Check this bullshit out. (CNN International 2/12/11)

The plan focuses on three tiers of training:

-- Tier one for experts who may frequently deal with "don't ask, don't tell" repeal matters, like chaplains and military lawyers.

-- Tier two for senior leaders who will need to oversee education and training of the troops in their command.

-- Tier three for the rank-and-file, active-duty service members, reservists and civilians working for the Defense Department.

On March 1 Clifford Stanley, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, will provide a progress report on the preparation for repeal to the White House, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The memo says the "don't ask, don't tell" law will not be repealed until, among other milestones, the tier one and tier two training is complete and tier three training is underway.

That's correct. The first "progress report" will be due on March 1. Big fucking deal!

Lifting the ban isn't some highly complicated military maneuver. All that is needed is an order to end all the discharges and witchhunts. That's it.

I smell a rat.

Remember a couple of months ago when the military ban supposedly was lifted? There was legislation overturning "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," Bill Clinton's more draconian version of the military ban that passed early in that heterosexist administration.

The Obama Administration's record on the military ban hasn't been good either. They have given us a steady diet of foot dragging. When pressed by queer activists on the issue, Obama and his toadies kept saying they had "more important" things they had to get done. Those "more important" things always involved stealing from the middle class and the poor to give to the rich and the corporations they own.

Although President Obama claimed to be so worried about government spending, he insisted on spending government funds on appealing two rulings in separate court cases which overturned the ban as unconstitutional. His PR people flat out lied when they said he was obligated to appeal the cases.

In Congress, Obama and the Democrats responded to LGBT activists with delay, delay, delay. It was only after liberal and moderate voters were horrified at their deal to continue and expand on tax cuts for the rich (while raising taxes on the poor), that the Democrats threw their base and voted to "overturn" the current version of the military ban.

However, there was a catch. The ban would only be lifted when Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a homophobic holdover from the Bush regime, felt like it.

He hasn't felt like it.

I'm starting to wonder if Obama is deliberately delaying again in hopes he can make another "compromise" with the GOP that keeps the ban in place after all. After all the lies and betrayals we have seen from this administration, there is no way that anyone with an IQ over 60 will trust them on anything.

Photo: afagen

 

Hat Tip: Jesus Fetus Fajita Fishsticks



For the first few seconds of this, I thought it was an SNL parody. I do have one question. Does homophobia make people stupid or does stupidity make people homophobic?

 

With legislation that should result in finally lifting the military ban, it would be easy to think that Obama is OK, everything is just fine, and that we can relax now, especially if you are queer. However, the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA) is more important, in terms of its substantive impact on queer lives, than all of the rest of the queer civil rights legislation that was pending this past legislative term.

ENDA never even got a vote this session.

If that isn't enough perspective, I Can't Believe It's Not a Democracy pointed me out to this gem on Obama's "accomplishments":

WhatInTheFuckHasObamaDoneSoFar.com

It's sobering, to say the least.

As promised, here's a fab graphic from Zaius Nation on Obama's betrayal on the tax cuts for the rich/tax increases for the poor legislation Obama just signed. (click to embiggen)

Yes, the legislation which will likely end up lifting the military ban has passed the Senate, the last hurdle before reaching President Obama's desk by a 65-31 vote. The more determinative cloture vote won by a slightly narrower margin.

This is great news, but before we get too excited, it's important to be aware of the fine print. Thanks to an email from Citizens from Legitimate Government, I found the bill's actual summary on the Senate website which follows:

Major Provisions

This legislation would repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy prohibiting homosexuals from serving openly in the armed services by striking Section 654 of Title 10 of the USC. The repeal would take effect 60 days after the last of conditions a) and b) are fulfilled:

a) The Secretary of Defense receives the Comprehensive Review he requested on March 2, 2010 concerning implementing a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

b) Congress receives written certification from the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff stating that:

1) The President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have considered the recommendations contained in the report and the report’s proposed plan of action.

2) The Department of Defense has prepared the necessary policies and regulations to implement the repeal.

3) Implementing all necessary modifications required to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” are consistent with the standards of military readiness, military effectiveness, unit cohesion, and recruiting and retention of the Armed Forces.

c) Until all of the conditions described above are met, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will remain in effect.

d) Should the repeal be enacted, this law will not provide marriage or spousal benefits offered under Section 7 of Title 1 to the USC to homosexuals serving in the Armed Forces.

e) Repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” does not create a private cause of action

At best, there will be some waiting while the military ban is in effect. ("Don't Ask, Don't Tell" always was a deceptive marketing name which tried to con people into thinking Bill Clinton's version of the military ban did not include witchhunts. In fact, that version of the ban was designed to increase the numbers of witchhunts.)

Now that we have gotten the disclaimers out of the way, it's useful to consider how we got here. To understand the path to repeal, it helps to know about the weird game of "Gay Chicken." The Urban Dictionary has a pretty good description of it, though I had only heard of it involving kissing myself.

A game played with straight people to see who has more balls, metaphorically. the game is played in several ways. The most simple, and weakest, is the kiss. One 'player' moves in for a sensual kiss until one of the 'players' backs off. I've seen this lead to tongues but someone will always pull away. Another way gay chicken is played is by groping the other 'players' genitals or breasts or anything you can get your hands on. The most common form of the game is gay pillow talk in which each interaction escalates until someone laughs or just can't respond. Lastly, 'players' can initiate dry humping sessions. Hardcore 'players' will use a combination of three tactics to win the game. Some have been known to even use all four tactics at once. This plan of attack is very tricky.

This pretty much describes the dynamic of Harry Reid, Barack Obama, and "moderate" Republicans in the Senate. They would put together a complex set of legislation and Senate rules for debate which included the military ban. Both sides would pretend that they would support it, but then the votes were never quite there. Each side would pretend that the other side had chickened out. They blamed each other while pretending that they supported ending the military ban.

