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Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have proposed a bill that they say would allow to the state to establish an official religion and defy the Constitution of the United States.

Nine state House members joined with Republican state Reps. Harry Warren and Carl Ford of Rowan County to sponsor House Bill 494 in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) last month that sought to stop Christian prayers at official Rowan County government meetings.

In 2009, a court found that the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners had violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by using sectarian prayers to open official meetings.

In his ruling, Magistrate Judge Trevor Sharp wrote that Forsyth County prayers "display a preference for Christianity over other religions by the government" and "alienates those whose beliefs differ from Christian beliefs and divides citizens along religious lines."

Warren and Ford's bill would declare that North Carolina is "sovereign" and any court ruling about religion is nullified by the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution.

"The North Carolina General Assembly asserts that the Constitution of the United States of America does not prohibit states or their subsidiaries from making laws respecting an establishment of religion," the bill states.

"The North Carolina General Assembly does not recognize federal court rulings which prohibit and otherwise regulate the State of North Carolina, its public schools or any political subdivisions of the State from making laws respecting an establishment of religion."

A 1961 Supreme Court ruling found that a provision in North Carolina's state constitution which disqualifies anyone who does not believe in God from seeking public office was unenforceable.

Rep. Harry Warren in 2010 told NC Tea Party TV that the federal government had too much power and that it was doing everything possible to "infringe on sovereignty of the states."

"I wholeheartedly believe that we have to do what we need to do to protect our sovereignty," he explained. "And I would fight very hard to make sure we maintain our sovereignty and our state's rights."

(h/t: The Huffington Post)

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And the Fox "news" so-called "war on Christmas" continued this Saturday evening on Mike Huckabee's show, with our good buddy HuckaJesus pulling every atheist straw man out of his posterior to pretend that Christians are somehow being oppressed by those evil, liberal heathens who are trying to take their holiday celebrations away from them. Call out the waaaambulance!

Heaven forbid a good Christian like Huckabee would ever come on the air and lie to their viewers, or try to drum up outrage over issues that should not be controversial, but sadly he's got a long history there and not just with Fox and their annual exercise in pretending that this ridiculous "war" on Christianity actually exists.

Last week he was out there carrying water for the NRA on the school shooting at Sandy Hook. Now, just in time for Christmas, we get treated to this nonsense.

HUCKABEE: Now, you know, there's been so much hostility to people celebrating Christmas this year, with lawsuits filed for songs, Christmas trees and nativity scenes by those who say, they're really offended by Christmas, I have to think that in some ways, this is a good thing.

No really. It's a good thing. Open hostility to faith is far better than indifference and people who are anything but indifferent to Christmas are what's around now. You know, when I hear the angry and hostile rantings of those who want any mention of Christmas, or the Christmas season to be eradicated from the public square, I don't hear the voices of people who think Christmas is meaningless and useless.

Because if they thought that, they'd merely be mildly amused that some of us spend so much energy in the acknowledgment, celebration and the meaning of this cherished day. But the reaction is not benign amusement, not even scorn. Most certainly not indifference.

It's angry, venomous and high volume rage. It's as if the opponents of Christmas are afraid the whole story might just be true. Because if they really thought it was a fairy tail and thought like it... the fairy tail they claimed to be, well, they not only would be unmoved by some of our wasting our time, energy and money over it, they'd actually be glad that we expended so much effort on something that was utterly meaningless.

But the degree of hostility toward the Christmas message is a sign of fear. I mean after all, you don't fear a stuffed bear in a museum, but you sure would fear an eight foot tall Grizzly Bear that you met in the woods that was growling just inches from your face.

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South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Rep. Tim Scott appeared on Greta Van Susteren's show on Fox to discuss Haley's decision to appoint Scott to take Sen. Jim DeMint's place, who is off to collect his wingnut welfare over at The Heritage Foundation after his retirement.

Right out of the gate we had Scott promising to focus on getting that government spending, that they all hate when there's a Democratic in the White House so much under control and advocating for a flat tax. Haley heaped praise on Scott and said that "he earned" this appointment. I guess that's true if anyone thinks there's merit in being even more of an extremist than his predecessor and so far, that seems to be the case.

Here's more on that from Think Progress: Meet Sen. Tim Scott: The Tea Party Lawmaker Who Wanted To Impeach President Obama And Kick Kids Off Food Stamps:

Though DeMint left big, controversial shoes to fill for Republicans, few conservatives will be disappointed with Scott’s record. Elected to Congress just two years ago in the Tea Party wave, Scott has already garnered headlines for his plan to impeach President Obama, his legislation to cut off union members’ children from food stamps, and his defense of Big Oil.

