The thing is, both men are not exactly the most supportive of same-sex marriage.  Instead, it is probably just a ploy by them to outflank President Barack Obama on the issue of LGBT rights, and they have no intentions of ever supporting the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act or Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, or support the enactment of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.  Cornyn even once likened homosexuality to “man on box turtle.”  He also opposes same-sex marriage, though he has backed off the extreme rhetoric and claimed that he was not trying to degrade the dignity of lesbian and gay people.

The Log Cabin Republicans may be trying to build bridges with their support of the Conservative movement, but they seem far from choosy when it comes to who they associate with and they have done very little to bridge the gap between the Republicans and the LGBT Community.  Many lesbians, gays and transpeople have been hurt by the Republican Party and they are far from willing to open up and accept their support just yet.

C.D. Kirven, the co-founder of Get Equal Now, released this statement regarding the LCR fundraiser:

“Mr. Sessions and other members of the Texas GOP have a ‘zero’ score by
the Human Rights Campiagn on supporting LGBT issues for years. Get Equal Now has protested TX GOP events and will protest Log Cabin Republican events that include candidates willing to accept money from LGBT citizens but turn a blind eye to repealing DADT or championing ENDA. My message to the TX GOP and their supporters is simple put your vote where your LGBT donations are otherwise we will remember in November. The rich just keep getting richer and with threats of a double dip recession middle class Texans can no longer afford to support candidates willing to take our money and blatantly ignore our struggle. Governor Perry’s unreported million dollar donation from Bob Perry was recently reported by various media outlets so Texans are waking up to the fact that some Republicans continue to play corporate games with the lives of middle class diverse families.  My advice to Mr. Session’s is understand when you attend LGBT events know that we will vote, protest and follow closely candidates that do not serve the public interests of all voters. If you come to LGBT events and take LGBT money, then LGBT activists will hold you accountable!”

Background source data

What appears to be odd in this case is that none of the three changed their votes on the legislation. Republicans John Campbell of California and Tom Price of Georgia both voted against the bill while Democrat Joseph Crowley of New York voted for it. What is more baffling is that the OCE appears to have provided no evidence that these men broke ethics rules or any laws. The ethics office also refused to ask for further investigations on five others, namely Democrats Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota and Mel Watt of North Carolina, and Republicans Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Chris Lee of New York, and Frank Lucas of Oklahoma.

All three Democrats voted for the bill, and all five Republicans voted against the bill that President Barack Obama signed into law on 21 July. While the law was suppose to rectify the failures that lead to the 2008 meltdown of the financial system, it only managed to rectify some of them.

Campbell felt “perplexed by OCE’s decision, as they have presented no evidence that would suggest wrongdoing.” He also maintains that he “always complied with the letter and the spirit of the law. To suggest otherwise is unfounded and untrue. In addition, my voting record and my opposition to a culture of taxpayer-funded bailouts has been and always will be unshakeable.”

The California Republican was joined in his bafflement by his colleague Price from Georgia. Price stated “There being no evidence of any wrongdoing or any inconsistency in my policy position, one can only guess as to the motive behind their decision or even why they chose to initiate a review in the first place. My constant allegiance to a transparent and conscious divide between my official duties as a member of Congress and my actions as a candidate is without question.”

Crowley, the Democrat from New York, also asserted that he complied to the “letter and spirit of the rules regarding fundraising and standards of conduct.”

The three did attend fundraisers in and around the time that their votes were cast, but this is normal for any politician given that they are often attending fundraisers right through the year.

Crowley may be the only one with any potential for a problem since he did attend a fundraiser and then turn around and vote against a Democratic sponsored amendment to the bill which could have toughened some financial regulations, but that seems more like a coincidence than a violation of the rules since a hundred Democrats also voted against it.

Source

“They were moments of great injustice, great injustice! If someone is responsible, it’s me,” Castro told journalist Lira Saade from La Jornada, a Mexican daily. “We had so many and such terrible problems, problems of life or death, that we didn’t pay it enough attention,” Castro stated about how lesbians and gays were treated. Currently, the island nation off of Florida is grappling with the possibility of legalizing same-sex unions.

Fidel Castro was recently forced to hand power over to his brother Raul Castro due to ill health. He had ruled the nation since he rose to power in 1959 and stepped down in 2008. He is currently 84 years old.

His remarks were made in the second part of a two part interview. They also bring up the question of why is it that an old and vicious dictator can change his mind about injustice, but it seems so many in the United States, including President Barack Obama, cannot?

Source

The fundraiser is not a totally Republican-driven effort. Former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt and former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta will be there as well. The people attending just shows a growing divide between the fiscally conservative/socially liberal groups and the socially conservative/fiscally liberal groups. As one Republican put it

“I think there is a growing mass of people in Republican politics who are fundamentally sick and tired about being lectured to about morality and how to live your life by a bunch of people who have been married three or four times and are more likely to be seen outside a brothel on a Thursday night than being at home with their kids… There is a fundamental indecency to the vitriol and the hatred directed against decent people because of their sexuality. People have reached a critical mass with this.”

Lesbian and gay Republicans have long had problems within the wider LGBT Community which has tended to side with Liberalism and Democrats for a long time due to the support on the Left for LGBT Rights. Between President Barack Obama’s reticence over LGBT issues and a growing sense of distaste for social conservativism, the Republican Party is splitting on the issues that effect the LGBT Community.

Steve Schmidt, the former campaign manager for Senator John McCain stated “There is a strong conservative case to be made in favor of gay marriage. Marriage is an institution that strengthens and stabilizes society. It is an institution that has the capacity to bring profound joy and happiness to people and it is a matter of equality and keeping faith of one of the charters of the nation, the right to live your life. More and more conservatives are saying that opposition to gay marriage would not be a litmus test for membership in the GOP. And more conservatives are making the case that no more do you want big government conservatives in the bedroom than big government liberals telling you how to live your life.”

This split in the GOP is something that is causing more and more problems for the Party in the long run since many people who are advocates for LGBT rights are not well received by many supporters of the GOP. Conservative lesbians and gays also often face problems inside the LGBT Community as there is a long standing feeling of them being willing to work with those who would oppose the very rights that they deserve and hurting their fellow lesbians, gays and transpeople. It may be a long time before anyone forgives Ken Mehlman for his hand in orchestrating the restriction of marriage rights for America’s lesbians and gays.

Source

Right now, Keller, who is of Florida, is preaching at the Marriott on 85 West Street. The weekly service is planned at the hotel until he raises some $8 million in order to build his 9/11 Christian Center. He has even stated that fundraising is going well.

Keller is anti-Islamic. He has stated things such as Islam is a religion of “hate and death” and stated “Islam is a wonderful religion …for PEDOPHILES!” He is also a birther- a person who believes that President Barack Obama was born somewhere other than the United States. He has used this cause to raise money. He has called Obama the new Hitler, and believes that homosexuality is a ‘perversion’. In 2008, he attacked former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for being a Mormon saying that people voting for him were “voting for Satan.”

Justin Elliott, of Salon.com, questioned the sincerity of those who have condemned the so-called Ground Zero mosque, stated “But the only logic by which Keller’s project would not be horrifying to those who oppose Park51 is if they believe all Muslims, including the progressive Muslim Americans behind Park51, should be treated as suspicious or even in the same category as the Sept. 11 terrorists. If mosque opponents’ concerns are truly about sensitivity to the neighborhood around ground zero — and not about Muslims — we’ll hear them denounce Keller loudly in the coming days.”

Not including the hate crimes designation is another problem with this. According to all accounts except for the two Marines, Cronauer and Stanzel both called Daly several epithets and harassed him even as he was walking away. As he turned to leave the two, they struck him. According to both Cronauer and Stanzel, Daly winked at them, though that is in dispute. Both men ran from the scene and eventually told police that they were being harassed by a gay man.

According to news reports at the time, “Daly said after his friends performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the scene, he was taken to Memorial University Medical Center and diagnosed with bruises to his brain. He had two seizures immediately after the attack and was expected to remain at Memorial for several days.” Injuries to the brain can linger, and even appear to not effect a person for a long time before they are effected by it in some manner.

It now falls upon the Department of Justice and Attorney General Eric Holder to determine if there will be any Federal hate crimes prosecution under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr Hate Crimes Law. According to 2009 testimony of AG Holder “The Federal government has a strong interest in protecting people from violent crimes motivated by such bias and bigotry. . .I am particularly pleased that Section 249(a)(2) would for the first time allow for Federal prosecution of violence undertaken because of the actual or perceived gender, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity of any person. The Department therefore welcomes the expanded coverage of section 249, which would allow us to prosecute and deter violent acts of this sort more effectively.”

Now, the question is, will Holder and President Barack Obama do what is right or will they continue to worry about the Midterm Elections?

Source

According to Servicemembers United Executive Director Alex Nicholson, senior members of the working group will be attending the meeting. The meeting’s exact time and location is being kept secret in order to protect the confidentiality of the partners in attendance.

Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith stated “The meeting will enable [the partners] to provide their perspectives on the topic of repeal of DADT, should it occur. This engagement is consistent with our comprehensive approach to this review.”

Nicholson, who was himself discharged under DADT, stated “We have been pushing for partner input into the review process for quite some time. We are glad that the Pentagon recognizes the value of input from these silent heroes.”

One concern that might be floating around is whether or not the Pentagon officials are all civilians since this would eliminate any chance of compromising the active duty lesbian and gay troops represented by these partners.

The review of the repeal process is suppose to be due on 1 December. At that point, it will be up to President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen to determine if the repeal can go forward. The group is currently surveying via paper surveys the spouses of military service personnel, and last month surveyed the troops. Of the 400,000 surveys sent out, only 115,000 were completed.

Source

The Senate is, and has been, a hard victory for the Republicans to obtain as they have blown their opportunity to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and to retain the seats held by Republicans in New Hampshire and Kentucky.  There is a strong probability that Florida will go to the increasingly Left leaning Independent Charlie Crist.  It is likely that the Republicans will capture Arkansas and North Dakota.

The House is harder to predict, but it is likely that the Democrats will lose many of the Conservative “Blue Dog” districts that were already vulnerable while picking up at least one seat in New Orleans.

Dean made what was, perhaps, the most salient point.  He stated “We simply have better candidates.”  The push from the Tea Party and the flap over the Muslim community center in New York may actually push many Moderate voters away from the Republican Party at a time when they are in most desperate need of those votes.  Additionally, while the Republican National Committee is strapped for cash, the Democrats have a lot on hand for the ground game in November.  The ancillary Republican committees may have money, but the bulk of that is for advertising.  Ads only get people so far on election day.

Governor Dean was far less kind when it came to his opinions regarding President Barack Obama. Candy Crowley, the host of “State of the Union” asked Dean “But certainly, you have voiced, on “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” and on the health care bill, some of the real misgivings that the left has had about some of the things the president has done. And it boils down to this, this fall, do you think the left sits home or do you think the left goes out to the polls? And what gets them there?”

Dean replied “Well, look, I don’t think that the left — what Gibbs was talking about with the so-called professional left — I don’t know what he meant by that. You know, I think — but that is a very small number of people. I think there are a large number — I think that the people around the president have really misjudged what goes on elsewhere in the country, other than Washington, D.C.  I don’t think this is true of the president, but I do think his people, his political people, have got to go out and spend some time outside Washington for a while. The average Democrat is a progressive. And, you know, there are some things that are upsetting about the kind of deals that were made by the president’s people on health care.”

When President Barack Obama was first elected, many people felt that they were witnessing an ushering in of a New Camelot, or a New New Deal.  Instead, they received the same kind of problems that the nation had faced under President George W. Bush, and while people did call for patience, Obama often tried too hard to compromise with the Republicans, who kept moving the goal posts, and the corporations who were far from sympathetic to the suffering of the people that they employed.  When conditions on the ground necessitated actual changes, Obama was less than capable of having his team explain why those changes were necessary.

Source 1
Source 2

“I’m more hopeful about the lame duck session. I have faith that we’re goingt o repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Quigley has said. It is believed, though, that the Defense Budget will be voted upon next month, likely towards the end of the month.

Republicans, afraid of losing the Christian Conservative vote, have objected to the repeal based upon the old saw of how it will disrupt unit cohesion. Neither the military nor the government have actually been able to prove that to be the case, and up to 75% of Americans support repeal of DADT, including many in the Republican base.

The compromise repeal language was voted into the Defense Authorization Bill, which is the budget for the Pentagon and the military. It is hard to justify filibustering or voting against it even though Senator John McCain has vowed to do so largely in part because he is still having a snit at losing the election and now opposes anything and everything that President Barack Obama stands for.