I've heard that sometimes the "straight" guys will actually kiss when they play gay chicken because neither chickens out. (I suspect that those "straight guys" are mostly bisexual as are so many "straight guys.)

The game of chicken kept getting closer and closer. Each time, the excuses for failing to passing the legislation got feebler and more incomprehensible. Queer activists kept pushing to repeal the ban, which neither the Democrats or "moderate" Republicans really wanted to do. But, the politicians had thoroughly boxed themselves in with rhetoric that tried to make it sound like they opposed a widely unpopular policy while trying to make sure that policy stayed in effect.

Then, the tax cuts for the rich, tax increases for low income Americans deal passed. Liberals were understandably pissed with Obama and the rest of the Democrats. The party of the jackasses needed to show that they would push for something opposed by the majority of the politicians in the party of the rogue elephants. For liberals, lifting the military ban was the bone. "Moderate" Republicans also needed to do something to placate Northeastern moderates who don't like tax giveaways for the rich either.

For queers, it was a lot more than a bone.

Yesterday, the kiss cloture vote happened and the last major hurdle to legislation that almost certainly will result in an eventual lifting of the ban went through. The persistance of queer activists kept pushing the kiss cloture vote victory closer and closer.

It's about time.

 

The game playing and heterosexist bigotry that has stopped the military ban from being overturned legislatively is sickening. Yes, I am outraged by the efforts of Republicans to continue the ban. However, I am equally outraged by the efforts of a closet Republican who pretends to be a Democrat: President Obama.

HomophObama has fought to promote bigotry, discrimination, and violence against queers on numerous occasions. The first was when he involved a woman hating and queer bashing bigot, Rick Warren, in the inauguration. I boycotted that homophobic charade of an inauguration once I knew that someone who devotes his life to promoting hatred, violence, and rape against women while promoting bigotry, discrimination, violence and murder against queers was going to play a central, and unconstitutional, role.

However, HomophObama's bigotry wasn't just ceremonial. He set the tone of his hiring practices by discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in all cabinet level appointments. Later, he had the Injustice Department make legal citations in a DOMA case that compared homosexuality to sex with animals and the dead. This administration's heterosexist amimus has been comparable to that of Rick Santorum.

HomophObama's expansion of Bush's hate based initiatives would have lead to more heterosexist discrmination in government programs under the best of circumstances. But, that wasn't enough for HomophObama who insisted in appointing heterosexist fanatics to the committees that award the grants.

Seeing what was being done to us, 200,000 queers joined the National Equality March on short notice to demand better. HomophObama's initial response was to patronize us and insult our intelligence with a bullshit speech at the so called Human Rights Campaign's dinner. The pickets by legitimate queer activists outside the dinner and the outrage among so many queer blogs reflected the views of most queers far more than the self loathing and heterosexist excuses for Obama being offered by that quisling Joe Solmonese.

When they realized that empty words would not placate a critical voting, fundraising, and volunteer block for their party, Democratiic leaders including HomophObama made a concession by allowing weak hate crimes legislation to get a vote. It was too politically difficult for even some Goppers to vote against, so it passed and HomophObama reluctantly signed it, though he would much rather queer bash us himself if he thought he could get away with it.

The next big LGBT legislative item was the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA). In terms of its substantive impact on the lives of queers, ENDA is more important than all of the other queer civil rights legislation combined. That's why HomophObama was determined to stop it.

His administration came up with a clever diversion to divert attention from the prize, ENDA. They came up with a bill that would lift the military ban only if Robert Gates, a homophobic Republican, approved it. This decision was scheduled after the elections, and was to be based on a survey of our armed forces.

The bill didn't pass, but Gates ran the survey anyway. What was the catch? Gates made sure that the survey was heavily biased in favor of continuing the military ban.

However, things didn't go according to plan. Roughly 70% of the service people returning the survey said getting rid of the ban would make no difference or be a positive thing for them. The upshot of even a survey with a strong homophobic bias was that most service people don't care either way.

Meanwhile, the military ban was losing badly in two completely separate court cases, despite all the taxpayer money being wasted on it. HomophObama chose to appeal the ruling overturning the ban, despite being under absolutely no obligation to do so. In civil cases (and all criminal cases that don't involve the death penalty), losing parties are under no obligation to appeal. They can accept the ruling. They also can try to settle with the winning parties in order to avoid a lengthy appeals process.

HomophObama insisted on appealing. Not only didn't he accept a ruling eliminating a ban he claimes that he opposes, he wasn't even willing to try to make a settlement to save face and address the phony baloney logistical objections that bigots have made to try to drag out the process indefinitely.

HomophObama's excuse was weak, to put it mildly. He said he wanted a legislative repeal instead. Yet, Obama did everything in his power to prevent such a thing in 2009 when Republicans weren't feeling so invincible. Now that the Senate had a cloture vote on repealing the military ban, Harry Reid and HomophObama made backroom deals to make sure not enough Democrats would show up to pass a cloture vote.

HomophObama isn't the only bigot deserving blame for this. Obama's fellow Republicans voted overwhelmingly for the military ban. That includes "moderate, pro gay" Goppers like Olympia Snowe and Scott Brown. Of course, people who have followed Scott Brown's execrable political career have known all along that Brown is a vicious and evil bigot, regardless of how heterosexists in the corporate media like Jon Stewart have marketed him otherwise.


Photo: Derek Bridges

Let's not forget that Cyndy's hooker, John "Keating Five" McCain parroted Christian homophobic values to justify his fight for discrimination despite the fact that prostitution is just as much against Christianity as homosexuality.

