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Bill Maher answered his own question while discussing the political prospects for Anthony Weiner and whether he is able to make a comeback in New York, compared to Mr. Appalachian trail, Mark Sanford, who has already been forgiven and won his party's primary for the upcoming House race in South Carolina.

As Maher explained during his New Rules segment this Friday, the Republicans are the Christian party and "there's nothing Evangelicals eat up like a redemption story," but when it comes to the Jewish guy from New York, "no Jesus mulligan for him."

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If anyone wanted to know where wingnuts Mike Lee and Rick Santorum got their talking points in opposing this United Nations treaty that just got voted down by the shameless Republicans in the Senate who were too afraid of the crackpots among their ranks to do the right thing, look no further than this guy -- Michael Farris.

CNN's Anderson Cooper did a nice job going after Sen. Mike Lee the other night when he was trying to defend leading the opposition to the treaty. This Monday evening, Cooper brought on the Home School Legal Defense Association's Farris to defend his position as well. Despite Cooper continually reminding Farris that the treaty would not directly impact United States' law or force parents of disabled children here to do anything, Farris continued to maintain that the opposite was true and that it has already impacted cases in the United States.

After he went off the air, Cooper did some follow up with their chief legal analyst at CNN, Jeffrey Toobin, who basically said that Farris was full of it. Farris continually challenged Cooper during the interview as someone who had no idea what he was talking about and painted himself as an expert because of his experience teaching law at the school he founded, Patrick Henry College. After reading a bit about it, it pretty well sounds like just another Liberty University, designed with the purpose of pushing home schooled evangelicals into the government and positions of power.

Here's more on that from Daily KOS: German reporter goes underground at Patrick Henry College:

Amrai Coen, a writer for the German weekly Die Zeit, wanted to visit Patrick Henry College, but the college administration refused her visit since the school had "bad experiences with foreign journalists." Undeterred, Amrai posed as a prospective student and showed up on campus on "Visitor's Day". Her piece on her experience that day provides a rare inside glimpse of life at America's Madrassa,

Nearly all of the students at Patrick Henry College have been home-schooled by ultra-conservative evangelical Christian parents. At Patrick Henry these young people can complete their christo-fascist indoctrination before joining right-wing think tanks and media groups in Washington. Students are taught to kneel before images of Jesus and Ronald Reagan; they attend lecturess on how America can waterboard its way to global dominance. Professors are dismissed if they actually teach science, since students are taught that the earth is only 6000 years old and baby Jesus frolicked with dinosaurs.

(Note: my translation from the Zeit piece)

The college has one mission: to save America from its downfall, from the abyss into which Barack Obama has steered the country in the past four years. Young conservative Christians are the soldiers in this wa. At Patrick Henry College they will be trained to fight one day on the front - as politicians, filmmakers, or entrepreneurs they will win back American society. Some have rejected Harvard or Yale in order to study here.

I'm sure much to the dismay of their founder, an LGBT group has also been making the public aware of how the school treats their students: Patrick Henry College, Homeschool Bastion, Has LGBT Group.

Here's more background on Farris from Right Wing Watch as well: Michael Farris Warns that the UN might 'Get Control' over Children With Glasses:

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From this Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher walks us through the reasons why we should not be shocked about Todd Akin and his comments about sperm and abortion. It's not just Akin that's the problem as we've discussed here many times.

My New Rule for Todd Akin and the Republican Party:

Republicans would like to pretend like Congressman Akin's substitution of superstition for science is a lone problem but it's not: they're all magical thinkers, on nearly every issue. They don't get their answers on climate change from climatologists, they get them from the Book of Genesis. Hence Sharia Law in America is a dire threat, and global warming a hoax.

Or take the issue that consumes the right these days, our sea of red ink: Republicans are united in their fervent desire to reduce the deficit, but they want to do it in some magical fashion that doesn't involve raising taxes or cutting any spending. When given a choice in polls between these two options, a majority of Republicans check "none of the above" as a way to reduce the deficit. That's like deciding to pay off your student loans by daydreaming.

Or as it's known on Capitol Hill, supply-side economics. Remember that magic beans theory? That you actually bring in more revenue by bringing in less? Ronald Reagan believed it. But at least back in the '80s it was new. The thing is, we tried it, and it doesn't work. Yet, Paul Ryan, who every shit-for-brains pundit in America keeps telling us is a "serious" guy, still believes in the supply-side theory. All the Republicans do. They all believe in something that both science and history have shown to be pure fantasy. The symbol for their party shouldn't be an elephant -- it should be a unicorn.

