A1. Bragging that you’re cheating on your wife with two other women, then saying it was all “just talk,” dragging one of your so-called conquests through the mud along with you; or:
A2. Listening to one of your cohorts, who’s on the Committee on Utilities and Commerce, brag about cheating on his wife with two other women, one of of whom is a utilities lobbyist, and and not reporting the conversation, especially when both of you are on the Assembly Ethics Committee.
Poor Brian Brown. It has not been a good week for him and his Mormon front group, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).
With two more states (Maine and Iowa) considering investigations of his organization for improper reporting of campaign contributions and money laundering, plus the on-going ten month investigation by the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC Case #08-735), Brian went on the offensive on Friday and sent out the email below to all his supporters and the media.
LOS ANGELES — September 9, 2009 — After California Assemblyman Michael Duvall (R-Orange County) was caught making obscene boasts about sex with married lobbyists on a live microphone in committee meeting, the 700,000-member Courage Campaign called on Attorney General Jerry Brown to investigate.
Or, at least, on a hot mic, describing the lurid details (details so lurid, even we won’t repeat them here) of his affairs with two female married lobbyists.
“One works for a firm which represents utility companies,” notes KCAL — which is no small detail: Duvall was the vice chair of the Committee on Utilities and Commerce, which oversees regulation of public utilities in California. You don’t have to be psychic to see an ethics probe in Duvall’s future!
While we put together Duvall’s inevitable entry for the Conservative Babylon Hall of Shame, get a load of the report from KCAL-9 in L.A., below.
AUGUSTA, ME — September 1, 2009 — Jonathan Wayne, Executive Director of State of Maine Commission of Governmental Ethics and Elections Practices, sent a strongly worded four page letter to Stand for Marriage Maine PAC (SFMMP) and the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), seeking more information on the charges of “money laundering” against them in their campaign to repeal Maine’s same-sex marriage law.
The letter sent to Joseph Keaney, Stand for Marriage Maine PAC’s Treasurer and Brian Brown, NOM’s Executive Director, called upon both organizations to respond in writing by September 17, 2009 “…concerning whether the Commission should conduct an investigation.”
A federal judge has cleared the way for the government’s seizure of a creationism theme park in Pensacola.
A ruling this week says the nine properties that make up Dinosaur Adventure Land, and two bank accounts associated with the park will be used to satisfy $430,400 in restitution owed to the federal government.
Kent Hovind, who founded the park and his ministry, Creation Science Evangelism, is serving 10 years in federal prison as a result of a tax-fraud conviction for failing to pay more than $470,000 in employee taxes in a long-running dispute with the Internal Revenue Service. …
More at the link, and more delicious commentary from Ed Brayton.
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano heeded calls for his resignation and finally stepped down Friday, a week after his arrest for taking a $25,000 bribe.
The 32-year-old Cammarano spent 30 days in office before submitting his letter of resignation to the city clerk, his lawyer said. …
He was accused of taking the money in return for his support for a high-rise building project. He initially vowed to stay in office while he fights the charges, but protesters set up camp outside his home and at City Hall demanding he vacate the office.
Cammarano took the oath of office on July 1 after a hotly contested race. City Council President Dawn Zimmer was sworn in as his replacement.
“He approached a woman and asked her if she supports same-sex marriage. When she said yes, he handed her the clipboard to sign the referendum. She though she was signing in favor of equal marriage. He tricked her, right in front of me, on camera. I called him out on it.”
If they were forced to tell the truth, we would have had full marriage equality — federally — already.
Watch the entire video, and you too, will be utterly enraged. (Also, more about Referendum 71 — Washington’s own Proposition 8 — after the jump.)
“This form of exerting influence over belief has a lengthy history. … This is also part of the even older ‘noble lie’ tradition. That is, if a falsehood serves a sufficiently noble purpose, it is justified. This is a particularly common approach for certain types of leaders and is at the core of Mormonism’s odious ‘faithful history’ and ‘lying for the Lord’ traditions.”
