Having just featured below, the insane Rick Santorum, it falls upon me, in the name of 'fair and balanced reporting,' to bring you a few seconds of Mitt, I'd sell my granny for a vote, Romney, and Rick, American freedom, Perry.
What you might like to bear in mind, something that both candidates fail to do, is that the subject of this discussion, is not cutting the military spending budget, but slowing down its rate of growth.
It's not as though the US is exactly falling behind the rest of the world in military spending, given that their budget is greater than the rest of the world combined.
I have put the transcript of both Romney and Perry up first, but you really should watch the clip to appreciate the full flavour of these two demented and shabby Pols. It all happens within the first three minutes.
MITT ROMNEY: We’re facing a very dangerous world, and we have a president now who, unbelievably, has decided to shrink the size of the military, who, unbelievably, has said, for the first time since FDR, we’re going to no longer have the capacity to fight two wars at a time. This president must be replaced. (Followed by a shit eating grin from, Two Wars Mitt)
GOV. RICK PERRY: What this president is doing with our military budget is going to put our country’s freedom in jeopardy. You cannot cut $1 trillion from the Department of Defense budget and expect that America’s freedoms are not going to be jeopardized. That, to me, is the biggest problem that America faces, is a president that doesn’t understand the military and a president who is allowing the reduction of the DOD budget so that he can spend money in other places. And it will put America’s freedom in jeopardy. (America's freedom, is there not a hole worn in that drum yet?)Democracy Now
Perry Getting Desperate: Releases Gay-Baiting, War-on-Christmas-Trumpeting Campaign Ad
Things must be looking grim for candidate Rick Perry, if he's assuring voters with a new ad swearing he'll "end Obama's war on religion." What war, you ask? Why the war that's exemplified, in Perry's words, by fact that "gays can serve openly in the military, while our kids can't celebrate Christmas openly."
Really, Rick? Really? This Jewish blogger who has already been listening to Christmas carols for three weeks straight on every radio station and seeing Christmas wreaths go up on every corner in "godless" New York City says: tell that to the millions of kids who are waiting, openly and proudly, to open their presents under the tree on the 25th. I'm sure they'll be surprised to hear of the Obama-led jihad on their joy.
This campaign ad, "Strong" is what I call slamming the door on the way out. alternet
He's either cracking up under the pressure, has an undiagnosed brain tumour, or he has found just the right combination of drugs and booze that would be the envy of any serious party animal. The man is totally off his face; he's happy and he ain't feeling no pain. None whatsoever.
Sit down Ricky, I think you've just pissed on your own bonfire.
Move Over, Wacky Cain Ad: Rick Perry Speech Video Deemed "Weird, Rambling, Incoherent" by Press
On Friday night, Rick Perry gave a "loose," "off-the-cuff" speech in New Hampshire that got pundit's tongues wagging over the weekend. What was he doing, exactly?
Those in attendance said that passion is not a word to describe his performance, off the wall, bizarre and rambling though, were more adequate.
One Republican operative who watched the video called it 'strange and peculiar', and said it could prove fatal to Perry's campaign.
Others questioned whether he was on medication or if he had had a few drinks before he came on stage.
Rachel Maddow tweeted that she thought the video would make her "retract" her predicted Perry comeback, and the folks on Morning Joe digested the video below (second video down), with one guest saying it looked like Perry was doing an impression of Will Ferrell's impression of George W. Bush.
I don't know Ricky, what would God say about all these porkies?
Officials from Texas Spark Revolt After Perry Appointees Doctor Environmental Report
Scientists are asking for their names to be removed after mentions of climate change and sea-level rise were taken out by Texas officials. October 18, 2011
Officials in Rick Perry's home state of Texas have set off a scientists' revolt after purging mentions of climate change and sea-level rise from what was supposed to be a landmark environmental report. The scientists said they were disowning the report on the state of Galveston Bay because of political interference and censorship from Perry appointees at the state's environmental agency.
By academic standards, the protest amounts to the beginnings of a rebellion: every single scientist associated with the 200-page report has demanded their names be struck from the document. "None of us can be party to scientific censorship so we would all have our names removed," said Jim Lester, a co-author of the report and vice-president of the Houston Advanced Research Centre.
"To me it is simply a question of maintaining scientific credibility. This is simply antithetical to what a scientist does," Lester said. "We can't be censored." Scientists see Texas as at high risk because of climate change, from the increased exposure to hurricanes and extreme weather on its long coastline to this summer's season of wildfires and drought.
However, Perry, in his run for the Republican nomination, has elevated denial of science, from climate change to evolution, to an art form. He opposes any regulation of industry, and has repeatedly challenged the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Texas is the only state to refuse to sign on to the federal government's new regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. "I like to tell people we live in a state of denial in the state of Texas," said John Anderson, an oceanography at Rice University, and author of the chapter targeted by the government censors.
That state of denial percolated down to the leadership of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The agency chief, who was appointed by Perry, is known to doubt the science of climate change. "The current chair of the commission, Bryan Shaw, commonly talks about how human-induced climate change is a hoax," said Anderson.
But scientists said they still hoped to avoid a clash by simply avoiding direct reference to human causes of climate change and by sticking to materials from peer-reviewed journals. However, that plan began to unravel when officials from the agency made numerous unauthorised changes to Anderson's chapter, deleting references to climate change, sea-level rise and wetlands destruction.
"It is basically saying that the state of Texas doesn't accept science results published in Science magazine," Anderson said. "That's going pretty far."
Officials even deleted a reference to the sea level at Galveston Bay rising five times faster than the long-term average – 3mm a year compared to .5mm a year – which Anderson noted was a scientific fact. "They just simply went through and summarily struck out any reference to climate change, any reference to sea level rise, any reference to human influence – it was edited or eliminated," said Anderson. "That's not scientific review that's just straight forward censorship."
Mother Jones has tracked the changes. The agency has defended its actions. "It would be irresponsible to take whatever is sent to us and publish it," Andrea Morrow, a spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. "Information was included in a report that we disagree with."
She said Anderson's report had been "inconsistent with current agency policy", and that he had refused to change it. She refused to answer any questions. Campaigners said the censorship by the Texas state authorities was a throwback to the George Bush era when White House officials also interfered with scientific reports on climate change. Go to page two
Did you know, if Texas were a country, it would be the world's seventh largest polluter of the planet. scroll down a bit
“A mind may be a terrible thing to waste, but if you waste 15 million of them, apparently you get Texas.” - Keith Olbermann.
Anita Perry: We know pain of unemployed because our banker son quit his job The fading candidate's wife makes two questionable campaign-trail statements in two days by Alex Pareene 14 Oct 2011
Anita Perry, Rick Perry’s wife, is, it seems, a positive influence on the right-wing Texas governor. Her guidance is seen in his support for HPV vaccines and fundraising for victims of domestic violence. But she’s also, it turns out, awful at speaking off-the-cuff in the middle of a high-stakes presidential campaign.
Being a candidate’s spouse is really a horrible gig. Most candidates’ spouses are non-politicians forced suddenly to act like politicians. Dumb things will be said. But the grandiose victimology on display in Anita Perry’s talk before a South Carolina college yesterday is still pretty egregious. You may have seen it:
“We’ve been brutalized and eaten up and chewed up in the press,” she said.
