The new hearings on DADT are absurd. This isn't progress, its a regression

[bigtree]

. . . back to the juvenile handwringing over what would happen if they allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military. I read today where Gates and Mullen will testify to the Senate when Sen. Levin sets up a hearing before the Armed Services Committee later this month and it seems like we're still allowing the military to posture as if it's the services themselves which have the most to lose, instead of the individuals who are subject to this military and government-sanctioned discrimination.

Yesterday, the Pentagon leaked a memo to the Associated Press in which Mullen's lawyers advise him to wait to repeal DADT. (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2010/01/ap_exclusive_lawyers_advise_wait_to_lift_gay_ban.php)

"Now is not the time," the memo reads. "The importance of winning the wars we are in, along with the stress on the force, our body of knowledge and the number of unknowns, demand that we act with deliberation."

What's missing from the debate is the forceful and insistent public argument that Mr. Obama provided when he was campaigning for votes. He needs to step forward and set a standard of absolute, non-discrimination toward gays and lesbians in the military - the same standard that we expect in the general public - then the military needs to figure out how they are going to comply.

What he's doing now is falling into the trap of letting the military set that standard which is still being telegraphed as some sort of modified restriction on discrimination; the holdover Pentagon leadership still threatening to set a standard which falls short of the consideration other service members enjoy in their heterosexual-ness. When is the president going to come out from behind the military leadership's skirt and lead on this?

[muffin1]

1. I predict he will be on the side of the GLBT community

as soon as he needs their votes again.

[joeybee12]

4. Oh boy are you ever wrong!

It's as soon as he needs their votes AND MONEY again!

:hi:

[muffin1]

6. As my best friend tells democrats trolling for funds now...

the Gay-T-M is officially closed! I've never seen him (or me, for that matter) do as much for a candidate as we did for Barack Obama. Sort of feels like a kick in the teeth...



:hi:

[joeybee12]

9. He's going to let others dictate the debate on this, like on health care...

...I always say defense may win football games, but offense wins in politics.

[muffin1]

10. He's saving his funds for truly progressive candidates now.

We have given money to the democrat in every election. Tired, so tired, of them taking the money and then shitting on us.

Edit for being "comma-happy" today.

[joeybee12]

11. Yup, in the world of politics today, most politicians only hear the

sound of money...withholding it is the only way to make them pay attention to us.

[xchrom]

2. You'd think they'd bore themselves to death. Nt

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. DADT will be repealed in the Defence Reauthorization bill this year.

According to many, including Barney Frank.

[bigtree]

5. and replaced with?

Isn't the real purpose of the drawn-out hearings process an attempt to keep gay and lesbian individuals in the same second-class position they're in now; albeit with an attempt to prevent their 'new' policy from discharging individuals? I'm left wondering why it takes so much chit-chat among these bureaucrats and officers to decide to stop discriminating against folks under their command?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. The purpose of drawn out hearings at this point is to say it was done "carefully"

You might be following this closely, but I'd say most people are not. This is dotting the i's.

[Toasterlad]

13. We'll See, Won't We?

I doubt Obama will willingly give up his favorite carrot to dangle in front of teh gays, at least not before the second term he imagines he'll have. If DADT is repealed before 2012, it will be in spite of Obama, not with him.

[noamnety]

8. That sounds simple enough.

We just have to wait until we aren't at war with someone.

(I don't think that's ever happened in the last hundred years, but it makes for a nice story, anyway.)

[kenny blankenship]

12. And down in the bottom of his briefcase, the JCS keeps his draft memo for the future:

"...now is not the time. Our forces have been so demoralized by the long quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan, missions ending in failure despite the endless expense and sacrifice, that we cannot in good conscience inflict the presence of homosexuals upon our serving men and women after all they've been through. We would like to comply with the civilian leadership of the military, really we would, but we just don't know how we could go about it..."

[shadowknows69]

14. Stupidest logic in the universe. We need more troops so let's force some out.