Leave a Comment Sagesse
Lookie lookie, guess who’s playing hooky: NOM hides evidence of Ruth Institute violating federal law
October 8, 2010
By Adam Bink
Look who got caught red-handed.
Yesterday I wrote about how NOM’s Ruth Institute is violating federal tax laws by openly supporting a candidate for Senate, citing NOM’s own press release titled “National Organization for Marriage and Ruth Institute Join Bus Tour Supporting Carly Fiorina in California” and stating “Brian Brown, president of NOM, and Jennifer Roback Morse, president of The Ruth Institute, a project of NOM’s Marriage Education Fund, will both be supporting the bus tour as it makes its way around California.” On Wednesday, HRC and Courage Campaign put out a press release exposing what NOM was doing.
Today, we caught NOM red-handed as they scrubbed their press release from the site. Here’s a screen capture of their site before it was taken down:
Gee, I wonder why it’s gone?
Boy, NOM has enough trouble with state campaign finance disclosure laws. They think that’s trouble? Wait until the IRS and the FEC starts digging.
Having technical problems? E-mail equalityontrial AT couragecampaign DOT org for assistance!
55 Comments Leave a Comment
1.
Alan E. | October 8, 2010 at 7:31 am
We don't play the game with their rules. The internets has its own set of rules.
2.
Mark M. (Seattle) | October 8, 2010 at 7:36 am
Happy Dance!!!!
3.
Marlene | October 8, 2010 at 7:37 am
Just remember, Alan… the NOMbies are under the delusion that their superior devotion to their faith makes them exempt from little laws like the Constitution, not to mention the fact they don't have to follow even the Ten Commandments (#8 at least)!
4.
Alan E. | October 8, 2010 at 7:39 am
Yet another teen kills herself after intense bullying.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/10/08/ohio-school-…
This was the 4th suicide in this school district in 2 years because of bullying, but that's not the worst of it.
5.
Lesbians Love Boies | October 8, 2010 at 7:41 am
Very heartbreaking news. Thinking of her family.
6.
Ann S. | October 8, 2010 at 7:41 am
Rules? There are rules? No one told me there would be rules!
7.
Lesbians Love Boies | October 8, 2010 at 7:42 am
scribinb
8.
JonT | October 8, 2010 at 7:46 am
If the rule isn't in the bible, it can safely be ignored. (Subscribing).
9.
Kathleen | October 8, 2010 at 7:48 am
Arrests in NY hate crimes: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadlin…
10.
Mark M. (Seattle) | October 8, 2010 at 7:49 am
Even biblical law can be overlooked if they so chose
Shellfish
Mixed cloth
Divorce
etc
11.
Kathleen | October 8, 2010 at 7:53 am
Anyone thinking of going to this event at ucla next Friday? http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=11234439216…
12.
Bill | October 8, 2010 at 7:56 am
Not the sharpest tools in the shed, huh?
But complete tools nonetheless.
13.
fiona64 | October 8, 2010 at 7:56 am
"But … that's the Old Testament. That doesn't count."
"Really? Then you don't get to drag out the 10 Commandments or any other Levitical law."
"Umpgh …"
Love,
Fiona
14.
ChrisQ | October 8, 2010 at 8:03 am
Guess Mags will have to return her salary so they can pay the back taxes.
15.
Mouse | October 8, 2010 at 8:09 am
If the rule IS in the bible, it can safely be ignored unless it is useful in bullying people we don't like, then it's God's Law.
16.
Mark M. (Seattle) | October 8, 2010 at 8:10 am
LOL
17.
Mark M. (Seattle) | October 8, 2010 at 8:11 am
But she spent it all on those beauty treatments…… NOT!
18.
Mark M. (Seattle) | October 8, 2010 at 8:27 am
I remember reading this back when it happened in '08…very sad indeed. And very bothersome that so many kids have died from that one school district. Some serious investigation and house cleaning needs done there for sure!
19.
Mark M. (Seattle) | October 8, 2010 at 8:29 am
Only the non-Gay stuff doesn't count
UGH!!
20.
Rhie | October 8, 2010 at 8:35 am
Speaking of rules, are screen captures able to used for evidence in court? What about live posts and Facebook pages? I know cops have used Facebook and MySpace to find killers and kidnappers but what are the rules?
21.
Rhie | October 8, 2010 at 8:36 am
If the rule isn't in THEIR VERSION of the Bible. Don't judge is a rule but… .
22.
