The Obama administration has held “preliminary discussions” with Pentagon leaders about lifting the ban on open military service by gays and lesbians but is not rushing into a legislative battle to repeal the Clinton-era policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” retired Marine Gen. James Jones said May 10.

Jones, Obama’s national security adviser, appearing on the ABC News program “This Week,” would not predict the outcome of the hotly contested policy issue, and even supporters of repeal in the House of Representatives are warning they would be unlikely to prevail in a vote on the issue if one was held today, which is part of the reason why the administration has been moving slowly and trying to build more momentum for change.

In a personal note sent to former Army 2nd Lt. Sandy Tsao, discharged earlier this year after announcing she was a lesbian, Obama said he still plans to push for change.

“It is because of outstanding Americans like you that I committed to changing our current policy,” Obama said in the undated, handwritten note to Tsao, a copy of which was posted on www.glaadblog.org, the Web site of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination.

“Although it will take some time to complete (partly because it needs congressional action) I intend to fulfill my commitment,” Obama said in the note. (Source-Air Force Times)

I know the LGBT community is focused on the gay marriage issue these days, and I know that the community does not always feel that the military is a suitable place for LGBT people to be. Still, this is an issue which requires the vocal and visible input of every community member.

Thousands of us have served honorably throughout history. We have been on the front lines and we’ve served in support. We’ve flown planes and treated the wounded. We’ve been held prisoner and we’ve been in foxholes.

The fear-mongering that the conservative right is engaged in is transparently nonsensical. “They’ll never be able to restrain themselves in the barracks“. Then why aren’t you equally opposed to gays in school or your local health club? Because you know that you’re spreading lies. We have “restrained” ourselves for years, in many venues, and most likely you never even knew the guy or gal changing clothes next to you was gay. If sexual attraction can’t be controlled or suppressed when necessary, why do we allow men to be gynecologists?

Those opposed to gays serving in the military, as well as those intent on keeping the dishonest DADT policy in force, have no reasonable objections, provide no research, can cite no studies supporting their position. Their only interest is in spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. They ignore the hundreds of years of honorable service already performed by members of the LGBT community.

They get away with this because too few of us veterans are willing to speak up and openly confirm our service. We allow them to make it appear this is a small matter concerning only a few members of the military. We have given them the opportunity to parade their lies as reality.

If you are a LGBT veteran of the U.S. military, let people know. Talk about it, blog about it, write your congress person about it. Hell, write Obama and let him know that this DADT policy is absurd. It’s unworkable and an insult to every proud military person who happens to be gay. It needs to be done away with and LGBT folks need to be allowed to serve openly and honestly. It wasn’t easy for Truman to integrate the military, yet now we think nothing of whites and blacks serving together in the same units defending this nation formed on the premise of e pluribus unam, out of many, one. We are one, we are all American citizens. Obama needs to do what is right, not always what is popular.

Since it was implemented in 1993, over 12,500 men and women have been dismissed from the Armed Forces under the provisions of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”. More than 800 of those individuals have held positions deemed “mission critical” by the military. They were not dismissed for the failure to perform their duties, they did so, often with honor and distinction. They were not dismissed for refusing to serve and possibly die in the service of their country. They were not dismissed for a lack of patriotism.

They were dismissed for the sole reason that to the military the act of honestly stating your personal sexual orientation as a homosexual is a homosexual act. They have not, in the vast majority of cases, been accused of sexually assaulting another person or for engaging in sexual behavior with another person. They were not even accused of flaunting their sexual orientation.

Gays have served honorably in the U.S. military for decades, for the most part undetected and unnoticed. If gays serving in the military is sure to lead to disruptions in the barracks and a lowering of overall moral, as many opposed to their service contend, where’s the evidence of this? Surely with the thousands of gays who have served there must have been hundreds of incidents of assault and homosexual rape, since we are told by those who oppose their service that they cannot possibly control themselves and would be a real and present danger to heterosexual troops.

There is a historical precedent for refusing to allow discrimination in the military.

