THE REPUBLICANS ARE THE ENEMY AND TRAITORS TO AMERICA by R. Blackbird

Republicans are selfish, power hungry, hateful of the poor, disloyal to the nation and its people, dishonest, avaricious, scornful of the nation's history, the dignity of its institutions, its standards of political morality, and its vision of advancement for all the people. The Republicans love war as long as they and theirs do not have to put on helmets and carry guns into the fighting. They use lies to start wars that kill hundreds of thousands of innocents and thousands of our own military service people. They love massive war-time profits, unavailable to their rich masters if war is absent.

The Republicans hate the rest of us, which they must, in order to pass away from themselves and onto us, the financial burdens and losses their crimes, schemes and thefts cause. They are prolific, incessant, and destructive liars. They are blasphemers for they insist that their hateful and destructive deeds are the work of God. They are apostates for they gleefully attack the poor, the immigrants, the old and the sick, of whom God has commanded all of us to be mindful.

There is no reasoning with them, for all their logic is built on false premises. There is no appealing to them for honor's sake for they have lost all sense of shame and have no honor, there is no appealing to them for the nation's sake for that it what they hate the most.

The Republicans are the enemy.

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CONTENTS

The Right Wing Conspiracy  (Click on the underlined to go there)

Part I  Introduction to the Right Wing Conspiracy

Part II The Religious Right and the Christian Reconstructionists

Part III Christian Reconstructionism, Christian Ayatollahs, and Racism

Part IV  Republican Gomorrah

Part V  The 12 Worst (and most powerful) Christian Right Groups

Part VI  The Anatomy of the Religious Right

Part VII  The Family

Part VIII  The Tea Party

Part  IX   The Danger from the Religious Right

Part X     Dismantling Public Education

Extreme Right Pantheon

Indiana Insurance Tycoon

Grover Norquist

Part XI  The Right Wing Conservative Movement

The Religious Right

Focus on the Family

Family Research Council

Campaign For Working Families

Christian Coalition

Council for National Policy

Americans For Tax Reform

National Right To Work Legal Defense And Education Foundation

Center for the Study of Popular Culture

Alexis De Tocqueville Institution

CONSERVATIVE PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS

The Heritage Foundation

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)

State Policy Network

Part IX     10 Great Things About America that drive Conservatives and the Religious Right Crazy

THE DANGER FROM THE RIGHT

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a
hundred battles.  -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

For years Americans have wondered whether a secret elite really runs the country. The Illuminati? The Establishment? The Mob? The answer is less glamorous and more troubling.  Going into the year 2002, influence is available to anyone who can spare, say, a hundred grand to underwrite a few political campaigns.

Below, we will identify the nation's largest political contributors.  For the most part, the largest contributors are Conservative foundations.  You can check out this list in its entirety.  Do some investigative work of your own and dig around.

Most of these people and foundations see their donations as sound investments; in return, they ask for - and receive - generous tax breaks or legislation favorable to their businesses. Read the below information and get a sense of what influence they wield.

The influence of these people is fundamentally at odds with the American ideal of popular government and sparked demands for reform. Reform initiatives have had success at the state level, but the Congress has done next to nothing when it comes to campaign reform. We hope that this article will fuel the fire of those who want their votes to count as much as that of a New York investment banker. Or a camera-shy Cleveland billionaire.

As you shall presently see there is not just one right wing religious conspiracy, but, there are dozens of Right Wing religious organizations and certain Rich donors, who seem to work together on most issues, and wish to determine the moral values and beliefs of everyone else in this country and ultimately the World.  How do they do this?  By controlling what who think, see, hear and believe.    Who do you think owns most of the news media in this country

Why would these people and organizations do such a thing? 

The first obvious reason is that if a corporation can control what you think, see, hear and believe, they can make an awful lot of money at your expense.  Of course being the greedy self serving corporate parasites they are, they also will make a number of big blunders and end up in the toilet (spell Enron) These corporations will cause a loss of capital in this country, and fuel the recession by their fiscal mistakes.

There are also people in this world who have a terrible self esteem problem.  These people over-compensate for this mental deficiency by convincing themselves that if they can attract enough weak people to them, and gain a large enough following, their self esteem will somehow benefit.  They create organizations which are designed to attract emotionally and mentally susceptible individuals who are easily swayed.  (Spell Christian Coalition and Pat Robertson.  It is rumored that the reason  Pat resigned from the Christian Coalition is that he was threatened with an criminal indictment and civil suit, if he didn't.)

Unfortunately, some of these religious leaders have a gift of charisma.  They attract enough followers so that their organizations thrive.  These people want their member's money, dedication, sacrifice and give little in return.  As the leader, they feel that they deserve luxury as a reward for their good works, so they usually buy luxury automobiles, apartments, and homes or mansions for their "Church".  Of course they will drive these automobiles and live in these mansions. 

They usually convince their followers that the end of the world is coming very soon and unless you do exactly as they say, you will burn in hell.  Some of them will blame the World Trade Center attack on 9/11 on women's groups, and gays, and wiccans and unbelieving Christians (say Jerry Falwell)  They will forbid that their followers associate with other groups which they have not approved.   See: The Hijacking of the Christian Church, written by a Christian Republican

Sound familiar?  These are the same techniques used by Jim Jones when he attracted people to his commune in South America.   Jim Jones was the pastor of the Peoples Temple, a large California congregation of the prominent liberal Protestant denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Jones had become an advocate of a radical form of Marxist liberation theology, then a popular perspective in liberal Protestantism. However, while he was praised within his denomination and other Protestant churches, for his social outlook and work on racial harmony, he was not without his harsh critics.  In 1977, he moved with hundreds of his church members, mostly African Americans, to Guyana, where the church had previously established a small agricultural colony.   There, a serious of events resulted in several hundred members either committing suicide or being murdered.

Sometimes these leaders will cooperate with other similar groups, sometimes they will not.  But most of these extremist organizations are funded by conservative foundations which have been created by a few individuals and families which own and /or control billion dollar companies and corporations.  These groups almost always work together.  Their purpose seems to be the creation of a society favorable to their companies and their desire for power.  Money is power.   Ideas are power.  Appearances are power. 

Since they control the money, they control the religious leaders of these cults, and through them, their members.

If these leaders and companies can control what you see, hear and believe, they can control the members.  If they have THE POWER, they can then decide what a person buys, where they live, who they can associate with, and which Gods are worshiped.

If you analyze the included profile of the individuals, organizations and companies we have identified, you will find that in many ways most of them interact with each other.  Several of the individuals are on the boards of organizations which receive their funding from the few foundations and companies which have conservative agendas.  

Those who are listed, seem to be connected in some way by beliefs that are in common with the Christian Reconstructionists and with certain charitable conservative foundations.  Read all of it.  You will find out more than you care to, about the religious right and their attempt to take away your religious freedom.   Some of the individuals listed below are public officials who have sworn to defend the constitution of the United States.  It's like sending the fox to guard the hen house.   Go to Christian Reconstructionism Here.

See: Is there a Right Wing Conspiracy?  This paper written by a Christian, will open your eyes.

There are many ways for these religious right extremists to gain control over your lives and your religious beliefs. 

From Jefferson’s time to the present, Americans have instinctively understood the three basic principles of democratic organization:

First, energetic, collective action is essential to produce results in a fragmented, segmented society where federalism and separation of powers make change slow and difficult. 

Second, the success of any group (conservative, liberal, moderate, radical, or reactionary) depends in part upon its ability to marshal greater resources (people, money, and technology) than other, competing groups.

And third, knowledge is the ultimate power in politics, as in every other human endeavor.

These three principles, taken together, explain why the information on this web site is exceptionally enlightening.  The modern conservative religious right movement has grown into one of the most powerful forces in all of American history.  From school board elections and ballot initiatives to congressional races and the 2000 presidential contest, conservative candidates and causes are appearing on the scene with increasing frequency - and with similar agendas.

Because of this proliferation of conservative religious right groups, your religious liberty is in great danger.  Religious bigots and right wing conservative leaders are propagating untruths about liberal political leaders, and religions which they feel are in competition with their version of religion.  Right Wing extremist organizations continue to storm the United States Capitol, state houses and school districts to advance a partisan political agenda that includes:

• Dismantling public education

• Revoking First Amendment guarantees, including the separation of church and state and freedom of speech

• Mandating sectarian prayer in schools

• Denying civil rights to all Americans

• Fighting gun safety

• Fighting campaign finance reform, and

• Fighting efforts to protect the environment.

This web page will provide a comprehensive description of the key players in the conservative movement, involved in this effort, how they work together and what they hope to accomplish. This page will trace the growth of the right from a handful of influential conservatives to today’s coordinated national network of religious organizations, advocacy groups and state-based policy institutes.

Many observers have wondered why conservatives in recent years have bested liberals in most state and national elections. Contrary to most political analysts, it is not because the majority of the voters are conservative.   Americans today, are not ideologically driven in any direction.  Instead, in most cases, conservative groups simply have out-organized and out-fundraised their rivals; they have used their superior war chests to accumulate resources that can often overwhelm the opposition; and perhaps most importantly, they have achieved a decisive edge quietly and without much public attention.

As Dr. Larry J. Sabato, Director of the Center for Governmental Studies has stated in the forward to "The Real Story Behind Paycheck Protection: An Anatomy of the Far Right:"

"Many otherwise well-informed citizens will be astounded to learn in this report of the breadth and depth of the conservative network across America. Key scholars, journalists, and activists will not even recognize the names of many of the individuals, foundations, and organizations that comprise the right's backbone and nervous system. Never before has this puzzle-like structure been assembled and catalogued to such a degree as in this report's pages.

"I hasten to add that conservatives are exercising their First Amendment rights of free speech and association, and vigorous political activity adds to democracy's health in most circumstances. Yet hidden money is dangerous money in politics, and public disclosure of contributions and expenditures for many of the foundations listed herein is sketchy. The nearly unregulated world of campaign finance that exists in many states (and to some degree, nationally) also affords groups the opportunities for unexamined influence. In a democracy, the sunshine of disclosure is the best disinfectant, and this report generates some necessary light. The news media ought to increase the wattage."

NEA Communications, 1201 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036

This web page will expose the ways the Conservative Right is attempting to take control of your lives. 

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Lies are Commonplace in Religious Right Data

Lets talk a moment about dishonesty.  The Religious Right is Dishonesty.  Religious Right Leaders Lie.  They lie about almost everything they don't like.  They are Bigoted.  They hate the poor.  They hate all religions but their own (whatever that is).  Because they are dishonest, they use that dishonesty as a tool to try to prove they are right, when in fact the opposite is true.  For instance lets look at the DOMA hearing in the Senate:

The big news about the recent DOMA hearing was how Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) called out Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery for his distortion of a study.

Minnery cited a Department of Health and Human Services study to make the case that children do better in a heterosexual household as opposed to a same-sex household. Franken, however, proved that Minnery had distorted the study’s wording.

While everyone is reveling (with good reason) in this pivotal moment from the hearing, let’s not forget one thing.

What Minnery did was not an anomaly. His distortion was not a one-time thing from a lazy employee of an otherwise honorable organization.

Minnery’s misreading of study in order present a bad picture of same-sex households is commonplace in religious right data. Often times, religious right spokespeople will cite studies which have nothing to do with same-sex households in order to claim that these households are not the best place to raise children.

Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage committed this grievance last year by misrepresenting a study of abused children.

Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council committed the same intentional faux pas earlier this year by citing two studies, neither having anything to do with same-sex households,

And we’re not just talking about studies regarding households, either.When groups like Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, or the National Organization for Marriage aren’t busy scaring people with how the gay community wants to “recruit children,” they busy themselves distorting all sorts of legitimate data, creating conclusions that the researchers never intended or worked for.

We know this because at least 11 of these researchers complained about this. They include:

National Institute of Health director Francis Collins, who rebuked the right-wing American College of Pediatricians for falsely claiming that he stated sexual orientation is not hardwired by DNA.

Six researchers of a 1997 Canadian study (Robert S. Hogg, Stefan A. Strathdee, Kevin J.P. Craib, Michael V. Shaughnessy, Julio Montaner, and Martin T. Schehter), who complained in 2001 that religious right groups were distorting their work to claim that gay men have a short life span.

The authors of the book Unequal Opportunity: Health Disparities Affecting Gay and Bisexual Men in the United States (Professors Richard J. Wolitski, Ron Stall, and Ronald O. Valdiserri), who complained that their work was being distorted by Focus on the Family.

University College London professor Michael King, who complained that the American Family Association was distorting his work on depression and suicide in LGBT individuals

University of Utah professor Lisa Diamond, who complained that NARTH (the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality), a group which also share board members with the American College of Pediatricians, distorted her research on sexual orientation.

Dr. Carol Gilligan, Professor of Education and Law at New York University, who complained that former Focus on the Family head James Dobson misrepresented her research to attack LGBT families.

Dr. Kyle Pruett, Ph.D., a professor of child psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, who has also complained that Focus on the Family distorted his work.

Dr. Robert Spitzer, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, who has consistently complained that religious right groups distorted his study to claim that the LGBT orientation is easily changeable.

Judith Stacey, Professor of Sociology at New York University, who has had to, on more than one occasion, cry foul over how religious right groups distorted her work on LGBT families.

Greg Remafedi, Professor  at the University of Minnesota, who has complained several times about how religious right groups such as the American College of Pediatricians and PFOX have distorted his work, all to no avail. The American College of Pediatricians refused his request to remove his work from their site.

And late last year, John Horgan, a science journalist and Director of the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology, became the 11th researcher to complain.

These are the reasons why many of us are celebrating Franken’s dressing down of Minnery. It revealed to so many what the gay community has known about the religious right for years – that all of their talk about “morals” and “values” and “personally held religious beliefs” are a dodge. They are a smokescreen which these organizations use to hide their deceptions.

When it comes to the gay community, the vast majority of religious right studies and data have been fallacious distortions designed to exploit fear, not educate.

These folks – Maggie Gallgher, Peter Sprigg, James Dobson, et. al. – know that when they misrepresent studies, particularly in front of Congress, they are committing fraud but they don’t care as long as they can get away with it.

After today, however, it will be more difficult for them to get away with it.

Now lets look at the philosophy which drives the Religious Right.

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Ayn Rand The Anti Christ? This is the Republican Party's Weird Idol.

A passion for the prose and philosophy of Ayn Rand tells us a great deal about an individual, none of it good.

July 18, 2011  |  

Ok we see by the above articles, that the Right Wing Conservative Extremists want to not only control every facet of our lives, but they want to control our minds as well.   Does the Novel Orwell's 1984 Ring a Bell? 

The Republican Party’s slapstick search for a leader would be heartwarming and sidesplitting, but for the tragic knowledge that one of these scrambling midgets will collect tens of millions of votes in the presidential election of 2012. Never have so many amounted to so little, talked so much rubbish, dreamed of an office so far above their abilities. Blood pressures rose among party elders when Donald Trump, marginally Republican and one of the greatest fools in the solar system, momentarily tossed his hairpiece into the ring and became the instant favorite.

The GOP dilemma — a golden opportunity to rule but nothing to say and no one to say it — is so desperate that my instinct is to help them sort it out. Could we make a start, at least, by dismissing candidates who called for President Obama’s birth certificate or raised the specter of Sharia law in America, followed briskly off the stage by lunatics who dismiss global warming as a socialist plot?

That would leave plenty of unbalanced extremists still in the running, yet reduce the stench of sheer evil and madness. The “birther” and Sharia cults reek of cheesy talk-radio racism; climate-change denial is a stranger faith yet, a political assault on basic science that insults a ground squirrel’s intelligence and casually threatens the survival of life on earth.

The party that produces birthers and global-warming deniers no doubt harbors End-of-the-Worlders, too, Christians who packed their bags for heaven with the senile prophet Harold Camping on May 21. Though none of them, I suppose, would commit to the time and expense of a presidential campaign just to preside over a nation of sinners expiring in fire and pestilence. Leo Rangell, the prominent Freudian analyst who recently passed away, once lamented that the American public is “gullible or easily seduced, and susceptible to leaders of questionable character.”

Dr. Rangell wrote that in 1980, long before gullibility became such an epidemic that we began to doubt the value of our schools, before media demagogues made a billion-dollar industry of manipulating our most credulous citizens, before the Republican Party dedicated itself to gathering most of them into its fold. Before Rush Limbaugh, before Fox News, before the Tea Party.

“Finally, people’s stupidity will break your heart,” observed my father, a small-town politician and a loyal Republican of the moderate traditional strain that has been systematically exterminated by the radical Right.

My father lived long enough to vote for George McGovern and against Ronald Reagan, but the rhetoric GOP candidates churn out to charm this Tea Party would sound extraterrestrial to most Republicans of his generation.

The odious hypocrite Newt Gingrich, who considered himself a serious presidential candidate until his entire staff abandoned him in disgust, rests his appeal on his intellectual superiority to Sarah Palin and Rick Perry — a distinction much like being a faster runner than Dom DeLuise. In his obligatory pre-campaign book Gingrich claims that Barack Obama, a cautious centrist if there ever was one, drives a “secular-socialist machine” that “represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.”

Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Father Coughlin, move over. Newt is just full of Shariah, among other things, and accuses Obama of “Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior,” a blatant pitch for the racist vote the Tea Party has re-energized. A colossal irony — demonstrating how hopelessly divided America has become — is that the radical philosopher Cornel West, a black Princeton professor, calls Obama “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.” This is not helpful of Dr. West, nor even responsible. He and Newt Gingrich are equally useless if a calmer, more logical and coherent political culture is what we’re after. But if I had to say which of these two hostile portraits of our president is less preposterous, I’m sure I’d choose West’s. Virtually all the valid criticism of Barack Obama has come from the left.

When Tea-stained legislators gut environmental laws to protect corporate profits, when they sneer at climate change while America bakes in its bedrock like a big green casserole — when Republican educational reform means classrooms with fewer teachers and more guns — there’s a temptation for reasonable Americans to throw up their hands and succumb to despair. Is it a death wish or a scheme to kill the rest of us, when “conservatives” fight against clean air laws, or legislate to place a loaded pistol in every yahoo’s holster? I’ve reached the second half of my seventh decade, and I’ve never seen such an intimidating swarm of fanatics and fools marching under one banner. The election of a non-white president has brought out the worst in the worst of us. But who guessed that there were so many, or that their worst was so awful?

