For the past few months, the Mormons and other big backers of California’s anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8 have been holding an immense pity party with our national media, in what looks to be a press blitz as tightly-orchestrated as was their push for Prop Hate itself. The theme? "Poor little us, being picked on by those awful gays and their boycotts!" The latest iteration of this theme was aired by the New York Times‘ Brad Stone:
FOR the backers of Proposition 8, the state ballot measure to stop single-sex couples from marrying in California, victory has been soured by the ugly specter of intimidation.
Some donors to groups supporting the measure have received death threats and envelopes containing a powdery white substance, and their businesses have been boycotted.
The targets of this harassment blame a controversial and provocative Web site, eightmaps.com.
The site takes the names and ZIP codes of people who donated to the ballot measure — information that California collects and makes public under state campaign finance disclosure laws — and overlays the data on a Google map.
The article then essentially goes on to say how icky it is that the internet makes it possible to demand accountability from Prop Hate donors:
THANKS to eightmaps.com, the Internet is abuzz with bloggers, academics and other pundits offering potential ways to resolve the tension between these competing principles. One idea is to raise the minimum donation that must be reported publicly from $100, to protect the anonymity of small donors.
Another idea, proposed by a Georgetown professor, is for the state Web sites that make donor information available to ask people who want to download and repurpose the data to provide some form of identification, like a name and credit card number.
Funny, I don’t recall any Georgetown professors or New York Times writers getting all outraged when it was the Mormons who were using publicly-available donation records in an effort to blackmail gay-rights backers into backing Prop Eight:
Last night, news broke that the the Prop 8 campaign — after first denying it — admitted to sending certified letters to companies that donated to "No on 8" and Equality California (one of the major funders of the No campaign) demanding that the companies provide a matching donation to Yes on 8, or they would be "outed."
But I guess blackmail is OK if you’re a Republican — or a Mormon.
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But I guess blackmail is OK if you’re a Republican — or a Mormon.
Yes, that is true! Just ask a Republican or a Mormon. And if they are both then it is doubly OK!!
Having trouble remembering where but earlier I saw a headline to the effect that Focus On The Family actually poured more money into Prop 8 than the LDS.
I have little faith or trust in organized religion ,the Mormons included
Lead story at Daily Kos if anyone is interested.
if you are a repuke ,the end always justifies the means! What’s wrong with a little blackmail ?
Yes, that is true! At DKos right this very moment you can find what are seeking: Focus on the Family far outspent Mormons on Prop. 8
What’s wrong with a little blackmail?
Yes, that is true! Just ask a Mormon Republican!
That $727,250 figure seems awfully low. They must be referring to funding from the respective organizations, not including contributions by individual members.
Dobson’s a right wing zealot ,something akin to a christian Taliban !
No excuse for death threats. The rest of it is WAY fair.
I would guess that Lisa Derrick might know the answer to that question, or perhaps Teddy might be up on it.
Getting someone fired from their job for contributing $100 is fair?
Mormon morans!
-G
That’s a lot of dust. That’s a lot of Focus on the
SuckersFamily donors.I don’t see anything about people being fired ,though I agree it would be unfair ,we do have a right to our opinions !
Wingnuts are such WATB’s even when they win. And who knows, but I can’t help but wonder if the death threats were created by the wingnuts for PR purposes.
As for contributions… that must remain open for scrutiny from all sides.
They’re a flock that volunteers to be fleeced.
It happened. LD covered it.
Or the powder. That’s beyond the pale.
Not to mention being a felony.
That figure is only LDS supplies and manpower. The amount of cash raised has got to be way, way more but will be attributed to individuals.
I wonder if any Mormon or Family Fockus Reps will show up here to rebut these charges. Just a little clear-eyed Israel/Palestine material brings AIPAC defenders out.
The former groups are not as well-organized. The deed is done. They shall crawl back into the woodwork until they are called to action for their next anti-human-rights crusade.
musta missed it !
Actually, that was the amount attributed to Focus on the Family but yeah, I know contributions from individuals totaled much higher than that.
OT: Happy 200th Birthday to Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln (after midnight). That’s a lotta candles.
Buy yer way inta heaven. Get our gold plated prayer book. Only $199.95. Reminds me of Randy and Paula White, the televangelists. Real big here in Tampa. Paula has the distinction of being the fall girl for a series of farting preacher’s wife vids.
mormons may have accounted for a large block of individual donors but a review of public donation records suggests Roman right wing Catholics and fundies (including LeHayist lunatics, the Prince family of Blackwater fame and, of course, Ayatollah Dobson were both the largest institutional donors and accounted for almost all large donations… including the Knights of Columbus, the single largest donor! And some of these cowards were actually overheard putting the blame for their own actions disproportionately on the Mormons. I’m not defending the LDS, but who’s more despicable: the bigots who call you names in public or the bigots who hide in the shadows waiting for the right moment to stab you in the back?
Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.
Burn yer house down.
Thanks for the correction.
watertiger upstairs
Variations on the Vatican’s patented Afterlife Insurance Scheme the mafia used for inspiration. “Nice soul you got there. Hate to see something BAD happen to a soul like that…”
culture wars will always be a part of our society ,if it’s not about abortion or gay marriage it will be something else.
why can’t CA ban or limit out of state donations? or at least require carpetbagging out of state corps to register as foreign agents, if they want to set up and fund through a local identity. Virtually all of the large 8 donors were out of state entities.
Catholics (Papists) and Protestants (Highest Numbers consist of Baptists and Fundys) are united in purpose against gays and pro-choice advocates.
In reality, Catholics and Fundys oppose each other. Given sufficient time and the right temperature they will surely clash.
Interesting idea. Perhaps it might be argued that it violates someaspect of the “rights of citizens of one state to have the same right in another State” concept. But if citizens outside a State can’t VOTE then on might be able that influencing the political process Within a State might be legit.
Useless factoid alert: I have difficulty making the caption out in the picture but it says something like the Martyrdom of the Protomartyr Stephan.
“But I guess blackmail is OK if you’re a Republican — or a Mormon.”
Have you ever heard of a Mormon who was not a Republican?
actually I do know a couple. I think there is actually a mormon dems club in LA county
It depends — the only story I remember seeing regarding employment was about the manager at a gay bar/restaurant resigning her position due to the boycott. I’m sorry, but yes that’s fair. If your livelyhood depends to a large degree on the custom and good will of a class of people, then perhaps you ought not to donate a chunk of your income to a cause that seeks to remove what could be viewed as a fundamental human right from that class of people. My custom is not your right.