HRC: Republican gay bashing puts national security at risk

Just released by the Human Rights Campaign.

New Hampshire Debate: GOP Candidates’ Support of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Puts National Security at Risk

Standing in Stark Contrast to Sunday Night’s Democratic Debate, No Republican Candidate Supports Repeal of Dishonorable Policy

WASHINGTON – When asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to raise their hand if they support the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, not a single Republican candidate’s hand went up in the air. The position of every single Republican candidate on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” not only stands in stark contrast to the unified support of repeal by all Democratic Presidential candidates but it is also out of step with the majority of the American people.

“America’s national security was sacrificed tonight in the name of divisive political maneuvering,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Every single Republican candidate for President just looked the American people in the eye and voiced their support for a policy that is more concerned about the sexual orientation of an Arabic linguist than it is our military’s ability to decode the next piece of intelligence from terrorist groups.”

“I hope tonight’s debate wasn’t aired over the Armed Forces Network because otherwise over 60,000 gay and lesbian troops on active duty just heard a message of dishonor. For these candidates running to be the next Commander in Chief to dishonor the service of men and women standing on the streets of Baghdad and serving around the globe is shameful,” said Eric Alva, National Spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign and the first U.S. troop wounded in the Iraq War.

On March 12, 2007, USA Today reported, "Polls indicate growing acceptance of gay troops. A Harris Poll this month found that 55% supported allowing gays to serve openly, up from 48% in 2000. A Pew Research Center survey last year found that 60% favored gays serving openly, up from 52% in 1994. Support ran 3-to-1 among those younger than 30.

”The American people have moved forward. Unfortunately, the GOP candidates for President have not,” continued Solmonese. “Apparently, the GOP presidential candidates have decided to ally themselves with the extreme views of the right wing, instead of the vast majority of Americans. Not a single hand raised tonight spoke volumes about their willingness to discriminate against gay and lesbian servicemembers.”

During tonight’s New Hampshire debate aired on CNN, none of the Republican candidates for President supported repeal of the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” (DADT) law that prevents gay and lesbian Americans from serving openly in the military. Mitt Romney actually supported repeal of DADT in 1994 but switched his position tonight. Ironically, Senator John McCain stated that while the U.S has a great military, "there aren't enough of them." Although, he went on to state his willingness to kick out gay and lesbian Americans wanting to serve.

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Number of Republicans in US hits new low

This backs up something I've been feeling in my gut for a while - that the only remaining people who call themselves Republicans are the Terri Schiavo Republicans, the loony right-wing fringe. That's why surveys keep showing that "Republicans" continue to support Bush on Iraq. Yeah, they sure do. All 5 of them. Normal Republicans are leaving the party. And their defections leave the party "strong" in surveys only because the remaining Republicans, all 30% of them, are the wackjobs. Read More......

Massive cyclone (hurricane) hitting Middle East oil producing countries

(Satellite photo of cyclone hitting Oman and heading to Iran.)

Was a Category Five earlier today, heading for Oman then Iran, both oil producing countries. They haven't had a storm like this in 60 years, meaning, they're not prepared for it, their facilities aren't prepared for it. Kiss your gas prices, buh bye.

From AP:

Gonu was expected to skirt the region's biggest oil installations but could disrupt shipping in the Straits of Hormuz, causing a spike in prices, oil analysts said.

Oil prices rose on Monday but retreated Tuesday, although the storm weighed heavily on the market.

"If the storm hits Iran, it's a much bigger story than Oman, given how much bigger an oil producer Iran is," said Antoine Haff of FIMAT USA, a brokerage unit of Societe Generale. "At a minimum, it's likely to affect tanker traffic and to shut down some Omani oil production as a precautionary measure."

Interesting observation from an oil blog:

Considering the region has never experienced a hurricane, let alone a strong one it is highly unlikely the loading facilities or platforms were constructed to withstand the forces - both wave action and wind force - that they will experience. Significant, damage will occur. How much long term damage, and the volumes associated with it - can not be determined at this time.

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The "gay stuff" from the GOP debate

Watch the Republican presidential candidates mis-state what the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy even is. Contrary to what the GOP candidates believe, it's not okay for gay people to serve so long as they don't have sex - that isn't the policy. Then see John McCain and Rudy Giuliani not only defend the ban, but explain how there's no need to change the policy on banning gay Arabic-speaking-linguists right now, I mean, we're in the middle of a war and having more Arabic speakers can't possibly help us find and stop Arab terrorists.