The late Albert Einstein, of my father’s persuasion if not of his party, once wrote despairingly, “The tyranny of the ignoramuses is insurmountable and assured for all time.” But the coalition that poisons this struggling republic is an unnatural one, made up of rich cynics who supply the money and poor ignoramuses who supply the votes. They have nothing in common, except that the cynics will say anything and the morons will believe it. There must be something, optimists insist, that could drive a wedge between the exploiters and the exploited — some irresistible revelation, some fraud or contradiction so flagrant that the most obtuse voter could see how callously and criminally he’s being used.

Finally, how about Ayn Rand? The latest Republican poster boy, congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, stole the media spotlight with a slash-to-the-bone budget proposal that Fox News heralded as the Magna Carta of fiscal responsibility in America. I lack the expertise to take on Rep. Ryan’s budget digit-for-digit, but I place considerable confidence in the opinion of the Times’ Paul Krugman, who won a Nobel Prize for Economics in 2008. “The proposal wasn’t serious at all,” Krugman wrote. “In fact, it was a sick joke. The only real things in it were savage cuts in aid to the needy and the uninsured, huge tax cuts for corporations and the rich, and Medicare privatization. All the alleged cost savings were pure fantasy.”

That sounds about par for the current Republican course, with fresh infusions of Tea Party belligerence and unreality. But what frightened me most about Rep. Ryan was the report that he is an avowed disciple of the writer/philosopher Ayn Rand, and has declared in public that Rand is “the reason I got involved in public service.” Good grief, she’s back. She died in 1982, but someone neglected to drive a stake through her heart.

A passion for the prose and philosophy of Ayn Rand tells us a great deal about an individual, none of it good. There are few surer signs of a poor reader, a poor thinker and an unpleasant person than a well-thumbed copy of Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead.

In 2005, Rand’s acolytes gathered in Washington for a symposium to celebrate her 100th birthday — the occasion for Rep. Ryan’s disturbing confession — and I admit I’d give anything to see the seating chart. If there was some way to ban everyone in that room from holding public office, we could probably turn the United States of America back toward the generous light of reason.

She was to literature what Rod McKuen was to poetry, what Fabian was to rock n’ roll, what Guru Maharaj Ji was to religion. Look them up. Like them, she once enjoyed a huge audience of admirers. Unlike them, she was never harmless and she’s enjoying an alarming revival.

Since Atlas Shrugged was published in 1957, it has sold seven million copies. It’s possibly the most polarizing book ever written. For every Paul Ryan who finds it life-shaping, a dozen readers are mystified and a dozen more appalled. Few actually finish the 1,200-page novel, which ends with the mysterious Galt drawing a dollar sign in the air with his finger. If you wade into this stuff up to your ankles — the hokey melodrama, the backlit macro-characters posed like Easter Island monoliths, the cruel and obvious message stamped on every page—-you begin to fear that you can never wash it off.

At times her critics oversimplify Rand’s beliefs, which embody any number of contradictions and opacities. But essentially she glorifies the will and celebrates Nietzsche’s Ubermensch, the superman whose blazing passage through the world need never be impeded by the interests or opinions of mediocrities like you and me. It’s the same string of arrogant assumptions that spawned the Master Race theories of Herr Hitler: ego-deification, social Darwinism, arbitrary stratification of human types. Adapted for capitalism, it becomes the divine right to plunder — a license for those who own nearly everything to take the rest, because they wish to, because they can. Because the weak don’t matter. Let the big dogs feed. This repulsive theology was the work of a fairly repulsive person.

For an eyewitness portrait of Ayn Rand in the flesh, in the prime of her celebrity, you can’t improve on the “Ubermensch” chapter in Tobias Wolff’s autobiographical novel Old School.

Invited to meet with the faculty and student writers at the narrator’s boarding school, Rand arrives with an entourage of chain-smoking idolaters in black and behaves so repellently that her audience of innocents gets a life lesson in what kind of adult to avoid, and to avoid becoming. Rude, dismissive, vain and self-infatuated to the point of obtuseness — she names Atlas Shrugged as the only great American novel — Rand and her hissing chorus in black manage to alienate the entire school, even the rich board member who had admired and invited her.

What strikes Wolff’s narrator most forcefully is her utter lack of charity or empathy, her transparent disgust with everything she views as disfiguring or disabling: a huge wen on the headmaster’s forehead, the narrator’s running head cold, the war injury that emasculated Hemingway’s Jake Barnes in The Sun Also Rises.

To the boy, she appears to be exactly the sort of merciless egotist who might have designed a fascist philosophy that exalts power and disparages altruism. Rand is wearing a gold pin in the shape of a dollar sign. After meeting her, he can no longer read a word of The Fountainhead, which as an adolescent romantic he had enjoyed.

This division of the human race into the elect few who are destiny’s darlings and the “second-rate” multitudes above whom they soar—-this Ubermensch nonsense—-is perilously thin ice on which to rest a philosophy (Nietzsche, you recall, went hopelessly mad.)

Since there’s no agency that rates human beings the way we rate bonds, the elect are always self-elected supermen and superwomen. Super, says who?

If it’s supposed to be intellect as much as will that sets them above us, I sense a critical problem. Whenever a person of superior intelligence begins to comprehend the human condition, the first fruits of his knowledge are humility and irony—-those two things Rand and her heroes most spectacularly lack.

Personally, I never feel more superior than when I see someone carrying a copy of Atlas Shrugged. What actually sets the self-styled super race apart is an unrepressed infantile id, a raging “I want” that defies socialization. These are damaged children, people of arrested development drawn to an ugly philosophy that legitimizes narcissism and socially unacceptable behavior.  Donald Trump would be a perfect example.  For an apostle of self-willed happiness, the goddess of greed led a troubled life, marked by depressions, amphetamine addiction, messy love affairs and betrayals.  But you could say that she had a capacious mind, if not a healthy or an orderly one.

She was well educated, she had actually read Aristotle and Nietzsche before she hobbled them and hitched them to her wagon.  Her unlikely 21st-century resurrection is the work of much smaller, often almost invisible minds that cherry-pick the vast creaking structure of her oeuvre for their own ends, just as they cherry-pick the Bible or The Wealth of Nations.

If corporate feudalism is your dream for America, she’s the prophet for you.  Her naïve faith in capitalism and contempt for “the welfare state” are just what the right-wing doctor ordered.

Much of the rest, alas, will never fly in Alabama.  Pundits have been delighted to note that the heroine of the new Republicans was a pacifist who opposed the Vietnam War, a feminist who supported abortion, an adulteress who preached free love, a bohemian who mocked family life and child-bearing, an elitist who sneered at the common man, and, after all her “nanny state” rhetoric, a recipient of Social Security and Medicare and a late, sick convert to the benefits of socialized medicine.

Worst of all, for tea-stained Christian Republicans, she was a militant atheist.  In Rand’s ideology religious faith was the most abject form of weakness, a sniveling retreat from the hardheaded, self-centered “objectivism” her heroes impose on the world.  She not only would have rejected Jesus and his gospels, she actually did—-repeatedly.  Christ’s message that the poor are blessed and the meek will inherit the earth is antithetical to Rand’s belief that the poor and meek are no more than mulch where the dreams of the mighty take root.

So adamantly did she denounce the altruism and self-sacrifice at the center of the Christian message, it’s no exaggeration to call her the intellectual Antichrist.

It’s no great exaggeration to say that praising her is like spitting in Christ’s face.

How do Paul Ryan, Ron and Rand Paul and company manage to pass off this radical atheist, this subversive Russian Jew (born Elisa Rosenbaum) as an iconic role model for Christian conservatives?

Apparently they don’t think they need to get into the details, not with their particular constituency. Assuming that they know the details themselves. The careless condescension of their leaders is not yet a scandal to the tea-baggers of America’s unlettered hard Right. But Ayn Rand seems like the biggest joke of all, one that might yet blow up in the party’s face.

The plutocrats she worshiped are so few, the plebeians she scorned are so many. The GOP’s little people can’t all be totally illiterate, and Limbaugh and Glenn Beck actually urge them to read this woman’s books. It’s in-your-face deception that reminds me of the old stage villain, the silent-movie heavy with the waxed mustache, cackling behind his cloak and inviting the audience to share the cruelty he’s about to inflict on his innocent victims. It’s as if Wall Street is surreptitiously giving the finger to Main Street Republicans, laughing at the gullible recruits as they march to the polls to lower corporate taxes and deregulate markets. Ayn Rand, indeed. She would have applauded the big dogs’ ruthlessness but rolled her eyes at the Christian-family rhetoric they’re obliged to use for bait.

She wasn’t one of them, of course; she certainly wasn’t one of us. She was one of a kind, thank god. In her defense, you might argue that her love affair with capitalism was rooted in a Russian Jew’s horror of the totalitarian systems that devastated Europe in the 20th century.

That offers her a gravitas she doesn’t share with ultra-light Midwestern reactionaries like Paul Ryan or Michele Bachmann. But the more Americans read her books, the better for liberals and the worse, I think, for Republicans.

Her work illustrates conclusively what a few brave clergymen and a few ink-stained relics like me have been saying for years to anyone who would listen, and to Republicans who refuse to listen — that Christianity and the wolverine capitalism of a John Galt are totally incompatible systems, two mutually exclusive human possibilities. They cancel each other out. Any political party that pretends to integrate them is a party of liars, and doomed.  

 

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ALEC's Influence On Campaigns Exposed

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 03:00 PM PDT

 

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Previously I've told you about ALEC's mission, which is to write boilerplate right wing legislation and distribute it to state and federal lawmakers as a way to advance right-wing causes across the country. But ALEC's influence does not begin or end there.

FollowtheMoney.org:

An examination of campaign donations made by ALEC corporate members dating back to the 1990 election cycle shows that they contributed $12.2 million to state-level candidates who were ALEC members, with 98.4 percent of that money going to incumbent and winning candidates, many of whom could vote on proposed legislation. Additional analysis reveals that $11.9 million of the $12.2 million went to Republicans. Click here to download the database.

Over the seven (10 for some states) election cycles covered in a donor-data analysis by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, ALEC corporate members contributed $516.2 million to state-level politics: $202.1 million to state-level candidates, $228.3 million to high-dollar ballot-measure campaigns, and $85.8 million to state political party committees.

Half a billion dollars. A serious relationship. It seems ALEC is not afraid of commitment.

According to Texas Watchdog, one of the biggest beneficiaries of ALEC members' largesse was Texas Governor Rick Perry.

Because of the council leak, the Institute for Money in State Politics was able to link specific corporate money with specific legislators and issues. Of the $516.2 million given over the past 20 years, corporate donors spent $228.3 million on campaigns in support of issues on ballots in various states. Another $202.1 million went to candidates and $85.8 million went to almost exclusively Republican state committees.

Perry was, by far, the most popular donor target in Texas. Former Republican House Speaker and Exchange Council member, Tom Craddick, got $878,000 from corporate council members.

Other leaders were: State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, $315,000; Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, $163,000; and Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, $124,000.

So let's see. Texas has a draconian tort reform law, is a oil welfare state, and is in the process of privatizing and destroying its public education system.

AlterNet:

In this, Perry is absolutely, 100 percent correct. He slashed taxes to the bone, handing out credits to his political cronies like they were candy. He decried the evils of Big Government while hypocritically using federal stimulus funds to help close Texas' budget gap in the short term, and now he's using the state's longer term fiscal disaster – one of his own creation – as a premise for destroying an already threadbare social safety net serving the neediest Texans. As a result of these policies, plus immigration and other external factors, his state's added a lot of low-paying poverty jobs without decent benefits. He's added very little in the way of “prosperity.”

In the final analysis, Texas is indeed a shining example of conservative governance, as well as an almost perfect model for winning the race to the bottom.

Thanks for that, ALEC. And now Rick Perry is about to be unleashed on the nation. At least we have Texas as a harbinger of things to come.

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Excerpt of an article on The Nation / By Joel Rogers and Laura Dresser  July 15, 2011

The Conservatives' ALEC Philosophy: Everything Related to Government Should Be Demonized, Starved or Privatized

Any force in civil society that contests the right of business to grab all social surplus, and to treat people like road kill and the earth like a sewer, should be crushed.

This article is part of a Nation series exposing the American Legislative Exchange Council, in collaboration with the Center For Media and Democracy. John Nichols introduces the series. For more great content from the Nation, sign up for their e-mail newsletters here.

In the world according to ALEC, competing firms in free markets are the only real source of social efficiency and wealth. Government contributes nothing but security. Outside of this function, it should be demonized, starved or privatized. Any force in civil society, especially labor, that contests the right of business to grab all social surplus for itself, and to treat people like road kill and the earth like a sewer, should be crushed.

This view of the world dominated the legislative sessions that began in January. GOP leaders, fresh from their blowout victory in November, pushed a consistent message—“We’re broke”; “Public sector workers are to blame”; “If we tax the rich we’ll face economic extinction”—and deployed legislative tools inspired by ALEC to enact their vision. They faced pushback, but they also made great progress—and will be back again soon.

Let’s examine what happened in three critical economic areas:

Revenue

ALEC has long sought to limit the ability of states to raise or collect taxes or fees. Before this spring, it had already succeeded in getting more than thirty to adopt such limits, often hard-wired into their constitutions or requiring supermajorities to change. Its varied model legislation to this end includes the Capital Gains Tax Elimination Act, Use Tax Elimination Act, Super Majority Act, Taxpayer Protection Act and Automatic Income Tax Rate Adjustment Act. Its model resolutions oppose such things as mandatory unitary combined reporting (the chief way states get corporations to pay any taxes at all) while supporting such things as the federal flat tax and efforts to extend the Bush tax cuts permanently. The Automatic Income Tax Rate Adjustment Act, for example, “provides for a biennial reduction in the state adjusted gross income tax rate on residents, nonresidents, and corporations if year-over-year revenue…exceeds certain amounts,” in effect ensuring no increase in state revenue, even during periods of growth, while keeping tax cuts on the table. The Taxpayer Protection Act “prohibits the revenue department of a state from basing any employee’s compensation, promotion or evaluation on collections or assessments,” otherwise known as doing their job.

This past session, ALEC members, drawing heavily from the list above, introduced 500 bills to “starve the beast.” But their greatest victory was the most obvious one. Faced with shortfalls in state revenues from the economic crisis, states almost universally and overwhelmingly chose cuts to public employment or services over progressive tax increases as a solution.

Privatization

Privatization is so central to ALEC’s agenda that it has built a fake board game, Publicopoly, on its website, where the curious can find model legislation and other resources on privatizing basically everything, from transportation (Competitive Contracting of the Department of Motor Vehicles Act) to the environment (Environmental Services Public-Private Partnership Act). Critical to ALEC’s agenda are the foundational bills that set up the rationale for privatizing government services: the Public-Private Fair Competition Act creates a committee to review “whether state agencies unfairly compete with the private sector,” and the Competitive Contracting of Public Services Act requires “make or buy” decisions to encourage privatization. The hallmark of ALEC’s model privatization legislation, the Council on Efficient Government Act, creates “a council on efficient government to leverage resources and contract with private sector vendors if those vendors can more effectively and efficiently provide goods and services and reduce the cost of government.” These councils typically include representatives from the private sector, who then decide to let their business colleagues bid for public sector work.

In the past few years, with at least three additions this session alone, legislation establishing a state Council on Efficient Government has been introduced in Virginia, Maryland, Arizona, Kansas, Oregon, Illinois and South Carolina. In each case, the concepts in the bill mirror the ALEC proposal. In some cases—South Carolina, Arizona and Illinois—the state bills read as copies of ALEC’s model legislation. Virginia’s, Oregon’s, Maryland’s and Kansas’ bills, to varying degrees, contain language directly from ALEC’s model.

Unions

The fiercest attacks this session were reserved for public sector unions, especially in the once labor-friendly Midwest states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that went deep red in November. ALEC has a sweeping range of model antiunion laws, the broad aim of which is to make it harder to be a union and easier for workers not to pay the costs of collective bargaining or union political activity. The Right to Work Act eliminates employee obligation to pay the costs of collective bargaining; the Public Employee Freedom Act bars almost any action to induce it; the Public Employer Payroll Deduction Act bars automatic dues collection; the Voluntary Contribution Act bars the use of dues for political activity.

This spring, GOP governors or legislatures introduced at least 500 of these and other ALEC-inspired anti-labor laws, including laws to restrict the scope of collective bargaining; to limit or eliminate “project labor agreements” and state “prevailing wage” requirements; and to pre-empt local living wage or other labor standards. Just keeping track of all the antiunion legislation was often daunting. In Michigan, the AFL-CIO was dealing with more than fifty laws aimed at its demise.

In some states, the results have been lethal. In Wisconsin, the first state to legalize public sector union bargaining, public sector unions (excluding police and firefighters) were reduced to near irrelevance. The law limits collective bargaining to wages only (no bargaining over benefits, safety or work conditions) and forbids those to be increased faster than inflation. To continue to exist, unions must annually win recertification elections with more than 50 percent of the vote of all workers in their bargaining unit—a threshold requirement that is unheard of. Ohio also passed a law limiting public sector bargaining rights (including for police and firefighters) and permitting members to opt out of paying dues.

There were limits to this stampede. “Paycheck protection,” introduced in fifteen states, passed only in Alabama and Arizona. “Right to work,” introduced in eighteen states, hasn’t advanced significantly anywhere. (Tennessee reaffirmed a pre-existing right to work, and in New Hampshire the governor’s veto is holding it back.) But damage has been done. It may be that unions and other progressive organizations, moved by the carnage, will work together and with the public to build a mass movement to reverse it. Certainly, many people are trying to do that now. Whatever their success, we can be sure that ALEC will fight them fiercely in the states, while pressing forward with its own project: the complete business domination of American public life.

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Excerpt of an article Mary Bottari Center for Media and Democracy posted 7/18/2011 on huffingtonpost.com

ALEC Exposed: Milton Friedman's Little Shop of Horrors

Although he passed away in 2006, states are now grappling with many of the toxic notions left behind by University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman.

