Despite warnings from Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), and Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), the Republican congressional leadership of 2005 and 2006 ignored the burgeoning national problems that we now live with every day (gas prices food prices, the housing meltdown, recession, etc.) in favor of wasting time and money on misguided attempts at legislating morality.  These GOP leaders, who at one time claimed a belief in limited government principles, were exposed as frauds when they showed no reluctance in using big government to legislate social issues.  In these cases, the sky was the limit!  This was especially true with Internet poker.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) is typical of Republican leadership efforts to legislate morality.  To pander to anti-poker extremists like Focus on the Family, the GOP leadership embraced the power of the federal government to tell Americans what to do in their own homes with their own money.  The GOP leadership also embraced UIGEA’s deputizing of banks to enforce the law, as if America’s banks were an unpaid arm of the Department of Justice.

I know everyone is obsessed with presidential politics right now, and rightly so, but I have a non-election related issue I just wanted to get off my chest. I just saw an ad in the newspaper today that had me so upset, I can't stop shaking. Maybe you have heard that Colorado passed a non-discrimination law regarding housing and use of public facilities for LGBT people. Focus on the Family and the other "compassionate Consevatives" have been going absolutely bonkers ever since, spewing out horrible, hate-filled ads about how now all bathrooms are open to anyone of either sex and "a new kind of predator" (that's right from the ads) will be stalking children in bathrooms.

The worst ad is from the radio, where a little girl says "Mom! A man in a dress came into the girls' bathroom at school today!" Since when has any school ever let random adults wander in to use the bathrooms? Obviously, the law has to extend to schools for transgendered students (and teachers, although it can be hard to get a job teaching when you are transgendered.)

Continued...

Feeling as though his brief time in the political spotlight has waned James Dobson, the head of Focus on the Family, one of the leaders of the Christian Far Right, and exhorter of  Family Penis Displays, took a swipe at Barack Obama a couple weeks ago for "misrepresenting" the Bible and then accused the former Constitutional Law Professor of having a "fruitcake" interpretation of the Constitution.

This didn't have the intended effect that James Dobson had no doubt prayed for the night before he ran off his mouth. Barack Obama shrugged it off, Evangelical Christian leaders rebuked him, and the National media seemed to use the occasion to point out that James Dobson was quickly becoming politically impotent.

If at first you don't succeed...

[I wrote this with people like James Dobson of Focus on the Family in mind. I was especially driven to finish it after his comments about Obama. This is NOT with his campaign's blessing, btw. I'd love to get Dobson's reaction though I doubt he'd be able to react intelligibly.]

What if we could equate morality with optimal behavior? That is, given a full understanding of our true circumstances, especially in a scientific sense, could our ideas about moral behavior be successfully anchored to some final perspective?

All that now stands in the way of legislation, passed with the help of Democrats, that would allow the teaching of creationism in the Lousiana public schools is an unlikely veto by Republican Governor Bobby Jindal  

While we mull that over, Barbara Forrest, one of the nation's leading experts on the knavery that is "intelligent design," has posted at Talk to Action a discussion of the role of the Religious Right's Discovery Institute and Focus on the Family's state political affiliate in the passage of the bill, and how these organizations have apparently cowed or owned political leaders of both parties.

"I wish the First African-American Presidential Nominee Had Been Alan Keyes [linkage]"

"Obama Reads the New International Version – Not the New American Standard Version"

"Hillary Clinton Would Be Happier if Her Husband Would Fulfill His Duty as Spiritual Leader of the Home"

"Permissive Gun Laws Encourage Prayer in Schools!"

