It's California all over again (from NO on 1 / Protect Maine Equality)

[Emit]

via email:

Did you see this new ad from YES on 1? It's unbelievable. We already knew that the California political team behind Prop 8 is literally on the ground in Maine. Now they've taken the exact same ad they used to pass Prop 8 to scare the voters of Maine. I mean the exact same ad.

They used the same script. The same parents. The same lies. The same distortions. Once again, instead of having an honest debate about how to treat all Maine families fairly, they want to scare Maine voters about schools.

We are fighting back against the lies and are we're working as fast as we can to put together a new rebuttal ad-- but we need $18,583 more by midnight tonight to respond.

Maine voters deserve the facts. Let me be clear: Maine's marriage equality law has nothing to do with public schools and marriage is not taught in Maine schools.

Enough is enough. We need your help to stop these lies. Their goal is to confuse and distract voters. We need to make sure that Maine voters know the facts-- but to do that we need another $18,583 by midnight so we can get our response ad on the air.

We need your help to fight back. Can you dig deep and make a contribution to help us refute this misleading new ad?

Jesse Connolly
Campaign Manager
NO on 1 / Protect Maine Equality

P.S. -- Share this ad with your friends, and ask them to help us get our response on the air!

http://www.protectmaineequality.org/TVad2

[Emit]

1. Somebody unrec'd this?

:wtf:

[FreeState]

16. Welcome to DU n/t

[bluestateguy]

2. In California we were caught napping. That isn't happening this time.

nt

[Emit]

4. I hope not, bluestateguy

(on edit, meaning, I hope folks aren't caught napping this time)

If this group can stay proactive, perhaps they can make a difference

[SoCalDem]

10. Be careful.. They way they word our bogus "props", many times

a "NO" vote actually "approves" things.. They spend bazillions of dollars crafting the wording so unless you really study these things, it's practically impossible to figure out what a yes is or a no is.

Throw in deceptive ads, and it's always a nailbiter..

[FreeState]

15. I doubt it - I've posted plea after plea for help here and usually it sinks and no one responds

sure it may get a few K&R but thats it. If DU is any indication were going to lose marriage equality in Maine and Domestic Partnerships in WA state.

[CBR]

17. A friend of mine from Maine spent the summer working back

home and he said the anti-marriage side seems to be everywhere and more motivated. I hope not. He was not optimistic.

[EFerrari]

3. Let's keep this visible.

:grr:

[Emit]

5. Thank you, EFerrari!

[Nikki Stone1]

9. kick and r

k

[Initech]

6. The American Taliban at it again! Sheesh, will these people ever shut the fuck up?

[EFerrari]

7. Kick

[EFerrari]

8. I thought we'd be all over this.

:)

[Emit]

11. Me, too

Kos has more info:

The "Yes on 1" campaign in Maine, trying to block the state's marriage equality law, is directly ripping off the anti-gay marriage ads from California's "Yes on 8", using a teacher to scare Mainers into thinking that gay marriage will be "taught" in schools.

Except they couldn't find a public school teacher in Maine to film, so they picked this great piece of work:

Charla Bansley is a high school teacher at a private Christian school, not an elementary public school teacher as they are implying in the ad. And the leader of the Maine Chapter of Concerned Women of America, which is a hard-right nut-job org (anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro-religion in schools, anti-porn, and anti-UN, yes they hate the United Nations). And she is a teabagger. And tried to get a student expelled for writing a pro-marriage equality letter to the editor as part of a class project.

And she thinks gays are psychotic and deviants. From a speech she gave at a Stand for Marriage Maine rally recently. Louise has much more over at the Blend.

Public display of psychosis and we have dealt with it by redefining decency down so as to explain away and make normal what a more civilized, and ordered, and healthy society would label deviant and the result has been a stunning failure.

This woman is a walking opportunity for opposition research and should be fodder for a while. Her values are not Maine values.

It would seem that recycling ads from a successful ballot initiative might be a good idea, but there are important differences between Maine and California, chief among them, the pro-equality side was complacent in California, while that is definitely not the case in Maine.

Give to the "No on 1" effort to preserve marriage equality in Maine, and let's hand the forces of hate and bigotry a decisive defeat.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/23/781841/-Midday-open-thread

[EFerrari]

12. Kick

[Gormy Cuss]

13. Kick for "No on 1"

I'm hoping that Jesse has the savvy to garner the funds and voices to defeat ballot question 1. He's young but experienced and his late father was a progressive pol from Portland.

[Emit]

14. I'm gonna kick this again - they need phone bankers on Sunday

in case anyone here can pitch in:

Will you pick up the phone?

What if I told you that you could make history with a phone call?

This Sunday you can, as part of the National Day of Action for Marriage Equality, volunteers from all over the country will help us do one of the most important jobs in any campaign -- identify Maine voters who will vote NO on Question 1.

Your phone call could make the difference. Can you join us on Sunday?

Here's the beauty and simplicity of Sunday's action: all you need is a phone and a computer screen. This campaign is neck-and-neck, but there's good news: it will only take about 250,000 votes to protect marriage equality in Maine.

That means every call you make makes a real difference.

Please, sign up to make phone calls this Sunday as part of the National Day of Action for Marriage Equality.

There's an old saying -- "As Maine goes, so goes the nation." This is the moment. This is the time. But we can't do it alone.

Trust me, these phone calls matter-- they help us identify our supporters so we can turn them out on election day. And you can help.

If you can't make it this Sunday, you can still sign up to our Phone for Maine program to make calls from home at your own convenience.

Landline, cell, iPhone, Blackberry, you pick. But please help us and pick up your phone.

Thank you,

Darlene Huntress
Field Director
NO on 1 / Protect Maine Equality

http://action.protectmaineequality.org/t/4847/signUp.jsp?key=2499&CFID=33051420&CFTOKEN=23060546