Reporters looking for local hooks to Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence may be interested in a Facebook post from state Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt (R-Colorado Springs), in which he wrote that Pence helped him demand that military chaplains, like Klingenschmitt, be allowed to conduct Christian services in uniform.

Klingenschmitt wrote that Pence  “personally helped me get 70 signitures on a letter to the President demanding we let military chaplains pray ‘in Jessus’ name.'”

In the Facebook post, Klingenschmitt, who goes by Dr. Chaps, claims to have met Pence “walking the halls of Congress in 2005.”

Klingenschmitt did not immediately return a call seeking details.

The pray-in-uniform campaign, which was assisted by Pence, essentially launched Klingenschmitt’s career as a Republican gadfly and social-conservative activist, anchored by his “Pray in Jesus Name” podcast.

Last year, Klingenschmitt said Pence “did the right thing” by signing an Indiana law allowing businesses to discriminate against gays. Listen to Klingenschmitt’s podcast on the topic here.

“I discern the spirit of god on Mike Pence who is standing up for righteousness,” said Klingenschmitt at 6:35.

Klingenschmitt said that the “gay left” was lying in stating that the law allows discrimination. After a national outcry, Pence revised tha law.

Klingenschmitt is widely known for his right-wing comments and actions, including his alleged exorcism on a lesbian soldier, during which he claims to have said, “You foul spirit of lesbianism, this woman has renounced you, come out of her in Jesus’ name.”

Correction: Klingenschmitt is not a former lawmaker, as an earlier version of this post stated. He gave up his state house seat to run for the state senate, but he lost. His term ends in January.

State Sen. Laura Woods continues to differentiate herself from Colorado Republicans, like U.S. Senator Cory Gardner and Rep. Mike Coffman, who’ve tried to disavow their extreme anti-choice records–or dodge questions about abortion.

Woods, on the other hand, has embraced a personhood abortion ban, with no exceptions for rape and incest, throughout her political career, starting in the 2014 primary and general election and continuing at the Capitol, where she not only sponsored a abortion-ban legislation but also a bill requiring women to be offered an ultrasound prior to having an abortion (and also to wait 24 hours before having the procedure).

Today, as in July 21, 2016, the stakes are higher than ever. Woods’ district will likely determine control of Colorado state government, and Woods isn’t doing the Buckpedal–or whatever you want to call the dance senatorial candidate Ken Buck, Gardner and Coffman have performed as they tried to distance themselves from right-wing positions they’d taken during their careers.

Woods, a Republican from Westminster/Arvada, isn’t trying to hide her opposition to all abortion, even for incest, even though political observers say it will hurt her in November.

Take, for example, the video Woods shared on Facebook this week from LiveAction, a anti-choice group.

It shows a woman who’s asked the question, “Do you support aborting the child if it was a case of incest?” (at 2:55 here)

“Yeah,” she replies.

Then the woman is pictured watching a video of an abortion, which convinces her that abortion should not be allowed in cases of incest.

Woods does not return my calls, so I can’t talk to her about the video or whether she thinks her no-compromise stance against abortion, even for incest, will help her hold back a challenge from pro-choice Democrat Rachel Zenzinger in November.

But, judging from other interviews, it appears that Woods thinks she need not take middle-of-the-road positions to win in her swingiest of swing districts, where she won by 650 votes in the Republican wave year of 2014. She’s vowed to stand by her conservative principles.

Woods’ anti-Buckpedal dance, which you could call a form of political chest thumping, deserves more media scrutiny than it’s getting.

In a Facebook post Wednesday, Adams County Republican chair John Sampson called Black Lives Matter “Punk Ass Bitches,” but in an interview the next day, he said he was only referring to those “who assault us, who burn, who loot, or who destroy property, because they’re having a temper tantrum.”

I called Sampson after reading his Facebook post, which stated:

To Black Lives Matter, I say this. ALL lives matter. But then again, you should already know this. Somehow you feel as if anyone of color should be held in a higher regard than those who are “not of color”.

That somehow, Black Lives Matter MORE than any WHITE or ASIAN person’s life. Say what??? And that’s the one word missing from your group’s name. It should be, given your agenda, “Black Lives Matter More”. More than “whitey”. More than “Asians”. More than Society as a whole. You’ll understand when I say you are, to use the current vernacular, “Punk Ass Bitches…”

To the “Punk Ass Bitches”, you will not destroy us. You WILL, however, destroy yourselves. with a little help from the rest of us. You are either WITH us, or AGAINST us.

