From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Why the Haters Fight So Hard to Keep Their Donors Secret
Well, well. Now we know.
Anti-gay donors to Maine's 2009
referendum were kept secret for six years.
In 2009, the Maine legislature passed a law approving marriage rights for same-sex couples and Democratic Governor John Baldacci promptly signed it. Then the law was just as promptly put on ice so that Mainers could have the opportunity to take away what we now know---via the Supreme Court's June
Obergefell decision---is a constitutional right. And take it away they did by a
53-47 margin.
(To their credit, voters reversed themselves three years later and Maine became the first state to approve same-sex marriage rights by popular vote---53-47. Civil rights should never be determined that way, but we took the victory and ran.)
One niggling detail about the 2009 campaign has eluded us---namely, just who the hell financed the opposition, which ran such a dirty, dishonest and divisive campaign that even the guy in charge of running the ground game admitted it crossed multiple lines. Back then, donors to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) were shielded from view, but a series of court defeats led to Monday's Big Moment when the names were finally released. Turns out that two-thirds of the funding for the entire campaign came from seven donors---yes, seven---and "all affiliated in some way with a network of national conservative Christian groups." Only one of the…seven…donors lives in Maine.
Besides hiding the names of their donors, NOM also hid the fact that its tentacles extended deep into the campaign. From yesterday's lead editorial in The Portland Press Herald:
NOM rallies no longer attract
the crowds they used to.
The official campaign organization Stand for Marriage Maine was portrayed as a grass-roots movement headed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland and a network of small churches around the state. In reality, most of the work was done by NOM, over the heads of the Maine campaign leaders. According to a report by the state ethics commission, NOM...acted as an illegal pass-through for national money to influence a Maine election without meeting the usual disclosure requirements.
So, as the 2009 referendum saga comes to a belated close with same-sex marriage irrevocably in place and NOM---particularly Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown---irrevocably exposed as the deceptive, cellar-dwelling bound-for-hell cockroaches they are, the moral of the story is pretty simple: when it comes to elections and election funding, we need more damn floodlights.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Note: How DARE you accuse me of being proactive. I'm an American!
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Saturday!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til
Austin Pride:
3
Days 'til the
Sausalito Art Festival:
10
The last time oil slipped below $40 per barrel:
2009
Percent of parents who believe all children should be vaccinated before they go to school, a frighteningly low number:
84%
(Source: Gallup)
Expected 2015 back-to-school spending:
$42.5 billion
Percent of teens who plan to re-use last year's back-to-school items, up from 26%:
39%
(Source: AP)
Weeks that
Straight Outta Compton has been #1 at the box office:
2
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Mid-week Rapture Index: 179 (including 3 Globalisms and a beast named Francis). Soul Protection Factor 14 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Preparing for winter…
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CHEERS to letting broads in the booth. Happy Women's Equality Day! On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution---giving women the right to vote---was certified by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. IBT has a decent collection of wise words:
I miss Maya.
“It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union ... men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.”
---Susan B. Anthony
“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”
---Maya Angelou
"Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation."
---Abigail Adams
The female citizenry used their newfound powers to help elect one of the worst presidents ever: Warren Harding. But if I may say, you've gotten much better at it since.
Bernie's leading...and so is Hillary.
CHEERS to a little bit of good news for everyone. Fresh polling out yesterday shows that the two earliest primary states are spreading the love around. A
Suffolk University poll of likely Iowa caucus voters shows Hillary Clinton with a comfortable lead (54% to 20%) over Bernie Sanders. But in New Hampshire,
PPP says that Bernie has a 42%-35% edge over Hillary. Among the other candidates, Jim Webb got one vote from a guy who said he was great in
Dragnet and three voters thought Lincoln Chafee was the car their dad drove before he traded it in for a Buick.
CHEERS to getting back in the saddle. After returning from a two-week vacation (versus his predecessor's penchant for the five-week kind), President Obama strapped on Jetpack One and blasted off for Nevada, where he strode behind a lectern and bellowed, "Solar Power to the People!"
