Bomb Threat At DC Wingnut Convention

Ralph Reed's Faith & Freedom Conference is underway in DC and according to hate group leader Brian Brown, a bomb threat has cleared out the venue. Eight of the twelve declared GOP presidential candidates are scheduled to speak during the conference but it's not yet known if any were on the premises when the alleged bomb threat came in. More on this as it becomes available.

UPDATE: Mediaite has more details.

Today multiple Republican presidential candidates, including Ted Cruz and Rick Santorum, spoke at the conference. Right after Santorum spoke, Faith & Freedom Coalition head Ralph Reed took the stage and said they need to evacuate the room because of threats and so the police can do a sweep. The evacuation just happened to occur right before George Pataki was scheduled to speak. C-SPAN was rolling when Reed told people to evacuate and they cleared out the room.

GOP Clown Car Loads Up For 2015 Faith And Freedom Conference Of Crackpottery

Disgraced Christian activist Ralph Reed's Faith & Freedom Coalition will hold its sixth annual "Road To Majority" conference this week in Washington DC. Confirmed speakers include eight of the eleven declared GOP presidential candidates, as well as notorious crackpot figures Todd Starnes, the Benham brothers, and Michael Medved. Not yet listed as attending are Huckabee, Santorum, and Pataki, however still undeclared candidates Jindal, Walker, and Christie will be there.

Also attending: Reince Priebus, Phyllis Schlafly, Gary Bauer, and Penny Nance, who is the head of Concernstipated Women, this year's title sponsor. Other 2015 sponsors include NOM, the World Congress Of Families, Tea Party Patriots, Townhall, Liberty University, and (rather curiously) the Humane Society. The event kicks off with a VIP dinner on Wednesday night, followed by a "full lobbying day on Capitol Hill." See the list of breakout sessions here.

Gary Bauer: "Obsessed" Obama Will Destroy America Over Gay Rights

At the Faith & Freedom Coalition convention.

Seen At The Faith & Freedom Convention

Ralph Reed's Faith & Freedom Coalition is having its "Road To Majority" convention in DC this weekend and they've apparently placed Obama urinal cakes in the men's restrooms. Praise! Glory! Speakers include Crazy Eyes, Herman Cain, and the usual cast of crazies. Some had speculated that NOM scheduled their hate march for yesterday in order to draw attendance and speakers from Reed's event. We all know how THAT turned out. (Tipped by JMG reader David)

Bill Maher Vs Ralph Reed

Last night Bill Maher debated former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed about biblical literalism.  Maher pulled out a list of items from the bible and asked Reed to defend them.

PolitiFact Rates Ralph Reed's Claims About Gay Parenting As Totally False

On Sunday, Ralph Reed appeared on ABC's This Week to declare that social science has found "irrefutable" proof that children are better off being raised by a mom and a dad. PolitiFact has rated his claims as totally false.

We did find one study funded by conservative organizations as showing gay parents are worse than straight ones, but it’s been denounced by the American Sociological Association, the researcher’s own university and many reputable sociologists. In conducting the study, Mark Regnerus loosely defined same-sex couples and, in doing so, only spoke with two children who were actually raised by gay parents. Research is still limited, but many reputable studies so far have concluded that children of gay parents, generally speaking, are just as well off as children of straight parents. What’s more important is the number of parents a child has, experts told us. "Kids are better off with two parents," said Andrew Cherlin, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University. "But we don't have much evidence that those parents must be of the opposite gender."

Their final ruling: "All reputable research so far indicates that children brought up by gay parents are just well off as those brought up by straight parents. We rate Reed’s statement False."

Ralph Reed & Franklin Graham Denounce Gay Families On ABC's This Week

Rev. Franklin Graham and Ralph Reed appeared on ABC's This Week today to denounce gay parenting and gay adoption. Reed went all Regnerus and then immediately contradicted himself.

“The social science on this is clear,” Reed said. “This isn’t about Vladimir Putin, this is about what’s best for children here in the United States. The social science is irrefutable: a child who grows up in a home without the mother and father present, and they both very unique procreative, nurturing, and socializing roles, they’re nine times more likely to end up dropping out of high school; they’re five times more likely to end up in poverty; and they’re three times more likely to end up addicted to drugs and alcohol.”

“But the social science is also irrefutable that a child raised in an orphanage is in much worse shape than a child raised in a home,” Roberts objected. “And the fact that people are willing to take these children and raise them, and raise them in a loving way, is clearly better for these children.” “Would you agree with that?” host Martha Raddatz asked. “Would you rather have a child sitting in an orphanage than have gay parents?” “I think the social science is just simply not in yet on same-sex couples,” Reed said, in a notable departure from his comment thirty seconds ago. “I think the law has every right to set an ideal. And the ideal is a mother and a father.”

Graham then announced that gay people can go to heaven as soon as they stop being gay. Start at the 5:00 mark.