However different the specifics of HomophObama's hypocrisy on the military ban, it is just as reprehensible as that of John McCain. Both of them are nauseating Republicans who are unfit to hold a public office. Neither is fit to even be a sewer commissioner.

 

Lindsay Graham discussing the size of his penis?
Photo: World Economic Forum

Extreme right Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-Christian Taliban) has to be the most frequently outed of the heterosexist Republicans in DC. (Yes, I know that the corporate media frequently market him as a "moderate," but look at his actual record and you will see that he is on the far right fringe.)

Recent events are making me wonder if those who are outing the wingnut are onto something. Why would a "moderate" Senator make such a big deal of pushing a wildly unpopular position like supporting the military ban? (From On Top Magazine 11/30/10)

Graham, also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, expressed a similar sentiment.

“Well, there are service chiefs who object to repeal, particularly the Marine Corps. And the question that was asked of our military is how would you implement 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' once it's repealed. They didn't ask the question, 'Should it be repealed?'”

“This is a political promise made by Senator Obama when he was running for president,” the South Carolina Republican said. “There is no groundswell of opposition to 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' coming from our military. This is all politics.”

Graham also predicted Republicans would unite to block repeal of the law.

If Graham were heterosexual and politically astute, he would avoid getting involved in an issue where the GOP's position is at odds with the overwhelming majority of the American people. Either Graham is an incredibly amateurish politician, or he is trying a bit too hard to cover up homosexuality.

In any case, Graham is a slimeball who is deserving of nothing but utter contempt.

 

Barack Bush's heterosexism is resulting in increasingly strong reactions in the queer community. From GetEqual's 11/15/10 Press Release:

Washington, DC – This afternoon, three generations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender veterans and advocates went back to the White House fence to call for the U.S. Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, and President Obama to make good on their promises to secure the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” during the abbreviated, lame-duck session of Congress that started today.

During the direct action organized by GetEQUAL – a national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization – and local activists, 13 veterans and advocates handcuffed themselves to the White House fence in an act of non-violent, civil disobedience protesting the un-American, discriminatory law yet to be repealed by Congress — regardless of the numerous promises by President Obama, Congressional leaders and national LGBT leaders that they would do so by the end of this year.

I'm glad that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is in fright quotes. The actual policy was defined to increase witchhunts against queers in the military and it did just that. Subjects of these witchhunts do not have to say they are LGBT in order to be discharged under the policy.

I find the list of people who were arrested to be quite interesting.

The 13 veterans and repeal advocates arrested today include:

* Five veterans (Lt. Dan Choi, Petty Officer Autumn Sandeen, Cpl. Evelyn Thomas, and Cadet Mara Boyd) who were arrested back in March during the GetEQUAL organized “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” act of civil disobedience at the White House fence demanding President Obama show leadership on repeal.
* Robin McGehee, co-founder and director of GetEQUAL, and Dan Fotou, action strategist for GetEQUAL.
* Former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Miriam Ben-Shalom, who was discharged in 1976 for declaring and admitting she was a lesbian. She became the first-ever LGBT servicemember reinstated to her position in the U.S. Military, by a U.S. Federal District Court. On July 30th, 1993, Miriam and 26 other protesters were arrested at the White House fence for protesting then-President Bill Clinton’s broken promise to repeal the gay ban – instead signing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” bill into law.
* Former U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Justin Elzie who, in 1993, became the first Marine ever investigated and discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law. Elzie was also the first soldier to be discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to fight his discharge and win – resulting in his service as a Marine for four years as an openly gay man.
* Former U.S. Army Arabic Linguist Ian Finkenbinder, who was discharged from the Army in December 2004 after announcing to his superiors that he was gay. Finkenbinder is an Iraq war veteran and was about to return for a second tour of duty when he was discharged.
* U.S. Army Veteran and Repeal Advocate Rob Smith, who was deployed to both Iraq and Kuwait before being honorably discharged after deciding not to re-enlist in the U.S. Army due to the added pressure of living under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law.
* Father Geoff Farrow, a Catholic priest who spoke out against the church’s official stance in support of California’s Proposition 8, removing the rights of same-sex couples to marry. Because of his courageous stance against Prop 8, Father Geoff Farrow was removed as pastor of St. Paul’s by his bishop and suspended as a priest.
* Scott Wooledge, a New York-based LGBT civil rights advocate and blogger who has written extensively on the movement to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” at Daily Kos and Pam’s House Blend.
* Michael Bedwell, long-time LGBT civil rights advocate, close friend of Leonard Matlovich, and administrator of the site www.leonardmatlovich.com.

So many of these people were military personnel. Farrow's presence also is intriguing. It was fascinating that he was removed as a priest for being accepting of people for having sex with adults.

I hope that the more conservative queer activist groups will face the reality that our movement cannot rely on or trust any politician. We need to fight for our rights no matter who is in power. Real progress will require a sustained, unrelenting effort.

 

Dan Choi does a great job expressing the outrage queers are experiencing in the face of Barack Obama's viciously homophobic decision to unnecessarily appeal a court ruling that the military ban is unconstitutional.



Ms. Jarrett obviously thinks that every queer in the country has no basic knowledge of the legal system. She tried to justify the decision to try to keep the military ban in place through this appeal by saying that the administration is "obligated to defend" the policy in court. They defended the case in lower court and lost. Now, there is one basic fact that she is conveniently hoping we don't know.

In court cases, litigants who lose are under no obligation to appeal. Appeals are entirely optional.

I don't know if Valerie Jarrett is a lawyer or not, but I do know that President Obama is a lawyer. He knows he doesn't have to appeal the ruling. This was a conscious, deliberate homophobic act by the President.

