West Virginia Lawmakers Accuse Family Policy Council of “Intimidation”

Is Blackwater Worldwide Blood Money Financing This?

Two West Virginia lawmakers, House Judiciary Chairwoman Carrie Webster and Monongalia County Delegate Barbara Fleischauer say they are being targeted by a telemarketing campaign paid for by the Family Policy Council of West Virginia that is designed to “intimidate” them.

Webster and the ACLU are also questioning who is really picking up the tab for the phone calls, saying that out-of-state special-interest groups often fund such campaigns.

This week, residents in West Virginia began receiving telemarketer-type calls from a firm representing the Family Policy Council of West Virginia. The telemarketing firm tells call recipients the two lawmakers are blocking a ban on gay marriage and if the calls recipients chooses, the firm then forwards their call through to Webster’s or Fleischauer’s office so they can to express their views on gay marriage.

“They call my staff idiots. They call my staff God-haters,” Webster said. “I believe people should be able to exercise their free speech, but I do think it’s a manipulation.”

Last week, state senators passed a bill that would add sexual orientation to West Virginia’s civil rights laws. Webster says believes the phone campaign is related to that bill.

“I think the objective has been to make sure that we don’t protect gays in employment and in housing,” Webster said.

Family Policy Council President Jeremiah Dys confirmed in an interview with The West Virginia Gazette his group has indeed hired the telemarketing firm to make the calls.

Dys and his group are trying to push a resolution aimed at amending West Virginia’s Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. The legislation has been referred to the House Committee on Constitutional Revision, which Delegate Fleischauer heads and if approved in that committee would then go to Webster’s committee.

“West Virginians want to define marriage for themselves,” said Jeremy Dys, president and general counsel of the Family Policy Council of West Virginia. “They do not want government setting a policy – and they especially do not want a court imposing a system – that knowingly deprives children of a mom or a dad.”

“We’ve been encouraging people to make calls to Delegate Webster and Delegate Fleischauer,” Dys said. “They are the two people standing in the way of 1.8 million West Virginians deciding the definition of marriage.”

Last month, Dys’ group ran online ads that compared people who support gay marriage to snipers targeting families and showed a gay sniper about shoot at a family blowing bubbles.

Dys is denying that these efforts are being financed from out state sources, and is saying that the money for these campaigns is coming for the groups “own bank accounts.”

However, The Family Policy Council of West Virginia website states that “through its strategic alliances with Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and the Alliance Defense Fund, The Family Policy Council of West Virginia is equipped with a depth of resources with which to accomplish its mission.”

“That particular type of campaign is not cheap,” said The ACLU of West Virginia’s Seth DiStefano.

Mega Mercenary Erik Prince, founder of the gun for hire company Blackwater Worldwide is a major funding source for the Alliance Defense Fund and his father was a co-founder of the Family Research Council. Prince also serves as vice president of the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, which has given at least $670,000 to the Family Research Council and $531,000 to Focus on the Family over the years.

Princes company has been involved in several international controversies including the killing of 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians by his mercenaries in Baghdad and has been accused of selling arms to a terrorist organization by the US Government, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union.

A suit filed Thursday by the widow and young sons of an Iraqi man allegedly killed by a drunken employee of Blackwater Worldwide security claims that Blackwater, spirited the employee out of Iraq and attempted to cover up the killing by bribing an Iraqi official and destroying documents.

The lawsuit alleges that a drunken Blackwater Worldwide mercenary, Andrew Moonen, shot the man for no reason after becoming lost after a Christmas Eve party in Baghdad.

Erik Prince knows a thing or two about snipers, has proven he is not above supporting homophobic agendas or condoning and enabling thuggish behaviors. It also seems Prince is not above trying to cover his tracks, so one has to wonder just how much of Mr. Prince’s blood money has been “strategically allied” with The Family Policy Council of West Virginia efforts?

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200903190743?page=2&build=cache

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