But that’s still a darned big “-gate” — you betcha! Per The Inquisitr:
Multiple sources have been digging around in the wake of Sarah Palin’s cryptic resignation speech Friday and they’ve found that when Palin was Mayor of her home town of Wasilla, AK in 2002, she was influental in the construction of the Wasilla Sports Complex and hockey arena. First of all, the $12mil+ project ended up in the hands of contractors who were friends of friends of Palin. Secondly, at around the same time the sports complex was being built, so was Palin’s new house. What’s interesting about that is the house is constructed from the exact same materials the sports complex was built with. The windows in both structures are the same, the wood is the same, pretty well everything.
When the house was being built, Palin, being Mayor at the time, influenced the bylaw requiring building permits in the town so that now there is no official list of the contractors who worked on her house. …
It is plausable [sic] that the suddenness of Palin’s resignation, which even members of her family didn’t know was going to happen, could be the reason for her rather strange resignation speech - she simply didn’t have time to construct an elaborate speech because she already knew this mess was about to go public in a big way.
Reminds me of the lady in Hawaii who was spammed by Prop 8 supporters; she was certain the only way the sender could have gotten her email was through access to a Mormon “stake clerk’s access to church stake records, which are not supposed to be used for political or commercial purposes”:
… A little while back, Ron Prentice, the committee’s chairman, announced that their legal counsel and author of the the text of proposition 8 was set to run for a General Assembly seat in the 5th district of California.
Today, though, I got a mass email from Mr. Pugno updating me on fund raising efforts for his campaign “war chest.” I’d never signed up on Mr. Pugno’s site and based on his calling me “hostile” in an email last fall, I [didn’t] assume that he plucked my email address and added it to his list.
What actually happened is that Protectmarriage.com created a new list for Mr. Pugno — it’s called “Andy Pugno — Protecmarriage.com List 6″ in their system that has, at least, some, if not all of Protectmarriage.com’s email addresses. That appears to violate Protectmarriage.com’s stated privacy policy, which says that they only collect personal information and use it to “send … updates and the latest news from ProtectMarriage.com.”
Ultimately, it could all lead to a violation of California’s Online Privacy Protection Act…
More at the link.
Not surprising. If they’ll lie about everything else, why wouldn’t they lie about what they’re going to do with email addresses?
Somebody on my long, long list of Religious Whackadoodles to Add to Conservative Babylon is televangelist Robert Tilton, who— well, here’s a brief introduction to Tilton, with a link to the Wikipedia article that does a nice job of running down the whole ugly story.
In the meantime, I just had to share this with you: Tilton’s new book, How to Pay Your Bills Supernaturally.
Yes, the book is real. (And if you’re really, really stupid, you can buy it directly from Tilton himself.)
Oh, yes, I’d love your suggestions for titles of future editions in what must be an ongoing series. The first that come to my mind:
Jamaica has long been known as a homophobic society - though granted we don’t have a poster at our international airports! More publicly, it is reflected in the music. Comparable to the spate of ‘daggering’ songs, local dancehall kings and queens vie for who can best describe with what should be done to homosexuals, often times in the most graphic of ways.
So, as we saying (or as The Edge was actually saying), “The Washington, D.C., Council has voted 13-0 to recognize marriages by same-sex couples legally entered into in other jurisdictions.”
Well, it was 13-0, until Mister Four-Times-Married, Tax-Evading, HomophobicCrackhead Ex-Mayor figured out he was voting for equality.
“Apparently Mayor for Life,” notes NBC Washington (”Confused Barry Asks for Same-Sex Marriage Vote Back“), “an opponent of the legislation, voted yea without knowing what he was voting on, but he woke up in time to ask that the bill be reconsidered…”
And then, assuming the podium for every African-American in his ward (where, apparently, there are no LGB or T people of color), threatened a black-on-gay “civil war.”
With all the controversy surrounding the LDS Church’s involvement in the Proposition 8 election in California last fall, a more subtle dust-up was brewing at the Hawaii State Legislature last month, pretty much over the same thing.