It's not just the games that Obama and the Democrats in DC have been playing with the military ban. Those bigots haven't even lifted a finger to pass ENDA, by far the most important queer issue. Even though the Democrats control both houses of congress, neither has even voted on ENDA. The Obama administration has ignored it because they want corporations to be able to fire people for being queer.

The Obama Administration is just like the Clinton Administration. They say nice things to us occasionally while they stab us in the back and insult our intelligence. I don't blame Choi at all for deciding not to vote for Obama in 2012 after this. I'm voting all Green this year. If the Democrats insist on acting just like the Republicans and treating us like second class citizens, then the queer community has no reason to vote for them or give them a dime.

Like the folks at GetEQUAL say, the GayTM is shut down.

 

In 2006 and 2008, the Democratic politicians plied queers with their usual lies about how much they would support us if they got control of Congress and the White House. It was a crock of shit, to put it mildly. Let's look at what they did.

The only good thing they did of any actual importance was passage of a watered down hate crimes bill. It took the National Equality March and a picket outside of Barack Obama's speech before the HRC to get even that to happen. Why do I say it was watered down? The legislation helps the rare local jurisdictions that want to fight hate crimes (which doesn't even include the NYPD under that vicious bigot Michael Bloomberg), but it does little or nothing to deal with jurisdictions that don't. Heterosexist hate crimes are crimes of intimidation that are intended to impact across state lines, which makes them a federal law enforcement matter. There should be strong federal penalties against them, and there should be a specific unit in the Dept. of Justice to prosecute them. The good thing about the legislation was that it included trans queers.

Sadly, that was the best thing the Democrats did the entire time. The Obama Administration, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid blocked ENDA, the most important queer civil rights legislation from even getting a vote in Congress. Unlike same sex marriage, employment discrimination is an area where the GLBT community has overwhelming public support, which presumably why they didn't want to give this popular legislation even a vote. I can not give the Democrats a good grade on LGBT issues when they wouldn't even allow a vote on the one that is, by far, the most important.

Employment discrimination legislation should have passed during the Carter administration. Yet, we can't even get a vote on it during the Obama administration.

Sadly, President Obama has had a reprehensible record on LGBT issues. He deliberately incited violence against queers, queer teen suicide, and violence against women by involving one of the nation's most notorious bigots, Rick Warren, in the inauguration. Obama had been doing pretty much the same thing by pandering to and glorifying that monster during the 2008 campaign. Obama made things worse by showing up consistently to the National Hate Breakfast, showing his support for heterosexist fundamentalism and violating the Constitution of the United States of America.

It didn't stop there. On the DOMA court challenge, the Obama administration deliberately filed court papers comparing homosexuality and bisexuality to sex with animals and sex with the dead. They didn't need to do that, even if you accept the notion that they were obligated to defend that legislation. It was completely gratuitous.

Yes, the Obama administration will occasionally throw us a tiny bone, but most of the slight good that bone might do us is negated by the condescending and heterosexist attitude they display when they do it.

Then, there is the Clinton Administration's more draconian version of the military ban which is deceptively referred to as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," even though it was deliberately designed to increase witchhunts and discharges against queers. "DADT" has even led to the military sending undercover people to gay bars in DC.

President Obama has repeatedly put queers off and fought to keep the ban in court. When queers kept pressuring the Democrats, Obama's viciously heterosexist enablers, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, came up with weird scam legislation which would maybe, just maybe lift the ban if Robert Gates wants to do it. Unfortunately, Robert Gates is a notoriously bigoted Bush crime family crony who immediately preceded to sabotage the effort by creating a highly biased survey on the views of military families on the subject.

Then, Harry Reid took his typical Mormon homophobic hatred one step further. He made sure that the legislation that included this maybe, maybe lifting of the military ban, also included other controversial provisions in order to provide cover for Scott Brown, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe to vote fillibuster against lifting the ban. Reid is so fanatical in his hatred of us, he is willing to hurt Democratic Senate candidates in Massachusetts and Maine by giving the GOP homophobes political cover for hating us and attacking us.

We also shouldn't forget the pattern of heterosexist discrimination in appointments by President Obama. So far, Obama has yet to appoint even one openly queer Cabinet member or Supreme Court Justice, not one. Considering the fact that lesbian, gay, bi, and trans people make up far more than 10% of the population and the Democratic Party is disproportionately queer, this has been a particularly blatant and stinging insult to the TBGL community. Obama's record in this area is just as bad as that of another hateful bigot: Bill Clinton.

Obama also has badly underfunded AIDS, done nothing to promote needle exchange, and has done nothing the promote condom usage and condom education. The Democrats continue to fund "abstinence only" scams that are deliberately designed to promote the spread of HIV.

Even with the hate crimes legislation that did pass, the Obama administration has yet to take seriously the recent wave of heterosexist hate crimes and bullying. If there was a national outbreak of violence, bullying, and suicides among banksters, Obama and congressional Democrats would treat it like a national crisis. Queers just don't rate that kind of attention.

Queers have done so much to help the Democrats in 2006 and 2008. What did we get in return? I find it difficult to find words to articulate just how badly I have been betrayed by the Democrats as a queer. The best way for me to express it ultimately will be for me to vote party line Green this November. Vicious bigots like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama have given me absolutely no other option. They are as heinous as the Palins, Paladinos, and Pauls in the GOP on matters of substance.

Photos: jurvetson

talkradionews

 

As usual, the homophobic Democratic Party leadership in DC is determined to act in an exploitative and abusive fashion against queers. (From the Keen News Service 7/14/10 - Hat Tip: Queerty)

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is not on the agenda for Senate floor action for the next few weeks, prior to the August 9 recess.

A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate will take up work on as many as nine matters during the next month, but none of those are ENDA.

The nine include the Defense authorization bill, which incorporates language aimed at repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; and the nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. They also include Wall Street reform, energy (including oil spills), and the extension of unemployment benefits.