The GOP has continued to try to use the repeal of DADT and the legalization of same-sex marriage as platforms on which to run even as popular support for those change. Current polling shows a vast majority of Americans support the repeal of DADT and more Americans support same-sex marriage than ever before.

Source

President Obama made the decision to appoint four people, and Sorian was one of them. Sorian is also openly gay. Within the press release issued by the White House, President Obama stated “At a time when our nation faces so many pressing challenges, I urge members of the Senate to stop playing politics with our highly qualified nominees, and fulfill their responsibilities of advice and consent. Until they do, I reserve the right to act within my authority to do what is best for the American people.”

The White House background on Sorian states:

Richard Sorian is currently a Senior Adviser to the Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services. Previously, he was Vice President for Public Policy and External Relations for the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), where he directed the organization’s media relations, policy development and advocacy, and relations with employers, consumers, and other key stakeholders.

Before working for NCQA, Sorian was Director of Public Affairs for the Center for Studying Health System Change and a Project Director at the Georgetown University Institute for Health Care Research and Policy. From 1993 to 1998, Sorian was a Senior Advisor for Health Policy Communications in the Office of Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala. In that capacity, Sorian focused on health care reform, HIV/AIDS policy, and health care quality improvement. From 1997 to 1998, he served as Deputy Director of the President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry, where he directed work on the Patient’s Bill of Rights.

From 1980 to 1993, Sorian was an award-winning journalist covering U.S. health care policy development. He was editor of Medicine & Health and the Journal of American Health Policy. He is also the author of three books: The Bitter Pill: Tough Choice in America’s Health Policy (1989); A New Deal for American Health Care (1993); and The Health Care 500 (1988). He is a graduate of George Washington University and, in 1989, was awarded a Fellowship for Advanced Studies in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The recess appointments are, undoubtably, going to upset several people in the Republican Party. Unfortunately, they have been holding up appointments for people not normally considered the least bit controversial.

Source

Executive Director of Servicemembers United, Alexander Nicholson, stated “This lobby day will be the last major opportunity for supporters of repeal to come to Washington, make the case for this amendment, and hold their senators accountable on this vote.  Lobbying for repeal is now a lot more complicated than simply saying ’support repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ so we want to be able to explain the nuances of the current situation to repeal supporters and arm them with the detailed information they need to hold their Senators accountable.”  Nicholson is a former Army interrogator who was discharged under DADT.

SU will also be hosting their first-ever meeting in Washington for military partners from around the country.  Their Campaign for Military Partners initiative was created in 2009 to contact and support the partners of LGBT military personnel.

LGBT Rights are slowly advancing across the country.  The repeal of DADT is widely supported, with some 75% of Americans supporting it.  Still, some politicians such as Senator John McCain are more concerned about appearing to be anti-LGBT in order to garner Right Wing support than they are about the safety and security of the nation or of the troops that they often claim to admire.

For more information, please visit here.

Melanie Nathan – August 17, 2010

Last week, Glenn Beck made news when he said that he didn’t think issues like abortion or gay marriage were all that important and didn’t pose a threat to the nation.

Now, while Lezgetreal honors him with its annual Schmuck Generosa award,  Glenn Beck presents a threat to the social order.

The very thread that weaves the core of conservative existence these, the wedge – the social issues; the excuse to keep worlds apart- to maintain control via schism and fear. Now the very godfather of all fear and grime takes it all away in one tearful swoop- abra cadabera shim shala bim! Done!

Conservative groups scream foul foul -’ give it back give it back – the fear the fear we need the fear!’   Danger   godfather Beck “upsets God’s order”:

Joseph Farah, who  questioned Barack Obama’s status as a natural born citizen of the United States and consequently, his eligiblity to serve as U.S. President, stating, “It’ll plague Obama throughout his presidency, argues - “Beck doesn’t care about one of the most blatant and despicable examples of judicial tyranny in the history of our country. He doesn’t care about the institution of marriage and its 5,000-year history. He doesn’t care that the Bible says God created marriage way back in Genesis and that Jesus affirmed that. He doesn’t care that the family is the building block of a society and that smarter men have explained how you simply can’t have freedom and self-governance without it. He also doesn’t seem to care about what might become of children adopted into such unions. That, my friends, is the perfect illustration of what’s wrong with the materialist worldview – whether it is held by a raving Marxist or a conservative entertainer.”

So Now the fun begins  – Glen Beck has joined the immoral Order of  the Gay Agenda.  May the chips fall where they fall!

Mel Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• Glenn Beck Digs Gay Marriage? (gayrights.change.org)
• Glenn Beck Makes The Case For Same-Sex Marriage Through Thomas Jefferson (mediaite.com)
• Glenn Beck, and More Americans, Support Gay Marriage (sfist.com)

Melanie Nathan: August 16, 2010.

But we want marriage now – in terms of our current constitutional right.

Ninth Circuit has granted the stay yes we are angry BUT the good new it expedites the appeal and the entire process…

“Filed order (EDWARD LEAVY, MICHAEL DALY HAWKINS and SIDNEY R. THOMAS) Appellants’ motion for a stay of the district court’s order of August 4, 2010 pending appeal is GRANTED.

The court sua sponte orders that this appeal be expedited pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 2. The provisions of Ninth Circuit Rule 31-2.2(a) (pertaining to grants of time extensions) shall not apply to this appeal.

This appeal shall be calendared during the week of December 6, 2010, at The James R. Browning Courthouse in San Francisco, California. The previously established briefing schedule is vacated. The opening brief is now due September 17, 2010. The answering brief is due October 18, 2010. The reply brief is due November 1, 2010. In addition to any issues appellants wish to raise on appeal, appellants are directed to include in their opening brief a discussion of why this appeal should not be dismissed for lack of Article III standing. See Arizonans For Official English v. Arizona, 520 U.S. 43, 66 (1997). IT IS SO ORDERED. [7441574] (JS)“

The Ninth Circuit has asked for opening briefs by September 17th and that parties must discuss why the appeal should not be dismissed due to lack of standing.  Also, the schedule for the briefs are similar to what Plaintiff attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies requested.  And oral arguments should begin by the end of this year.

So it’s not what we wanted, at this time, and yes we were headed for the aisle on Wednesday; but at least we will be closer to getting the journey’s conclusion.  I for one  believe in the unconstitutionality of the Prop 8 Vote, just as as Judge Walker ruled in his Judgment which overturned the the 2 % of Californians who were swayed by Gay Hate dollars – (and Only at that moment in TIME-) that Gays and lesbians should be denied their rights.

The stunning legal team  for the equal right to marry include the  brilliant lawyers of the City & County of San Francisco.  We have a fact-based district trial court decision that overwhelmingly explains why Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.  And we know that are winning.  Actually may I opine – we have won – they just have us on hold; pending appeal.  (URGH – it really should be the other way around. Are they afraid of another 18,000 of us? What harm have we done.  Probably lower divorce rate than our heterosexual counterparts.)

The  good news in California is we are now on the Fast track; NCLR’s Shannon Minter: The delay is very hard on couples, but the case now positioned about as strongly as it possibly could be for our side.”

What the hell can they come up with to change this – because if the do it would open the door to a State proposition vote where I bet a lot more than 2% of Californians would love to Vote against the right to bear arms – I mean after all – look at all those automatic weapons out there – they are killing our kids – what could be more harmful than that?

“I am extremely disappointed that couples will have to wait even longer to get married. It’s unfair and unfortunate. But I am confident that we will restore the right to marry once and for all,” says Geoff Kors of EQCA (Equality California)  who does well to express his disappointment that marriages are on hold at this time.

I cannot accept that  same-sex marriages would be stayed during the period of time where a Court of such esteem has held it unconstitutional.   It should be the other way around. We should be allowed to marry pending a different outcome, from a non-expedited process!!

Kors explains, “This means that, regrettably, same-sex couples will have wait longer to get married and are still being denied their fundamental right to do so.

This is not the end – far from it. The appeals process still needs to play out, and the court is expediting the process. The case is expected to be heard in December.

We need to work together to do what it takes to ensure a favorable outcome.
Here’s what you can do:

Email the Governor and Attorney General and urge them to stand strong against the attacks they are receiving from anti-LGBT groups.

Make a donation to elect a governor and attorney general who will refuse to defend Prop. 8 in court.

Volunteer in your area. We are building on the majority support we have, which is so critical to winning marriage back, either in the court or at the ballot box.

Imagine if President Barack Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Team Democrat would come out now and have the courage to repeal The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)  that restricts marriage between one man and one women, on a Federal level.

It would be an imperative correction of a bad bad mistake, at this point.  Senator Feinstein of California had the courage to VOTE no on DOMA.  Congressman Barney Frank believes DADT and ENDA should be repealed before he signs on to Congressman Jerold Nadler’s  House repeal Bill – The Respect for Marriage ACT.

Wake up and shake things up AMERICA – Now is the time.  No DOMA and we can sponsor our bi-national spouses for immigration; we can stop the exile of our citizens and The FEDS will show the STATES that it can get rid of legislated inequality via repeal legislation.

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts

Related articles by Zemanta

• BREAKING: Ninth Circuit Court Grants Stay Of Prop 8 Overturn Pending Appeal (joemygod.blogspot.com)
• Federal Appeals Court Grants Stay of Prop 8 Decision (towleroad.com)
• Ninth Circuit Issues Interim Stay in SSM Case (volokh.com)
• Ninth Circuit: Marriages on Hold (advocate.com)
• Judge Walker’s ruling today: NCLR Explains Same-Sex Couples in California May Not be Able to Marry On AUg 18 (lezgetreal.com)
• Prop 8 Plaintiffs File Motion With Ninth Circuit, Jerry Brown Once Again Pushes For Same-Sex Marriages To Resume (towleroad.com)
• Prop 8: Will the Real Appellants Please Stand Up (towleroad.com)
• Video: LGBT Clergy Protest against NOM in Clayton, MO (lezgetreal.com)

According to Gates “I think that it would be a mistake to wait until January 2012. This is not the kind of job you want to fill in the spring of an election year.” Indeed, it may be difficult to find people who would be willing to fill that role in that year with the looming possibility of Obama being defeated. Gates also stated “If I stay until January 2011. I will have been in the job longer than all but four of my predecessors…” Those who have served longer include Reagan’s Defense Secretary Caspar Willard Weinberger, George W. Bush’s first Defense Secretary Donald Henry Rumsfeld, Jimmy Carter’s Defense Secretary Harold Brown, and Kennedy and Johnson’s Secretary of Defense Robert Strange McNamara. Rumsfeld also served as Gerald Ford’s Secretary of Defense. The first Secretary of Defense was James Vincent Forrestal under President Truman. Prior to that, the department was known as the Department of War.

This move is not surprising. Secretary Gates will turn sixty-seven in September.

His departure may come after the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has occurred.

Source

Now, Liz Cheney is joining the fray and attacking this program started by the Bush Administration, which included her father, as has New York Representative Peter King. The State Department has defended this move stating that the Imam is well known for his “work with tolerance” and his “moderate perspective.” Of course, given that Liz Cheney and Peter King believe that the only ‘good Muslim is a dead Muslim’, it is not likely that logic or reason will get in the way of their blind hatred.

Of course, Cheney’s group Keep America Safe has stated on its website how the State Department is ignoring facts in thinking that the Imam is a moderate. Of course, for people like Cheney, no Muslim is a moderate. However, it was Karen Hughes, who reported to Vice President Dick Cheney, who included this particular Imam in a speaking tour. If anyone ignored facts, it would be Secretary of State Condalezza Rice.

Conservatives have entered into a period of saying anything that they can in opposition to President Obama even if it makes no sense. The blind hatred for anyone on the other side of the argument has hit such a point that nothing actually matters anymore. If Obama got up and declared that he was joining the Republican Party, the Republicans would rush out to join the Democrats just in order to stay opposed to him.

C.D. Kirven, co-founder of Get Equal Now, had this to say:

“Ms. Cheney:

Conservatives plan to build a gay bar next to Ground Zero mosque to anger Muslims and in retaliation for the President Obama’s support for religious freedom. Ground Queero or Al Gayda club is hurtful and very disrespectful not only to the Muslim American but also to LGBT community. I hope you will release a public statement denouncing the use of LGBT Americans as toys in a religous hate game. We don’t always have to agree plourically but we must demand humanity in a civil society. The raw politics require that we as Americans adhere to constitutional principles in order to remain a free society.”