In her groundbreaking book, The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein coined the term "disaster capitalism" for the rapid-fire corporate re-engineering of societies still reeling from shock. The master of disaster? Privatization and free market guru Milton Friedman. Friedman advised governments in economic crisis to follow strict austerity measures, combining radical cuts in social services with the full-scale privatization of their more lucrative assets. Many countries in Latin America auctioned off everything standing -- from energy and water utilities to Social Security -- to for profit multinational firms, crushing unions and other dissenters along the way.

Now, U.S. states are in crisis. The 2008 Wall Street financial meltdown, caused by years of deregulation and lack of government oversight, cost Americans $14 trillion in lost wealth and eight million lost jobs. Today some 25 million are unemployed or underemployed. This jobs crisis has tanked federal and state tax receipts, adding billions to state budget shortfalls.

As the prime movers of this deregulatory agenda, the GOP spin machine has launched into hyper-drive in an attempt to wash the blood from their hands. Governors across the nation, backed by Wall Street's Club for Growth and the Koch Brother's Americans for Prosperity, are working hard to convince average Americans the a jobs crisis is actually a deficit crisis and that the culprits are not the big banks on Wall Street, but state, county and municipal workers.

In lockstep, governors are reaching for an almost identical set of "solutions," to their financial woes: massive tax breaks for big corporations, constitutional amendments to prevent states from raising revenue, the slashing of critical public services, the busting of unions and the privatization of every possible aspect of government including public schools -- long a Friedman agenda item. (See the video here.)

The similarity of these measures has not gone unnoticed, but now we have found the fountainhead of these radical measures: the American Legislative Exchange Council. (ALEC)

ALEC Exposed

This week the Center for Media and Democracy made available to the public over 800 ALEC "model" bills and resolutions on a new website, ALECexposed.org. We display the documents, crafted by corporations, and right-wing state legislators behind closed doors, so that citizens across the country can now trace the origins of many of the radical proposals moving in their states. (Our site contains lists of ALEC members, corporations, task forces, scholars, funders and more.)

Milton Friedman famously said: "Only a crisis -- actual or perceived -- produces real changes. When the crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable." Think of ALEC as Milton Friedman's little shop of horrors where legislators across the country can easily access the "ideas laying around."

ALEC is not a lobby, and it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Behind closed doors, corporations hand legislators the law changes they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Corporations are "equal" members. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. Corporations and trade groups fund almost all of ALEC's operations directly through hefty membership dues and indirectly through corporate foundations, like the Charles G. Koch Foundation.

Corporations, like Koch Industries, Phillip Morris, Reynolds, Kraft, Wal-Mart, Bayer, Coca Cola, State Farm and more, sit on ALEC task forces and vote with state legislators to approve "model" bills in secret. They wine and dine legislators at swank hotels, with child care provided, fundraisers and other perks pre-arranged. After a swell time, participating legislators -- overwhelmingly conservative Republicans -- bring the bills home and introduce them into statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations. ALEC cuts out the middleman and the state legislators themselves become "super lobbyists" for the ALEC agenda.

Disaster Capitalism in the States

In December of 2008, while the economy was shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs a month, one group was treating the catastrophe as a terrific opportunity. Governor Mitch Daniels reminded an ALEC gathering that the collapse of the U.S. economy was "a terrific time to shrink government!"

In 2010, Republicans won the governorship and control of both houses in 21 states. ALEC shock troops swung into high gear. In Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Maine a steady stream of bills emerged from Milton Friedman's shop.

Starving State Government of Revenue to Make It Dysfunctional and Despised: ALEC members are introducing hundreds of bills to grant tax breaks to big corporations and to cripple state's ability to raise revenue, including new constitutional rules to limiting state taxing powers. Grover Norquist would love these lethal proposals.

Privatizing Schools and Other Government Services: ALEC bills encompass over 20 years of effort to privatize public education through an ever-expanding school voucher system, to turn Medicare and Medicaid into voucher programs, and to privatize almost all aspects of government including toll roads and bridges, pensions, foster care and prisons. Foreign firms like Maquarie and Cintra, which are snapping up U.S. roads and bridges, are also using ALEC to push model bills.

Race to the Bottom in Wages for Americans: ALEC bills would repeal state or local laws that boost workers wages such as "living wage" and prevailing wage laws. ALEC bills call a starting minimum wage an "unfunded mandate" but think that prison labor is just terrific. ALEC also supports a radical "free trade" agenda that sends U.S. manufacturing and an increasing number of service-sector jobs overseas.

Defunding Traditional Supporters of the Democratic Party: ALEC purports to be nonpartisan, but only 1 of 104 legislators in ALEC's leadership is a Democrat. ALECexposed.org contains dozens of bills to defund public sector and private sector unions and to make it harder for trial lawyers to bring cases when consumers are injured or killed by dangerous products.

Help Needed!

ALEC's agenda is vast. These bills and many more are moving in all 50 states. We need your help! Visit ALECexposed.org today, see the corporations and legislators pursuing this agenda and help us track the bills moving in your state. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter at #ALECexposed and Take Action to tell the ALEC corporate cabal to "Dump ALEC!"

Milton Friedman , Alec , American Legislative Exchange Council , Politics News

 

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DISMANTLING PUBLIC EDUCATION

First, they intend to dismantle the Public School System, because if they can brainwash your children in religious and private schools, they can control the future population of the United States. 

How are they going to do this? By following a nationally defined plan.

Their first step is to take political power from the Teachers Unions.  As an example, let's look at local California politics and Proposition 226

Although Proposition 226 was defeated, it was a wakeup call for all those think the Religious Right political movement is dead.  Let's see what Proposition 226 would have done:  

1. It forbid foreign donations, but that was just a smokescreen.  Federal law already prohibits foreign donations to political candidates.  It would not have decreased the amount of foreign donations in any way to political campaigns. But,

2.  It would have set up two sets of rules governing how different types of organizations engage in political campaigns, which is totally unfair.   It would have stopped unions and employee organizations from engaging in politics to protect pensions, health and safety laws, and health care benefits.   Meanwhile big business - which already outspends unions and employee organizations by 11 to 1 - would have been able to freely contribute to politics to influence governmental policy and political decisions.  Hmmmmm  sort of lopsided wasn't it? and,

3.  It would have cost state and local governments and schools millions to implement because of its bureaucratic regulations on employees' political activities.

While noting the right-wing character of those pushing, the initiative, what has received little attention is what may be the primary agenda of the movement. There was a clear reason why conservative organizations from around the country were dedicated to neutralizing the voice of unions, including the National Education Association (NEA), and their allies. And this page offers important information and warnings as similar measures are pushed throughout the country. Who would have benefited?

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Southern Poverty Law Center / By Alexander Zaitchik

15 Conservative State Legislatures Trying to Upend the Constitution (And the Right-Wing Ideologues That Fuel Their Fringe Ideas)

Around the U.S., state legislators are proposing laws influenced by radical-right ideas. Most are flatly unconstitutional.

July 8, 2011  

In March, the Arizona State Senate passed a law that cut, in dramatic fashion, to the heart of a long-running debate in American history: What is the proper power dynamic between the states and the federal center? In the extremist style that has come to typify Arizona's state legislature under the influence of Republican Senate President Russell Pearce, S.B. 1433 came down with force on the side of "states' rights." The bill proposed nothing less than the creation of a 12-person body tasked with studying federal laws and nullifying any and all of those it deemed unconstitutional.

In essence, it was an attempted declaration of independence from Washington and a direct challenge to the United States Constitution, which explicitly states that laws made by the federal government and backed by the Supreme Court are "supreme."

S.B. 1433, which ultimately did not make it out of the Senate, was not the only bill of its kind to bubble up in legislatures across the country in the wake of the 2010 midterms. It exemplified a spate of challenges to federal power that illustrate how the Tea Party-fueled GOP surge of 2010 is a story playing out in every corner of the country. From Appalachia to Alaska, state lawmakers have introduced bills that challenge the authority of the federal government to execute powers granted by the Constitution. These bills target all three branches of federal power, often in language that reveals the influence of radical-right ideologues from bygone times. While the sponsors of the bills routinely point to last year's health care reform bill as the impetus for their legislation, the scope of their targets manifest a deep and longstanding animus against most of the landmark federal legislation of the modern era—from environmental protection, to reproductive rights, to the very idea of state-backed paper currency. Consider:

Virginia lawmakers have proposed the creation of an independent state currency, premised on "the destruction of the Federal Reserve System."

In Georgia, another currency bill would require banks to accept gold or silver as legal tender, thus overriding federal monetary regulations.

A group of Kentucky Republicans introduced a law exempting the state from the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency. Montana's "Sheriffs First Act," would give local sheriff's veto power over any federal law enforcement activity in their counties; those who failed to comply would face jail.

So-called "birther bills"—inspired by far-right suspicions about President Obama's country of birth and requiring new proofs of citizenship for candidates—have been introduced in a dozen states, including the moderate New England state of Maine.

Many of these same states have also seen the introduction of harsh immigration bills modeled on Arizona's controversial S.B. 1070, which has been held up in the courts since the Obama Administration's Department of Justice sued to stop its enforcement last year.

Experts doubt the current bills will have much practical impact or leave a long-term legacy.

"These bills are nothing but symbolic grandstanding for conservative constituents," says Erwin Chemerinksy, dean of the Law School at the University of California at Irvine. "States cannot violate federal law or authorize the violation of federal law. The laws are clearly unconstitutional, but that does not keep conservative politicians from introducing them."

The bible for many of the Republican legislators sponsoring states'-rights bills is Thomas Woods' Nullification: How to End Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century. Among Woods' main sources is the 1957 states' rights manifesto, The Sovereign States: Notes of a Citizen of Virginia, by James L. Kilpatrick, a chief ideologist of southern resistance during the civil rights movement.

"The ideology behind these new bills comes directly out of resistance to civil rights legislation in the 1950s," says Garrett Epps, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. "They claim it goes all the way back to Jefferson, but it's really grounded in the resistance to the federal enforcement of civil rights. I expect that to be the next wave of bills—to nullify the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This is lunatic fringe stuff that's coming out of the shadows at a moment when people see an opportunity to take us back to the 1950s."

In some cases, the sponsors of these bills have ties to extremist groups. Russell Pearce, the main sponsor of Arizona's S.B. 1070 and S.B. 1433 laws, has been a friend of neo-Nazi activist J.T. Ready, who is a former member of the National Socialist Movement. Georgia's State Rep. Bobby Franklin, sponsor of a bill that would reject the authority of the Supreme Court and essentially criminalize all abortions and even miscarriages, is a member of the Chalcedon Presbyterian Church, which is part the Christian Reconstructionist movement that seeks to impose draconian Old Testament law on the United States.

Lunatic fringe or not, the activists pushing these bills are often well organized. The driving force behind Utah's bill targeting Washington's power of eminent domain is a group called the Patrick Henry Caucus. With the help of allies like the archconservative Eagle Forum, the caucus has all but taken over the state GOP. Through events such as last year's Tenth Amendment Summit in Atlanta, it has established working contacts with state legislators in 30 states, from North Dakota to New York. The summit, organized by then-Georgia gubernatorial candidate Ray McBerry and the Tenth Amendment Center, was enthusiastically promoted by the far-right John Birch Society and the antigovernment Patriot Action Network.

As reported by the Birchers' New American magazine, participants agreed that the federal government is unconstitutionally seizing powers belonging to the states and the people. The answer, it suggested, was "through state nullification of unconstitutional federal laws." In addition to McBerry, speakers included Judge Andrew Napolitano, a far-right Fox News personality, and Roy Moore, the former Alabama chief justice who was thrown out of his job for defying federal court rulings against his placing of a Ten Commandment monument in the rotunda of his courthouse.

"The goal has always been to organize states' sovereignty activists nationwide," says Stephen E. Sandstrom, a Utah state representative and founding member of the Patrick Henry Caucus. "If we only fought health care and gun laws here in Utah, people would just dismiss us as, 'Oh, that's just right-wing Utah.' But if we get it done nationally, coordinating with like-minded people across the spectrum, we can truly have a huge impact."

What follows are state-by-state looks at some of the more outlandish proposals emanating from legislators in 15 states since last November. The status in the legislative process of many may have changed since press time.

Arizona
Arizona is the state most Americans think of first when it comes to controversial state laws. For this distinction, the state can thank S.B.. 1070, which last year all but mandated racial profiling and provided a template for state lawmakers around the country to whom enforcement-only immigration law appeals.

Republican lawmakers in the Copper State have not been resting on their laurels. Under the leadership of State Sen. Russell Pearce, they have since introduced a slew of other immigration-related bills, including S.B. 1405, which would require proof of citizenship before receiving treatment in the state's emergency rooms. Lawmakers have also passed S.B. 1610, which designates the Colt single-action army revolver the official state firearm. Perhaps the most drastic of the proposed legislation is S.B. 1178, which would make all services performed in state and all goods grown or made for consumption in Arizona "not subject to the authority of Congress under its constitutional power to regulate commerce among the several states."

Even more sweeping is S.B. 1433, which would create a 12-person "Joint Legislative Committee on Nullification of Federal Laws" to "recommend, propose and call for a vote by simple majority to nullify in its entirety a specific federal law or regulation that is outside the scope of the powers delegated by the People to the federal government in the United States Constitution." State Sen. Sylvia Allen introduced S.B. 1495 giving the governor the power to establish a "state guard" independent of the National Guard. Under the law, the governor could create this new force for "any reason the governor considers to be necessary."

Arkansas
Republican lawmakers in the Natural State crafted H.B. 1292 "to prohibit illegal aliens from receiving any state benefit except in instances of emergency or when life-saving measures are required."

The bill has enjoyed the support of activists with the hard-right nativist group Secure Arkansas, an organization whose director, Jeannie Burlsworth, is on record describing a water conservation bill as a ruse to "[turn] America from a Republic into a Fascist, Communist order [that] will enable the globalist water masters to start working towards achieving centralized World Bank objectives which will severely limit our individual water use." While not as extreme as many bills making their way through state legislatures, it signifies a lurch rightward for a state dependent on undocumented workers for key industries such as industrial poultry farming.

Colorado
Colorado Republicans introduced S.B. 54 to allow police to make warrantless arrests of those it suspected of being in the country illegally. H.B. 1088 would require a court to consider (before setting bail) any "information" provided by the district attorney, a pretrial services agency or a law enforcement agency that suggests there are "reasonable grounds" to believe a defendant is an illegal immigrant. The bill would also require a law enforcement agency to tell both the DA and pretrial services agencies if there are "reasonable grounds" to believe a person is an illegal immigrant.

Georgia  
State Rep. Bobby Franklin — the self-described "conscience of the Republican Caucus" — made national headlines when he introduced H.B. 1. The bill would require women who have had miscarriages to provide evidence that they were not "at fault." Those who could not do this would be subject to criminal investigations by the state.

The foundation for the bill is Franklin's belief that the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to hear Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that legalized many abortions. Franklin's bill states: "The State of Georgia has the duty to protect all innocent life from the moment of conception until natural death. We know that life begins at conception." In the past, Franklin has expressed the view that the state has no authority to issue driver's licenses or teach children.

On the immigration front, State Rep. Matt Ramsey introduced H.B. 87, known locally as the "Show Me Your Papers" law. It would require state and local law enforcement officers to investigate the immigration status of all individuals they "reasonably suspect" of being in the country illegally. H.B. 72 would eliminate the ability to take the permanent driver license exam in a language other than English.

Finally, H.B. 401 is among the most ambitious of the "birther bills" popping up around the country. It would give any registered voter a two-week window to challenge a candidate's bona fides, even after the Georgia secretary of state certifies a candidate as native-born.

Kentucky
Republican state senators introduced S.B. 99 to make their state a "sanctuary" from meddling by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. State Sen. Joe Bowen introduced a bill that would allow public schools to host classes about the Bible.

Montana
Republican legislators associated with the Tea Party in the Treasure State have been giving their counterparts in Arizona a run for their money. Within weeks of the opening of the new session, members of the House and Senate introduced a number of bills designed to nullify various pieces of landmark federal legislation. One targets the Endangered Species Act, which the right sees as inhibiting extraction industries operating in state. Another would make county sheriffs the supreme authority.

But these legislators' respect for local sovereignty is not endless. The same bloc of lawmakers has introduced bills to smack down locally approved ordinances on marijuana and protections for gay people.

Nebraska 
State Sen. Mark Christensen's L.B. 232 represents one of the most extreme pieces of anti-abortion legislation in memory. The bill would allow a mother or another person to use force — including deadly force — to "protect a fetus." While it was supported by anti-abortion groups such as Americans United for Life and Family First, fears that it would increase the threat of, and possibly sanction, violence against abortion providers led local law enforcement officials to join the ACLU and Planned Parenthood in speaking up against it.

Christensen is known for introducing controversial legislation. He is also the force behind recently proposed laws that would allow teachers to carry concealed weapons on school grounds; require presidential and vice presidential candidates to provide a "certified copy" of their "original long-form" birth certificates in order to be listed on the ballot; and prohibit Nebraska's courts from citing Islamic religious, or Shariah, law in their rulings.

New Hampshire 
Republican State Rep. Daniel Itse introduced H.B. 343 to create a volunteer "permanent state defense force," separate from the New Hampshire National Guard, "to defend this state from invasion, rebellion, disaster, insurrection, riot, breach of the peace or imminent danger thereof, or to maintain the organized militia." The legislation would require Gov. John Lynch to establish a state guard comprised of an undetermined number of volunteers who sign up for one-year stints. It would have an "inactive reserve" made up of all able-bodied adult state residents, with exemptions for conscientious objectors, state and federal officials and others.

Itse is a natural sponsor for such a bill. In February 2009, he said that the state of New Hampshire need not comply with federal legislation, citing Thomas Jefferson's Kentucky Resolutions.

Ohio 
State Rep. Lynn Wachtmann introduced H.B. 125 to ban abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat could be detected—before many even know they are pregnant.

Oklahoma 
Republican lawmakers in the Sooner State have proposed nearly 30 bills dealing with various aspects of immigration. Two-thirds of them have come from the offices of State Rep. Randy Terrill, a member of the hard-line State Legislators for Legal Immigration, and State Sen. Ralph Shortey, a member of a newly set up joint immigration reform committee. The bills would crack down on undocumented residents of the state in numerous ways, ranging from restricting property rights of noncitizens to requiring school officials know the legal status of students.