Paul Ryan is their tough guy on spending but he doesn't want to touch defense -- that's right, a budget hawk who doesn't think there's anything bloated about the Defense Department's budget. It's like being a health inspector and finding nothing wrong with the Asian place that has the chicken hanging in the window. This is how low we've put the bar for political courage -- that you can just write, "I want a pony" in a binder and call it the "Plan For Restoring Vision For the Future of America's Greatness" or some shit, and then everyone has to refer to you as the serious one in Congress. It reminds me of health care. Republicans are for all the popular things, like covering people with pre-existing conditions, but they're not for the part where you pay for it, like the mandate. Just like they were for our recent wars, but not for paying for them. For the prescription drug bill, but not for paying for it.

You can read the rest at the link above.

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On this weekend's The Chris Matthews Show, while discussing whether the Obama campaign might attempt to use Mitt Romney's Mormonism against him during the presidential campaign and the trouble Romney has had openly discussing his faith, panel member S.E. Cupp had this explanation for why Romney's religion might not be a problem for him:

CUPP: Second, you know, G.K. Chesterton said that the test of any good religion is whether you can make fun of it or not. And, you know, Mormonism has really come into its own in pop culture, whether you're looking at The Book of Mormon by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, or Big Love. I mean, Mormonism, as uneasy as America may have been about it in the past, I think it's having a pretty good day this year in pop culture. Mormons are kind of everywhere. So I don't know that it's as impenetrable and clandestine as it used to be.

I used to think Matthews' show on the weekend couldn't get a whole lot worse with the typical group of beltway Villagers he has as regular guests. I was wrong. This is the second show where he's had Cupp on there. I'm failing to follow the logic here. So somehow, a Broadway musical and a show on a cable premium pay channel, HBO, are Mormons being “everywhere?” And if I'm not mistaken, I don't think the church was exactly thrilled to put it mildly about either of these productions.

Sorry, but I don't think either is going to have a thing to do with the average voter, or anyone else for that matter, potentially being more comfortable with Romney's religion. As the other guests on there did point out a little later in the discussion, the hatred of President Obama is the one thing that will allow the Evangelical voters out there to get over Romney's religion and vote for him in the general election after snubbing him during the primary races. It's not going to be because of what those “elitists” in New York or Hollywood are doing and because they've made a play and a cable series making fun of the Mormon Church.

I haven't seen the play, but I watched Big Love on HBO and it sure didn't make me feel any more comfortable about the Mormon Church and their history of polygamy. I'm sure Romney doesn't want to remind anyone of that since it's not that far back in his own family's history where polygamy was practiced as well.

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After Mitt Romney went pandering to the right-wing during his commencement address at Liberty University earlier this week, Bill Maher took his a few shots at the school during his New Rules segment on Real Time this Friday.

MAHER: And finally, new rule, you can't expect me to believe anything Mitt Romney said last week at Liberty University because a: He's a liar. And b: Liberty University isn't really a university. It's not like an actual statesman visited an actual college. It's more like a Tupac hologram visited Disneyland. [...]

This is a school you flunk out of when you get the answers right. [...]

Conservatives often say that gay marriage cheapens their marriage. Well, I think a diploma from Liberty cheapens my degree from a real school.

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In what he called “another episode of the politics of religion,” Lawrence O'Donnell described an encounter Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney had with a Ron Paul supporter where he was asked about the Mormon church's stance in interracial marriage.

Here's more on that encounter from CBS News -- Romney questioned about interracial marriage stance:

Mitt Romney's faith was thrust into the spotlight on Monday, when a Ron Paul supporter tried to quote a passage from a Mormon text and asked Romney if he believed interracial marriage is a sin.

The question arose during a town hall in this suburb of Green Bay by 28 year-old Bret Hatch, who came prepared with a piece of paper that contained quotes from Mormon scripture.

"I guess a lot of people say that your Mormon faith cannot be a concern in the election," Hatch said as a Romney staffer held a microphone so he could be heard throughout the room. "But I think, it might be, as well as I found these verses from the Mormon book."

Hatch tried to read a section from a religious text that has been quoted by some to suggest racist beliefs in the Church of Latter Day Saints.

"I'm sorry, we're just not going to have a discussion about religion in my view," the former Massachusetts governor said. "But if you have a question, I'll be happy to answer your question."

Hatch then asked Romney if he believed "it's a sin for a white man to marry and procreate with a black woman?"

"No. Next question." Romney responded.

As O'Donnell noted, it wasn't until 1978, ten years after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated that the Mormon church suddenly decided to allow black men to become priests in their church. At that time, Mitt Romney was thirty-one years old. As O'Donnell pointed out, if we had someone who was a member of any other racially exclusive organization until they were thirty-one, their candidacy for the presidency or any other office would be doomed.

But because we live in America where it seems it's politically incorrect to ask any political candidate challenging questions about religion--unless they're a black man with a Kenyan father or alternatively, asking Republicans to speak about their deep devotion to Christianity--O'Donnell doesn't feel Romney will ever face any tough questions about his Mormon faith.