Source

The appeal could come right before the November elections. If the DoJ does appeal, then it could be disastrous for the Administration and the Democratic Party going into the general election as LGBT voters would then be angry with the Administration for appealing the law.

Of course, given that the ruling is likely to be upheld going forward, it could result in large portions of DOMA being ruled unconstitutional. Thus, there is some benefit to going forward, but it is also hard to determine how the appeal would play out among those who appear to already be moving to support marriage equality.

President Obama has signaled his support for the second-class citizenship of LGBT Americans by supporting civil unions over marriage equality. He has called DOMA discriminatory, but never unconstitutional despite the obvious fact that it is. Of course, appealing the DOMA decision may not matter much given that so many LGBT Americans are already angry with Obama for not repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in a timely and decisive matter, or supporting the repeal of DOMA or the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Much of the attacks on the mosque, dubbed the “Ground Zero Mosque”, stem from a desire by those on the Right to try and fuel popular outrage and to gain power from stirring up Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred.  They have dragged into the light many of the stereotypes that have existed in Western culture to some level since the Muslim invasions of Europe in the last millennium.

Many people from half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have chosen to go against both the property rights assured by the Constitution and the religious freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment in order to attack the building of a mosque not far from the site of the World Trade Center attacks.  President Obama made the announcement at a dinner commencing the ending of fasting associated with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Obama insisted that it was only right to allow the building of this mosque at this site because it honored the traditions inherent in the American system.  He stated “Our capacity to show not merely tolerance, but respect towards those who are different from us – and that way of life, that quintessentially American creed, stands in stark contrast to the nihilism of those who attacked us on that September morning, and who continue to plot against us today.”

Obama also brought up that, at one time in this nation’s history, the building of synagogues and Catholic churches was met with heavy opposition.  Indeed, at one time in America’s past, only those who belonged to the Anglican faith were given any religious civil rights.  That changed with the adoption of the First Amendment provisions regarding freedom of and freedom from religion.  He stated “But time and again, the American people have demonstrated that we can work through these issues, and stay true to our core values and emerge stronger for it.  So it must be and will be today.

New York Representative Peter King, who has opposed homosexuality being recognized as well, went on to attack Obama for his statements.  He said “President Obama is wrong.  It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero. While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much.”  Of course, King chooses to forget the numbers of American Muslims who perished in the 9/11 attacks.  Indeed, he forgets that they died along with their Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Pagan and other sisters and brothers on that day.

What is lost on the opponents of this mosque is the fact that allowing it to go forward and respecting the Muslims who are behind it is the best way to diminish Islamic extremism and to dampen and reduce terrorism.  Instead, Conservatives and bigots wish to do everything they can to stop this Muslim Community Center in order to gain from the hysteria.  Of course, these are the same people who often use religion to excuse their bigotry against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transpeople.

All prejudice and all bigotry has the same roots.  It does not matter if it is racism, sexism, homophobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia, transphobia.  It is all the same.

Source

08/06/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

Perez Hilton is using his substantial influence to send a message to Barack Obama that the LGBT community won’t accept his “Separate but Equal” stance on marriage equality. Six hours ago @Perezhilton tweeteed:

@BarackObama One day you will regret not supporting gay marriage! #EqualityIsForEVERYONE

 I assume that the regret that Perez is implying, is that the Queer community will not rally behind him to get him re-elected for a second term as President. That would be a huge world of hurt to Obama, as the LGBT voterbase rallied around him during his bid for President.

Perez Hilton is an internet celebrity shock jock, but it would be a mistake to downplay his influence. He has a large fanbase, concentrated of people in their twenties and younger, whom he has won over with his tweet. It has been re-tweeted hundreds of times. This probably isn’t the movement that is going to change Obama’s mind, but maybe it will grab his attention and let new and younger voters know exactly where the President stands on civil rights.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Perez Hilton and his Mother Talk Prop 8 and LGBT Civil Rights(lezgetreal.com)
• President Obama: Glad Prop 8 is Repealed, Still Believes in Separate But Equal(lezgetreal.com)
• Perez Hilton Crashes Lez Get Real (lezgetreal.com)

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Roseto, Pennsylvania and a local amusement company caught flak from the Secret Service after they created a plywood cut out of the president to use as a shooting target in a carnival game.

The target shows the likeness of a black man in a suit, holding a scroll labeled “Health Bill,” sporting a belt buckle fashioned after the presidential seal, antennae and a troll doll on his shoulder. The games shooter’s paid $1 per shot, or $5 for six shots, to fire foam darts at targets on his head and heart. Those who hit their mark won a stuffed animal.

However the Secret Service was not so amused by the amusment and the Philadelphia office of the Secret Service sent out agents to investigate the game and its creator. “We take these kinds of things very seriously,” said the special agent in charge of the Philadelphia office of the Secret Service, Cindy Wofford.

She also said her office will determine if there were any direct or indirect threats to the president and will share the findings with the U.S. attorney’s office.

Irvin Good Jr., president of Goodtime Amusements, said he did not intend to offend anyone by offering the game, called “Alien Attack.”

“I guess we made an error in judgment and we apologize for that,” said Good, who has had the game for about six weeks. “I voted for the man. It wasn’t meant to be him. If they took it that way, we apologize.”

Good also said he has pulled the game from his midway games line-up

Federal law also prohibits anyone from knowingly displaying any print or likeness of the presidential seal. Violators can face a fine and up to six months in prison.

The White House issued a statement Wednesday saying it disapproves of using the president’s name and likeness for commercial purposes, not to mention being used as a target.

(source)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Obama-like target in carnival game stirs outrage (philly.com)
• Obama Likeness Used As Darts Target At Carnival (huffingtonpost.com)

08/05/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

In really disappointing new following the Prop 8 victory, White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod appeared on On the Record to clarify President Obama’s feelings on Prop 8 and marriage equality. The On the Record anchors push Axelrod pretty hard on Obama’s views on Prop 8 and same sex marriage. They point to an interview where Obama said that he was not opposed to what California was doing with Prop 8. He made this statement at a time when the Prop 8 supporters were winning. Yesterday when Prop 8 was struck down, he sided with the winning team again, saying he was happy about the decision.

On the Record called out the flip-flop and Axelrod retorted saying that the President was never in favor of Prop 8 and that he found it mean-spirited. He also says that the information they had where Obama said that is he not bothered with California pushing for Prop 8 was “incomplete information.” 

Axelrod also clarified that Obama still believes in ’separate but equal.’ Obama does NOT believe in marriage equality but instead in civil unions. Obama also believes that the Civil Unions should provide same-sex couples with equal benefits, but should not be called marriage. He also says that Obama believes that States have the right to ban same-sex marriage if they want to.

Maybe when the LGBT community doesn’t rally to get Obama re-elected, Obama can get a job as host on The View where he and Elizabeth Hasslebeck can talk about those gosh darn gays and their annoying requests for “civil rights” together. Watch the video below if you really want to bum yourself out.  

[Source]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Related articles by Zemanta

• FOX Lacking In Prop 8 Decision Coverage? (lezgetreal.com)
• Is Obama a Believer in Equality or Not? (towleroad.com)
• NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn Addresses Prop 8; Will Attend Rally (lezgetreal.com)
• Rachel Maddow Explains Prop 8 Decision (lezgetreal.com)

I have one question: does Fox News keep a barber on staff to shave these guys so they don’t have to look in the mirror every morning?

The ceremony was interfaith as Chelsea is Methodist and Marc is Jewish. There has been no word as to whether or not Chelsea will convert to Judaism. The ceremony was held near the town of Rhinebeck, a moneyed and quiet town. The ceremony conducted by Rabbi James Ponet and Reverend William Shillady combined elements of both traditions including friends and family reading the Seven Blessings from traditional Jewish tradition and the exchanging of vows and rings which is typically Christian.

The majority of the guests were friends of the couple from college and work. Both attended Stnaford university, and Chelsea recently received her Masters from Columbia University’s Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health.

Family were there including Marie Clinton Bruno, a cousin of Bill Clinton who reminisced about how, at ten, Chelsea was a bridesmaid at Clinton Bruno’s wedding in 1990. According to Bruno “She was just a wonderful bridesmaid. She’s just as wonderful today as she was back then.”

Speculation about who might show up included Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Streisand, Steven Spielberg, and more, but none of them appear to have been invited. Vernon Jordan, a long time friend of the Clinton family was there, however.

Many people compared the wedding to that of a royal wedding, but it was far more subdued. Apparently, the young couple were more than happy to have a fairly quiet, if well protected, wedding.

Source1
Source2

07/30/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

Rosie O’Donnell isn’t the only outspoken woman who disaproves of Obama appearing on The View. Former Alaskan Governor for half a term, Sarah Palin is letting us all know, over twitter, what she would have done if she were President instead of him. She would have gone to the US-Mexican border, in face she is going there soon. Because the border is porous, like the sponges that the hockey moms use to wash their dishes of American love and pride and that’s not a good thing.

President w/no time to visit porous US/Mexican border to offer help to those risking life to secure us,but lotso’ time to chat on The View?

about 15 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

I’m headed to border in near future… let’s see how quickly his travel schedule will allow that border visit after all. about 15 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

Who would have ever thought that Sarah Palin and Rosie O’Donnell would ever have anything in common?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Rosie O’Donnell Disaproves of President Obama’s Appearance on “The View” (lezgetreal.com)
• Does Nicki Minaj Love Cassie? (lezgetreal.com)
• The Real L Word Recap: Episode 6 (lezgetreal.com)
• Sarah Palin is OK Bristol is Marrying Levi; Kathy Griffin is Not (lezgetreal.com)
• Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin are Gettin’ Hitched (lezgetreal.com)
• Christine Quinn Supports Blocking Arizona Immigration Law (lezgetreal.com)
• Sara Gilbert Officially Comes Out (lezgetreal.com)
• Elizabeth Hasslebeck Thinks Mature Women Can’t Get Men (lezgetreal.com)

The following is the entire exchange between the Advocate reporter and Secretary Gibbs:

The Advocate: A growing number of people have started to call on the administration not to defend what the president refers to as the “so-called” Defense of Marriage Act — including Steve Hildebrand last week and the Human Rights Campaign, which is the largest LGBT community lobby and, quite frankly, it’s usually fairly favorable toward the administration, so it was a turnaround for them to call on the administration not to defend that law.

The president has called DOMA discriminatory. Does the president believe that a discriminatory law is constitutional?

Robert Gibbs: I don’t … the president hasn’t to the best of my … I have not heard the president intone what he believes the constitutionality of the law is. I know that he believes the law should be changed.

Legal decisions around next steps in that case, I believe, will be made at the Justice Department and I would point you over there to them.

Again, the president believes, in this case, and the president believes in the case of “don’t ask, don’t tell” that those are laws that he has believed for quite some time should be changed.

At the very least, it would be advantageous for President Obama, or at least Attorney General Eric Holder, to offer an explanation as to what their rationale behind defending DOMA in court is. While it is possible that Holder is pushing the defense in large part because, if they do not, other groups may come in to push a defense of DOMA that would be far more risky for the LGBT Community. So far, the Department of Justice has not offered a decent defense of DOMA.

07/29/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

Rosie O’Donnell, who used to spend her mornings arguing with intolerant Harpy Elizabeth Hasslebeck on The View, thinks that President Obama should have better things to do besides make an appearance on the show. Little things like, the oil spill in the gulf, our two unofficial wars, unemployment and that whole gay thing…the wassitsit? Don’t Ask Don’t something. I think. You might have heard of it.

Anywho, on her XM talk show yesterday, Rosie tore into the President, saying: “I don’t really think sitting presidents should do fluffy daytime TV shows.” [Source]

In the President’s defense (because who DOESN”T need me to defend them?) he can’t be all work and no play. He still needs people to think he is a totally cool dude or whatever in order to stay President and accomplish whatever it is he wants to accomplish in office.

