Hey all!
Action links, news, analysis, opinion, and much more below the fold!
The fight over the Bush tax cuts and what can be done about them in the lame duck session is starting to heat up. But, with the dramatic tax fight on the horizon, I think the democratic party runs the risk of letting a critical issue fall by the wayside: DADT Repeal. The GLBT community is looking to the administration to be a pillar for change, and its looking more and more like Repeal will once again be pushed aside. It is a scary prospect not at least addressing DADT repeal in the lame duck, especially because many think that this may be our one shot at legislative repeal in this or the next congress.
Carolyn Lochhead and Kris Turner at the San Francisco Chronicle are not so optimistic about our chances of passing repeal this session, nevertheless, they outline what must be done to push repeal through:
A lame-duck repeal effort faces two big hurdles: It must compete for time with a controversial extension of all or part of the Bush-era tax cuts and leftover spending bills, and moderate Senate Democrats may be running scared after last week's rout by the GOP.
The second part of this sentence is especially frightening. The divisiveness is about to really come to a head, with a wave of new republicans filling what once were democratic seats. In the Senate, the democrats majority is razor thin. This is why we must address the issue of DADT repeal before the lame duck session of congress ends. It is imperative the democrats stand up on the side of equality. It will take courage, conviction, and dedication to make sure that the fight for DADT repeal does not get outshone by the fireworks made by the Bush tax cuts debate.
As a party, we must stick together on the idea that our governmental institutions must be free of bigotry and xenophobia to operate properly. DADT Repeal, to any democrat, should be non-negotiable. We should not run screaming in the other direction at this issue. Quite the contrary, I think the democratic party as a whole should get out a head of the criticism, and start the death process for DADT once and for all. We should be loud and proud in our support of our GLB service men and women. In fact, we should be loud and proud about our support of the GLBT community as a whole. Instead of trying to kowtow to the bigots, we should be loudly denouncing them for forcibly moving our country backwards, and embarrassing us on a national stage. We should be mocking them at every turn, tearing apart every single on of their hateful talking points piece by piece.
Alas, it is so much easier for democrats to run away from something they should be proud of. I am so sick of hearing the argument "But what if the republicans and the media attack us and tell us we have more important things to do?" Well, they are going to attack the democrats whether they start repeal now, or whether they wait for the stupid motherfucking study to come out in december. Meanwhile, precious time is being wasted ignoring DADT repeal and flat out running away from it. This lame duck session is an opportunity the democrats cannot waste. We cannot wait. We must act.
But, but, but!!!!!!!! DADT Repeal is not dead. Far from it. If we work, and fight tooth and nail, and let the recalcitrant dems in the senate know that the NDAA should be DEAD IN THE WATER if DADT Repeal is gutted, they will listen to us. We, as the constituents of the democratic party, hold all the cards here, and they will listen to us. If we flood the offices of every democrat on the Armed Services Committee, nay, every fucking MEMBER of the Armed services committee, nay EVERY SINGLE FUCKING SENATOR know that there will be HELL to pay if DADT repeal is gutted, they will listen to us.
We. Just. Have. To. Get. On. Those. Phones!!!!!
And now, for the good news :)
From Lisa Keen at Keen News Service:
A 370-page Pentagon study on implementing repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will report December1 that repeal poses only minimal risk to current war efforts, according to an article posted Wednesday night in the Washington Post.
The Post article is based on information provided to the newspaper from two people “familiar with a draft of the report,” according to Post reporters Ed O’Keefe and Greg Jaffe. The sources are not identified in the article. Asked if the reporters could convey a request from Keen News for follow-up, O’Keefe said Thursday morning that the sources “insisted we not contact them again.”
The article will almost certainly affect the momentum for repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) during the lame-duck Congress, as the potential for breaking a Republican-led filibuster hinges largely on 10 senators who said in September that they did not want to vote on the issue until the Pentagon study was available.
So, if the military were to end DADT, the military wouldn't simply collapse in on itself? Chaos wont consume the ranks of our armed forces because teh ghey is now acknowledged? People in the military don't ACTUALLY CARE what someones sexual orientation is? Damn! What happened to the "unit cohesion" argument? Looks like y'all homophobes were just blowing smoke up our asses, eh?
Now, I realize that these sources are anonymous and probably should be taken with a grain of salt, but this definitely is, at least in my honest opinion, a good sign of what is actually to come when the data of the study is revealed. So, Senator McCain, I wonder how you are going to react when the data contained within those pages doesn't fit your bigoted narrative? Are we going to see more holds, more attempts to destroy repeal, more attempts to ensure that our military stays segregated indefinitely? What will you do, Sen. McCain? I think you are going to double down, and rerun the same tired old arguments that the GOP has been running against repeal for years now. The Log Cabin Republicans are you bigots only saving grace. You had better be DAMN grateful for them.
And now, for the action links!
you can find a list of all 100 senators here
If you are looking for a target specifically, target Senators Carl Levin and John McCain. They are the power players here, as far as I can discern.
WH Contact Information
Phone Numbers:
(202) 456-1414 and (202) 456-2461
Contact Page can be found here
If you would like to show full support for DADT repeal there are numerous petitions you can sign online as well:
a couple from the Petition Site: here and here
Patrick Murphy's DADT Repeal Petition Page
Here is one from change.org
Sen. Gillibrand's Petition
Feel free to suggest places to donate, petitions to sign, and more ways to let the Senate know that repeal is non-negotiable in the comment below and I will update the body of the diary as I get suggestions.
Thanks guys! We can do this!