Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, testified at today’s House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee’s hearings on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and if I were on the side of the folks who want to continue the ban on gays and lesbians openly serving, I’d lock her up for the duration. She was literally laughed at during the proceedings, the room erupting at her lunacy, which included visions of rampant “lesbian assaults” and contorted gay sex on submarines if the ban was lifted. But she was ready for her closeup. Look at her ridiculous testimony (courtesy of HRC; Chris Johnson liveblogged it):
3:00 - CJ: Questions from the subcommittee members. Arkansas Congressman Vic Snyder (D) admonishes Donnelly for unnecessarily bringing up HIV in her testimony and tells her that, ironically, by her logic, she should only want to let lesbians into the military. Loud laughter all around. (Meanwhile, that old woman is stern-faced….)
2:35: CJ - Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness is speaking. There is an audible burst of laughter when Donnelly throws in a “San Francisco left” phrase just for dramatic effect. Another guffaw from the crowd when Donnelly expresses her concern over gay men sharing a “cramped submarine” with other soldiers.
OMG: There is on older lady in the room who just turned around to the room brimming with youngsters and issued the warning, “Show respect while she speaks!” She looks right at me when she finishes. WELL OKAY!
The room keeps laughing at Donnelly’s outrageous statements. The older woman is obviously losing this fight. “They’re just disrespectful people!” she hisses.
“Equal opportunity is important, but the needs of our military must come first,” are Donnelly’s closing words. I guess the words from generals and veterans who have actually served in the military don’t mean anything to her, huh?
Donnelly, btw, has never served in the military, and admits she has no qualifications or expertise on sexuality. WTF is she doing up there, then? Is this the best the fossils on the Right can do?
1. “Just be glad you live in a country where you can gather together for a political movement without being arrested” is the last refuge of the obfuscator. Especially when the issue you’re responding to (telecom immunity) has direct bearing on whether this country remains one where you can gather together for a political movement.
2. He did have a point, however: Several of the candidates (if not the majority; it was hard to tell) the Netroots hand-selected for Congressional races in 2006, and beyond, voted for the FISA compromise; DLC congresspeople and other centrists are certainly not solely to blame.
3. However: No, Harold, I don’t believe that if the Justice Department asks me to do something, I’m automatically justified in doing it. I understand the pressures that are on businesspeople if they fear political reprisal, but these are national conglomerates we’re talking about. This isn’t Cliff Johnson from Ames worried about how his family will eat if his corner drugstore closes. The telecoms made a cynical choice to be complicit in clear breaches of the law and privacy, and should have been held responsible.
Update: Blogging while listening to panels contributes to forgetfulness; let me add that in Ford’s example, he talked about a business owner consulting with an outside law firm to (paraphrasing) “see if we can do this.” This is a faulty assumption. The question for the law firms should have been “can we refuse?”
Luckily, we’ve evolved to the point where it’s everyone’s fault.
The Senate went home yesterday for the Fourth of July holiday to face voters, having failed repeatedly to address critical economic issues from skyrocketing gas prices to climate change to the nation’s housing crisis.
Leaders in both parties have vowed to tackle those problems. Yet the Senate has been unable to move forward even when there is broad agreement about what to do.
[...]
With each side using the Senate’s byzantine rules to gain advantage, work in the upper chamber, always balky, has ground to a halt.
What sort of maneuvers have each side used?
Republican senators have filibustered to keep a Medicare bill from going forward.
Harry Reid has prohibited 13 Republican amendments*...while Republican Senator John Ensign has thrown an amendment on the housing bill that’s crippled the bill’s passage.
The Republican minority leader has forced a 452-page bill to be read aloud, delaying a vote on the bill for days, even weeks.
As you can see, this is a heavily bipartisan problem that’s everyone’s fault. No sense assigning blame to any one side over the other here.
*UPDATE: Reid’s blocking amendments like Ensign’s that are designed to purposefully stop legislation in its tracks. In other words, he’s not holding up legislation, he’s trying to push it through.
