'Yes On Prop 8' engages in blackmail.

[SirNitram]

Link

A threatening letter has sparked a new controversy here in San Diego surrounding the gay marriage debate. Donors who gave money to the No on Prop 8 campaign say they received blackmail letters demanding money, and the Yes on 8 campaign now says the letters were sent by their employees.

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.

Jim says nearly 25 percent of his staff is gay.

"We wanted to support their freedom to marry," he said.

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.

"I feel like it's blackmail, and as you can imagine, real estate business has been tough lately and to have someone come at you like this… it's very distressing," he said.

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.

As for Jim, he stands behind his donation, and will not be making a similar one to Yes on 8.

"We're not caving... we'll support our employees. We're going to support the freedom to marry, a fundamental right to do what we can to make sure it's not taken away," he said.

Once again proving that Mormons(The chief funders of 'Yes On 8') are really nasty folks.

[Guardsman Bass]

Christ, this pisses me off. The LDS Church seems to have an extreme bug up its ass about gay marriage, for no real reason that I can see other than that they think it will turn people away from traditional marriage, which in Mormon theology is the only way to get to the top heaven (the "Celestial Kingdom") - as long as you are married in an LDS temple, of course.

[Guardsman Bass]

Before anyone attacks me, let me point out that there is no proof that this is the LDS Church's doing. I'm just angry about the general situation, if I didn't make it clear enough in that last post.

[Eulogy]

Hopefully this will backfire on those felchers in a very painful way. Let the country see what monsters like to do in thier spare time.

[CmdrWilkens]

I don't know if it is the LDS church (though that is the common accusation) but the "Yes" campaignhas basically spent the better part of the past month distorting the race into a shambles. Now when the big money donors on the "No" side start finally realizing there is a threat to actually pass the damn thing the "Yes" folks start trying to blackmail them. Wonderful.

[B5B7]

The letter says if Jim doesn't give an equal donation to Yes on 8, the name of his company will be published

How does that differ from the normal blackmail situation of "if you don't pay us we will show/send these photographs/letters to your wife/husband"? The latter is definitely a police matter, and corporations are legally persons (not that that is too relevent as it is Jim, an individual, being directly threatened).

[SirNitram]

The letter says if Jim doesn't give an equal donation to Yes on 8, the name of his company will be published

How does that differ from the normal blackmail situation of "if you don't pay us we will show/send these photographs/letters to your wife/husband"? The latter is definitely a police matter, and corporations are legally persons (not that that is too relevent as it is Jim, an individual, being directly threatened).

Congratulations, it does not differ. That's why I called it what it is: Blackmail.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Now all that needs to happen is for the No on Prop 8 campaign to create an add letting people know that the Yes campaign is pulling this shit, and plaster it all over the airwaves

[Pint0 Xtreme]

This may really help in our favor. For the past few months, the Yes on 8 campaign have been asking its supports to refrain from any hateful exchanges like they usually do with the hope that they will be viewed as the good guys. But more bad PR and an increasingly passionate group may help shatter that image. The latest poll show 48 in favor and 45 opposed with a margin of error of 3 percentage points (I think). This battle is coming uncomfortably close.

[The Romulan Republic]

With any luck, there dirtiness will cause a backlash as surely as Palin's comments about Obama. Wouldn't it be nice if people lost for using dirty or illegal tactics for a change?

[Raxmei]

Can anyone explain how this isn't illegal? Seriously. On the surface this looks like a very obvious case of blackmail conducted over certified mail with a public confession by the perpetrators. Surely nobody is that dumb. Can someone who knows about the law point out what makes this legal?

[The Yosemite Bear]

It's not illegal because the powers that be love the folks in Utah.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

It's not illegal because the powers that be love the folks in Utah.

Hmm, I was thinking it was because it's a corporation with money to waste doing it, not any actual people whose cost-of-living expenses gobble up every last bit of multiple paychecks and then some.

[Stormbringer]

Can anyone explain how this isn't illegal?

Because campaign contributions are a matter of public record. It's extremely difficult to actually charge some one with blackmail when their "leverage" is legally a public matter. That pretty much draws the law's teeth as far as extortion or blackmail charges. You can't go on legal records doing something and then try to hide it, even if you're unfortunately you're boycotted by bigots as a result.

It's a nasty as hell things for the Prop 8 supporters to do but it would be extremely difficult to actually make charges stick.

