Good Morning All,

I have spent some time working on these thoughts.  Please take some time reading them.  I hope you will feel inclined to pass them on to others not on this list.  The Brethren asked us to use the internet to share our thoughts and feelings during this election cycle.  This is my contribution.

Thank you in advance,

Brian L.
Elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Citizen of the United States of America

I am a lifelong Mormon, a native Californian, and a descendant of Mormon pioneers. Like many other Mormons, I am anguished by my Church's endorsement of Proposition 8, a ballot initiative which would eliminate civil rights to marry now accorded to gay and lesbian people in California.

I am anguished for what this campaign would do in abolishing rights and protections now belonging to fellow California citizens. But I am also anguished by the consequences of this campaign for Mormon families and wards throughout California. Since June, I have felt the profound effects of the "Yes on 8" campaign in our church meetings. In my own ward, it has dominated the content of our Sacrament Meetings and auxiliary meetings, as well as our hallway conversations. What does it mean that we are being asked to give and are giving ourselves so zealously to this campaign?

Not all Mormons agree with their church's decision to forcefully support Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment that would eliminate the right to same-sex marriage in California. Now they're speaking out.

Hundreds of Mormons and friends of Mormons have written letters and signed a petition at SigningForSomething.org to oppose the church's inappropriate political posturing in California. The letters and petition will be delivered to church headquarters at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17, after which Mormon dissidents will be available to talk with the media about their reasons for opposing the church's political stance. Copies of the letters and petition will also be available for the press.

Signing For Something supporters will meet at a public park in downtown Salt Lake City across from the Church Office Building. It is on the northeast corner of State Street and North Temple. (This is the southernmost part of Memory Grove Park.)

Please note contact details for the campaign's new spokeswoman below:

Sonja Eddings Brown
Deputy Communications Director
Protect Marriage
Tel:  818-723-9446
Mobile: 916-446-2956
Email:  sonja@protectmarriage.com

Sonja's husband, Lowell Brown, is also involved in the campaign as an Area Director in charge of organizing the LDS (Mormon) Yes on 8 ground game.  

Frank Russo comments on what this latest PPIC poll found regarding Proposition 8:

The results here are almost a carbon copy of the Field Poll and show California voters rejecting Prop 8 which would eliminate same sex marriage rights in California by a margin of 55% to 41%. It is extremely difficult for a measure that has majority opposition in polling at this point to win.

There is a partisan divide here--and the numbers are as lopsided as they are because independents join Democrats in opposing this proposition. Democrats by a 71% to 25% margin oppose it and independents oppose it by 53% to 42%. Republicans support Prop 8 by 62% to 34%. Democratic and Republican voters have the same level of importance to the outcome here whereas it is not as important to independent voters. There is no gender gap. Evangelicals are as likely to vote in favor of Prop 8 (64%) as all others are to vote against it (63%).

And here are the findings of the latest SurveyUSA poll: Yes: 44% / No: 49%.

Justin McLachlan has broken a major story in the Proposition 8 battle: California Family Council spends most of the public's contributions on employees, not programs

The money was supposed to go to support the California Family Council's charitable mission, instead, most of it went into the pockets of the organization's employees.

Right-wing nonsense (link to original article)

As a conservative Republican, I believe in free enterprise, traditional family values and people's basic liberties as guaranteed by the text of the Constitution. But sometimes my fellow conservatives and Republicans say and do things that I find so objectionable that I wonder if I'm on the wrong side. For example:

Until now.

My fellow Americans, meet a true defender of traditional marriage:

With Newt's YouTube plug for Prop 8 now airing over at the Yes on 8 blogs, maybe today's a good day to revisit Jeralyn's TalkLeft post from 2002 on the subject of Republican Sexual Hypocrisy.

Notably, in this statement, the LDS Church seems to be suggesting that it does not oppose rights protected under civil union or domestic partnership laws:

"The focus of the Church's involvement is specifically same-sex marriage and its consequences. The Church does not object to rights (already established in California) regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the family or the constitutional rights of churches and their adherents to administer and practice their religion free from government interference."

If this is the official LDS Church position, it leads me to wonder why Gary Lawrence, the California LDS Grassroots Director, is distributing "Yes on 8" campaign literature (PDF) to Mormons that includes advice like this:

Huckabee: ... You know, it's interesting, the California decision as well as the Massachusetts decision, I don't think should ever have been implemented by the governors, Schwarzenegger and Romney. They were both decisions that the governors simply could have said the court has said that we have to do it, but let them enforce it. Because those were administrative decisions that had to put that in place and there was no mandate.

Jeffrey: Right, but Governor Romney actually went ahead and certified same-sex marriages without an act of his state legislature.

Huckabee: It should never have happened. It should never have happened. And while we want to blame the courts--

Avid readers of Frank's blog, like me, had recently become very concerned with the decidedly non-weekly and increasingly infrequent fresh rants available at Frank's place, so we were all very relieved to read this in his latest post:

I've heard from several fans ... noting that my Weekly Rant has missed a few weeks. I apologize for the lapse. It's been a busy time as our firm works tirelessly to pass Proposition 8, the common-sense marriage initiative. If I weren't so busy battling the People's Lawyer [Jerry Brown], I could have written more columns. I'm back on track now.

Now that Frank is back on track, I hope he might make himself available to answer a few questions from this inquisitive fan.

I'll note a couple of items that caught my attention before posting the letter without further comment:

Apparently, there is a plan in place to put up one million 'Yes on 8' yard signs at 7:00 am on September 22nd.

This letter makes clear that those walking their precincts on behalf of the 'Yes on 8' campaign are not doing so to persuade their neighbors, but rather to identify potential 'Yes' votes.  As such, the precinct walking is clearly part of a standard get-out-the-vote operation, rather than an attempt to change hearts and minds.

The firm has announced an Open House to be held this Thursday, August 14th from 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm to celebrate the opening of Schubert Flint's new Irvine office.

If you are able to get over to Irvine this Thursday evening, I've prepared a flyer that you can download, print out and take with you to distribute to the Open House attendees:  Schubert Flint Protest Flyer Download (PDF)