Stop The American Taliban – "S.T.A.T." Organization

A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage licence to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.

Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa parish, said it was his experience that most interracial marriages did not last long.

“I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Bardwell said. “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.”

Bardwell said he asked everyone who called about marriage if they were a mixed race couple. If they were, he did not marry them.

Bardwell said he had discussed the topic with black and white people, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society did not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and nor did white society.

“There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage. I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it.”

If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.

“I try to treat everyone equally.”

Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career.

Beth Humphrey, 30, and Terence McKay, 32, both of Hammond, said they would consult the US justice department about a discrimination complaint.

Humphrey, an account manager for a marketing firm, said she and McKay, a welder, had just returned to Louisiana. She is white and he is black. She plans to enrol in the University of New Orleans to pursue a masters degree in minority politics.

“That was one thing that made this so unbelievable,” she said. “It’s not something you expect in this day and age.”

Humphrey said that when she called Bardwell on 6 October to inquire about getting a marriage licence signed his wife told her he would not sign marriage licences for interracial couples. Bardwell suggested the couple go to another justice of the peace in the parish who agreed to marry them.

“We are looking forward to having children,” Humphrey said. “And all our friends and co-workers have been very supportive. Except for this, we’re typical happy newlyweds.”

Katie Schwartzmann, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, said it was “really astonishing and disappointing” to see such a case in 2009. “The supreme court ruled as far back as 1963 that the government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry.”

The ACLU has asked the Louisiana judiciary committee, which oversees state justices of the peace, to investigate Bardwell and recommended “the most severe sanctions available, because such blatant bigotry poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the administration of justice”.

“He knew he was breaking the law, but continued to do it,” Schwartzmann said.

Bardwell said: “I’ve been a justice of the peace for 34 years and I don’t think I’ve mistreated anybody. I’ve made some mistakes, but you have to. I didn’t tell this couple they couldn’t get married. I just told them I wouldn’t do it.”

via US mixed race couple denied marriage licence | World news | guardian.co.uk.

God’s Next Army investigates Patrick Henry College (PHC), set up five years ago in Virginia, near Washington DC. Its mission is to train young fundamentalist Christians to become the next generation of America’s cultural and political leaders. Though the separation of church and state is enshrined in the US Constitution, with financial backing from the evangelical community the college aims to ‘rechristianise’ America; to ‘preserve the world from the sinfulness of man’.

PHC students are an isolated group who come from close-knit communities where everyone prays together and shares moral certainties. Most have been educated at home and have had no contact with either the social diversity or the political and intellectual cut and thrust of mainstream schools. Derek Archer, a prospective PHC student believes home – schooling has protected him from the ‘moral decay of the world’.

Once at the college, the students ceremonially sign a covenant which commits them to a strict behaviour code: no alcohol, drugs or obscene literature; sex will be reserved for marriage; personal conflicts will be resolved biblically; the students will be above reproach, will uphold the tenets of evangelical Christianity and lead the nation for Christ. (Excerpt from channel4.com)

Movie Starts At 2:30 mins.

via God’s Next Army | Watch Free Documentary Online.

Rachel Maddow Goes After Republican Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert – 10/09/09

via YouTube – Rachel Maddow – TMI – Goes After Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert.

Legislature in Texas mandated in 2007 states that starting in 2009 public schools must teach the “literature and history” of the good book. To avoid the obvious constitutional problems of separating Church and State, the law is carefully worded to cover true and rather obvious intent much like how Creationists attempt to hide religious purpose behind academic freedom.

This is just another way to slip religion into schools.

via YouTube – Texas required to teach Bible in schools.

In an infamous moment at the Values Voter Summit over the weekend, captured on video by Dave Weigel, Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) chief of staff Michael Schwartz made the case against pornography. “All pornography is homosexual pornography,” said Schwartz, quoting an ex-gay friend of his, “because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards.”

via YouTube – Michael Schwartz on pornography.

Dolton Illinois — 15-year-old Marshawn Pitts was brutally beaten by a Dolton police officer, because his shirt wasnt tucked in. Pitts was a student at the Academy for Learning High School in Dolton, which claims to be a school for children with learning disabilities. In this video, the officer, whose name has not been released, is seen slamming Pitts into lockers, and then slamming him facedown on the floor. The officer then puts the 15-year-old boy into a dangerous chokehold. When all was said and done, Pitts had a busted lip and a broken nose. Pitts is now suing the school and the Dolton Police Department.

Conservapedia is an English-language wiki-based Web encyclopedia project written from an Americentric, conservative Christian and predominantly young earth creationist point of view. It was started in 2006 by lawyer and social studies teacher Andy Schlafly, son of conservative activist and Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly.[3][4] He stated that he founded the project because he felt that Wikipedia had a liberal, anti-Christian, and anti-American bias.[5]Conservapedia is one of many conservative and Christian-themed Web sites imitating the format of mainstream sites to provide a right-wing or fundamentalist Christian alternative.[3][6] The site has been the subject of criticism, both inside and outside of the United States, for bias and inaccuracies

via Conservapedia – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

NBCs Brian Williams asks Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin about how they define the word terrorist and their associating Sen. Barack Obama with Bill Ayers.

via YouTube – Palin – Abortion Clinic Bombers Aren’t Terrorists.

Ever since Roe v. Wade, the United States has been deeply divided on the issue of abortion. In that landmark case, an unmarried pregnant woman was refused an abortion in Texas and, with the ensuing judicial challenge, won American women the right to safe, legal abortions. Ever since, proponents and opponents have lined up on either side of the issue, launching verbal abuse — and worse — at each other. As the religious right has increased in size and power in the past decade, the issue has become even more divisive — and violent.

Why should right wing pranksters be the only ones who crash offices with partisan prostitution tax questions? At least these are about a real prostitute. Go ahead, give him a call.Now me, I don’t care who sleeps with our politicians.Honestly, I couldn’t care less. If it calms them down enough to make some decent policy decisions, let ‘em sleep with all the prostitutes they want. Hell, let’s get them some government sponsored prostitutes. Why not? Let’s subsidize sex workers to soothe the raging libidos of our wildly oversexed legislators. At last, a stimulus package the Senate can get behind. We can call it the “pubic option.”But hypocrisy is a special kind of gall. If Senator Vitter is so outraged by the ACORN prostitution scandal, surely he doesn’t mind talking about his own.