Thanks to Jezebel.com for posting the video of Obama’s appearance, you too can now watch him talk about Snooki, Mel Gibson, Shirley Sherrod, Lindsay Lohan, the unemployed and why he doesn’t label as biracial.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Rosie O’Donnell Wants to Help Lindsay Lohan (lezgetreal.com)
• Jane Lynch Talks About Being Out in Hollywood (lezgetreal.com)
• Christian Newswire Blames Ellen’s Gayness for Poor American Idol Ratings (lezgetreal.com)
• TMZ Compares Elena Kagan to Chaz Bono (lezgetreal.com)
• President Obama To Appear On Day Time Talkshow “The View” (lezgetreal.com)
• Elizabeth Hasslebeck Thinks Mature Women Can’t Get Men (lezgetreal.com)

http://lezgetreal.com/?p=40509 07/27/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Texas Republicans are planning on “welcoming” President Barack Obama with what appears to be some form of protest rally that they are claiming is designed “to send him a message once again – since he hasn’t gotten it yet – to keep his hands off our state.” Well, if Governor Rick Perry would just hurry up and secede from the Union, the United States could go ahead, enact come really strong tariffs, and cut off all funds that are funneled to Texas, that could be accomplished along with sending Texas down into the pit of being a Third World nation.

Losing both Republican Senators would make it that much easier for the Democrats to engage in actually advancing the country in a progressive and inclusive manner as well. Without both Texas Senators, the filibuster threshold would only be fifty-nine, and the Democrats could easily get that.

Currently, Rasmussen polling is showing that only 37% of Texans approve of how Obama is doing his job, and 63% disapprove. Given that Obama did not carry Texas, this is not a huge surprise.

Texas, like many low tax Republican lead states, receives far more money from the Federal Government than they put into the Federal Government. Texas is also facing a massive shortfall in funds this year, even with all the stimulus money that is going into closing the budgetary gap.

Of course, given that the Texas GOP is anti-LGBT, anti-Hispanic, and pretty much anti-Progress, it should not be surprised that they are engaging in this kind of idiocy. President Obama will be in Texas on 9 August to fundraise for Democratic candidates.

Source

]]> http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/anti-lgbt-texas-gop-planning-to-tell-president-obama-hands-off-our-state/feed/ 3 http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/lesbian-officer-at-center-of-dadt-catch-22-flap-to-be-discharged/ http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/lesbian-officer-at-center-of-dadt-catch-22-flap-to-be-discharged/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:46:59 +0000 Bridgette P. LaVictoire http://lezgetreal.com/?p=40291 07/26/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
While Lieutenant Dan Choi was making his beau geste at Netroots Nation, the policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell claimed another victim. First Lieutenant Robin Chaurasiya is set to be discharged from the military. She has decided to go to Mumbai, India to work full time for a charity helping impoverished girls. The charity is one that she started. Her parents are originally from Mumbai.

She said “It’s definately going to be a bittersweet day on Monday. You can’t just deny the fact this has been a huge part of my life for how many years, ever since I started ROTC.” She is now twenty-five.

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley gave the order for her discharge. She is a communications officer with the 375th Air Wing. Chaurasiya is from Seattle, which is where she joined the Air Force via the Reserve Officers Training Corps. She received a scholarship to the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and now she has to refund some $16,000 of her scholarship. About the debt, she said “It’s huge. It’s going to impede anything I do as far as education or getting a loan, things like that.”

Regarding her discharge, she stated “You know, honestly, this whole process has really shown me that change is going to take a long, long time. I don’t have the faith anymore that it’s going to happen. In that regard, I’m not sorry to be leaving an incredibly prejudiced and discriminatory institution.”

Chaurasiya is being discharged a little more than a year since arriving at Scott Air Force Base. Her discharge began with a simple email in which she stated that she was dating a St. Louis woman. Unfortunately, the email went to a man she had once dated, and he forwarded it to Chaurasiya’s commanding officer at the base. The officer told her “If I were you, I would make sure that nobody else makes such claims on my character.” That statement, apparently, put Chaurasiya over the edge, and she declared in a memo to her commander that she would not deal with him treating her sexual orientation as a problem.

Under the rarely enforced ‘Don’t Pursue’ portion of the DADT law, officers are suppose to ignore third party sources of information regarding a person’s sexuality.

After the memo, the military began a preliminary separation proceeding, and Chaurasiya was certain that she was going to be discharged. She and then-girlfriend got married in New Hampshire. After the trip to New Hampshire, she found out that the Air Force was not going to discharge her because a three-star general had determined she was acknowledging her sexual orientation in order to be kicked from the military. She could stay, but they put one condition on it. “I was encouraged to keep my mouth shut, basically, and that’s what really irked me about this ruling was that no only were they keeping you in, but you have to shut up about it.”

So, she contacted reporters and the embarrassment of the whole thing brought about renewed discharge proceedings. A repeal of DADT is underway, but it has not been voted upon by the full House or Senate, and it will still need the completion of the review that is being done and for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen and President Barack Obama to sign off on it before it is repealed.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Catch 44? Air Force Reverses Decision To Discharge Lesbian Officer (lezgetreal.com)

]]> http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/lesbian-officer-at-center-of-dadt-catch-22-flap-to-be-discharged/feed/ 1 http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/president-obama-to-appear-on-day-time-talkshow-the-view/ http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/president-obama-to-appear-on-day-time-talkshow-the-view/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:48:39 +0000 Bridgette P. LaVictoire http://lezgetreal.com/?p=40276 07/26/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
On Thursday, President Barack Obama will become the first sitting US President to appear on daytime talk television. He will be appearing on “The View”. The episode will air on Thursday, but be taped on Wednesday. The topics for the interview will include jobs, the economy, the Gulf Oil Disaster, and how the Obama family is adjusting to life in the White House.

Right now, ABC News and “The View” have not addressed a controversy within the LGBT Community to anyone’s satisfaction. A recent show involving comedian D.L. Hughley included some incredibly inaccurate information about the spread of HIV/AIDS in the African-American Community. According to Hughley, the disease is spreading because of bisexual men having intercourse with women and men without protection. Hughley’s information is inaccurate according to the CDC.

President Obama has been having some problems with his image of late and could use the positive exposure. Recent polling shows that a plurality either do not know if they would vote for Obama for a second term or would not vote for him at all.

Thursday will also mark the return of the show’s creator Barbara Walters. She has been out since having heart valve replacement surgery in May. Eighty year old Walters announced that she will be returning to the show full-time in September, and it is likely that she chose to return a bit early for such a high profile guest. Walters said in a statement “We are so pleased and honored that President Obama will be a guest on ‘The View.’ This shows that both the President and the First Lady feel that our show is an influential and important source of information and news.”

]]> http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/president-obama-to-appear-on-day-time-talkshow-the-view/feed/ 0 http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/at-netroots-nation-senator-reid-promises-end-to-dadt-reform-of-filibuster/ http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/at-netroots-nation-senator-reid-promises-end-to-dadt-reform-of-filibuster/#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:03:48 +0000 Bridgette P. LaVictoire http://lezgetreal.com/?p=40178 07/25/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
It was a beau geste to be sure. Daniel Choi gave Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid his West Point ring as a gift, but Reid stated that he could accept the ring. Instead, in the usual pantomime, Reid stated that he would keep the ring safe and pledged to repeal the law known as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. “He earned his ring. I’m going to give it back to him. . .When the bill’s signed, I’ll keep it safely and then give it back to him,” Reid stated. Choi joined Reid up on the stage and gave him a hug. Given that it is unlikely that the Republicans would try to filibuster the bill containing the repeal language, it seems likely that Choi will have his ring back at the beginning of next year. The audience urged Reid to keep the ring until the law was repealed. They gave him a standing ovation afterwards.

The likelihood of an amendment being added to the Defense Budget to derail repeal is unlikely to pass, especially since it is likely to come from the Republicans. It would require sixty votes to strip the amendment from the Senate’s version of the bill. The repeal language would require that Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and President Barack Obama sign off on the repeal before it could become official. The bill still has to be passed and signed into law.

Of greater import is the pledge by Senator Reid to reform the filibuster should the Democrats retain their majority in the Senate next year. Reid, who is up for reelection this year, said at Netroots Nation “In the early days of baseball, you could throw a spitball, there was nothing wrong with that. They abused the system, and they outlawed the spitball. Now this Republican Senate has started abusing the rules, so we’re going to have to change it.” The Republicans have, due to their 41 seat minority, been able to block a large majority of the legislation needed to combat global climate change, reign in Wall Street, and even pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which currently does not have enough votes to get passed a probable filibuster in the Senate. Unfortunately, some Blue Dog Democrats feel that it is acceptable to play games with the lives of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transpeople in order to try and hedge off defeat in the upcoming election by appealing to the bigots.

Many of those Blue Dogs are going to lose in the upcoming election anyway.

Reid went on to lament the fact that the public option was killed by the Republicans and their filibuster power, and that the climate change bill had to be parred back because of a potential filibuster. Unfortunately, activist groups like Get Equal have been more than willing to target Senator Reid and House Speaker Pelosi rather than going after Senators Blanche Lincoln or Ben Nelson on their votes to try and pressure them into changing their vote on critical legislation.

The RightOnline conference, which drew in very little support, stated that the Republicans should not vote for anything that the Democrats proposed in the way of climate legislation. In doing so, they proved Reid correct that the Republicans do not want to engage in any kind of bipartisanship.

]]> http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/at-netroots-nation-senator-reid-promises-end-to-dadt-reform-of-filibuster/feed/ 2 http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/president-obama-were-fighting-are-you/ http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/president-obama-were-fighting-are-you/#comments Sat, 24 Jul 2010 19:00:04 +0000 Bridgette P. LaVictoire http://lezgetreal.com/?p=40095 07/24/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictorie
President Barack Obama, we have been holding you accountable and you have not listened. You have done little to make sure that this nation moves forward in a progressive manner and done a lot in order to make sure that those who got us into this mess are rewarded. You have let Congress water down time and again the legislation which is necessary to protect the people of this nation all the while rewarding the bigots, the oligarches, and the elites in the same manner that your predecessor did. The economy is in tatters because politicians listening to the rich believed the idiocy known as supply side, trickle down economics. The stuff that is better known as voodoo economics. You have not stood up and lead your Party, and instead, have let Congress run amok. You have let weak kneed Harry Reid turn the Senate into a Republican arse kissing arena. You have let Nancy Pelosi pursue her own agenda unchecked.

At one time, Mr. President, the presidency of this nation was just what you are today. The President was there to sign bills, to enforce laws, and to defend them no matter what. That day and age has long since passed. We are now in a century when the President shapes legislation and controls the party that he is the nominal head of. Without your guidance, the party is busy working on doing what ever it wants, and that means that vital legislation has now been lost because of your dithering and weakness, Mr. President.

The Climate Change bill is gone. It was done in by the reluctance of certain Democrats and a whole lot of money from lobbyists from the oil, coal, and gas industries even when it was painfully obvious that, as far as these people were concerned, money was more important than lives and money was more important than protecting the environment. A large swath of the East Coast could soon become uninhabitable because of the natural gas extraction that is going on, but why should that matter so long as you and those who fund you can reap money off the suffering of others.

Economically, we’re in the pits because rather than standing firm against the idiocy of the Tea Party, you caved in and kowtowed to them and to the Wall Street demands regarding protecting their money sources. Right now, the bulk of our money is tied up in the wealthiest individuals in this nation and they are not able to buy enough to either return the tax revenue lost to the tax cuts for them, nor are they spending enough to keep the economy going. Money has to flow, and if that means that the government has to ‘redistribute’ it, then so be it. The government is one of the largest money engines in the nation. It is suppose to ‘redistribute’ money from the top to the bottom in order to keep the money flowing because the rich can never buy enough goods to generate that kind of monetary flow.

On LGBT rights, maybe if you were out there in full force advocating for our rights, Mr. President, we would not be hearing excuses from Speaker Pelosi. We would not hear from her on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act “It was next on my agenda, but then ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was pushed.” This did not have to be an either/or situation. Both bills could have been easily done, especially if we had you pushing for them both, and if we had not had the fear mongers up there screaming about bathrooms. DADT could have been repealed quickly and without any heavy lifting. the Employment Non-Discrimination Act was an easy win, until it became absolutely obvious just how weak you are Mr. President. Because of your weakness we are hearing this from Pelosi as well “Making sure the bill is fully inclusive will take time.” About the only problem with ENDA is that it needs a bit of tweaking on the gender inclusion language, but that is all. She went on to say “We want to make sure we win this vote by more than a slim majority.” Given the support that this bill has, it should not require a slim majority to pass. It should pass handily. Both bills have broad support across this nation, but rather than standing up for the majority, you have kowtowed to a minority of bigots who are more interested in making sure that lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transpeople are kept second class citizens.

Shirley Sharrod is correct, Mr. President, you do not know what it is like to be an ordinary person struggling to survive and put food on the table. At one point, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the same way. That was, until he went to Georgia and found out what it was like to be dirt poor in the Rural South. Take a drive through Brunswick, Georgia sometime, Mr. President. Take a look at how the poverty, lack of healthcare, lack of equality, and the lack of help eats away at people.