“It is a comfort to know that I am in this place where I can feel the presence of God. We are being brutalized by our opponents, and our own party,” she said. “So much of that is, I think they look at him because of his faith.”
Rick Perry, running for the Republican nomination for president, is falling in the polls because he loves God too much. Yes, that’s it exactly. And the press won’t stop “brutalizing” her poor husband, solely because he is the world’s best Christian. (She’s also using “brutalize” incorrectly — unless those press attacks have utterly dehumanized poor Rick — but basically everyone does, so we’ll let that go.)
But the “brutalized” routine was not half as silly as what Anita Perry said today at a diner. Apparently, the Perrys know all too well the pain of unemployed Americans, because their own son has lost his job. Not just that, but he was made jobless by the Obama administration’s onerous regulations! The conservative nightmare scenario played out right in their own family!
“My son had to resign his job because of federal regulations that Washington has put on us,” Mrs. Perry said while campaigning for her husband in South Carolina, after a voter shared the story of losing his job.
She is speaking of Griffin Perry. Griffin Perry, who worked at Deutsche Bank until recently, when he had to quit in order to work on his father’s presidential campaign.
“He resigned his job two weeks ago because he can’t go out and campaign with his father because of SEC regulations,” she continued, referring to the Securities and Exchange Commission. “He has a wife… he’s trying to start a business. So I can empathize.”
“My son lost his job because of this administration,” she said a few minutes later.
She can relate to the downtrodden because Barack Obama forced her son the banker to quit his job in order to help his father run for president. Griffin Perry is the 53 percent.
Maybe Perry should take his wife off the campaign trail for a while? I am positive she’d appreciate it. Salon
Try a bit of Mitt & Sons, only in Ameriki folks, only in Ameriki! h/t Maren.
Two Austin filmmakers examine how the Texas governor and bad science abetted the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham. By Tim Murphy
When MSNBC's Brian Williams asked Rick Perry during a recent GOP debate if he ever worried that his state had executed an innocent man on Perry's watch, the three-term Texas governor didn't hesitate: "No sir, I've never struggled with that at all." Maybe he should have: As Steve Mims and Joe Bailey detail in their new documentary, Incendiary, the state's 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for the murder of his two children was based in large part on arson science that had been thoroughly rejected by the scientific community—something that Perry had been informed of before the "ultimate justice" was served.
Inspired by David Grann's masterful 2009 New Yorker story about the case, the Austin filmmakers set out to chronicle the flawed forensics behind the execution. They soon found themselves in the middle of a pitched political battle involving Perry's apparent maneuvering to put a thumb on the scales with the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Mims and Bailey spoke recently with Mother Jones about the Willingham case, arson science, and how they navigated the politics of capital punishment.
Mother Jones: What about Grann's story, and the case specifically, made you think "we need to make a film"?
Joe Bailey: I was so fascinated that the law and science and political forces were all animated in a life-and-death story. We saw that as a rare thing, and we thought that a documentary format allowed us the opportunity to explore the case in our own way and illustrate these things that seemed really fascinating—properties of fire, the human dynamic, and the appeals and petitions for clemency. We didn't expect it to erupt into this sort of political theater that it became: Just when we started making our film is when the shakeup of the Texas Forensic Science Commission happened, and it became sort of a dynamic and hilarious—darkly hilarious—struggle to document.
MJ: The centerpiece of the film, the forensics expert who explains why it wasn't arson, is Gerald Hurst. More, including movie trailer and this interview with Rick Perry talking ''Science'' which has to be the biggest contradiction of terms in the whole wide world. More including a trailer from the documentary and this clip of Perry explaining his killing comfort zone.
America is being, blown away, washed away, and not least in Texas, burnt away. But the jury is still out on climate change science. Whatever you say Rick.
A few vids on tricky Ricky and climate change.
''I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data''
We are seeing weekly, almost daily, scientists coming forward and questioning the original idea that man made global warming is what is causing the climate to change''
''Just because you have a group of scientists who stood up and said, here is the fact; - Galileo got outvoted for a spell''
He doesn't help himself does he? Galileo got outvoted for a spell, yes you fucking moron. Rick Perry, a latter day Roman Inquisition, with all the brains of the first.
Isn't odd that nobody can seem to offer up ''all these scientists'' or in Ricky's case name one? He reminds me of another bunch of batshit crazies that are always quoting ''more and more scientists.'' I was about to (ok I will) link to the crazies of the of the Fred and Wilma, but I can go one better than that. At the bottom of the page there is a video of Arnold Mendez, who I have to tell you, though you might have trouble believing me, is a science instructor at Texas A&M. Funny that Texas should pop its head up again.
Give me that ol' time religion.
“A mind may be a terrible thing to waste, but if you waste 15 million of them, apparently you get Texas.” - Keith Olbermann.
Still with me? Now I wouldn't ask anybody to sit through two hours of Arnold Mendez's Noah’s Ark Seminar, but do try to watch a few minutes of this incredible charlatan sorry, science instructor Texas A&M. Early Man Seminar-Video or Noah’s Ark Seminar-Video
Arnold Mendez has his own tag on this blog, lots of photo's if you can't bear the video. Here is a comment left by a poor soul that had the misfortune to have Mendez as an instructor.
Arnold Mendez is Beyond an Idiot he is dangerous. Let me tell you why. Arnold Mendez taught/teaches almost all the General Chemistry Laboratory Classes at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. On his own initiative, he added an indoctrination on why Radiological Carbon Dating is a farce. He required the students to go to HIS listed fraud sites and write a report (basically supporting his crap). I was forced to do this for a grade in his class along with almost 1,000 students in a single semester. When this situation was revealed to the University, they did absolutely nothing! Any reputable (REAL) University would have fired ANYONE who did this on the spot. I guess TAMUCC is just another Liberty University. DO NOT ATTEND this university if you want a ACTUAL Science Degree. I am still highly offended by this situation.
Here's a Texan that has no allusions about Texas, or people for that matter.
Rick Perry's Execution Obsession Feeds the Worst in Human Nature
Perry may have lost no sleep over Texas's 234 executions during his tenure, but the death penalty panders to crude bloodlust. by Amanda Marcotte September 14, 2011
When Rick Perry threw his hat into the ring for the Republican presidential nomination, it set off such a collective cringe among liberal Texans that it likely scored on the Richter scale. Being a native Texan with basic respect for modern civilisation means living in a constant state of low-grade humiliation, as the state's size provides an uninterrupted stream of news stories highlighting the cranks and Bible-thumpers who win state and local offices – but a presidential campaign means exponentially expanding the amount of national and international attention paid to the streak of mean-spirited ignorance that rules Texas politics. With Rick Perry, this means a whole lot more coverage of the fact that Texas is the "killingest" state in the entire union, having executed more than four times as many prisoners as the next contender in this gruesome contest.
Of course, we of the non-barbaric sort do hope that all this attention paid to Rick Perry's willingness to execute anyone on death row – no matter how obviously screwed over by an imperfect and often unjust judicial system – could somehow provoke enough national shame that we actually do away with the death penalty. Which we really need to do, not because we have any great love for vicious murderers, but because the death penalty is a known destroyer of a fair and sober-minded justice system.