Click To Play

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GOP debate open thread

JOE'S COMMENTARY:So, it seems like these loyal Republicans aren't so loyal to their President. They've either kicked Bush around directly...or indirectly in lots of their answers. Now, of course, it's easy to kick around Bush. But these clowns have spent the past 6 1/2 years enabling the failed Bush Presidency.

Okay, you had to be asked about evolution because you don't believe in evolution, you cretins.

These Republicans do love a good immigrant-bashing. And, how many times can Rudy say "September 11th." He only looked good that day because Bush was no where to be found.

Hey Huckabee, if you're going to invoke Reagan on his "birthday," get his birthday right. It's February 6th, not June 5th. He died on June 5th.

This is already painful. They're all trying to out-tough each other. Bottom line is that Bush's foreign policy -- especially the Iraq war -- are disasters. Those clowns on the stage enabled him -- no matter how tough they are pretending to be.

JOHN'S COMMENTARY:McCain says some of the "sacdrifices" our soldiers made - i.e., their lives - were "unnecessary." Really, which ones?

Yikes, Tommy Thompson slams Bush - "I certainly wouldn't send him to the United Nations," Thompson said in response to how he'd use Bush in his administration. The audience responded with dead silence.

Gays in the military (like this is a real tough issue for the GOP, talk about softball). Ron Paul, libertarian, says it's okay to ban gays. Then he said that we shouldn't be treating gays differently. Totally contradicted himself. Huckabee says that it's all about conduct, not attitude - implying that gays can serve so long as they don't have sex - that's not true. "You don't punish them for their attitudes, you punish them for their behavior if it's a problem." Giuliani asked about gay Arabic-speaking-military-linguists being fired even though we have a shortage of such linguists. This is not the time to deal with disruptive issues like this, says Giuliani. (What time would be better Rudy, after the next September 11 hits, we're all dead, and we didn't translate the warning we had intercepted in advance, just like what happened last time?) Romney asked about Don't Ask Don't Tell and how he supported gays serving openly in 1994. Surprise, Romney thinks Don't Ask Don't Tell is working GREAT, he supports it now! What a flip-flopping liar. McCain, we have the best trained, most wonderful military in the history of this country and I'm proud of everyone one of them (GAG ALERT). I have to rely on the military leaders. It would be a terrific mistake to even reopen the issue, it's working, the policy is working. (Uh, actually, it's not working - we don't have enough Arab-speaking translators and you kicked them out.)

Giuliani thinks it's outrageous that we're buying oil from countries who are our enemies. He means Venezuela. The same Venezuela his firm worked for.

Good God, no pun intended. It's yet another buzzword slogan fest from the Republicans. Did you know God loves you? Not sure how that's going to help with Al Qaeda or the housing slump, but be assured that God loves you. These guys are a real trip. Read More......

Petraeus now says surge hasn't even started when last week he already determined the surge was a resounding success

Excuse me? Just last Friday, four days ago, ABC reported that General Petraeus had already decided that come this September he's going to call the surge a resounding success, even before it's over. At the time, we though it quite a feat that the general already knew, four months early, what his findings would be in September. Imagine our surprise to read today that Petraeus is now claiming that the surge hasn't even started yet. Yes, folks, General Petraeus has already decided that come September he's going to declare the surge a success even though we now know that the surge hasn't even really started.

When Bush said that Petraeus was the right man for the job he apparently meant the con job. Read More......

Politicized Petraeus: "We haven't started the surge"

Wow. It didn't take long for General Petraeus to become the political pawn of the Bush team. Think Progress documents his backsliding on the "surge" -- and they have video:

In April, during the congressional debate over war funding, Gen. David Petraeus pushed back against a withdrawal timeline from Iraq “because we’re only about two months into the surge,” assuring Congress that he would be able to report on progress in September:

We’re only about two months into the surge. We won’t have all the forces on the ground until mid-June and I pointed that out to them, and noted that Ambassador Crocker and I would be doing an assessment in early September and provide that to our respective bosses at that time.

But now that the debate on timelines has passed, Petraeus is asking for even more time. Today in an interview with Lara Logan of CBS News, Petraeus tried to argue that the surge hasn’t even started yet:

We haven’t started the surge — the full surge — yet. So let me have a few months.

You've already had a few months. The only thing surging is the death toll. Read More......

Bush making it more difficult for scientists to monitor climate change

His PR spin on climate change last week was just that, as Bush is reducing the capabilities of scientists to measure global warming. It's interesting to note that while the US apparently has enough money for the new Star Wars program, despite the unclear threat, the conflict it promotes and the imaginary budget, he is reducing the program for climate change, just as he heads to Europe to talk about how sincere he is on the subject.