Hawaii resident Leonor Briscoe was fired up enough over an e-mail exchange with a neighbor that she forwarded copies to her friends, including some Utah residents she believed would be interested in the issue.
The exchange began with an e-mail she got from Frank Lueder, also of Hawaii, that informed her of HB444, a bill before the Hawaii Legislature that “is attempting to once again legalize same-sex marriage but under a new term, ‘civil union.’ If you wish relay your OPPOSITION to it, you could do so by [calling or e-mailing] your representative. You could access the list of … House of Representatives from the e-mail address I just gave.”
Briscoe, who is LDS, responded: “In the hierarchical, authoritarian structure of the Mormon church, there’s no way you would be sending out e-mails about HB444 without the implied or expressed sanction of the leaders of the Mormon Church.
“You do not know me and I do not know you, so the only way you could have gotten my e-mail address is through your stake clerk’s access to church stake records, which are not supposed to be used for political or commercial purposes.”
No, wait — actually, I do have a comment:
I look forward to the day the Catholics and the evangelicals (the commoners, I mean, not the leadership) see what I see. I look forward to the day the Mormon church is recognized as— well, exactly what it is.
Fred posted his new letter to California Fair Political Practices Commission chair Ross Johnson at Californians Against Hate. The whole thing is a must-read — and only begins:
Many additional items have come to my attention regarding the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) since I filed my complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) on November 13, 2008.
My sworn complaint alleged that the Mormon Church made significant non monetary contributions in support of California’s Proposition 8 which they did not report as required by California election law. The FPPC sent a letter to me on November 21, 2008 stating that “the Enforcement Division of the Fair Political Practices Commission will investigate the allegation(s) under the jurisdiction of the FPPC of the sworn complaint that you submitted.” That investigation is ongoing (FPPC File No. 08/735).
The Salt Lake City Deseret News reported on November 14, 2008 that Church spokesman Scott Trotter said the allegations are “false” and the complaint — filed by Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate — has “many errors and misstatements.” Trotter said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “has fully complied with the reporting requirements of the California Political Reform Act. Claims that the church has violated the act and failed to report political expenditures made by the church are false. The church has, in fact, filed four reports with California authorities; these reports are a matter of public record. A further report will be filed on or before its due date, Jan. 30, 2009,” Trotter said.
Then on January 30, 2009, the Church filed a campaign report indicating that it made $190,000 in non-monetary contributions. The Mormon Church claimed that most of its contributions occurred in the 2 weeks prior to Election Day.
This information supplements my complaint, and I hereby request that the FPPC consider those additional allegations as part of its investigation of Mormon Church campaign activities in support of Proposition 8.
The supplemental information is set forth in two parts. The first part includes official Mormon Church documents detailing the Church’s involvement in creating a “front group” in Hawaii to fight same-sex marriage in a very similar election 10 years ago. The Mormon Church did the same thing in California. In 2007, the Mormon Church set up another front group, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) to qualify and pass Proposition 8.
Secondly, I dispute the veracity of the January 30, 2009 campaign report filed by the Church. Attached is the full transcript of the Mormon Church’s much publicized October 8, 2008 simulcast to Church members throughout the Western United States. This satellite broadcast served as a call to arms for the Church member action during the last 4 weeks of the campaign to pass Proposition 8.
HAWAII BACKGROUND
In 1995, at the request of then Mormon Church President Gordon Hinckley, Church leadership identified the type of committee they wanted to create to stop same-sex marriage in Hawaii, and they set it up.
The attached documents tell the story of how the Mormon Church established their front group in Hawaii to pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in that state after the Hawaii Supreme Court heard the case. The Mormon Church established its front group called Hawaii’s Future Today (HFT) in the fall of 1995, 3 years before the election to pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Hawaii.
They hired lobbyists, consultants, campaign managers, attorneys and had one very high ranking Mormon on the Board, Jack Hoag, the recently retired Chairman of the Church-owned First Hawaiian Bank. They were able to get money into Hawaii’s Future Today (HFT) that would go unreported (documents attached to this complaint and on our web site: Mormongate.com). These actions hid their direct involvement while creating a coalition to lead the effort.