Once you have the right to kill people, the voters start expecting semi-regular bloodshed as proof that you're doing your job, creating incentives for prosecutors and politicians to cut corners to get those voter-pleasing cadaver numbers up. Each new generation of prosecutors and politicians feels pressure to "best" their predecessor in the number of executions carried out, lest they face accusations of being soft on crime. Which explains why they soon find themselves where Rick Perry stands, having executed 234 people, many of whom had highly corrupt trials and at least one of whom is most likely innocent.
For those who haven't read the tale of Cameron Todd Willingham, I implore you to read the New Yorker article recounting the case of a man executed for killing his three children based on shoddy evidence and prosecutorial willingness to introduce Willingham's love of Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin as evidence in order to stoke the prejudices of a Bible Belt jury that was high on fundamentalist tall tales about the Satanic influence of rock music. When presented with an opportunity to spare Willingham's life, Perry declined, and in 2004, Willingham was executed by lethal injection. His case has come to symbolise the circus atmosphere around capital murder cases, and the way that the eagerness to see someone pay the ultimate price for the loss of innocent human life causes law enforcement and politicians to make a mockery out of the idea of justice.
Since Rick Perry, by his own admission, has never lost sleep over the execution of a likely innocent man, you can bet justice doesn't stand a chance when it comes to cases where the fact of homicide is indisputable. The public's desire to get blood for blood – especially if they can view the accused as an outsider – turns concerns about due process to dust for anyone whose job depends on a high conviction rate. Subsequently, death penalty cases where the prosecution won a clean conviction without relying on shoddy evidence or a jury's unfair prejudices are the rare gems in a sea of corruption. The case of Duane Buck, scheduled to be executed this week, demonstrates how the death penalty is more about hustling prisoners to the execution chamber to score points with the public than it is securing just and safe outcomes. Go to page two
Rick Perry’s Execution Record Includes The Deaths Of Juveniles And The Mentally Disabled By Travis Waldron
Sep 2, 2011
The amount of executions held in Texas during Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) 11 years in office has come under scrutiny in the early stages of his presidential campaign, most notably for the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was convicted of murdering his three daughters and put to death despite evidence showing that he was likely innocent of the crimes. But even as the Willingham case receives the most notice, many of Perry’s decisions regarding execution have begun to garner attention.
Texas has held 234 executions on Perry’s watch, more than the next two states combined have executed since the death penalty was restored 35 years ago. While Perry can only grant clemency from death sentences if it is recommended by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, he has rarely used that power. According to the Texas Tribune, Perry has commuted only 31 death sentences, and 28 of those resulted from a 2005 Supreme Court case outlawing the execution of juveniles. Meanwhile, he has allowed a host of controversial executions to go forward, the Tribune reported today:
JUVENILES: According to the Tribune, three people who were juveniles at the time of their crime were executed between 2000, when Perry took office, and 2005, when the Supreme Court banned the execution of juveniles. Before Napoleon Beazley, who committed a murder at 17, was executed, 18 state legislators wrote Perry asking him to grant clemency, and the trial judge who eventually had to sign his execution order asked Perry to commute the sentence to life in prison. Perry’s response: “To delay his punishment is to delay justice.”
MENTALLY DISABLED: Ten executions during Perry’s tenure have involved serious questions about the prisoner’s mental health and stability. One was Kelsey Patterson, who was judged as mentally fit by a doctor known as “Dr. Death” because he rarely found patients mentally unfit for trial. During his trial, Patterson testified about having devices planted in his head by the military, and once in prison, he sent incoherent letters to courts. The Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended to Perry that he grant clemency, but Perry rejected the recommendation. Another was James Clark, whose final statement was, “Howdy.” Two Texas prisoners with mental health concerns have been executedin 2011.
INADEQUATE COUNSEL: Five men executed since 2000 have had major questions about the adequacy of their legal counsel, including Leonard Uresti Rojas. The appellate attorney appointed to Rojas was on probation with the state bar, suffered from mental illness and missed multiple deadlines to file appeals on Rojas’ behalf. New attorneys took Rojas’ case before the Court of Appeals asked Perry to stay the execution but were denied. After the execution, an appeals court judge wrote a dissenting opinion against the court, saying Rojas’ attorney had “neglected his duties.”
In addition, Perry has overseen the executions of seven foreign nationals and two men who were accomplices but did not actually commit murder.
Perry’s statewide opponents have had little success in using Perry’s execution record against him. In her unsuccessful attempt to defeat Perry in the 2010 gubernatorial primary, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) brought together a focus group to find out if Perry’s death penalty record was a point of vulnerability, only to have one respondent tell her campaign, “It takes balls to execute an innocent man.”
But Perry’s criminal justice record is now making its first major news during his presidential campaign. A Texas inmate named Duane Edward Buck, who is set to be executed Sept. 15, has petitioned Perry for clemency from his death sentence. Though Buck’s guilt is not in question, the way the prosecution secured his death sentence is. To prove Buck’s “future dangerousness” and secure the death sentence, prosecutors used the testimony of a psychologist who claimed that Buck was more dangerous simply because he was black.
The case, tried in 1995, was protested by Sen. John Cornyn (R), who was serving as the state’s attorney general at the time. Perry has not yet commented or made a decision regarding Buck’s clemency request. But with his criminal justice record playing a larger role in the narrative around his presidential campaign, and with voters and politicians becoming more conscious of both the social justice and budgetary costs of the increasingly expensive death penalty, it will be interesting to see if the case of Duane Buck becomes one where Perry stands up for justice, or if it will be another blotch on an already spotty record.
Rick Perry's Prayer Rally Leader Wants to Recriminalize Homosexuality
There was no question that Rick Perry's prayer rally was bringing in the most radically right Christians—the American Family Association, which hosted it, is a super-fringe evangelical group that wants to impose its views upon the government. So, were he elected President, would Rick Perry make homosexuality illegal? Because that's what AFA spokesman Bryan Fischer would do. In a speech today, he spoke about how states "still ought to be able" to criminalize "sodomy," though those laws were declared unconstitutional in 2003. Wow. Watch via ThinkProgress:
I started to put a small collection of Perry campaign ads together, but then I came across a compilation.(middle vid) But for reasons that become apparent, I still include two of my original choices.
I shall have to update a few posts, but I have decided to give Perry his own tag. I should do the same for Bachmann as well, I think I shall be needing them before this circus for Jesus comes to an end
Q. Texas governor and GOP candidate Rick Perry, at a campaign event this week, told a boy that evolution is ”just a theory” with “gaps” and that in Texas they teach “both creationism and evolution.” Perry later added “God is how we got here.” According to a 2009 Gallup study, only 38 percent of Americans say they believe in evolution. If a majority of Americans are skeptical or unsure about evolution, should schools teach it as a mere “theory”? Why is evolution so threatening to religion?
