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Blue Collar Logic

Civil rights leader Julian Bond Friday called North Carolina the new Mississippi because of its voter-ID law. "North Carolina has become the new Mississippi," Bond said on a program that will air Friday night on "Political Capital with Al Hunt'' on Bloomberg TV. "They've just taken an enormous step backward in voting rights and a series of things because of the domination of Republicans in the House and the Senate and in the governor's chair,'' said, who who is a former chairman of the national NAACP and a former Georgia legislator.

The Westboro Baptist Church is saying that it will picket an Oklahoma liquor store that put up a sign mocking the death of the group’s founder, Fred Phelps. Phelps died on March 20 at the age of 84. To commemorate the occasion, Moore Liquor decided to have a champagne sale and posted a sign reading, "Fred Phelps 1929-2014, Champagne 10% off! Not a coincidence." The WBC doesn’t find the sign funny and plans to protest. The store sounds fine with it. "I was a little reticent about putting up the sign in the first place because I have two good...

My parents taught me never to speak ill of the dead, but in the case of Fred Phelps, who died last week at the age of 84, I think they would have made an exception. The man, who will be referred to in this column without the modifier "reverend," because there was nothing reverent about him, defined the word "odious." He and some of his family members constituted the entire membership of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. It was BINO, Baptist in name only. Phelps and some members of his family (though not all) picketed military funerals with...

Fred Phelps, a former street preacher who led a family ministry that raged against what he perceived as a morally bankrupt society, died Thursday. His legacy of picketing funerals of military veterans and disaster victims, promoting coarse language to condemn conduct he viewed as amoral, and waging legal battles that protected his actions under the First Amendment, earned him an international reputation of a man’s whose absolute conviction was never swayed in the face of widespread contempt. “The level of his vitriol, the savageness of his comments, were just unmatched anywhere. His rhetoric was such he united people both on...

Fred Phelps Sr. led his small Topeka church for more than two decades in a bellicose crusade against gays and lesbians, saying they were worthy of death and openly declaring—often at military funerals—that the U.S. was doomed because of its tolerance of homosexuality. But in targeting grieving families of troops killed overseas, taunting people entering other churches and carrying signs with anti-gay slurs and vulgar language or symbols, Phelps and his Westboro Baptist congregation created public circuses that may have helped the gay-rights movement. Following Phelps’ death Wednesday at age 84, some gay-rights advocates suggested that he and his church...

Fred Phelps -- the founding pastor of a Kansas church known for its virulently anti-gay protests at public events, including military funerals -- has died, the church said Thursday. The 84-year-old died of natural causes at 11:15 p.m. Wednesday, according to church spokesman Steve Drain.

Fred Phelps Sr., the former head of the Westboro Baptist Church, died late Wednesday night, according to a family member. Phelps' son, Timothy told 13 News that his father died just before midnight. Timothy Pheps works at the Shawnee Co. Jail. Ironically, another son who is a member of the church, attorney Jonathan Phelps told us Thursday morning, "Pastor Phelps is doing just fine." That, of course, could have been a spiritual reference. Over the weekend, we learned that Phelps was reportedly "on the edge of death." In a statement on his Facebook page, Nathan Phelps, who has been estranged...

Reports that Fred Phelps, 84, founder of the Topeka, Kan., church known for its anti-gay message and protests of military funerals, is on his deathbed have some looking forward to the Westboro Baptist Church pastor’s passing. The Facebook page Fred Phelps Death Watch was created March 16 and has nearly 1,900 likes. The page states, “While we wait for God to take him, because he hates homosexuals, let’s relive some of his more memorable moments while we wait.”

The founder of Westboro Baptist Church, Fred Phelps, notorious for leading hateful protests against gay rights, is actually a Democrat with long history of endorsing Democratic candidates. On Tuesday, Politico provided some background on Phelps' political history, most of which saw him endorsing Democrat candidates and running for office a number of times as a Democrat. In the 1990's, Phelps ran in three Kansas Democratic primaries for Governor in 1990, 1994, and 1998, receiving only 15% of the vote. He also ran for Senator in 1992, receiving 31% of the vote, and for mayor of Topeka in 1993 and 1997....

If there is one man who can be credited for the success of the gay rights movement, it’s Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps.Phelps did more than anyone to make opposition to homosexuality seem as toxic as possible by picketing the funerals of soldiers with anti-gay slogans. There probably wasn’t a more inspired way to make anti-gay sentiments seem as unacceptable as possible.If the Phelps clan had deliberately set out to implement gay marriage in America, they could not have chosen a better method and who is to say that they didn’t.The Phelps, with their background in civil rights...