But Sampson said emphatically that he did not mean to disparage all Black Lives Matter protesters, whose right to protest he respects.

“The punk-ass bitches are the ones demanding that we destroy society without having any idea of how to resolve the problem and what to replace it with,” he said. “They are out there simply to destroy it, simply for the sake of destroying it. Those are the punk-ass bitches.”

Last month, Sampson, who believes Obama uses the Social Security number issued to a now dead Connecticut man in 1977, posted anti-Islamic bigotry for the sake discussion, he said.

Adams County is widely regarded as a critical battleground in November’s election.

Colorado State Rep. JoAnn Windholz, who called Planned Parenthood officials the “real culprits” in last year’s clinic massacre in Colorado Springs, took to Facebook yesterday to condemn the Supreme Court’s decision affirming a women’s right to choose.

“The liberal leaning US Supreme Court once again protected the made up right of abortion,” Windholz wrote on Facebook, adding that that it “isn’t enough that the child is killed, now the mother is in danger as well.”

“So who cares about women more?” she asks in the post.

In fact, the Supreme Court based its decision on the fact that the Texas abortion restrictions, which, among other things, required that abortion clinics be equipped like complete surgical units, were not medically necessary.

Windholz: Who could find fault with a law that improves health and safety standards in order to protect women inside abortion clinics? You would think that the pro-abortion side would want to have additional safety measures in place for women. That is not the case. The liberal leaning US Supreme Court once again protected the made up right of abortion in a 5-3 decision (against 2013 Texas law) to not make it a necessary for abortion doctors to have admitting privilege at a local hospital. Why – because it would mean something went seriously wrong with an abortion. It isn’t enough that the child is killed, now the mother is in danger as well. So who cares about women more?

The court found that real intent of the Texas legislature was, in fact, to unconstitutionally limit a women’s right to an abortion by requiring clinic doctors to have, for example, admitting privileges, when the health benefit of such privileges is minimal.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer  wrote in the majority opinion, “Nationwide, childbirth is 14 times more likely than abortion to result in death… but Texas law allows a midwife to oversee childbirth in the patient’s own home.”

It’s unclear what Windholz means when she wrote, “So who cares about women more?”

And Windholz did not immediately return a call seeking an explanation.

But it appears Windholz does not believe that people or even Supreme Court Justices care about women if they support a women’s right to choose.

Shortly after the shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs last year, Windholz wrote on Facebook, as first reported by The Colorado Independent:

Windholz: Violence is never the answer, but we must start pointing out who is the real culprit. The true instigator of this violence and all violence at any Planned Parenthood facility is Planned Parenthood themselves. Violence begets violence. So Planned Parenthood: YOU STOP THE VIOLENCE INSIDE YOUR WALLS.”

Derrick Wilburn, founder of Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives, will deliver a keynote address Saturday at the annual Lincoln Day dinner of the Delta County Republican Party, whose leader, Linda Sorenson, found herself in the national spotlight this month for sharing a Facebook Post comparing Obama to a chimpanzee.

After Sorenson’s promotion of the racist meme came to light, the local NAACP and Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance (GMDMA) called for her resignation,

But while state GOP leaders, like Rep. Scott Tipton, denounced racism in general, they did not join in asking Sorenson to go. After meeting with Sorenson, GOP State Chair Steve House promised racial sensitivity training.

Wilburn, who’s African American and also the vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party, told me his keynote address to Delta Republicans was planned long ago, and he will not push for Sorenson’s resignation. He pointed me to his June 8 Facebook post addressing Sorenson’s situation:

Wilburn: Typical procedure in these situations is to fire the person or request they resign, let the dust settle & smoke clear and then, having added another body to the scrap heap, move on. And what have we really accomplished?

Is Ms. Sorenson “a racist?” I don’t know her but I tend to doubt it. But can a person who is not a racist be guilty of saying or doing something racially insensitive or offensive? Absolutely.

This time rather than demanding a head, how about we say, “This has been going on for too long, let’s use this as an opportunity to teach, edify, grow.”
We can get her canned, everyone’s happy, we move on. But then what’s really changed? What have we affected? Then the next time someone does something similar get rid of them too. As concerned as I am with what happened last week, I’m more concerned with next. And the one after that, and after that… How do we affect those??