Besides the bipartisan group of US Senators who are asking Bush to get serious, Senate Majority Leader Reid is asking Bush to show leadership, Speaker Pelosi is looking for Bush to step up, Blair (who is still afraid to get tough with Bush) has his Environment Secretary, David Miliband speaking in the US, warning against further delay, Nicolas Sarkozy raised the issue in his victory speech last month, Angela Merkel is anxious to see serious movement.

Despite the broad support both in the US and around the world for taking a stand against global warming, Bush still refuses to show any true level of seriousness but how much should we expect from the man who appointed Exxon CEO Lee Raymond (the $500m retirement man) as the leader of America's Alternative Energy Future. Read More......

Religious right using "gay marriage bans" to take health care benefits away from gays

So much for their supposed state constitutional amendments to "ban gay marriage." In fact, the religious right is using such amendments to take away health care benefits from gay people. What a surprise. In Ohio, their "ban gay marriage" amendment was used to stop a woman from being able to charge her abusive boyfriend with "domestic violence." And even worse, the religious right groups in Ohio sided with the battering boyfriend in his case against the abused woman. (What possible reason would a self-proclaimed "Christian" find for siding with a man who beats women? Can you feel the love of Jesus?) You see, they weren't married, so under the gay marriage ban it's illegal in Ohio to give the battered woman "special rights." Just as it's about to become illegal in Michigan to give the partner of a gay person health insurance benefits because according the judges, that would make the gay person almost like a married person (yeah, I guess if being healthy makes you like a married person).

And now these amendments are threatening states that want to pass laws outlawing job discrimination against gays. Joe and I have been saying for years that these "marriage" amendments have nothing to do with marriage, and everything to do with the religious right's desire to regulate, and ban, everything in the lives of heterosexual and gay America. (Your right to divorce is next on their list.)

The religious right pretty much wants us all dead.

More from the ACLU. Read More......

BREAKING: Libby sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison

Pardon me? Read More......

After what Bush has done to our democracy, he has some nerve lecturing Putin about democracy

He is kidding, right? Lecturing Putin about derailing democracy? Sorry, Mr. Bush, but Putin is doing exactly what you and Cheney and the Republicans have been doing in our country over the past six years. When the going got tough, you threw democracy under the bus. You and the Republicans are fair-weather democrats. You only believe in democracy when the going gets easy. When terrorists strike, when you fear for your nation's safety, you are the first to roll back democracy, to spy on your own citizens, to take away their rights to a fair trial, to try them in secret courts - just like the Soviets used to.

Remember that cute little phrase that the Republicans in the Senate all liked to quote in order to justify revoking our democratic liberties at home? You have no constitutional rights if you're dead. Here is the former Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts, the guy who was in charge of making sure the Bush administration didn't violate our democracy by illegally spying on us just like the communists do on their own citizens:

"I am a strong supporter of the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment and civil liberties," Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) remarked at yesterday's Hayden confirmation hearings, "but you have no civil liberties if you are dead."

Just a fluke? Hardly. Here are two more GOP Senators in the past year or two:

GOP Senator Jeff Sessions referring to the rightness of Bush's domestic spying after 9/11 declared melodramatically:

"Over 3,000 Americans have no civil rights because they are no longer with us."

...Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said on December 20, 2005:

"None of your civil liberties matter much after you're dead."

What they mean is, what's the point of upholding the Constitution's rights if we end up dying as a result? Well, I suspect Putin would argue that you have no fledgling democratic reforms if you're all dead. So spare us the lectures directed at Russia, Mr. Bush, a country that has suffered the same kind of terrorism that America faces, and actually suffers from greater instability than we do by far (they've even got a serious separatist movement). That certainly doesn't excuse Russia rolling back democratic reforms - I don't believe that any country should roll back democracy for any reason. It's not as if the Framers of the Constitution, the guys who signed the Declaration of Independence, were living during stable and secure times. Yet it was during times of trouble, times of uncertainty, times of danger that the founders of our country penned those very freedoms that Bush and Putin now believe aren't required during times of danger.

George Bush and the Republicans don't believe in democracy. They have no right to lecture Putin for doing exactly what they would do, exactly what they have done. Read More......

