Hatemonger Fred Phelps is at it again.  The Mississippi native, Calvanist-Southern Baptist fire-and-brimstone preacher and disbarred lawyer has declared that retired NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw is going to hell.  Brokaw will join a distinguished group that includes, inter alia, George W. and Laura Bush, Billy Graham, Elizabeth Taylor, Ronald Reagan, Martin Luther King, Bill Clinton, Barry Goldwater, John Kerry, Mr. Rogers, and all of our nation's service men and women who have died in Iraq.  Why is Tom Brokaw destined for eternal damnation?  According to Phelps, it's simple logic:

On Brokaw's watch, sodomites seized control of America . . . . As anchor and editor-in-chief, Brokaw decided what to broadcast and how to spin each item.  He promoted sodomy with each decision.  Then he eulogized WWII traitors who burped and farted in silly hats while dykes and fags hijacked the US military.

Geez.  Can you imagine what this guy will say when Dan Rather signs off next spring?

For those of you unfamiliar with Pastor Phelps, he is the man who wants to erect a monument in a park in Casper, Wyoming, to commemorate the murder of Matthew Shepard, who, according to Phelps, is in hell even as I write.  Phelps and his flock tastefully picketed Matthew Shepard's funeral.  In fact, the proud Bob Jones University alumnus claims that his Westboro Baptist Church has conducted over 22,000 such demonstrations since 1991.

Phelps calls his demonstrations “love crusades.”  Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, huh?

UPDATE:  For those of you who are curious, this is the somewhat nebulous story surrounding Phelps' disbarment, according to the Anti-Defamation League:

Trained as a lawyer, Fred Phelps was disbarred in 1979 by the Kansas Supreme Court, which asserted that he had "little regard for the ethics of his profession." The formal complaint against Phelps charged that he misrepresented the truth in a motion for a new trial in a case he had brought, and that he held the defendant in the case up to "unnecessary public ridicule for which there is no basis in fact." Following his disbarment from Kansas State courts, Phelps continued to practice law in Federal courts. In 1985, nine Federal court judges filed a disciplinary complaint charging him and six of his family members, all attorneys, with making false accusations against them. The Phelpses fought the complaint but lost. In 1989, Fred Phelps agreed to surrender his license to practice law in Federal court in exchange for the Federal judges allowing the other members of his family to continue practicing in Federal court.

In essence, Phelps was disbarred for slander, libel, harassment, and extortion.

To his credit, Phelps was awarded a special honor from the NAACP for his work in civil rights advocacy.  However, unbeknownst to the NAACP at the time, Phelps used the civil rights cases as a front for extortion.

There's much, much more to write about this charlatan.  Watch for a future post.