Outside of the understandable hurt and justifiable anger -which I do feel, I don’t like the President’s POLICIES but he nor any black man should EVER be compared to a chimp-perhaps we have an opportunity here. We can send one (who may be deserving) to the gallows, or we can use this as an opportunity for advancement. I vote for the latter.

Wilburn’s post promises more information “very soon” about what he’s going to do, but his Facebook page states that he’s talked with the GMDMA and Denver Urban League officials about it.

As for his presentation Saturday in Delta County, at Zack’s BBQ in Hotchkiss, Wilburn does not plan to make the Chimp-meme issue a “focal point” of the presentation, but he does plan to “communicate to the people in Delta County that there are very real disconnects in America, and you have to learn to be sensitive to those,” Wilburn said.

“If you do something that is insensitive or offensive, you have to own it,” Wilburn told me. “You can’t just sweep it under the rug and pretend it didn’t exist and hope it goes away.”

Wilburn’s approach may be greeted with  hostility from some Delta Republicans themselves Saturday night.

Here’s what one Delta Republican, Tom Huerkamp, had to say in a letter-to-the-editor of the Delta County Independent:

As a 76-year-old lifelong registered Republican and fiscal conservative, I am totally mortified to think that Linda Sorenson is speaking for me. I, too, am very unhappy with our current U.S. administration. However, she not only needs to step down, our elected county officials need to publicly and collectively disavow what has taken place. Furthermore, those members of the Central Committee who will not vote to replace Linda also need to step down and make room for a more responsible representation of our party.

Another letter writer, Delores Wilson, opined:

The fact that Linda Sorenson is “stunned” at the vitriol and hatred directed at her for posting a racist meme on Facebook points to her obvious need to educate herself on the history of civil rights in America. Her suggestion that she is somehow the victim in this incident would be laughable if it wasn’t so pathetically sad. The fact that she resorted to using Martin Luther King Jr.’s most famous quote in defense of herself is appalling under the circumstances.

While Ms. Sorenson may call racist imagery “silly” it is anything but “silly.” Imagery has the power to promote fear, prejudice, discrimination and hate. There is a long history in this country of blacks being depicted in art, advertising, greeting cards, sheet music, cartoons, etc., with extremely grotesque exaggerated features. Printed material depicting them as intellectually inferior, lazy, ugly, etc., was the accepted norm. Depicting a black person as a primate is nothing new; it is a part of historical imagery suggesting that they are less than human. It is an insidious form of racism that perpetuates more racism. When such material is accepted as the norm it bolsters the lie that the viewer is superior to the caricature they are viewing. Unless, of course, the viewer is black and then it bolsters feelings of humiliation, denigration, shame and more.

Also in the Delta County Independent Bruce Hovde, Chairman of Delta County Commissioners wrote:

Rhetoric that concerns the elected officials of Delta County is the stereotyping of our county as “racist.” The people of Delta County, the elected officials, and the Republicans as a whole are by no means racist. It is not who we are, nor how we conduct business.

We’ll see what comes of Wilburn’s speech on Saturday at Zach’s BBQ.

Otero County Republican chair Judy Rydberg Reyher says there’s no intended racism in her Facebook posts that appear to make sweeping unfavorable comments about African Americans, including, among other things, that African Americans are “hatred-filled beings” who are kept full of  “hate and resentment” by people like author Toni Morrison.

In one of the ten posts (see below and right), Reyher shared a National Review article last April about Toni Morrison:

Reyher’s comment: “And this woman is supposed to be respected around the country. This is exactly why the black population for the most part have not been able to move forward. They have people like her keeping them full of hate and resentment. And if any black person is successful and/or moves away from their hate, he/she is vilified and destroyed if possible. This picture is looking into the eyes of what might be one of the worst problems the black population must get past. Pass this on because these riots are showing the true ‘color’ of these hatred filled beings.” [BigMedia emphasis]

Asked whether she thinks African Americans are hatred-filled beings, Reyher said, “Some are. Some whites are hatred-filled beings. Some Muslims are hate-filled beings. Some Hispanics are hate-filled beings.  No one should be blanketed.”

