It appears the evolution of Gov. Rick Perry’s prayer event began even earlier than recently reported in Time, and is part of a wider strategy by influential conservative Christian figures to unseat President Barack Obama in 2012.

After Sarah Posner of Religion Dispatches wrote that Perry’s rally seemed reminiscent of televangelist James Robison’s efforts to mobilize conservative Christians to support Ronald Reagan in 1980 and George W. Bush in 2000, the author of what Posner described as one of the most “under noticed” religion stories of the campaign season helped strengthen the connection.

In a two-part series, Ethics Daily contributing editor Brian Kaylor reveals closed-door meetings called last month by Robison in the Fort Worth suburb of Euless, bringing together about 80 pastors and conservative Christian leaders.

With the aim of plotting to oust Obama, the leaders met not just on the phone call recounted in TIME, but in person on June 20-21, after earlier rounds of secretive gatherings September 2010 in Dallas. Robison also held two conference calls in March with 35 right-wing Christian leaders.

Many of the leaders Ethics Daily reported attended those closed-door meetings are also sponsors of Perry’s prayer rally planned in August. (Today, Robison included a list of those who attended on his blog.)

They include event leadership figures Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, the controversial host organization of Perry’s prayer rally; influential conservative activist David Lane, who serves as the event’s national finance chairman; Jim Garlow, in charge of the rally’s “national church mobilization” efforts; former Republican U.S. Rep. Bob McEwen, the government “mobilization” leader; and program endorsers Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and Jacob Aranza, a minister who, Ethics Daily said, “helped popularize the theory that rock ’n’ roll music included backmasked messages promoting drug use and sex,” in the 80s.

Robison had been pushing for a governor to take up his prayer call, Posner writes, arguing that “we need our governors, our state leaders, our national leaders, really come together in real serious prayer because we need answers from above.” And as revealed to Kaylor, Ohio Governor John Kasich urged Robison to pick Perry because he was “the governor that had been in leadership long enough that [he] could call a prayer meeting.”

The authors lay out Robison’s pro-life, pro-Israel, pro-smaller government record, opposed to same-sex marriage and in favor of defending the fight against “Radical Islam.” Though Robison said the meetings are “intended to be spiritual, not political” he admitted to “political implications” of the gathering, “including issues involving political elections.”

“This is not a political gathering; it is a gathering for a spiritual awakening that will affect every area of life and culture,” Robison told Ethics Daily. “We’re not trying to organize some power base. We’re trying to release the power that affects every other base of influence and power.”

Kalyor traces the political subtext apparent on Robison’s TV ministry show, “Life Today”:

“I believe we’ve got about a 12- to 18-month, 24-month period at the most, really less than that, where we’re going to literally have to turn the ship of state away from the hidden dangers, like hidden underwater iceberg edges and the visible, to turn away and head to a safe course, safe harbor with a captain and crew in place over all that will make necessary course corrections to keep us in a secure safe place,” said Robison to Jay Richards, who attended both meetings and played a major role in the conference calls.

The New York Times this morning filled roughly a third of a page with a story about the proposals, creating the odd juxtaposition of Douglas Bruce and Lady Gaga being pictured one above the other, safely separated, of course, by a sea of gray type.

The Times spoke to people on both sides of the debate, but primarily made the case that even most Colorado Republicans think the three measures go too far and should be defeated.

“The Bad Three,” as they are known — at least to opponents — have been a key point of differentiation among Colorado’s candidates for governor, though American Constitution Party candidate Tom Tancredo recently indicated he may no longer support all the measures.

“I cleaned up that mess in Colorado,” Lucero says over the words Churchill Fired! “and now I want to lead the fight to clean up Washington D.C.” But uh-oh for Tom Lucero because the Ward Churchill “mess” isn’t really all cleaned up yet.

A Denver jury found in April that Churchill had been railroaded. They said he was fired for speaking his mind not for any alleged academic transgressions. But no one in the courtroom seemed to much like Churchill, so they gave him $1 in damages and Judge Larry Naves refused to order CU to give Churchill back his job. As Westword’s Michael Roberts put it Monday, that’s the kind of ruling begs for an appeal!

High-powered attorney David Lane has taken the case.

“We won the jury trial but then the judge tossed it and gave it to CU — and he gave the university’s regents immunity,” Lane told Westword. “We’re arguing that the judge shouldn’t have done that. It’s very important that the regents be held accountable when they violated an amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”

By “regents,” Lane means Lucero!

So Churchill may be reinstated and self-proclaimed defender of Constitutional liberties Lucero may be held in violation of the right to free speech. That sounds like a continuing mess in Colorado, one that wasn’t cleaned up very well, one that smacks of politics as usual and one that may work to keep Lucero far away from Washington D.C.

Got a tip? Freelance story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.

Arrest of Code Pink supporter, Alicia Forrest, at the Democratic National Convention. (Photo/Jason Kosena)

Re-create 68 protesters and other activists plan to file suit against the city of Denver and the Denver police department for violating their constitutional rights during the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

At a press conference this morning, Re-create 68 co-founder Glenn Spagnuolo, three activists, and attorney David Lane, detailed their intent to sue the city and the police for illegally arresting and detaining peaceful protesters, brutalizing activists and illegally searching and seizing signs and other materials that belonged to protesters.

“The only people prepared for violence were the police,” said Spagnuolo, “The protesters were disciplined and did not respond to provocations.”

Lane said that the suit will focus on four instances in which police violated constitutional rights. One is the case of Carlo Garcia, a CU Boulder student who was thrown face down into the dirt during a protest. Garcia, who spoke at the press conference, said that he and other anti-war activists held signs in front of Rev. Fred Phelps, an anti-gay marcher who had launched a counter protest. The police asked Garcia to move, body slammed him to the ground, and held him in tight wrist cuffs for over an hour. Garcia was charged with interference. “Is this how our local government treats dissent?” he said.

Another instance is that of Alicia Forrest, a Code Pink activist who was allegedly brutalized by the police during a protest. The so-called Lady in Pink was shoved to the ground by an officer, who Lane says should be “criminally prosecuted.”

The third instance involves a protest on Monday night of the convention, in which several hundred people were corralled in downtown Denver for over an hour without apparent reason. A hundred of them were arrested while others were blasted with pepper spray. Keith Valentine, a CU Denver student, said at the press conference that he and others were “held as political detainees. There were no orders to disperse and no orders to leave.”

The fourth instance involves an activist “convergence center” in north Denver, where Recreate-68 organizers hosted meetings, stored puppets and painted posters. Police allegedly bulldozed an area behind the facility, where activists’ painted posters were drying. Alex Bryan, a protester, said he snapped a photo of police outside of the center, only to have the contents of his camera and cell phone deleted by one of the officers, who called him a “domestic terrorist.” Bryan says he was ticketed for “pedestrian use of sidewalk,” a charge that he doesn’t understand.

Lane, the attorney, said that the group will work to dismiss charges against protesters before formulating legal action, which could take the shape of a large class-action suit or a series of smaller suits.

“We will take them into federal and district court. We will seek damages. We will not tolerate this and we will go after officers,” he said.

DNC protesters who want to join the suit or who have information on police misconduct are invited to contact Re-create 68 at legal@recreate68.org.