Lesbians Love Boies | October 8, 2010 at 8:39 am
Screen shots won't work. But Google has the content of the pages archived.
23.
Rhie | October 8, 2010 at 8:40 am
I read a post on another site that said that when you have so many kids dying from bullying that's not a failure of society. That's society succeeding at it's awful goal. I tend to agree. There are just way too many of these for it to be failure or accidental.
I honestly believe that the first step is to treat bullying in the same way as adult harassment. Deaths should be treated as manslaughter or murder. One of the reason these kids don't take what they do seriously is because neither does society . It's just kids being kids.
and lock those kids away from others. Not necessarily in jail but under psychiatric care in a group home until they understand what they have done. Then, living with the pain of being that cruel should be enough punishment.
24.
fiona64 | October 8, 2010 at 8:55 am
The whole "kids will be kids" thing is what allows it to flourish.
Kids don't learn this stuff in a vacuum. They learn by listening to their parents make ethnic jokes, etc., and decide that it must be okay to pick on someone who is different or who makes them feel threatened somehow.
One of my friends said something very interesting about the "It Gets Better" project, which was that while she thought it was a great idea in many ways, there is a lot of empirical evidence that it *doesn't* get better, because bully kids grow up to be bully adults, who do the same things in the office that they did on the playground but with more subtlety. As someone who has had bully bosses twice in my life, I have to agree with her.
It only stops when we stop letting the bullies get away with it, and when we stop blaming the victims for "not toughening up" or "for letting it get to them."
Love,
Fiona
25.
AndrewPDX | October 8, 2010 at 8:58 am
scribing…
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
Andrew
26.
Kate | October 8, 2010 at 9:13 am
I want to see NOM try to scrub their 2 logos out of all the photos and videos of that "Valores" bus promoting Carly Fiorina.
27.
Joel | October 8, 2010 at 9:19 am
Just read another article about the same on the NYT page:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/seve…
These crimes fit the dictionary definition of heinous. I hope these thugs get put away for a long time. Preferably in a cell with a big ol' guy named Bubba.
28.
Sagesse | October 8, 2010 at 9:43 am
Subscribing.
29.
bJason | October 8, 2010 at 9:55 am
Hi gang,
Just spent my afternoon "Feeding Equality". Keep your eyes peeled.
Soon, and very soon.
P.S. Oh yeah, NOM will go down. The loss of our youth HAS TO BE STOPPED!!
<3 Jason
30.
Kate | October 8, 2010 at 10:01 am
Part of the problem is that the verb "to bully" is so inadequate. It doesn't come close to describing what is going on, which goes along with what Fiona says about the "kids will be kids" diminishment of the word. This is much, much more severe than that, and we don't seem to have a word that has kept up with the advancement of the hatred and menacing behavior of these almost-murderers.
31.
Phil L | October 8, 2010 at 11:02 am
Even if they successfully removed their logos from their own photos and videos there were plenty taken by the tour trackers. There would be no way for them to catch those too.
32.
Ronnie | October 8, 2010 at 11:03 am
This pissed me off so much…I read the headline on Freedom Fighters as I was leaving the Die-in in NYC & I was like….really?…This is one of the reasons we were doing these protests….& the anti-gay people have the nerve to say & I quote "Homosexuals are not being persecuted…Christians are the ones being persecuted"….
Oh really?….REALLY????????!!!!!!…doesn't matter if it was a gang related thing…its still wrong on every level & is fueled by government & religious sanctioned Homophobia………The jury is in & the verdict is………..BULLSHITE!!!!….. >I …Ronnie
33.
Ronnie | October 8, 2010 at 11:05 am
This was in reference to the articles Kathleen & Joel posted….(It didn't post as a reply)…….<3…Ronnie:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadlin…
34.
Phil L | October 8, 2010 at 11:25 am
@LLB:
Is there any way that the Courage Campaign people could easily access those Google archives to submit them as evidence?
35.
Bob | October 8, 2010 at 11:44 am
"Bullying doesn't start as a crime, they need to be held accountable the very first time they call someone a gross term. That's the beginning of dehumanization" the words of Barbara Coloroso A National Bullying Expert, and she has been working in schools for years now.
To hold someone accountable the very first time they utter a gross term though would, impose on the right to free speech.
Doesn't that urgency to protect that right, actually sanciton and protect bullying?