Let's look at two of the volcanoes that queers are being sacrificed on. The Wall St. "reform" is so incredibly weak that it primarily serves to show how much influence bankers and brokesters have over Congress and the White House. The energy bill was originally supposed to be a global warming bill, but efforts to limit CO2 have largely been replaced by massive government subsidies of the polluting corporations that were supposed to be clamped down on.

Even the repeal of Bill Clinton's draconian version of the military ban isn't all that great either. It puts the repeal off until after the November elections and puts it in the hands of ultra homophobic Bush regime holdover, Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Even worse, Gates is rigging the whole thing against ending the military ban by running a survey of military personnel that is intentionally biased against repeal and which could be used to discharge queer troops if they answer it honestly.

There is no excuse for this. ENDA already should have passed in 2009. Legislation against employment discrimination should have passed when Democrats at the White House and Congress in 1993-04 and 1977-80. ENDA is the most important and least controversial LGBT civil rights bill in existence, and vicious bigots like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama keep screwing with it.

The Democrats keep hounding me with phone calls and junk mail asking me for money. Those bigoted asswipes are not getting a penny from me, much less a vote. I am so sick of being treated as less than human by the same people who demand I support them out of some unthinking loyalty that only goes in one direction.

This year is the year I'm going all Green.

Any and all efforts that might have gone to helping Democrats should go to pressuring the party to change its position and pass ENDA. Why should we passively go along with this viciously bigoted betrayal? We are human beings and should insist on being treated as such.

Contact the White House!

Contact Speaker Pelosi!

You can also sign Change.org's petition for ENDA. Change.org is definitely in Obama's pocket, but it is good for people to visibly support ENDA there too.

Photo: afagen

 

In 2006, partisan Democrats kept marketing Jim Webb of Virginia to liberals and queers like crazy. But, the fact that he used to be a Reagan administration official made me nervous. Keep in mind that the Reagan administration was the most heterosexist in US history, and it was horrendously corrupt.

Those suspicions have been proven quite reasonable by Webb's behavior as a Senator. This latest exchange with former Lou Dobb's henchperson Candy "Creepy" Crowley on her CNN show last Sunday is a rather blatant example.

“I was really disappointed in - in the way that this process was accelerated. I was the only Democrat that voted against this in committee markup,” Webb said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

Webb, himself a Vietnam veteran and a former Secretary of the Navy, sits on the Senate Armed Forces Committee and is the Chairman of the Armed Forces Personnel Subcommittee.

“I believe we had a process in place. And to preempt it in some ways, showed a disrespect for the people in the military,” Webb told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley.

“They should not have done this,” Webb added.

I actually watched the damned interview when I was resting in my hotel room from IML. Webb was basically accusing the women and men in our armed services of being cowards. Can you imagine people who risk their lives for this country being so chickenshit they can't handle serving with queers?

Of course, Crowley never once challenged Webb on his indirect insult to the people in the military, because that would have screwed up the heterosexist narrative she developed for that episode of the show. Her behavior was just as bigoted and unprofessional last weekend as it was when she was licking Lou Dobbs' boots on his show.

I know, I know, I shouldn't bother to even watch the corporate media. But, I was too tired to read at that point and hotels make sure to have nothing on teewee so you will pay for their in demand, ultra expensive, offerings.

Back to Webb, he seems determined to go along with the wave of bigoted hysteria in Virginia. That state's new Governor is so nutty racist that he endorsed treason by declaring a Confederate History Month. The Virginia Attorney General has made highly questionable legal threats against state universities that have lgbt nondiscrimination policies. Webb is keeping up with the Joneses by going all crazy bigoted against queers. Well, there's another state to cross off my potential vacation list.

In any case, there's a really important lesson here. Anyone sleazy, bigoted, and corrupt to have worked in a Republican administration simply cannot be trusted...ever.

 

Photo: Talk Radio News*

Now that extreme right presidential candidate Ron Paul is won the straw poll at the fascist CPAC convention, it's time for people to consider who is really is and what he really stands for. His cultish supporters have engaged in a campaign of disinformation on liberal and progressive websites for some time now. Back in 2007, I investigated Paul's actual views and agenda and reported the results. This information looks to be even more relevant now than it was then.

Ron Paul has a swarm of zealots on the Internet, spewing pro-Paul propaganda in all sorts of liberal and progressive forums. The Paul worshipers will accurately point out his opposition to the Iraq War and the Unpatriotic Act, but they conveniently omit the vast majority of Paul's views, which are hateful and wacky right-wing. The deception is starting to offend a lot of liberals, and I'm one of them. After all, if Paul could get a 75% rating in 2005 from the “Family Research Council,” a Christian Right hate-group, that should give you some idea of where Paul really stands.

Here are some other ratings of interest:

* Secular Coalition for America: 20% (2004)

* Americans for the Arts Action Fund: 0% (2000, 01, 02, 03, 04)

* Leadership Conference on Civil Rights: 38% (2005)

* Human Rights Campaign: 25% (2003-04), 0% in previous years

* John Birch Society: 100% (2004-2006 in quarterly ratings, except for 88% in Spring 04)

* National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: 14% (2004), 30% (2005)

* Campaign for America's Future: 0% (2005-06, energy issues)

* Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America: F (2006)


Bigotry Against Atheists

It should be noted that each of the following three positions contradict Paul's claims that he is a libertarian and that he supports individual freedom.

Opposes Restoring the Pledge of Allegience to the Version Without “Under God”
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2002/pr062702.htm

Co-Sponsored Constitutional Amendment Pushing Coerced Prayer in the Public Schools
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d105:HJ00078:@@@L&summ2=m&


Voted to Allow Bigoted Alabama Judge to Post “Ten Commandments” in Courtroom
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=257&chamber=H&congress=1091

Homophobia

Here are a couple of examples of Ron Paul's views, aside from his opposition to ENDA.

