Apparently all’s fair when you’re trying to deny folks their rights.
The letter from Yes on 8 came by certified mail, demanding at least $10,000. Jim Abbot knows exactly why he’s being targeted – his business gave $10,000 to a group called Equality California, which supports No on Prop 9..
..The letter says if Jim doesn’t give an equal donation to Yes on 8, the name of his company will be published. It reads in part, "It is only fair for Proposition 8 supporters to know which companies and organizations oppose traditional marriage.
Okay. Then a try at fake equivalency:
Yes on 8 confirms they sent around 30 companies the letter. A spokeswoman told News 8 they are just trying to hold their ground in a passionate race. She added that No on 8 supporters picketed the Manchester Grand Hyatt after Doug Manchester donated $125,000 thousand. The publicity caused at least one very large group to cancel its event at the hotel.
She also pointed to a popular blog that asked readers to dig up dirt on Yes on 8 supporters, see if they’ve contributed to less than honorable causes, or have done something otherwise egregious, with the hope they can force the Yes on 8 campaign to return their contributions, or face a bunch of negative publicity.
But News 8 couldn’t find anything from No on 8 supporters demanding money from Yes on 8 supporters.
Jim didn’t cave in. As for blackmail, well, when it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…
(First post at DKos, h/t Calitics)
Note: The DKos diary was written by Dante Atkins (hekebolos). Great work, Dante — jh



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brought to you by compassionate christians *spit*
Meanwhile, here’s another guy who won’t be blackmailed:
Wow.
good for him
OT: The New York Times endorsement of Obama is a PhD thesis and a knock out….have it handy to give all your friends who are in the 10% ers. Unbelievable.
This is really stupid, inasmuch as such contributions are already “published”. What they really mean is threaten a “boycott”.
What has to happen here is the perfect flood…a mass release of names under a heading “We will not be blackmailed! We will not be silenced!” with hundreds…nay thousands of opponents of Prop. 8. What these homophobes want is equivalent to what Michele Bachmann tried…and it should backfire.
The Limbo Rock.
Can anyone be prosecuted for this letter? Does it amount to the legal definition of extortion?
I love the internet…no one can get away with this crap anymore.
Can you say “projection”?
It’s like the Yes On 8 folks think no one would openly contribute to Equality California. “Hey, if we just threaten to expose them as caring, compassionate and filled with a desire for justice, I’m sure they’ll run for their checkbooks!”
Yeah, people hate being exposed as believers in equality for all.
Limbo Rock.
Oh, boy!!
thought process “gay is icky. No one wants to be associated with icky”.
Should have certain gay guys explain to them how icky het sex is.
I wonder if they would self combust.
PW, it’s just clips of the hearing with Waxman…
WAXMAN is on…
She spoke too soon.
Rachel’s interviewing him now about today’s hearing.
Someone (Loo, did you hear who?) was trying to say that the reason Mr. Waxman was holding the hearings was to cover up the Dem’s role in this debacle.
Good for Rachel, huh? I’ve never seen Waxman on TV.
No such thing when they are trying to force “Their Morals” on the rest of us. The Founding Father added Separation of Church and state for a good reason. Religion has no place in the public arena and should never be able to define their definition of anything for the rest of us.
Some Florida jerk was blaming Obama because he had accepted $ from F&F.
yep
Me neither. So, the question here is who is hotter, Rachel or Henry? (sigh)
Las dos!
Digg this to spread the word
Real Christians endeavor to Not Judge.
Also, confident people don’t need to push their own values or morals on anyone else.
you go girl!
How did you know that I was going to drop it on everyone’s desk when I arrive at 7:30 tomorrow morning, before almost everyone else?!
Si, si, si.
Heh you got me Neuro…. but I DUGG your DIGG
when is the BIG day??? IIRC the 24th?
O/T per politico: Indiana AG investigating robocalls
Nice picture of Del and Phyllis
yep… keep your religion to your self and we will all get along and have a peaceful society… just think about that for a moment!!
The Dell tracking e-mail hedged a bit, but it could be Friday. It was shipped on Wednesday with 3-5 day delivery.