The "Interstate Compact for Birth Certificates Act" is a direct challenge to the birthright clause 14th Amendment. Several bills require schools to identify undocumented students; one would allow school districts to charge students not lawfully present in the country, while others would prohibit them from resident tuition. With words echoing the Arizona immigration law enacted last year, one piece of legislation would allow law enforcement with "reasonable suspicion that a person is an alien" to "determine the person's immigration status."

South Carolina
State Sen. Lee Bright introduced legislation that backs the creation of an "alternative" currency for the Palmetto State. The currency to be created by S.B. 500 is predicated on the expectation of a breakdown of the Federal Reserve System. According to Bright's bill, "many widely recognized experts predict the inevitable destruction of the Federal Reserve System's currency through hyperinflation in the foreseeable future."

South Dakota
Among the most controversial bills of recent memory was H.B. 1171, which became a flash point in the right's broader national challenge to abortion rights. Introduced by Republican State Rep. Phil Jensen, the bill sought to widen the definition of "justifiable homicide" (usually restricted to self-defense) to include homicide committed to prevent harm to a fetus.

H.B. 1217, meanwhile, would force women to undergo counseling at a Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) before they can obtain an abortion. Critics note that CPCs are not regulated and are generally run by anti-abortion Christian groups and staffed by volunteers—not doctors or nurses.

State Rep. Hal Wick introduced H.B. 1237, a bill that would mandate that every resident of the state over the age of 21 purchase a firearm sufficient for their self-defense. It is, says Wick, his way of satirizing mandatory health care.

Tennessee
State Sen. Bill Ketron and State Rep. Judd Matheny introduced S.B. 1028 to make the practice of Shariah law a felony. It is considered the strictest anti-Shariah law among more than a dozen such bills around the country that would bar judges from considering Shariah in legal decisions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The bill's sponsors, who are also fighting the expansion of a mosque 30 miles southeast of Nashville, describe the bill as "a powerful counterterrorism tool." Local Muslim groups fear the measure would outlaw central tenets of Islam, such as praying five times a day toward Mecca, abstaining from alcohol and fasting for Ramadan.

Texas 
Nearly 60 pieces of immigration-related legislation have been filed in the Lone Star state legislature. The bills range from mandating that school districts report immigration status of children, to making it a felony to hire an undocumented individual, to denying birth certificates to children of the undocumented (another direct challenge to the 14th Amendment). Republican State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst has introduced a bill that would mandate law enforcement agents turn detained undocumented residents over to a U.S. senator's office or congressmen's office.

The Senate also saw the introduction of S.B. 16, requiring doctors to perform a sonogram at least two hours before an abortion takes place and to provide the woman with an opportunity to view it or hear the fetal heartbeat. The bill's exceptions include cases of rape, incest or where the fetus has fatal abnormalities.

Utah
In the words of one longtime political analyst of the Beehive State, "Utah politics always has a lot of crazy to choose from." This year offers a typically rich bounty.

The state has seen a raft of "Arizona-like" enforcement-only immigration bills, mostly notably H.B. 497, which would create a light trigger (misdemeanors) for the mandatory check of immigration status. Another bill would repeal resident tuition for state college students who are in the country illegally but graduated from a Utah high school.

And thanks to State Rep. Carl Wimmer, the Browning M1911 handgun is now the official Utah state firearm. (Wimmer is also pushing to liberalize gun laws with a "constitutional carry" provision which would allow anybody who isn't mentally ill to have a loaded gun, anywhere, without a permit.)

And State Sen. Mark Madsen introduced H.B. 220, which states that the United States is a "constitutional compound republic" — not a "democracy" — and that Utah schools should make this clear in classrooms. Madsen says his bill stems from a desire to have "true history" taught. "Schools from coast to coast are indoctrinating our children to socialism," he said.

 

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EXTREME RIGHT PANTHEON

Now lets look at the major contributors who want to keep working Americans from having a voice in state politics: 

• Coors Brewing Co., (Not surprising since the Coors gives to many right wing causes, but they would have benefited by reducing union contributions, while letting them contribute as much as they wanted!)

• The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the group working on getting initiatives like this introduced in state legislatures and on the ballot in other states. The major sources of funds for ALEC include Golden Rule Insurance Co., Coors Brewing Co. and major tobacco and oil interests. ALEC, a project of the Heritage Foundation, drafts and pushes "model" legislation wherever it can. 

• Brothers David and Charles Koch of Koch Industries, a Kansas-based oil company, who are major supporters of ALEC and other anti-union groups. As a vice-presidential candidate in 1980 (on the Libertarian ticket), David Koch called for the abolition of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. 

• Paul Weyrich, the Heritage Foundation, (The Heritage Foundation is a Right Wing think tank and conduit for right wing donations)

• U.S. Chamber of Commerce, (why wouldn't they?  They represent big business!)

• Carl Lindner, top officer at Chiquita Banana, who dropped $100,000 on the initiative.

• Mountaire Corp., an Arkansas food processor whose CEO routinely gives to GOP candidates, $20,000.

• The US Justice Foundation, $20,000.

• Newt Gingrich and his pal Grover Norquist, (They are right Wing Republicans, they hate Unions and wanted their influence reduced)

• David Brennan and the Brenlin Group, Akron, Ohio, $49,000. Brennan has been a major contributor to Gingrich's GOPAC and a backer of school vouchers. 

• Business Roundtable (The Business Roundtable wanted to reduce the influence of Unions) ,

• Pittsburgh billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife gave $50,000 to Prop 174 and $100,000 to Prop 226. Scaife provided funding to several state-based policy groups, including the Reason Foundation, Claremont Institute, and Pacific Research Institute, as well as the Rutherford Institute.

• Howard Ahmanson, Jr. gave $223,000 to Prop 226 and $402,353 to Prop 174. Ahmanson is a founding director of the Rutherford Institute and is on the board of governors of the Council for National Policy and the board of directors of the Claremont Institute, which funded pro-Prop 226 ads.

• Golden Rule Insurance Co. CEO emeritus J. Patrick Rooney gave $49,000 to Prop 226 and $ 100,000 to Prop 174. As the founder of CHOICE Charitable Trust, Rooney is the godfather of the privately funded voucher movement. He is also the chairman of the American Education Reform Foundation, which gave $48,325 to Prop 226.   This is the biggest laugh.   This idiot has been pushing medical vouchers to the federal congress for years and would love to get a vote where only big business was donating money for political races.   He would really benefit because guess what - HE WANTS TO SELL MEDICAL SAVINGS ACCOUNTS!  Who can afford them?  Only those who make a lot of money or less than 10% of the population! 

• J. Patrick Rooney recently founded Medical Savings Insurance Co. which specializes in the health savings accounts created out of President George W. Bush's 2003 prescription drug plan, according to the Washington Post, which first reported on Rooney's backing for People of Color United, a political front group that purports to represent African-Americans (although Rooney is Caucasian). He has provided approximately half the funding for the group, which is running misleading ads on African-American radio stations.

  The Post quoted Rooney on August 12, 2006[1]:

  "Rooney: I have a long history of involvement with and support of the black community. . . For 21 years I have gone to an all-black church. They finally elected me over other black people to their church board. I'm one of them."

  In the fall of 2006, Rooney was the primary funder for pro-Republican radio advertising aimed at African-American voters. He contributed $900,000 to America's Pac, which conducted the campaign. The ads included a conversation between two black men about "ho's" and an attempt to link Republican white supremacist David Duke with the Democratic Party. [2]

  Other Sources:

  • Josh Gerstein, "Republican Group Chides Democrats With Abortion Ads. Aim Is To Win Minority Voters, But Democrats Cry Foul," New York Sun, October 17, 2006.
  • Mike McIntire, "Well-known blogger focuses attack on Obama" MSNBC-Newsweek, August 30, 2007.

• John Walton, of the Wal-Mart fortune, Arkansas, gave $250,250 to Prop 174 and $360,000 to Prop 226. He also --gave $137,000 to the Claremont Institute, which paid for pro-Prop 226 ads. Working with Ted Forstmann, Walton in June launched a $200 million national voucher effort.

• James Leininger, chairman of Kinetic Concepts in Austin, Texas, contributed $49,000 to Prop 226. He played a key role in founding the pro-voucher organization CEO America, a member of the State Policy Network whose board of directors includes Rooney and Walton. In May, CEO America announced a $50 million program to fund vouchers in San Antonio in an attempt to persuade Texas legislators to support a statewide voucher bill. He is also a major source of funding for a PAC for Parental School Choice, which supports conservative candidates in school board elections.

Notice anything strange about these players? First, there's not a single California citizen in the bunch.   All these individuals and organizations live and operate outside the state, but they wanted to set the rules for working people in California. 

Second, this group claimed to be on the side of working people and union members.   But a closer look at the issues and positions these groups have taken in the past demonstrates how far from the truth that claim really was. 

The major financial supporters of Prop. 226, identified above, raised and spent over $149 million -- to try to get this measure by citizens in California and other states.

Many of the proponents of the anti-worker initiatives-in California and elsewhere-are the same cast of characters who are leading and funding an anti-public education crusade nationwide. The funders of California's Prop 226- individuals, organizations, and foundations-are the same major players in voucher initiatives throughout the country. They are the same people who supported California’s unsuccessful voucher initiative, Prop 174, in 1993. And they are the same people who are now pushing expanded voucher programs, funded with private money, to win over the public as well as lawmakers. In reality, "paycheck protection' may well have been a fight over the future of public education.

Choking off NEA funding is not an end in itself. Rather, evidence indicates the conservative network uses it as a critical step in achieving its broader aims which include a state-by-state assault on public education. By forcing NEA to engage in "paycheck protection" fights, the network achieves the added result of diverting funding away from NEAs ongoing pro-public education efforts.

As a means of understanding the enemy, lets take an in-depth look at two of the individuals mentioned above, who are also movers and shakers in the Republican party which has been taken over by the Religious Right.

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INDIANA INSURANCE TYCOON

Nearly two-thirds of the funds being used to promote Prop. 226 -- more than 60 percent -- were from people who don't live in California.  Case in point -- J. Patrick Rooney, an Indiana insurance company executive. Rooney founded the Golden Rule Insurance Co., which lobbies Congress regularly for the right to sell "medical savings accounts" for individuals, as well as for changes in Medicare that could undermine the entire system. 

Golden Rule's often deceptive practices have resulted in a $2.8 million fine levied by the Michigan Insurance Commission and continuing investigations by other authorities.   Rooney's idea of medical insurance is to issue policies only to those people "it deems healthy and unlikely to file a claim," according to a 1994 investigation by a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. 

Rooney is very close to pals Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist (more about them later) and this trio has had quite a relationship over the past years.  Rooney contributed $1 million to the GOP in the 1996 elections and half-a-million to the Republican National Committee in 1994.  He gave another $117,000 to GOPAC in 1993 (then controlled by Gingrich) and has poured millions into right-wing efforts nationwide to replace quality public education with a voucher scheme that would benefit very few students.  Most recently, he's dropped another $100,000 into a California ballot initiative to de-fund public education.  He gave over $49,000 to defeat Prop. 226-- just below the reportable limit of $50,000, claiming that he didn't "need the publicity." Another Rooney-connected group, the American Education Reform Foundation, contributed an additional $48,325. 

California was just the first stop on Rooney's tour.  He also met with members of the Republican Governors Association to talk up this initiative and outline his other target states. 

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GROVER NORQUIST - GINGRICH'S GADFLY

Grover Norquist has been a player among right-wing circles in Washington, D.C. for years.   A member of Newt Gingrich's "kitchen cabinet," Norquist set up a number of extreme organizations, including Americans for Tax Reform and the "Leave Us Alone" Coalition (whose members include the NRA, Christian Coalition and National Federation of Independent Business.)  

Among the other positions he's staked out, Norquist believes social security should be replaced with individual investments in the stock market. "If you privatize social security, if you voucher education, if you sell $270 billion worth of airports and wastewater treatment plants, eliminate welfare, and so on, you can cut the government to basically half its present size," Norquist believes. 

Norquist is busily raising money -- he said he plans to raise millions  -- to promote similar initiatives on next November's ballot in at least eight states and to lobby for passage of such bills in every state where legislatures meet in 2000. Norquist adds:  "Incidentally, there's an added bonus. It also de-funds the GOP's best-financed and most implacable opponents." 

This is a message California Gov. Pete Wilson carried as well, to the Republican Governors Association and a meeting with members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  Wilson's anti-union sentiment was no surprise to California workers.  Back in the 1970s, as mayor of San Diego, Wilson was constantly fighting with unionized bus drivers, fire fighters and other employees. 

Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform did much of the heavy lifting on this initiative, paying for a 1.5-million-piece mailing to get the proposition on the June ballot. This group and Norquist contributed $441,000 to the campaign. Not surprising, given the Norquist connection, Americans for Tax Reform is pressing hard for medical savings accounts as a key to "Medicare reform." 

As you can see from this example, the Religious Right through the Republican Party focuses is on making a profit for their contributors who are for the most part - Big Business!  They try to decrease the ballot power of their opponents by legislation.  They want to do away with Social Security and make everyone become involved in the stock market which is not a very good idea given the ups and downs of the stock market, but Big Business will thrive because of the influx of money.   They want to do away with Medicare and Medicaid and just give everyone Medical Savings accounts which can be tax deductible, but only the well off or rich can use them.   They want to give vouchers to students to be used at any public or private school they want to go to, only experience has shown that the religious private schools find ways of keeping the most needy from being accepted and the only ones who get to use these vouchers are the ones who already have their kids in private schools.  Plus the private schools get to force their brand of religion on defenseless children.  Pretty good deal - the rich get richer because the are subsidized in their choice of private schools, and the poor get nothing but the same.  Pretty sick isn't it?  But we will all be suffering if these greedy immoral individuals have their way.

 

THE RIGHT WING CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT

During the 1970s, an effort to organize social conservatives resulted in a network of activists under the leadership of Paul Weyrich, beer baron Joseph Coors, former presidential candidate Howard Phillips, NCPAC founder Terry Dolan, and direct mail guru Richard Viguerie. It was Weyrich, founder of the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, and Viguerie, who first understood the politics of organizing religious leaders around the abortion issue. Weyrich brought in Jerry Falwell with the formation of the Moral Majority and persuaded Pat Robertson to run for president in 1988. Weyrich and Viguerie believed that social conservatives could be organized into a group that would form a following greater than the activist core of either the Democratic or Republican parties. As Richard Viguerie said: "I organize discontent."

In 1973, Paul Weyrich and Joseph Coors created The Heritage Foundation to develop public policy.   Weyrich also established the Free Congress Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization created to disseminate public policy from the right. The Heritage Foundation, under Weyrichs direction, then organized the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Washington-based association whose membership is made up primarily of conservative Republican state legislators. Together the three founded the State Policy Network to oversee an association of state-based think tanks that function as Heritage-like organizations at the state level.

To summarize, the Right Wing Conservative movement is disciplined, organized and extremely well funded. It has a national reach and management with a local presence. This movement is:

• grounded in the Religious Right, representing millions of grassroots members;

• coordinated through the Council for National Policy, representing the nation's leading conservative activists;

• funded by wealthy Conservative Philanthropic Foundations;

• guided by high-profile national policy organizations, including the Heritage Foundation, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Americans for Tax Reform, Center for the Study of Popular Culture, and the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution;

• executed locally with lobbying, research, and media spin through the conservative think ranks that are members of the State Policy Network;

• largely controlled by a small group of individuals and organizations representing some of the wealthiest people in the country.

This movement has swept through the states of Washington and California and is now at work in more than two dozen other states.  What this alliance has movement to achieve in California and the U.S. House and Senate, it is attempting to achieve in each of the other states. Just as devolution has shifted power from Washington, DC, to the 50 states, so too does this movement seek to empower its supporters in methodically accomplishing their agenda on a state-by-state basis.

This page will expose the efforts of this national coalition of Right Wing groups in its efforts to: Take over public education,  as well as revoke First Amendment guarantees, including the separation of church and state and freedom of speech; Mandate sectarian prayer in schools; Deny civil rights to all Americans; Fight gun safety; Fight campaign finance reform, and Fight efforts to protect the environment.

To find out how we can stop this insidious cancer from spreading any further, we will look at the operations and policies of the following organizations and individuals which provide the policy direction, funding, and framework for the Christian Conservative movement. They often have interrelated boards and funding sources. They include:

• The Religious Right which is the heart which produces the grassroots support, this includes focus on the family, Christian Coalition, etc.

• The Council for National Policy is the Nervous System, it provides the networking resource where all the individuals and groups can meet in secrecy and map out their insidious plot to take over the minds and hearts of every American.  The Council is the principal coordinating body-and funding mechanism-for political projects of religious conservatives.

• The many Conservative philanthropic foundations and organizations are the Energy of the beast. they provide the financial resources needed to influence elections.

• The Heritage Foundation is the brains of the beast, it dispenses the philosophical direction.  This organization is by far the largest and best funded "think tank' in the country, and with the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, it has been the most influential conservative voice in Congress. On the issue of "paycheck protection," Heritage has been playing a supportive public relations role to Americans for Tax Reform, ALEC, and members of the State Policy Network. To foster legislation on the state level, Heritage has worked with ALEC, the Family Research Council, and other conservative and religious policy organizations to create. a network of state-based think tanks that provide some of the most effective arms and legs for the conservative movement.  Some of its co-conspirators are: 
  • The Americans for Tax Reform - Among the most active organizations, Americans for Tax Reform was the largest donor in support of California Prop 226 (contributing, $441,000); 
  • the National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation - As the law firm for the National Right to Work Committee, the Foundation has taken an active role around the country by supplying the legal muscle for "paycheck protection' drives and has worked closely with
  • Americans for Tax Reform and ALEC. It claims to have more than 400 court cases pending nationwide;
  • The Center for the Study of Popular Culture - David Horowitz, the president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, has long been an adversary of the NEA. In a September 1996 Los Angeles Times interview he said, "'We want to take them out of politics, not just in California, but in every state in the Union.";
  • The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution - One of the most aggressively pro-voucher groups, the institution recruits high-profile figure's to promote its agenda. It specifically targets the NEA for criticism and was rated by the National Journal as one of the "up and coming think tanks" in Washington, DC.

