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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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As we already discussed here and as Jon Stewart rightfully mocked this week, Republicans have gone off of the rails with their opposition to this United Nations treaty that they just shamefully voted down in the Senate, because the homeschooling crowd is scared to death that the U.N. is going to somehow impose agreements from international treaties onto the citizens of the United States.

This Friday evening, CNN's Anderson Cooper decided to actually do his job and pushed back at wingnut Mike Lee, who was one of the leading voices in the Senate who made sure the treaty wasn't approved.

As Hullabaloo's David Atkins rightfully observed on that topic:

We shouldn't have to hit rock bottom for CNN to start actually doing its job. But at least we've found a level of insanity that will actually prompt some legitimate journalism.

As Raw Story noted, Cooper pretty well destroyed most of Lee's arguments about why he opposes the treaty. I'll be surprised if he's back on there any time soon. Cooper was polite, but he managed to show Lee for the dishonest embarrassment that he is along with the rest of them that voted with him during the interview.

Full transcript and video of Cooper's interview with Lee below the fold.

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Jon Stewart took his audience through the entire, disgusting "Senate day of shame" with Mike Lee and the home schooling crowd objecting to the passage of the U.N. disability treaty. After asking how the treaty failed and what the hell is wrong with "these people," Stewart said he guessed it was time for a new segment: "Please Tell Me This is Rock Bottom."

Sadly Jon, I'm fairly sure we haven't hit it yet. He got into the meat of their real objection to the treaty a bit later in the segment, which Dave wrote about here and their fear that the treaty might be used to interfere with American sovereignty, and somehow "threaten the rights of parents." Except, as Stewart noted, there are no enforcement mechanisms. That of course, was one of wingnut Lee's objections to the bill.

The Republicans in the Senate are bound and determined to make themselves look like as big of clowns who want to constantly embarrass this country as their counterparts in the House. It would be a lot easier to laugh at a lot of it, if it weren't also so dangerous.

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Republican Senators on Tuesday voted to block a United Nations treaty that would have helped to protect disabled Americans -- including veterans -- while they are in foreign countries.

Thirty-eight Republicans voted no, giving them five votes more than necessary to defeat the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities treaty, 61 to 38.

At an event with former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) late last month, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) announced that 36 Republicans had signed a letter pledging to vote against the treaty.

Lee told Senators on Tuesday that the treaty "threatens the right of parents to raise their children with the constant looming threat of state interference."

"We all want to support the best interest of the the child, every child," Lee said in a speech on the Senate floor. "But I and many of my constituents, including those who home school their children or send their children to private or religious schools, have justifiable doubts that a foreign U.N. body, a committee operating out of Geneva, Switzerland should decide what is in the best interest of the child at home with his or her parents in Utah or in any other state in our great union."

Writing for World Net Daily on Monday, Santorum said the treaty had "darker and more troubling implications" and suggested that it would have meant the forced abortion his daughter because she has a rare genetic disorder.

“In the case of our 4-year-old daughter, Bella, who has Trisomy 18, a condition that the medical literature says is ‘incompatible with life,’ would her ‘best interest’ be that she be allowed to die?” he asked. “Some would undoubtedly say so.”

Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly also warned in November that proponents were "using this treaty as an opportunity to promote their abortion agenda."

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who suffered disabilities while fighting in Vietnam, insisted that that the treaty would have no effect on abortion laws in the United States.

"With respect to abortion, this is a disabilities treaty and has nothing to do with abortion," McCain told his Republican colleagues in a Monday speech on the Senate floor. “Trying to turn this into an abortion debate is bad politics and just wrong.”

President George W. Bush's administration completed negotiations of the treaty in 2006 and it was signed by President Barack Obama in 2009. It had been supported by veterans groups, the disabilities community and the business community.

A Yale University Study released earlier this year found that the majority of homeless veterans suffered from PTSD or other mood disorders.