Homosexual activist Group discloses adoption ban petition signers online

Homosexual groups love to talk about tolerance and “diversity”, but it’s all a sham. They don’t allow tolerance when it conflicts with their homosexual agenda. This last stunt is a clear way to intimidate those who want to protect children from homosexual predators.
Unhappy with the people’s choice to keep adoption to married couples, homosexuals displayed online the names of those who signed the petition.
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Posted on 28 April 2009

Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — A Massachusetts gay rights group Tuesday posted on the Internet the names and addresses of more than 83,000 Arkansans who signed petitions last year to put a gay adoption ban on the state ballot, action the leader of the ballot initiative condemned as “pure intimidation.”

KnowThyNeighbor.org said it intended to make petition signers accountable for their support of the measure that prohibits unmarried couples who live together from adopting children or serving as foster parents in the state.

Though the new law affects all unmarried cohabiting couples, the sponsoring organization made no secret the measure targeted gays. It received 57 percent of the vote in the November general election.

“(They) need to stand behind their signatures and be responsible for this dehumanizing attack on the gay community,” KnowThyNeighbor.org’s director, Tom Lang, said in a release. “It’s disgraceful that they have chosen to exercise their prejudice at the expense of children who are now being denied access to loving adoptive and foster parents. Such activity must be challenged and cannot be allowed to pass under the cover of darkness.”

The group accessed the information from the Arkansas secretary of state’s office. Petition lists are public information under state law, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Charlie Daniels said.

“This is pure intimidation. Everyone who looks at this Web site can see this is an effort on the part of radical gay organizations to intimidate citizens into not exercising their rights,” said Jerry Cox, director of the Little Rock-based Family Council, the organization that spearheaded the petition drive.

“This has a chilling effect on all petition drives, regardless of what they support. It may make some people less likely to sign a petition to help place any measure on the ballot,” Cox said.

He said the Family Council would explore possible legislation to shield certain information on petitions from public disclosure, similar to legislation passed during this year’s legislative session limiting information that can be made public about concealed-carry permit holders.

Act 1291 of 2009 keeps the names and zip codes of concealed carry permit holders public but exempts other information from the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. The original legislation would have shielded all information about permit holders from the FOI law.

“If the Legislature can protect the identities of concealed carry permit holders, the Legislature should be able to protect people who sign petitions,” Cox said.

Lang said his groups expects many petition signers will be confronted about their actions as their names appear on the Web site. Cox said he was not as concerned about confrontations as with the implications for the democratic process.

“It’s almost like surrendering the secret ballot,” he said. “If the public knows who you’re voting for, it has an effect on your vote. “(Publishing petition information) may not be a brother to it, but its a cousin to it. It affects how you exercise your vote.”

The 5 biggest myths about Obama

The 5 biggest myths about Obama By: Alex Conant March 18, 2009 04:42 AM EST
By trade if not by choice, I have become something of a Barack Obama aficionado. POLITICO’s Mike Allen wrote last week that I have “probably listened to more President Obama speeches than any human besides [White House spokesman Robert] Gibbs.” Working at the Republican National Committee last year, I closely watched every public appearance by Obama. And I learned a lot about our new president along the way. He loves pies, but he doesn’t appreciate beer. And when he is presented with an uncomfortable question at a town hall, he usually turns the question on the questioner. (Q: Will my son’s death in Iraq be in vain? A: How did your son die?) I’ve concluded that much of the conventional wisdom about Obama is wrong. Here are five of the biggest misconceptions: 1. Obama is bold. Actually, he is overly cautious. It’s no coincidence the first bills he signed into law were the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, two populist favorites. Signing these bills was not an act of courage any more than attacking lobbyists or selecting Joe Biden as a running mate. In fact, Obama’s entire agenda is cautious (sometimes to a fault, in the case of his housing and banking bailouts). Are the numbers in his proposed budget eye-popping? Yes. But eye-popping budgets are well within the Democratic mainstream now. 2. Obama is a great communicator. Cut away the soaring rhetoric in his speeches, and the resulting policy statements are often vague, lawyerly and confusing. He is not plain-spoken: He parses his language so much that a casual listener will miss important caveats. That’s in part why he uses teleprompters for routine policy statements: He chooses his words carefully, relying heavily on ill-defined terms like “deficit reduction” (which means tax increases, rather than actual “savings”) and “combat troops” (as opposed to “all troops in harm’s way”). 3. Obamaland is a team of rivals. Obama earned the label “No-Drama Obama” for a reason. His closest advisers — those who actually shape his thinking, strategy and policies — are loyal and, by all accounts, like-minded. Obviously, they regularly disagree with each other, as any group of smart individuals does. But reading the (many) profiles of Obama aides written since the election, it’s striking that there are no anecdotes of serious disputes inside Obamaland. Obama does try to bring political foes into the fold when it’s convenient, but his team is primarily made up of political friends. 4. Obama is smooth. Despite being deliberate, Obama is surprisingly gaffe-prone. Reporters on my e-mail lists last year know he consistently mispronounced, misnamed or altogether forgot where he was. (In one typical gaffe in Sioux Falls, S.D., he started his speech with an enthusiastic “Thank you, Sioux City!”) His geographic gaffes are not just at routine rallies but at major events, including the Democratic National Convention and his first address to Congress. Any politician occasionally misspeaks, but the frequency of Obama’s flubs is notable. 5. Obama has a good relationship with the media. Working with the hundreds of reporters who covered the Obama campaign last year, I was struck by how many of them would quietly complain about Obama’s borderline disdain for the press. Sometimes it is readily visible — like when he scolded a reporter for asking a question during a presidential visit to the White House briefing room. Other times it’s more passive, like long gaps between press conferences, or it’s reflected in his staff’s attitude. Obama has a lot of qualities that are indeed admirable: He is without a doubt smart and disciplined, and his mastery of politics is unmatched. But despite popular perceptions, he is far from perfect. Alex Conant is a communications consultant who served as the Republican National Committee’s national press secretary during the 2008 presidential campaign. Previously, he was a spokesman at the White House and in the U.S. Senate.
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