They raised nearly all of the money from Utah and other mainland Mormons. Eventually the Mormon Church gave $400,000 directly to the campaign committee close to the election, but received much criticism for that large contribution. They switched strategies after that campaign and in subsequent elections, did not contribute directly to campaigns opposing same-sex marriage. Instead, they sought contributions from their members directly as they did last year in California.
The attached documents reveal exactly how the church created Hawaii’s Future Today. They recruited the Chair, Debi Hartmann (see recent Bay Area Reporter story by Dan Aiello), and Co-chairs, Jack Hoag and Father Marc Alexander and other Board members, got the funds to HFT, and ran and funded it from Salt Lake using many top Church officials. Its stated mission was to fight casino gambling, prostitution, and same-sex marriage, but defeating same-sex marriage was its sole objective.
Mormon Church Establishes California Front Group to Qualify Proposition 8
The Mormon Church appears to have done the identical thing in California 12 years later. The Church established the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) in the summer of 2007 for the sole purpose of qualifying and passing Proposition 8. …
Much, much more at the link, including embedded links — and a most interesting comment by Chino regarding Debi Hartmann.
Again, this is a must-read-in-full. I can’t begin to do it justice with a summary.
I guess since God has failed to oust scum-of-the-earth Robert Mugabe, it’s dawned on a few mere mortals that it’s up to them — but if they think words will accomplish anything, they’re sadly mistaken. The guy is as evil, crazy, and unmovable as Hitler, Idi Amin, and Pat Robertson combined; about the only thing that will work is a coup, and the Zimbabweans are so weakened, and more concerned about starving to death and not being murdered by their own next-door neighbors, I’m not sure they’re capable of overthrowing Mugabe. Then again, I’m surprised they haven’t already; if extreme adversity breeds violence (and it does), then Zimbabwe is more than ripe for revolution.
But that’s just my take from the other side of the planet. Here’s what people who are supposed to know better than I do are saying:
The U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, citing a “man-made humanitarian crisis,” Thursday echoed world leaders who want Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe out.
“It is time for Mugabe to go,” said Ambassador James McGee. “He’s outlived his usefulness in Zimbabwe.”
The current humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe — including a cholera outbreak — is linked to the political crisis, McGee said during a news briefing.
World Health Organization officials said the cholera outbreak resulted in the death of least 783 people have died and reported infections of more than 16,400 people.
“And this political crisis is nothing more than the result of the failed economic policies, corruption and human rights abuses on the part of the government of Zimbabwe,” he said.
Global leaders, including U.S. President George Bush, have called upon Mugabe to step aside. …
Meanwhile the U.S. Agency for International Development, which provides economic and humanitarian assistance, allocated $6.2 million in addition funds to help battle the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe, officials said. The agency already given $4.6 million in help, providing emergency water, sanitation and hygiene programs, said Henrietta H. Ford, USAID administrator. …
Hm, not exactly a lot to be hopeful about there, eh? As I said, words aren’t gonna work with Mugabe; you’re not going to get him to “step aside” just by suggesting it.
Now, you know if Zimbabwe had anything the U.S. wanted (like oil), we already would have been funding a coup — or, worse, the spooks would have already offed him. Both options are morally repugnant, and I’d rail against either. (Well, I might be open to the idea of funding a coup, if we did it out in the open, instead of feigning ignorance and innocence, the way we do in South America every decade or so.) But that, sez the armchair observer, is why Mugabe has been allowed to remain in power as long as he has: It’s of no “benefit” to the U.S. to do anything about him.
Never mind that we’re so gung-ho about eradicating terrorism from the world; the powers that be always conveniently gloss over the fact that terrorism is a direct result of poverty, disease, and other conditions that leave a people with literally nothing left to lose. Oh, noooooooo, we can’t be bothered to strike at the root of a problem — in Zimbabwe, or in our own backyard.
Here’s a big, fat clue, people in power: Prevention is worth a pound of cure.
