Krazy Kathylicks & Other Religious Testicles After Obama in First Week
Wednesday, January 28 2009 @ 10:45 PM CST Views: 276
by Meg White
Not to be left behind by political ideologues, the religious right is getting in on the Obama bashing in the new president's first week in office.
The day after the 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade, President Barack Obama lifted the global gag rule, allowing international aid groups to still receive federal funding even if they do not pledge to oppose abortion rights.
Well, of course, this action sent Donald Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, into one of his regular tizzies. He sent out an "action alert" earlier this week that twisted the news until it sounded like Obama would be personally flying around the world to murder babies.
Of course, Wildmon also directed his flock's attention to a new online video from CatholicVote.com that is just as disgusting as his own e-mail. The video appropriates the president's image and suggests that his mother would have aborted him, if only it had been legal. This is so far from the truth as to be almost laughable, if it weren't so deplorable.
And wait: the fight is about to get even more political. The religious right jumped all over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she tried to defend the addition of family planning funds in the economic stimulus package.
Of course, the logic is that a package of birth control pills for an uninsured young woman is much cheaper than pregnancy. Many states (including Obama's home state) already provide family planning services for free to women under a certain income level. Since many states (again including Illinois) are facing fiscal crises, why not help them help their residents avoid costly unplanned pregnancies?
The communication director for the Catholic League was pissed, but she couldn't explain why. She's quoted here sputtering, "It's quite shocking, actually, that the Speaker of the House -- who claims to be Catholic -- would go on national television and claim that contraception would reduce the cost to the government... It's just beyond words, really."
Hmmm... beyond words, or beyond argument? And she calls herself a communications director?
The league's president makes even less sense in the same article. He said the Democrats' addition of the funding "explains their enthusiasm for abortion-on-demand," another incomprehensible argument. Family planning programs have been shown to reduce abortion, not increase it.
The article goes on to freak out about how our birth rate is dangerously low, even though fertility rates in this country are on the upswing, and are much higher than most other industrialized nations. The Wall Street Journal parrots this same line in an irresponsible editorial today, pretending that our workforce is shrinking. Anyone can tell you it's jobs that are disappearing, not people.
This last one is either a copyediting mistake or a Freudian slip, but telling (and amusing) enough to include in this update. Father Tom Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, wrote this at the end of a blog about how bummed he and his supporters are because "anti-lifers hold the reins of political power:"
"I promise you that Human Life International will be in the struggle for lives and souls continuously. It is our calling and mission. We will never give one inch to uphold the truth that the whole world needs to hear more than ever." (Emphasis ours)
Yeah, it didn't seem like you guys were all that into the truth anyway. Why give an inch when the Democrats will give a mile?
Yes, the latest news is that Obama is trying to convince the House to drop the funding for family planning, even though the GOP is probably going to shoot down the stimulus bill anyway. So, despite the lack of logic in their marginalized hyperventilating, it looks like the religious right might win today's fight anyway.
http://www.buzzflash.com
What's Related