Pam's House Blend - Phyllis Schlafly

Video break: Brian Camenker and Bam-Bam Barber yuck it up with Phyllis Schlafly

Pam Spaulding — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:44:17 GMT

Blender Herb linked my up to this laff-fest from the past video of Phyllis Schlafly, Janet Folger, and the incredibly unsuccessful anti-gay activist Brian Camenker of mASSresistance . He babbles on about the book "King and King" and its evil influence on culture. He also talks about how his organization is "fighting back" -- ROTFLOL. Yeah, how's that radio show working out for you Brian? Oh that's right, it's off the air now.

If you want to torture yourself, there's another clip of Bam Bam Barber and you have to check out the h-a-i-r. The entire tube of Brylcream is up top, more than the slick, tantalizing 'do on the cover of his exciting new book.

Right Wing Watch's wrap on fundie How To Take Back America shriekfest

Pam Spaulding — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:00:00 GMT

I don't know how Peter @ RWW could stomach listening to the bile generated out of the Mother Schlafly-sponsored How To Take Back America conference last week. It's notable that this year Phyllis co-hosted with the untethered-from-reality Janet Folger Porter.

Mike Huckabee was there, of course, as were fellow Republican tools Michele Bachmann (MN), Trent Franks (AZ), Steve King (IA), and Tom McClintock (CA). Here's Peter's rundown of the conference's themes -- they sound quite familiar, but the radical desperation level is meter-breaking.

a continued merging of messaging and organizing among the Religious Right and "teabagger" right

the fervent belief that America is at a tipping point between freedom and fascist power: President Obama and his congressional allies are on the verge of delivering America into Socialism, Communism, and/or Nazi-style tyranny, and that government is therefore to be feared and resisted

optimism that the tea bag movement and anti-health-reform town halls are a sign that Americans are prepared to resist that tyranny

extreme opposition to Democratic health care reform efforts, with some support for the congressional Republican alternative and some demands for a no-compromise approach that would involve ending all government involvement in health care, including Medicare

recent attacks on ACORN are just part of a larger effort to target progressive community organizing groups and their religious supporters and "defund the left"

hostility not only to same-sex marriage but also to any legal protections for LGBT Americans and same-sex couples

a new push to use "abortion as black genocide" as a wedge between African Americans and pro-choice progressives built around a new "documentary" portraying abortion as 21st century genocide

American exceptionalism - the belief that America's founding was divinely inspired and the nation has been uniquely blessed by God - is alive and well, though America is now living under a curse for having elected Barack Obama

activists don't need a majority to take back America; if their minority or "remnant" is committed enough God will use them

the apparent passing (or grabbing) of the torch from Phyllis Schlafly to Janet Folger Porter

Matt Barber was there with his pithy drivel:

Another speaker, anti-gay activist Matt Barber, strung together as many insults as he could in describing the president as "a secular humanist, a radical socialist moral relativist." He also referred to gay rights advocates "as bullies who get their way with propaganda and 'goose-stepping' intimidation of those who oppose equality. Bam Bam, that line's getting so old it's fossilizing. Did your BFF The Peter attend, or was he kept out of sight?

And about TEH GAYZ, well it's the usual hysteria, and they've completely discarded the old soft-sell meme that "we just want to protect marriage" -- it's full blast "no rights of any kind for LGBTs":

Of course, freedom to these conference-goers does not extend to LGBT Americans who want to live their lives free from discrimination or serve the nation in the armed forces. Several workshops focused on the dire threat to children and communities posed by the prospect (and reality) of gay couples getting married. And for this crowd, stopping marriage equality is not enough: they are out to prevent civil unions and domestic partnerships as well. They believe the Employment Anti-Discrimination Act is a grave threat to religious liberty. They believe that allowing gays to serve openly in the military would threaten national security. And please don't get them started on transgender people.

The Right Wing Watch wrap is well-worth the click over, because there are so many delicious tidbits of insanity from that conference I'd end up re-posting the entire thing. Peter has great analysis of the ascent of Porter to the Schlafly throne.

Let the people vote! Oh, but not on THAT

Lurleen — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 06:09:06 GMT

Follow my stream of consciousness....

Hard to believe it, but that embarrassment to The Washington Hate Coalition, the greedy evictor of retired clergy Pastor Joe Fuiten, decided to test the waters again by making a statement to the press about the passage of our DP bill. What he said was vacuous and unimportant, but what caught my eye was that he named Positive Christian Agenda as his "professional" affiliation. I'd never heard of it, so did some clicking around. Here is their bizarre website. Do they really exist, or is this just another vanity site for another vain theocrat? Oops, not that vain theocrat, this vain theocrat.

But the connection to my post topic came when I googled PCA and was directed to this node at the Washington Eagle Forum, an affiliate of Mother Schlafly's outfit. (When you click on the only link on that page, "Resources and Legislative Alerts", you're redirected to that bizarre PCA site.) I've heard local Eaglettes testify and speechify and screechify during the DP bill deliberations, so I thought it worth a click around their nest. And now I'm finally getting to the point of this story: these people are hypocrites when they say "the people" should vote on marriage, DPs and the like. What?! Hypocrites?! You can't believe it, can you?

Now, about that vote thing, after the flip.
It seems that the Eagles are all het up about SB 5599, Washington state's version of the National Popular Vote effort.

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and the District of Columbia).
Under the U.S. Constitution, the states have exclusive and plenary (complete) power to allocate their electoral votes, and may change their state laws concerning the awarding of their electoral votes at any time. Under the National Popular Vote bill, all of the state's electoral votes would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes-that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538).

