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Bill Maher took a few shots at the religious right and Focus on the Family during his New Rules segment on Real Time this Friday evening and had this question for them: “If you’re doing God’s work and God is perfect, how come you’re always wrong? Is the problem that you can't follow instructions, or is Jesus just dicking you around?"

Maher went through a list of predictions that they got wrong if heaven forbid "we elected that evil Count Chocula as our President." And kudos to Maher for calling that group exactly what they are, which is nothing more than "an anti-gay lobbying group disguised as a church, basically the God-hates-fags guys crossed with Bain Capital."

Maher asked if we might ever expect to get an apology out of the group for having gotten so many of their predictions wrong, and as he noted, we haven't gotten one from them yet, or a host of others who have also been wrong with their predictions of doom and gloom if the Democrats were elected. He wrapped things up by telling his viewers, "as Joe Biden says, just use your common sense." Bill forgot that other rule when it comes to there being no punishment for Republicans constantly being wrong -- IOKIYAR.

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As Nicole wrote earlier today, Dana Milbank took his turn this month helping to mainstream the type of hatred and bile spread by the likes of the FRC's Tony Perkins. This Thursday it was Mrs. Greenspan allowing him air time to defend Todd Akin after the Republican establishment threw him under the bus and to pretend that Joe Biden has ever said anything nearly as offensive as what came out of Akin's mouth.

Naturally we could count on Andrea Mitchell to allow Perkins' lies and obfuscation to go unchallenged, but the bigger problem is that she's allowing him to go on the air at all if she's not going to all and treating him as though he's some respectable member of the beltway establishment. As Nicole explained though, that's exactly the problem because in Mitchell's mind, that's exactly what he is. Just another lobbyist out there running the cocktail circuit with the rest of them.

Tony Perkins downplays ‘legitimate rape’ as a ‘Biden-ism’:

Family Research Council President Tony Perkin on Thursday defended Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), saying that his assertion that women could not get pregnant from “legitimate rape” was the type of innocent gaffe that Vice President Joe Biden might make.

Perkins told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that he met with Akin in private “to encourage him and the stand that he’s taken.”

“This is a challenge for him,” the evangelical leader explained. “It was a Biden-ism that he made. It was inexcusable, it was inappropriate, he has acknowledged as such and he’s moving on. Now, there are some in the Republican Party that want him to get out, he has made his decision that he’s going to stay in.

He continued: “And from my perspective as our organization endorsed him in the primary, we endorsed him based upon the totality of his record. He has been a strong advocate for national defense, a strong advocate for life, for family and for all Americans. And so our position on him and his candidacy has not changed.”

Mitchell wondered how widespread was the view in the anti-abortion movement that women who were “legitimately raped” could not get pregnant.

“I’ve never had a discussion about that,” Perkins insisted. “It’s not something that’s discussed. Look, I see that every human life is sacred, it should be welcomed into our world and protected by our laws …. Todd [Akin] said he misspoke, he apologized for it. Now, I think it’s time to move on.” Read on...

"Biden-ism" huh? Yeah, good luck with that Tony. I think that's going to stick about as well as "Obamaloney" did for Mittens.

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The absolutely venal Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, wasted no time in politicizing the shooting which occurred at their Washington office yesterday. A short time later the equally noxious hate group the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) joined in in condemning the SPLC.

via CNN

(CNN) -- Accusations of blame abounded Thursday, a day after a 28-year-old man who had volunteered for a center that serves gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people was taken into custody for allegedly shooting a building manager at the headquarters of a Christian conservative group.

"Let me be clear that Floyd Corkins was responsible for firing the shot yesterday," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told reporters in Washington about the suspect. "But Corkins was given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center that have been reckless in labeling organizations hate groups because they disagree with them on public policy."

Perkins said the SPLC "should be held accountable for their reckless use of terminology that is leading to the intimidation and what the FBI here has categorized as an act of domestic terrorism."

Mark Potok of ths SPLC responded by releasing this statement to Perkin's offensive claim:

Perkins’ accusation is outrageous. The SPLC has listed the FRC as a hate group since 2010 because it has knowingly spread false and denigrating propaganda about LGBT people — not, as some claim, because it opposes same-sex marriage. The FRC and its allies on the religious right are saying, in effect, that offering legitimate and fact-based criticism in a democratic society is tantamount to suggesting that the objects of criticism should be the targets of criminal violence.