In case you haven’t heard, the feds busted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. If you have heard, and you want to know what the hell happened without trying to piece it together from Rick Sanchez’s typically breathless-with-excitement-but-without-much-substance updates on CNN, hit the transcript of Patrick Fitzgerald’s press conference for the full story.
In a nutshell, Blagojevich (”and others”) sold political favors (think: kickbacks and shakedowns), apparently increasing the dirty dealing after he knew he was under investigation by the FBI.
But wait! There’s more!
“The most appalling conduct Governor Blagojevich engaged in, according to the complaint filed today or unsealed today, is that he attempted to sell a Senate seat, the Senate seat he had the sole right to under Illinois to appoint to replace President-elect Obama.”
* low whistle *
Jack Cafferty summed up Blagojevich best just a minute ago: “He’s an arrogant punk who thinks he’s bulletproof.”
Federal authorities arrested the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, on Monday as part of a corruption probe surrounding the city’s sewer bonds.
The office of Mayor Larry Langford confirmed the arrest and said it was “no surprise.” …
In May the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit accusing Langford of receiving and not disclosing a $156,000 illegal payment.
Alabama’s Jefferson County — of which Birmingham is the main city — is fighting to stave off what would be the largest bankruptcy in U.S. municipal history over its sewer debt. …
Sweet. Too, too sweet.
Hey, Larry, if you have nothing to do while cooling your heels, we suggest you read Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail — and this time, actually read it.
Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., will lay off about 100 employees, days after it agreed to a near-$450,000 separation agreement with its former president who resigned amid a spending scandal. The layoffs represent roughly 10 percent of the university’s work force, but the school did not specify which departments would be targeted. The school, with a budget this fiscal year of about $91.8 million, is more than $17 million in debt.
They’ve threatened pro-gay business owners. They’ve physically beaten up their opponents. They’ve launched cyber attacks. And they’ve spread lies to advance their cause.
Now backers of Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage amendment on Tuesday’s ballot, have threatened to recall an openly gay South Bay politician if he does not convert to their side in the fight.
I’m going to stop asking how low will the brownshirts behind California Proposition 8 will sink — because it’s obvious there is no low too low.
Now they’ve threatened to launch a recall campaign against Campbell City Councilmember Evan Low if he does not agree to support Prop 8.
… Evan Low, who serves on the Campbell City Council, reported this week that he had received threats from half a dozen people that if he did not rescind his endorsement against Prop 8 he would be recalled from office.
“I have received seven calls today threatening to recall me from office if I do not publicly retract my position and switch to Yes on 8,” Low informed supporters in an e-mail Wednesday, October 29. “The Yes on 8 campaign is continuing their efforts of deception and coercion. Let’s have a strong showing during this final stretch.”
Chip White, a spokesman for Protectmarriage.com, the main group backing Prop 8, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Instead of backing down, Low turned up in San Francisco this morning (Thursday, October 30) to join Mayor Gavin Newsom and other Asian American politicians from the Bay Area for a walk through Chinatown to urge voters to support marriage equality.
In his e-mail Low urged his supporters to donate to the No on 8 campaign as well as attend several rallies in Silicon Valley over the weekend. In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Low said he did not know where most of the callers lived or if they were being coordinated by the Yes on 8 campaign.
“At least one person I knew was from Campbell,” he said. “Whether or not these calls or threats of recall are attributed to Yes on 8 directly, it still shows the attempts of people on that side of the issue will go to threaten. It is just ridiculous.”
He called the threat of a recall a “pathetic attempt” that would not impact his speaking out against Prop 8.
“It is bad enough they want to eliminate rights for people. It is just ugly, plain and simple,” said Low.
Gloria Nieto, political director at the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center in San Jose, labeled the tactics thuggish and said they would not work.
“You know what a bunch of thugs. They are attacking our Web sites, threatening our elected officials. It is nothing but thuggery; it is disgusting,” said Nieto. “I don’t think it will work in Campbell. …”
“It only reaffirms my commitment to why I do what I do,” Low told The Advocate. “This reaffirms why I serve in this capacity, to give a voice to those that are less fortunate, and to also stand up against this horrible, despicable, hateful agenda. It’s unfortunate that a proposition like this brings out the worst in people. It’s unfortunate that we aren’t spending our time and energy on both sides working on something that we can all agree on, like health care and education.”