"The Sanctity of a Person’s Life Begins at Conception and Ends When They’re Gay or Foreign"

"Poverty Begins with Laziness"

"I Never Get Tired of Smug Slogans Glorifying Simplicity and Decrying Intellect"

"Faith: It should be above Polar Bears on the Endangered Species List"

"The Bible: The 28th Amendment to the Constitution"

"Tolerance is just a Nice Word for ‘Low Standards’"

"Sears Catalog is too Racy These Days"

"The Fate of the World Really Does Hinge on Israel"

"This Nation Was Founded on Biblical Principles - Such as Rebellion, Enlightenment, Roman Governance... Oh, Nevermind"

"I Believe in a Literal Hell – But Global Warming is a Stretch"

I wrote yesterday about what I called Dobson's big swerve, wherein he is working on finding a way to paint Barack Obama as so religiously radical that he will have no choice but to support, reluctantly, John McCain. (Yeah, there's some sarcasm in that sentence.) It started a little more quickly than I expected, probably fueled by Obama's recent 12 and 15 point leads nationally in the Newsweek and LA Times polls. Yes, it's early, but if Dobson can come out and McCain happens to narrow the gap (which is almost inevitable), then he can declare victory and get some of his strut back.

The point of this post is to shine more media attention on James Dobson's crackpot child-rearing theories which appear to be based in crackpot dog training ideas.

Fruitcake, anyone ?

Mainstream media has been very compliant in broadcasting Focus On The Family head James Dobson's recent attack [1,2] on Barack Obama, in which Dobson said Obama holds "fruitcake" views on church-state Separation. Dr. James Dobson, through his books on child rearing that have sold into the millions or tens of millions, has influenced millions of American parents. Why, asks FrameShop's Jeffrey Feldman, does the media give James Dobson a pass given how far out of the mainstream his parenting ideas really are ? The following post examines the apparent origins of Dobson's views on child-discipline which seem to be tied to or grounded in Dobson's sense of how to train dogs - by beating them into abject submission, an approach that's generally held by professional dog trainers to be less than worthless and even dangerous.

Tell Dobson to back off.

The link is www.focusonthefamily.com.  I went to the "contact us" page. You have to give your email address and they don't post in a public page but said they'll respond. NOTE: I used one of my backup gmail addresses and as per a poster below DO NOT USE YOUR PHYSICAL ADDRESS OR YOU MIGHT GET MISSIONARIES HARASSING YOU AT HOME. Again, I don't know if this is worth it, but I was so pissed (and at the same time had been able to calm down enough to be respectful) that I had to do it. I certainly get that most people will be too pissed to do so respectfully.

I agree with almost everything that everyone in response has written whether they are for the idea of posting a comment or just want to flip him off.

I just finished reading a blog post that has a really interesting scenario.

Senator Obama just took another giant step toward winning the presidency. Actually, someone who considers himself a sworn enemy of Senator Obama took the step for him. Dr. Dobson of the Focus On the Family radio program (and evangelical media empire) has aired a program in which he attacks Senator Obama, the Senator's theology and his credentials as a Christian. With enemies like this Senator Obama doesn't need friends.

Over on Huffington post Frank Schaeffer says that
Dr. Dobson Has Just Handed Obama Victory , and he describes how the Dobson radio rant yesterday provided the opportunity   for Obama to align with the evangelical faction which is winning the power play versus Dobson (at the moment).

All that was missing to put the frosting on the Obama cake was for Dobson to attack him. For Obama to win all he needs to do is peel off a chunk of heretofore solid evangelical Republican votes. Dobson just handed Obama those votes.

Who are the Dominionists, and can we bury them before Dubya bombs Iran?  

Lately there's been a bit of a flap over Dr. James Dobson's public declaration that Barack Obama has "fruitcake ideas" about the US Constitution and church-state separation. Mr. Dobson might want to reconsider going head to head with a man who taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago for twelve years.

But, Mr. Dobson might also want to reconsider his charge of "fruitcakery" given Dobson's earnest and highly enthusiastic account, in his best-selling book "The Strong Willed Child", of an epic battle between Dobson and his 12 pound miniature Dachshund "Siggie" - to force the little Weiner Dog off its napping spot on a fuzzy toilet seat cover:

As the nationally-known, alleged child-rearing expert described in his child-rearing book, Dobson was apparently initially overmatched by the wee weiner dog and so grabbed a belt. A titanic clash, between man and vicious, snarling miniature Dachshund ensued:

Barack Obama has responded to the pseudo-theologian radio talkshow host James Dobson today.