A. There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be found in every country and every period of history, and they are not unknown in high office. What is unusual about today’s Republican party (I disavow the ridiculous ‘GOP’ nickname, because the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt has lately forfeited all claim to be considered ‘grand’) is this: In any other party and in any other country, an individual may occasionally rise to the top in spite of being an uneducated ignoramus. In today’s Republican Party ‘in spite of’ is not the phrase we need. Ignorance and lack of education are positive qualifications, bordering on obligatory. Intellect, knowledge and linguistic mastery are mistrusted by Republican voters, who, when choosing a president, would apparently prefer someone like themselves over someone actually qualified for the job.
Any other organization -- a big corporation, say, or a university, or a learned society - -when seeking a new leader, will go to immense trouble over the choice. The CVs of candidates and their portfolios of relevant experience are meticulously scrutinized, their publications are read by a learned committee, references are taken up and scrupulously discussed, the candidates are subjected to rigorous interviews and vetting procedures. Mistakes are still made, but not through lack of serious effort.
The population of the United States is more than 300 million and it includes some of the best and brightest that the human species has to offer, probably more so than any other country in the world. There is surely something wrong with a system for choosing a leader when, given a pool of such talent and a process that occupies more than a year and consumes billions of dollars, what rises to the top of the heap is George W Bush. Or when the likes of Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin can be mentioned as even remote possibilities.
A politician’s attitude to evolution is perhaps not directly important in itself. It can have unfortunate consequences on education and science policy but, compared to Perry’s and the Tea Party’s pronouncements on other topics such as economics, taxation, history and sexual politics, their ignorance of evolutionary science might be overlooked. Except that a politician’s attitude to evolution, however peripheral it might seem, is a surprisingly apposite litmus test of more general inadequacy. This is because unlike, say, string theory where scientific opinion is genuinely divided, there is about the fact of evolution no doubt at all. Evolution is a fact, as securely established as any in science, and he who denies it betrays woeful ignorance and lack of education, which likely extends to other fields as well. Evolution is not some recondite backwater of science, ignorance of which would be pardonable. It is the stunningly simple but elegant explanation of our very existence and the existence of every living creature on the planet. Thanks to Darwin, we now understand why we are here and why we are the way we are. You cannot be ignorant of evolution and be a cultivated and adequate citizen of today.
Darwin’s idea is arguably the most powerful ever to occur to a human mind. The power of a scientific theory may be measured as a ratio: the number of facts that it explains divided by the number of assumptions it needs to postulate in order to do the explaining. A theory that assumes most of what it is trying to explain is a bad theory. That is why the creationist or ‘intelligent design’ theory is such a rotten theory.
What any theory of life needs to explain is functional complexity. Complexity can be measured as statistical improbability, and living things are statistically improbable in a very particular direction: the direction of functional efficiency. The body of a bird is not just a prodigiously complicated machine, with its trillions of cells - each one in itself a marvel of miniaturized complexity - all conspiring together to make muscle or bone, kidney or brain. Its interlocking parts also conspire to make it good for something - in the case of most birds, good for flying. An aero-engineer is struck dumb with admiration for the bird as flying machine: its feathered flight-surfaces and ailerons sensitively adjusted in real time by the on-board computer which is the brain; the breast muscles, which are the engines, the ligaments, tendons and lightweight bony struts all exactly suited to the task. And the whole machine is immensely improbable in the sense that, if you randomly shook up the parts over and over again, never in a million years would they fall into the right shape to fly like a swallow, soar like a vulture, or ride the oceanic up-draughts like a wandering albatross. Any theory of life has to explain how the laws of physics can give rise to a complex flying machine like a bird or a bat or a pterosaur, a complex swimming machine like a tarpon or a dolphin, a complex burrowing machine like a mole, a complex climbing machine like a monkey, or a complex thinking machine like a person.
Darwin explained all of this with one brilliantly simple idea - natural selection, driving gradual evolution over immensities of geological time. His is a good theory because of the huge ratio of what it explains (all the complexity of life) divided by what it needs to assume (simply the nonrandom survival of hereditary information through many generations). The rival theory to explain the functional complexity of life - creationism - is about as bad a theory as has ever been proposed. What it postulates (an intelligent designer) is even more complex, even more statistically improbable than what it explains. In fact it is such a bad theory it doesn’t deserve to be called a theory at all, and it certainly doesn’t deserve to be taught alongside evolution in science classes.
The simplicity of Darwin’s idea, then, is a virtue for three reasons. First, and most important, it is the signature of its immense power as a theory, when compared with the mass of disparate facts that it explains - everything about life including our own existence. Second, it makes it easy for children to understand (in addition to the obvious virtue of being true!), which means that it could be taught in the early years of school. And finally, it makes it extremely beautiful, one of the most beautiful ideas anyone ever had as well as arguably the most powerful. To die in ignorance of its elegance, and power to explain our own existence, is a tragic loss, comparable to dying without ever having experienced great music, great literature, or a beautiful sunset.
There are many reasons to vote against Rick Perry. His fatuous stance on the teaching of evolution in schools is perhaps not the first reason that springs to mind. But maybe it is the most telling litmus test of the other reasons, and it seems to apply not just to him but, lamentably, to all the likely contenders for the Republican nomination. The ‘evolution question’ deserves a prominent place in the list of questions put to candidates in interviews and public debates during the course of the coming election.
Meet Forrest Wilder, the man who has done his homework on these disciples and prophets batshit crazies.
Wilder's previous comprehensive article here, which, like the video, is certainly worth your attention, because as I say, Wilder has certainly done his homework and has marked a card or two.
I don't know which of the two would be the scarier to lead any country, let alone one with a nuclear capability, Rick, end times Perry, or this skriking harridan.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is expected to announce his entry into the 2012 presidential race. Perry will make the announcement Saturday at a conference in South Carolina organized by Erick Erickson’s RedState.com. Early backers of Perry’s presidential run have heralded him as being behind the so-called Texas economic miracle. However, many have questioned Perry’s economic claims in Texas. Questions have also arisen over Perry’s close ties to the radical wing of the Christian evangelical movement. Last Saturday, Perry helped organize and spoke at a controversial seven-hour Christian prayer rally in Houston titled "The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis." While the prayer session drew 30,000 participants and received national press, little attention was paid to the Christian evangelicals Perry worked with to organize the event. The Texas Observer has just published an explosive article titled "Rick Perry’s Army of God." It exposes how a group of radical Christians and self-proclaimed prophetshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif from a little-known movement known as New Apostolic Reformation have been quietly pushing for Perry’s presidential bid. We speak with the Texas Observer’s Forrest Wilder.Democracy Now
Further analysis of Forrest Wilder's article at AlterNet
Give this fellow a try, he has done a little analysis of his own.
To quote the article: it's the most significant change in how Christianity is practiced since the Protestant Reformation. And I chose this line for good reason, because if we take the whole of the article on face value, then that is just what is going on in America, a Reformation.
And it is being carried out with all the fervour, all the bigotry and all the intolerance that echoes the dark days of yore, resulting in a contemporary movement that is every bit as scary as the original.
What we must remember about the Protestant Reformation, is that it was no different a period to any that had past before it. Behind this ''reform'' were still present the same driving forces of superstition and ignorance that ever there was. Never forgetting, that it was in this climate of reform, that a wrong word could see a fellow invited to partake of stake and faggots.
