Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked the Obama administration's effort to end the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy that prevents openly gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the armed forces. Democrats failed to find the 60 votes needed to begin debate of the 2011 Defense Authorization bill that includes language to repeal the Clinton-era rule on gays and lesbians in the military. The 56-43 vote followed party lines, with Republicans threatening to filibuster, and two Democratic Sens., Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, supporting Republicans in opposing debate on the bill."
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Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Via JMG: DADT Cloture Vote Fails In Senate 56-43
The cloture vote on DADT has failed 56-43 with zero Republicans voting "yes." I'll have the complete roll call in this post shortly. Knowing that cloture would fail, Sen. Harry Reid voted "no" too, so he'll have the chance to reintroduce the bill. That bit of maneuvering was lost on GOProud.
UPDATE: All Republicans voted "no." Aside from Reid as noted above, the only two Democrats who voted "no" were Sen. Blache Lincoln and Sen. Mark Pryor, both of Arkansas.
via jmg: DADT Cloture Vote Reactions
Stonewall Democrats
"Senate Republicans have tragically blocked the National Defense Authorization Act because it contains language to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," showing themselves to be far outside of the American mainstream. Their actions today are just more obstructionism and willful disregard of what 8 in 10 Americans want. It is a sad the lengths the GOP will go to in order to discriminate against soldiers who want to serve our country openly, honorably and with integrity. It is nothing short of a slap in the face to their service in their fight for our freedoms. Today, one man's bigotry and opinions proved how out of touch the GOP is with the majority of Americans. Today Senator John McCain held back progress and history. Senator McCain along with the rest of the Republican party is consistently out of touch with the values that Americans hold true to in 2010.”National Gay & Lesbian Task Force
“Once again, politicians are playing politics with people's lives. Filibustering the defense authorization bill to block action on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' repeal and the DREAM Act — two measures that do justice to the fundamental principle of fairness — is a disappointment and disservice to our country. Seventy-eight percent of Americans support ending 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and countless others believe that young people should be provided a path to citizenship in the country they love and have always called home. Today's Senate vote mocks those ideals. The senators who led and supported the filibuster effort should be ashamed.”Human Rights Campaign
Today our military readiness and national security were set back as Senator John McCain successfully led a Republican filibuster of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), to which the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is attached. Not since 1948 has Congress failed to act on the NDAA. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has committed to bringing the bill back up following the election. “This filibuster was election year politics at its worst,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “It’s a shame that during a time of war, Republican Senators wouldn’t even allow debate on the bill that provides a pay raise for our troops.”GetEQUAL
Today is a disappointing day for everyone who has engaged in this fight over the years -- for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, Servicemembers United, Outserve, Knights OUT, countless servicemembers who have taken action with us, and the active-duty servicemembers across the globe who are being forced to remain closeted while serving our country. We thank them for their service and we stand steadfast in our commitment to serve them as they have served us. We are calling on President Obama to show the courage and leadership required of the Commander in Chief to unequivocally state that military discharges must end immediately. Our elected leaders have demonstrated that they are either unwilling or unable to do the right thing. Now it's time for our "fierce advocate" to step up to the plate for us.GOProud
“Just now on the floor of the Senate, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered a consent agreement that would have allowed for a vote on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal and provided a fair framework for the debate. Unfortunately, Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected this offer – and as a result, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal has died in the Senate. “The defeat of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal lies solely with Harry Reid and the Democrat leadership. Harry Reid is playing political games with the lives of the brave gay men and women serving in our military. It's clear now that Lady GaGa should have held her Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal rally in Nevada instead of Maine.”Servicemembers United
"Today's vote is a failure of leadership on the part of those who have been duly elected to serve this nation and to put the best interests of the country ahead of partisan politics," said Alexander Nicholson, founder and Executive Director of Servicemembers United. "The Senate could learn a good lesson from those who serve in uniform and who stand to benefit from proceeding to debate on this bill - serving this country means putting politics aside and getting the job done. It is simply inexcusable that this vote failed today." The votes to break the filibuster had previously been lined up, but last week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid decided to use an uncommon procedural privilege on the bill that eroded support for breaking the filibuster and guaranteed the vote's failure. Intense lobbying and public pressure over the past week proved not to be enough to force either side to back down. The Senate will not likely take up the defense authorization bill again until after the mid-term elections in November.Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
“Today’s Senate vote was a frustrating blow to repeal this horrible law. We lost because of the political maneuvering dictated by the mid-term elections. Let’s be clear: Opponents to repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ did not have the votes to strike those provisions from the bill. Instead, they had the votes for delay. Time is the enemy here. We now have no choice but to look to the lame duck session where we’ll have a slim shot. The Senate absolutely must schedule a vote in December when cooler heads and common sense are more likely to prevail once midterm elections are behind us. Servicemembers Legal Defense Network will continue to take this fight to the American people, the vast majority of whom support repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”
Via JMG: Republican supported homophobia...