[Slacker]

This probably wasn't worth its own thread, but a friend of mine lives out in Northern California and had a story to tell, so I figured I'd share. To give a quick idea, Sven's something of an embodiment of chaos. Not *bad* chaos, just...chaos. Some of the other people here on the board know of whom I speak.

"On Friday I bought good bacon and chainmail making ingredients and some other things. When driving through The Crossroads in Turlock, there were a bunch of people with "NO ON 8" signs. I beeped and gave a thumbs up and would have liked to join them if not for the trunk full of bacon. In the likely event you have not heard of Proposition 8, it is an initiative which seeks to amend the California constitution to define marriage as between a man and woman.

On Saturday I had to go to the same area, to exchange the extra-hard 12 guage wire which was so burly it tore a chunk out of my wirecutters. The same intersection this day had about 20 people distributed on across all four corners with "Yes on 8!" signs, among them small children with nonsense slogans such as "Yes on 8 for Smaller Government!". There was also a single woman with a hand-lettered sign opposing Proposition 8.

I decided it was my Lokaen duty to do something. I bought some oaktag and made myself a buzz-word loaded 'No on 8' sign and joined the 'Yes on 8' crowd. They were upset. A fair amount of people driving by the busy intersection were as well, although there were a substantial amount of very enthusiastic people on the other side of the issue as well.

The high point of the afternoon for me involved acar with a couple of lesbians who drove by, shouting and waving. They parked and approached me, and asked if there was anything they could do. I reccomended that they make up a sign and join me, to which they replied that they thought they would do better if they were to make out instead- where would I think would be the best place for it? I told them they should do it in front of the kids whose parents had brought them along to help wave signs. They did.

What followed was also fairly amazing. Young people driving by would get interested in what was going on, pull over, and make "No on 8" signs out things they found in their cars. By the third hour I was there, what had begun as a 1-to-20 demonstration turned into about 12-to-15. At promptly 5pm, the Yes On 8 crowd(a few of whom I spoke to and, Surprise! they were all christian bigots) cleared out. Feeling that my job was done, I bought a case of bottled water for the kids who showed up and went home.

On Sunday I drank alot of different kinds of absinthe."

To clarify, Sven's in some sort of training program to be a master brewer-sort guy.

[apocolypse]

Your friend is fucking awesome.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Your friend is fucking awesome.

Yes. Yes he is. See, if I were in a state where this stuff was going on, I would have (and have done) similar things. Hold out a sign that says "No on Prop 8" (or in AZs case, prop 102, or last election 107) on one side, and "Free Gay Kisses" on the other.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

Just an update. The fight is starting to get really dirty. Last night, there was a coordinated cyber attack preventing people from donating to No on 8, which is now being investigated by federal authorities. They've also begun comparing us with Hitler and raised roughly 2-3 million in a few days. Please donate if you guys can. We're going out to volunteer for the rallies this weekend. Fuck, this race is becoming incredibly close. I just hope we can do enough to shift the tide.

[The Yosemite Bear]

they are doing a lot of coordinated semi-legal if not illegal shit.

[apocolypse]

Just an update. The fight is starting to get really dirty. Last night, there was a coordinated cyber attack preventing people from donating to No on 8, which is now being investigated by federal authorities. They've also begun comparing us with Hitler and raised roughly 2-3 million in a few days. Please donate if you guys can. We're going out to volunteer for the rallies this weekend. Fuck, this race is becoming incredibly close. I just hope we can do enough to shift the tide.

I actually wondered what was happening last night. I went to donate more money and found out that there were some crashing issues. I thought (hoped maybe) that it was just overloaded from all the people browsing and donating. It appears I was wrong.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

Well, you can donate now if you haven't yet. And a bit of good news: Full page newspaper ads against proposition 8 are being printed. Google, Yahoo, Adobe and Cisco are included in it.

[apocolypse]

Well, you can donate now if you haven't yet. And a bit of good news: Full page newspaper ads against proposition 8 are being printed. Google, Yahoo, Adobe and Cisco are included in it.

I heard earlier that the website was running again and was planning on it later tonight. So much for paying my credit card off.

I hadn't heard about the full page newspaper ads, that's good to hear. I'm really concerned that the religious fuckwits (many of which are from out of state anyway) are going to get their way.

[Magus]

I'm really concerned that the religious fuckwits (many of which are from out of state anyway) are going to get their way.

10:1 says that these are "states' rights" proponents who don't see the hypocrisy in sending massive quantities of money and volunteers over state borders to influence the outcome of Prop. 8.