That won’t happen with this bunch, Evan, because they’re just sick, singleminded thugs driven by blind hate.
Exclusive Nation Investigation Links Campaign Manager Rick Davis to Questionable Russian Oligarchs; McCain in Nomination Speech: “Russian oligarchs, who, rich with oil wealth and corrupt with power…[are] reassembling the old Russian Empire.”
WASHINGTON — October 1 — In an investigation just posted at TheNation.com (and running in Thursday’s Nation Magazine) reporters Ari Berman and Mark Ames detail extensive business connections between John McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis and Russian Business Interests, specifically Russian business interests in Montenegro connected to Putin. The article also details the connections between his campaign manager’s lobbying firm, Davis-Manafort, and Ukraine and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, advancing some prior reporting on the topic.
In his acceptance speech at the Republican convention, McCain lashed out at Putin and the Russian oligarchs, who, “rich with oil wealth and corrupt with power… [are] reassembling the old Russian Empire.”
Both Berman and Ames are available for interviews; below are several key passages from the piece.
Excerpts, “McCain’s Kremin Ties”:
Despite McCain’s tough talk, behind the scenes his top advisers have cultivated deep ties with Russia’s oligarchy — indeed, they have promoted the Kremlin’s geopolitical and economic interests, as well as some of its most unsavory business figures, through greedy cynicism and geopolitical stupor. The most notable example is the tale of how McCain and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, advanced what became a key victory for the Kremlin: gaining control over the small but strategically important country of Montenegro.
According to two former senior US diplomats who served in the Balkans, Davis and his lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, received several million dollars to help run Montenegro’s independence referendum campaign of 2006. The terms of the agreement were never disclosed to the public, but top Montenegrin officials told the US diplomats that Davis’s work was underwritten by powerful Russian business interests connected to the Kremlin and operating in Montenegro.
. . .
Though Davis has claimed no connection to his partner Manafort’s controversial activities in Ukraine, he nevertheless hired at least three specialists recommended by Manafort, from the same team Manafort used for Yanukovich’s victory, to work on Montenegro’s independence referendum. They included Russian political operative Andrei Ryabchuk, an elections specialist who had previously worked on pro-Putin campaigns in Russia. Ryabchuk told The Nation that he was “recruited by Manafort’s people” out of Moscow to the Ukraine operation and then on to Montenegro.
Davis’s team was vetted by Montenegro’s Russian ambassador Rocen, who was returning from Moscow to oversee the independence campaign. Why was Davis hired? The top McCain aide was as much a political symbol as a campaign consultant. “I think the Montenegrins hired Rick to have political cover — it was important to show they had support from the United States,” said an American democracy expert who’s worked in Montenegro. Though disclosure is required by Montenegrin law, Davis Manafort’s contract with the ruling Montenegrin party was never publicly released. In addition, Djukanovic’s party never listed payments to Davis Manafort on its election filings, lending credence to private claims by top Montenegrin officials that Russian business interests paid for Davis’s work through hired third parties, an oft-used though illegal tactic in Eastern Europe to disguise money trails.
. . .
A few months after the vote, McCain and a contingent of GOP senators visited Montenegro. The day before they arrived, Djukanovic had flown to Putin’s dacha on the Black Sea. “Your government made it possible for large-scale Russian investments,” Putin told the Montenegrin leader. Djukanovic then returned to Montenegro and warmly received McCain, who also met with the Montenegrin president, speaker of Parliament and opposition leader Predrag Bulatovic. Bulatovic told McCain about how Russian capital was taking over the country and of his concern that “this investment can have a negative impact on the democratic process.” McCain listened but kept criticism of Russia to himself. Meanwhile, Davis was still in the country, helping Djukanovic’s Russia-allied party win the upcoming parliamentary elections. (At the time, Djukanovic was under investigation by Italian prosecutors for cigarette smuggling and “Mafia-type activities.”)
