First Report on DADT Study

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"A Pentagon study group has concluded that the military can lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts, according to two people familiar with a draft of the report, which is due to President Obama on Dec. 1." (link above)

More than 70% of active duty and reserve troops find permitting gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military would have a positive, mixed or non existent effect according to a survey of active duty and reserve troops conducted by the pentagon over the summer. "The survey results led the report's authors to conclude that objections to openly gay colleagues would drop once troops were able to live and serve alongside them," according to the Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe and Greg Jaffe, reporting on the results of a months long study of the subject conducted by the Pentagon.

So, Congress should repeal DADT forthwith, and failing that POTUS must issue an executive order that the Pentagon stop enforcing it.

The House has already passed a bill so, Harry Reid, the ball is in your court. It's time you "man-up" to quote your recent oponent, and put it to a vote. If the Republicans threaten to filibuster it, let them. Bring out the cots and make them actually filibuster a piece of legislation that the overwhelming majority of Americans want passed.

And, Mr. President, step up to the plate and demand that the Senate do its job.
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Demonizing Government Is Not Smart!

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Dwight Eisenhower famously cautioned us to... "beware the military industrial complex." What he was warning us about was an atmosphere in which the private sector co-opts the public sector for the benefit of their bottom line. That has pretty much happened in the U.S. because the electorate has bought the line t...hat the private sector is good and the public sector is bad; that government is bad.

Ronald Reagan was good at delivering snappy lines including, "Government isn't the answer. Government is the problem." Then he proceeded to lead us into a substantial recession and left us with more debt than our government had accumulated in its history. That's bad governance. Government isn't bad. Bad governing is.

That's why Bill Clinton's "middle-way" succeeded in leaving us with a balanced budget and a surplus for the first time in decades. He recognized that the private sector has a place in our society but there are things that government can do if they're well managed. I disagreed with him on many issues but he certainly worked with a Republican Congress to put us on the road to recovery.

Then George W Bush spent every dollar of that surplus and trillions more by granting tax breaks while launching two wars that we could ill afford. He insisted that government is bad; that the private sector could solve our problems if we just reduced taxes and got out of their way. I didn't agree with Bush on much of anything, although I supported his approach to immigration reform but he just didn't seem to understand that government isn't bad; bad governing is.

Right now our government is struggling to dig us out of a recession bordering on depression at a time when people seem to buy the concept that Ronald Regan and George W Bush put forth; that government is the problem.

There's a roll for the private sector and one for the public sector and we must be vigilant to negotiate a proper balance between the two.

We all want strong national security, public education, safe prescription drugs, clean air & water, well built bridges & highways, scenic national parks, comfortable retirement and health care for our elders and we don't seem to want to pay for them.

Remember: government isn't bad; bad governing is.
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Who Is Alvin Greene?

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This whole situation in the South Carolina Senate race is shaping up to be a scandal. But who is behind it?

Senator Jim DeMint (R) was seen as vulnerable in this year's South Carolina Senate race when Vic Rawls, a retired judge, former state legislator, and currently a Charleston County Council member, entered the South Carolina primary as the only viable Democratic candidate.

Then Alvin Greene, a 32 year old unemployed military veteran who resides with his father, and who had been arrested on a pornography charge last fall and been assigned a public defender, pays the $10,440 filing fee with a cashier's check, mounts no campaign, and wins the primary with 59% of the vote.

Greene raised no campaign funds for the senate race and didn't even have a website. When he was interviewed on MSNBC's Countdown by Keith Olbermann, it was apparent that he could not answer simple questions about his campaign without prompting from his attorney who was standing off camera. How did this happen?

A few things should be noted:

a) South Carolina has open primaries meaning that anybody can vote for any candidate, regardless of party.
b) South Carolina uses Diebold electronic voting machines that lack a paper trail.
c) Irregularities in the primary election have been reported: some voters tried repeatedly to vote for Rawls, but when they tapped his name on the screen, Greene's name appeared instead, and that Greene received more votes in some precincts than were actually cast.

