AMERICAN ATHEISTSMEDIA ALERTMonday, February 20, 2006 JOHNSON LIVE ON MSBNC/CARLSON PROGRAM (“THE SITUATION WITH TUCKER CARLON”) TONIGHT — MONDAY, 2/20 — WILL DISCUSS THE GROWING PRESENCE OF ATHEISTS AND ATHEISM ON THE POLITICAL SCENE ELLEN JOHNSON, President of American Atheists will be the guest tonight (Monday, February 20, 2006) on the MSNBC news program “The Situation with Tucker Carlson.” Johnson will be discussing the growing influence of Atheists and Atheism on the national political scene, and Capitol Hill. Recently, American Atheists appointed Rick Wingrove its national lobbyist to promote a principled, First Amendment agenda in the halls of the U.S. Congress. “This ‘beachhead on the Potomac’ clearly shows that Atheists are speaking out on important public policy issues involving the separation of church and state, and civil rights for nonbelievers,” said Ms. Johnson. “There is plenty of legislation that affects us directly such as the federal faith-based initiative and ‘special rights’ statutes for religious groups like RLUIPA. We intend to have a say on this and other political issues.” Ms. Johnson is also the Executive Director of the Godless Americans Political Action Committee (www.gampac.org), a national initiative to elect Atheists to public office. Tune in beginning at 11:00 PM ET (check local listings) tonight on the MSNBC network. WHO & WHAT: Ellen Johnson,President of American Atheists on “The Situation with Tucker Carlson” WHERE: MSNBC WHEN: Tonight, Monday February 20, 2006 beginning at 11:00 PM ET — check local listings. MORE INFO: MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8063292/) American Atheists (http://www.atheists.org) Godless Americans Political Action Committee (http://www.gampac.org)
I hope that inactive atheists don’t take this as an excuse to continue to do nothing (assuming something is being done by someone else). There’s a battle to be won for our freedom to live life the way we choose to – and not be bullied otherwise.
3E8,
I seriously doubt that many avowed atheists in this country would make such an assumption.
I don’t understand why there is an American Atheists group in the first place. Isn’t atheism the absense of organized religion?
Why is someone recognized as a president of something that shouldn’t even be considered a group?
People always ask that and it gets old. Also, I have posted a topic about this on the Atheist and Agnostic group on MySpace.
-J?r?me
Stephen, can you really not figure this one out?
Yes, “atheism is the absence of organized religion”. But what does that have to with us looking after our own civil rights? Or should we just keep our mouths shut and continue to be considered second class citizens?
Tucker is a tool.
AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so furious after listening to Scarborough’s comments that je am having trouble typing en English!
I sais that I shouldn’t be so angry mais…Oww…chest hurts…
-J?r?me
Stephen:
Oh, now, you don’t begrudge us our little clubhouse, do you?
We don’t begrudge you yours.
As long as you keep it to yourselves, that is.
A bunch of individual atheists can do nothing.
A group of united atheists. . . MAY be able to do a little bit more.
Stephen your right atheism is the absence of organized religion that’s why we need orgs like American atheist and gampac to keep our civil rights but while we are fighting to protect our civil rights a byproduct for you and your kind (religious i assume by your ?) is we are fighting to protect your civil rights at the same time
to bad i missed ellen again it would be nice to know a day or two ahead of time if she is going to be on t.v. or be able to download video of the interview to watch
Wow, that segment was quite disgusting. If you missed if, you’re lucky. I’m now wishing I had missed it, as I’m a bit on the thin skinned side tonight.
Basically, here’s what Douche Bag-O-Plenty said:
- If anyone has dignity it’s the theists.
- Atheists aren’t born atheists, they CHOOSE it, therefore can’t be compared to discrimination over race or gender.
- Atheists are cowards for not coming out of the closet.
- And finally we are a group that stands for nothing.
Lovely.
nodster thats typical of theist its thats exactly why we need to change the image of atheist in this country but most import is to call them on the violation on the rules the live by on the bible and on the fact that they want you to live moral lives but they wont follow suit
Dang it, missed it again.
Yeah, Tucker Carlson definately proved what a unremittent jerk he was. And then the segment about atheism came on and he proved it all over again…
I can’t for the life of me figure out why anyone thinks he has value as a commentator.
I’m w/ udonman. Couldn’t you give us a little more advance notice than “tonite”?
How about posting videos of AA media appearances?
The only ones I’ve seen so far have been Ellen v. Hannity & Colmes and Barrier v. The Factor(guest host – M. Hinchey, I think)
I haven’t watched it yet, but I have this TIVO’ed. I’ll be happy to send a DVD copy if anyone wants one. Leave a comment on my blog with your e-mail address (promise I’ll delete it later, if you don’t want it published).
http://tnatheist.blogspot.com
There’s a growing presence of atheists and atheism on the political scene? This is the first I’ve heard of it.
