Comments on: Don’t tread on me http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/2008/10/20/dont-tread-on-me/ A blog from San Diego Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:49:33 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: John Bisceglia http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/2008/10/20/dont-tread-on-me/comment-page-1/#comment-146 John Bisceglia Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:00:05 +0000 http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/?p=3450#comment-146 I sincerely hope PROP 8 fails miserably. BUT - if it DOES passes, is everyone prepared to spend another ba-zillion dollars on PR and possibly wait 20-30 years to "win" equality in CA? AND - if it does NOT pass, which state will we focus on next so we can spend another ba-zillion dollars to purchase civil rights? I know I am virtually alone here (except for Charles Merrill and his partner), but I think all of you are insane. Truly crazy....one step away from writing-on-the-wall-with-your-feces crazy. Because if ALL of us truly believed we WERE equal, we would not be so patient as tax-payers and U.S. citizens. We'd simply KNOW we ARE equal, and refuse to pay into a system that not only denies our familes civil marriage but doesn't even acknowledge our existence (wait for the 2010 census). I'm 43, and I will NOT wait until I'm 73 for fair and equal treatment. It's OK for the country at large to be ignorant, bigoted, mid-guided, and mid-informed. But that's not my fault. So until people GROW UP and show my family the same "civil" respect heterosexually-identified families are given, I owe this country and the IRS nothing. How many times do I need to say this? TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION AIN'T GWANNA HAPPEN! I sincerely hope PROP 8 fails miserably.

BUT – if it DOES passes, is everyone prepared to spend another ba-zillion dollars on PR and possibly wait 20-30 years to “win” equality in CA?

AND – if it does NOT pass, which state will we focus on next so we can spend another ba-zillion dollars to purchase civil rights?

I know I am virtually alone here (except for Charles Merrill and his partner), but I think all of you are insane.

Truly crazy….one step away from writing-on-the-wall-with-your-feces crazy.

Because if ALL of us truly believed we WERE equal, we would not be so patient as tax-payers and U.S. citizens. We’d simply KNOW we ARE equal, and refuse to pay into a system that not only denies our familes civil marriage but doesn’t even acknowledge our existence (wait for the 2010 census).

I’m 43, and I will NOT wait until I’m 73 for fair and equal treatment. It’s OK for the country at large to be ignorant, bigoted, mid-guided, and mid-informed. But that’s not my fault. So until people GROW UP and show my family the same “civil” respect heterosexually-identified families are given, I owe this country and the IRS nothing.

How many times do I need to say this?

TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION AIN’T GWANNA HAPPEN!

]]> By: Green Dads http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/2008/10/20/dont-tread-on-me/comment-page-1/#comment-144 Green Dads Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:31:09 +0000 http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/?p=3450#comment-144 Well said! Well said!

]]> By: Tom Mullen http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/2008/10/20/dont-tread-on-me/comment-page-1/#comment-97 Tom Mullen Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:59:34 +0000 http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/?p=3450#comment-97 The swing vote who eventually jumped from the No into the Yes column (which is about 10% of the electorate) is still very soft and volatile. Here is why I still remain slightly hopeful (of course in addition to the Obama turnout which we cannot underestimate) so there is a hope. But instead of saying money brought from "Out of State interests"... NAME IT.... that is, I would have said "DON'T LET THE ELDERS OF THE MORMON CHURCH IN SALT LAKE CITY DICTATE HOW PEOPLE SHOULD LIVE IN CALIFORNIA" that would have been truthful and hard hitting and would have easily in my mind brought home the independent soft voter for good into the No camp. The swing vote who eventually jumped from the No into the Yes column (which is about 10% of the electorate) is still very soft and volatile.
Here is why I still remain slightly hopeful (of course in addition to the Obama turnout which we cannot underestimate) so there is a hope.

But instead of saying money brought from “Out of State interests”… NAME IT…. that is,

I would have said “DON’T LET THE ELDERS OF THE MORMON CHURCH IN SALT LAKE CITY DICTATE HOW PEOPLE SHOULD LIVE IN CALIFORNIA”

that would have been truthful and hard hitting and would have easily in my mind brought home the independent soft voter for good into the No camp.

]]> By: Mike Tidmus http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/2008/10/20/dont-tread-on-me/comment-page-1/#comment-96 Mike Tidmus Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:24:30 +0000 http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/?p=3450#comment-96 Have you seen the latest <a href="http://www.noonprop8.com/articles/2008/10/22/californias-top-educator-exposes-prop-8-lies-in-tough-new-television-spot/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">No on Prop 8 ad</a>, featuring the California State Superintendent of Schools? The tone is still defensive, but at least we're hitting back with the truth. I for one want to see us on the offensive! Have you seen the latest No on Prop 8 ad, featuring the California State Superintendent of Schools?

The tone is still defensive, but at least we’re hitting back with the truth.

I for one want to see us on the offensive!