• The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the Skeleton, which furnishes the framework for legislative initiatives.  Although nominally a bipartisan organization, ALECs strong conservative bent accounts for the bulk of its membership (of 3,000 state legislators) being from the Republican side of the aisle. Working with the other organizations listed here and the State Policy Network, ALEC has circulated model "paycheck protection' and other conservative legislation to states.

• The State Policy Network is the Arms and Legs, which supply support to legislators committed to conservative ballot initiatives or legislative action.

• Now we have the Tea Party Organizations who are funded by Koch Industries and Other Billionaires

Playing a leading role (politically and financially) are seven individuals:

* Grover Norquist - president of Americans for Tax Reform, which was the single biggest contributor to Prop 226-$441,000. Norquist has pledged to spend $10 million to put anti-worker measures on ballots in up to eight states. He finally accomplished his goal as several Governors passed anti-union initiatives.

* Bob Williams - president of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, which spearheaded the Washington paycheck protection effort.

* Howard Ahmanson, Jr. - Religious Right California philanthropist.

* J. Patrick Rooney - Golden Rule Insurance Company CEO Emeritus.

* Richard Scaife - Pittsburgh billionaire and owner of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

* James R. Leininger - Conservative Texas philanthropist.

* John Walton - of the Wal-Mart fortune.

* David Koch - Oil and Gas Billionaire

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THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT

The "heart" of this network of conservative organizations working to take away our economic, political and religious freedom is the Religious Right. Made up of dozens of religious groups around the country, this network has supplied leadership, staff, money, and grassroots power to many conservative causes in the past two decades. The most active and well-funded of these religious organizations are Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and the Christian Coalition. Each plays a role by either mobilizing members or contributing directly to the effort.  They provide the leadership, staff, money, and grassroots power to many conservative causes.

Due to the nonprofit status of religious right groups, it is difficult to pinpoint the extent of their involvement in various political initiatives. But it is clear that groups associated with the religious right paid for mailings, phone banks, voter guides, and get-out-the-vote efforts.

The Christian Coalition, for example, said it would distribute two million voter guides in churches the Sunday before the June 2 vote on Prop 226, according to The Washington Post. A letter from Focus on the Family president James Dobson was mailed to thousands of Californians, urging their support for the initiative. The Family Research Council, through its "advocacy" arm American Renewal, contributed $10,000 during the final days of the campaign.

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The Apostles

Rachel Maddow did the world a favor recently by airing a series of short video clips of the endorsers of Rick Perry’s Prayer Event.   The clips were posted by Right Wing Watch, with some originating from Talk2action.org. These video clips should receive much more national exposure, but they need to be viewed in context of the movement they represent. Rachel Maddow, keep at it!  Perry’s endorsers are not just a random group of radical evangelists making outrageous statements.

 

These are the apostles and prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation, the biggest international religious movement you never heard of.

 

C. Peter Wagner, the one in the video clip about the Japanese stock market plunging because the emperor slept with the sun goddess, is probably the most powerful religious leader that you never heard of.

 

C. Peter Wagner

 

Peter Wagner is the Convening Apostle of a international network of apostles and prophets who believe they are unifying the church to take control over government and society, and bring about the return of Jesus.  The apostles have a 50-state communications and mobilization network of “prayer warriors,” which is becoming increasingly enticing to right-wing politicians.  Remember Sarah Palin’s repeated thanks to her prayer warriors?  This was not a generic use of the term, as described in a previous Alternet article by Bill Berkowitz in 2010.

 

Wagner coined the term New Apostolic Reformation, and describes his movement as “the most radical  change in the way of doing church since the Protestant Reformation.”  The movement primarily draws from the Independent Charismatic sector of Christianity, which encompasses almost 400 million people worldwide and is sometimes referred to as neo-Pentecostal or neo-Charismatic. The latter description is used in the World Christian Trends, the gold standard for statistics for the evangelical missions movement.

 

Wagner is the brains behind the demon and witch-hunting that is part of Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare, or SLSW, that has drawn interest throughout much of the charismatic evangelical world.  With the aid of some of his top apostles including Cindy Jacobs and Ed Silvoso, Wagner developed and promoted the SLSW techniques of spiritual mapping, warfare prayer, and “Reconciliation” events.  The latter are claimed to remove the “generational curses” from certain population groups such as Native Americans, African Americans, Roman Catholics, and those of non-Christian faiths.

 

Sam Brownback’s promotion of the U.S. Senate’s resolution of apology to Native Americans was in coordination with Apostles Jay Swallow, Nigel Bigpond, Lou Engle, and John Benefiel, who believe the removal of a generational curse will bring an end to abortion.

 

The video clip of Wagner’s claim that the Japanese stock market slump could be explained because the emperor had sexual intercourse with the sun goddess, is from a Wagner video seminar series.  It’s titled Breaking Strongholds in Your City: How to Use Spiritual Mapping to Make Your Prayers More Strategic, Effective, and Targeted. The training series is introduced by Jack Hayford, former head of the International Foursquare Gospel, who has played a pivotal role in Pentecostals embracing Wagner’s New Apostolic movement and ideology.

 

While you may be tempted to chuckle and brush off this sudden onslaught of information about the apostles – their burning of other people’s religious objects and claims that the Statue of Liberty, monuments, and Indian mounds are demonic – don’t.  Chances are the apostles have a prayer warrior group or “Transformations” entity in your city or region.

 

The Global Day of Prayer initiated by South African Graham Power is a product of this movement and much Religious Right activism in this country has been commandeered by the movement.  Religious Right leaders like James Dobson, former head of Focus on Family, and Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, have participated in events led by the apostles, as have numerous other traditional Religious Right leaders.  American Family Association sponsored Rick Perry’s event, whose organizers also include leadership of Lou Engle’s The Call and Mike Bickle’s International House of Prayer.

 

International Christian Zionist activism is increasingly dominated by the New Apostolics.  John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) and another endorser of Rick Perry’s prayer event, teaches a different end times theology.  However, many of his CUFI directors are New Apostolic leaders and support the aggressive proselytization of Jews and “Israel Mandates” that characterize the movement.

 

C. Peter Wagner was Rick Warren’s mentor for his dissertation at Fuller Theological Seminary.  That dissertation was the foundation for Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Church, which was followed by Warren’s blockbuster book The Purpose Driven Life.  Warren’s dissertation promoted the idea, also advanced by Wagner’s movement, that evangelical churches should not be democratically governed.

 

Wagner has written about Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. plan as being “Phase One” in a God-given mandate for Christians to take “dominion” or control over the earth. Wagner describes Phase one as, “strategic-level spiritual warfare and associated activities have not been placed front and center.”  This takes place in Phase Two and Phase Three, as Wagner defines it, includes the apostolic/prophetic government of the church, dominion theology, the Seven Mountains mandate, and the great wealth transfer.  The latter is the belief taught by the apostles that there will be an imminent transfer of wealth from the ungodly to the godly. The Seven Mountains mandate is the call for charismatic evangelicals to take control over arts, business, education, family, government, media and entertainment and religion.

 

In the late 1990s, Wagner was finishing up his leadership role in a massive world missions project called AD 2000 and Beyond, which aimed to evangelize the world by the year 2000. Billy Graham served as the honorary co-chair of the effort.  Wagner left his 30-year position teaching Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary to move to Colorado Springs and set up the nerve center of the New Apostolic Reformation.  His partner in this enterprise was Ted Haggard, who would later lead the National Association of Evangelicals.  What could be described as the Pentagon of Spiritual Warfare, was set up in the World Prayer Center adjacent to Haggard’s New Life Church.

 

Haggard had worked with Wagner in AD 2000 and Beyond, and Haggard wrote in his book The Life Giving Church that their worldwide prayer network involved 40 million people at its peak.  Haggard promoted the spiritual warfare ideas of the movement, including conducting “spiritual mapping” of his community of Colorado Springs.  He claimed this effort drove witches out of the town and, in Haggard’s words, resulted in reduced cattle mutilations.  This tidbit can be found in Haggard’s 1996 book Primary Purpose.

 

While Warren and Haggard became well known to the public, Wagner managed to stay completely out of the limelight as he developed a global religious network.  His apostles in this movement can be found in countries around the world, meeting with presidents, prime ministers, business leaders, and politicians.

Apostles and Politics

 

In the U.S., in addition to Sarah Palin and Sam Brownback, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Jim DeMint, and many others have participated in events led by the apostles.  In Jacksonville, Florida, Kimberly Daniels, a leading apostle specializing in demon expulsion was recently elected to city council – as a Democrat.  In the primaries prior to the 2010 election, Hawaii’s gubernatorial race included two candidates working closely with Apostle Ed Slivoso’s International Transformation Network – Republican Duke Aiona and Democrat Mufi Hannemann.

 

This is ironic, given that Aiona is Catholic and Hannemann is Mormon.  These two faiths have been literally demonized by the New Apostolic leadership, who have written openly about destroying the icons, artifacts, and relics of these and other religious beliefs. Leading apostles go on spiritual warfare ventures around the world with the goal of taking on the “Queen of Heaven,” described by Wagner as “one of the most powerful spirits in Satan’s hierarchy” and responsible for blocking the evangelization of both Catholics and Muslims.   Wagner has written extensively about one particular venture in 1997 called “Operation Ice Castle,” led by Wagner’s wife and a lead prophetess, and later described as perhaps contributing to the death of Mother Teresa.

 

In 2008, after Sarah Palin was named as John McCain’s running mate, contributors at Talk2action.org published tens of thousands of words documenting Palin’s ties to leadership and activities of the New Apostolic Reformation.  Despite having video and audio documentation, the idea of a specific network of apostles and prayer warriors was treated with derision by most of the mainstream press, and many academics and religion writers.

 

The video of Palin being anointed by an Kenyan pastor in a ceremony that included calls for protection from witchcraft, was discounted as overblown and part of the Kenyan  pastor’s native cultural heritage.  The reality is that Thomas Muthee was an international leader in Wagner’s network and well known around the world in some circles for his role as a star in movement’s training films called The Transformations.  These movies are produced by George Otis, Jr. and  feature vignettes of communities around the globe that have supposedly been transformed through this prayer movement of the end times. The crowning jewel in this series of transformations is supposedly the nation of Uganda, site of several Transformations movies.

 

The spiritual mapping and spiritual warfare techniques taught by the movement are the product of Wagner and other western missionaries, as described in an extensive academic treatment of spiritual mapping, written by Rene Holvast.  The overview of my well-worn copy of this resource states, “The reader is presented with a unique insight into Spiritual Mapping as an expression of Americanism, as well as the socio-political concept of Manifest Destiny and U.S. religious marketing.”

 

Other’s dismissed the investigation of Palin’s association with the apostles as an attack on conservative Christianity.  However, outside of the progressive writers at Talk2action.org and PFAW’s Right Wing Watch, almost all of the critical media on the apostles has come from conservative evangelicals. Many evangelicals are opposed to the dominion theology and politicized Christianity taught by the movement, as well as their goal of eradicating denominations and restructuring world Protestantism.

 

In 2008, Palin’s religious activities were brushed off as either weird, none of our business, or overhyped.  There was little serious effort by the press, including religion writers, to analyze her relationship to a movement that threatens religious pluralism and separation of church and state. Numerous journalists used sources at Charisma Magazine to dismiss the documentation being released by contributors of Talk2action.org and other sources.  This was questioning the fox about who ate the chickens.  At that time both the publisher of Charisma, Stephen Strang, and editor, J. Lee Grady, were apostles in C. Peter Wagner’s International Coalition of Apostles.

 

The offhanded dismissal of the apostles has already started.

 

C. Porter Wagner?

 

Cathy Lynn Grossman, writing for USA Today, discounted the efforts of Right Wing Watch to expose the New Apostolic network behind Perry’s event.  She implies that Perry should not be held accountable for the evangelists who endorse his event and failed to note that the organizers, not just endorsers, include leaders from this movement.  Grossman referred to C. Peter Wagner, one of the most influential religious leaders in the country, if not the world, as “C. Porter Wagner.”

 

Grossman states that one source knows that the American Family Association “is running this show.”  It is true that the AFA, designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is financing the event, but they are not the sole organizers of the event.  And I would be a little wary of Grossman’s source, which has a vested interest in how this event is publicized.  Her source was Charisma Magazine.

 

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FOCUS ON THE FAMILY

Dr. James Dobson has lobbied Washington more powerfully than any single person or organization on the religious right today and is arguably the most respected man in the social conservative movement. Dobson is president of Focus on the Family, the largest and strongest Religious Right organization both financially and in terms of its grassroots strength and impact. He has the media arm, the ua-,sroots organization, and the lobbying arm to exert his influence. Focus on the Family, plus his Washin6,ton lobbying group, the Family Research Council, raised approximately $125 million in 1996, reporting gross receipts of nearly $1 1 0 million with assets of some $72 million.

Dobson is effectively getting his message out to a worldwide audience. Focus on the Family reaches more than six million people through its 15 monthly and bimonthly magazines and newsletters. In 1996, Focus published and distributed more than 78 million items.

A daily radio audience of nearly six ml I Ilion people listen to Focus radio programs on more than two thousand TJ.S. stations and 1,500 stations internationally. The organization publishes books as well, including Gary Bauer's biography, Our Home, Our Dream Dobson, himself, has written 14 books on child rearing and discipline.

Dobson, who claims 3.5 million families on his mailing list, reaches his many followers through his folksy radio program, which deals primarily with child rearing and family counseling. Often, families initially come to Focus on the Family for advice and grief counseling. The staff then converts that initial contact into contributions and grassroots action with sophisticated product marketing, premiums, and political messages that advance Dobson's agenda.

"Until recants [Dobson] was regarded among many on Capitol Hill as a bumpkin who imagines himself to be a political leader Conservatives know better.   Washington Post

 Dobson also commands a network of family policy councils in more than 30 states. These councils comprise the grassroots arm of Dobson's network, even though the individual councils claim to be totally independent. Focus delivers these councils' literature tucked into Dobson@s letters. Focus employees travel around the country to lead Community Impact Seminars, which are really grassroots training seminars. Some of the Family Policy Councils-including the Alabama Family Alliance and the Capital Resource Institute-also belong to the State Policy Network, whose supporters include activists involved in national anti-employee initiatives. Dobson, used the Capitol Resource Institute to distribute a letter urging voters to support Prop 226.

"If I go, I'll take as many people with me as possible." James Dobson

In July 1996, Dobson was highly critical of Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, who declared he would have no litmus test on abortion. Dobson described his constituency at that time: "Their views are not represented ... by The New York 7z-mes or by what goes on Capitol Hill. ...They are concerned about same sex ideology and what their kids are being taught in school. They're waiting for some political Figure to articulate those views. And no one does."

That political figure could have included Dobson, before his stroke, but more likely will be his man Gary Bauer, who appears to be raising his profile and2-lready is holding fundraisers to test the waters. Addressing about 300 members of the secretive Council for National Policy in 1997, Dobson said that Christians have been betrayed by the Republican party. In his remarks before the Council, Dobson Declined to personally lead a national campaign to weed out GOP-elected officials who have failed to keep promises to uphold strict Bible-based principles as part of their lawmaking activities. His call, which he likened to the voter revolt that overthrew the @ig Parry in the 1800s, was delivered to the Southern Baptist Convention, which met June 9-1 1, 1998, in Salt L-ake City.

On March 5, Dobson sent a scathing letter to Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK) in reply to -a request from House Speaker Newt Gingrich for Dr. Dobson's top legislative priorities. Speaking on behalf of the "pro-rrioral" community, Dobson writes, "It would be refreshing, indeed, to have a senior politician devote even a single speech to the value system from which this list is drawn. No such speech has been given to my knowledge and virtually none of our objectives has been met. Thus, it is curious that the Speaker is asking now for confirmation of the principles and policies that have been emphasized ... etc. etc." Educational issues cited are: school vouchers, opposition to national testing, opposition to Goals 2000, and eliminating the Department of Education.

After a litany of priorities, Dobson delivers the emotional example, which links education and homosexuality: "No better examples exists than the complete silence among@ Republican leaders after the President gave the credibility of his office to homosexual activists, and then called for 2, revamping of school curricula to include homosexual propaganda. That was outrageous.),

Dobson believes comprehensive sex education is a tool of homosexuals and leftists. Focus on the Family is a member of the National Coalition for Abstinence Education, made up of 62 grassroots groups, including Phyllis Sclilafly's Eagle Forum.

Observers believe that if their demands are not met, Dobson and his followers could lead a revolt that would spell disaster for the Republican party in the 2003 elections, and if not that, in the presidential election of 2004.

At this writing, there is a likely possibility Bauer will run, with Dobson@s backing kicking the campaign off in Iowa-and using the -,-ay/education issue as far as he can go with it.

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FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL (FRC)

Family Research Council (FRC) is a "nonprofit, non-partisan educational organization," originally founded in 1983. Today it operates as the lobbying arm for Focus on the Family and carries out much of Dobson's political work. Fic merged with Focus on the Family from 1988 to 1992, then reorganized and incorporated as a separate nonprofit corporation based in Washington, DC. James Dobson, president and CEO of Focus on the Family, hired Gary Bauer to run the Family Research Council in 1989.

FRC exists to reaffirm and promote nationally, and particularly in Washington, DC, "the traditional family unit and the Judeo-Christian value system upon which it is built." While the Council distanced itself from Focus on the Family in 1992 for tax purposes-so as not to jeopardize Focus' tax status-the two organizations are legally separate but "spiritually one," according to Dobson. Bauer has access to Dobson's powerful radio network and Dobson serves on FRC's board of directors. Other board members include: Ronald Blue, Lee Eaton, Edgar Prince, Larry Smith.

FRC has 90 employees, 455,000 members and a $14 million annual budget. Bauer sends a daily fax to 7,000 people and delivers a radio message on about 300 Christian stations. Bauer's wealthy backers include the DeVos family of Amway Corp. and Howard Ahmanson, a millionaire California religious conservative.

FRC officers include: Gary L. Bauer, president; Philip Olsen, vice president of education and development; Charles A. Donovan, vice president for program planning; Kristi Stone Hamrick, director of communications; Robert H. Knight, director of cultural studies.

