{"id":11218,"date":"2010-06-03T08:19:56","date_gmt":"2010-06-03T13:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=11218"},"modified":"2011-09-01T07:52:19","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T12:52:19","slug":"chanting-points-memo-andy-birkeys-thin-runny-gruel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=11218","title":{"rendered":"Chanting Points Memo: The Mindy<\/i>‘s Thin, Runny Gruel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Birkey of the Minnesoros “Indpendent” <\/em>and Bradlee Dean of punk-rock fundamentalist ministry “You Can Run But You Can Not Hide” and AM1280’s “Sons Of Liberty” are so different from each other that Hollywood is reportedly talking about putting them on an island and doing a reality show.<\/p>\n

Not without reason, of course; Dean is an outspoken fundamentalist who believes God condemns homosexuality; Birkey covers the gay beat for the Mindy<\/em>, especially focusing on outrages against gay rights (provided they’re not from Keith Ellison<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Of course, Dean’s preaching on the subject is not unusual among fundamentalist ministries; most African-American Baptist churches are every bit as fire-and-brimstone on the subject as Dean. But I’m at a loss to find another fundamentalist minister who’s been the subject of seventeen pieces in the Mindy <\/em>in the past eight months.<\/p>\n

Lately, as we noted last week, the subject of the coverage has been a radio broadcast where, to read Birkey’s account, Dean said executing gays was moral.\u00a0 We dealt with and disposed of that this past week<\/a>; Dean will no doubt address the issue this weekend on “Sons of Liberty”.<\/p>\n

Now, even the Minnesoros “Independent”<\/em> knows that “fundamentalist cites Leviticus in re gays” is “dog bites man”.\u00a0 It’s not news.\u00a0 And the “Independent<\/em>” doesn’t really cover theology.\u00a0\u00a0 Their mission is to advance the left’s agenda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And part of the left’s agenda this year in Minnesota is to win the Governor’s office.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, Birkey has spent his last couple of articles trying to tie the Tom Emmer campaign to Dean and his ministry.<\/p>\n

The “ties”, according to Birkey, are:<\/p>\n

An almost-two-year-old “donation” of $250<\/a><\/strong>, in the form of buying seats at a You Can Run benefit dinner in November of 2008<\/em>.\u00a0 This, by the way, was long before YCR was on the regional media radar – although Birkey continues to refer to this “donation” with context and time frame carefully buried.<\/p>\n

Tom Emmer stopping by and getting photographed at the YCR booth <\/strong>at the Minnesota State GOP Convention (as he had stopped by every single gathering of conservatives anywhere in Minnnesota for the past year).<\/p>\n

An appearance on “Sons Of Liberty”<\/strong>.\u00a0 By that token, RT Rybak, a former NARN guest, must be a conservative sympathizer.<\/p>\n

Tom Emmer calling Bradlee Dean and his associates “nice people<\/a>“<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s perhaps an inconvenient truth to Andy Birkey that Bradlee Dean and Jake MacMillan are <\/em>nice people.\u00a0 They may have different beliefs than Andy Birkey and, also, me.\u00a0 And perhaps it’s easier to believe people who disagree with you are foul people with horns growing out their heads.\u00a0 But Dean and MacMillan and their wives and associates are a genial bunch.<\/p>\n

And that’s it.\u00a0 That, according to Birkey, is the extent of Tom Emmer’s “link” to YCR.<\/p>\n

And yet Birkey wrote (with emphasis added):<\/p>\n

“Emmer is one of several Republican leaders involved with <\/strong>the ministry of Bradlee Dean,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Andy Birkey:\u00a0 Where is the “involvement”?<\/strong> All you have is an ancient donation, a photo and an off-handed and, as it happens, accurate impression of personalities.<\/p>\n

Does Emmer have any substantial link to YCR?\u00a0 Does YCR have any significant influence on Emmer?<\/p>\n

Or is the Mindy <\/em>just repeating a big lie until people believe it?<\/p>\n

Andy Birkey and the Mindy<\/em>:\u00a0 Either show a real, current, substantive link between Emmer and You Can Run – and by “substantive” I mean more than a grin-‘n-run photo or a door-knocking-stop – or get real, grow up and drop your unsupported meme that Emmer is, in your words, “involved” with YCR.<\/p>\n

Because you can mislead, but you can not get away with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andy Birkey of the Minnesoros “Indpendent” and Bradlee Dean of punk-rock fundamentalist ministry “You Can Run But You Can Not Hide” and AM1280’s “Sons Of Liberty” are so different from each other that Hollywood is reportedly talking about putting them on an island and doing a reality show. Not without reason, of course; Dean is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-10","category-chanting-points-memo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11218"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11221,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11218\/revisions\/11221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}