I remember those drives, Mr. President. I remember seeing people who looked like they had been hollowed out. They walked like zombies. It is time, Mr. President, to put this nation back to helping the poor and the helpless.

It is time to do that before this nation is no more.

(This editorial was written in response to comments made by President Obama via tape at Netroots Nation.)

]]> http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/president-obama-were-fighting-are-you/feed/ 1 http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/obama-administration-again-defends-dadt-in-court/ http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/obama-administration-again-defends-dadt-in-court/#comments Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:41:34 +0000 Paula Brooks http://lezgetreal.com/?p=40049 7/24/10-by Paula Brooks
The Obama Justice Department is again defending “Don’t Ask, “Don’t Tell”, the US Military policy that bans gays and lesbians from openly serving in the Armed Forces and has filed a motion for summary judgment in the case of Major Margaret Witt.

Witt is a Spokane, WA Air Force reservist nurse who entered the service in 1987 and was discharged under DADT after 18 years of service.

A district court had originally dismissed her suit for a failure to state a claim. However Witt appealed to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals where that court held that each individual service member’s discharge under DADT must be necessary to “advance an important governmental interest,” and remanded the case to the district court for further analysis. Since that ruling, service personnel at bases in the Ninth Circuit have been covered by that higher standard.

In its motion  yesterday, the Justice Department, after it acknowledged in a footnote  Obama’s opposition to DADT as a policy matter, again vigorously defended the statute and said that Congress was reasonable in barring open service by lesbians and gays over concerns about deployments involving forced intimacy and a lack of privacy.

The Justice Department brief went on to contend that the Department of Defense needs a uniform rule to apply for DADT discharges, and rather than agreeing with the higher burden imposed by the Ninth Circuit in the Witt case in 2008, argued for a standard that will allow the DoD more easily remove dedicated service members based on their sexual orientation.

The administration also requested that the district court acknowledge that Witt’s discharge was necessary in order for the Air Force to maintain military effectiveness and unit cohesion.

After the filing, Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese criticized the Obama Justice Department’s continued defense of “Don’t Ask, “Don’t Tell” (DADT) saying “Once again, the Justice Department insists on defending an indefensible statute, and in ways that reinforce ridiculous, offensive stereotypes about LGBT people and demeans the service of the thousands of men and women discharged under DADT.”

“We agree on one point, though – there must be a uniform standard for the enforcement of DADT: repeal. President Obama must fulfill his promise to the country and work with the Senate to finish the job repealing this arcane and discriminatory law now,” said Solmonese.

]]> http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/obama-administration-again-defends-dadt-in-court/feed/ 2 http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/log-cabin-republicans-to-rest-in-dadt-lawsuit/ http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/log-cabin-republicans-to-rest-in-dadt-lawsuit/#comments Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:04:26 +0000 Bridgette P. LaVictoire http://lezgetreal.com/?p=40015 07/23/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
President Barack Obama’s Justice Department has been placed in the awkward position of having to defend laws that it does not approve of and does not like, and to do so in a manner which requires them to balance between angering the Religious Right by not pushing hard to defend these laws or angering the LGBT Community by defending these laws at all. The Obama Administration has opted for a very weak defense of these laws, and has already seen one defeat on the Defense of Marriage Act, much to the dismay of Brian Brown and company.

With regards to the case brought by the Log Cabin Republicans, it is possible that US District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips will hold off any ruling to see if Congress repeals the legislation before the case can work its way through the courts fully. The lawyers for the Log Cabin Republicans are planning to ask Judge Phillips to declare the law unconstitutional, but the Obama Administration is more than willing to push the idea that the law should be repealed through Congress.

The only evidence that the DoJ presented was the legislative history of the law.

The Log Cabin Republicans argued that DADT violates the Constitutional rights of lesbian and gay servicemembers. Specifically, according to lead lawyer Dan Woods, it violates their rights of free speech, due process and open association. So far, the law has forced 13,500 servicemembers out of the military since 1994.

Congress is currently inching slowly towards a repeal of DADT, but it will only happen when the Defense bill is brought up for a vote, likely in September. Woods is planning on asking Judge Phillips to put the law in abeyance if the DoJ lawyers appeal a favorable ruling declaring DADT unconstitutional.

Servicemembers United Executive Director Alex Nicholson testified during the trial. Nine years ago, he was discharged from the military at the age of twenty. Nicholson was recently interviewed about his testimony and offered this bit of insight into what the DoJ was doing with their case “Let me say first – the Justice Department, I think, wanted black and white answers and the answers are not black and white – they’re shades of gray. They are nuanced, they are contextual, it requires, at times, a little bit of explaining to really understand an answer. It’s not always a yes, no. So a good example is – they wanted to focus on what caused my discharge. They wanted me to admit that the cause for my discharge was me and my lawyer turning in my formal admission at the very end of the process.”

Nicholson was discharged after someone found out that he was gay, not from his own admission before hand.

When discussing the fact that he was discharged after very little service, Nicholson made mention of “the Justice Department wanted to focus on that was really irrelevant. Their focus on it was very brief – they didn’t linger on it. But they wanted to point out some things related to that. But I think them focusing on that really missed the big picture here.”

The DoJ has been placed in a bind. If they defend these laws vigorously, then they run the risk of completely alienating the LGBT Community, but if they do not defend them at all, they invite groups like the National Organization for Marriage to come in and defend the laws in a manner which may be far more vile and problematic.

The DoJ does not have to defend the laws, and does not have to do so vigorously. It is also likely that they could, easily, prevent outside groups from defending these laws.

Source1
Source2

]]> http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/log-cabin-republicans-to-rest-in-dadt-lawsuit/feed/ 4 http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/elena-kagan-nomination-passes-senate-judiciary-committee/ http://lezgetreal.com/2010/07/elena-kagan-nomination-passes-senate-judiciary-committee/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:39:23 +0000 Melanie Nathan http://lezgetreal.com/?p=39619

Image via Wikipedia

Melanie Nathan 7-20-2919

Moments ago, Elena Kagan’s nomination moved one step closer to “Justice”, ( SCOTUS)  passing out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with one Republican vote by Lindsey Graham.

Despite Jeff Sessions,  the Republcan  ranking member and his usual nonsensical rants, the controversial, yet “safe”  Obama nominee Elana Kagan is now on to the next step.

Elena Kagan (pronounced /ˈkeɪɡən/; born April 28, 1960)^[2] is the Solicitor General of the United States and a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kagan was born and raised in New York City. After attending Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard Law School, she completed federal Court of Appeals and Supreme Court clerkships. She began her career as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, leaving to serve as an Associate White House Counsel and later policy adviser under President Bill Clinton. After a nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which expired without action, she became a professor at Harvard Law School and was later named its Dean.

She was appointed Solicitor General by President Barack Obama on January 26, 2009. On May 10, 2010, Obama nominated Kagan to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy from the impending retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens at the end of the Supreme Court’s 2009–2010 term.^[4][5]

Related articles by Zemanta

• OBAMA Picks Kagan for SCOTUS (lezgetreal.com)

On Friday, Charla Halverson, President of the Dane County Young Republicans, formally challenged Tammy Baldwin’s nomination papers. She chose to go toe to toe over this issue on the LezGetReal comment section, specifically engaging Dr. Paula Brooks in some specific banter related to the futility of their challenge. Ms Halverson published an email sent by Dr. Brooks to the Dane County Young Republicans under the heading “The Challenge Has Gotten A Lesbian Groups Feathers Ruffled.”

Dr. Brooks currently lives in Washington, DC. She is the publisher and managing editor of Lez Get Real. She has her Doctorate in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College. She has three Masters. Her first is from Gallaudet University and is a Masters in Linguistics. She has a Masters in Greek, Latin and Classical Archaeology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an Masters in Religious Studies from University of Dayton.

Here is Dr. Brooks, the editor of Lez Get Real to discuss this particular issue:

LGR: Dr. Brooks, LGR is now just shy of two years old, in that time, what groups have you taken on that have noticed your and your staff’s work here?

Dr. Brooks: Well if I understand your question right, we have not spared many from just criticism. We started calling out President Obama on his lack of action on LGBT issues as far back as March of 2009, and the HRC is never been spared, as you know. And we really see the efforts of Get Equal and Lt Dan Choi as more then counter productive. I like to think we know what is right and just what is not right.

LGR: Given that the title of the Young Republicans post regarding your email to them states that this small organization is a ‘group’, just how large an organization is LezGetReal?

Dr. Brooks: Well as you know Bridg, at one time LGR was pretty much just you and me, and while we have grown, we are hardly a group. We are basicly 4 writers in DC, San Francisco, New York City and Vermont. Then we have about 7 others who also contribute to the site. So if that makes a group, well then we are a group.

LGR: Would you say that your feathers were ruffled?

Dr. Brooks: I am 4-11, deaf, and a lesbian. I know bullying, and what the YR of DC is doing is bullying, albeit they are trying to put a whole different spin on this. They use pretty words, and admirable jargon, but what they are doing is taking any chance they can of getting Rep Baldwin out of office and they have decided to manufacture an issue. If Baldwin should give out her address, they win because you can be sure in the hostile climate of Wisconsin, someone will look her up. If she doesn’t, they win because then they can run around yell she does not live in the district, and have their own little Birth Certificate controversy. I hate bullies and I told them as much.

LGR: You have met several politicians in your time in Washington, DC, and even attended the inauguration of President Barack Obama, have you met Rep. Baldwin at any time while you were there?

Dr. Brooks: No, unfortunately I have not.

LGR: Given that both you and Representative Baldwin are lesbians, does sexual orientation play any part in why you have sought through your writers to defend Baldwin? Given that she is the only open lesbian in the Congress, could that play a factor in wanting to keep her in her seat?

Dr. Brooks: No mostly I have a real low tolerance for Chicken Shit, and this is in my opinion Chicken Shit. This looks almost like the chicken shit that got pulled down in Mississippi on McMillian. Play the technicalities and obstruficate  facts to bash the gay. I feel if they don’t like her orientation, say hey we hate fags, but they know people look down on a plain talking bigot, so they go the David Duke pretty word way. This is just more of that I think.

Now I see the timing of this as very planned. They dumped this challenge on Friday so no one can get a direct answer from Baldwin all weekend. They wanted people to  chew on it before she could answer, but I am sure they never asked Baldwin about any of this before they did this.

LGR: Politically speaking, you are someone that has been described as center-right, why defend someone who is seen as being liberal?

Dr. Brooks: As you know, I am a small business owner. I hate taxes, government regulations drive me nuts, and I own a Glock. I could be a Republican if they would just let go of the haters in their party, but they need the money, and fell they need their vote. So I can’t support them. How could I? They want to deny me my rights.

LGR: There are several LGBT groups which are disappointed that the three openly lesbian or gay politicians- Reps Polis, Frank and Baldwin- have not managed to get a great deal of pro-LGBT legislation through Congress, is your site taking a more pragmatic view of the political landscape than those?

Dr. Brooks: I am disappointed with the progress on LGBT rights, but I work in DC and get the dynamic here. No matter who they put in office here, and no matter how much they say they will change the system, it will not happen. So you have to understand you can’t get everything you want all the time.

LGR: It is known that Rep. Baldwin has not listed her current residence inside her district in Wisconsin on her nomination papers, do you have any formal information regarding a cause for that?

Dr. Brooks: Not beyond what we have already found out.. no. However I have taken a step back and asked Melanie Nathan to contact Rep Baldwin’s office to ask her about just what is going on here. I am sure what we have is Baldwin broke up with her partner, and this bunch took advantage of the fact , thinking someone had to move out, and they are attempting to make hay out of that, but till Rep Baldwin gets back to us I can’t really comment.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Repub Group: Invalidate Tammy Baldwin’s Nomination Papers (advocate.com)
• Rep. Tammy Baldwin and Partner Lauren Azar Dissolving Partnership (lezgetreal.com)

Part of the problem with regards to the slowdown and even halt of LGBT related legislation comes from a certain disconnect between the political class and the voting public. Many Blue Dog Dems and Moderate Republicans are unaware of just how much the nation has changed with regards to these issues. It is not necessarily that most of the American public care about these issues, but it is about how much they do not care about these issues. Except for the hardcore Republican base, the majority of Americans feel that it is time to offer employment and housing discrimination protections for lesbians, gays and even transpeople. Despite the claims about how people will be uncomfortable sharing a bathroom with a transperson, the reality is that most people would not bat an eye lash over it.