When President Truman ordered the military to desegregate in 1948, the vast majority of the military — not to mention the population in most of the countries from the South where a big portion of the members of the military come from — had sharply racist tendencies against the blacks. When he sent his 10-point program to Congress on February 2, 1948, instructing “the Secretary of Defense to take steps to have the remaining instances of discrimination in the armed services eliminated as rapidly as possible,” he endured a storm of criticism from Southern Democrats in the run-up to the national nominating convention. But even when support for discrimination spread so far beyond the military and political stakes were so high, his response was not to postpone doing what was right. Instead, he responded by saying “My forebears were Confederates….But my very stomach turned over when I had learned that Negro soldiers, just back from overseas, were being dumped out of Army trucks in Mississippi and beaten.” President Truman ordered the military’s desegregation because he understood that the traditional culture of the military and appeasement to any biases and racism that may have been associated with it was not a condition that he had to accept as the price of having a strong army.

(Source)

How hard would it be for President Obama to end the practice of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? Not hard at all.

A new study, about to be published by a group of experts in military law, shows that President Obama does, in fact, have stroke-of-the-pen authority to suspend gay discharges. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” law requires the military to fire anyone found to be gay or lesbian. But there is nothing requiring the military to make such a finding. The president can simply order the military to stop investigating service members’ sexuality.

An executive order would not get rid of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, but would take the critical step of suspending its implementation, hence rendering it effectively dead. Once people see gays and lesbians serving openly, legally and without problems, it will be much easier to get rid of the law at a later time.

(Source)

Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and officer in the Army National Guard who is fluent in Arabic and who returned recently from Iraq, recently revealed on the Rachel Maddow show that he was gay. He has now been informed that he is to be dismissed from the National Guard. This is Obama’s first chance to act on his stated goal of repealing DADT.

During a presidential forum held by the Human Rights Campaign in August of 2007, candidate Obama said, “I will task the Defense Department and the senior command structure in every branch of the armed forces with developing an action plan for the implementation of a full repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell…. America is ready to get rid of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. All that is required is leadership.”

Until recently, on the White House Web site’s Civil Rights page, the following was posted.

Repeal Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell:
President Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300 language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. The President will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.

This has since been altered to read, “He supports repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in a sensible way that strengthens our armed forces and our national security“, a change that worries some that he is weakening in his resolve.

This is not the time to let old and irrational fears destroy the lives of so many young men and women proudly and voluntarily serving their country in the military. Now is the time for President Obama to disallow the termination of Lt. Choi and take a stand against the worthless DADT rule.

I’ve been house bound for the last 5 days due to a cold, or the flu, who knows. Whatever it is, it sucks.

Now that I’m recovering, I’m able to reflect a bit on illness after 55. I realize that what merely inconvenienced me at 25 just might kill me at my age now. And maybe that’s what dying is going to be like, all stuffed up and miserable, unable to walk around without getting dizzy, preferring to just stay in bed and snooze. And that’s if I’m lucky.

So for nearly a week I’ve been musing and feeling sorry for myself contemplating my inevitable demise. Then I watched this classic bit by my philosophical hero, George Carlin, and realized that growing old wasn’t all bad.

Thank you, Chris.

Those who oppose marriage equality want to make us afraid.  There is nothing to fear when loving, committed couples gain legal recognition for their marriages and their families.  As more states recognize this, it will become even clearer, perhaps even boring.  This is simply a question of people who want to be happy, who want to protect their families, and want to live their lives with the person they love.  We all share these goals.  The fight for marriage equality may be teaching us that we lesbian, gay, and straight people have far more in common than we thought.

Read his full article at the Seminole.

Rabid far-right commentator Ann Coulter is known across America for sliming everyone and everything she disagrees with. Al Gore is a “total fag” and another one-time presidential candidate, John Edwards, is the same. Democrats are “gutless traitors” and their convention a “Spawn of Satan” gathering. Muslims are “ragheads” and America should “kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” Jews are people who need to be “perfected.” The New York Times building and its editorial staff should be bombed. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens should have “rat poisoning” mixed into his food. Princess Diana “ostentatiously [had] sex in front of [her] children.” The Rev. Al Sharpton is “a fat, race-baiting black man.” President Bill Clinton was “a very good rapist,” and North Korea should be “nuked.”

But despite denouncing school desegregation as a “spectacular” failure, Coulter has generally avoided bolstering white supremacist hate groups. Until now, that is.

