Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

How I Made a 1,474-Megapixel Photo During President Obama’s Inaugural Address | David Bergman — ALL ACCESS — sports, concert, and music photographer.

Okay, I’ve changed my mind. We SHOULD have put our children on TV. The other side clearly had no problem “faking” families with LGBT parents, and depicting contrived conversations that could only have taken place in a Yes on 8 commercial scriptwriter’s fantasies. (I mean, please. This commercial is just… wow. Is this really how they imagine things are in our households? And notice how the kid never acknowledges the other parent in the room. Goes along with the whole argument that having two parents of the same gender is akin to being raised by a single parent.)

So yeah – we should have put REAL families, and REAL children of same-gender couples, on the air to talk about how their families are REAL and deserve REAL rights. Otherwise all that’s left is this ridiculous propaganda.

God, why wasn’t I reading The Onion during election season?

Protests to be a key test for Proposition 8 opponents – Los Angeles Times.

Mr. Schubert, you and your supporters did not “participate in the democratic process.” You HIJACKED the democratic process in order to strip a protected class of citizens of their fundamental rights. We have EVERY RIGHT not to provide economic support to those who participated in this mass crime against our community.

N-Word Hurled at Blacks During Westwood Prop 8 Protest.

I understand that people are angry, and I understand that a 70% victory for Prop 8 in the black community looks really bad – if that number is even correct. But there are some things you need to remember:

1) The numbers simply do not add up. We would have had to turn at LEAST an additional 20-25% of black voters into NO votes to even have a CHANCE at flipping the result. A similar shift in only 2-3% of white voters would have had the same result. Yes, many black voters came out to support Obama and also supported Prop 8, but you have to look at more than percentages in order to get the real picture here. We can be disappointed in or saddened by the breakdown of the black vote on Prop 8 without placing blame or turning this into a racial dispute. We might also suggest that the No on 8 campaign could have done a hell of a lot more to create allies in and be allies to the black community, and not only so they would have something to remember on election day when they voted on our rights. In the end, don’t forget that black LGBT Californians want and deserve the right to marry too.

2) Remember that by arguing that this is the black community’s fault, you’re accepting the logic of the Yes on 8 campaign, which INSISTS that their victory was the result of the surge in black voters. Doesn’t this sound at all suspect to you? To me, it seems like this is a way for them to get in a triple-whammy – increase homophobia AND increase racism AND deepen the divide between the LGBT and black communities (thereby increasing strife between oppressed minority groups), all the while standing back and pretending like their lies and money had nothing to do with it.

Are we going to let them get away with that?

If you want to place blame, place the blame on the people who funded, contributed to, endorsed, and ran the Yes on 8 campaign of lies and deceit. Blame them, because THEY are responsible for this outcome.

Below is a list of resources to help you in your boycott of those individuals, businesses and organizations who either publicly endorsed or contributed money to the passage of Proposition 8. I cannot stress enough that this list must NOT be used for illegal activity, including but not limited to violence. This is not a witch-hunt, and it must not turn into discrimination. It is purely and simply about the refusal to subsidize your own oppression. It is about not handing money to those who will turn around and use that money to harm you. That is IT.

• Secretary of State’s searchable contribution database
• Mormons for 8 – A detailed resource that shows you exactly where the Mormon contributions occurred. The VAST majority of donations over $1,000 came from Mormon individuals.
• Californians Against Hate – Dishonor Roll – A list of the top donors to Prop 8.
• A list of those who made public endorsements of Yes on 8 through their campaign homepage
• The Secretary of State’s . It is an Excel file. Download it. Save it. Search it. Be aware that there may be a few multiple entries due to some confusion on my part regarding the Secretary of State’s different spreadsheets. No matter – if somebody donated, they donated. NOTE: THIS WAS UPDATED NOVEMBER 10 BECAUSE I REALIZED THERE WERE ADDITIONAL ORGANIZATIONS THAT COLLECTED DONATIONS ASIDE FROM THE MAIN CAMPAIGN
• A compilation (Excel) of Mormons for 8‘s spreadsheets. They have changed LDS members’ names to first name, last initial; the point is for you to see just how much they contributed, especially those who made large donations.

If you know of any further resources, please let me know. And remember, we do not fight hate with hate – use these lists ONLY to prevent your money from being used to fund your oppression. We do our cause no favors with violence or hatred – it’s wrong, and it makes us no better than them. And I cannot stress the importance of talking to people about why you are doing this. You are not punishing them for their beliefs – you are exercising your right to avoid contributing to the cause of hatred with your own money. If people who only donated a minimal amount come to understand that Proposition 8 was about hatred, and vow not to continue support for it or for similar propositions, then you can safely resume business with them without worrying that you will be funding oppression.

