Just Testified Before Congress. It Did Not Go Well for Republicans.

“What he is saying is that they are not going to have change through elections or through legislation or through reform. They are going to have change through violence,” she warned.

“And that’s how fascists talk,” Ben-Ghiat added. “So, even if Trump is out of the picture, these are people who have adopted methods very familiar to me as a historian of fascism, that violence and corruption and lying that’s what the party is today.”

 

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