Opposes Hate Crimes Laws
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst050707.htm

Supports “Don't Ask, Don't Tell”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Ron_Paul

Voted for Amendment Attempting to Block DC Government from Allowing Same-sex Partners to Adopt
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=346&chamber=H&congress=1061

Other Right-Wing Extremism,
from his congressional web site:

Opposing Federal Funding for Stem Cell Research:
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2005/cr052405.htm

Anti-UN:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2006/pr061506.htm

Pro-Tax Cuts, Nearly All of Which Go to the Rich:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2006/pr042606.htm

Favors Cutting Gas Taxes:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2005/pr090705.htm

Against Corporate Accountability:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2005/pr041405.htm

http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2004/pr091604.htm

Glorifying Ronald Reagan:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2004/pr061004.htm

Supporting Corporate Efforts to Ship US Jobs to China
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2005/cr072605.htm

Attacking Gun Control and DC Self Rule
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2004/cr100404.htm

Anti-Union
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst98/tst072798.htm

I should also note that I just checked, and it definitely turns out that Paul has been lying when he says he's a libertarian. He is anti choice. No genuine libertarian would support government involvement in the most personal decision possible.

Ron Paul is correct about the Iraq War. His concerns for civil liberties would be more reassuring if he wasn't determined to limit civil liberties to wealthy, heterosexual, white, Christian men. Otherwise, he is a hateful rightist monster scarcely different than David Duke.

* Note on the Photo: I saw Ron Paul and his cultish followers on Wall St. last year. He looked incredibly lost, confused, and feeble. I couldn't get a clear cell phone pic of him because I kept getting blocked by Paulintologists. This picture shows him less out of it than the day I saw him on Wall St., but the photo I'm running from Talk Radio News was taken in January of 2008. He may have declined mentally since then.

 

I couldn't believe those shitheads dared to drop a mailing scheduled to arrive the same time that Senate Democrats were eviscerating healthcare reform. Even worse, the letter came from a corrupt, racist, sexist, and viciously homophobic Republican: Bill Clinton. At least those jackasses will have to pay the postage since they enclosed a Business Reply Mail envelope.

Take Me Off of Your Mailing Lists!

I can't believe I got a fundraising letter from you scumbags on today of all days, the day that ultracorrupt and unpatriotic Sen. Max Baucus (a “Democrat”) eviscerated healthcare reform and told middle class and poor Democratic voters to shut up and die without medical treatment.

The fact that the Democrats couldn't even pass a watered down approach like a public option is reprehensible. You pieces of walking garbage should have already pushed through single payer with budget reconciliation, but you won't even do the public option. The idea that a dime of mine could ever go to a politician like Max Baucus who might as well have “For Sale” tattooed on his forehead is absolutely sickening.

Even worse, the fundraising letter came from Bill Clinton, a corrupt, racist, sexist, and homophobic Republican who is guilty of murdering hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians through his illegal sanctions. This is the same corrupt Bill Clinton that pushed through financial derugulation, NAFTA, and the WTO. All of those three things were major causes of the financial meltdown and the bailouts.

The thing that is most personally offensive about receiving any kind of correspondence from Bill Clinton is that he is one of the most notorious and vicious homophobes of 20th Century America. I haven't forgotten how he pushed through an even more draconian and vicious version of the military ban than the one that was there before. I haven't forgotten how he discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in Cabinet level appointments. I haven't forgotten how he refused to lift a finger on behalf of ENDA and hate crimes legislation.

Sending a fundraising letter from Bill Clinton to a gay man like myself is the equivalent of spitting in my face. I won't forget this, and I won't forgive you for it either.

Shame on you bigots!

In a previous posting calling for his resignation from the Senate, I went into detail on how Max Baucus is a bought politician and how his corruption was effecting efforts to pass genuine healthcare reform.

 

Hat tip Fishbowl America!



Let's start with the military ban. Bill Clinton claims that the problem with his deceptively labeled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was with its implementation despite the fact that he deliberately designed it to increase the number of discharges and witchhunts. Queer veterans groups at the time were warning people that this version was even worse than the version Reagan put in place as an Executive Order.

Clinton also lied about congressional support to sustain a veto of a military ban. In 1993, 35 Senators voted to lift the ban completely with no support from the Clinton White House. It only takes 34 Senators to sustain a veto.

Here are a couple of facts about the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that you may not know.

1) Military commanders are allowed to launch investigations of sexual orientation without anyone coming out based on any or no evidence. These witchhunts even have involved placing undercover military police in gay bars.

2) If a soldier tells her mother she is a lesbian, she is violating "DADT" and is subject to discharge.

3) If a marine tells his boyfriend he is gay, he is violating "DADT" and is subject to discharge.

(That's why it pisses me off when people call it "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" itself is one of Bill Clinton's homophobic lies.)

Bill Clinton also lied about DOMA. He said he didn't want to sign it, yet he ran campaign ads in 1996 on fundamentalist Christian radio bragging about signing it. Oops!

Lane Hudson deserves a lot of credit for challenging this vicious and evil bigot. I find it disturbing how little support he got from the audience. It shows how serious a problem heterosexism is at Netroots Nation. That a vicious and evil bigot like Clinton was invited to speak at a supposedly liberal grassroots conference is truly disturbing. It isn't that surprising, given the fact that Netroots Nation was started by the center right, sexist, and homophobic Daily Kos.

Clinton's bigotry was hardly limited to his heterosexual supremacy. He pushed fraudulent "welfare reform" legislation designed to scapegoat and punish women of color because we live in a society without full employment. Clinton also supported high interest rate policies of the Federal Reserve deliberately designed to keep unemployment higher than it otherwise would be in order to promote downward pressure on middle class wages. Bill Clinton's crusade to undermine affirmative action is yet another example of his racism.