Dave,
I apologize for not tuning into Ellen Johnson Monday, b/c after watching 5 minutes of the pompus Tucker Carlson, I’d rather spoon out my own eye ball and skull fuck a bedpost. Tucker Carlson is only funny when John Stewart is handing him his ass on cable tv(which forced him to leave CNN).
A nice article on our ID friends and how their numbers stack up. This is an article that tells who the so called scientists are who signed the ID petition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/science/sciencespecial2/21peti.html?ex=1298178000&en=dedbd71075d864a0&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
As we examine the news and see that more and more people are getting very tired of the lies lies and more lies. We stand to have more people join us as a united front of reason. The worst thing that can happen though is to think that any political party is blameless and to vote for them. they all share this blame and we need to use reason to get them out of politics and our lives. I truly believe that there is ssufficient numbers of people of all persuasions who just want the lies to stop that we can influence the results by being above the lies.
JIM
Pending U.S. anti-evolution legislation currently includes: Alabama SB 240, Arkansas HB 2607, Georgia HB 179, Kansas SB 168, Michigan HB 5251, Mississippi SB 2286, Missouri HB 1266, New York 8036, Ohio HB 481, Oklahoma HB 2107, Pennsylvania HB 1007, South Carolina SB 909, Texas HB 1447 and Utah SB 96.
The full story at
Pending U.S. anti-evolution legislation currently includes: Alabama SB 240, Arkansas HB 2607, Georgia HB 179, Kansas SB 168, Michigan HB 5251, Mississippi SB 2286, Missouri HB 1266, New York 8036, Ohio HB 481, Oklahoma HB 2107, Pennsylvania HB 1007, South Carolina SB 909, Texas HB 1447 and Utah SB 96.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/02/060221084516.htm
If your state is on this list EMAIL your reps now and oppose this nonsense.
JIM
Stephen_
Although I highly doubt you will ever read these responses, it behooves me to say that atheism is merely the lack of belief in a god. It does not, by necessity, rule out organization. This seems simple enough to those of us who need to organize to protect our rights and interests. There is no reason why we shouldn’t have an organization to represent our interests and protect our civil liberties.
Perhaps you should really think about the group of people (ie your fellow humans) before you post silly ruminations like that. Is it really a surprise that a group of peope with similar beliefs wants the freedom to live as they choose and needs to organize to protect that? If it is, then it simply illustrates the kind of ignorance that keeps the hand of oppression pressing down firmly on all minority groups be they race based, gender based, ideological, or otherwise. It’s our democratic right.
In regards to the comment by Stephen, regarding reasons for atheists to organize in the first place:
I am of the thought that in a perfect world, atheists would have no need to organize. If religion wasn’t being shoved down my throat at every corner, and if people stopped using religion as a means to judge and look down on me, I really wouldn’t feel the need to assert my own atheism. But as long as religious folks use what they have against us, we will need to use what we have in defense.
All I know is that when I have kids, I don’t want them to have to deal with some of the things I did. Evolution being taught in schools should not be a problem, and neither should sexual orientation or ambiguity in that matter.
When people stop telling me all about religion as if it’s my business, I’ll keep my lack of belief to myself.
But if atheists want to organize, what good reason is there to stop them?
Well, at least one person has contacted me for a DVD of the program. Unfortunately, my (insert expletive here) husband deleted it before even I had a chance to see it. I can provide someone with a transcript of it (courtesy of Allison from Atheist Empire Yahoo group). If anyone wants it, gimme a yell. Meantime I’m gonna keep an eye open for replays.
Hi all,
Thanks for watching the segment (those who could stomach it). I thought ellen did a great job given the circumstances.
We let people know about appearances as much in advance as we can. Sometimes we have lots of notice, other times none at all. Usually the latter. I remember when MSNBC called me and asked me to “drop everything and come now”. I did.
CARLSON: What’s the slogan? Atheist: we’re for nothing?
JOHNSON; No.
CARLSON: Have you tried that one?
JOHNSON: We’re for Constitution. We’re for civil rights. We’re for reason.
CARLSON: That’s a good one. I don’t agree, but you are still a good spokesperson for a movement whose goals I don’t share.
What an asshole. Yeah, there is no discrimination against atheists, yet he thinks we stand for nothing and don’t support the constitution, civil rights and reason.
Instead of trying to get a few seconds of sound bites in on these conservative shows, we really need to have our own show.
Bruce:
I agree. He’s a jackass. My favorite little snippet is this one:
And, apparently, we’re all such deviants that our congressmen don’t even want to be seen speaking with us.
Jerk.
Tucker Carlson is a horse’s ass. Just for fun:
A transcript… a wonderful, wonderful transcript:
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bljonstewartcrossfire.htm
I think you can watch it here:
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/multimedia/v/stewartcarlson.htm