O'Donnell would like to see the Romney campaign answer more questions about whether Mitt Romney ever believed in the teachings of Brigham Young. Did he actually believe that he would die on the spot if he ever had sex with a black woman? Given the nature of our press corps, O'Donnell didn't have much hope he'd ever be pushed to answer such a question.

I think O'Donnell's right, but Romney's religion is really the least of the concerns I've got about him. And frankly I'm tired of the “being a good Christian” standard as one that's set all too often by our corporate media and the voters for that matter when it comes to one's qualifications for office.

Mitt Romney is going to find himself with an evangelical Christian problem when it comes to the base of the Republican Party showing up to vote for him in the general election. They're not going to care about the racism issue within the LDS church; they're going to care about his religion only in that they don't believe he's really a Christian. This extended primary season has shown us that the support out there for any of the candidates has been tepid at best. Frankly, there's a good argument that none of them should have ever been considered serious contenders for the office of the President of the United States. His religious tenets aside, there's a whole host of reasons why Romney would be a terrible president.

From Democracy Now -- Ex-Evangelical Denounces Michele Bachmann & Calls Christian Reconstructionist Politics "Anti-American":

We speak with a former evangelical Christian, Frank Schaeffer, whose father’s writings and work played a key role in the religious development of Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. Frank Schaeffer recently wrote an article titled "Michele Bachmann Was Inspired by My Dad and His Christian Reconstructionist Friends — Here’s Why That’s Terrifying." Schaeffer’s father was Francis Schaeffer, one of the nation’s most influential evangelical Christian theologians and philosophers in the 1970s and 1980s. In a recent profile in The New Yorker magazine, Bachmann reveals she entered politics after watching Francis Schaeffer’s film, "How Should We Then Live?" The film was directed by his son, Frank, our guest today. "[Bachmann] doesn’t just come from the far right of evangelical politics. She comes from a fringe even of the fringe, which is the Reconstructionist, Dominionist movement," Schaeffer says. “The religious right that I was part of is fundamentally anti-American. They hate this country. They wrap themselves in the flag, but they hate America as it is."

You can read the entire transcript of Schaeffer's interview at the link above.

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For anyone not already familiar with Frank Schaeffer, I posted this interview back in 2009 just after Schaeffer came out with his book, Crazy for God -- Frank Schaeffer, Author of "Crazy for God" on What's Left of the GOP: Today the Republican Party is rooting for doom. Schaeffer has a new book out, this time focusing on his mother rather than his father as the previous book did and MSNBC's Richard Lui brought him on to discuss the current crop of GOP presidential candidates and whether Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry should he get in, would actually have a chance at winning the nomination.

Schaeffer didn't pull any punches when explaining that Michele Bachmann's radical right-wing religious beliefs are too far to the right even for most evangelical Christians and that the more voters get to know about her, the less likely the chances of her winning the nomination. I'd say I agree with him, but of course that relies on our corporate media doing their jobs, which we know they won't unless we see a whole lot more interviews like this one. Schaeffer also did a great job of explaining how none of them actually care about the social issues other than to use them to dupe religious voters into supporting them so they can go serve their real masters after they get in office.

Rough transcript below the fold.

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Okay, can anyone explain to me why Anderson Cooper felt the need to bring on actor and Christian evangelist Kirk Cameron who starred in the Left Behind series to discuss the mysterious bird and fish deaths in Arkansas? I mean seriously Anderson... WTF? I'd like to know what the hell happened there as well, but the last person in the world I can think of that I would hope to get some answers from is this guy.

I guess someone at CNN thinks we haven't quite Jesus'd up our "news" enough already with right wing evangelicals getting some face time on their airways.

More than 1,000 dead birds fall from sky in Arkansas:

BEEBE, Ark. -- The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission says more than 1,000 dead black birds have fallen from the sky in Beebe.

The agency says its enforcement officers began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. Friday.

Officials say the birds fell over a one-mile area of the city and that no other birds were found outside of that area.

Some of the dead birds will be sent for testing to the state Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Madison, Wisconsin.

Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe says that similar events have occurred elsewhere. In other cases, she says test results "usually were inconclusive," although the birds showed physical trauma. She says the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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From GRITtv:

In Max Blumenthal’s book Republican Gomorrah and in his GRITtv appearance, he introduced us to Francis Schaeffer, one of the important figures in the anti-choice and religious right movements in the United States. Frank Schaeffer, Francis’s son, wrote a book about growing up in the religious right, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back.

Schaeffer has a new book now, Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion (or Atheism), and in it he takes on both the “incipient fascism” of the religious right and what he called “proselytizing” atheism of Richard Dawkins and others. He joins Laura on GRITtv for a fascinating interview about his own journey, and how people, religious or irreligious, are all looking for answers to the same questions.