Let's not forget that Clinton maintained sanctions on Iraq long after the first US/Iraq War was over. These sanctions killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Bill Clinton isn't just a racist. He's a genocidal racist. In fact, under international law, Clinton should be serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity.

If you look at policy rather than rhetoric, it is obvious how little difference there is between Bill Clinton and the most bigoted of Republicans. If you think there is a meaningful difference, you have fallen for the hype.

 

Hat Tip for the graphic goes to Traveling Man Rick's Blog.



At least they are putting "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in quotes. DADT is a more draconian version of the military ban than the one that Reagan put into place. It has the force of law, rather than being an executive order too, which makes it more difficult to change. Thanks Bill Clinton.

Anyway, an aspect of the Obama administration's enforcement that is particularly galling is their law enforcement priorities. They are going full out to enforce the military ban and discharge queers, but Bush regime war criminals are not being prosecuted for crimes against humanity. There are plenty of banksters, broksters, and mortgage brokers who already should have been prosecuted for fraud, yet most of them are not facing any well deserved criminal charges.

When it comes to the military ban, the Obama Administration says the law is the law. When it comes to wealthy and well connected criminals guilty of truly heinous offenses, the Obama people say that we need to look forward, not backward.

This is total bullshit.

Photo: jurvetson

 

If you want meaningful change, you will have to push the institutions that control this country and the people who run it to break the bad, conservative habits that are creating discrimination, stagnation, and misery.

1) Tell the Obama Administration to Make Lifting the Military Ban a Priority
Much of the debate on lifting the military ban is distorted by Bill Clinton's decision to call his version of the ban "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Under the policy, the military routinely does ask and runs witchhunts against lgbt servicemembers. Now the Republican Defense Secretary Robert Gates has announced that the Obama administration will postpone ending "DADT" indefinitely, it's time to let them know that we want them to start working on this critical issue immediately.

Contact the White House:

Web

Phone: 202-456-1111

Postal Mail:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

2. Tell Your Representatives to Support HR 676, Medicare for All
Democrats.com has a petition asking members of Congress to co-sponsor HR 676, the single payer healthcare legislation. Single payer is the only proposal in Congress that has cost savings. It also is the only one that provides real, universal healthcare to everyone because it gets HMOs and insurance companies out of insurance, and they routinely deny life saving medical care to people who have "coverage" now.

Please find out if your House Member is co-sponsoring HR 676.

If s/he hasn't, please sign the petition!

3. Tell Secretary of Agriculture to Fight Global Warming
From Care2's Petition:

But early in its tenure, the Bush administration excluded Alaska's Tongass rainforest from roadless protections. The Tongass is our nation's largest national forest and the largest remaining old-growth temperate rainforest in the world.

This spring, the selling of old growth timber in roadless areas in the Tongass is scheduled to begin. Clearcutting old growth permanently damages its habitat value for old growth dependent species and building new roads will further fragment this important ecosystem.

Tell USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to end the Bush administration's exemption of the Tongass from the roadless rule.

There is a lot of CO2 trapped in old growth forests. Logging them reduces that, and clear cutting reduces it dramatically. Fighting Global Warming involves actions on many fronts, and this is an important one.

Please sign the petition!

 

On 2/1/08, The Advocate reported that many Edwards supporters have switched to Obama now that Edwards has dropped out of the race.

A critical mass of John Edwards’s LGBT steering committee is going public with support for Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton. Twenty-two members of the Edwards campaign’s original 59-person gay and lesbian committee will now be working for Obama victories next Tuesday and throughout the rest of the primary season.

The article mentioned a lot of insider stuff, but it left out the obvious subtext. LGBT activists who were involved in the queer community at the time of the beginning of the Clinton administration remember how the Clintons broke important promises on lifting the miltary ban and on a "Manhattan Project" to cure AIDS.

The Clinton Administration never even tried to implement that "Manhattan Project." On the military ban, they created a fraudulently labeled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy which was designed to increase the number of military witchhunts and discharges. DADT did just that and even resulted in undercover MPs in gay bars in Washington, DC.

When Melissa Etheridge mentioned during the Logo/HRC debates that Bill Clinton was guilty of "throwing us under the bus," she was speaking for a huge constituency of queers who recognize how we were screwed over by the Clintons in the past and know not to trust any Clinton in the future.

Here is the list of former queer Edwards supporters now siding with the Obama campaign.

Below is the full List of former Edwards supporters who are now publicly supporting Obama as provided by Eric Stern:

Eric Stern, former political adviser to the John Edwards for President campaign, former National Stonewall Democrats executive director, former director of LGBT outreach for the Democratic National Committee (California)

David Mixner, writer, Democratic Party activist (New York)

Linda Elliott, member of the board of directors for the Human Rights Campaign (Arizona)

Evan Low, council member for the city of Campbell, Calif.

David Garrity, vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party

Andy Szekeres, former Colorado Stonewall Democrats cochair, former Wisconsin LGBT field director, Kerry-Edwards (Colorado)

Kyle Bailey, former board member, National Stonewall Democrats, LGBT Caucus vice chair of Young Democrats of America, Chair of Atlanta Stonewall Democrats (Georgia)

Pam Cooke, National Stonewall Democrats board member; past president, Stonewall Democratic Club of Los Angeles (California)

Bill Hedrick, president of Central Ohio Stonewall Democrats

David Mariner, former Out for Howard Dean cochair (Maryland)

Jason Lansdale, past president of Central Ohio Stonewall Democrats

Daniel Hinkley, Nevada Stonewall Democratic Caucus president

Misty York, communications director for the Kentucky Fairness Alliance

Christopher Prevatt, chair of Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club (Orange County, Calif.)