In her latest foaming-mouth tome — Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America, released on Jan. 6 — Coulter spends the better part of three pages defending a group called the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), which The New York Times had described as a “thinly veiled white supremacist organization.” Coulter begs to differ. The CCC, Coulter opines, is “a conservative group” that has unfairly been branded as racist “because some of the directors of the CCC had, decades earlier, been leaders of a segregationist group.” “There is no evidence on its Web page that the modern incarnation of the CCC supports segregation,” she says. “Apart from some aggressive reporting on black-on-white crimes — the very crimes that are aggressively hidden by the establishment media — there is little on the CCC website suggesting” that the group is racist. Indeed, its main failing is “containing members who had belonged to a segregationist group thirty years earlier.”

Coulter could hardly be more wrong. And even if she can’t find time to read beyond a page of the CCC’s website, she really ought to know — after all, the organization where she frequently speaks, the Conservative Political Action Committee, has publicly banned the CCC from its annual gathering because it is racist. Also in the late 1990s, Jim Nicholson, then-chairman of the Republican National Committee, asked GOP members to stay away from the CCC because of its “racist and nationalist views.”

One day, the CCC ran photos on its home page of accused Beltway snipers John Muhammad and John Malvo, 9/11 conspirator Zacharias Moussaoui and accused shoe-bomber Richard Reed. “Notice a Pattern Here?” asked a caption underneath the four photos. “Is the face of death black after all?” On another occasion, its website featured a photo of Daniel Pearl, the “Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter” who had just been decapitated by Islamic terrorists. In the photo, Pearl was shown with his “mixed-race wife, Marianne.” The headline above the couple’s picture was stunning even for the CCC: “Death by Multiculturalism?” The CCC Arkansas chapter ran an essay waxing nostalgic for the days “when racial separation was the norm.”

But to Ann Coulter, there is “no evidence” on its website that the CCC “supports segregation.” Mostly, she says, the group — which was formed from the debris of the White Citizens Councils that Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once called “the uptown Klan” — is about “a strong national defense, the right to keep and bear arms, the traditional family, and an ‘America First’ trade policy.” Indeed, she says, The New York Times and other critics of the CCC are simply liberals “who have no principles.” (Source-Southern Poverty Law Center)

I’m at a loss to determine what attraction Coulter holds for anyone who possesses even a modicum of human decency and common sense. Isn’t there enough violence and hate in our society without a self-styled pundit spewing crap disguised as opinion? Some have compared her to Micheal Moore, but that’s not fair to Moore. She’s far more similar to a female Rev. Phelps. She offers nothing positive, she has no solutions for the issues she sensationalizes and exploits.

Coulter's office on first floor

Hate speech is a touchy subject. It raises issues of freedom of speech, and as Americans, we shy away from anything that even hints at censorship. Yet we should remember freedoms come with responsibilities. We don’t object to the restriction on yelling “Fire!” in a theater. We understand that inciting a crowd to riot and cause personal and property damage is illegal.

The Constitution protects her right to free speech from censorship by the government. She enjoys no such protection from personal opinions like mine or from being justifiably booed off stage at commencement ceremonies. She has earned the scorn of every American concerned for their country.

On a personal level we ought to freely express our contempt for those who, while too cowardly to act out their hatred themselves, have no compunction over inciting others to hate. Political pundits, religious leaders, racist inbreds, anyone who chooses to encourage hate and violence deserves our scorn and outspoken condemnation. I admit Coulter has the right to be as stupid and disgusting as she wishes inside her own tiny little mind. Once she opens her mouth and releases her bile on others, it’s time to stand up and demand she shut up.

As punishment for the divisiveness she has encouraged in the U.S., she should be bound face-to-face with Fred Phelps and locked in a padded cell for the rest of her unnatural life.

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No deep philosophical comment, no long wordy post. Just a video to enjoy.

The first government collapse of the global economic crisis is about to yield the world’s first openly-gay leader. Johanna Sigurdardottir, a former air hostess, is expected to be sworn in as Iceland’s Prime Minister by the end of the week.

The 66-year-old politician lives with her partner, Jonina Leosdottir, a journalist and playwright. The couple were joined in a civil ceremony in 2002. Don’t expect them to show up togetherfor photocalls, however – that’s not the Icelandic way. Though she is famous across the island, having been a top politician for years, her lesbian union was no big deal in this calmly progressive nation of only 300,000 people.

