Check this out from the New York Times (via Memeorandum):
FOR the backers of Proposition 8, the state ballot measure to stop single-sex couples from marrying in California, victory has been soured by the ugly specter of intimidation.All Americans have the right to participate in the political process through campaign contributions and interest group activism. Still, I simply cannot find a legitimate reason for the left to threaten marriage traditionalists in this way. I've debated folks on the left on precisely this issue. They say boycotts and targeting are perfectly acceptable methods given the historic discrimination faced by gays and lesbians. I'm not convinced. I've noted previously that there's little credibility in comparing the homosexual marriage agenda to the black American freedom struggle, but that's the analogy radical leftists want to maintian.
Some donors to groups supporting the measure have received death threats and envelopes containing a powdery white substance, and their businesses have been boycotted.
The targets of this harassment blame a controversial and provocative Web site, eightmaps.com.
The site takes the names and ZIP codes of people who donated to the ballot measure — information that California collects and makes public under state campaign finance disclosure laws — and overlays the data on a Google map.
Visitors can see markers indicating a contributor’s name, approximate location, amount donated and, if the donor listed it, employer. That is often enough information for interested parties to find the rest — like an e-mail or home address. The identity of the site’s creators, meanwhile, is unknown; they have maintained their anonymity.
Eightmaps.com is the latest, most striking example of how information collected through disclosure laws intended to increase the transparency of the political process, magnified by the powerful lens of the Web, may be undermining the same democratic values that the regulations were to promote.
With tools like eightmaps — and there are bound to be more of them — strident political partisans can challenge their opponents directly, one voter at a time. The results, some activists fear, could discourage people from participating in the political process altogether.
I hope I'm wrong, but I won't be surprised when gay radicals (see here and here, for example) explode their own 16th Street churches in a remake of the violence against black Americans in the 1960s. Note that this time, the radical left will be on the side of terror, not freedom.
(P.S: Notice how the hosts of "eightmap" have kept their identities private, just like any true underground terror cell would.)
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UPDATE: Here's this from "Kathy" at Liberty Street, who is also writes for Comments at Left Field:
I think this is very creative and ... very neat. This is an appropriate use of technology and it brings openness and transparency to a part of the political process.
There's was a lot of vitriol on campus just prior to the election. Particularly that rally by the "E" building. Wearing a "Yes on 8" T-shirt could have cost you a black eye.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt, Raul!
ReplyDeleteThe technology of the 21st century Brownshirt.
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of stuff that starts civil wars ... for mob harassment of individuals is anything but civil disobedience.
Especially when the peeps are ends-justify-the-means relativists who in their passion will forget the principles of Dr. King and Ghandi.
Watch what happens when such as these set foot upon a lawn in a "your home is your castle" state like TX.