Here’s a quick look at Scott’s record:

• Floated impeaching Obama over the debt ceiling. As the debt ceiling debate raged in the summer of 2011 because of the intransigence of Tea Party freshmen like Scott, the nation inched perilously close to defaulting on its obligations. One option discussed by some officials to avoid that scenario was for the president to assert that the debt ceiling itself was an unconstitutional infringement on the 14th Amendment. However, Tim Scott told a South Carolina Tea Party group that if Obama were to go this route, it would be an “impeachable act.”
• Proposed a bill to cut off food stamps for entire families if one member went on strike. One of the most anti-union members of Congress, Scott proposed a bill two months after entering Congress in 2011 to kick families off food stamps if one adult were participating in a strike. Scott’s legislation made no exception for children or other dependents.
• Wanted to spend an unlimited amount of money to display Ten Commandments outside county building. When Scott was on the Charleston County Council, one of his primary issues was displaying the Ten Commandments outside the Council building. According to the Augusta Chronicle, Scott said the display “would remind council members and speakers the moral absolutes they should follow.” When he was sued for violating the Constitution and a Circuit Judge’s orders, Scott was nonplussed: “Whatever it costs in the pursuit of this goal (of displaying the Commandments) is worth it.”
• Defended fairness of giving billions in subsidies to Big Oil. Scott and his Republican allies in Congress voted repeatedly last year to protect more than $50 billion in taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil corporations. When ThinkProgress asked Scott whether it was fair to do that, especially at a time when oil companies are earning tens of billions in profit every quarter, the Tea Party freshman defended the industry: “fair is a relative word,” said Scott.
• Helped slash South Carolina’s HIV/AIDS budget. As a state representative, Scott backed a proposal to cut the state’s entire HIV/AIDS budget, despite the fact that South Carolina ranks in the top-third of reported AIDS cases. The cuts were ultimately included in the state’s budget, impacting more than 2,000 HIV-positive South Carolinians who needed help paying for their medication.

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It looks like Mike Huckabee isn't too happy about all the grief he got for his comments the previous day on Fox, about the tragic shooting at the elementary school in Connecticut, because he came back on the next morning on Fox & Friends and tried to walk them back, at least in part.

Huckabee Tries To Walk Back Comments On God And School Shootings:

On Fox & Friends Saturday, he attempted to clarify his comments, saying, "Yesterday, I was on Neil Cavuto. He asked me, you know, where was God? I said, you know, we've systematically removed him from our culture, from our schools. Well, I've been barraged by people who have said that I said, well, if we just have prayer in schools, this wouldn't happen. That's not my point."

Huckabee continued:

HUCKABEE: No, my point is a larger point -- that we have as a culture decided that we don't want to have values, that we don't want to say that some things are always right, some things are always wrong. When we divorce ourselves from a basic sense of what we would call, I would say, collective morality where we agree on certain principles to be true always, then we create a culture -- not that it specifically creates this crime. It doesn't. But it creates an atmosphere in which evil and violence are removed from our sense of responsibility.

Yet while Huckabee now claims that his initial point wasn't that "if we just have prayer in schools, this wouldn't happen," Huckabee told Cavuto on Friday, "We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?" Huckabee concluded his remarks by saying, "Maybe we ought to let [God] in on the front end and we wouldn't have to call him to show up when it's all said and done at the back end."

As Huckabee acknowledged on Fox & Friends Saturday, his remarks have drawn much attention from the media.

I don't think he did himself any favors here. And of course, he's insisting that now isn't the time to talk about gun control... or tomorrow.... or any time this week. We'll do that later, which means never. But of course it's not too soon for him to spend his entire upcoming show this Saturday night talking about the tragedy and how to talk to your children about it.

UPDATE: And if anyone didn't think HuckaJesus could amp the amount of crazy up any higher, here he is on his Saturday show on Fox, first attacking the liberals for daring to point out that he did indeed say lack of prayer in schools was responsible for this shooting, and then going into some bizarre rant about their fake war on Christmas and those supposed abortion loving liberals.

Then he brings in Geraldo who gives the viewers a disgusting blow by blow of how many times those poor children were shot, agrees with Huckabee that it's "evil" as opposed to say, mental illness that's responsible for what happened, and then compares the tragedy to the Holocaust.

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What's really frightening is that Huckabee has been discussed by our media as someone to take seriously as a contender for the presidency. He'd be getting way too much air time if he was only allowed to pollute our airways on late night infomercials at 3am on channels almost no one watches.