Of course South Carolina has a storied history of voting chicanery. After all it was the home of Lee Atwater, the architect of modern day dirty politics, such as the Willie Horton ad mounted during the 1988 George H.W. Bush campaign against Gov. Dukakis, and the 2000 Republican Primary between John McCain and George W. Bush, in which advertising pieces charged that McCain had fathered an illicit, black child. That child, now a grown woman, Sen. McCain and his wife Cindy, adopted as a baby. She was born into poverty in Bangladesh.

Carol Fowler, Democratic State party Chairwoman has called on Greene to withdraw from the race. He has refused. Vic Rawl has appealed to the Democratic Party to set aside the primary race. The party plans to hold a hearing this Thursday and could overturn the result. Rawl could get a new primary by laying out "... a convincing argument" that voter fraud happened.

Senator Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the Democratic Majority Whip, has said he thinks someone put Greene up as a shell candidate to embarrass the party. Rawl said at a news conference in Charleston that he suspects Greene's victory is due to either voting machines or software malfunctioning.

This could get very interesting. Stay tuned...

LOST

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.

"She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Obama Democrat."
"I am,"replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican."
"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."

"Return to your own self, enter into your own heart, learn the value of your soul, ponder what you were, are, should have been and can be."

Why I Disagree with our President About How to Deal With Torturers

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Our President has taken a middle road on the issue of Americans who torture: CIA agents who tortured will not be prosecuted because they were following orders.

Unfortunately, in this case, I believe he is wrong. I disagree with him for specific reasons:

1. The CIA is an intelligence group: Central Intelligence Agency. Get it? They should not be interrogating anybody. Their mission is to gather intelligence.

2. The FBI refused to participate in what is being euphemistically called "enhanced interrogation methods" because they were not legal. The CIA chose to do so.

3. After World War II German soldiers asserted that they had just been following orders when torturing Jews. They were convicted and some were executed. "Just following orders" was not an adequate defense.

4. Lindy England, Charles Graner, and Col Janice Karpinski did not get a pass on the torture that happened at Abu Ghraib.

5. Unenforced laws become unenforceable. If we are a nation of laws, not men, then we must uphold and enforce our laws.

6. Our President doesn't have the authority to decide whether illegal acts should be investigated. That authority resides with the DOJ. Attorney General Eric Holder should make the decision. I sincerely hope that he pursues investigation of these acts of torture, either internally or by the appointment of an independent counsel. Then let the chips fall where they may.

When the Bush Administration decided to use "enhanced interrogation methods" it did so knowing the methods were torture, and illegal. Else why would they have asked for legal opinions from political appointees in the DOJ in support of their tactics several months later? Remember, the torture began in August of 2002 at about the time Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) was captured. The memos written by John Yoo, Jay Bybee et al, were not written until the spring of 2003. It's called CYA.

As an aside, I find it rather amusing to note that Karl Rove, George W Bush, Dick Cheney, and others have asserted that the Library Tower (Bush/Cheney called it the Liberty Tower) in Los Angeles was saved from destruction, via aircraft, in the spring of 2002 by using "enhanced interrogation methods" on KSM, who promptly gave up the plot. Except that according to their own records, KSM wasn't captured until August of that year.

When it comes to the Bush Administration I recommend we apply the Regan Doctrine: Trust but verify.

Home Run, Touchdown, Three Pointer

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per Barbara Boxer. I guess that about covers it. Our president was game-on tonight and wiped out the opposition.

Bobby Jindahl's response was so bad. How bad was it? According to conservative NY Times columnist David Brooks, "Jindahl's speech was possibly the worst response to a presidential address in history."

I do have a few thoughts about Jindahl's speech:

a) if he thinks a high speed train between San Francisco and Los Angeles will get him from Disneyland to Las Vegas, I hope somebody will teach him how to use Google maps.

b) he said, "Government can't help you. Look what happened after Katrina?" To that I say, Yeh, Republicans were in charge. Way to go, Jindahl.

c) if the Republican Party plans on hanging their 2012 presidential hat on Jindahl they will LOOSE. I guess I hope they do just that.

Finally, I'm very proud of our President, and of the American people for electing him. He delivered for us tonight and our job is to support him while holding him accountable.

So, my message to you? Tag, you're it.
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What Do The Republicans Get If They Refuse To Get Onboard?

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Click on link above for the answer.

Or maybe you have a better idea. I invite you to post your recommendation here.


A tip of the hat to Fake Howard Dean for this.
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