Stealing Dogs For Jeebus

NOM Continues To Defy Maine's Request For Campaign Donor Information

Maine is back in court again in their now years-long battle to get NOM to comply with state campaign finance law and release the names of their donors.

The National Organization for Marriage says that identifying donors would violate their First Amendment rights and deter future donors. Lawyers for each side presented arguments Wednesday in Kennebec County Superior Court to a judge who said she will provide a ruling in writing. Assistant Attorney General Phyllis Gardiner told the judge that the ethics commission wants to question donors. "What did they understand they were asked to contribute money for?" Gardiner said. The answers would help the commission determine whether the National Organization for Marriage should have registered with the state as a ballot question committee. State law says groups that raise or spend more than $5,000 to attempt to influence the outcome of any Maine election must register and disclose their donors.

NOM has offered the provide the amounts, but not the names of the donors. Why isn't Brian Brown in jail for contempt of court?

Tweet Of The Day II - James Hartline

FLORIDA: Scott Vs. Sink A Toss-Up

Democratic nominee Alex Sink is barely leading teabagger and scam artist Rick Scott in the polling for Florida governor. As the co-founder and CEO of Columbia/HCA, the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, Scott was at the helm of the largest Medicare fraud case in American history, with his company eventually paying the largest federal fine of all time, $1.7B.

Scott is also the founder of the astroturf group, Conservatives For Patient Rights, which pretends to be a citizens group advocating for less government oversight of the health care industry. That's all fine with the teabaggers, who wouldn't mind seeing the all-time biggest defrauder of Medicare running the state of Florida.

NOM Launches 23-City Hate Tour

The National Organization for Marriage is launching a 23-city bus tour to bring their message of bigotry and civil inequality throughout the country.

Over 33 days, we’ll travel more than 6000 miles, holding rallies in 23 cities from Maine to Minnesota to Atlanta and Tampa before heading back to Washington, DC for the tour finale on August 15th. Many of the states we’ll be visiting are key battlegrounds in this critical debate, as we work to organize grassroots support for marriage as the union of a husband and wife at both the state federal levels, building support for state marriage amendments and opposing the repeal of DOMA. Please visit www.marriagetour2010.com for the latest tour information, including the bus schedule, a chance to register for email alerts from the tour, and video footage of each tour stop. We need your help to make this summer’s tour a success! Please click here to make your online contribution today. $60 would cover a penny per mile! $115 would be $5 toward the costs of each rally. Whatever you can give will go far as we work together to organize support for marriage all across the nation!

The first stop on the tour is July 14th in Maine, where NOM has consistently and without shame flouted the state's campaign finance rules, flipping the citizens of Maine a giant middle finger when it comes to respecting local laws.

MAINE: Judge Orders NOM To Comply With Financial Disclosure Laws

It's too late to matter, but a judge in Maine has at last ruled that NOM must reveal where they got the money to fund their successful campaign to overturn same-sex marriage.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John Rich III said in a document dated Sunday that the National Organization for Marriage, which contributed $1.9 million to the campaign to repeal Maine's gay marriage law, should turn over fundraising documents dating back to Jan. 1, 2009, to the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices. The ethics commission voted last October to examine the group's contributions after it was accused of not reporting the names of many donors.

NOM has consistently flouted campaign finance disclosure laws. There's no reason to assume that they'll comply with this latest order.

(Via - Good As You)