Ralph Reed: Federal Marriage Ban Is Dead

Former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed says that the Federal Marriage Amendment, which is still being flogged by the likes of NOM, is effectively dead. Michelangelo Signorile interviewed Reed at CPAC this weekend:

Reed, who in his speech at CPAC attacked "left-wing bullies" whom he said forced Gov. Jan Brewer to veto an anti-gay bill in Arizona and railed against the Obama administration for fomenting a "war on religion," said in an interview with me on SiriusXM Progress that he doesn't "know of anyone [among possible GOP contenders] who plans to run for president in 2016" who supports gay marriage. However, agreeing that no potential GOP 2016 candidate has yet to come out in favor of a federal marriage amendment, Reed conceded that it would be "trying to put the genie back in the bottle." "Even if you passed a federal marriage amendment," he said, "I would assume it would grandfather in anyone who's been married, so I don't know. It was always a very difficult option. I don't think we ever got 50 votes in the U.S. Senate for that amendment. So, we always knew that the amendment was going to be very difficult to pass."

S.E. Cupp Vs Ralph Reed

CNN's S.E. Cupp and wingnut freak show Ralph Reed tangled last night in a debate about gay marriage and the feuding Cheney sisters. Evan McMurry has the recap:

“Isn’t it time that your wing of the Republican Party accept and embrace good Republicans like the Log Cabin Republicans, like GOProud, like Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), like Rob Portman (R-OH)?” Cupp asked. “Don’t you think it’s time to recognize that in some ways the tide is turning, that we should be more inclusive of these values, without having to change our personal opinions of them?”

“If the tide had truly turned, then you wouldn’t have thirty-six states and 70% of the American people defining it as a man and a woman, and you wouldn’t need the courts to impose it,” Reed said. “The same Millennials who today are more inclined to support same-sex marriage and are also more pro-life than their parents were. So the country became more pro-choice in the 70s and 80s and in the 90s and the last ten years became more pro-life. Just because something is moving in a particular direction, it’s an analytical error to assume it’s going to continue in that trend.”

Watch Reed spin the lies!

Palin Speaks At Wingnut Conference

Sarah Palin delivered a 20-minute address to an audience of rapt evangelicals today at Ralph Reed's Faith And Freedom Conference.  Mediaite has a recap:

“It seems so Orwellian around here,” Palin said. “Before 1984, terms like ‘leading from behind’ meant following. The other day the White House testified before Congress, bragging that they used the ‘least untruthful statement.’ Where I come from that’s called a lie. Yes, officials lied, and government spied,” Palin rhymed. “In Benghazi, government lied, and Americans died. These scandals are coming at us so fast and furious.”

“It reminds me of a comedy bit from my really, really good friends at Saturday Night Live,” Palin said. “They should think of me as a friend, for a while I was supplying more job security for the Tina Feys of the world and doing more for those employment numbers than Obama’s ever done.” Palin proceeded to do her best Amy Poehler impression.

“Our government spied on every single one of your phone calls,” she said, “but it couldn’t find two pot-smoking deadbeat Bostonians with a hotline to terrorist central in Chechnya. Really? And it’s built apparatus to sneak into all of the good guys’ communications, but oopsy-daisy! It missed the Fort Hood mass-murder of our own troops, despite this Islamic terrorist declaring his ideology in numerous army counseling sessions and on his own business cards. But no red flags there. Really?”

Palin opened by mocking Obama supporters as "dense knuckleheads" who can be identified by their "itty bitty purple Volts."

Petition Of The Day

Failed presidential candidate and probable vampire Ralph Reed is ever so pissed about gay marriages at the National Cathedral.

In recent years, the National Cathedral has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants. The Episcopal Church is one of the richest denominations in the United States and the oldest. According to Richard Ostling of the Associated Press, “the 7,364 congregations of the Episcopal Church receive $2.14 billion in offerings a year: Their buildings and liquid assets are worth untold billions." Why is a church with untold billions in assets and asking American taxpayers to fund their church? With this policy change, taxpayers are being asked to subsidize gay marriage ceremonies for a church that can readily access millions of their own funds. Pro-family and Pro-freedom Americans cannot sit idly by. We believe the definition of “marriage” to be the union of one man to one woman. If the National Cathedral wants to continue to receive taxpayer funding from Congress, they should respect Congressional action like the Defense of Marriage Act.

From the petition page: "Send a powerful message to Washington today by signing the petition below and making a contribution to the Faith & Freedom Coalition."

Ralph Reed: Helping The Needy Is A Violation Of The Constitution

And it takes away our liberty.

It's Us (Christians) Vs Them (Heathens)

Right Wing Watch tips us to this Sharron Angle spot produced by friend-o-Jeebus Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition.

Ralph Reed: It's Time For The Christian Coalition 2.0

Christianist carnival barker Ralph Reed wants to reboot the old Christian Coalition and get back to doing what he does best: thwarting the basic premises of American democracy.

“This is not going to be your daddy’s Christian Coalition,” Reed said in an interview to describe his new venture, the Faith and Freedom Coalition. “It has to be younger, hipper, less strident, more inclusive and it has to harness the 21st century that will enable us to win in the future.” If so, perhaps this really will be a new start. After all, when Reed ran the original Christian Coalition from 1989 to 1997, he famously warned enemies they wouldn’t know what hit them “until you’re in a body bag.” But, it’s been a decade since Reed left that stage, and he has suffered embarrassments and defeats the past few years. Now, Reed wants back in.

Reed likens his return to Christianist activism as when Steve Jobs returned to run Apple. Only Steve Jobs was never accused of defrauding Native Americans in a multimillion dollar scheme to seize casino rights, the scandal that sent Reed's pal Jack Abramoff to federal prison.