Jim Maynard, president of Memphis Stonewall Democrats (Tennessee)

Daniel Graney, past president of Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio (Texas)

Arthur Nunn, former Missouri for Edwards volunteer organizer and founder of LGBT for Edwards MySpace Group

Brad Reichard, public pelations executive (Massachusetts)

Michael Shannon, national security expert (D.C.)

Les Krambeal, board member for the National Stonewall Democrats, cochair, Southern Arizona Stonewall Democrats

Robert D. Horvath Jr., member of the board of directors for the Mautner Project (D.C.)

Patrick J. Lyden, LGBT community activist (D.C.)

All organizations listed for identification purposes only.

An exchange between Hillary Clinton and John Edwards in today's Democratic presidential debate shows that Ms. Clinton is starting to see political danger in her vote for war with Iran.

"Declaring a military group sponsored by the state of Iran a terrorist organization, that's supposed to be diplomacy?" Edwards interjected. "This has to be considered in the context that Senator Clinton has said she agrees with George Bush terminology that we're in a global war on terror, then she voted to declare a military group in Iran a terrorist organization. What possible conclusion can you reach other than we are at war?"

Clinton objected. "You know I understand politics and I understand making outlandish political charges, but this really goes way too far," said the New York senator. She is locked in a tight three-way race with Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, and Obama, a senator from Illinois, in this first-voting state.

"None of us is advocating a rush to war," Clinton said.

In the weird world of politics, telling the truth is often considered something that "goes way too far." Iran's Revolutionary Guard is an arm of the Iranian state. Declaring it a terrorist organization at a time when this country is at a state of war with all terrorist organizations is a de facto war authorization by Congress, though a somewhat sneaky one. For Hillary Clinton to deny that the vote was anything other than an effort to start a war with Iran insults the intelligence of Democratic primary voters.

Another statement by Ms. Clinton at the debate shows that her testing of political winds has moved her in a different direction than when she voted for war with Iran.

I have for two years advocated diplomatic engagement with Iran and I think that's what the president should do. He should seize this opportunity and engage in serious diplomacy using both carrots and sticks.

This invokes mixed emotions on my part. It is good to see that the efforts to sell a lunatic war with Iran are failing to win over the American people. On the other hand, Ms. Clinton's lying about her vote brings back bad memories of her horrible, horrible husband lying on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the deceptively named version of the military ban which succeeded in increasing the numbers of discharges and witchhunts for queers in the military.

It also reminds me of how Bill Clinton repeatedly lied about NAFTA, trying to claim that NAFTA would create American jobs, rather than exporting them, and exporting US jobs is exactly what NAFTA did. The dishonesty of the Clintons may not be on the same level of that of the Bushes, but our country deserves more ethical leadership than merely being less mendacious than the leader of an unelected regime and a father who was involved in Iran-Contra.

Note: I am referring to the event as a “talk show” in the interests of factual accuracy, not as a criticism. There are specific reasons that I will detail in a future posting as to why this was the best format for this event.

Link to Transcript

Hillary Clinton, in my mind, showed how untrustworthy she is for queer voters when she made the following statement:

I think we have moved a long way on this and other issues, but I think it's important to recall how much of an advance "Don't ask; don't tell" was at the time.
However, it was not implemented appropriately.

We should certainly hope that Ms. Clinton was lying when she said that DADT, a different version of the military ban, was “an advance.” The two main impacts of the policy have been the following:

1. Replacing a policy which was at the level of an executive order with a federal law, which is much more difficult to overturn.


2. Dramatically increasing the numbers of people being discharged from the military on the basis of sexual orientation.

Discharges increased by 106% from 1994 to 2001. Discharges have gone down since the second US/Iraq war started, despite the Bush Regime's bizarre focus on firing Arabic translators. However, this should not be taken as an encouraging sign. They are following the policy of the elected Bush Administration during the first US/Iraq war: postponing homophobic discharges until after the war was over. (Queers can fight and die in combat, but are not considered good enough to serve after the war is over.)

Chart from Service Members Legal Defense Network

Out gay soldiers sent to Iraq (Washington Blade)

Clinton's claims that the persecution of queers in the military is due to inappropriate implementation is absolute nonsense. DADT was specifically intended to perpetuate and intensify the discrimination. It has succeeded in this far too well.

Clinton made another statement on the military ban which was highly misleading.

It was a transitional action that was taken back at the beginning of my husband's administration, because at the time there was such a witch hunt going on.

An uninformed person might think that the DADT has stopped the witch hunts, upon hearing what Ms. Clinton said. I remember a few years back when I lived in DC, the military was sending undercover MPs into gay bars to find closeted lgbt people serving in the armed forces.

The situation is so bad that the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) has prepared a survival guide for people subject to these witch hunts.

Inside a Lesbian Witch Hunt (another interesting article on the subject)

One of the things that facilitates the witch hunts is that a queer in the military does not have to tell anyone in the military that they are lesbian, gay, or bisexual in order to be thrown out. They can tell people outside of the military and get thrown out. If they have sex with someone of the same gender and the military finds out, they will be thrown out. “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” itself is a misleading name for a devastating policy.

Even a personal ad can get someone kicked out of the military.

Opponents of the military ban at Georgetown University have an excellent article on the ban from a legal perspective.

The military ban is terribly important to a queer movement that is ground in inclusion and social justice. The military is disproportionately made up of people of color. Queers face economic discrimination that ads to the potency of the “economic draft,” the financial pressures that push people to enlist in the military. That is one of many reasons that Hillary Clinton's dishonesty about DADT, a more egregious form of the military ban than the one that existed before, is so frustrating and disappointing.