And you're right bullies grow up to be adults, and I worked in an enviroment where everyone was bullied by the boss. a woman, who was so demeaning it was mind blowing what she would say to her staff, intimidation, and this in a cirsis centre, where we counselled people on how to cope with abuse. I stood up spoke out, confronted her every time, I did it for every person I supported through abusive relationships. The rest of the staff, was blown away, I called them all on it, asked them how they could be professional, and allow this situation, so then I was the one who was blamed for creating stress in the workplace, most people preferred to be in denial.
It came to a head when over half of the staff stood with me, they left, I chose to stay and fight, I was fired, and spent years in a wrongful dismissal suite, which eventually I won,
It was not fun, but I would do it again tomorrow.
It does happen everywhere, and the point is that we deal with it by talking as if it happens somewhere else, It all hit me one day when we had a guest speaker from Africa, who was doing mission work, and everyone was so concerned about the oppression he was talking about, At the end of his speach he asked what we could do about opprression, and the courage came through me, from somewhere to stand up and say, stop it in it's tracks where it confronts you, like right here in our own workplace, I turned to my boss and said Jeanette, you're a bully. and you thrive on intimidation. It all went downhill for me, but no one else could dispute it cause it was true.
That boss by the way was a very stuanch republican, who looked to America for the answer, she felt Canadian politicians where too soft, liberal,
If we want to stop bullying, stand up where it hits YOU, if you look around it's probably not far away. And let me add, what we are asking those kids to do, is the most amaziingly difficult thing you could imagine, just try it.
36.
Kate | October 8, 2010 at 11:53 am
Hip hip hurray, Bob! What courage, what endurance, you have shown to fight what is WRONG and not cave in to the pressure. Very impressive, and an excellent, spot-on post. I love you!
37.
Kate | October 8, 2010 at 12:14 pm
That's what I meant, Phil. Pretty nifty, eh!?!
38.
Rhie | October 8, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Agreed with everything. I am a fierce advocate for First Amendment rights. However, I do NOT believe that was ever meant to cover verbal abuse – and that's what name calling is. This is what gets me so frustrated. An adult calling another adult an ethnic slur is verbal abuse or harassment and theoretically can be charged as a crime. A child says it to another child and it is "just being kids".
Wow. Bob. Only with examples like yours can we really put a stop to this. I am glad you got your day in court and won.
39.
Phil L | October 8, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Absolutely!
40.
Chris in Lathrop | October 8, 2010 at 3:22 pm
the girls who had tormented Sladjana for months walked up to the casket — and laughed.
I can't even comprehend this. I simply can't wrap my head around how cruel, how inhuman some people can be. And how callous the school administration can be. It took me three tries to read the whole article, and I am just sick with it.
How many have to die? What will it take to wake everybody up? I am so sad.
41.
Michael | October 8, 2010 at 3:26 pm
The shrill anti-gay pressure group NOM needs to be investigated. If found guilty, they need to be prosecuted to the tullest extent of the law. They think they are better than gay people and they think they are above the law. Fining them and/or removing their tax exempt status won’t stop their hate mongering which is killing teenage gay Americans, but it will give them perhaps a reality check and let them know that no one is above the law. Their real payback will come on Judgment Day when they are turned away from Heaven as they gnash their teeth in frustration.
42.
Elizabeth Oakes | October 8, 2010 at 4:34 pm
So….has anyone filed a complaint with the IRS or the FEC? Isn't that how the ball starts rolling? They're not just going to start digging on their own, you know….I'm pretty sure they have links on their official pages for filing complaints, though I don't know if they ever really bother to follow up unless there's also some kind of public heat around an org.
43.
Phil L | October 8, 2010 at 6:09 pm
I have a feeling that when they grow up and don't have high school popularity to justify their stupidity they will be traumatized by what they did.
44.
grod | October 8, 2010 at 9:13 pm
@Adam
In an blerp on another day this month, I suggested that a record of NOM be kept and periodically posted so that it is in the public domain. Your comments today reminded me of the importance of this. Perhaps it would make IRS and FEC's 'digging' easier. Also very much needed is NOM's donor list being the public domain as was required but yet implemented in Maine, for one.
45.
Sagesse | October 8, 2010 at 10:47 pm
Adam,
Courage Campaign and HRC could find an ally in Americans United for Separation of Church and State. They routinely issue press releases and write letters to the authorities calling out, for example, individual pastors who support a candidate from the pulpit, or a particular high school that holds its commencement in a church. I don't know if their work extends to charities with a religious purpose, but they are very professional.
Check out their front page for examples of their work.
http://www.au.org/
46.