Californians Against Hate – Dishonor Roll (Prop 8 boycott list)

And a reminder to check the list of public endorsements of Prop 8.

Prop. 8 protesters target Mormon temple in Westwood – Los Angeles Times.

Church officials made few public statements during the campaign. On Thursday, they issued a statement asking for "a spirit of mutual respect and civility."

Um, sorry. That requires MUTUAL respect and civility, and it is far too late for that. I’m not advocating violence, because this does our cause no good. The whole point of this battle is that it is about love. Not hate. Not violence.

That said, you get what you pay for, LDS. Enjoy your investment.

I find it fascinating that the comments on this eloquent post, and on so many others I’ve seen around the Internet, point to the black community and try to claim that they are responsible for Prop 8’s passage, as if to somehow absolve the Mormon church of its role in this campaign. Even that ridiculous blonde lady who keeps smirking on TV (she’s Mormon too) won’t shut up about the black voters, the black voters. But the black voters only constituted 10% of the entire voting population in CA. If you look at the monetary contributions to Yes on 8, an estimated 75-80% of the money raised came from Mormon wallets. So it’s hardly fair for Mormons to say, “Well, don’t blame us – go protest at the black church,” as I have seen on many websites with articles about the current protests. The black churches didn’t contribute millions of dollars, or fly thousands of people into the state to phone bank and go door to door and take taxis around the city to put up Yes on 8 signs. The Mormon Church did.

Who on earth just BELIEVES somebody when they say they’re the president of France, and doesn’t verify it? I mean, is this woman that conceited, that she thinks Sarkozy is just gonna pick up the phone and call her to wish her good luck? What if she makes it into office and somebody calls her and is like, “Oh hey, McCain says you should press that button right there… no, I swear, he just told me.” I can see it now.

But then, this is the same woman who was using Yahoo mail for official state business, and CCing her husband on everything she sent out.

Ballots picked up, then disappear | MiamiHerald.com.

Palin faces new ethics complaint over kids’ travel – Yahoo! News.

ACORN answers voter-fraud allegations – CNN.com.

“In nearly every case that has been reported, it was ACORN that discovered the bad forms and called them to the attention of election authorities, putting the forms in a package that identified them in writing as suspicious, encouraging election officials to investigate, and offering to help with prosecutions,” ACORN said in an October 9 news release.

So… when the Republicans say ACORN sent in a package of 1700 registrations and only 6 were valid… they leave out a pretty important detail: That was the package specifically marked as containing the registrations that ACORN had flagged as suspicious.

Typical scummy Republican fact-twisting.

Pre-emptive ejection: Audience members removed at McCain rally in Cedar Falls.

NY Times: If Elected … – 2 Rivals’ Plans on Fiscal Issue Add to Deficits.

WASHINGTON — While both presidential candidates enter the campaign’s final week promising to be the better fiscal steward, each has outlined tax and spending proposals that would make annual budget deficits worse, analysts say, with Senator John McCain likely to create a deeper hole than Senator Barack Obama would.

Wonkette: Jesus People Pray That False Idol Will Save God’s Economy.

Wow. Check out that pictures. Looks kind of like… a giant… golden calf? Okay – a giant golden calf with horns.

Satan’s golden calf!

Palin accuses Obama of ties to second ‘radical professor’ (CNN)

The best point in the article:

At an event Wednesday in Raleigh, North Carolina, Obama said McCain has spent the last few days calling him "every name in the book."

"I don't know what's next. By the end of the week, he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten. I shared my peanut butter and jelly sandwich," Obama said.

The No on 8 campaign received a letter from the Yes on 8 campaign requesting that they engage in a debate over whether Prop 8’s failure would lead to kids being “indoctrinated in schools.” In other words, the Yes on 8 campaign asked for No on 8 to show up for a debate in order to legitimize their lies by making them sound like something actually up for debate. They might as well have asked No on 8 to come to a debate about whether gay people are child-molesters – we all know that’s what they are really thinking.

The No on 8 people refused to take the bait:

SENT VIA EMAIL AND COURIER
October 28, 2008
Frank Schubert
Campaign Manager, protectmarriage.com – Yes on 8
1415 L Street, Suite C-259
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Frank:

Thank you for your letter. It would be a disservice to the people of California to debate an issue
that is completely unrelated to Proposition 8.

As you know:

Jack O’Connell, the state’s top educator and the nonpartisan-elected Superintendent of Public
Instruction says Prop. 8 has nothing to do with schools and that your campaign’s use of children
to make this false claim is “shameful.”

Delaine Eastin, his predecessor, says Prop. 8 has nothing to do with schools.

Dr. Ted Mitchell, the President of the State Board of Education, says Prop. 8 has nothing to do
with schools.

His predecessor, Reed Hastings, says Prop. 8 has nothing to do with schools.