]]> By: Tom Mullen http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/2008/10/20/dont-tread-on-me/comment-page-1/#comment-95 Tom Mullen Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:06:50 +0000 http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/?p=3450#comment-95 I am reserving judgment on the campaign and won't be a naysayer so soon, although I am feeling uneasy about this. I'm afraid that once the kids got involved, the Yes f*cks defined the message and no matter what we do we screwed up. I used to work for a guy named Arthur Finkelstein who was D'Amato's pollster and major consult at the RSCC among others, and he who happens to be gay and married yet worked for jessie helms is the type of consultant this campaign needed from the start. The reality is the CEO's of each major cities Gay Lesbian Center don't have a fucking clue how to run against these bastards and had too much input a campaign we should have always been on the offensive. Right, how do you lose a campaign that both the Orange County Register and the San Francisco papers agree to agree on? But my hope lies in the fact that I am putting too much concern on the folks east of the 5. I am reserving judgment on the campaign and won’t be a naysayer so soon, although I am feeling uneasy about this. I’m afraid that once the kids got involved, the Yes f*cks defined the message and no matter what we do we screwed up. I used to work for a guy named Arthur Finkelstein who was D’Amato’s pollster and major consult at the RSCC among others, and he who happens to be gay and married yet worked for jessie helms is the type of consultant this campaign needed from the start. The reality is the CEO’s of each major cities Gay Lesbian Center don’t have a fucking clue how to run against these bastards and had too much input a campaign we should have always been on the offensive.

Right, how do you lose a campaign that both the Orange County Register and the San Francisco papers agree to agree on? But my hope lies in the fact that I am putting too much concern on the folks east of the 5.

]]> By: Mike Tidmus http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/2008/10/20/dont-tread-on-me/comment-page-1/#comment-93 Mike Tidmus Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:45:20 +0000 http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/?p=3450#comment-93 Hey Tom! They're listening. They're retooling their message right now and look for some new heavy-hitters to get involved and start making commercials. That's about all I can say right now. The radical religious right is freaking because our side has raked in a fortune in the last two weeks. So don't count us out yet. Hey Tom!

They’re listening. They’re retooling their message right now and look for some new heavy-hitters to get involved and start making commercials.

That’s about all I can say right now.

The radical religious right is freaking because our side has raked in a fortune in the last two weeks.

So don’t count us out yet.

]]> By: Mike Tidmus http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/2008/10/20/dont-tread-on-me/comment-page-1/#comment-92 Mike Tidmus Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:36:01 +0000 http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/?p=3450#comment-92 Yes but no but yes but ... for every one of them, we've got 10 influential leaders like Steven Spielberg, César Chávez, Maxine Waters and Harry Hay. Yeah, Bakersfield, Oceanside and Modesto and their ilk are like chunks of Alabama that broke off and floated through the Panama Canal and somehow attached themselves to California. Despite that, thus far, almost every single major newspaper in the state, including the conservative San Diego Union-Tribune has published an editorial urging a NO vote on Prop 8. A recent LA TImes Article pointed out that, even if we lose Prop 8, California will still lead every other state in the scope of rights for gay people. We just won't have civil marriage by that name. Dobson packed up his dog and pony and headed to Colorado because he thought we had too much freedom here in California, and he knew he couldn't make the inroads necessary to establish his $150 million dollar Xtian empire here. Good riddance. Yes but no but yes but … for every one of them, we’ve got 10 influential leaders like Steven Spielberg, César Chávez, Maxine Waters and Harry Hay. Yeah, Bakersfield, Oceanside and Modesto and their ilk are like chunks of Alabama that broke off and floated through the Panama Canal and somehow attached themselves to California.

Despite that, thus far, almost every single major newspaper in the state, including the conservative San Diego Union-Tribune has published an editorial urging a NO vote on Prop 8.

A recent LA TImes Article pointed out that, even if we lose Prop 8, California will still lead every other state in the scope of rights for gay people. We just won’t have civil marriage by that name.

Dobson packed up his dog and pony and headed to Colorado because he thought we had too much freedom here in California, and he knew he couldn’t make the inroads necessary to establish his $150 million dollar Xtian empire here. Good riddance.

]]> By: Tom Mullen http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/2008/10/20/dont-tread-on-me/comment-page-1/#comment-91 Tom Mullen Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:32:57 +0000 http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/?p=3450#comment-91 Peter nailed it - which is why Prop 8 will loose. The idiots running the Prop 8 should have scared these east-of-the-5 rednecks with some heavy lethal Rovian commercials because I believe even these dumb-fucks could have been swayed "enough".... Peter nailed it – which is why Prop 8 will loose. The idiots running the Prop 8 should have scared these east-of-the-5 rednecks with some heavy lethal Rovian commercials because I believe even these dumb-fucks could have been swayed “enough”….

]]> By: Peter http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/2008/10/20/dont-tread-on-me/comment-page-1/#comment-65 Peter Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:18:52 +0000 http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/?p=3450#comment-65 Unfortunately, California also gave the world Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bob Dornan, Dick Pombo, Duncan Hunter, Howard Jarvis, etc. For all that we progressive denizens of various little coastal enclaves would like to think otherwise, there's a deep conservative streak running through this state, and the "red" parts of California are politically indistinguishable from the deep South. Besides, many of the Christianists people who now inhabit Colorado, Utah, Idaho, etc., are refugees from California in the first place. Unfortunately, California also gave the world Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bob Dornan, Dick Pombo, Duncan Hunter, Howard Jarvis, etc. For all that we progressive denizens of various little coastal enclaves would like to think otherwise, there’s a deep conservative streak running through this state, and the “red” parts of California are politically indistinguishable from the deep South. Besides, many of the Christianists people who now inhabit Colorado, Utah, Idaho, etc., are refugees from California in the first place.

]]> By: gary http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/2008/10/20/dont-tread-on-me/comment-page-1/#comment-63 gary Tue, 21 Oct 2008 05:59:24 +0000 http://www.miketidmus.com/blog/?p=3450#comment-63 No one says it quite like you, Mike. Powerful, poignant, and most of all, right on. No one says it quite like you, Mike. Powerful, poignant, and most of all, right on.

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