But it is when you read the details in this report, and a similar report in the post below, exposing the number of far right Christian organisations that are involved, the degree to which they are organised, and not least that these fellows not only know what God wants for America, but speak for him as well. In Amerecanese of course.
The details reveal much more, not least that these highly motivated political/religious whackjobs won't be satisfied until they reduce America to a Bible based theocracy, and not a New Testament one at that. I have never read so much Old Testament chapter and verse gibber in all my life, these fellows are quite simply, stark staring mad, their handbook for the future was written in the Stone Age. Afraid? if you're not, you should be.
The Biggest Religious Movement You Never Heard of: Nine Things You Need to Know About Rick Perry's Prayer Event
Perry's endorsers are not just a random group of radical evangelists but part of a large and little-understood international religious movement. By Paul Rosenberg
August 6, 2011 |
When Texas Gov. Rick Perry decided to stage a Texas-size prayer event — dubbed “The Response” — on Aug. 6, it no doubt seemed like the right thing to do at the time. It received little critical scrutiny when he announced it back in early June, except on websites that track these sorts of things. But after Rachel Maddow, drawing on these sites, did a segment highlighting some of the more bizarre statements made by Perry's high-profile religious endorsers, things cooled considerably — even though the real story is still not remotely well-understood.
“Perry’s endorsers are not just a random group of radical evangelists making outrageous statements,” researcher Rachel Tabachnick subsequently wrote at Alternet.org. “These are the apostles and prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), the biggest international religious movement you never heard of.” Almost simultaneously, investigative reporter Forrest Wilder of the Texas Observer published an extensive article on Perry's prayer event and his endorsers, “Rick Perry's Army of God.”
The NAR's intellectual godfather, C. Peter Wagner, one of Perry's early endorsers, brags that it's the most significant change in how Christianity is practiced since the Protestant Reformation. Like him or not, in a sense he's right: With tens, even hundreds of millions of followers worldwide, the NAR's stress on Godlike prophetic and apostolic powers, its revisions of end-time prophecies, its methodology of “spiritual warfare,” and its agenda of theocratic dominion over all aspects of society are not just threatening to modern secular democracy and the religious pluralism it protects, they have been sharply criticized by other conservative Christians as unbiblical, deviant teachings, even a form of the very demonic practices they obsessively declare war against. Indeed, the Assemblies of God — the largest Pentecostal denomination in America — condemned some of the NAR's teachings and practices as “deviant” in 2000, though Tabachnick told me that many within the denomination have since embraced the movement.
Wilder told me they were going to “tone it down a little bit to make it less overt in terms of the particular set of beliefs and practices that most of the people behind the event hold.” So, probably no talk about taking over government, sex with demons or Oprah Winfrey as a harbinger of the Antichrist — the sort of more alarming tidbits Maddow highlighted.
But if America's mainstream media reporters think this turns Perry's prayer meeting into a nonevent, they couldn't be more mistaken. There might not be any “gotcha!” moments to be had — although anything is possible — but with 15 long months of campaigning ahead and multiple other candidates courting the same, poorly understood religious constituency, there is a wealth of potential insights to be gathered that could prove invaluable down the road. What's more, the failure to explore and understand the multiple intersections of religion and politics has repeatedly exacted a terrible toll over the past 30 years of media consolidation, which has seen more and more talking heads, as frontline reporting has withered on the vine. Failure to understand the politico-religious dynamics of far-off Afghanistan in the 1980s resulted in all sorts of mayhem there — and eventually in the 9/11 attacks.
So what are some of the stories the media ought to be looking at, coming out of The Response, regardless of whether there are any instant YouTube classics or not? Without trying to dictate what others should write, one can glean some helpful tips from those who've ventured in early. Here are nine underreported stories worth considering:
1.“The Response” Is Not a Broadly Representative Christian Event.
There's a heavy concentration of NAR figures among the endorsers, with several other of the most prominent figures joining Wagner, including Mike Bickle, founder of the Kansas City–based International House of Prayer (IHOP), Dr. John Benefiel, head of the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network of Oklahoma City, and Cindy Jacobs of Generals International. Tabachnick ticked off a list of NAR endorsers, starting with five from IHOP: Luis and Jill Cataldo, IHOP staff members in Kansas City; Randy and Kelsey Bohlender of IHOP and The Call; Apostle Doug Stringer; and Dave Silker of IHOP.
“This is not a random cross-section of conservative Christians,” Wilder told me. “There is such an emphasis and disproportionate number of people that are very closely tied together, affiliated with this strain of neo-pentecostalism or charismatic movement, that it cannot be an accident.”
They aren't the only ones involved, of course. The Texas GOP has been avidly recruiting conservative Christians of all stripes for deep political involvement since the mid-1990s. Former state party vice-chair David Barton, a self-taught revisionist historian, has played a key role in this process. (He, too, is an endorser.) However, with the NAR's keen interest in establishing Christian dominion over politics as part of their “Seven Mountains” strategy (more on this below), it's no coincidence that they are significantly overrepresented.
2. Perry Is Not the Only Potential GOP Nominee Specifically Courting the NAR.
According to Tabachnick, writing about Perry's announcement in June, GOP candidates competing for NAR support “include Sarah Palin, who has an over 20-year relationship with Alaskan Apostle Mary Glazier; Newt Gingrich, who was anointed by Lou Engle on an internationally televised broadcast in 2009; Michelle Bachman; Rick Santorum; and now, apparently, Rick Perry.”
“It's not just the NAR infiltrating government,” Wilder told me. “I think — my observation — they are sought out, often by the politicians themselves.”
“Politicians of any type, want to go where the energy is, they want to go where the votes are.” Wilder continued. “They want to go where there are people who put together a network. These folks put together a tremendous network. For example, you look at the Heartland Apostolic Network — they have a presence in 50 states.”
In addition to cultivating NAR leadership, candidates can publicly identify themselves with the NAR without anyone else being the wiser. Like many other movements, the NAR has its own lingo, which allows politicians to speak directly to NAR members in coded language, directly soliciting their support, telling them "I'm one of you" without anyone else realizing what's being said. This happened repeatedly in 2008, when Palin openly talked about “prayer warriors.”
Another NAR phrase Tabachnick wrote about in September 2010 is “the head and not the tail,” although she points out that others use the phrase quite differently. For the NAR, however, Tabachnick identified the phrase as the “battle cry for the Seven Mountains Campaign.” That's how the NAR conceives of its dominionist agenda: taking control of the “Seven Mountains,” or culture-shaping spheres that dominate human society: business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, family, and religion.
By becoming “the head and not the tail” of these seven spheres, the NAR aims to establish complete dominance of human society around the world. Speaking like this sends a powerful message about much more than just opposing abortion or gay marriage, yet the words can pass by unnoticed by reporters unfamiliar with the NAR.
3. Perry Is Not the Only State-Level Figure Connected to the NAR.
A key aspect of the NAR is its emphasis on “spiritual warfare,” which grew out of Wagner's decades of earlier work on church growth. Over time, Wagner came to believe that church growth was limited in some places because of demonic power. At first, attention was focused on the process of “spiritual mapping,” a geographical approach to demon-fighting. More recently, this has been presented in terms of “Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare,” described as part of a three-tiered approach, as Talk2action.org explains in its glossary of NAR terms:
Ground-level spiritual warfare is casting out demons from individuals. Occult-level spiritual warfare is confrontations with demons operating through witchcraft and esoteric philosophies (examples are Freemasonry and Tibetan Buddhism). Strategic-level spiritual warfare is the highest level, dealing with confrontation of territorial principalities that control entire communities, ethnic groups, religions and nations.