And by all het up, I mean that Eagle Forum is in a lather and dead set against it:

Believing that enforcing majority will is the only purpose of government, a group called "National Popular Vote" is attempting to nullify the Electoral College....
If the purpose of government is liberty and justice, the Electoral College has done America proud. The system moderates our politics and protects minority rights.
If the purpose of government is simply enforcing the will of the majority, the Electoral College is in question.

Huh? What? Did that just come from the lips of an Eaglette? The WA Eagle Forum backs the fleece-the-sheeple referendum Gary Randall is scamming a paycheck from. We know that Gary fervently believes in 'enforcing the will of the majority'. When it suits him.

Washington State lawmakers passed SB 5688 yesterday afternoon, thus giving the homosexual activists what they want.
Gov. Gregoire will sign it.
We will seek to overturn it by referendum.

"Let the People Vote!" How many times did I hear that chant during the marriage anti-equality amendment battles in Massachusetts? In how many states have the Schlaflys and the Randalls of the country made "enforcing the will of the majority" their priority? (45)

I defy anyone to find even one member of The Washington Hate Coalition who doesn't believe in enforcing the will of the majority when it comes to my freedom to get a civil marriage. And yet here they are, rending garments because local democrats want to do the very same in presidential elections. I know it's not uncommon to find hypocrisy among the Professional Christianists drawing salaries from the anti-LBGT industry. In fact I think it's a job requirement. But it's been quite some time since I've witnessed such a baldfaced, in-your-face example. Will wonders never cease?

Mother Schlafly opens her trap at Bates College

Pam Spaulding — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:08:20 GMT

Too bad it wasn't the Bates Motel. The aging anti-feminist icon is still croaking out her drivel with fervor, this time at a talk at Bates College, entitled "Conservativism vs. Feminism: The Great Debate."

The 81-year-old anti-gay mother of a gay man was the guest of the Bates College Republicans and she put on a show for them with this oh-so-retro view of women:

For nearly two hours, she belittled the feminist movement as "teaching women to be victims," decried intellectual men as "liberal slobs" and argued that feminism "is incompatible with marriage and motherhood."
...Schlafly asserted women should not be permitted to do jobs traditionally held by men, such as firefighter, soldier or construction worker, because of their "inherent physical inferiority."
"Women in combat are a hazard to other people around them," she said. "They aren't tall enough to see out of the trucks, they're not strong enough to carry their buddy off the battlefield if he's wounded, and they can't bark out orders loudly enough for everyone to hear."
At one point, Schlafly also contended that married women cannot be sexually assaulted by their husbands.
"By getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don't think you can call it rape," she said.

Wow. Just wow. Statements like that are so out there that it's hard to believe she's serious, but oh, she is.

Hat tip, Christin M.

Sam Brownback lets his hair down with Mike Signorile

Pam Spaulding — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:30:00 GMT

Next week should be fun on Mike's show. It has been a parade of wingnuttery marching past the Sirius OutQ booth at the GOP convention as he's nabbed interviews with the theocrats, fetus fantasists and homo-obsessives you've come to know on the Blend -- Eagle Forum doyenne-with a self-loathing gay son Phyllis Schlafly, Rick Santorum, Bob Barr, Grover Norquist, Newt Gingrich, and failed Ohio gubernatorial candidate (and spot of color at the convention) Ken Blackwell. He'll air more interviews next week.

Get a load of this encounter with Kansas Senator and failed presidential candidate Sam Brownback. Sam is truly off the charts batsh*t insane:

Last night I got a chance to interview Kansas Senator Sam "Snowflake Baby" Brownback, a man obsessed with embryos and women's uteruses, not to mention homosexuality. As someone who ran for the nomination he of course hoped he'd be up there last night giving his acceptance speech, but nonetheless it helped him to highlight his issues and shape the party platform. He told me, ominously, that even if ten more states legalize marriage for gays and lesbians over the next 10 or 15 years and millions of gays and lesbians get married, he and Christian conservatives will work to ultimately turn that around and take away the rights of those millions.

How crazed are these people on the fringe right that they fixate on a right that has zero impact on their marriages? It's particularly distasteful given the outlandish number of closet cases and serial adulterers in his party.

Mother Schlafly to receive honorary doctorate

Pam Spaulding — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:00:00 GMT

Washington University students and faculty are in an uproar over the decision to award anti-gay, anti-feminist Eagle Forum fossil Phyllis Schlafly an honorary doctorate at its May 16 commencement ceremony. A Facebook group created to protest the move has over a thousand members.

Mary Ann Dzuback, the director of the women and gender studies department at Washington University agreed, said it was "grossly inappropriate" for the university to honor Schlafly with a degree.
"She's spent her entire career speaking against women in the workforce and for them remaining in the home," Dzuback said of Schlafly, who rose to prominence during the successful campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.
...The university issued a statement Sunday defending its decision, saying it - like many other universities - chooses to honor those "who have become a part of the broad public discourse on vital issues of the times." The statement cited other controversial figures, such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, whom the school has honored.

Steve Ralls of PFLAG National:

PFLAG and our St. Louis chapter are proud to join those on the ground in Missouri and call on school officials to do the right thing and, as executive director Jody Huckaby said today, "find a more suitable person to applaud."

Steve also points out some of Mother Schlafly's winning cultural touchstones:

On California's SB-77, to protect GLBT students: The legislation "represent[s] a repudiation of 2,000 years of Christian moral teaching on human sexuality, marriage, and the family. The result is that California's schools are now promoting behaviors and lifestyles that are physically and spiritually dangerous for children."

On the idea of any protections for GLBT youth: "The bottom line is, don't count on the courts to protect public school students from being subjected to the promotion of homosexuality."

On sexual harassment laws: "Sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for virtuous women."

Yeah. I think they could locate someone who isn't terminally frozen in the dark ages.