Obama in Vegas. Note Harry
Reid sportin' his cool shades.
On the one hand, President Obama announced a slew of new incentives and financing mechanisms for renewable energy and efficiency Monday at the 8th annual Clean Energy Summitin Las Vegas, hosted by solar champion Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV).
But he also seemed to be taking the local utility to task during the speech. On Wednesday, Nevada’s public utility commission (PUC) will decide whether to agree with a proposal by the local utility and implement huge rate increases in solar customers that industry insiders say will completely devastate the residential market in the state. “We see the trend lines. We see where technology is taking us. We see where consumers want to go,” Obama said Monday. “That, let’s be honest, has some fossil fuel interests pretty nervous, to the point where they are trying to fight renewable energy.”
You know what I don’t see on my TV anymore? Ads by oil giants with actors in white lab coats claiming to care about green energy. They tried to bamboozle us for a while with rah-rah messages about their commitment to renewables accompanied by stock footage of shiny solar arrays and spinning turbines. Not so much now. They probably realized that there's some bullshit even the most gullible among us won’t swallow. And in this country that is a high freakin' bar to clear.
JEERS to a severe case of chutzpah. See if you can spot the name in this email press release that ought not be there:
Mayor Landrieu and the City of New Orleans will welcome President Barack Obama and former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton as they visit New Orleans to commemorate the10th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and showcase the city’s resilience. During the week-long examination of the decade since the devastating hurricane made landfall and the federal levees failed, President Obama, President Bush, President Clinton, Members of Congress, federal officials and other dignitaries will conduct site visits, participate in events and conversations with community members that honor the lives of those lost, explores the city’s progress and resilience planning, and examines the challenges the city is focused on tackling in years to come.
Yup. The guy who belched "Heckuva Job Brownie" (and then fired Brownie a week later for being a heckuva fuckup) plans to show his face in New Orleans a decade after he and his FEMA fumblers (with plenty of fumbling from state and local officials---no we haven't forgotten them, either) virtually ignored the PDB:
"Historic Hurricane and Storm Surge Determined to Strike in Gulf States". Although perhaps, if it's a true commemoration, he'll just fly over the city for a minute or two and then head back home.
JEERS to death sticks. On August 26, 1957, the Soviet Union announced it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile. It got a B in reading, an A in math, and oddly enough, a C- in rocket science.
CHEERS to the way all battles should be fought. As I write this item, (on birch bark with the burnt end of a stick I found outside my lean-to), tomatoes are flying through the air in Bunol Spain. It's their annual "throwing of the 130 tons of tomatoes." Check out the lycopene madness:
No one's sure exactly how the tradition came about, but one theory is that the townspeople got pissed at local politicians during a festival and started pelting them with tomatoes, and it felt so good they made it an annual event. Which brings me to the obvious question: Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
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Ten years ago in C&J: August 26, 2005
CHEERS to the NOAA. Rick Santorum wants to abolish the National Weather Service so private companies like AccuWeather (Motto: "We Never Met A Pop-Up Ad We Didn't Like") can swoop in and make more money. But Hurricane Katrina reminds us why we prefer the low-key superstars at the NWS. Goopers: Hands off.
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And just one more…
In kindergarten this
is a food group.
CHEERS to being 5 years old. Admit it---Kindergarten is as good as it gets. The toys, the playground, the nappytime, the smell of sour milk, that moment when you choose to be gay (Source: James Dobson)...and no homework! Well, you can thank the St. Louis Board of Education for that blissful year in your life---they opened the first publicly-funded kindergarten on today's date in 1873. I even remember my kindergarten teacher: Mrs. Dunn. Big hair, eyes that lit up whenever we drew something vaguely resembling something recognizable and, in terms of patience, a living saint. Kindergarten, by the way, is a true rite of passage for budding tea partiers. Its where they get their first experience pounding square pegs into round holes. Today in the C&J Cafeteria: all-you-can-eat paste buffet.
Have a nice Wednesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Fox's Charles Krauthammer Endorses A Border Wall As Solution To Unauthorized Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool splashing
---Media Matters
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