Reyher said: “There’s a lot of white people that have that same, I don’t know what you’d call it, victimhood embedded into them. ‘It’s not my fault I’m this way. It’s because a teacher was mean to me or they didn’t like me when I was in school.’ And I get really tired of it. And with blacks, it’s become an industry keeping them stirred up, keeping them angry.

“I meant that as a slam on any color group that plays the victim card.”

Another Facebook meme shared by Reyher last June shows an African American family living in poverty and states, “Poor people have been voting Democrat for FIFTY YEARS and they’re STILL poor.”

Reyher wrote: “Yet these same people refuse to believe it is the Democrats keeping them in this cycle of poverty!!!!! We tell them, they just won’t listen.”

One Facebook commenter wrote, “So sad but true….could it be a comfort zone? Hope not.”

Reyher replied, “I am afraid it is just that.”

Another commenter wrote that Reyher’s post is “too racist for me.”

“This is NOT racist. It is the truth and goes for every single person who believes in the Democrat Party and what they are.”

Asked about the post, Reyher said:

Reyher: “I believe that to the core. If I offended somebody, I hope to hell I offended them to the point where they say, ‘Maybe so,’ because they have to be offended into reality somehow.”

But she doesn’t see this as a specific problem of African Americans.

“I don’t think there is a single race that can be singled out,” she told me.

Reyher: “Nothing has been more destructive to the human population and human ambition than the war on poverty, because what it does is it makes those people think—In New Orleans, when they had the darn hurricane, instead of them helping themselves, they waited. Some of them sat. A year later, they took a film crew around, and some of them still had the same debris in their yard, and they were waiting for somebody to help them, because some Democrat told them they would. It has nothing to do with race. This victimhood has nothing to do with race. Look at the women who feel like victims, and there’s nothing they can do. The victim card is easy to play. It’s hard to win with a victim card.”

Reyher told me she no longer agrees with a Facebook post she shared indicating that Obama favors African Americans.

“I don’t know that he dislikes whites any more than anybody else,” she said.

Asked about a post depicting Obama as a “Muslim brother,” Reyher said she does not think Obama is a Christian but is not sure he’s Muslim.

In another post, Reyher calls Michelle Obama “evil personified” and “one of the biggest racists ever to live.”

“This ‘woe is me’ drives me nuts,” she said.

Last month, Delta County GOP Chair Linda Sorenson told me she didn’t care if people were offended by her shared Facebook post depicting Obama as a chimpanzee. Later, she apologized if her post offended people.

Adams County Republican Party Vice Chair John Sampson does not believe that a Muslim judge, who chose to take her oath of office with her hand on a Quran, will use Sharia law as the basis of her legal decisions, even though an email shared by Sampson on Facebook made the argument that the judge, Carolyn Walker-Diallo, “will head the first federally sanctioned SHARIA COURT.”

“Just because I post something, does not necessarily mean I agree with it,” Sampson told me today. “I will post something in order to prime the pump, if you will, for public discourse. And I would use the word civil public discourse.”

“I don’t agree with it,” Sampson continued. “She, from everything I have seen, is an exemplary jurist. Just because she is wearing a hijab, and just because she is holding a Quran does not necessarily mean she is going to impose Sharia law. People are drawing conclusions based on an insufficient amount of information.”

In the spirit of “putting it out there for public consumption,” Sampson did not indicate that he disagreed with the email, when he posted it on Facebook May 29, writing instead, “What follows is the content of an email I received from a friend. I did not write this. I am merely ‘sharing’ it.”

Here’s the text of the email, which, again, Sampson said, he does not agree with:

The first Muslim woman judge — Carolyn Walker — was hand-picked by President Obama and sworn in as judge of the 7th Municipal District, Brooklyn, choosing to swear her oath of office holding the HOLY QURAN at the Brooklyn Boro Hall on December 10, 2015. It was a historic day! Oddly enough, there was almost no media coverage of this event . .

Since the Quran forbids all law but Sharia Law, isn’t it reasonable to assume that Her Honor will head the first federally sanctioned SHARIA COURT.

Makes one proud, doesn’t it? “Gives me chills up my legs” said Chris Mathews.

Another little chink in the armor? A small, quiet erosion here and there. No one cares, until it’s too late. Step by step by step….this is how American culture will end.

Rejoice Obama supporters! Your dream of destroying America is coming true.

Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently and all for the same reason

A Snopes fact-check found it to be true that Walker-Diallo chose a Quran for her swearing-in ceremony, as permitted by law.