Full statement below.

Continue reading »

As I noted when Piers Morgan had Tony Perkins on his show on CNN this week, if someone is going to allow Tony Perkins on the air, they should be pointing out that his organization, the Family Research Council, has been labelled a hate group and why and not be allowing him to spew hatred towards the gay community unchallenged. This Thursday, Hardball's Chris Matthews did not point out the fact that his group has been labelled a hate group, but this interview was definitely a step in the right direction if he's going to be allowed on the air.

Here's more on that from Media Matters: MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Demonstrates How To Handle Tony Perkins On Television:

During the May 10 edition of MSNBC’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews invited Tony Perkins – president of the anti-gay hate group Family Research Council (FRC) – and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) to discuss the issues of same-sex marriage and adoption.

Perkins’ presence on MSNBC isn’t surprising – the hate group leader has become a regular guest on the network over the past several months, and has typically been treated as a credible, uncontroversial political figure, especially on Hardball.

On Thursday, however, things were different.

For nearly 15 minutes, Matthews, with the help of Frank, grilled Perkins on his views on homosexuality, marriage equality, and same-sex parenting. Matthews challenged Perkins’ anti-gay misinformation, held him accountable for past statements, and demonstrated how out-of-the-mainstream his extreme positions really are.

This is exactly the kind of interview that major news outlets should be conducting when dealing with someone like Perkins.

I'll second that. It was nice to see him put on the defensive for once instead of just being allowed to spew his bigoted talking points like he usually gets away with. This March, Matthews was confronted by the group Faithful America about legitimizing the likes of Perkins with the type of softball interviews we've seen from Matthews with him previously. It looks like maybe their talk with him did some good.

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As Raw Story's Stephen Webster noted, on the heels of a recent study which found that "people who have negative feelings toward homosexuality often have secret attractions to the same sex — and are more likely to have grown up in households that forbid homosexual feelings," we have Thom Hartmann asking about that very topic during this interview with the leader of an anti-gay organization which the SPLC has designated as a hate group.

Hartmann confronts anti-gay leader: Do closeted gays run your movement?:

On Russia Today TV’s The Big Picture Thursday, progressive radio host Thom Hartmann confronted Family Research Institute chairman Dr. Paul Cameron and asked him an unusually pointed question: “Does it concern you that many of your colleagues in the anti-gay movement may actually be closeted gays?”

“Um, no,” Cameron replied. “Very few of them are homosexually interested. First of all, um… Most people are not interested in homosexuality. There’s not at all. A few homosexuals like to say — and they’ve been saying this now for at least the last seven years — almost everybody is bisexual, maybe some homosexual…”

“I’ve never heard anybody say that,” Hartmann replied.

Cameron went on to claim that biologist Alfred Kinsey, whose groundbreaking research pioneered the study of human sexuality, “was gay” and “pushed that idea,” making his scientific findings somehow less valid. “Most of the homosexual leadership… have pushed that idea,” he added. “But it’s not true!”

Cameron didn’t provide any source or research to support his claim, so interested viewers may just have to take his word for it. Read on...

Here's more from the Southern Poverty Law Center on Cameron:

Continue reading »

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Chris Matthews talked to the SPLC's Mark Potok and The Family Research Council's Tony Perkins about the recent designation of Perkin's FRC as a hate group for their anti-gay rhetoric.

From the SPLC's web site -- Active U.S. Hate Groups:

The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 932 active hate groups in the United States in 2009. Only organizations and their chapters known to be active during 2009 are included.

All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.

This list was compiled using hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports.

Hate group activities can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing. Websites appearing to be merely the work of a single individual, rather than the publication of a group, are not included in this list. Listing here does not imply a group advocates or engages in violence or other criminal activity.

Here's more from TPM -- Family Research Council Labeled 'Hate Group' By SPLC Over Anti-Gay Rhetoric:

The Family Research Council is perhaps the most prominent voice in conservative social politics and the hosts of an annual rite of passage for many Republicans who hope to run for president. And now, FRC is on the same Southern Poverty Law Center list of hate groups as the Ku Klux Klan.

The SPLC gave the Family Research Council the designation due to anti-gay speech from its leaders, which the SPLC says includes calls for gay men and lesbians to be imprisoned. Read on...

Perkins needless to say isn't happy about it. I say good for Mark Potok and the SPLC for putting these hate mongers in the type of company where they belong.