This morning's edition of OneNewsNow (the news service of the Wildmon family's American Family Association) leads with this headline: "New tea party: energy, money -- and detente with GOP."

Reporter Jim Kuhnhenn points out that "Tea party activists and the Republican establishment are quickly joining forces for the fall elections as fresh cash and energy flow to the upstarts."

"Fresh cash" includes a $1 million dollar anonymous contribution to the Tea Party Patriots, and "energy flow" is represented by a renewed commitment by Sal Russo's Tea Party Express to spend hundreds of thousands on advertisement targeting Democrats in Delaware, Alaska and Nevada.

   

The 1995 Academy Award nominee movie, Insider, is a compelling drama about the nation's bout with big tobacco. Based on a true story, the movie reveals  a scoop on Sixty Minutes, one of the nation's most highly regarded journalistic investigators

'Chatter' about a 'truce' in the abortion wars appears to be a 'concerted effort emanating from establishment Republicans anxious to win over/hold on to independents heading into the 2010 and 2012 elections,' says anti-abortion activist Jill Stanek.

Over the past few months there have been several breaches in the conservative movement's ideological firmament. When Ann Coulter accepted an invitation by GOProud to speak at its HOMOCON 2010 gala, several Christian conservatives lashed out at her. When Glenn Beck declared that same-sex marriage wasn't a burning issue for him, and "The View's" Elisabeth Hasselbeck came out in support of same-sex marriage, both were lambasted by the Christian right. When Ken Mehlman, who served as the campaign manager for the 2004 re-election campaign of George W. Bush and Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2005 to 2007, finally came out of the closet in late August and announced that he was would work with a pro-gay organization, conservatives jumped all over him. And, the controversy over the building of the Islamic Community Center two blocks from Ground Zero has set conservative, inhabiting different sides of the debate, against each other.  

Now, with the electoral successes of the Tea Party Movement mounting up, another issue has come to the forefront; abortion.

Democratic supporters should be aware, however, that regardless of how the internecine debates and struggles within the GOP/Tea Party over the primacy of social issues turns out, there is no indication - unlike years past - that social conservatives have threatened to stay home this Fall.

Are Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and now, Ken Mehlman, manifestations of the GOP's "gay problem?"

There's a spectre haunting the Republican Party. And it is related to "The Gay!"

Due to Ann Coulter's upcoming speaking engagement at GOProud's HOMOCON 2010, Glenn Beck's apathy over same-sex marriage, Ken Mehlman's much belated exit from the closet, and "The View's" Elisabeth Hasselbeck's expressed support for same-sex marriage, several well-known anti-gay "traditional values" conservatives are raking their non-conforming brothers and sisters over the coals for being, well, non-conforming.

Ryan Mauro, national security advisor for the Christian Action Network, taking off the gloves in the battle over the building of an Islamic community center two blocks from Ground Zero, claims Grover Norquist is palling around with terrorist sympathizers, and, `is likely a convert to Islam.'

Back in December 2003, when the Iraq War was in its infancy and conservatives were hunting down anti-war "subversives" on the left, Frank Gaffney published an article at David Horowitz's Frontpagemag.com that accused longtime conservative activist Grover Norquist of palling around with Islamic terrorists. In his introduction to the Gaffney piece, Horowitz pointed out that it was "the most disturbing [piece] that we at frontpagemag.com have ever published." He added that "It is with a heavy heart therefore, that I am posting this article, which is the most complete documentation extant of Grover Norquist's activities in behalf of the Islamist Fifth Column."  

Now, in these heady days of Mosque-at-Ground-Zero 24/7, a young conservative by the name of Ryan Mauro has resurfaced these charges against Norquist, adding that Norquist, whose wife is a Muslim, "is likely a convert to Islam."

Martin Mawyer's Christian Action Network, a two-decade-old anti-gay and anti-National Endowment for the Arts organization, is back on the scene with `Islam Rising,' a film, it claims, 'exposes the dangers of radical Islam to the Western world.'

Months before the current controversy over the building of an Islamic community center a few blocks from Ground Zero brought a host of professional anti-Muslim bigots out of the woodwork, a small group, long associated with a bevy of Religious Right causes, was marketing its own brand of Islamophobia.

Welcome to the world of the Christian Action Network.

