Comments on: Don’t Do Business with Them

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:41:16 +0000

Murray responds to criticism of his giving $100000 to support Prop 8.
Pretty lame response though – it boils down to “the church told us to”.
http://www.presidentmurray.com/2008/11/proposition-8-response.html

By: Craig

Craig — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:29:27 +0000

One of the bigger givers ($100000) was Mike Murray (who made his fortune at Microsoft). As a philanthropist it is hard to imagine he couldn’t find a better use of this money – but then perhaps he was just the conduit for money from the LDS.
He has a blog at the not so humble URL:
http://www.presidentmurray.com/
where you can post comments to him.

By: writerdd

writerdd — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:40:55 +0000

Wow, I can’t believe that so many people are so angry about other people loving each other and wanting to have a family that they are willing to give thousands of dollars to prevent it. That’s just sad.

By: Erp

Erp — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:37:11 +0000

1. the LDS mostly donated by getting individual members to donate directly. In a few cases the members responded by donating to the ‘no’ campaign

2. Outside interests are allowed to donate in part because some issues could well affect them (e.g., taxation in California of companies that are national, damming of a river that flows into another state, etc).

3. Any boycotts should be careful. Don’t boycott just because a low-level employee donated or a relative of an owner donated (unless there is strong evidence that the owner gave the money to the relative or employee in order for the relative or employee to donate).

By: John Moeller

John Moeller — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:32:13 +0000

As for these boycotts, I’m all for it, but I question the blanket boycott of anything Utah. Boycotting anything Utah would also boycott many businesses owned by gays and lesbians. Throwing out the baby with the bathwater, if you will.

You put it very succinctly, thank you. Remember the Obama quote? “We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.” Yeah, that’s me. And a lot of other people. In fact, we have a sizable progressive minority here. A boycott of Utah hurts us too.

By: martymankins

martymankins — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:04:53 +0000

garrick says:

Where is the LDS? They are supposed to be a huge donor but I don’t see them on the list.

They are LDS individuals that donated. The church itself donated, but on the sly.

As for these boycotts, I’m all for it, but I question the blanket boycott of anything Utah. Boycotting anything Utah would also boycott many businesses owned by gays and lesbians. Throwing out the baby with the bathwater, if you will.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:30:25 +0000

Might also be good to have a “Buy HERE!” list of friendlies, e.g. Apple Computer, etc.

By: garrick

garrick — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:40:07 +0000

Where is the LDS? They are supposed to be a huge donor but I don’t see them on the list.

By: John Moeller

John Moeller — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:24:52 +0000

I'd boycott if I could, but unfortunately that would mean starving. I live in Utah. I'd wager that some non-trivial fraction of my expenses goes in the pockets of people who donated to Yes on 8. I donated to No On Prop 8, and I tried to get the word out as best I could. That said, I appreciate that you advocate targeting individual donors instead of my whole state.

By: Rat Bastard

Rat Bastard — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:17:45 +0000

justin jm, it is even legal to publish the addresses of said individuals, as they are a matter of public record (like on the county tax rolls). No laws were even bent, never mind broken.

My question is, why the hell are out-of-state entities allowed to contribute to OUR state election? They ought to keep their blue noses out of other state’s politics, and everybody else’s business.