According to The Weekly Standard, Bauer has transformed himself into the "most influential social conservative in Washington-and perhaps in America." Gary Bauer is a lawyer who held several posts in the Reagan Administration, including director of the White House Office of Policy Development., undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Education, undersecretary for planning, budget and evaluation for the Education Department, and senior policy analyst for the Reagan-Bush campaign.

"With Ralph Reed gone and his successors at the Christian Coalition, Don Hodel and Randy Tate, unable to match his sway, Bauer is the number one social conservat ive, according to The Weekly Standard. Supporters are already holding fundraisers for Bauer's presidential bid in 2000.

Bauer has made a habit lately of bucking Washington's conservative establishment. First, it was Bauer who launched the partial-birth abortion litmus test for candidates backed by the Republican National Committee. Second, it was Bauer who mounted a campaign to block most favored nation status for China.

On the issue of Social Security privatization, Bauer broke with m conservative Grover Norquist, promoting a "family friendly' tax, rather than the flat tax proposed by Dick Armey and Steve Forbes or the national sales tax pushed by Bill Archer. And it was Bauer who launched an independent expenditures effort in the special California election to replace Congressman Walter Capps, going against the GOP-handpicked candidate Brooks Firestone, who lost in the primary. In May, American Renewal, Inc.-an arm of Bauer's FRC based at FRCs Washington headquarters@ocontributed $10,000 to Prop 226.

Bauer's prominence has invited comparisons to Ralph Reed, the charismatic former executive director of the Christian Coalition. The most important difference between the two men, according to the Wall Street journal, may be stylistic. "Many Republicans see Mr. Bauer as more rigid and uncompromising than Mr. Reed. He's also more ready to openly criticize Republicans. Reed is a pragmatist. Bauer is a rabble rouser."

Bauer is placing increasing emphasis on the anti-homosexual activities of FRC. Last spring, FRC launched "Culture Facts," edited by Peter LaBarbera, under the supervision of Robert Knight. LaBarbera is a former reporter for the Washing-ton Times and now publisher of the Lambda Report on Homosexual Activism. Robert Knight is the director of cultural studies at FRC and was instrumental in crafting the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, according to his biography.

Bauer says he wants politicians to "speak out for normalcy and for the values the overwhelming number of their voters have." Bauer says sexual preferences should not be protected under civil rights laws or receive federal subsidies. He rails against the "gay rights agenda' and demands that the "Secretary of Education stop the pressure on school officials to introduce gay issues in the c@sroom." In July 1998, the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family led a coalition of religious groups that launched an anti-homosexuality campaign through newspaper ads that describe homosexuality as a sin and a mental illness.

FRC offers a fax service called EdFacts. There, one finds the widest possible range of Religious Right commentary on Congressional legislative issues concerning education. Focusing on the NEA, a recent banner headline read, "NEA & AFT on Verge of Merge .... the new mega-union would be a lobbying super power in Washington." The publication expressed FRCs concern about the merger. "In years past, these unions have opposed the most basic pro-family education reforms. They bitterly oppose parental choice in education, disdain phonics, and promote gay rights."

In Bauer's book, Our Hopes and Dreams, published by Focus on the Family, he poses five questions to ask of "Those Who Would Lead Us" in the chapter entitled "Schools That Teach Again."

Question #5.- 'Will you support the eight of teachers to teach without joining the National Education Association or American Federation of Teachers? According to Forbes magazine, the NF,4 collected some $750 million in annual dues from all Levels of the union. A significant portion of that money is spent on partisan political activity and efforts to oppose educational reforms ranging from parental choice to parental ?lights and limits on value-free sex educational.  Bauer issued a press release in November 1997 stating, "Students at the elementary and high school levels are being denied the right to receive the best possible education by defenders of a failing status quo who insist on propping up a monopolistic education lobby."

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CAMPAIGN FOR WORKING FAMILIES

To raise money for its political activities, FRC has formed a political action committee, Campaign for Working Families. In 1997, it raised some $2 million. In the first Seven months of 1998, it has raised $2.1 million. The PAC weighed in heavily in the March 10 California special election to replace Rep. Walter Capps. It waged an aggressive independent expenditure campaign backing Tom J. Bordonaro, Jr. With FRC's backing, Bordonaro defeated the GOP- backed (and Gingrich-backed) candidate, Brooks Firestone. FRC was behind television ads on the partial birth abortion issue, deemed "too graphic" to run by all three of the local Santa Barbara television network affiliates.

Other major contributions from the Campaign for Working Families PAC include: $12,500 to Mark Earley for Attorney General (R-VA); $4,000 to Mike Pappas for Congress (R-Nj); $4,000 to Helen Chenowerli for Congress (R-ID); and Bordonaro for Congress ($5,000).  The president of Campaign for Working Families is Jeffrey Bell, a former Federal Reserve Board economist and Wall Street analyst. Bell was unsuccessful in his campaign for U.S. Senate in New Jersey in 1978. He is the author of Populism and Elitism and was the prime mover behind the Colorado ballot initiative to add a Parental Rights Amendment to Colorado's state constitution in 1996. Explaining his strong support for the amendment that would give parents the right "to direct and control the upbringing education, values, and discipline of their children," Bell proclaimed that "victory here could be more important than Dole's election or the control of Congress." Speaking at a Christian Coalition conference, Bell referred to opponents of the Amendment as "people who believe the measure is about a small group suing teachers, doctors, nurses, librarians, movie theaters, and schools to impose their views on everyone else."

In 1993, Bell founded a parental rights group, Of the People, in Arlington, Viroinia.  He has also served on the Advisory Board of Rev. Pat Robertson's Catholic Alliance.

Recognizing the essential role of fundraising in his lobbying efforts, Bauer plans to emphasize the role of his PAC in the future. "Over the next couple of years, I've decided to lay down some important markers," says Bauer. "'We've got to show some of these thick-headed politicians, the ones who just don't get it, that values issues should be at the center of the national debate. Our PAC will help the politicians who believe these thin without shame and embarrassment, and work a-,ainst those who don't."

Throughout the Family Research Council activities, homosexuality and education are central issues. In a Capitol Hill briefing in support of the Defense of Marriage Act, representatives of the FRC denounced what they see as homosexual correctness advancing in Americas schools. The FRC stated, "The campaign to teach school children and teens that gay is OK benefits from the usual coordination of a united gay movement, which has the advantage of pressing for a single radical goal, versus its pro-family opponents who face a multiplicity of challenges...Parents who simply want a good education for their children are increasingly confronted with the prospect of seeing precious educational resources spent on talking about homosexuality, and they are drawn into time-consuming and divisive debates over this issue."

Singled out in FRCs attacks on homosexuality are Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the promoting of "Gay History Month," and GIAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation).

The Family Research Council often allies itself with other Religious Right organizations on specific projects. Last year, FRC joined with the Southern Baptist Convention, Focus on the Family, Donald Wildmon's American Family Association, Beverly LaHaye's Concerned Women of America, and the Rev. James Kennedys Coral Ridge Ministries in a letter-writing protest of American Airlines' gay policies. Alliances with other Religious Right organizations are established by Bauer's activities on their behalf. He now serves on the executive committee of the Council for National Policy and is also on the board of directors of the Declaration Foundation. Founded by Alan Keyes, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for president in 1996, the Declaration Foundation is dedicated to "restoring" America by returning to the principles of the Declaration of Independence.

Among his other activities: Bauer serves on the advisory board of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA), along with Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum and Bay Buchanan. NFRA is the umbrella organization for state-based groups, the first of which was the California Republican Assembly (CPA), a Religious Right Republican "caucus" that has taken control of the statewide party and holds a dozen top positions in the party structure, including the chairmanship. CRA takes credit for winning the ballot initiatives Prop 187 and Prop 209; and supports actively the California Reform Initiative. Nearly 40 states now have religious-conservative Republican Assemblies.

A presidential campaign in 2000 by Bauer should be anticipated. Bauer has ind:,cared his intention to run for president. He has been coordinating at least the Iowa caucuses portion of such a move with Bill Horn, the most rabidly anti-gay crusader in Iowa. Horn produced the videotape, The Gay Agenda; and recently produced and now actively promotes another new videotape: NF-4: Abuse of power.

A Bauer presidential run would leverage off some 30 state "family policy councils" created by and tied to Dobson's Focus on the Family, giving him a built-in national network.

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CHRISTIAN COALITION

Founded by Christian broadcaster, the Rev. M. G. "Pat" Robertson in 1989 in the wake of his failed 1988 presidential bid, the Chesapeake, Virginia-based Christian Coalition claims 1.7 million members and more than 1,000 chapters nationwide.

Working through its state-based Coalition groups and with "pro-family" groups including organizations allied with Focus on the Family, the Family Foundation, and, at one time, the Robertson- founded Catholic Alliance, the Christian Coalition has been one of the most effective mobilization networks in the country. Yet in 1997,. contributions dropped to $17 million after the record-high $26 million in 1996, forcing the Coalition to lay off twenty of' its one hundred staffers, suspend publication of its magazine, and generally reorganize its activities. After a change in leadership in 1997, the Coalition is looking to the future with plans announced this year to strengthen its network for the next two election cycles.

 While Focus on the Family has its radio network, Robertson has worked effectively through television. Supporters are encouraged by Robertson and others through The 700 Club and through extensive mail solicitation to lobby on "family' issues, such as abortion, vouchers, parental rights, and sex education before legislatures, and to ,et involved in local, state, and federal elections.

Though the Christian Coalition steadfastly proclaims that its political and legislative efforts are simply "voter education@' and participation in 'Public policy," the Christian Federal Election Commission has challenged the Coalition@s level of political involvement in a pending lawsuit. Its tax-exempt status remains under review by the Internal Revenue Service.

Political consultant Ralph Reed served as executive director of the Christian Coalition until 1997. Robertson split Reed's job and brought on former U.S. Rep. Randy Tate as executive director and Don Hodel as president. In addition to serving on the board and sta-ff of Focus on the Family, Hodel once chaired the Independence Institute of Colorado. Hodel has been active in the Council for National Policy, serving as vice chairman.

Operating as a 501 (c) (4)-a provisional status that is still under review by the Internal Revenue Service-the Christian Coalition reported a record- high $26,487,746 in total revenues in 1996. Nearly $15 million of its revenue came from direct mail solicitations and $4 million from telemar",-ting. In 1996, expenses totaled $27,041,692, with legislative efforts accounting for about $12 million of all expenses and field and education together accounting for another $5 million.

The Coalition maintains that its principal purpose is to "encourage active citizenship among people professing the Christian faith." Projects it funded in 1996 included:

* Lobbying and grassroots mobilization in states and in Congress for "pro-family, faith.pro-life" issues;

* "Educational" efforts that include "voter guides" detailing candidate positions on issues important to the Coalition (abortion, school vouchers, etc);

* Training for political involvement through the annual "Road to Victory " conference;

* Conducting seminars, such as "Building a Neighborhood Organization", and "Voter Registration," aimed at encouraging involvement in the public policy process;

* Distributing the Christian Coalition Campaign Handbook, with step-by-step instructions for organizing people and communities for candidates and causes.

The Christian Coalition empire includes other notable Virginia-based, Robertson- founded affiliates: Operation Blessing, an international relief organization ($36,325,987 in revenues in 1996), and the Christian Broadcasting Network ($99 million in revenues in 1996),.home of The 700 Club, which claims about 7 million viewers weekly.

Before the Christian Coalition, CBN already had affiliates set up to encourage Christians to get involved in government-the Freedom Council, National Perspectives Institute, and the National Freedom Institute-which afl.stopped operating in October 1986. The three affiliates were targeted in an Internal Revenue Service audit of CBN's activities that was just settled this year. In announcing the settlement of the 12-year-old audit, the IRS said CBN lost its tax-exempt status in 1986 and 1987 because of rules, prohibiting intervention in political ac tivities and had to pav an undisclosed "signiflcant payment" to the IRS.

Robertson founded Regent University (formerly CBN University) and its law school to train a new generation of Christian attorneys. The first dean of the law school was Herb Titus, who caught the beliefs of P-J. Rushdoony, the father of Christian Reconstructionism. Titus is a board member of the Conservative Caucus, based in Washington, DC.

Robertson opened the American Center for Law and Justice ($6,849,036 in revenues in FY 1996; $7,514,461 in expenses) on the Regent campus in 1990 to fight for "religlous liberty, the sanctity of human life, and the two-parent, marriage-bound family." Today the Center's attorneys, led by chief counsel Jay Sekulow, argue cases to uphold parental rights, pro-life positions and religious expression. In 1997, the ACLJ was active in working with churches whose tax status has been challenged by the IRS. Sekulow wrote in August 1997 that "the IRS has been used as a political weapon for far too long."

The Catholic Alliance, founded as part of the Christian Coalition in 1995 but spun off on its own in 1996, was intended to oraanize conservative Catholics to the Coalition ranks. It has, however, drawn criticism from Catholic leaders. The group, which lobbies, distributes voter guides, and has helped run a partial-birth abortion media campaign, claims 50,000 members nationwide, and has outlined a direct mail campai-n to double its revenues to $3.5 million by 2000. Dr. Keith Fournier is president of the Alliance. Advisory board members include Jeffrey Bell, president of the Family Research Council's Campaign for Working Families PAC.

The Christian Coalition faces ongoing tax troubles. Christian Coaiition leaders regularly defend the Coalition's activities as nonpartisan and strictly aimed at voter education. Yet the Federal Election Commission sued the Coalition in July 1996, challenging its distribution of voter guides as a partisan activity and alleging the group worked to defeat congressional candidates in 1990, 1992, and 199't and worked on behalf of George Bush in the presidential race. The FEC charged that voter @des were pro Republican literature and that "cooperation and consultations" with campaigns constituted in-kind contributions. Allegations outlined in the suit began with a 1992 lawsuit filed by the Democratic party of Virginia challenging the Coalitio@s voter guides.

The Coalition continued its voter guide practice, announcing distribution of 2 million pro-Prop 226 voter guides in California churches the Sunday before the June 2 vote.

In the 1997 Virginia governor's race, Coalition members were instructed and mobilized to defeat Democratic candidates for governor and House of Delegates. At one workshop in August 1997, attendees were instructed to work against the Democratic nominee for -overnor, Don Beyer (The Wlashington Post, Sept. 28, 1997). Robertson contributed $50,000 to the Republican candidate, James Gilmore, who won the governor's race. (In March 1998, Gilmore named Robertso@s son, Tim, to a coveted spot on the University of Virginia board of visitors.) In the same race, Virginia members of the Coalition received postcards and raped messages urging them to call the Democratic campaign headquarters to protest television ads. The hundreds of cans effectively shut down the headquarters for several days.

Robertsons "Operation Blessing," an international relief effort intended to distribute food and medical supplies nationally, also drew fire over its tax status in 1997 and 1998. Reports that Robertson used Operation Blessing planes to remove diamonds from Zambia as part of a diamond mining, operation he owns prompted a Virginia state senator to to challenge, without success, Blessing's tax status in the 1998 legislative session.

"I told Don Hodel when he joined us, my dear friend, I want to hold out to you the possibility of selecting the next president of the United States, because I think that's what we have in this organization." Pat Robertson

In September 1997, Robertson caused a flap when his clearly political remarks to supporters in a closed-door meeting in Atlanta were reported. He told the group that it is time the Coalition got something in return for the Republican majority supporters Some of the elected to Congress in 1994. "We just tell these guys, 'Look, we put you in power in 1994 and we want you to deliver ...Don’t give us all this stuff about you've got a country's different agenda. This is what we're going to do this year. And we're going to hold your feet to the fire while you do it.'

The Coalition's plans for this year include a "church-based" strategy to expand its grassroots reach in time for the 1998 and 2000 elections. In February 1998, crowing they were "fresh from victory in Maine"-where Coalition members take credit for mobilizing defeat of a gay-rights measure-Tate announced a new plan to expand its organizational base and recruit 1 00,000 "church liaisons" by November 2000.

The Coalition says the additional partners will be used to lobby for its national agenda: overriding President Clinton's veto of the partial birth abortion ban; adopting Provide legislation creating education scholarships and education savings accounts; eliminating the marriage tax penalty; passing a Religious Freedom Amendment and the Freedom from Religious Persecution Act. State legislative issues targeted in the strategy include funding for parental rights and notification laws and defeating state gay-adoption laws.

In reviewing the announcement, Americans United for Separation of Church and religious State-the group that taped Robertsons September 1997 remarks and that is a party to challenging the Coalition's tax status-advised churches that the new drive could indanger their tax status if they choose to participate.

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COUNCIL FOR NATIONAL POLICY (CNP)

In addition to heading up the Free Congress Foundation, Weyrich joined Coors and Viguerie as key players in the Council for National Policy (CNP), which began operation in 1982 as the conservative alternative to the Council on Foreign Relations. Membership is by invitation only and dues run $2,000- plus a year. In 1997, the Council for National Policy had income of $617,773 and assets of $74,500.

The Council for National Policy operates as a highly secretive compact that includes conservative activists and intellectuals, former government and military leaders, TV preachers, and state and federal legislators. The Council is the principal coordinating body-and funding mechanism-for political projects of religious conservatives. It also operates a political action committee-CNP Action, Inc.

The Council's membership list includes a who's who of conservative activism and includes representatives from some of America's wealthiest and most politically active families, such as Coors, DeVos, Hunt, and Scaife.

Council members include: Christian Coalition activists Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson, and Don Hodel; Eagle Forums Phyllis Schlafly; James Dobson of Focus on the Family; Congressman Robert K. Dornan (former Republican congressman from California), Congressman William Dannemeyer (R-CA), former U.S. Senate candidate and current talk show host Oliver North (R-VA); Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell; the Rev. Lou Sheldon who heads the Traditional Value Coalition; Ed Feulner of The Heritage Foundation; Burton Pines of Heritage Foundation; John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute; Gary Bauer of the Family Research Council; and Reed Larson of National Right to Work. CNP Executive Director Morton Blackwell was also the founder and president of the Leadership Institute.

Several active CNP leaders have a mentor in CNP late member Rousas J. Rushdoony, known as the father of Christian Reconstructionism. Rushdoony, who recently passed away in his 80s, founded the Chalcedon Institute in California, espousing the concept that the United states should be governed by Old Testament law. Reconstructionism wants to see the United States become a theocracy much like the Massachusettes Bay Colony. (Remember the Salem Witch Trials?)