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Leave it to Fox's Mike Huckabee to use this tragic shooting in Connecticut to blame those who would like to maintain the separation of church and state as somehow being responsible for the actions of this shooter. Here he is on Cavuto's show on Fox, first pushing the NRA's talking points that there aren't any laws that could be passed to prevent something like this from happening, and then this hackery:

Huckabee: Schools "Become A Place Of Carnage" When "We Systematically Remove God":

HUCKABEE: Ultimately, you can take away every gun in America and somebody will use a bomb. When somebody has an intent to do incredible damage, they’re going to find a way to do it… People will want to pass new laws, but unless you change people’s hearts, they’re our transition to the pastor side. This is a heart issue, it’s not something, laws don’t change this kind of thing.

CAVUTO: You know, invariably, people ask after tragedies like this, "How could God let this happen?"

HUCKABEE: Well, you know, it's an interesting thing. We ask why there is violence in our schools but we have systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage? Because we've made it a place where we don't want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability -- that we're not just going to have be accountable to the police if they catch us, but one day we stand before, you know, a holy God in judgment. If we don't believe that, then we don't fear that. And so I sometimes, when people say, why did God let it happen. You know, God wasn't armed. He didn't go to the school. But God will be there in the form of a lot people with hugs and with therapy and a whole lot of ways in which I think he will be involved in the aftermath. Maybe we ought to let him in on the front end and we wouldn't have to call him to show up when it's all said and done at the back end.

Better late than never but it appears Michele Bachmann's over the top fearmongering is losing her some more friends on the right. Last week it was House Intelligence Chair Mike Rogers. Now we've got her fellow Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner pushing back at her nonsense as well.

Conservative Congressman Blasts Bachmann’s Anti-Muslim Allegations, Stands Up For Religious Liberty:

One of the most conservative congressmen in the country stepped up to defend Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and the rights of all Muslim-Americans yesterday against Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) spurious accusations that she is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, calling them “the wrong thing to do.”

During a town hall held by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) on Sunday, a constituent lauded Bachmann’s anti-Muslim witchhunt about a supposed Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the U.S. government and called on her congressman to support her efforts. Sensenbrenner instead used the opportunity not only to defend Abedin, but to advocate for the larger notion of religious pluralism in America and a separation between church and state.

The longtime Republican congressman went on to praise the Constitution’s ban on religious tests to hold office, saying Thomas Jefferson’s vision “was right.” When the constituent responded with bigoted accusations about Islam, Sensenbrenner countered: “Religion is a personal issue to every one of the people who lives in the United States…And that has been one of the most cherished freedoms that this country has had since it’s beginning”:

SENSENBRENNER: Let me say that I do know Huma Abedin and I think that the comments that were made about her in that letter, whether or not they were taken out of context, were the wrong thing to do… I think the Constitution in saying that there shall never be a religious test for any office of trust and profit under the United States meant that people should not be judged on the basis of their religious beliefs or lack of religious beliefs. That was Thomas Jefferson that put that in the Constitution — I think he was right.

CONSTITUENT: I think that there’s a political ideology that’s a concern in Islam that is concerning and that should be looked at and we should know that this person is not a threat…

SENSENBRENNER: Heidi, Heidi, Heidi, the First Amendment prohibits the government from making a distinction between what is “good religion” and what is “bad religion.” That’s none of the government’s business. Religion is a personal issue to every one of the people who lives in the United States, whether you practice a faith, how you practice a faith, whether you don’t practice a faith, whether you say you’re a member of a faith but don’t practice it, it’s none of the government’s business. And this is the whole issue of religious freedom. And that has been one of the most cherished freedoms that this country has had since it’s beginning.

Read on...

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I don't know if Jon Meacham has just been ignoring the things Mitt Romney has been saying on the campaign trail, or if he knows full well and he's just being completely dishonest here. On this Sunday's Meet the Press, Meacham suggested that "religion will be less important" and that it's not "in either candidate's interest to be bringing up specific religious issues" come the general election. I guess he missed this:

Romney: Obama Wants to 'Establish a Religion Called Secularism'

Romney is already attacking President Obama's faith, but par for the course with Romney, he's doing it completely dishonestly by trying to pretend the President is an atheist. The reason for doing so being obvious, which is, as Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out the other night, the only group voters trust less than Mormons, is atheists (which I find extremely depressing).

And Meacham's suggestion that Mitt Romney's Mormonism is not going to be an issue in the general election is ridiculous, given the large number of Evangelical voters in the Republican base and their mistrust of his religion. There is exactly one candidate where it would not be to his advantage to talk about his faith for that very reason, and it's Mitt Romney.

I think we're going to hear this sort of rhetoric from Republicans on the campaign trail as their primary race finally winds down and the GOP and the media begin doing their best to revive Romney after what's been a really damaging primary season. President Obama doesn't need to go after Romney for his faith. His fellow Republican presidential candidates have already done most of the damage for him.