Given this deep-seated orientation, it's not surprising that geographical organization has been key to the NAR. Establishing geographic dominion over cities and states makes perfect sense on the way to controlling whole nations and eventually the world. And so it's not surprising to note several examples where NAR-related individuals have gained state-level power.
Most famously, of course, Sarah Palin, was governor of Alaska. While her deep involvement with the NAR was glossed over at the time, it's now clear that she first joined a statewide “prayer warrior” network under Apostle Mary Glazier when she was 24 years old. When she first ran for Wasilla City Council in the 1990s on an explicitly religious platform, it was unprecedented for the town but perfectly normal by NAR standards. Banning books from the public library when she became mayor was similarly unsurprising once you understand the dominionist ideology she embraced.
Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas doesn't have anything close to Palin's longtime involvement as a prayer-warrior footsoldier, but he has played a highly visible role as a general while serving in the Senate before becoming governor. While in the Senate, Brownback spent years supporting the NAR's “reconciliation” strategy with Native Americans, both sponsoring legislation and appearing at NAR events. Brownback is the only sitting governor to accept Perry's invitation to attend The Response.
In Hawaii in 2010, before now-governor Ambecrombie joined the race, both the leading Republican and Democratic candidates for governor were deeply involved with NAR. They had almost achieved their goal of making the election irrelevant for their purposes. In April 2010, Tabachnick's colleague at Talk2action, Bruce Wilson, wrote a blog post, Christian Right Claims Both 2010 Hawaii Gubernatorial Candidates. It began with a quote from Ed Silvoso, a global NAR leader who is intimately involved with promoting the Ugandan "Kill the gays" law. The quote reads, "It doesn't matter if the Republican or the Democratic candidate wins the governorship [of Hawaii]. Either one is already in the kingdom".
The Democrat, Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, is a Mormon, despite the fact that the NAR regards the Mormon church as being under demonic control — the same as the Catholic Church. NAR groups even go so far as to burn the Book of Mormon. They're a pretty tolerant lot — at least the Mormons among them like Hannemann are. The Republican. Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, is positively Palin-like in his NAR enthusiasms. Fortunately, longtime Democratic Congressman Neil Abercrombie entered the race and won. But there's no doubt the NAR will try again in Hawaii. Go to page 4 of 7
This is a quite similar article to the one that can be found in the post above, consequently I am using the same few words of introduction. It is this report however, that features the majority of Old Testament nonsense.
- - -
To quote the article: it's the most significant change in how Christianity is practiced since the Protestant Reformation. And I chose this line for good reason, because if we take the whole of the article on face value, then that is just what is going on in America, a Reformation.
And it is being carried out with all the fervour, all the bigotry and all the intolerance that echoes the dark days of yore, resulting in a contemporary movement that is every bit as scary as the original.
What we must remember about the Protestant Reformation, is that it was no different a period to any that had past before it. Behind this ''reform'' were still present the same driving forces of superstition and ignorance that ever there was. Never forgetting, that it was in this climate of reform, that a wrong word could see a fellow invited to partake of stake and faggots.
But it is when you read the details in this report, and a similar report in the post below, exposing the number of far right Christian organisations that are involved, the degree to which they are organised, and not least that these fellows not only know what God wants for America, but speak for him as well. In Amerecanese of course.
The details reveal much more, not least that these highly motivated political/religious whackjobs won't be satisfied until they reduce America to a Bible based theocracy, and not a New Testament one at that. I have never read so much Old Testament chapter and verse gibber in all my life, these fellows are quite simply, stark staring mad, their handbook for the future was written in the Stone Age. Afraid? if you're not, you should be.
Rick Perry's Army of God
A little-known movement of radical Christians and self-proclaimed prophets wants to infiltrate government, and Rick Perry might be their man. by Forrest Wilder
August 03, 2011
On September 28, 2009, at 1:40 p.m., God’s messengers visited Rick Perry.
On this day, the Lord’s messengers arrived in the form of two Texas pastors, Tom Schlueter of Arlington and Bob Long of San Marcos, who called on Perry in the governor’s office inside the state Capitol. Schlueter and Long both oversee small congregations, but they are more than just pastors. They consider themselves modern-day apostles and prophets, blessed with the same gifts as Old Testament prophets or New Testament apostles.
The pastors told Perry of God’s grand plan for Texas. A chain of powerful prophecies had proclaimed that Texas was “The Prophet State,” anointed by God to lead the United States into revival and Godly government. And the governor would have a special role.
The day before the meeting, Schlueter had received a prophetic message from Chuck Pierce, an influential prophet from Denton, Texas. God had apparently commanded Schlueter—through Pierce—to “pray by lifting the hand of the one I show you that is in the place of civil rule.”
Gov. Perry, it seemed.
Schlueter had prayed before his congregation: “Lord Jesus I bring to you today Gov. Perry. ... I am just bringing you his hand and I pray Lord that he will grasp ahold of it. For if he does you will use him mightily.”
And grasp ahold the governor did. At the end of their meeting, Perry asked the two pastors to pray over him. As the pastors would later recount, the Lord spoke prophetically as Schlueter laid his hands on Perry, their heads bowed before a painting of the Battle of the Alamo. Schlueter “declared over [Perry] that there was a leadership role beyond Texas and that Texas had a role beyond what people understand,” Long later told his congregation.
So you have to wonder: Is Rick Perry God’s man for president?
Schlueter, Long and other prayer warriors in a little-known but increasingly influential movement at the periphery of American Christianity seem to think so. The movement is called the New Apostolic Reformation. Believers fashion themselves modern-day prophets and apostles. They have taken Pentecostalism, with its emphasis on ecstatic worship and the supernatural, and given it an adrenaline shot.
The movement’s top prophets and apostles believe they have a direct line to God. Through them, they say, He communicates specific instructions and warnings. When mankind fails to heed the prophecies, the results can be catastrophic: earthquakes in Japan, terrorist attacks in New York, and economic collapse. On the other hand, they believe their God-given decrees have ended mad cow disease in Germany and produced rain in drought-stricken Texas.
Their beliefs can tend toward the bizarre. Some consider Freemasonry a “demonic stronghold” tantamount to witchcraft. The Democratic Party, one prominent member believes, is controlled by Jezebel and three lesser demons. Some prophets even claim to have seen demons at public meetings. They’ve taken biblical literalism to an extreme. In Texas, they engage in elaborate ceremonies involving branding irons, plumb lines and stakes inscribed with biblical passages driven into the earth of every Texas county.
If they simply professed unusual beliefs, movement leaders wouldn’t be remarkable. But what makes the New Apostolic Reformation movement so potent is its growing fascination with infiltrating politics and government. The new prophets and apostles believe Christians—certain Christians—are destined to not just take “dominion” over government, but stealthily climb to the commanding heights of what they term the “Seven Mountains” of society, including the media and the arts and entertainment world. They believe they’re intended to lord over it all. As a first step, they’re leading an “army of God” to commandeer civilian government.