“Johanna is a very private person,” said an Icelandic government source. “A lot of people didn’t even know she was gay. When they learn about it people tend to shrug and say, ‘Oh’. That’s not to say they are not interested; they are interested in who she’s living with – but no more so than if she was a man living with a woman.”

Ms Sigurdardottir has two grown-up sons. She entered politics via the labour movement, was first elected to parliament in 1978 and was given her first ministerial office in 1987. She will be Prime Minister of a minority caretaker government composed of her Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Greens, with outside support. It is only expected to hold office for two or three months, until fresh elections are called.

“In opinion polls Johanna has repeatedly been chosen as the most popular politician in Iceland,” said the government source. “She is a good choice, because one of the problems the government is facing is lack of trust. Getting Johanna to become Prime Minister was a way of saying trust is an issue. Politicians want a fresh mandate from the electorate and, before they get it, they need to rebuild trust. Choosing Johanna is a way of saying, ‘Let’s bridge this gap, let’s have peace to be able to implement the emergency measures’.” (Source-The Independent)

Good for the world. Someday, soon I hope, sexual orientation won’t be news.

The new century has seen an upsurge in visitations by Ma’ Christ, though her booking agent needs a stern talking-to.

Apparitions of the Virgin Mary, 2003-2007:

• Tree stump, Passaic, N.J., 2003
• Grilled cheese sandwich, Hollywood, Fla., 2004
• Expressway underpass, Chicago, 2005
• Pretzel, Nebraska, 2005
• Firewood, Janesville, Wis., 2006
• Chocolate drippings, Fountain Valley, Calif., 2006
• Souplantation restaurant, Grantville, Calif., 2006
• Pizza pan, Houston, 2007
• Watermelon, Arizona, 2007  (Source-Futility Closet – a blog that earns a place in my RSS feed)

Seattle Gay Bars Receive Threatening Letters

Eleven gay bars in Seattle received letters today addressed to the “Owner/Manager” from someone claiming to be in the possession of ricin, a deadly poison. “Your establishment has been targeted,” the letter begins. “I have in my possession approximately 67 grams of ricin with which I will indiscriminately target at least five of your clients.”

“I felt sick when I read it,” said Carla, the owner/manager of Re-bar. “It’s so vile. It’s just hatred. It made me worry for all the other bars, and for my bartenders, and our clientele.”

According to the CDC’s website, someone who has ingested “a significant amount” will develop vomiting and diarrhea within the first 6-12 hours; other symptoms of ricin poisoning include hallucinations, seizures, and blood in the urine. There is no antidote for ricin but ricin exposure is not invariably fatal.

“I just had the police come pick [the letter] up,” said Keith Christensen, the manager of the Eagle, when reached by phone. Christensen had already heard about the letter from other bar owners and managers, and so he didn’t open it. “It’s probably nothing,” Christensen added, “but the economy is really screwing all the bars right now, and the last thing we need is something ramping up the not-go-out mode people seem to be in right now. It’s really freaky that someone would do something like this at a time like this.”

“The police have already come and gone,” said Roland, the manager at Madison Pub. “They collected the letter and that’s about it. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about it.” Roland admitted to being unnerved by the letter at first.

“But after the initial ‘what?’, it’s like whatever.”

A letter also arrived in The Stranger’s offices, addressed to the attention of “Obituaries.” The letter’s author said the paper should “be prepared to announce the deaths of approximately 55 individuals all of whom were patrons of the following establishments on a Saturday in January.” The listed bars are: the Elite, Neighbours, Wild Rose, the Cuff, Purr, the Eagle, R Place, Re-bar, CC’s, Madison Pub, and the Crescent. “I could take this moment to launch into a diatribe about my indignation towards the gay community,” the letter concludes, “however, I think the deaths will speak for themselves.”

Alison, Luying, and Tippett, local promoters and DJs who do nights at various bars around town, came up with the idea of organizing a pub crawl for this Friday night to show support for the bars that were threatened. (Source-the stranger)

Party on, my brothers and sisters. The best revenge is to show this cretian how pathetic his attempt at domestic terrorism really is.