The only real hot button issue that the majority of Americans feel anything about is marriage rights. Most Americans oppose the use of the term ‘marriage’ in relation to LGBT couples; however, even that is changing slowly.

The problem with Get Equal is that it is about tactics and not strategy. Rather than fighting to help our allies, they attack them. Rather than fighting our enemies, they inadvertently support them.

In the end, Get Equal has more problems than it wants to admit too all the while pulling down lots of money and keeping its interal organization secret. Welcome to Gay Inc., Get Equal.

So far, the Republicans have done a poor job of showing how they are not the party of ‘no’. After all, they are the part of ‘no regulation’, ‘no taxation’, ‘no unemployment benefits’, ‘no jobs’, etc.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor stated “House Republicans have engaged with the American people to develop innovative solutions that meet the serious challenges facing our country.” Yes, indeed, they have on the “GOP Solutions” website by getting rid of everything that they do not agree with.

However, New York Representative King was a little too honest with regards to the lack of an agenda on the part of the Republicans.

From the Bill Bennett radio show:

BENNETT: Is it enough for Republicans to say we are opposed to what [Obama's] doing — stimulus, health care, we don’t like what he’s doing with the government, and look at the job situation — or do we need to have meat on the bones? And say, this is what we are for? Do we have to have positive proposals? [...]

KING: So, It’s a combination of being against what Obama is for, and also giving certain specifics of what we are for. Having said that, I don’t think we have to lay out a complete agenda, from top to bottom, because then we would have the national mainstream media jumping on every point trying to make that a campaign issue.

And later in the interview:

KING: That’s where we have to make a much more intelligent argument and defend the Bush tax cuts. Because after all the years of the Bush tax cuts, after two wars, after September 11th, as of 2007, the deficit was down to $165 billion, which is almost chump change by today’s standard. No, the tax cuts is what saved our economy. People forget, they have this talk about how there was a $6.5 trillion surplus projected when President Bush come in. The fact is, he inherited a severe economic downturn — the third quarter of 2000, the first quarter of 2001, the economy was tanking. Then we had September 11th, then we did have two wars — both of which I’ve supported — and with all of that, the economy continued to add jobs, and by 2006, 2007 the deficit was being dramatically reduced.

Of course, we already know the Republican agenda. Oppose everything that President Barack Obama stands for, and jettison everything from healthcare reform to Wall Street reform. Get rid of everything that protects the American people from the businesses that would, if given the chance, poison and kill them.

According to Mafara Hobson, DC mayor Adrian Fenty’s communications director, “after carefully examining video and speaking with the officers involved, it was determined that the charges couldn’t be maintained.” Apparently the failure to obey an officer charges “make it an offense for a person, whether in a car or on foot, to remain on a sidewalk or in the street after a police officer tells them to move on.”

Hobson stated ”While chained to the fence, the defendant was standing on a ledge – NOT – the sidewalk. As such, he was not blocking pedestrian traffic. Once that was realized, the focus of the investigation shifted to what happened immediately prior to his handcuffing himself (i.e., was he blocking the sidewalk at that time and did an officer ask him to move on). After interviewing law enforcement, it was determined that the defendant had not been asked to move on at that point. Therefore, he could not be prosecuted for any activity prior to the handcuffing either.”

The US Department of Justice directed inquiries to the DC Attorney General’s Office. White House spokesman Shin Inouye did respond to one inquiry stating that the White House had not intervened in the case to have the charges dismissed.

This must be disappointing to Lt. Choi who said he believed that the reason why the charges were dropped had to do with the White House not wanting to bring attention to their policies and compromises on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Of course, had Choi not been hiding in Dick Cheney’s secret bunker, he would have seen the news covering the leak of the DADT survey and the controversy that it causes.

DC AG Peter Nickles did not issue any statement.

Image via Wikipedia

7/15/10-by Paula Brooks
In the wake of Argentina’s historic passage this morning of a bill that gives all Argentineans equal access to marriage…

We’d like President Obama to take note just how a “Fierce Advocate” should act…. As Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner forcefully and eloquently comes out for marriage equality and the rights of all citizens of her country, despite strong opposition from the Catholic Church in a country where ninety-one percent of the population identifies as Catholic.

Behold… Real Leadership

Related articles by Zemanta

• We Cheer for You Argentina! Argentina Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage (lezgetreal.com)
• Bil Browning: This is what a fierce advocate looks like (huffingtonpost.com)

I speak for the LGBT Community. I do not mean that I am some kind of lesbian messiah, but that my voice reflects upon the LGBT Community. Everything that I say can and will be held against each and every one of my sisters and brothers in the LGBT Community. It is the same for every voice within the LGBT Community. We may not like that, but so long as my voice is being heard by someone, it can and likely will be used against us as a whole. It does not matter that my voice is my own opinion or slant on the news stories. What I say will be used to damn every last lesbian, gay, and transperson in the world. While we act as individuals, we are all held collectively responsible.

This is how the Tea Party is racist. Certainly many of the individuals within the Tea Party are not racist, homophobic, transphobic or bigoted. The problem is that enough of them are and enough of them are visibly so that all members of the Tea Party are racists. What is worse, this is even more true because many within the Tea Party are unwilling to condemn the racists that are within the overall movement. By claiming that the Tea Party is not racist and laying down the idea that the throwback in this whole thing is the NAACP, what many people do is simply perpetuate this belief that these statements, images and actions are not racism.

Racism, homophobia, misogyny are all rife within the Tea Party movement in the same way that they are not uncommon even within the LGBT movement. Tea Party placards showing President Barack Obama done up as a voodoo god are racist, and incidentally, the exact way that he is depicted equates him with a specific voodoo god. You will have to forgive me for not knowing which one as my training is predominantly in Pre-Christian European cultures. Tea Party slogans do not have to use racially charged words in order to be racist because the actions can be racist just as easily. The verbal assault on Members of Congress for being black or gay was not an isolated incident, and there are reports of many a white supremacist group rifling through the Tea Party groups to try and find recruits.

Whether the Tea Party- or the LGBT Community- likes it or not, we are all our brother’s keeper. What one of us does reflects on all of us, and that is especially true in this day and age. If we do not condemn a racist placard, a racist speech, misogyny or homophobia and transphobia, then we tacitly give the worst within our movements permission.

For the LGBT Community, the problems are not as rife, but they are there. For the Tea Party, it is far worse. Far too many of the people in the leadership are willing to not only not condemn blatant racism, but claim that it is not racism at all. It does not matter how many Tea Party people call for gang raping Nancy Pelosi or Michelle Obama. It does not matter if Rush Limbaugh talks about George Steinbrenner in a racist and race baiting manner. If these people are not condemned, then they are given permission to be racists, homophobes and misogynists.

For us in the LGBT Community, this is something that we are, slowly, becoming aware of. In the Tea Party, however, they are oblivious and angry that they are being called racists, homophobes and misogynists.

‘The government does not wish to proceed on these cases at this time,” Christine Chang, special assistant to the attorney general, told D.C. Superior Court Judge Fredrick J. Sullivan.

Lt. Choi and Capt. Pietrangelo’s lawyer had subpoenaed President Barack Obama, though it would be doubtful that he would have appeared in court anyway. Outside the courthouse Choi stated ”The policy is not gone, so as an officer I still have a responsibility and a duty to speak out for those people who don’t have a voice… I’m not going to stop until Obama does, and this country does what is needed to make sure that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is fully gone.”

Choi also said that he was not surprised by the government decision not to pursue the charges.

”We were all ready to show exactly what ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ was in a very public way,” he said. ”We were so serious to the point that we subpoenaed our commander in chief.”

Prosecutor Christine Chang has not issued a statement as to why the charges were dropped. Even if it had gone forward, it is likely that not many people would have covered the trial anyway. Most people were pretty much ignoring it.
Charges dropped against gay veteran protester

There have been complaints of the media finding as obscure a view point in order to “balance” out the views of the majority of people as if there was some debate over the issue at hand. This is a classic example where there is no need for debate as there is a very strong consensus that repeal is needed. The need to ask the Alliance Defense Fund to come on television in order to whine about how their religious freedoms are being trampled in an erroneous and misleading statement is just wasteful at this point.

Whitlock stated about the two segments that MSNBC stated “It was hardly a case of hearing two sides, however. Both guests favored allowing homosexuals to serve openly.” Oh yes, and both men, Richard Grenell and Lieutenant Dan Choi, are gay.

Grenell is, according to the segment, “a conservative columnist, former spokesman to John Bolton and three other U.S. ambassadors and believes Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell should be repealed.”

In the course of the interview with Brewer, he stated “The Democrats are raising money off this issue. They want it to be a political issue. They are making this a political issue. They are choosing to make this a non-civil rights issue. They want this issue to go into the fall. They want to raise money and they want to make sure that Americans are constantly talking about this issue. And I think that that’s outrageous.” Which echos the view of many lesbians, gays and transpeople in this nation. (Full transcript follows).

Brewer then does the unforgivable in Whitlock’s eyes and comments on an email that she receives opposing the repeal of DADT. The email states “Homosexuality is a sin issue, not a civil rights issue.” To which- gasp- Brewer responds “Well, you know what Jesus said: Let he who is without sin.” Of course, many of us go a lot further to point out that sin is a religious concept and that there are many sins that the Religious Right ignore in favor of those that they feel are horrifying. These include the sins of greed and idolatry. Of course, it is doubtful that Whitlock and the site that he publishes on do anything like criticize FOX News for their complete lack of balance.

The call for a false balance has been criticized by many non-partisan groups because it often leads to a false sense of debate and a false sense that a given issue has some leeway to it when it often requires bringing in small fringe groups to try and provide balance.

Bringing in anyone to debate for keeping the ban on DADT would be the same as inviting the KKK to come on and debate whether or not the repeal of the Civil Rights Acts is necessary in order to give credence to Rand Paul’s strange ideology.

12:43

BREWER: A new Pentagon survey is stirring up the controversy because it asks very pointed questions about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Some groups even suggest the survey uses homophobic language. 400,000 members of the armed forces got the question via e-mail asking questions about living with gays and using the same showers and same-sex couples in military housing.

The Pentagon is defending the questions. Rick Grenell is a conservative columnist, former spokesman to John Bolton and three other U.S. ambassadors and believes Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell should be repealed. We knew that the survey would happen.

Claire McCaskill, actually, Rick, brought up her concerns about how the questions would be framed. When public policy pollsters conduct surveys to gain credibility and validity they have to formulate truly open ended questions. Do you have a problem with these questions?

RICHARD GRENELL: Well, I think the key to this is having questions at all for a civil rights issue. What’s most surprising is President Obama and Nancy Pelosi that they are actually trying to say that this isn’t a civil rights issue, because clearly by having a questionnaire, they’re not so sure themselves.

And I think the troubling thing for me and for a lot of conservatives is that they campaigned on this issue, that it was a civil rights issue and they were elected, they would end this. You know, when Barack Obama was a senator, he spent a lot of time telling people that it should just be taken care of with an executive order.

Now that he’s president, the executive order excuse goes away and he’s blaming Congress. So, I think it’s really a difficult issue for the Democrats and they campaigned like it was an easy issue.

BREWER: So, to drive this point home and it’s the argument that I made further, that if you put in instead of same-sex or homosexual and used, say, black, here would be the way the sample question would read.

“If a wartime situation made it necessary for you to share a room, birth or field tent with someone you believed to be- insert here black- service-member which are you most likely to do?” And goes on to how you take action. You’re right. That question to service members would never be considered.

And, in fact, when they integrated the military, my understanding is there was no general survey taken to see how service members would feel about it. It was done because it was the right thing to do. That being said, after I asked my big question today, Rick, I got a bunch of E-mail responses in.

And you have people, viewers here who are writing and arguing that it’s not a civil rights issue because being born black is not a choice but being born gay is.

GRENELL: Well, look, what I would say there is I’m a conservative. I think it’s outrageous that we are spending so much money, $4.5 million alone on this survey to investigate someone’s personal life. Whether you believe this is a choice, whether you believe that someone is born gay, I think it goes to the question of why are we wasting so much money to go after someone’s personal life, to investigate? It’s a national security issue when you’re encouraging people to actually lie. I’ve held a top secret security clearance. They want to know everything about you. They want to know that you’re truthful.

BREWER: Right.

GRENELL: At the end of the day people have to remember that individuals in the military are already showering with gay military folk.