Rushdoony has been a major influence in the life of CNP founding member Howard Phillips, whose resume includes serving as chairman of the Conservative Caucus and chairman of the U.S. Taxpayers Alliance. Rushdoony has also received substantial financial support from millionaire Christian conservative Howard Ahmanson of California-a major supporter of the California Prop 226 initiative-who was listed on CNPs board of governors in 1996.

The Council for National Policy is a secretive forum that was formed in 1981 by Tim LaHaye as a networking tool for leading US conservative political leaders, financiers and religious right activist leaders. The group, which meets three times a year, promotes "Educational conferences for national leaders in the fields of business, government, religion and academia to explore national policy alternatives. Weekly newsletters are distributed to all members to keep them apprised of member activities and public policy issues. A semi-annual journal is produced from membership meeting speeches."

In 2001, ABC News reported: "The CNP describes itself as a counterweight against liberal domination of the American agenda."

Others are not so kind to the organization and its motives. Mark Crispin Miller states that the CNP is a "highly secretive... theocratic organization -- what they want is basically religious rule" (A Patriot Act). Barry W. Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told the New York Times about the CNP meeting ahead of the 2004 Republican National Convention, "The real crux of this is that these are the genuine leaders of the Republican Party, but they certainly aren't going to be visible on television next week."

Their Executive Director from 1981 until 1985 was Woody Jenkins.

2006 Meeting

An example of the group’s far-reaching influence on the conservative movement in the United States is their May 9, 2006, meeting where speakers included NRA President Sandra Froman, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, Heritage Foundation president Edwin Fuelner Jr., Phyllis Schlafly, Grover Norquist, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, Oliver North and Robert Bork.

Membership

"The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our programs, before of after a meeting," the New York Times reported in August 2004.

Board of directors

The 2002 calendar year Form 990 return filed with the IRS lists the board of Directors as:

• Donald Paul Hodel President (former Secretary of Energy and former president of the Christian Coalition)
• T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr., Vice President
• James C. Miller, III, Chairman
• John Seribante, Secretary/Treasurer
• Robert Fischer, Director,
• Dr. Dal Shealy, Director
• Howard Phillips, Director
• Ken Raasch, Director
• Mary Reilly Hunt, Director
• Stuart W. Epperson, Director
• Ann Drexel, Director (also a Red Cross board member)
• Becky Norton Dunlop, Director
• Jerome Ledzinski, Director
• Grover Norquist, Director
• E. Peb Jackson, Director

Staff members of the Board of Directors are:

• Steve Baldwin, Executive Director (paid $157,391 in 2002)
• David Fenner, Director of MIS & Programs (paid $89,088 in 2002)
• Jennifer Rutledge, Director of Finance & Administration (paid $57,504 in 2002)

Other Members

• Several groups have listings of CNP members on websites. However, the primary source documents for these lists are not included. Some listsings are at:
• Council for National Policy membership roster, last updated July 2001:
• Member Directory.
• CNP Members Database.

A copy of the membership roster obtained by Institute for First Amendment Studies, listed current and former members as including:

• Attorney General John Ashcroft (former member)
• Tommy Thompson, Health and Human Services Secretary (former member)
• Holland Coors and Jeffrey Coors of the Coors brewing company
• Richard DeVos, founder of Amway and Orlando Magic owner
• John Ankerberg, who believes that biblical prophecies were literal promises and are coming true;
• Dave Breese hosts The King Is Coming, a show devoted entirely to Christian eschatology
• Chuck Missler, an Idaho radio host who has predicted an imminent invasion of Jerusalem by forces guided by the Antichrist
• Pat Robertson, former presidential candidate and Christian Coalition founder
• Steve Stockman, former Texas Republican Representative
• Rev. Don Wildmon of the American Family Association
• Rev. Rousas J. Rushdoony, founder of Chalcedon Foundation (deceased)
• Williams, the founder of BAMPAC, a political action committee that promotes black conservatism
• Sam Moore, president of Thomas Nelson, the country's most successful Christian book publishing company
• Henry Morris, prominent creationist
• Dora Kingsley, political scientist
• John W. Whitehead founder of the Rutherford Institute
• Bob Jones III, President, Bob Jones University
• Phyllis Schlafly
• Oliver North

Other members who list their membership in their biographical profiles include:

• John Taylor, the chairman and president of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy
• Brent Bozell
• Charles W. Jarvis, chairman and chief executive of USANext and United Seniors Association

Mark Crispin Miller adds the following members:

• Gov. Sarah Palin
• Tom DeLay
• Trent Lott
• Lauch Faircloth
• Ed Meese
• Howard Ahmanson
• Jerry Falwell
• Tim LaHaye, author of the Left Behind Series,
• James Robison
• Lou Sheldon, traditional values coalition
• Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Addressed the CNP:

• John Ashcroft
• George W. Bush, 2000

Funding

CNP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. For the year ending December 31, 2002, CNP income was $1,240,377.

According to Media Transparency, between 1995 and 2002 the CNP received $125,000 (unadjusted for inflation) from the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation and the Castle Rock Foundation. In 2000 the Castle Rock Foundation paid a membership fee of $10,000.

The CNP also has a related 501(c)(4) organisation CNP Action Inc.. CNP Action re-imbursed CNP $16,563 for the use of its facilities with and $39,457 of staff time.

Joseph Coors gave start-up funding, according to Washington Babylon.

The Koch Brothers donate.

Books Mentioning CNP

• Russ Bellant, The Coors Connection, How Coors Family Philanthropy Undermines Democratic Pluralism, South End Press, 2nd edition October 1991. ISBN 0896084167 ISBN 13 978-0896084162

Contact Details

10329-A Democracy Lane
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
Phone: 703 890 0113
Journal website: http://www.policycounsel.org/

 

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AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM

With leaders and foot soldiers aligned thru a grassroots structure, the network needs only policy and lobbying organizations to carry out the agenda. Among the most active of these organizations, especially in the anti-employee initiative, is Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), first organized in 1985 to build grass-roots support for President Reagan's 1986 tax cut. Since char time, ATR has reorganized into a 501 (c) (4) and set up the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation as a 501 (c)(3). Prior to the anti-employee initiative, ATRs principal missions have been seeking signatures from candidates for public office for its "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," opposing the Value Added Tax in Congress and sponsoring the calculation of National Cost of Government Day.

ATR is headed by President Grover Norquist, who reports to the IRS that he received no salary from ATR and only $12,670 from the ATR Foundation in 1996. Norquist's full compensation is unclear. He receives speaking fees and book royalties and has begun lobbying for the Merritt Group Of Alexandria, Virginia, a move that has generated some criticism among Republicans.

ATR and the ATR Foundation are located together in Washington, DC, and have a combined staff of six employees. ATR and the Foundation share administrative expense, staff, and contributions. According to its 1996 IRS Form 990, ATR had total income of $6,547,008 with assets of $114,552 while the ATR Foundation had total revenues of $3,125,636 with assets of $36,021 in 1996 ' In 1996, ATR spent $2,865,257 on direct mail for the Republican National Committee as an independent expenditure campaign but as much as $4 million in 1996 congressional races.

The ATR Foundation is the principal fund-raising arm of the parent organization and has received major gifts from foundations:

* $100,000 from the John M. Olin Foundation

* $40,000 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

* $ 1 0,000 from the John William Pope Foundation

* $5,000 from the Roe Foundation

* $15,000 from the J.M. Foundation

The Foundation is the principal means of support for ATR and ran a deficit of $146,353 in 1996.

Over the last five years, contributions and foundation grants have grown at the rate of 35 percent per year. A close associate and political advisor to House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, Grover Norquist holds forth every Wednesday morning before a select group of Republican lobbyists and "true believers" at ATRs offices in what has come to be known as the "Wednesday Group." The purpose of the informal group is to offer suggestions to the Speaker and the House leadership and to network ATR in Washington and around the country.

Americans for Tax Reform was the largest single donor of California's Prop 226 initiative. Before the loss in California, ATR committed to raise and spend as much as $10 million to push similar measures in other states. Norquist met with Governor Pete Wilson in California, along with former Wilson Press Secretary Dan Schnur, who now represents business interests in Silicon Valley, to kick off ATR's California effort to pass Prop 226. He also has visited about a half-dozen other states to encourage similar ballot initiatives and union hostile legislation. Working with ALEC and the National Right to, Work Foundation, which has pledged anti-union legal assistance in states, Norquist has barnstormed his message across the country Norquist participates in Council for National Policy meetings and ATR is an associate member of the State Policy Network.

 ATR contributed $4 million to congressional candidates in 1996

 Norquist worked with Republican political consultant Carolyn Malenick-, president of Triad Management, on the California initiative. Malenick has close personal ties to both the Scaife and Koch families, and worked on the initiative with close friend and California political consultant Carlos Rodriguez. Malenick received criticism during the Senate campaign finance hearings for her role in running soft money independent expenditure campaigns for the Republican National Committee.

Malenick also has close ties to the religious right. She was a consultant for Oliver North and assistant to Richard Viguerie. She has also worked for the Old-Time Gospel Hour and the Moral Majority in Lynchburg, Virginia. In 1996, Malenick and Rodriguez worked for a number of Republican campaigns, including the campaign of Representative Bob Schafer (R-CO), who has taken the lead on "paycheck protection" legislation in the U.S. House. Senator Don Nickels (R-OK) is a close friend of Malenicles and made a promotional video for Triad Management that created controversy over the propriety The Nation of such an endorsement of their services by a U.S. senator. Nickels sponsored "pay- check protection" legislation in the U.S. Senate last year.

Malenick and Rodriguez also worked on Rep. David McIntos@s (R-IN) race. in 1996. Rodriguez is especially close to McIntosh, who is the former staff director of the Bush Administration's Council on Competiveness chaired by Vice President Dan Quayle. McIntosh also spent his first term in the U.S. House holding hearing's on federal legislation that would "de-fund the left."

NATIONAL RIGHT TO WORK LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION FOUNDATION

Founded in 1968 as a 501 (c) (3) by the National Right to Work Committee, the provides the National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation functions as the Committee's law firm, filing suits against organizations it believes have violated workers' rights to refuse union membership. In 1988, the foundation won the case of Beck v. Communications Workers of america, which allowed non-union employees in a union shop to pay only for those activities of the union that related to contract negotiations and to refuse to pay for political activities. The Foundation has taken an active role around the country by supplying the legal muscle for "paycheck protection" drives and has worked closely with Americans for Tax Reform and the American Legislative Exchange Council. It claims to have over 400 cases pending nationwide.

On May 5, the Foundation filed a lawsuit on behalf of professors at the University of Alaska seeking a court order to enjoin the local teachers union from collecting dues from university employees' paychecks.

In 1995, the Foundation had revenues of $4,490,369 and expenses of $3,737,546 for an excess of revenue over expenses of $757,823. It reported net assets of $2,262,095. Total salaries and benefits were $2,238,050. The Foundation had program costs of $3,147,910 for 1995. The Foundation shares-office space, equipment, and employees with the National Right to Work Committee and the National Institute for Labor Relations Research. The Foundation employs a staff of five attorneys and in 1995 spent $110,702 on outside counsel and received court-awarded legal fees of $45,114.

Reed Larson serves as president of the Foundation as well as president of the National Right to Work Committee. He is also executive director for the National Institute for Labor Relations Research. Larson receives salary and benefits of $96,497 from the Foundation and $44,168 from the Committee for total compensation of $140,665. Rex H. Reed serves as executive vice president and secretary of the Foundation on a @ll-time basis. Reed receives salary and benefits of $186,728, while Edith Hakola serves as vice president and treasurer, and receives total compensation of $178,347.

The Foundation relies heavily on conservative philanthropic foundations for a major part of its operating budget. In 1995, the Foundation received $100,000 from the John M. Olin Foundation, $60,000 from the Sunmark Foundation, and $50,000 from the J.M. Kirby foundation, with smaller grants from additional foundations.

The Foundation spent most of its $334,512 in fund-raising costs on direct mail in 1995. Those appeals were similar in tone and content to a letter from former Vice President Dan Quayle that was sent March 1998. The letter on behalf of the Foundation said the reason why our "personal goals for the country have been thwarted and why big government and "far left politicians in Washington still [call] the shots" is because of "union boss cash." Quayle asked readers to contribute to the Foundation so it could "mount the legal attack so critical to derail [John] Sweeneys illegal, no-holds barred campaign to buy control of Congress and ram his agenda down our throats," and "to act decisively to shut down Big Labor's plans to retake Congress in the 1998 election."

 CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF POPULAR CULTURE

David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, has long been an adversary of the National Education Association. In a September 1996 Los Angeles Times interview he said, "We want to take them out of politics, not just in California, but in every state in the union." His comments were in response to an arbitrator's ruling over the use of non-members dues in the 1993 Prop 174 voucher campaign.

The Los Angeles-based 5 01 (c) (3) organization reported total revenue of $2.5 million in 1996 and expenses of $2.6 million, down from the year before when the group took in $3.3 million. The Center's publications, including The Education Report Card, command the largest share of expenses.

Contributor lists available for 1995 shows contributions of $525,000 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation and the Scaife Family Foundation, plus $780,000 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Horowitz has gone on the attack this year defending the contributions the Center receives from Richard Scaife as being just a portion of the contributions the Center receives from twenty-some foundations and 15,000 individuals. (Los Angeles Times, February 24, 1998). Horowitz says lie is a trustee of the Mart Drudge Legal Fund, to help Drudge in a defamation suit Filed against him by White House aide Sidney Blumenthal.

ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE INSTITUTION

The 12-year-old Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, rated by the National Journal as one of the Five "up and coming" Washington, DC, think tanks, promotes the concept of "classic liberalism" in research, education, taxes, immigration, defense, and deret,)iaation issues. The Institution has selected the NEA as a regular target, producing a report on the "fiscal impact" of NEAS legislative agenda, paid for by a -,rant from the Olin Foundation.

The Institution is also tied to the conservative coalition of pro-voucher groups, including the Coalition to Educate America, the Center for Education Reform, and the @ Challenger Network, coordinated to take on the Washington Education Association.

With assets of $218,925, the Institution raised $565,841 in revenue in 1994. It spent $400,000 on its 'programs that year. In 1995, it received grants from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation ($20,000), the John M. Olin Foundation ($10,000), Koch Brothers ($100,000) and the John William Pope Foundation ($10,000).

In addition to its efforts on education issues, the Institution has studied the concept of privatizing the Department of Defense.

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CONSERVATIVE PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS

The lions share of funding for the movement, including the organizations described above, comes from conservative philanthropic foundations financed by a handful of the nation's wealthiest people, including:

* Sarah Scaife Foundation

* Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

* Carthage Foundation

* Earhart Foundation

* Charles G. Koch

* David H. Koch

* Claude R. Lambe

* Philip M. McKenna

* J.M. Foundation

* John M. Olin Foundation

* Henry Salvatori Foundation

* Smith Richardson Foundation

The Claremont Institute, which played a leading role in promoting Prop 226, has received donations from the Sarah Scaife, Carthage, John M. Olin, Philip McKenna, Robert and Janice McNair, J.M., and Roe Foundations. The Bradley Foundation has provided $2.4 million over five years to set up the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, a State Policy Network member that pushes vouchers.

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THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION

The Heritage Foundation was established in 1973 under the direction of Paul Weyrich with seed funding from Joseph Coors. The mission of the Foundation is "...To formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense."

Heritage is by far the largest and best-funded "think tank' in the country, and, with the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, it is easily the most influential conservative voice in the Congress.

Heritage is a 501(c)(3) organization with revenues of $28,626,078 in 1996. Expenses for 1996 were $24,195,169 for an excess of revenue over expenses of $4,430,909. Heritage reports total net assets for 1996 of $47,580,039. The Foundation receives 85 percent of its income from grants and contributions from individuals, foundations, and businesses.

Its list of donors reads like a who's who of American conservative philanthropy and American business. Heritage also received program income of $462,214 from subscriptions to Polit), Review (more than 30,000 in circulation) and The Insider magazines and from books like School Choice Programs 1998 - What’s Happening in the States. Heritage also received $12,096 from advertising, $726,070 from the rental of mailing lists, $78,489 from building rental income, $1,138,371 from dividends and interest, and $6,670,253 from the sale of assets.

Direct income is also received from Town Hall, a Web site Heritage has created with National Review. The site was developed with a loan of $500,000 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Town Hall is a 501 (c) (4) in which Heritage has 50 percent ownership and received income of $376,0 1 0 in 1996. The function of Town Hall is to spread the conservative gospel and network among 35 religious and social conservative "member -,roups" like the American Association of Christian Schools, the American Conservative Union, ALEC, Americans for Tax Reform, Empower America, the Family Research Council, and the Claremont Institute.

Heritage spent $3,091,827 on fund-raising and receives funding from almost all of the conservative foundations in the country. In 1996, Heritage used Factory Direct Limited of Los Angeles ($414,638) and Winchefl and Associates ($309,281) and Precision Marketing ($165,654), both of Arlington, VA, to provide membership services. Public relations services are provided by Newton and Associates ($128,000) of Washington, DC. Outside legal counsel is William Lehrfeld ($126,105), also of Washington. From a pro-ram perspective, the Heritage Foundation spent $10,125,159 on research, $6,003,526 on educational programs, and $4,170,745 on media and government relations for total program costs of $20,299,430.

The president and CEO of Heritage is Edwin J. Feulner, Jr. The former staff director of the House Republican Study Committee, Feulner came to Heritage three years after it,.-,,as founded. Most recently Feulner took a leave of absence from his post at Heritage to serve as staff director and counselor for Jack Kemp's Vice Presidential campaign. During 1996, Feulner was paid $243,953 in salary and benefits and received a bonus of S197,470. Feulner is a member of the executive committee of the Council for National Policy,. Philip N. Treelike, executive vice president, is number two at the Foundation, receiving $184,233 in salar-yr and benefits with a bonus of $81,3@0.