"I think you'll see that he was just making stuff up, maybe for his own purposes."

http://news.yahoo.com/...

Dear Reverend Dobson,

I was wondering if you could help me out – seeing as how you are a fine, upstanding minister who knows exactly what is and what isn’t Christian.  You see, I’m horny and a little bit blah.  Do you think you could find me a meth-snortin’ male hooker to relieve the tension?

Note: I'm the author of a new book, Barack Obama: This Improbable Quest, but I'm not part of the Obama campaign.

I’ve just listened to James Dobson's Focus on the Family radio program denouncing Barack Obama. Dobson is a right-wing crackpot, advocating all sorts of bizarre ideas about child-raising and the Bible that I detail below. But Dobson is also a powerful political figure in the Republican Party, someone whose incredible influence has been used on behalf of corrupt figures like Jack Abramoff.

A Mississippi congressional district that voted for President Bush by a twenty-five point margin in 2004 recently elected a Democrat to Congress.  In fact, Republicans have now lost three special congressional elections in a row in previously reliable Republican districts.  What is wrong with the Republican Party?

Here in the Great (and likely key piece of Obama's electoral victory map)State of Colorado , Gay rights groups are facing a new challenge, and they need your help.  First, the background: the democratically-controlled congress has recently passed Senate Bill 200. The Denver Post is reporting that:
 

Senate Bill 200 would ban discrimination based on a person's religious beliefs or sexual orientation — including transgendered people — in places of public accommodation, housing practices, family planning services and 20 other public spheres.

Our governor, Bill Ritter, has exactly 2 weeks, until June 5th, to sign or veto the bill.  So far, so good.  The problem? As you know,our state is also the home of the uber conservative Focus on the Family, and they are fighting this hard, with hate-based scare-tactics, of course.  Their tactic, if you can believe this, has been to claim that this bill will open Colorado public restrooms to sexual predators.  Sorta reminiscent of the bogus arguments against the old ERA.  Anyways, I honestly can't find the proper analogy to replicate how revolting this campaign is, so please see below the fold to see the actual ad that Focus on the Family is running here in Colorado:  

Harry Truman started the National Day of Prayer back in 1948 as a non-sectarian day for people to pray (or think) for the country.  Whether or not you think a National Day of Prayer has any place in American society, we can all agree that this is damn ridiculous.

Shirley Dobson, wife of James Dobson, the conservative founder of Focus on the Family, is this year's chairperson of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a non-governmental organization based in Focus on the Family's offices in Colorado Springs and charged with organizing various events. According to Jay Keller, national field director of the Interfaith Alliance, Dobson has made a point of "excluding Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Buddhists, and even mainline Christians" from the National Day of prayer.

When I first read this blog post by Bruce Falconer, I was pissed off.  But then I thought about it - and I was encouraged.

Because this is an opportunity.

Where Will the Religious Litmus Test Stop?

The Religious Right changed what was originally called the National Day of Prayer AND MEDITATION." Chairperson Shirley Dobson, wife of James Dobson of Focus on the Family, is at the helm of the May 1 event. By distorting a spiritual moment, the Religious Right deliberately introduced a "litmus test" by limiting participation to fundamentalist Christian evangelicals. The "National Day of Prayer Task Force" camouflaged their website to appear as the "National Day of Prayer Official Website," suggesting full government approval.

Google "National Day of Prayer" and you’ll find that you are instantly directed to Dobson’s National Day of Prayer Task Force, a site blatant in its intent.

"A simple application with contact data and statement of faith, confirming your commitment to Christ is all that's needed to get you on the way to becoming a NDP Task Force volunteer coordinator," states the website.