With reports that Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps is near death, some gay-rights advocates are conflicted. In the end, they say, his actions actually helped their cause. For most of the past 20 years, gay Americans dreaded Fred Phelps Sr. and the “God hates fags” pickets by members of his Westboro Baptist Church, a congregation that believes that disciples who do not attack those they see as sinful will themselves be punished by God. But amid reports that Mr. Phelps is now seriously ill at a Topeka, Kan., hospice facility, some religion experts and gay activists are suggesting that...

Fred Phelps - the founder of Westboro Baptist Church - is on his death bed, apparently. You remember Fred. He's the guy who hates Jews, black people, gay people, soldiers, America....need I go on? He just hates a LOT of people. You know.

After finding out Rev. Fred Phelps Sr. was on the verge of death many quipped the Westboro Baptist Church, the very organization he founded, would picket his funeral like they have so many others in the past. It might sound like a joke but apparently it’s the real deal: the WBC will hold a demonstration at the funeral of their former pastor.Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, was reportedly excommunicated from the group.Phelps Sr., 84, began to make headlines over the weekend after his estranged son Nathan posted a note to Facebook where he said...

Fred Phelps Sr., the founder of the Kansas church held in disgust worldwide for its antigay protests of prominent funerals, is in hospice care and "on the edge of death," according to one of his estranged sons. Nate Phelps posted the information on Facebook Saturday night, adding the revelation that his father had been excommunicated from the church in 2013. A church spokesman told the Topeka Capitol-Journal that Phelps was indeed in the hospice but that Nate Phelps "is not well informed." The spokesman also refused to comment on the allegation that the elder Mr. Phelps has been excommunicated. Another...

You know Fred Phelps. You loathe Fred Phelps. You despise everything he stands for, like his family members’ infamous protests at soldiers’ funerals with their awful “God Hates Fags” signs. They’ve been a symbol for many years of the religion-based animosity against the LGBT community — to the point that they’ve been labeled a “hate group” and even the most fundamentalist Christian groups denounce his church’s activities.... /snip/... Tonight, on Facebook, Nate (one of Fred's sons, excommunicated from the church) posted this: I’ve learned that my father, Fred Phelps, Sr., pastor of the “God Hates Fags” Westboro Baptist Church, was...

PHOENIX - The notoriously outspoken and often controversial Westboro Baptist Church has made several threats through social media intending to picket the funerals of the 19 firefighters killed in the Yarnell Hill wildfire near Prescott. Westboro Baptist Church posted several tweets from their Twitter account within the last 48 hours, connecting the firefighter deaths to punishment for the world's apparent tolerance of homosexuality. In a tweet posted at 2:56 p.m. Monday, the church said, "Westboro Baptist Church THANKS GOD for AZ fires that killed 19 firefighters!" In another post, they retweeted Arizona Senator John McCain, adding their intent to picket:...

The estranged son of the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church said his father is "on the edge of death." Fred Phelps Sr. became famous for organizing picket lines of brightly-colored signs carrying hateful messages against tolerance during the funerals of military personnel and famous figures. His actions led to at least two federal and several state laws restricting protests during military funerals. In a statement on his Facebook page, Nathan Phelps, who has been estranged from his father for 30 years, said the senior Phelps was dying in hospice care in Topeka, Kan., and that he had been ex-communicated...

CORPUS CHRISTI - A family-run church known to picket military funerals is threatening to protest a memorial service planned for District Judge Tom Greenwell. The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas issued the release this afternoon of their plans to be at the United Methodist Church on Shoreline Boulevard Thursday afternoon. Greenwell committed suicide last Monday inside his office at the Nueces County courthouse. The sheriff's office is still investigating what led to his suicide. A handwritten will was found that left everything Judge Greenwell owned to a 36-year-old man named Albert Fuentes. Greenwell told KZTV back in 2006 that...

A 5-year-old girl set up a lemonade stand across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church compound, and now the group is targeting her. ... The efforts have clearly irritated Westboro members, Equality House resident Davis Hammet said. "She was so awesome. She was such a sweetheart," Hammet said. "She was right in front of this hate group. She was unfazed and unafraid, and they are so very vile and rude to people." ... Jayden told her father that she wanted to set up a lemonade stand to help a charity. After doing research, they settled on Equality House because...