The blizzard has begun. It soon will be all but impossible to turn on a television without seeing commercials for and against one or more of the 12 propositions on November’s California ballot.
Most money paying for the ads comes from people and organizations with an unquestioned right to provide it. But some originates with sources that enjoy tax exemptions and other privileges. …
The question of whether churches or religious organizations should kick in or “encourage” their members to donate for or against ballot measures also arose eight years ago, the last time voters considered a gay marriage ban.
At that time, both the Mormon Church of Latter Day Saints and the Roman Catholic church strongly backed Proposition 22, the language of which was identical to today’s Proposition 8 [which seeks to take away from gays their newly-granted right to marry]. So it’s no surprise they are both again supporting a gay marriage ban, along with many other churches.
But there are some differences this time. For one thing, Roman Catholic funding for the measure now comes not from the church itself, but from its Knights of Columbus fraternal order. …
Unlike [WordPerfect co-founder Bruce Bastian, who wrote a $1 million check to the no-on-8 side], who must pay income taxes, the Knights are tax-exempt. Donations to the group, however, only enjoy that status legally if they’re used for religious and other charitable purposes. Donations used for political causes might not be tax exempt. One question: How to tell which donations to the Knights went to Proposition 8 and which did not?
No one has yet stepped forward to demand either an answer to that question or that the Internal Revenue Service strip the Knights of part or all of their tax exempt status, but such an effort would logically come after the election, when final donation totals are known. …
The upshot is that, as usual, California initiatives are raising questions far beyond the issues directly involved. By delving into the arcane world of relations between church and state and semi-governmental organizations, these propositions may help determine what’s legal — or not — for many years to come.
H/T to Chino Blanco (who, I swear, must never sleep in his unstoppable quest to expose the Proposition 8 bigots) for this good news: The Orange County Register, hardly a bastion of left-wing thought, picked up on Justin McLachlan’s hard-hitting exposé of the shady shenanigans of the California Family Council.
This article, “Crusading for ‘Judeo-Christian values’ doesn’t come cheap” (complete with graphs), is exactly what Joe Republican in O.C. needs to see. In the comments, one Prop 8 supporter even admits s/he’s “ebarrassed [sic] by this so call [sic] ‘non profit’ organization” for “[t]aking money and spending it on themselves.” It’s just this kind of whack with the reality stick these folks need, and if we can get the message out there — that these “Christian” organizations are engaging in some very un-Christian activities — we may be able to swing a few pro-8 folks around, if not to opposing 8 and supporting our rights, then at least to understanding that if their leaders are lying to them about this, they may be lying to them about everything.
Nah, I’m not under any delusion here; I know that shattering the stubborn bubble of cognitive dissonance in just a single True Believer is a massive undertaking. But for even one to admit the smallest doubt is a victory.
So, read the article, and do read the comments (Chino totally kicks ass).
And when you’re done, I’ve got another good piece for you, an op/ed in the Gay & Lesbian Times by law professor Robert DeKoven:
Advertisements supporting Proposition 8 will hit the airwaves soon.
Presumably, they will not make their point by denigrating same-sex marriage. They won’t, for instance, feature an altar before which leather-clad men (or women) holding whips pledge their love while a voiceover warns dire consequences for society. Instead, they will likely depict Dick and Jane living happily ever after in wedded bliss, propagating merrily and populating God’s kingdom with (heterosexual only) children.
In other words, the ads will be tasteful. But the intent will be hateful nonetheless. Because, regardless of the approach they take, the message will be: “There’s something inherently wrong with marriage between two people of the same gender.”
Imagine it’s the ’60s, and the Montgomery Bus Lines runs an ad showing a busload of white folks riding in the front. “Let’s keep ‘traditional’ bus rides!” the grinning driver says, while a black passenger clambers aboard and shuffles meekly to the back seat. Advertisements advocating Proposition 8 are no different; they’re simply endorsing perpetuating inequity because it’s “traditional.”