In Rick Perry, they may have found their vessel. And the interest appears to be mutual.
In all the media attention surrounding Perry’s flirtation with a run for the presidency, the governor’s budding relationship with the leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation movement has largely escaped notice. But perhaps not for long. Perry has given self-proclaimed prophets and apostles leading roles in The Response, a much-publicized Christians-only prayer rally that Perry is organizing at Houston’s Reliant Stadium on Aug. 6.
The Response has engendered widespread criticism of its deliberate blurring of church and state and for the involvement of the American Family Association, labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its leadership’s homophobic and anti-Muslim statements. But it’s the involvement of New Apostolic leaders that’s more telling about Perry’s convictions and campaign strategy.
Eight members of The Response “leadership team” are affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation movement. They’re employed or associated with groups like TheCall or the International House of Prayer (IHOP), Kansas City-based organizations at the forefront of the movement. The long list of The Response’s official endorsers—posted on the event’s website—reads like a Who’s Who of the apostolic-prophetic crowd, including movement founder C. Peter Wagner.
In a recent interview with the Observer, Schlueter explained that The Response is divinely inspired. “The government of our nation was basically founded on biblical principles,” he says. “When you have a governmental leader call a time of fasting and prayer, I believe that there has been a significant shift in our understanding as far as who is ultimately in charge of our nation—which we believe God is.”
Perry certainly knows how to speak the language of the new apostles. The genesis of The Response, Perry says, comes from the Book of Joel, an obscure slice of the Old Testament that’s popular with the apostolic crowd.
“With the economy in trouble, communities in crisis and people adrift in a sea of moral relativism, we need God's help,” Perry says in a video message on The Response website. “That's why I'm calling on Americans to pray and fast like Jesus did and as God called the Israelites to do in the Book of Joel.”
The reference to Joel likely wasn’t lost on Perry’s target audience. Prominent movement leaders strike the same note. Lou Engle, who runs TheCall, told a Dallas-area Assemblies of God congregation in April that “His answer in times of crisis is Joel 2.”
Mike Bickle, a jock-turned-pastor who runs the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, a sort of command headquarters and university for young End Times enthusiasts, taught a 12-part series on Joel last year.
The Book of Joel describes a crippling drought and economic crisis—sound familiar?—in the land of Judah. The calamities, in Joel’s time and ours, are “sent by God to cause a wicked, oppressive, and rebellious nation to repent,” Bickle told his students.
To secure God's blessing, Joel commands the people to gather in “sacred assembly” to pray, fast, and repent.
More ominously, Bickle teaches that Joel is an “instruction manual” for the imminent End Times. It is “essential to help equip people to be prepared for the unique dynamics occurring in the years leading up to Jesus’ return,” he has said.
The views espoused by Bickle, Engle and other movement leaders occupy the radical fringe of Christian fundamentalism. Their beliefs may seem bizarre even to many conservative evangelicals. Yet Perry has a knack for finding the forefront of conservative grassroots. Prayer warriors, apostles and prophets are filled with righteous energy and an increasing appetite for power in the secular political world. Their zeal and affiliation with charismatic independent churches, the fastest-growing subset of American Christianity, offers obvious benefits for Perry if he runs for president.
There are enormous political risks, too. Mainstream voters may be put off by the movement’s extreme views or discomfited by talk of self-proclaimed prophets “infiltrating” government.
Catherine Frazier, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, wouldn’t respond to specific questions but wrote in an email, “The Response event is about coming together in prayer to seek wisdom and guidance from God to the challenges that confront our nation. That is where the governor's focus is, and he welcomes those that wish to join him in this common cause.”
For the moment, Perry’s relationship with the New Apostles is little known. Few in Texas GOP circles say they’ve ever heard of them. “I wish I could help you,” said Steve Munisteri, the state Republican Party chair. “I’ve never even heard of that movement.”
“For the most part I don't know them,” said Cathie Adams, former head of the Texas Eagle Forum and a veteran conservative activist.
Nonetheless, Perry may be counting on apostles and prophets to help propel him to the White House. And they hope Perry will lead them out of the wilderness into the promised land.
Listen closely to Perry’s recent public statements and you’ll occasionally hear him uttering New Apostle code words. In June, Perry defended himself against Texas critics on Fox News, telling host Neil Cavuto that “a prophet is generally not loved in their hometown.”
It seemed an odd comment. It’s the rare politician who compares himself to a prophet, and many viewers likely passed it off as a flub. But to the members of a radical new Christian movement, the remark made perfect sense. lots more
What's that you say, tell you something that you don't know? But stroll on kiddywinks, these religious whackjobs really do take the biscuit.
I have featured previously, the clip of Rick Perry's mind-boggling call to prayer to save America, but now, courtesy of Right Wing Watch, we have the same clip interspaced with the hate-filled homophobic rantings of Perry's 'top-billed invitees' to the upcoming prayer-fast for Jesus.
I think before moving on down I should say a word about European culture/politics. The reason I rail so much about all these pious pols, apart from the obvious, the batshit crazy of it all, is that any mention of God, by any political wannabe or pol seeking re/election, then it's game over for that pol and his/her political aspirations. Rightly so.
Included in the clip, among those that speak for God, we have Pastor John Hagee, he of Christians United for Israel fame. If you are unfamiliar with Pastor Hagee, you can find him, along with all the other batshit crazies, in this short but must watch film by young film maker Max Blumenthal. Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour
What it is that Pastor Hagee has to say, I shall leave you to experience for yourselves, other than to say, his use of Hitler, so common in all of his ilk, doesn't disappoint. Normally invoked when attacking Darwinism, Hagee's Hitler reference on this occasion is something to behold.
I only mention it, because Adolf pops up again in the second clip, where we are treated to more batshit from the Christian Right, courtesy of Rachel Maddow. Now, if having watched Hagee speak for God and His working in mysterious ways, as his is wont. If having watched Hagee's insane and repugnant interpretation of events past, if you consider that slightly over the top, well you ain't seen nutin yet.
For that experience however, it has to be the Rachel Maddow clip. I don't really know how to describe it, suffice to say Hitler gets a mention, or more precisely Hitler's soldiers. Seemingly Adolf had a bit of a problem with the SS, them being pussy cats n'all, so his solution, despite the historical record, was to draw on another section of society to get the job done.
Now I know I might be a tad biassed when it comes to these nutjobs and their rantings, but if it were in any other walk of life, these whackos would be carted off by men in white coats, if not men in blue uniforms, to answer charges of hate speech.
I shall add one or two other things below, more batshit things of course, making this a big, but only the one, batshit post for today.
Meet the Nutjobs and Bigots Headlining Rick Perry's Prayer Event: No Room for Gays, Jews, Even Oprah
It's bad enough that Texas Governor Rick Perry believes talking to Jesus will solve things like, oh, a drought. Personal beliefs that reflect a distrust of human endeavor are one thing, but he also demonstrates a sincere conviction that prayer trumps policy, and that's why he's involved in the massive upcoming pray-a-thon known as "The Response."