BREWER: And, again, regardless of what you think about homosexuality as an issue, that is like arguing you get to choose what region you are as an adult and you still can’t discriminate on the basis of that. I agree with you fully. It is a civil rights issue. Let’s talk about the leadership here. Is it time for our American leaders to stand up for what’s right and no matter what public opinion polls say to have the leadership and the courage to take a stand on it?

GRENELL: Well, I agree. I think, yes, the answer is a definitive yes. However, it’s outrageous to me that this has been dragged through the political sphere. The Democrats are raising money off this issue. They want it to be a political issue. They are making this a political issue. They are choosing to make this a non-civil rights issue. They want this issue to go into the fall. They want to raise money and they want to make sure that Americans are constantly talking about this issue. And I think that that’s outrageous.

BREWER: Rick, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate your time. I appreciate you weighing in. A lot of folks have been weighing in online about why our nation’s leaders aren’t embracing gay rights as is civil rights issue. Clinton Hancock responds, “The politicians are too fearful of their constituents. Sometimes you have to teach your constituents, not just listen to them.

Carolyn Bramblett says, “Homosexuality is a sin issue, not a civil rights issue.” Well, you know what Jesus said: Let he who is without sin. Paul Heimsath writes, “It’s 2010, people. This should not even be an issue.” You can reach out to me. Let me know your thoughts.

Josh Gerstein of Politico has done some really strong analysis with regards to the problems that Obama is facing with regards to the repeal of DADT. Gerstein argues that the biggest mistake that the Obama Administration has made centers on the fact that the Department of Justice has done a lot of arguing to protect laws that they have already stated are wrong and should be removed. He cites Richard Socarides, one of Bill Clinton’s advisors on LGBT issues. According to Socarides, “This has got to be a nightmare for the White House political office, especially as Organizing for America ramps up efforts to rebuild a coalition for the midterms which includes gays. I want the Democrats to keep both houses of Congress more than most. It’s very important that we do that if gay rights are important to you. So I can’t understand why the president’s senior advisers permit the Justice Department to defend this case. … It’s incomprehensible.”

The case he is discussing is the one brought by the Log Cabin Republicans arguing that DADT is unconstitutional. According to the White House, they must defend all laws that are sued even if they do not agree with them. There are several lawyers within the LGBT movement who scoff at this rationale. They cite several examples whereby the DoJ has refused to defend laws which they believed were unconstitutional. Here in lies the problem. In a way, both the White House and the lawyers are correct. While the Constitution does not expressly state that they have to defend laws that they do not agree with, the spirit of the Constitution is that they should defend the government at all costs. Obama and those around him are showing that they are most strict constructionalists than many on the Right. Unfortunately for Obama, the practice has been that the administration does not defend laws that they disagree with.

The case in question was brought by the Log Cabin Republicans back in 2004.

In many ways, Gerstein does spot on analysis with regards to this case. The Obama Administration’s insistence on defending both DADT and the Defense of Marriage Act have hurt his standing within the LGBT Community, but it is not so much the defense itself, but the vigor with which his Justice Department has pursued these cases. Last year, a lawyer for the DoJ filed a horrifically homophobic brief with regards to DOMA. The DoJ lawyers have tried desperately to get the case regarding DADT thrown out of court.

All together, the Obama Administration is facing a really difficult problem with regards to the LGBT Community. His analysis is a good read, and highly recommended.

Morrell stated that “Outside influence is not helpful to the process.”  Of course, given that several groups outside the process have already tried to influence the process by pushing the statements of retired chaplains out in order to try and stop the repeal, and that there was no punishment for a general who decided to issue an op-ed trying to preserve the policy, it is hard to believe that the outside influence was not going to occur anyway.

“We thought it would be breaking the faith with them for us to be proactively sharing the survey because what we are trying to do is preserve the credibility and integrity of the answers that it elicits from the force.”

“The survey is designed to get the attitudes of the force on how to proceed if Congress repeals the so-called ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law, and is not a referendum on whether or not the law should be repealed.  The answers will inform the working group’s deliberations,” Morrell stated.  The LGBT Community has been very leery of the commitment to repealing DADT.  Right now, repeal rests on the shoulders of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and President Barack Obama and not Congress since an interim repeal is in the Defense budget for this year.

Morrell misses much of the reason behind the uproar when he states “Pentagon officials worked with a professional and reputable polling firm to produce the survey.  Roughly the first third of the 103 questions seeks demographic information.  The second third asks about professional and military experience.  The third asks how the law’s repeal might affect the individual being surveyed.”  Part of the problem is the wording.  The more clinical word “homosexual” tends to elicit a more negative reaction than “lesbian or gay” does.

The working group is lead by Army General Carter Ham and Department of Defense General Council Jeh Johnson.  To date, they have spoken with 14,000 servicemembers and another 33,000 have interacted with the department electronically.  According to Morrell, most of the concerns have to do with privacy.  “Clearly, a component of this scientific survey had to deal with privacy questions,” he stated.  Ten of the questions involved privacy issues surrounding bathing facilities, living facilities and social settings.

With regards to the bathing facilities, Sue Fulton of Knights Out, a graduate of West Point and open lesbian, stated “My interp of the DADT Survey: There are homersecksuals in your showers. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO?!?! (bows).”  Of course, the fact that they already bathe with lesbians and gays does not seem to have any kind of effect on their ability to use those facilities, or bunk down with them in the field.
“We think it would be irresponsible to conduct a survey that did not address these questions because when ‘Don’t ask, Don’t Tell’ is repealed, we will have to determine if there are any challenges in those particular areas, any adjustments that need to be made in terms of how we educate the force or perhaps even facility adjustments that need to be made to deal with those scenarios,” Morrell stated. “But we won’t know any of that until we get a sense from the force of their attitudes.  It could turn out, based on the survey, that there are fewer concerns than we are led to believe.  There could be more or different concerns than we have anticipated.”

“We need people to participate in this survey to get a scientific understanding of the attitudes of the force, or the concerns, or issues or opportunities that may result from repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’.

The feeling among many people, including many lesbian and gay veterans of the military is that many of these questions were designed to elicit a negative response from the soldiers and not to give balanced and unbiased information.  Given the fact that the Pentagon has not pushed back strongly on internal dissent from many generals who want to keep this law in place, it is easy to understand why many lesbians and gays do not trust the military.

7/10/10-by Paula Brooks
The White House was mum Friday on whether it would appeal rulings by U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro that said portions of the so called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) are unconstitutional.

DOMA defines marriage as between a man and a woman, prevents the federal government from recognizing gay marriages and allows states to deny recognition of same-sex unions performed elsewhere.

Thursday, Judge Tauro ruled in two separate cases that DOMA is unconstitutional for the reason that it interferes with the right of a state to define marriage and denies married gay couples many of the federal benefits given to heterosexual married couples, including health insurance and the benefits of filing joint tax return.

President Barack Obama has said repeatedly that he would like to see DOMA, repealed, however, previously the Justice Department has also said “until Congress passes legislation repealing the law, the administration will continue to defend the statute when it is challenged in the justice system,” and has mounted defenses to court challenges of the law.

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler would only say yesterday, that the administration was “reviewing the decision” and had not yet decided whether to further defend the law in court.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Rep. Baldwin Issues Statement In Support Of DOMA Decision (lezgetreal.com)
• Is The Obama Administration Going to Appeal the Federal Marriage Ban Ruling? (lezgetreal.com)
• DOJ Reviews Mass. Rulings on Fed Gay Marriage Ban (politics.usnews.com)
• Next move on gay marriage up to White House (sfgate.com)

From Jezebel.com, Irin Carmon’s piece was the first salvo in this entire sorry mess, and her piece has some strong points. Undoubtably, the Daily Show does have a certain “boy’s club” culture to it. Undoubtably, women have a harder time getting hired by The Daily Show than they do at a sitcom. Unfortunately for Ms Carmon, women make up 28% of the public face of the Daily Show, and 18% of their writing staff. Compared to the zero percent of women at other shows, this is not bad. It is far from ideal, but it is not bad. Part of the problem for The Daily Show is something that does not get discussed by Ms Carmon at all, and that is the intended demographic.

I play World of Warcraft. Would you believe that over a third of all WoW players are women? Women make up a huge proportion of the gaming population, but most women are not represented in development, and many of the male executives think that what women want is Desperate Housewives the Game (a huge flop) and pink Play Station. The problem is rather similar for The Daily Show. The supposed intended demographic is, in the minds of the execubots, males, and usually males between 18 and 35. It does not matter how many women watch The Daily Show. It does not matter that I watch it regularly. The humor is going to be aimed at that male demographic because that is what the execubots demand. This means that most execubots are going to skew the hiring towards the people that they think will, somehow, write to the demographic. This also means that there is a tendency to hire women who are more than likely to put up with the kinds of humor that are normally said to appeal to that male demographic. In essence, they hire women who can think “ego-testicle.”

This does not negate anything that the former employees of The Daily Show have said, nor the fact that even the loveable Jon Stewart can sometimes be a royal prick. What it does is explains what is wrong and gives everyone a way to say “hey, look, we women watch this show too, how about a bit more for us?” Trust me, it worked with Blizzard. Enough of us women complained for long enough about the armor that would not stop a cold and we finally got some more complete armor in the last expansion.

Of course, Emily Gould of Slate.com has no patience for feminists who come along and say things like what Ms Camron stated, but rather than engaging in any kind of debate about the problems of the behind the scenes culture of The Daily Show, Gould just jumps right on in to defend Olivia Munn without giving any real explanation of who the heck she is defending. In fact, her article is not a real defense of The Daily Show, but rather a flat out attack on Ms Camron. The thing is, without actually countering any of Camron’s mistakes or problems, all Gould is doing is sounding like a shrill and offended hausfrau. Of course, the fact that Slate.com has apparently been doing a lot of defending the doctors who are engaging in genital mutilation by removing young girl’s clitoral shafts in order to “cure” their overly large clitorises from the birth defect CAH, and the fact that they also apparently are supportive of the human experimentation being done to see if the tratogenic steroid ‘dex’ cures women of non-patriarchally sanctioned behaviors, it is hard to not be surprised by the fact that Gould does little to actually counter Camron’s statements, but rather to just attack feminism.

Of course, Amanda Hess’ analysis of the response letter from the women of The Daily Show shows part of the problem as well. She wrote “As it turns out, that fawning defense of The Daily Show by its women employees illustrates exactly what’s wrong with the show’s hiring practices.” Um, not really, but she goes on to say, “But first, a quick recap of Jezebel reporter Irin Carmon’s findings on the show’s gender disparities: In the past seven years, only one woman, Olivia Munn, has been considered an able enough comedian to be hired as an on-air correspondent on The Daily Show (and she’s still in try-out mode). Past employees have reported a boys’ club mentality in hiring and firing. And this year alone, the show’s roster of guests has featured 63 men, but only 13 women.”

Ok, let me take the last point first. The show does have some discretion when it comes to booking, but the reality is that is not the show that goes out and asks people to come on in any routine fashion. In all likelihood, it is the agents and handlers of the people who want to be on the show to promote a movie, a book, or a political position. The disparity has nothing to do with Stewart and that kind of thinking perpetuates a fallacy.

The defense of Jon Stewart is not fawning. It is rather blunt. Additionally, Camron is incorrect in that only one woman has been considered to be good enough in the past seven years to be hired as an on-air correspondent. It is actually two. The problem is that her specialization is making fun of feminists and I am rooting that she’ll be back on the show soon to handle this whole shebang. Munn is still fitting into the show, and we will see if there are more stories for her.

None of these stories really get to the reality, and that is found in the very first line of the open letter done by the women of The Daily Show.

“Dear People Who Don’t Work Here,”

None of us work there, and so, none of us know what goes on back there TODAY. We know about the past, but we do not know about the present.

I have a reputation as a man-hating lesbian, and yet it seems like I am the only one out here trying to say to everyone out there that they are making a lot more about this than they need to. It seems like everyone has made up their minds that Jon Stewart is either a sexist ass or he is a non-sexist saint.

Then again, no one seems to be actually looking at what Munn said about her hiring.

“When I go into this situation, I don’t think, ‘Oh, great. I’m a woman. This is awesome. I think, ‘F**k yeah, I worked my a** off and somebody recognized it. This is great!’”

Army General Carter F. Ham, commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, and Pentagon lawyer Jeh Johnson are heading the review panel assessing the current law.  General Ham stated “The voice of the servicemembers is still vitally important.”  Despite a recent decision to pass an amendment that would repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, that compromise legislative amendment will require the approval of Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and President Barack Obama.