That fourth paragraph is brilliant — so brilliant that, when I read it aloud to my wife (who is, truly, much quicker on the uptake than I), she articulated the thought that was still struggling to birth itself in my head: This is worthy of a counter-video. Which, provided I can find the clips I need, is my next YouTube project.
… As polls now indicate, Proposition 8 is likely to be defeated, because the California Supreme Court has given Californians a taste of life with same-sex marriage. So supporters of the measure will lose. But, in the meantime, in legal terms, they’re risking a lot.
Here, DeKoven talks about the impact of the Manchester hotels boycott, noting that not only will the boycott “deplete … just Manchester’s profits but also those who have invested in the hotel, its franchisor and its parent corporation”:
Manchester, of course, has First Amendment rights to express his views. But in business they take a backseat to his fiduciary duty to investors. …
So a suit for breach of fiduciary duty could be in the offing.
But here’s the best part (bold emphasis mine):
Other Proposition 8 supporters stand to lose too. Aside from boycotts and lawsuits, one of the ways they will lose is if Congress decides to examine the tax-exempt status of non-profit charitable organizations that use donation monies from tax payers to support political campaigns such as Proposition 8.
The Knights of Columbus, for example, a prominent Catholic charity, may face the loss of its tax-exempt status because it donated more than $1 million to the “Yes on 8” campaign.
Lawyers for the group will argue that the donation is currently lawful. That may be true. But Congress has the power to grant favored tax treatment or to take it away. Indeed, it should; it’s simply not reasonable for charity groups to solicit money to support children in need and then use those funds for political purposes.
Hey, I’m not anti-Catholic. In many ways, I treasure my “Catholic culture” (it’s like being born Jewish; you can stop going to temple and start eating pork, but you’ll always, always be a Jew), and I’d never trash the JFK-worshipping, “American Dreams”-type Catholicism I was born into, grew up with, and couldn’t shake if I tried. But I want the church — and the lay organizations that ever-so-conveniently know what Jesus wants — to get the hell out of my government, and out of my life.
And, yeah: I want to see the anti-family crusaders punished, severely — not out of vengeance, but just so they’ll stop trying to hurt us.
The bottom line: There is much reason to be optimistic about our right to marry in California (and thus everybody else’s right to marry, everywhere), but only if we continue the war they waged on us, without letup. This is no time to be complacent. Feel good, but stay charged. Keep that fire in your belly, no matter what it takes, no matter what it costs, in blood, sweat, tears, and/or money we can hardly spare.
This is bigger than the choice between blowing your paycheck on a weekend in Vegas, or on a new MP3 player. This is the choice between blowing your wad on something you won’t remember next year, and doing what’s right.
This is the fight of our lives. This is the fight of the lives of all Americans who believe that we are all born equal. To give up now would be to fulfill the dire warning of Pastor Martin Niemoller:
When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.
A generation from now, you are going to look back at 2008, and you are going to ask yourself one of two questions:
“What should I have done that I didn’t do? By my silence, was I on the wrong side of history?”
…or:
“I wonder if my voice was the last one needed to finally break through? And how would I feel now if I hadn’t stepped forward then?“
And, just as he felt he was getting nowhere, And almost about to give up in despair, He suddenly burst through a door and that Mayor Discovered one shirker! Quite hidden away In the Fairfax Apartments (Apartment 12-J) A very small, very small shirker named Jo-Jo was standing, just standing, and bouncing a Yo-Yo! Not making a sound! Not a yipp! Not a chirp! And the Mayor rushed inside and he grabbed the young twerp!
And he climbed with the lad up the Eiffelberg Tower. “This,” cried the Mayor, “is your town’s darkest hour! The time for all Whos who have blood that is red To come to the aid of their country!” he said. “We’ve GOT to make noises in greater amounts! So, open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!”
Don’t give up. For our sake, for your sake, for the sake of your children, for the sake of your great-great-grandchildren, do not give up, on us, or on yourself. Please, do not give up.
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Sweet, sweet Schadenfreude (which was the first phrase that came into my head before I read 
Somebody on my long, long list of Religious Whackadoodles to Add to 