Regan DuCasse | October 9, 2010 at 12:10 am
Rhie,
Exactly right. Excellent and solution based post. Young people are allowed to behave towards each other in ways no adult workplace or home would tolerate without police intervention.
Assault and battery, harassment and stalking ARE actionable criminal offenses.
And this isn't brought to bear on these young people whatsoever.
This is sport to them. In certain forms of media, humiliation of another is entertainment and the person on the receiving end, is supposed to endure it because in those forums, that's what happens.
But even those television forums, such humiliation has resulted in murder and suicide after the fact.
So, these children have a skewed idea of picking an unwilling target, as opposed to adults who volunteer to be humiliated before millions on television.
Adults who demand to control what children see and hear, send mixed or wrong messages. Conflicting and hypocritical messages.
Adults wouldn't tolerate what they allow they expect children to.
This is adults behaving like adolescents, and adolescents left more confused than ever.
Especially by the victim of bullying, being punished the same as the bully, when that victim finally stands up for themselves.
This message has no moral foundation or meaning if the CAUSE and EFFECT have no distinction.
If the results are the same, there is no higher level of understanding or goal.
I've had this distinction argument with adults here over another subject, and there too: no moral value, or distinction.
And this is why these things happen and why those who are victimized by real negative and destructive consequences to their lives, if they see no distinction between themselves as good, and their attackers, then that exacerbates the feelings of profound loneliness in the situation.
Bullies go on with impunity, and cowardice that never sees the light of moral scrutiny and accountability.
And children learn from it and seeing that kind of abiding power in the bullies, see no reason in being in the weaker position and not becoming a part of the bullying process in their own way.
47.
Lesbians Love Boies | October 9, 2010 at 2:42 am
@Phil – Google will give them up if requested by the courts.
48.
Rhie | October 9, 2010 at 6:23 am
Thanks!
I know first hand that the reaction and the bullying are treated the same way. A girl had been bullying for months in elementary school. I finally snapped one day and slapped her. Was it right of me to do so? No, of course not. But, had the school been doing their job I wouldn't have been driven to it.
Self-defense is a very different thing from someone who makes the conscious choice to attack a person day after day. It's also a legal defense for adults in the same situation.
I am not a child psychologist or anything, but having been a kid myself and having worked with kids I believe the two most important things for children (besides love and affection of course) are stability and consistency. Do as I say and not as I do or what you see other adults do does not cut it.
49.
Kate | October 9, 2010 at 6:36 am
Phil — I think they just join NOM.
50.
Bob | October 9, 2010 at 8:21 am
great link Sagesse, during election time we might want to reach out to find allies and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, are fighting for the same things.
Love the quote from President Kennedy, "The United States that I invision is dependant on the separation of church and state as an absolute"
I think the world is waiting for the U.S. president to become a world leader, a visionary, it's been far too long.
I remember the day Kennedy was shot, my social studies teacher came to class crying with the news, it affected us in that way , mostly everyone was uncomfortable with her crying, but she spent the whole class talking about the fact that we would only realize the importance of this man when we grew up, and she did make an impact and I do believe she was right. I haven't given up hope that inside Obama lies the heart of such a man, who may influence the world for good.
With the elections looming, and much at stake, maybe it's time to revisit a very old thread where we talked about alliances, who we could reach out to, who shares our visions. Finding people in the middle, people not drawn into the SSM debate. I think it''s time for us to go through that exercise again.
Our allies are the majority of America, the underprivilged, those living in poverty, those margenalized by religion, those people who's children do not feel safe at school, combine this with the highly educated, professionals, scientists, historians,
We are the people, the masses, we have to motivate all those to vote, grassroots style again, in the trenches with the forgotten,
We can't let the issues like SSM, bullying, hate crimes, ( a man being used as an example by letting his house burn) poverty, foreclosures, divide us, we could expose the commonality in all those, Especially that the height of bullying is what operates the U.S. military, DADT, it's time to ask the question who are we, who do we want to be, How can we rally together to accomplish the separation of Church and State.
We the Rainbow People have staked our claim, we have spoken up won the piviledge to have our case decided in the courts, that takes time, hopefully enough time, to put some of our attention on the election and winning other battles, like clarification of Democracy, we have accomplished lots, and we will return to finish this battle.
But lets not loose sight of the larger more inclusive one presently ramping up. VOTE VOTE VOTE the way we did it last time was people knocking on doors, it's a large group that follows this site, imagine if we all knocked on doors, and talked to people,,,,, Who are you voting for?
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