The California Teachers Association says Prop. 8 has nothing to do with schools.

And leading newspapers have concluded Prop. 8 has nothing to do with schools.

The only debate worth having in California is why you have pursued such a deceptive campaign
strategy.

That debate is one you can conduct alone – with your conscience.

Cordially,
Steve Smith
Campaign Manager
NO on Prop 8

FAUX News reporting: LA Times Refuses to Release Tape of Obama Praising Controversial Activist – FOXNews.com Elections.

So what I’m getting from this story is that
a) Obama, a law professor,
b) said nice things
c) about another professor, who doesn’t share Obama’s opinions,
d) along with the professor’s wife, the assistant dean of student affairs,
e) at a farewell dinner for that professor. The professor is
f) an American-born Palestinian academic/scholar
g) whose research has been funded by, among others, the International Republican Institute
h) which John McCain chaired at the time.
i) So bottom line, Obama said nice things about a preeminent scholar and colleague whose opinions happen to differ from his own.

OH NOES! What an asshole!

Better he should have shot him, right?

Who would you rather have as your president – somebody who can have a conversation with somebody who disagrees and try to work out the best solution for everybody, or somebody who simply refuses to admit that there is any disagreement at all?

After all, it’s not like he, I don’t know, let Khalidi lay hands upon him…

Teen shot over vandalized McCain sign, police say – CNN.com.

Well, clearly SHOOTING them was the answer. Frakkin’ Republicans.

Salon.com Politics | “Voter terrorism”:

Amid the general ugliness of the race, though, there's one incident that Democrats in the city remember with a distinct sense of unease. The story, which was first reported by The American Prospect in February, and has since been broadcast by activist groups like MoveOn.org, goes like this: In an attempt to intimidate African-Americans and deter them from showing up at the polls, the Katz campaign, or one of its associates, put together a team of men dressed in official-looking attire — dark suits, lapel pins bearing insignia of federal or local law-enforcement agencies — and sent them into areas of the city with large black populations. According to Sherry Swirsky, a local antitrust attorney who is active in Democratic politics and who worked as an election monitor that day, the men carried clipboards and drove around in unmarked black vans.

"Some of them were just driving around neighborhoods, looking menacing," Swirsky recalls. "But others were going up to voters and giving them misinformation about the kind of I.D. they needed in order to vote. The truth is, you don't need any I.D. to vote. But they were telling them they needed a major credit card, a passport or driver's license. They were telling them it was risky to vote if they had any outstanding child support bills. Imagine the menacing presence of a bunch of big white guys in black cars who look like they're law-enforcement people telling you all these things."

Swirsky has monitored several elections in Philadelphia and elsewhere and headed the Democrats' presidential recount effort in New Mexico in 2000. But what happened in Philadelphia, she says, is the most sophisticated election intimidation campaign she's ever seen. It was not a sick prank by one or two racists but instead a systematic effort that required planning and not-insignificant outlays of money (the uniforms, the vehicles and the men, some of whom were reportedly recruited from out of state). "There was such a level of coordination there that if its objectives were not improper, I would say I admired it for the professionalism," she says. [Read more…]

DailyKos reports: Widespread Touch Screen Vote Flipping.

ES&S iVotronics touch screens have already been observed now in four completely separate States, flipping the votes, in the early voting that has taken place to date. Eye-witness reports of repeated, consistent flipping of votes (from Obama to McCain naturally) has already occurred in the States of: West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, and Texas that have had early voting. Missouri, of course, is a key background State in McCain’s electoral vote math.

New Wisconsin Flyer Preys on Fear of Black Power / Stereohyped.

Well, their first mistake was writing out Obama’s middle name. That’s trademark Republiscum.

Some San Francisco parents are furious after discovering that the Yes on 8 campaign was using their children’s images in their fear-mongering commercials and on their fund-raising website. The parents – all heterosexual, I might add – have demanded that Yes on 8 stop exploiting their children for Yes on 8’s political agenda.

Ponder this for a moment. These are the same zealots who insist that children will be indoctrinated in schools, against parents’ wishes. And yet, they are using footage of a wedding attended by 1st-graders, EVERY SINGLE ONE of whom had parental permission to be there. The parents who wanted their children to stay home simply did not send their children on the field trip. It was that easy.

So these conservative parents were able to opt-out of this lesson, despite what Yes on 8 would have you believe – and yet, the same Yes on 8 people have denied these children and their parents the same respect, dignity, and control over their personal image, by failing to get permission to splash these children’s faces all over their television and website advertising.

Just how despicable and hypocritical can these Yes on 8 people get???

Some voters ‘purged’ from voter rolls – CNN.com.

More big surprises. Oh wait. NOT.

And people wonder why I am worried about this election.