O, here we go. Buckle the seatbelts:
Yep. You heard right. An official campaign spokesman at a Sacramento Yes on 8 rally just compared advocates of marriage equality to Adolf Hitler.
Yes, that Adolf Hitler.
Along the way he had the gall to quote Pastor Martin Niemöler.
Yes, that Pastor Niemöler.
DONATE TO NO ON 8 SO WE CAN STOP THIS HATE IN ITS TRACKS.
Get everyone you know to do everything they can (donate, phone bank, spread the word, volunteer to get out the vote).
And that’s not all. Baldfaced lies in the ads. Using video of other peoples’ kids, without permission, in other ads. Extortion-like tactics used on No on 8 corporate and business donors. And now this, from Kate Kendall and Geoff Kors:
Beginning last night and continuing this morning a coordinated cyber attack on the No on Prop 8 website prevented some donors from being able to contribute. This attack is being investigated by federal authorities. Fortunately, there was no breach in security and we are again able to accept contributions online.
As if that attack isn’t outrageous enough, at a recent Prop 8 rally an official campaign spokesman actually compared the right of same-sex couples to marry to the rise of Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany.Watch the video.
This insanity needs to stop. Prop 8 needs to be defeated. It’s wrong. It’s unfair. The people supporting it are fanatical, intolerant, and willing to do and say anything to eliminate our rights. Period.
We cannot let them succeed.
Let’s do this once and for all. Help us reach our goal of $3 million by Friday.
Tony Perkins, national crusader in the effort to eliminate the right to marry, has said the battle to pass Prop 8 is more important than the presidential election. The result is that they have raised $4.5 million in the last two days and purchased another $2 million in advertising.
That’s how critical this fight is to the other side. That’s how much they care.
I believe you care more. So what more are you going to do?
I totally knew that cyberattack was happening. I tried to access the No on 8 site numerous times last night and came up blank. When I thought it was an attack, for a moment I wondered: “Is it paranoid of me to imagine that Yes on 8 zealots are behind this?”
The answer is, “No.”
Please forward this widely.
Hi Polly,
Pardon this nonsequitur, but:
Dana and I will be giving away 20 DVD sets of The L Word Season 5 starting tomorrow. We have staggered our schedules as follows:
Friday 5 copies given away at Mombian
Monday 5 copies given away at The Other Mother
Tuesday 5 copies given away at Mombian
Wednesday 5 copies given away at The Other Mother
If you could let people know, that would be cool. Thanks!
I says, all copies of the L word season five should go to the speaker at this rally.
kind of like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerem
except that hitler and the nazis were *against* homosexuality, so it would seem that these twits are using this logical fallacy… backwards. 😛
(i can’t watch the video here at work, so i don’t actually have any idea what their logic is.)
Sadly, after you watch it at home — if you watch it at home — you won’t be any the more enlightened. Sequence of thought goes: Hitler gathered clergy together to say he’d look after the church; Niemöler steps up to say, Jesus Christ will look after the church; not enough brave folk stepped up (? at this point I’m foggy), and righteous anti-Nazi bombs rained down upon both Germany and its churches; therefore stand up now and be counted among the righteous church-defending anti-Nazis.
?
Leaving aside the tens of thousands of homosexuals (men; lesbians were imprisoned as “antisocials” and thus harder to count) who were murdered by Nazis during World War II. For being homosexuals. Also not to mention those murdered, or called to be murdered, nowadays by people espousing neo-Nazi beliefs.
To say that equating marriage equality advocates with rising Naziism is spurious at best. Repugnant. Reprehensible. I can’t even come up with the right vocabulary words.
While we’re at it: lay side-by-side the Yes on 8 leaders’ use of term “blitzkrieg” to describe what they hope to spawn from their Nov 1 stadium rally in San Diego, and this comparison of marriage equality advocates to the rise of Naziism. It’s on their mind, but I just can’t figure out where they position themselves relative to it all. Either way it turns my blood cold.
More coverage of the event here at Caltics. For those who would rather read the text of the remarks than listen to them.
And at Capitol Alert.
And at Crooks and Liars, a cross-post from Calitics.
I just spoke with an Obama volunteer in California and we talked about 8; she’s been pulling down “Yes on 8” signs wherever she sees them. While I don’t usually approve of silencing others’ political speech, I agree with her that “Yes on 8” signs fall under another category: Hate speech.
Walking to campus today I saw someone get out of a car with CA plates. “Vote no on 8!” I called over to him. “That’s why I am voting in California this time,” he answered.
Allies are everywhere, voting and talking and acting.
I’m with you on the not condoning the silencing of others’ political speech. And even if this does feel hateful, I’m sure that if the sign were on private property, it would freak out/further entrench the person who put it up. So while I appreciate the enthusiasm, in those cases I would imagine she’s doing herself more good than the cause itself. I’ve heard what No on 8 folks say, when their signs have been purloined or vandalized, and I would want our side to not inflict the same on their side.
That said, on public turf or private, I personally feel each Yes on 8 sign as a kick in the gut (I’ve almost unilaterally heard peers, both straight and queer, describe it this way). And my gut would sure feel better with fewer swift kicks to it from atop light poles, or along medians, or wherever. Which placement (utility poles, medians, etc.) way, so far as I’ve read, isn’t legal in the first place, unless it was done with express permission of whomever has jurisdiction over that space.
Somebody actually posed this very question of the “hive mind” at MetaFilter.
And as to the expat Californian: wheew! And that’s not an easy call, with Nevada being a swing state up until not so very long ago.
Wow…. just wow! Am I missing something? Did those idiots not take one History class?! If anything surely the Yes On 8 people are the ones who can be compared with Nazi Germany. I’m in England so this doesn’t directly affect me (though in the long run I think we’ll agree that legalising gay marriage ANYWHERE affects us all) but this video really angers me soooo much. I have never voted here, but gee I wish I could vote for you guys!
hey LD:
Long time reader here, never posted before (I don’t think).
Anyway, today is payday so you get another contribution from me over on the east coast. Just wanted to say I probably wouldn’t have gotten off my *** and actually donated if it weren’t for all your inspiring posts, both now and over the years.
So thank you – Good luck and keep up the good fight!
Thealexcalibur, that comment gave me a good, long, internal breath of fresh air. If that really weird visual can make any sense.
Thank you for sharing that. And for pitching in. And for, by writing this, encouraging stray other good-hearted folks to pitch in, too.
It really, really does feel like this is for and about the rest of the country (except MA; CT has a battle to retain their ruling and NY still has a distance to go). “As goes California, so goes the nation in a few years” has seemed to continue to hold true, whether for good or ill.
Thank you again.