“This is draft regulation, it is not yet enacted into law, and there are several hurdles yet to come,” General Ham is on record as saying.

The review group headed by Ham and Johnson has been meeting with troops and their families since the group started meeting in February.  The surveys are being distributed as part of this review because it is impractical financially and temporally to meet with every single member of the military and their families.  The surveys will give the panel a baseline idea of what the servicemembers and their families will feel.  This 400,000 will represent a little less than a quarter of the total 2.2 million servicemembers in the Armed Forces.

General Ham believes that it is vitally important to engage the soldiers now after the amendment was passed largely because so many may feel that their opinions may not matter anymore.  Half of the surveys went to the active-duty branches, and half were sent to the reserved, and those selected were chosen based upon a variety of factors including age, rank, service, component, military specialty, education, marital status and a few other factors which were deemed to be necessary to get a thorough batch of feedback data on the potential repeal.

General Ham and Jeh Johnson plan on continuing their meetings with the servicemembers and their families before 1 December, when the study is due to be completed.  “What these sessions do afford is an opportunity for Mr. Johnson and myself to speak directly to servicemembers, to hear in their own words what their assessment of the impact of repeal of the current law would
be should Congress decide to take that action.  Those sessions provide us context. They provide us substance to what we know we will get statistically from the survey and put it in real terms of
how real servicemembers feel about this,” Ham is on record as saying

The study group has set up a series of buffers to make sure that the information gathered from lesbian and gay servicemembers cannot be used later to force them out of the service.  “It is vitally important that servicemembers continue to be open and frank and totally honest with us in their feedback.  That certainly has been the case to date, whether it’s been a large-group session or a small group or the online inbox. The servicemembers and their families have been invaluable to Mr. Johnson and myself.  We need that to continue in order to do our jobs and be
representative of the force as we address the significant policy matters that would follow repeal of this law, if that is what Congress decides to do,” General Ham has said.

A further 150,000 surveys will be mailed to military spouses by 31 July.  The surveys should be back in within 45 days of receipt.

“After billing themselves as a grassroots organization meant for the common queer activist, so far what I’m seeing is wealthy funders giving two recently successful organizers quite a bit of cash to raise hell with no concrete strategy, deliverables, standards or apparent benefit to the LGBT community. While the group seems to know their place in this insiders/out strategy they’re playing with HRC, some of the similarities are still too obvious to be overlooked.

The majority of the orgs’ money comes from large donors, we’ve got no input into the direction of the orgs, the leadership is self-selective, and they both purport to represent our community while making important decisions on our behalf without permission or serious regard to the effects their actions can have on the rest of us.”

In other words, Get Equal takes a lot of money, does a little hell raising, and that is it. They get the bulk of their money from a few large donors and very little input from the community. Now, our little site has been running for just shy of two years (twenty-two months to be exact) and most of us have not been paid. Those lovely ads that you see around us pay for our server. I, personally, have gotten a small amount of money from a singular ad buy a while back, but that was not much.

In the attempt to obfuscate the reality, Mr. Talon tried to scream about how “The fact is that GetEQUAL’s top salary, paid to the co-founder and co-director of this new, start-up advocacy org, is $92k. Do you know that $92k is about the average salary in the U.S. for a Project Manager for a Construction Co, an Executive Pastry Chef, and Country Sheriff.” As I stated in my original piece, Ms McGehee and Mr. Williams made just shy of a hundred thousand dollar salaries, which is what they are doing. They are earning $8,000 less than $100,000 salaries.

Now, I am not a petty person, nor am I on a diatribe. If I were, this would be worded a lot more strongly. I am, however, interested in setting the record straight. Get Equal has done a wonderful job of throwing a wrench into the push to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell with their antics, and have made it harder to take them seriously because they have been more than willing to attack President Barack Obama and not go after Congress either through direct action or lobbying. They have also been unwilling to attack Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, despite his holding the same positions as President Obama.

Up until Lt. Choi and others chained themselves to the White House fence in uniform, we were making headway with the military heads and Congress over the repeal. Once they stepped up and did that, they disrespected the uniform and lost us ground. In the end we had to settle for a compromise that galled many of us to have to sell as the only solution available.

Recently, Jane Hamsher of Fire Dog Lake praised Lt. Choi’s actions never understanding that the reason we had to take the compromise that was offered to us was because of these unwise, and strategically unsound actions perpetuated by Lt. Choi. His disrespect for the uniform and for the office of the President resulted in a hostile and uncooperative feeling among the military regarding repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Many of his pet peeves about the legislation may have been addressed if Get Equal had lobbied instead of sitting around trying to figure out how to get thrown in jail again.

The problem stems from the fact that there are ways in which direct actions do work, but they rarely work on Congress, and often create more problems than they solve since the egos of people who run for Congress tend to be pretty big and they prefer to be flattered. This is usually why it is far better to flatter and contribute one’s way to legislative success instead of gathering a bunch of signs and protesting Congress or the President.

Direct action works against businesses. Bad publicity drives down business. Boycotts can work if they can be sustained.

This is not about whether or not I dislike or hate Get Equal, or the fact that they do not have their place in this. The fact of the matter is, their strategy is just not working. It is, in fact, making it far harder to get things done. The American people know about the issues. What they do not know is about Exxon Mobile’s lack of LGBT protections, or the exclusion of lesbian and gay couples from the Today Show’s contest. Those can be taken care of by direct action.

Yesterday, we received an email from one activist who has gotten fed up with Choi’s antics, especially with his so-called DignityFast, which lasted seven days. He stated that this whole business was the last straw for him. Lt. Choi is a grandstander and an attention seeker. He apparently believes that he is the Gay Dahli Lama or the Gay Messiah. For most of us, he is little more than a pain in the backside who is raking in the dough making speeches and getting himself arrested.

Oh, and Mr. Talon, next time, I would recommend if you want to keep your name from my knowledge, do not leave a Facebook notification taking calling out my work. It is quite easy to follow the style of post.

“The subpoena seeks to compel the testimony of President Barack Obama who has, on several occasions as President and Commander in Chief (and previously as a Senator and Presidential Candidate) called on the LGBT community to “pressure” him to change the DADT law and policy, thus allowing gay service members to serve their country openly and honorably.

The subpoena of the President is necessary for the defense to prove that Defendants were following and obeying lawful orders or directives by their President and Commander in Chief, and were therefore under an obligation and authority to act as they did in order to pressure him – in a non-violent, visible way – on this important public issue. In addition, these statements support the contention that Defendants were acting out of necessity, in order to prevent discrimination and greater harm to gay service members now serving.”

The rationale that they have for subpoenaing Obama is that he has told advocates of repeal to hold his feet to the fire. While the recent compromise bill is a wonderful thing to have done, it still lacks in several ways. The move goes right to the heart of President Obama’s declaration of support for the LGBT Community and the repeal of DADT.

The defense that issued the subpoena largely deals with the defense of Lieutenant Dan Choi and Captain James Pietrangelo II. According to the memo from their defense lawyer, Ann Wilcox:

“Lt. Dan Choi and Cpt. James Pietrangelo II are each charged with two counts of Failure
to Obey a Lawful Order, pursuant to DC Municipal Regulations (18 DCMR 2000.2
(1995); these charges stem from arrests at the White House sidewalk, on two separate
occasions, March 18, 2010 and April 20, 2010. They face a nonjury trial on both
charges, on Wed., July 14, 2010, in Courtroom 120 of DC Superior Court.”

This move is bold and could result in the President giving testimony in this case. Lt. Choi and Cpt. Pietrangelo both went on a short lived hunger strike that did little to raise awareness of the DADT issues. The decision to get President Obama to testify in this case is likely to raise awareness of those issues far higher as it is unlikely that the mainstream media will fail to cover the issues now.

They quoted MassResistance’s rundown of all the supposed ways in which Elena Kagan is supporting equality in the United States and cite as their main reasoning events that did not happen while she was at Harvard.  Here is their rationale:

“Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is committed to the radical campaign pushing acceptance of homosexuality and transgenderism as ‘civil rights.’ Her unprecedented activism supporting that view as Dean of Harvard Law School (2003-2009) calls into question her ability to judge fairly and impartially on same-sex ‘marriage’ and other homosexuality- or transgender-related issues that may come before the nation’s highest court. … Working hand in hand with students to expel military recruiters in protest over the Armed Forces’ ban on homosexuals (a ‘moral injustice of the first order,’ she wrote) is only the most obvious example of Kagan’s passionate dedication to this controversial and immoral agenda.”

Solicitor General Kagan is more than likely to be confirmed to the Supreme Court where she will be the third woman to sit on the current court.  It should be noted that the odds on are that the Court will rule in favor of LGBT Rights even without her since it is highly unlikely that President Barack Obama will nominate anyone approaching the Christian Theocratic Conservative that groups like the ADF would want in the Court.  In fact, they did not even get that with President George W. Bush since it is hard to determine whether or not Chief Justice John Roberts is a theocrat.

It should not be surprising that the ADF, the Christian Right, and Senator Jeff Sessions are trying to use this anti-LGBT and anti-Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell talking point despite the fact that the majority of all Americans now believe that DADT is wrong.  These people have begun to fall further and further out of the mainstream all the time attacking a person who is, at best, Center Left in her political positions.  Their hysterical belief that the end of civilization will occur should lesbians, gays and transpeople have any equality with the rest of the nation only shows that they are afraid of the world changing and that their power and their beliefs will be irrelevant.

Within that column, the often hard to understand Sowell wrote:

““[D]uring the worldwide Great Depression, the German Reichstag passed a law ‘for the relief of the German people.’ That law gave Hitler dictatorial powers that were used for things going far beyond the relief of the German people — indeed, powers that ultimately brought a rain of destruction down on the German people and on others. If the agreement with BP was an isolated event, perhaps we might hope that it would not be a precedent. But there is nothing isolated about it.”

“When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics.”

“In our times, American democracy is being dismantled piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it.”

Perhaps Mr. Sowell would like to take a look at the Tea Party Movement and then answer the question of who is trying to activate whom, and what is worse, the American democracy was dismantled far more under President George W. Bush and his puppet Chief Justice John Roberts than Obama has in the hysterical rants of Glenn Beck.

“Just where in the Constitution of the United States does it say that a president has the authority to extract vast sums of money from a private enterprise and distribute it as he sees fit to whomever he deems worthy of compensation? Nowhere.”

“And yet that is precisely what is happening with a $20 billion fund to be provided by BP to compensate people harmed by their oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.”

So, it is alright for BP to ruin lives and the economy without being held accountable? Of course, this hysterics with regards to Obama are more on par with the antics of Glenn Beck than those of a serious columnist. Of course, this has not stopped many people from trying to use Sowell’s rather absurd column to advance their own agendas. Sowell, incidentally, once wrote that Jews dominated banking because they were naturally just better at managing money and totally ignored the fact that, for almost two thousand years, the only jobs anyone belonging to the Jewish faith was, basically, allowed was banking because the Catholic Church forbade Catholics from engaging in the exchange of money and the use of interest, so one has to wonder just how well informed Sowell is about his history.

Of course, Texas Representative Louie Gohmert decided that it was perfectly alright to get up in front of the House and quote from Sowell’s column. He took up precious time that could have been used to debate actual legislation to, basically, apologize to the perpetrators of one of the worst oil spills in world history.

Get Equal Now’s co-founder C. D. Kirven stated regarding Gohmert “This kind of derogatory statements made by the TX GOP is exactly why GET EQUAL NOW has planned a protest against the TX GOP 2010 platform. By standing with us at our protest, you are tell the TX GOP that you want a more inclusive Texas. Texans want to help BP oil spill victims and we welcome diverse families in our communities.” Get Equal Now is pushing for a protest against the Texas GOP this July over their irresponsible attempts at racially and homophobically based divisiveness. GEN is pushing for an end to the divisive political platform adopted by the Texas GOP and for Representative Gohmert to apologize to the President for his unprofessional behavior in comparing him to Adolf Hitler over making sure that BP pay for the damage that their irresponsibility caused.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Widespread GOP comfort with Sowell’s Hitler comparison (washingtonmonthly.com)
• Sarah Palin Jumps Aboard the ‘Obama as Hitler’ Train (politics.usnews.com)
• Sarah Palin Endorses Op-Ed Comparing Obama To Hitler, Suggesting BP Escrow Fund Could Lead To Nazi-Like Dictatorship (huffingtonpost.com)
• President Obama and Adolf Hitler (dailykos.com)
• Gohmert endorses Sowell’s Hitler comparison (washingtonmonthly.com)