"All Faggots Must Die"
The above comment was left today by "Jimmy" on my post about the DADT cloture vote. The IP address *appears* to resolve to the neighborhood of GOP U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss' Atlanta office. The ISP is "United States Senate." I'm confident that the JMG internet sleuths can get to the source.
Here's the IP: 156.33.20.72. Get busy, geeks!
UPDATE: According to a friend of JMG reader Sean Chapin, the comment appears to have actually come from the Atlanta office of Sen. Johnny Isakson, the OTHER Republican Senator in Georgia, whose offices are not far from Sen. Chambliss'. Dennis writes:
"First I did a WHOIS lookup on the address and found out that it belonged to the US Senate. Then I did a trace on the IP and got the latitude, longitude and city location for the IP. Once I had the city, I did a search on senate offices and started with the one that came out on top which was Isakson’s. Once I had the address of his office, I pulled up the latitude and longitude info for it and found that it matched those of the IP."Examine Dennis' screenshots below and tell us if you think he's got this nailed.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Via Belirico: Truth Wins Out's Wayne Besen Talks About Christine O'Donnell's Antigay Past with Rachel Maddow
Wayne Besen, director of Truth Wins Out, an organization dedicated to investigating the lies behind the so-called “ex-gay” ministries, appeared on Rachel Maddow’s show Friday night to discuss the Tea Party’s latest favorite, Christine O’Donnell, Republican candidate for Senate from Delaware.
Via JMG: New Associated Press Poll Shows Majority Support Marriage Equality
The is the second national poll to show that a majority of Americans support marriage equality. Stand by for NOM to issue their usual denouncement. The full poll can be viewed here (PDF).Via JMG: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia: Constitution Does Not Protect Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination
Speaking to a San Francisco law school on Friday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee gay people protection against discrimination. And the same goes for women. "If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, you have legislatures," Scalia said during a 90-minute question-and-answer session with a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law. He said the same was true of discrimination against gays and lesbians. The 74-year-old justice, leader of the court's conservative wing, is also its most outspoken advocate of "originalism," the doctrine that the Constitution should be interpreted according to the original meaning of those who drafted it. The court has ruled since the early 1970s that the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection of the laws applies to sex discrimination, requiring a strong justification for any law that treated the genders differently. That interpretation, Scalia declared Friday, was not intended by the authors of the amendment that was ratified in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War.In the landmark 2003 Supreme Court ruling overturning laws against sodomy, Lawrence vs. Texas, Scalia was the most vehement dissenting vote.
Via JMG: HomoQuotable - Steve Hildebrand
"The Democratic strategy right now is to run from the president, run from important proposals that help this country. If we’re not going to do something about health care, if we’re not going to do something about climate change, if we’re not going to do something about the economy, about the deficit, about the war, Washington is going to get punished. The Democrats might get punished more because they’re in power, but Washington in general is going to get punished. And you’ve seen it in Republican primaries across the country. You’ve seen it in Democratic primaries across the country. And you’re going to see it with a lot of just pure incumbents from both parties in November. They’re getting punished because they’re not dealing with the issues. They’re not dealing with the real problems that we face as a country. And they should be punished. Stand up and lead or get out of the way." - Barack Obama's 2008 deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand, telling ABC News that Democrats who don't stand by the president deserve to be "punished."
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Via SacBee NAMES & FACES :
“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart is hosting a “million moderate march” in Washington – for people who think shouting is annoying – but faux political nemesis Stephen Colbert will be nearby to keep fear alive against those “dark, optimistic forces.”
Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” and his archenemy on the network plan to hold opposing political rallies Oct. 30 on the National Mall just before the November elections. Stewart interrupted his regular fake newscast Thursday night to announce a “Rally to Restore Sanity” on Oct. 30. He said it’s for people too busy with their normal lives to go to other political rallies.
“Think of our event as Woodstock, but with the nudity and drugs replaced by respectful disagreement,” Stewart writes in promotion for his rally. Nearby, Colbert also announced a “March to Keep Fear Alive” to restore “truthiness” to the nation on his show Thursday night. Colbert said the nation can’t afford a rally to restore sanity in the middle of a recession.