Walker-Diallo is the first black Muslim female civil court judge in New York City. She has no apparent connection to Obama, as alleged in the email.

Delta County Republican Chair Linda Sorenson is under fire for sharing a Facebook post comparing Obama to a Chimp, as well as other posts in the same racist vein, including one in support of the Confederate flag.

She issued an apology for her insensitivity today, and the Colorado Republican Party Chair has promised sensitivity training for GOP leaders.

The Facebook posts below, obtained by a source and apparently shared by Sorenson over the past year or so, show varying degrees of bigotry toward Muslims.

Sorenson is not returning my calls, so I could not verify with absolute certainty that these posts were shared by her, nor could I get a comment from her.

Delta (Colorado) County Republican Chair Linda Sorenson apologized today “being insensitive and not thinking of others in the heat of the moment” when she shared a Facebook meme comparing Obama to a Chimp, but she also complained that “the left is only about tolerance when they are demanding that YOU tolerate their latest nutty idea, and if you don’t like it, then you’re automatically a ‘hater,’ a ‘bigot,’ and a ‘racist.’”

“I admit to saying to the blogger that; ‘I don’t care if you’re offended,’ however I do care very much if anyone else was offended,” wrote Sorenson in an apology first reported by the Colorado Statesman’s Ernest Luning. “Please forgive me for being insensitive and not thinking of others in the heat of the moment.”

The blogger she references is yours truly, and she actually factually told me, “I don’t care if people are offended.” (Listen to the recording here.) She did not say, as she claims in her apology,  “I don’t care if you’re offended.”

Of course, I take Sorenson at her word that she’s sorry she offended others, not just me. But she told me she didn’t care if people were offended, as in all people. She should correct the error, as should any reporters citing her apology,

Here’s the full text of Sorenson’s apology:

It appears that someone I didn’t know tagged me in a Facebook post with a silly comparison to Barack Obama. I confess to ‘liking’ a tired old Facebook meme, and I apologize for my bad judgment.

When confronted on the spot by a liberal blogger, I was busy and didn’t realize the game that was being played—the ‘gotcha’ game. The ‘gotcha’ game is fun only for those who intend to ruin a person’s name, reputation, and position of leadership. For anyone else who has been through the cycle, they can tell you how ridiculous and nasty the game is. From one moment to the next, I’m national news.

The vitriol and hatred that has been directed at me has been nothing short of stunning. But anyone paying attention these days knows that the left is only about tolerance when they are demanding that YOU tolerate their latest nutty idea, and if you don’t like it, then you’re automatically a ‘hater,’ a ‘bigot,’ and a ‘racist.’

I admit to saying to the blogger that; “I don’t care if you’re offended,” however I do care very much if anyone else was offended. Please forgive me for being insensitive and not thinking of others in the heat of the moment.

I believe one of the greatest things about America is that we are to be judged on the content of our character not the color of our skin.

Delta County (Colorado) GOP chair Linda Sorenson, who’s been the focus of national media attention after sharing a racist Facebook meme comparing Obama to a Chimpanzee, has apparently shared or “liked” material in the same vein in the past, including Facebook posts in support of the confederate flag and another illustrating that the President has committed “hanging offenses” (at right and below).

These posts, which were found by a source on Sorenson’s Facebook page, raise more questions about Delta GOP vice chair Vic Ullrey’s claim, reported by the Grand Junction Sentinel, that hackers posted the Chimp meme on Sorenson’s page, not Sorenson herself.

The additional posts also raise questions about Ullrey’s comment to the Grand Junction Sentinel that Sorenson is “absolutely not” a racist.

Ullrey’s hacker claim is contradicted by the fact that Sorenson, in an interview with me last week (listen here), took responsibility for the Chimp post, telling me she didn’t care if people were offended by it.

The Chimp post was deleted from her Facebook page.

The posts above, along with posts below depicting Obama as a Nazi and questioning his citizenship, apparently appeared on Facebook last year.

Sorenson did not return my call to verify that she shared the posts herself–and to discuss them. Also unknown is why she took responsibility for the Chimp post when I spoke with her last week, but her Republican colleagues later claimed it was the work of a hacker.

Now Sorenson’s entire Facebook page has been taken down, and Sorenson is apparently not talking to any reporters.