Americans are cranky, really cranky about Iraq

We all know Bush and the GOP won't make Iraq right. Bush is just too out of touch. The GOPers in Congress, who've enabled Bush for years, are willing to commit political suicide by sticking with him. The American people are over this war. They've had enough. Now, they are expecting action to end it -- and that means the Democrats have to step up:

Growing frustration with the performance of the Democratic Congress, combined with widespread public pessimism over President Bush's temporary troop buildup in Iraq, has left satisfaction with the overall direction of the country at its lowest point in more than a decade, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Almost six in 10 Americans said they do not think the additional troops sent to Iraq since the beginning of the year will help restore civil order there, and 53 percent -- a new high in Post-ABC News polls -- said they do not believe that the war has contributed to the long-term security of the United States.

Disapproval of Bush's performance in office remains high, but the poll highlighted growing disapproval of the new Democratic majority in Congress. Just 39 percent said they approve of the job Congress is doing, down from 44 percent in April, when the new Congress was about 100 days into its term. More significant, approval of congressional Democrats dropped 10 percentage points over that same period, from 54 percent to 44 percent.

Much of that drop was fueled by lower approval ratings of the Democrats in Congress among strong opponents of the war, independents and liberal Democrats. While independents were evenly split on the Democrats in Congress in April (49 percent approved, 48 percent disapproved), now 37 percent said they approved and 54 percent disapproved. Among liberal Democrats, approval of congressional Democrats dropped 18 points.

Bush's overall job-approval rating stands at 35 percent, unchanged from April.

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Violent crime on the rise in the U.S.

By the way, you're not safer here. Bush gave up on crime prevention and it's showing:

Big-city murders rose sharply in 2006 as violent crime increased nationally for the second straight year, the FBI reported Monday. Homicides committed in small towns and mid-size cities took a dramatic downswing - resulting in an overall 0.3 percent increase in the murder rate across the country, the new preliminary data show.

Year-end totals for murders rose in eight of the nation's 10 largest cities: Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio and San Diego. That contributed to a 6.7 percent murder rate increase in cities with populations over 1 million people.

Bush and his top law enforcement official, Alberto Gonzales, ignore the needs of local law enforcement, just like they ignore the needs of troops in Iraq. There's a pattern with these guys that makes the world -- and the country -- a more dangerous place:

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., who chairs a Senate panel overseeing crime issues, said the new numbers should serve as "a wake-up call" to the administration, which he accused of slashing funding that would have put more local cops on the street.

"For years we drove down the crime rates - but now we're in reverse gear," said Biden, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president. "This administration has repeatedly ignored the needs to law enforcement, giving short shrift to the men and women who keep us safe every day."

Heckuva job, Bushie. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Scooter Libby gets sentenced today. Then, another GOP presidential debate.

That should make for an interesting day. Read More......

Bipartisan group from Senate asking Bush to prioritize climate change

The Democrats have been leading the way and now, even Republicans are calling for change and asking Bush to step up and join our allies in combating climate change. Our traditional friends are already there, waiting for the US. China and India surely need to address this also but since when does US policy depend on what China and India are doing or not doing? Does the idea of leadership through example still register in the White House? If Bush wants to show leadership, this is his opportunity to do so. Besides making sense and doing the right thing for the future, joining our allies (and numerous US states) now will make it easier for US businesses to take the lead.

With the approach of the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, in June, we are writing to urge constructive engagement by the United States in the development of a joint communiqué on the issue of climate change. Chancellor Merkel, current President of the G8 and host of the Summit, has proposed a set of principles to guide the development of an effective multilateral response to global warming. We believe your support for a clear consensus on those principles could advance the interests of the United States and could open the door to the meaningful participation of developing nations in a global solution to this global problem.

Read the rest of the letter here. If Bush doesn't want to listen to the rest of the world, perhaps he will listen to Americans, both Democrats and Republicans. Read More......

"I call him Vladimir"

Another odd moment for Bush today, when speaking about Vladimir Putin and Bush's proposed expensive missile defense system that has both Putin and Eastern Europeans concerned:

"My message will be Vladimir — I call him Vladimir — you shouldn't fear a missile defense system," Bush said.

Ever the savvy international diplomat, though at least he's not calling him "Vlad" these days. Read More......

Nigeria files $7 billion against Pfizer

Big Pharma gets a major wake-up call. But are they listening?

The Kano state suit alleges that Pfizer administered an untested drug called Trovan Floxacin without authorisation on almost 200 children infected with meningitis in the state.

The federal lawsuit echoes those charges.

"In the midst of the epidemic, Pfizer devised a scheme under which it misrepresented and failed to disclose its primary motive in seeking to participate in giving care to the victims of the epidemic," it alleges.

"Pfizer never disclosed that it intended to experiment on vulnerable victims or conduct any clinical trials without the necessary approvals from regulatory agencies in Nigeria but pretended it came to render humanitarian service."

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