According to The Bureau of Justice Statistics, prison rape is endured each year by, some one in every eight juveniles in custody; one in 20 adult inmates; and, a total of 60,500 victims.

The Prison Rape Elimination Commission is a bipartisan effort that has included a number of organizations that are major players on the Religious Right -- Focus on the Family, Prison Fellowship, Family Research Council -- and several longtime liberal organizations --the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, United Methodist Board of Church and Society.

In great part, the work of this commission resulted in The Prison Rape Elimination Act -- an act initiated by a conservative think tank, and sponsored by Sens. Ted Kennedy and Jeff Sessions (it would be hard to get more bipartisan) and then signed by Pres. Bush in 2003.

These days, this broad coalition of religious, civil rights, political and human rights groups are calling on Attorney General Eric Holder Holder to adopt prison rape elimination standards mandated by 2003 legislation and completed 14 months ago.

Three Right-Wing Amigos take on Ann Coulter and GOProud Gay HOMOCON

Last week we discussed Ann Coulter's upcoming appearance at GOProud's HOMOCON 2010 fiesta set for September 25 in New York City. Her acceptance of GOProud's invitation, Coulter has been getting a little bit of the no-mosque-near-Ground-Zero-treatment from some longtime anti-homo cons.

We noted that Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) expressed his deep disappointment with Coulter after he heard the news. Now, it's WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farah and the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer's turn: On August 17, a piece published at WorldNet Daily's website confirmed that the "Conservative superstar ... was dropped as a keynote speaker for WND's `Taking America Back National Conference," scheduled for September 17 in Miami, "because of her plan to address" GOProud's HOMOCON 2010.

However, a reliable conservative source e-mailed me over the weekend to say that Coulter was never scheduled to speak at Farah's event in the first place, and that the whole Farah-initiated dust-up was pure publicity stunt.

GOProud, a breakaway group from Log Cabin Republicans, is planning a humdinger of a late-September soiree in New York City. Some hard-line Religious Right leaders are apoplectic.   GOProud describes Ann Coulter as "the Right Wing Judy Garland." But can she sing?

It may not be as controversial as the building of a community center/mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, but if history tells us anything about the Religious Right's relationship with The Gay, there should be a hot time, not only on the evening of September 25, when GOProud, the organization that claims to be "the only national organization representing gay conservatives and their allies," hosts HOMOCON 2010, but during the lead-up to the event as well. GOProud's special guest will be ... let the trumpets ring out ... Ms. Ann Coulter.

The American Family Association's Fischer is rapidly climbing up the ladder of dangerous hate-driven kookiness

If you haven't heard of Bryan Fischer, do not worry; read on and you'll find out just about all you need to know about someone you'd probably rather know little about. Consider this a brief introduction - a sort of Bryan Fischer 101 -- to the man that has become a major spokesperson for the American Family Association, and the person that "has proven himself to be among the most radically right-wing figures within the contemporary Religious Right movement," People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch recently pointed out.

The conservative Christian organization is demanding that companies `remain neutral in the culture war'

Imagine if some fifty years ago, a religious-based organization demanded that corporations across the country stay "neutral" in the battle over civil rights. What could be more simple? All the company would have to do is stay out of the way, and not comment one way or another on the fight for racial justice and equality. Had that organization existed, it would surely have been viewed as a vicious and bigoted group.

These days, there is an organization that is demanding neutrality of corporations. Only this time it is neutrality in the culture wars. The American Family Association is continuing to play the "just stay neutral" card in its persistent attempts to deny the human and civil rights of America's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens.

The headline of its recent "Take Action Now" email reads: "You won't believe what Sears is selling: Sears is content to sell pornography. And, if you are offended, they don't seem to care!"

That's a pretty typically breathless headline from the non-stop culture warriors at the American Family Association; earnest, straight-forward, and always more than a little bit whiny.
AFA headlines like this one has been its stock and trade for more than three decades. And, they're often followed by a plea urging AFA supporters to send letters/e-mail/faxes and make phone calls to company officials; attempts by AFA leaders themselves to contact the company; claims that the company won't take its concerns seriously; the threatening of a boycott; the start-up of a full-throttled boycott; and, finally, after some period of time, a declaration of victory and an end to the boycott.  

AFA is currently outraged with Sears because despite attempts to reach out to the company "more than a half-dozen times ... quietly and professionally," Sears continues to be "offering giant posters of total nud**y on its website."