Heritage employs an executive staff of fourteen officers to run the Foundation with a payroll cost of $2,115,858. The Foundation as a whole has more than 160 employees and a total payroll of $10,222,773. Heritage also employs a number of "Distinguished Scholars.' In 1996, they included former Attorney General Edwin Meese (S230,734), former Secretary of Education William Bennett (S215,680), Thomas Atwood ($89,395), David Winston (5 103,857), and Marshall Whiteman ($80,283).

The Board of Directors and Trustees for The Heritage Foundation are a conservative master list of the Republican Family.

* Chairman - Dr. David R. Brown

* Vice Chairman - Richard Scaife

* Secretary - J. Frederic Reach

* Midge Decker (Institute on Religion and Public Life)

* Thomas L. Rhodes (President,. A,ario?ial Re-zie-u,

* William E. Simon (former Secretary of the Treasury)

* Jay Van Andel (Founder, Amway Corporation)

* David Koch (Koch Industries)

* Thomas A. Roe (The Roe Foundation)

* J. William Middendorf II (former U.S. Ambassador to the OAS)

* Frank Shakespeare (former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican)

* William J. Hume

* Preston A. Wells

* Edwin J. Feulner, Jr.

* Douglas F. Allison

* Holland H. Coors

* Barb Van Andel-Gaby

The scope of The Heritage Foundation's research, public relations, and conservative issue advocacy dwarfs all its competitors. According to the Wall Street journal, Heritage is the most frequently quoted think tank in America. Heritage has been active on such issues as welfare reform, telecommunications and electric utility reform, agricultural subsidies, budget reform, Medicare reform, regulatory reform, tax reduction, immigration reform, affirmative action, school vouchers, and "Paycheck protection."

On the issue of "paycheck protection," Heritage has been playing a supportive public relations role to Americans for Tax Reform, ALEC, and members of the State Policy Network such as the Evergreen Freedom Foundation in Washington State. In a recent commentary entitled "Give Workers Their Dues" in Policy Review, Heritage President Fe..ulner reported on the progress of their efforts.

"Happily, lawmakers in all 50 states plan to offer legislation prohibiting the use of a union member's dues for political purposes without the member's express permission. In California a 'Paycheck protection initiative, requiring both employers and unions to get workers' written Oks before using their money for politics, is headed for the June ballot. Similar -grassroots drives are moving forward in at least eight other states. In Congress, comparable workers-rights legislation also is in the offing." - Edwin FetAner

Citing Communications Workers of America V. Beck, Feulner noted that under Beck, "A teacher who backs school choice can refuse to allow her union dues to be used in a campaign against educational vouchers." In his opinion therefore, "What's needed to bolster those rights is affirmative legislation."

To foster legislation at the state level, Heritage has worked with A.LEC, the Family Research Council, and other conservative and religious policy organizations to create a network of state-based think tanks in the image of the Heritage Foundation. It is these think tanks that provide some of the most effective arms and legs for the conservative movement in America.

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AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL (ALEC)

Founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, head of the Committee for Survival of a Free Congress and a Principal founder of the Heritage Foundation,. ALEC was created to nurture conservative legislators around the country. ALEC was formed in 1973 in Illinois and relocated to Washington, DC, several years later. For a period of time, it shared a building with the Heritage Foundation. Although nominally a bipartisan organization, ALECs strongly conservative bent results in the bulk of its membership being from the Republican side of the aisle.

ALEC's goal is to make business a natural ally of state legislators and to advance a conservative free-market agenda that is consistent with religious conservatism. ALEC's literature puts it this way: "ALECs credo is that business can, should, and must be an ally of legislators," and that its "...cornerstone is the forum it provides for the private sector to work in a one-on-one relationship with state legislators to develop public policies that are pro-growth, pro-business and pro-freedom."

ALEC is a 501 (c) (3) membership organization, claiming nearly 3,000 state legislators as members from every state (there are about 7,500 state legislators serving in the United States at any one time). In its current literature, ALEC boasts that its membership includes 31 Speakers and Speaker Pro Tems; 37 Senate Presidents and Senate President Pro Tems; 25 Senate Majority and Minority Leaders; and 38 House Majority and Minority Leaders. Among its alumni, ALEC claims 12 sitting governors and more than 80 members of Congress.

ALEC has a senior staff of six people and a total staff complement that has ranged as high as thirty. Former Executive Director, Daniel Denning, had salary and benefits in 1996 totaling $141,969. Denning has since beco@e director of Heritage 25 for the Heritage Foundation. ALEC reported total revenues in 1996 of $5,346,906.

In addition to its membership of elected officials, ALEC includes representatives of the corporate world as both active members and funders of the organization. Literature from their National Orientation Conference lists over 300 corporate sponsors of ALEC.

In its literature, ALEC states that it "ensures loyalty from its legislative and corporate constituencies by involving them directly in the operation of the organization." ALEC accomplishes this by pairing state legislators, who serve as ALEC State Chairs, with representatives of business, who serve as ALEC State Private Sector Chairs. According to current ALEC literature, every state in the nation, as well as Puerto Rico, is represented by at least one legislative ALEC State Chair, and most also have a Private Sector Chair.

ALECs current Private Enterprise Board includes Alan Auger from Coors Brewing Company, who serves as the board's chairman, and Michael Morgan from Koch Industries as first vice chairman. The board draws from a galaxy of corporate America and includes J. Patrick Rooney, CEO emeritus of Golden Rule Insurance Company.

ALEC is unabashedly a pro-business activist organization. In addition to aggressively pairing elected officials with local business representatives in each state, ALEC maintains fifteen task forces to craft model legislation and set the organizations political agenda in specific policy areas. Each of these task forces is chaired by an elected official and a Private Sector Chair. The task forces cover:

* Agriculture

* Business & Labor

* Civil Justice

* Criminal Justice

* Education

* Empowerment, Opportunity, & Urban Poverty.

* Energy, Environment, & Natural Resources

* Health Care

* Insurance

* Real Estate, Banking, Financial Services

* Substance Abuse

* Tax & Fiscal Policy

* Telecommunications

* Trade, Travel, & Tourism

* Transportation & Public Works

In these topic areas, ALEC claims to have developed more than 150 pieces of model legislation. ALEC maintains that in 1995-96 a total of 1,647 bills based on its model legislation were introduced in all 50 states, with 365 bills being enacted-a success rate of 22 percent. In addition to model legislation, ALEC provides its members with dozens of position papers and research reports on topics related to its policy agenda. ALEC claims the most recent round of state legislative sessions was its most successful to date. Research indicates ALEC has grown steadily in recent years, adding members and increasing its budget as well as increasing the number of ALEC-sponsored bills introduced in stare legislatures across the country.

With the recent and continuing shift in legislative priorities and in power from the federal government back to the states, ALEC is in a key position to affect the political direction of public policy in each of its issue areas. ALEC is well-organized, well-funded and poised to take advantage of the resurgence of state power that has come about as a result of the conservative shift in Congress.

ALEC, working in cooperation with Heritage, Americans for Tax Reform, the National Right to Work Foundation, the Alexis de TocqueviBe Institution, and the State Policy Network, has circulated model "paycheck protection' legislation to states for consideration in legislatures this year.

Membership in ALEC is based on the level of funding by a business or individual. The following is a partial list of companies that maintain membership in ALEC and their contribution levels:

Jefferson Club ($50,000)

Koch Industries

Philip Morris Management Corp.

R.J. Reynolds

UPS Foundation

Madison Club ($25,000)

Bayer Corporation

Eli Lilly and Company

Glaxo Wellcome

Shell Oil Company Foundation

State Farm Insurance Company

GTE

Pfizer Inc.

Franklin Club ($15,000)

American Express

Chevron

Coors Brewing

Joseph E. Seagram

Washington Club ($10,000)

Amoco Foundation

Anheuser-Busch

Kraft Foods

Ryder System

Tobacco Institute

Under the general "Members and Contributors" listing are nearly 300 other business and trade associations.

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THE STATE POLICY NETWORK

Providing the arms and legs on the state level for the national conservative movement is a growing web of interrelated think tanks in about 35 states. These think tanks share nearly identical agendas, including the privatization of most public services and a fierce opposition to organized labor. Created in the image of the Heritage Foundation, these state policy institutions-linked as members of 'Most of the money the State Policy Network (SPN)-provide a local tie to media and conservative policy briefings for legislators and business leaders.

Associate members of SPN anchor the network. They include the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Tax Reform, ALEC, the Center for Education Reform, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Golden Rule Insurance Co., and CEO America. ALEC, for example, uses SPN as a clearinghouse to craft model legislation on conservative issues and to provide testimony in state capitols. Heritage serves as a bridge for SPN and its members to other national groups.

Most of the money supporting Prop 226 came from individuals connected with SPN. Richard Mellon Scaife, for example, has funded several SPN groups. J. Patrick RooneVs Golden Rule is the only corporate member of SPN. And CEO America, whose board includes Rooney and John Walton, is a member of SPN.

In California, the leading SPN members include Capitol Resource Institute (affiliated with Focus on the Family), Golden State Center for Public Policy, the Pacific Research Institute, the Reason Foundation, and the California Public Policy Foundation. In recent battles in the State of V7ashin-con, the SPN member Evergreen Freedom Foundation played the leading- role in initiating and publicizing attacks against the Washington Education Association.

 The following sections of this report provide details about the conservative network and its components. Using publicly available sources, we have documented the interrelationships among conservative think tanks, Foundations, legislative and grassroots organizations, and a handful of wealthy individuals.

This report paints a clear picture of the motivation and agenda of the organized effort to push paycheck protection: to reduce the political power of the NEA and others fighting to improve public schools.

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10 Great Things About America That Drive Conservatives and the Religious Right Insane

Religious Right groups and their allies in the Tea Party claim to respect American values, but much would change if they had their way. May 15, 2011

Religious Right groups and their frequent allies in the Tea Party talk a good line about respecting American values, but much would change if they had their way. They seek not to restore our country to some Golden Age (that never existed anyway) but to recreate it – in their own fundamentalist image.

An America rebuilt along Religious Right lines would be a very different place. And to get there, the theocrats among us first have to tear down some features of American life – some of which are longstanding. Here are ten things about the United States that drive Religious Right groups crazy:

1. Our History Debunks Religious Right Mythology: American history stands as a rebuke to the Religious Right. America’s founders established a secular government with freedom of religion and its necessary corollary, separation of church and state, built into the First Amendment. A “Christian nation” was not what the founders sought. How do we know this? They said so. Think about it: If an officially Christian nation had been the intent of the founders, the Constitution would prominently include that concept. It doesn’t.

And those Religious Right claims that separation of church and state is a myth? They’re a crock. As James Madison put it, “Strongly guarded…is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States.” Madison ought to know. He’s considered the Father of the Constitution and was one of the primary drafters of the First Amendment.

2. We Support Science: While polls show some confusion over issues like evolution, most Americans are big fans of science and are quick to rally around the latest medical breakthroughs and cutting-edge technology. Many religious people in America long ago reconciled their faith with modern science. But the Religious Right remains stubbornly insistent that any science that conflicts with its literalist interpretation of the Bible must go.

Religious Right activists hate science because it casts doubt on their narrow worldview – a worldview that teaches that all answers are found in a rigidly fundamentalist interpretation of an ancient religious text. To the Religious Right, evolution and the Bible can’t co-exist. They refuse to read the scriptures in a metaphorical or symbolic context. Since, to the Religious Right, evolution undercuts the Bible, evolution should not be taught in public schools.

3. America Has A Tradition Of Tolerance: Yes, we’ve fallen short of complete tolerance from time to time, but at the end of the day, most Americans believe in treating their fellow citizens decently, even if they have different religious or philosophical beliefs. But to the Religious Right, tolerance is entrance ramp on the highway to hell.

The idea that religions should strive to get along is dangerously close to the idea that all religions are on equal footing. This is bad, so says the Religious Right, because it leads people into “error” – that is, an embrace of any religion that’s not fundamentalist Christianity. Tolerance is ridiculed because it dares to suggest that a Unitarian, Buddhist, Jew, Hindu, Pagan or atheist might have an equal claim on truth alongside a fundamentalist.

4. We Have A Secular Government: To the theocrats of the right, secular government, secularism and secular anything is the bogeyman of the moment. If you doubt it, just listen to some of our leading politicians (assuming you have the stomach for it). To most people, it just makes sense for government to remain neutral on theological disputes – remember the Middle Ages? To the Religious Right, such neutrality equals hostility toward religion and a “war” against Christianity.

Ironically, there is one place where the Religious Right backs secular government: Muslim nations. Those should be secular, of course – but only as a prelude to adopting fundamentalist Christianity.

5. The U.S. Constitution Has Endured: The Religious Right and the Tea Party claim to revere our basic governing document, the Constitution. So why do they treat it like a first draft? Just consider the list of amendments they’d like to add: pro-school prayer, anti-abortion, “parental rights,” fetal personhood, “traditional marriage,” the list goes on.

Why does the Religious Right distrust our founders? Maybe because the founders weren’t fundamentalists, and they dared to believe that the Bible could speak metaphorically yet still contain wisdom and insight. Consider this quote by Thomas Jefferson (from a letter to Benjamin Rush, May 21, 1803): “To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence; & believing he never claimed any other.”

6. Our Nation Has A Legacy Of Freedom Of Religion: To the Religious Right, “religious freedom” means the right to use their religion to run other people’s lives. When it comes to groups they don’t like, ideas like liberty and freedom suddenly evaporate.

Consider the controversy over the proposed Islamic center in lower Manhattan and efforts to block construction of a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Normally, once religious groups comply with local zoning laws, get the necessary permits and so on, they can build houses of worship where they please. Yet Brian Fischer, a columnist with the American Family Association, argued recently that the Constitution grants religious freedom rights only to Christians and said we can legally shut down mosques. Where does this appear in the Constitution? It doesn’t. Fischer made it up.

7. Americans Support Reproductive Rights: The ability to control your own body when it comes to reproduction is the ability to control your own destiny. It’s a big no-no to the Religious Right. God is supposed to control your destiny. Who are you to interfere with His plans? Although most people think of this issue in terms of abortion, it’s worthwhile to look a little deeper. Increasingly, access to birth control is on the chopping block as well. (See attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and bills in the state laws granting pharmacists a right to refuse to fill prescriptions for the pill.)

Throughout recorded history, religious prudes have been obsessed with sex lives of others. They clearly have issues. There’s just something kind of icky about it.

8. Gay People Live Here: Where to begin? Not only will gay people not stay in the closet or become straight, now they want to get married! You can be sure that Bible Belt fundamentalists, who have the highest divorce rate in the nation, aren’t going to stand for that assault on the sacred institution of marriage.

The bile the Religious Right spews toward gays is unfathomable. You have to call it what it is: Hate. And as polls show increasing numbers of Americans backing same-sex marriage, it’s only going to get worse.

9. Most Kids Go To Public Schools: These godless hotbeds of secular humanism actually receive tax funding! They’re known to teach evolution, and some even dare to talk about how they human reproductive system works in Biology class. Since not everyone has the time for home-schooling, it’s best to distribute vouchers, says the Religious Right.

Here’s Tim LaHaye, author of the popular series of apocalyptic potboilers “Left Behind” on public education: “I have a pet concern, and I think it is the concern of everyone in this room; and that is we are being destroyed in America by the public school systems of our country. And it was Abraham Lincoln who said, essentially, let me educate the children of this generation and they will be the political leaders of the next generation. And, folks, we have let the enemy come in and take over the greatest school system in the history of the world.” (So, Tim, what do you really think?)

10. We Fund NPR And PBS: Sure, the Religious Right and the Tea Party said they wanted to cut off funding to public broadcasting to save a few bucks, but in reality, they just don’t like the elitist, left-wingery of “All Things Considered” and “Masterpiece Theatre.” Snobs listen to and watch that stuff!

Don’t even get them started on the Muppets. Bert and Ernie have a suspiciously close relationship. ‘Nuff said.

Of course, there are many other things the Religious Right dislikes about our country – consider women’s rights, for example. For all of their flag waving, some supporters of the Religious Right just don’t sound too happy to be here. I doubt they plan to leave soon, so we can expect they’ll keep working to change our nation. Be warned – this list is just a start.

RETURN TO RELIGIOUS FREEDOM COALITION HOME PAGE

Below are Links to Enemies of Religious Freedom:

Doug Lamborn  |  Elizabeth Dole  |  James Dobson  | Cheney  |  Richard Devos  |  Jim Demint  |  David Barton 

Mike Crapo  |  Ann Coulter  |  John Cornyn   |  Robert Corker  |  Coors Family  |  Constitutional Republic  

Conservative Brain Difference  |   Senator Coburn   |  Christians Destroying the Bible |  Chambliss  |  Tucker Carlson

Eric Cantor  |  Harold Camping  |  Ken Calvert  |  Herman Cain  |  Burton  |  Richard Burton  |  Senator Bunning

Brownback  |  Breitbart  |  Bond  |  Boehner  |  Blunt  |  Big oil  |  Baucus  |  Barrasso   |  Barbour  |   Bachus

Bachmann  |  Are You Going to Hell   |  Apocalypse  |   Anatomy of Religious Right  |   American Action

Lamar Alexander  |  Senator Ensign  |  Mike Enzi  |  Epic Failure   |   Jerry Falwell  |   The Family

The Far Right Real Purpose  |  Vito Fossella   |  Fox News II   |   Senator Gordon Smith   |   Sen Lindsey Graham

Chuck Grassley  |   Senator Judd Gregg  |   Republican Hall of Shame   |   Sean Hannity  |   Health Care Reform

Rep Wally Herger   |   How to Fix Bush's Mess   |   Huckabee  |   Senator Inhofe  |   Iraq War   |   Johnny Isakson   

Jeb Bush   |   Bobby Jindal  |   Johanns  |   John Yoo  |   Sally Kern  |   Senator Kyl  |   Tim Lahaye 

Leinenger   |  Fred Lennon   |   Liberal Blogs  |  Loathsome  |  Trent Lott  |  Marrs  |  Chris Matthews  |  Patrick McHenry

Dick Morris   |  News Max  |  Newt Gingrich   |   Bill O'Reilly  |  Paleoconservative   |  Patriot Movement

Patriot Traitors  |  Tim Pawlenty  |   Mike Pence  |   Risch   |  Senator Roberts   |  George Roche  |  Romney

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