The People for the American Way/Right Wing Watch have put together a mash-up youtube video just showing Perry's political oily smoothness contrasted with the hate-spewing nuttery of his top-billed invitees, including those who think Oprah--yes, Oprah--is a harbinger of doom.
Next up, Queen of the batshit crazies, concerned vagina for America, Michele Bachmann.
This from a woman who aspires to be President of a bankrupt police state that is currently involved in countless ''wars'' around the world that result in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of innocents every week. A country that is coming apart at the seams, that is financially, politically and morally bankrupt. A country where the only justice to be found, is that what it has coming to it, and Bachmann's priorities? gays and lesbians.
Michele Bachmann in Her Own Words: ‘Gays Are Part of Satan’ July 13, 2011
Seth Abramovitch — We know where Michele Bachmann stands on heterosexuality: She's very for it! At least according to the binding contract she recently signed with Jesus, in which marriage was explicitly defined as being "between one man and one woman." We also know where her husband, Marcus Bachmann, falls on the topic of homosexuality: He's firmly against it! So against, in fact, that he runs a small gay exorcism business, despite he himself being seemingly possessed by the demonic spirit of an off-duty drag queen named Big Mama. But where does Mrs. Bachmann stand on homosexuality?
"We need to have profound compassion for the people who are dealing with the very real issue of sexual dysfunction in their life, and sexual identity disorders. This is a very real issue. It's not funny, it's sad. Any of you who have members of your family that are in the lifestyle-we have a member of our family that is. This is not funny. It's a very sad life. It's part of Satan, I think, to say this is gay. It's anything but gay."
Michele on gay bondage and enslavement (but not in the fun way):
"It leads to the personal enslavement of individuals. Because if you're involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it's bondage. Personal bondage, personal despair, and personal enslavement. And that's why this is so dangerous."
Michele on the good old days when a gay on TV was there for you to laugh at:
"[Gay activists want to] make gays look good, because [the media] didn't always. If you'll recall television maybe 15, 20 years ago, if you'd see something about gays it would be an outlandish kind of an outfit, it would be a kind of tittering, making fun. But that's different now. Now gays are made to look good."
Michele on Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps:
"I almost think that the gay community has hired this guy, or created this guy, to do what he does. He is their best friend."
Michele on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and double standards:
"This has really become a mainstream show. It's very popular with the make-over theme. They take style-challenged straight men who need the help of a fashionably superior gay man, in some sort of a cross between This Old House meets a pre-incarcerated Martha Stewart. [...] But tell a gay man that he should change and that is considered homophobic blasphemy."
Michele on Matthew Shepard coverage and double standards:
"Have you noticed that the media is very selective in its compassion? At the very same time that Matthew Shepherd was tragically killed, there was a case of another young boy-you may have heard about him. His name was Jesse Dirkheisen [sic] -that little boy, he was 12 years old. He was kidnapped, he was brutally raped, he was murdered by two gay men. This occurred the same week as Matthew Shepherd. We heard a lot about Matthew Shepherd. We heard almost nothing about littleJesse Dirkheisen [sic]. Why? Because Jesse did not serve the purpose of those sympathetic to homosexuality." [The 12-year-old's name was Jesse Dirkhising.]
Given the bigotry of Bachmann and husband, Dr. Marcus Bachmann, and the controversy surrounding Bachmann's state funded Reparative Therapy Clinic, something of interest might be a previous post I put together featuring another religious limelight seeking, sexually repressed nutjob. The Knave Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks
Worthy of a read in its own right I suppose, but at the very bottom of the page is a video where ex-ex-gay, no typo, Michael Bussee talks about his experiences as a former co-founder of EXIT and EXODUS, both pray away the gay organisations, and his subsequent relationship with the church. Bussee can also be found here, where he writes an apology to all those gay people that he considers he may have harmed as a (very tortured) pray away the gay therapist. Statement of Apology by Former Exodus Leaders
I must be careful what I say here, so I shall leave it rather ambiguous, suffice to say it would involve the flat of my hand, a cheek, a certain satisfaction and this sanctimonious cunt.
New York clerk quits job to avoid issuing marriage licenses to gay couples By Kaili Joy Gray
July 13, 2011
A rural New York town clerk has resigned her post rather than grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
“I would be compromising my moral conscience by participating in licensing same-sex couples,” Laura Fotusky, the clerk of the Town of Barker, told POLITICO. “I had to choose between my job and my god.”
Poor, poor Laura Fotusky. Why, she's just like Job, singled out by God to choose between a paycheck and her deeply held, religion-based hatred of gay people. It's tragic, really. But as she explained in her resignation letter:
“I believe that there is a higher law than the law of the land. It is the law of God in the Bible. In Acts 5:29, it states, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’”
“The Bible clearly teaches that God created marriage between male and female as a divine gift that preserves families and cultures. Since I love and follow Him, I cannot put my signature on something that is against God. Deuteronomy 10:12 says, ‘…What does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.’”
“I would be compromising my moral conscience if I participated in the licensing procedure. Therefore, I will be resigning as of July 21. I wanted you to know my position as I understand the marriage law goes into effect on July 24.”
See, it's not that she's a total fucking bigot. It's just that hating gay people, even if it means quitting her job, is what her God wants her to do.
Well, Ms. Fotusky, we certainly wouldn't want you to compromise your morals by loving your neighbors. Lord knows there's nothing in the Bible about that. Daily Kos
Below, another fucker, sick bag essential.
Tim Pawlenty Wants You To Know That He Is A Christian by Kyle Mantyla
July 13, 2011
Tim Pawlenty's presidential campaign has released a six-minute video dedicated entirely to Pawlenty and his wife Mary talking about the importance of their Christian faith, criticizing the separation of church and state, and highlighting their opposition to abortion and marriage equality: RWW
And to round off I have a confession to make.
I hope it's fairly obvious by now, that on matters of life style and sexuality they don't come any more tolerant than myself. As a metrosexual male, I'm comfortable within myself, I have no problem with other peoples sexuality whatever it my entail, the obvious apart of course.
But there was something that always used to stick with me, and that something was the word marriage when it came to two blokes. Civil partnerships fine, equal rights for same sex partners as those that are enjoyed by heterosexual couples, most definitely. One only has to read of life partners, either gay or lesbian, being turned away from visiting their dying partner in hospitals to realise how cruel a situation that can be.
Perhaps it's an age thing, though it shouldn't be, I still have a very young head on me and basically I'm still the wild child that ever I was. I passed the same opinion a few years ago on this very blog, although as part of a comment and not as editorial content as it were. A reader at the time, a lesbian from one of the flat land states, in reply said: Where would that leave me, getting down on one knee and asking if someone would join me in becoming my 'civil partner?'
Put like that, I didn't have much of an argument, but underneath it all I suppose the marriage word still stuck. I guess I softened somewhat over the years, but it wasn't until I saw the heartbreak caused to the couple, featured in this trailer of the film, 8 The Mormon Proposition, that I finally altered my way of thinking.
I don't need to say anything about the documentary, it speaks for itself. I shall leave the first part below the trailer if you're interested, the rest you can follow up on Youtube. Sorry, copyright comes into the equation.