Should I pass out cigars when it arrives? :)
Cause some of those have been my friends as well. Good luck
If 8 passes, I kind of wonder if it’s going to turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory for its backers, particularly the Mormon church. This isn’t like all the other votes on gay marriage. This could potentially take away a right that gays in California now have (and in many cases, have blown an awful lot of money on). When other anti-gay-rights referenda have passed, I think most gay people were hurt, depressed, and horribly disappointed. I think if this one passes, people are going to be REALLY pissed off, and I think that anger is going to be expressed in a variety of creative ways. Going after the church’s tax-exempt status is the first obvious move, of course, but I think you’re also going to see many more references to the Mormon church in popular art and culture, and they aren’t going to be very positive.
I’ve always found it interesting that given the relatively small number of statements attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, so many Christians are inclined to ignore the ones that are inconvenient, particularly something like the “Judge not-” verse from the Sermon on the Mount, which is the one instance when he purportedly really spelled things out.
I can’t tell if you are chastising me or speaking of an ideal.
Then ask your self how many have suffered and died when religion was the rule of law for a society???
It’s just so wrong.
I hope the people that are either sitting on the fence or leaning towards voting for it will see this as a wake call about the agenda of the people who want this to pass.
I took it as the latter…
Well I don’t smoke but I would keep the cigar in a special place in celebration of the birth of your new computer!!
religion isn’t the problem, it’s the people who do acts in the name of said religion that are the problem
I would never chastise you Demi.. I was talking as an ideal. sometimes I really think the religion is the root of many evils in this world and we would be better off without it!
Marion, I knew you’d read it! The NYT expert. Now I’m off too.
Yes they need to learn to keep it to themselves and to not use it as a club to hammer those who don’t think and feel the same way!
practicing guttural religion
Oh, good.
Smacking people on the head with a bible or using scripture as a weapon is not the only way to share religious beliefs, however. If I believe that I’m supposed to Love One Another, then I try harder, not always successfully, to go out of my way to be kind, encouraging and helpful.
I agree. but as many that I know who corrupt religion, there are amny who do the honest work of religion (Mother Teresa, etc)
Your original comment made me think of Lennon’s Imagine.
not that I ever knew Mother Teresa personally
The Republican Party is now the owner of this bunch of religious nuts. It certainly hasn’t helped them in this election and I doubt it will in the future. They can’t get rid of them and they really have contempt for them. The Rs sold out to get power and ended up in the belly of the beast.
hope they stay there and implode
There are fresh Diggings upstairs…
Holy shit!! Now that’s what I call an endorsement (and a slapdown)
I am an agnostic but I don’t believe religion is the root of evil (delusion maybe). I think the potential for benevolence and cruelty is an innate component of human society.
My Fiancee(?) and I are holding of travel plans until after 11/4. Would prefer Catalina (I don’t really like the NE, no offense to any NE-er’s)
First, I’m not a lawyer but I’m almost certain this is criminal activity. Notify the Public Inquiry Unit of California Attorney General Jerry Brown at (916) 322-3360, toll free at (800) 952-5225, or fax at (916) 323-5241. Also, contact California Secretary of State Debra Bowen at (916) 653-6814. That is the General Information number for the California Secretary of State. The Elections Division numbers are (916) 657-2166 (Main), (800) 833-8683 (TDD only), and (800) 345-8683 (Voter Fraud Hotline).
Is blackmail a state crime, or federal, or both? Since letters were sent through the U. S. Mail, that should get the federal government involved. If blackmail is a state crime (too), I would like to see Jerry Brown lead the prosecution.
Second, any business that caves into these SOBs needs to be boycotted.
Third, any business that supports the No On 8 campaign AND does not give in deserves our full-time support.
This is absolutely rotten, and it looks as though our Attorney General has just been handed a dream case to prosecute.
Exactly. Many more like “feed my sheep, feed my lambs,” and “what you do to the least of these you do to me.” Funny about how Republicans almost never quote those…
Also, I wonder if Prop 8 could be invalidated based on election fraud, blackbail, or something like that (if it passes).
Seems like he had good intentions. Too bad he didn’t foresee how his message would read after the lawyers got done working it over.
Just be prepared to click “OK” a lot
;~P
Absolutely, we must challenge the Mormon Church’s tax-exempt status for this clear violation of the law. Good point!