Transcript below the fold.

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Mother Jones' David Corn sat down with MSNBC's Martin Bashir to discuss his new book Fox's response to his reporting that their network was criticized by President Obama for pushing the myth that he's a Muslim. Naturally the network and one of their reporters, Bret Baier, were not happy about it.

Media Matters has more here -- Bret Baier Ignores Fox News' Role In Fueling Obama Muslim Myth:

Fox News anchor Bret Baier responded to a new book reporting that in 2010, President Obama criticized the network for pushing the myth that Obama "is a Muslim" by saying: "For the record, we found no examples of a host saying President Obama is a Muslim." In fact, Fox has repeatedly questioned and promoted falsehoods about Obama's faith, including pushing the false claim that Obama attended a "madrassa."

Media Matters has lots of examples in that post, one of which was pointed out in the segment above where Baier did the same thing himself:

Special Report On Obama: "Islam Or Isn't He?" During a June 2009 segment, Special Report aired a quote by Obama foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough, in which he talked about how Obama "experienced Islam on three continents" and spent part of his childhood in Indonesia with a Muslim father. Special Report included this question above the quote: "Islam Or Isn't He?" [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 6/3/09]

David Corn has more examples as well in his post at Mother Jones -- Bret Baier's #Fail in Challenging Obama on "Showdown":

Bret Baier is wrong.

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said on Sunday that former President John F. Kennedy's commitment to the separation of church and state made him "throw up."

In a 1960 speech, Kennedy had assured Southern Baptist leaders that as the nation's first Catholic president, he would not take orders from the Pope.

"But because I am a Catholic and no Catholic has ever been elected President, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured -- perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this," Kennedy said. "So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again -- not what kind of church I believe in for that should be important only to me, but what kind of America I believe in."

"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute -- where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be a Catholic) how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote -- where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference -- and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him," he explained.

On Sunday, ABC host George Stephanopoulos asked Santorum, who is also Catholic, about his claim last year that Kennedy's words made him inclined to vomit.

"I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute," Santorum remarked. "The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country."

"Kennedy for the first time, articulated a vision that said, 'No, faith is not allowed in the public square. I will keep it separate,'" the candidate claimed. "Go out and read the speech. 'I will have nothing to do with faith. I won't consult with people of faith.' It was an absolutist doctrine that was foreign at the time of 1960."

"But make you want to throw up?" Stephanopoulos pressed.

"Absolutely!" Santorum exclaimed. "To say people of faith have no role in the public square, you bet that makes you throw up. What kind of country do we live in that says only people of non-faith can come in the public square and make their case."

"That makes me throw up and it should make every American," he insisted.

But Kennedy's niece, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, responded to a similar 2010 attack by half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) by explaining that critics had mischaracterized her uncle.

"America's first and only Catholic president referred to God three times in his inaugural address and invoked the Bible's command to care for poor and the sick," she wrote for The Washington Post. "Later in his presidency, he said, unequivocally, about civil rights: 'We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.'"

"John F. Kennedy knew that tearing down the wall separating church and state would tempt us toward self-righteousness and contempt for others. That is one reason he delivered his Houston speech."

Watch JFK's full speech here.

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Rep. Paul Ryan told David Gregory on this Sunday's Meet the Press that he wasn't concerned about Republicans over playing their hand on the issue of contraception and women's health while discussing some of Rick Santorum's latest remarks on the campaign trail.

Ryan told Gregory that he was instead worried that matter "might get misconstrued" and that voters were going to look at this as a matter of freedom of religion and the government over reaching and demanding that employers are mandated to pay for "everyone else's free birth control."

Rep. Chris Van Hollen did a fair job of pointing out that the Republicans were turning to wedge issues to get their base riled up because they have nothing else to run on right now and the weren't screaming about the many states that already had similar requirements for religious institutions and what services they were required to cover for their employees.

I really wish the Democrats would ask Republicans one question when they start screaming about how religious institutions ought to be allowed to discriminate against their female employees and that is just how far do they think that religious "freedom" goes with what laws they should have a right to disobey. Should they be allowed to ignore child labor laws? OSHA rules? Laws and regulations on the safety of the medications provided in their hospitals? Just where is the line drawn with these so-called "conscience clauses"?

If Paul Ryan thinks the Republicans are going to be able to frame this is an attack on religious "freedom" and defending their "freedom" to discriminate against women is some women is some winner for them, again, I say, good luck with that. You're going to need it.

And if anyone else is as tired of seeing Ryan's smug mug on the television set, you can support his opponent Rob Zerban at our Blue America page here -- Stop Paul Ryan.

Transcript below the fold.

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