Dan Choi on The Rachel Maddow Show - and the Freepi eruption

Patriots

I wonder how many of these Freepazoids are from Southern states where people poll higher than anywhere else about wanting to secede from the U.S.  They shout the most baout honor, dignity, values, and America, and yet they are profoundly un-American.

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 09:49:32 AM CDT

From the left we get complacency

I have to disagree with the "disturbing" statement.  Rep. Sestak is completely correct when he says that we are a nation of laws and that it would be a step backwards for the President to issue some sort of executive order to repeal or in some other way invalidate DADT.  We should all contact our Senators and Representatives and push them for a Congessional solution.

Now regarding the "disgusting" statement, I am on the fence.  We are a nation at war, in the depths of a global financial crisis and we have staggaring problems with health care and education.  While I feel that GLBT issues are important (SSM and DADT for example) I truely believe that the greater good comes from tackling the gargantuan issues first.  For change to be effective it must come from the bottom up.  I whole-heatedly agree that too many democrats (and sympathetic republicans) have neglected GLBT issues.  Again, it is up to us, the plebians, the hoi-polloi to make things happen.  It worked durring the election and it can work again.  I will be contacting my Senator's and Representative's offices regarding my support for SSM and the repeal of DADT and encourage everyone to do the same.

"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind." - Bob Marley

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by: Hemingway1967 @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 10:59:37 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

What's more gargantuan or greater good than finaly declaring that all Americans are equal?

Marriage equality means that all of America's children have the opportunity to share in the same legal protections.  Without our children well cared-for, our future is compromised.

Workplace equality in the military means that we'll be better defended than ever before, because no capable people will be discharged for any reason not having to do with job performance.  Without the strongest defense, our future is compromised.

And one can only imagine the greater good to come from every aspect of American society and culture -- not all at once, of course, but eventually -- when every American has the exact same rights and responsibilites of every other American.

There is no other issue that supersedes equality.  Without equality, America is nothing.

Obama immediately suspending discriminatory and wasteful and counter-productive investigations is the only logical first step towards ending this disastrous policy that currently puts us all in needless peril.

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by: diablorobotico @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 12:58:05 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

In what way would it be illegal

for Obama to instruct the military to halt the discharges for, say, six months, until Congress acts on DADT?  It would be, in effect, exactly like a stay or an injunction while a court decision is being appealed.  If (or should the pessimist in me say when?) the Democratic Congress fails to strike down the policy, the military could go back to their cheerful ways and destroy as many more lives as they please.  

As for the "greater good," I don't think I can imagine a greater good than having a president who actually keeps his promises and makes human rights, including LGBT equality, one of his priorities.

Cynic, n.  A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.  

-Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

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by: QScribe @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 13:54:46 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

WTF?

Do you know how many tens (if not hundreds!) of millions the Pentagon has wasted by forcing out perfectly capable soldiers because they were TLBG due to DA/DT?

How many times did the NIS and the other military investigators violate the "Don't Persue" part and not be held accountable?

Obviously you don't care when nearly 20 men and women learning Arabic and other Middle Eastern dialects because the Bush fools were intercepting so many messages there's been a major backlog were tossed out because they were TLBG.

Listen to "TransTalk" every Monday from 4-5pm ET on http://www.falconradio.org

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by: Marlene @ Sat May 09, 2009 at 05:43:58 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

From the Right, we get hate

From the Left, we get complacency.

The number of "Democrats" who insist that Obama's hands are clean because DADT is a law is disturbing.  The number that think that Obama is a great leader for putting DADT repeal on the backburner is disgusting.

# Duty, duty -- honor is, is --
Honor, Creideiki -- alertly
# Shared, is -- Honor #

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by: MileHighDawg @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 10:00:45 AM CDT

Dan Choi is terrific

He is a true hero in the fight for equality.  If I got to pick his future career for him, I'd have him run for congress.  Or better yet the senate.

Cynic, n.  A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.  

-Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

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by: QScribe @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 10:20:45 AM CDT

Why not something in STATE DEPARTMENT....

After all he is fluent in ARABIC.

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.

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by: Orion45 @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 15:19:30 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Hey, don't knock FreeRepublic

I go over regularly to make sure that the extreme right wing as as manifestly inferior, intellectually and emotionally, to us and other rational liberal people.

Every time they squeal out another shitty cliche, crude pun, repellent chunk of dogmatic jargon or plain old filthy slur, I know that another Republican angel loses his wings. FreeRepublic is the absolute nadir of what psychologists call confirmation bias: the selective seeking out of smaller and smaller communities of agreement in order to bolster your chosen views. So, while the world at large to a greater and greater extent accepts our arguments as normal, rational people, the Freepers delve deeper and deeper into their maggot hole of consensus.

And the really hilarious thing is that they believe, this band of brothers, this happy few, that they are radicals: they are bucking the orthodoxy.

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by: steerpike66 @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 10:30:00 AM CDT

**spits**

Freepers aren't worthy to stand in the ranks with those of us who have sacrificed so much for so little.

God save ornery old queens! - kevinchi

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by: Keori @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 11:09:30 AM CDT

I wonder how fast it would be repealed...

If people systematically entered the military for the express purpose of getting high value training then used DADT to be discharged.

/snark

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by: Narcoleptic_Kitty @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 11:24:15 AM CDT

A bit more snark:

A large part of what drives the wingnuts is pure spite.  What if we turn that around and use it against them?

We should start arguing that it is our special right not to serve in the military.   "You straight fools get to fight and die for oil profits, but we have a special exemption and don't have to.  Nyah, nyah, nyah!" I swear, we'd have the fundies screaming for an end to DADT within a week.

By the same token:  "You dumb suckers have to go through hell to end a relationship.  Divorce court, community property settlements, alimony, child support...  When we want to end a relationship, we can just walk away.  We have it so much better than you. Nyah, nyah, nyah!"  They'd go apeshit in no time.  I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to force us to get married.

Cynic, n.  A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.  

-Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

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by: QScribe @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 14:03:33 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Next up

they'll want to penalize gays in some way because they can't serve in the Military.

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by: Donna @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 13:55:14 PM CDT

They already do --

How many fundie-run businesses there are that don't give preference in hiring to ex-military applicants, in part for this very reason?  It's one of the preferred ways of getting around non-discrimination laws; just find some heterosexuals-only group and give preference to people who are or were members.

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by: M @ Sat May 09, 2009 at 13:24:40 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

If you saw or watched the whole

segment, you saw that Lt Choi's firing letter spells it all out...saying 'i am gay' is the same as homosexual CONDUCT.

Pretty much says it all about the real subtext of DADT...it's the sex as always.

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by: Karen in Kalifornia @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 15:09:43 PM CDT

He was also on CNN America Today show or something...

I couldn't see it, but saw clip. Don't know how to post those here. She read from letter, but wouldn't read the homosexual part.

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.

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by: Orion45 @ Fri May 08, 2009 at 15:22:09 PM CDT