– From the Associated Press
U.N. Secretary General Urges Repeal of Anti-Gay Laws Around the World
www.wegiveadamn.org
The Give a Damn Campaign is for everybody, especially straight people, who cares about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Via JMG: DADT Action: GetEQUAL Delivers Signed Combat Boots To Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA)
AmericaBlog reports: Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) voted against the compromise DADT amendment in the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 27th. He's getting a visit from GetEQUAL today, which you can follow on GetEQUAL's Facebook page and via Twitter.the 2006 campaign, Webb wore the combat boots of his son who was serving in Iraq. Servicemembers will be leaving their combat boots for Webb, which is a powerful symbol. During the 2006 campaign, Webb wore the combat boots of his son who was serving in Iraq.Joe Sudbay notes that the following Senators are uncommitted to breaking a possible GOP filibuster:
--Susan Collins (R-ME)Have you called your Senators today? The vote is scheduled for Tuesday at 2:30pm.
--Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
--Mark Pryor (D-Ark.)
--Richard Lugar (R-IN)
--Judd Gregg (R-NH)
--Jim Webb (D-VA)
--George Voinovich (R-OH)
Via JMG: CALIFORNIA: Denny's Waiter Stabbed For Being Gay, Cops Rule It A Hate Crime
A waiter at a Denny's restaurant in Santa Maria, California is hospitalized with neck and throat wounds after being attacked by a customer who first demanded to know, "Are you gay?" When the waiter replied that he was, the customer stabbed him with a knife. The 24 year-old assailant fled the scene but was later apprehended and charged with attempted murder as a hate crime. The waiter is expected to survive.Via JMG: Catholic League Nutter Bill Donohue: Atheists Should Apologize For Adolf Hitler
"The pope cited Hitler today, asking everyone to 'reflect on the sobering lessons of atheist extremism of the 20th century.' Immediately, the British Humanist Association got its back up, accusing the pope of 'a terrible libel against those who do not believe in God.' The pope did not go far enough. Radical atheists like the British Humanist Association should apologize for Hitler. But they should not stop there. They also need to issue an apology for the 67 million innocent men, women and children murdered under Stalin, and the 77 million innocent Chinese killed by Mao. Hitler, Stalin and Mao were all driven by a radical atheism, a militant and fundamentally dogmatic brand of secular extremism. It was this anti-religious impulse that allowed them to become mass murderers. By contrast, a grand total of 1,394 were killed during the 250 years of the Inquisition, most all of whom were murdered by secular authorities." - Catholic League nutjob Bill Donohue.FACT CHECK: As Donohue knows, Hitler was in fact a Catholic JUST LIKE BILL DONOHUE and sang in the choir at the Benedictine monastery he attended as a child.
Hitler publicly denounced atheism as inherently communist. "For eight months we have been waging a heroic battle against the Communist threat to our Volk, the decomposition of our culture, the subversion of our art, and the poisoning of our public morality. We have put an end to denial of God and abuse of religion. We owe Providence humble gratitude for not allowing us to lose our battle against the misery of unemployment and for the salvation of the German peasant."
The Catholic Hitler also denounced secular education. "Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith."
Here's your precious fucking Pope, Bill!
Labels: atheism, Benedict Palpatine, Bill Donohue, Catholic Church, Catholic League, Hitler Youth, liars, religion
Via JMG: Andrew Sullivan On Christine O'Donnell
"A mischievous thought: when will someone ask O'Donnell, as a single woman, if, since her conversion to Catholicism, she has ever masturbated? She cannot have had any sex, right? And that includes sex alone. Since she has made this a public stance, and since, apparently, she cannot lie (even if it would mean handing over Jews to Nazis), she has made the question perfectly legit." - Andrew Sullivan on Christine O'Donnell, who has said if she knew where the Jews were hiding and the Nazis asked, she'd have to tell them because she cannot tell a lie.Labels: 2010 elections, Andrew Sullivan, Delaware, ladyfingers, masturbation, Senate, Tea Party, teabaggers
Via Tricycle: Earth-touching Buddha
One of the most recognizable and poignant images in Buddhist iconography is the "Earth-touching Buddha," the Buddha seated with the fingertips of his right hand gently touching the ground. At the moment of his enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, the Buddha was challenged by the demon Mara to prove the claim that a human being could become an awakened one. In reply, the Buddha touched the ground and called the earth to be his witness.
Nepal, 13th century gilt copper alloy, 17.5 x 15 in. © 2010 Rubin Museum of Art (HAR 65687)
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