Harry Reid: no sponsors, no plan for DADT repeal - says Obama should do exec order

I am a FIERCE ADVOCATE for the Democrats...

however, now is not the right "time" for me to be contributing any of my hard-earned dollars or time getting you elected anymore.

When my rights become more than a pandering tool for votes, please let me know so I can resume my support. Until then, no gay rights, no gay $$$$.

Go play your Donnie McClurkin CD's, DNC.

Still I sent up my prayer, wondering where it had to go/with heaven full of astronauts and the Lord on Death Row.

---

by: bluebear @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 20:11:33 PM CDT

WRONG emphasis!!!!

Do y'all care more about the fun of calling names from your keyboards or do you want to STOP DADT????

After Robert Gibbs and assorted other Obama Inc. talking heads and all the Obambots have been screeching, HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST OBAMA "BREAK THE LAW"--HE CAN'T, HE CAN'T, WE TELL YOU, HE CAN'T!!!, after Obama's legal hit men have gone into court and DEFENDED DADT....the US Senate leader for the DNC is calling for stop-loss himself!!!

It's FUCKING REVOLUTIONARY!!!!

Sure, it's shameful that no repeal bill has been introduced in the Senate, but the one in the House has just been sitting there for like four years...during which time roughly 3000 gays have been discharged, and 1-2 CONTINUE TO BE EVERY DAY. I don't care HOW they STOP just that they DO.

Look for a "clarification" as that screaming you hear is coming from the White House basement where Reid is being Kool Aid boarded BUT

KEEP RUBBING THIS IN OBAMA'S FACE AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!!

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by: Michael Bedwell @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 20:31:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

??

Er, what names am I calling anybody?

Still I sent up my prayer, wondering where it had to go/with heaven full of astronauts and the Lord on Death Row.

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by: bluebear @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 20:51:05 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Note the "y'all"

I didn't mean you specifically, though, in this thread at least, the failures of the "DNC" are the issue as much as the VICTORY of someone like Reid calling for freezing discharges.

I merely tried to place my comment at the top to stem the flow of any further pointless emphasis on the "wrong sy-lab-il" that I was beginning to read below.

Thanks.

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by: Michael Bedwell @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:09:21 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

You miss the point entirely, sir

The point being that BOTH Obama AND Reid are trying to shove this issue off on EACH OTHER rather than deal with it. They are BOTH treating the GLBT community as if we were something icky they don't want to be associated with, like children asking for anew toy-Obama says, "Go ask your mother" and Reid, "Go ask your father".

Well, this isn't some toy, and we are neither children nor are we something to be avoided and dodged.

THAT, sir, is the source of our outrage.

And this government should be tough enough to handle a little criticism. Are you implying that the US federal government is so weak, so fragile, that the mere criticism of its inability to act over what amounts to a major civil rights struggle taking place in their time?

We have a word for politicians that crumple under the slightest criticism, that cannot stand on principle and who are slaves to the opinions of bigots. Coward.

And cowards rarely win second terms.  

Public servants who make it to federal level elected posts have to expect harsh critiques; that is the very basis of a democracy, the realization that even the President is just another American citizen, and is to be held just as accountable for his errors as we are for our own.

How dare you infantilize the President?

My dad was a steelworker
My mom was a kitchen girl
and that's why
I'm a socialist.
-from an old song I used to hum to myself

---

by: DaveB @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:49:46 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Here's a pat on the back for your outrage

...as cheap to feel and impotent by itself as it is, Sir.

Jerk off to it as much and often as you want, but I prefer to action over verbal ejaculation, to focus on what can be CHANGED FIRST and STOPPING DISCHARGES is that because, note, Reid said, "Go ask your Great Black Father FOR THIS!"

Bring along outraged self-righteousness, after all you apparently invented it, and work to communicate to Reid et al. that their FUTURES depend on their actions but I'm talking about something called NOW, Sir.

In the meantime, "feelings, oh oh oh, feeeeelings" are, by themselves, a luxury those who care more about the lives of those discharged and the nation's security can't afford.

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by: Michael Bedwell @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 22:02:48 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

So much bile for your own kind, so little for those who have failed you

Do you think I DON'T communicate with Reid and my own Senators? Have you made the false assumption that one cannot do both-critique the Democrats to their face AND on this blog?

I thought this was the Administration that said they could do two things at once. Which is why they're doing everything else, but they won't touch us.

Oh, and we have words for those that undercut their own kind-do you prefer to be called traitor, Uncle Tom, Aunt Mary, or just Troll?

My dad was a steelworker
My mom was a kitchen girl
and that's why
I'm a socialist.
-from an old song I used to hum to myself

---

by: DaveB @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 22:08:12 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Oh wait, I forgot kapo

or maybe you prefer Quisling?

My dad was a steelworker
My mom was a kitchen girl
and that's why
I'm a socialist.
-from an old song I used to hum to myself

---

by: DaveB @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 22:11:52 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Mary, whatever you're on, Just Say No!!

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by: Michael Bedwell @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 22:32:24 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I think "quisling" is the word you are looking for

From the Wikipedia:

Quisling, after Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling, who assisted Nazi Germany to conquer his own country, is a term used to describe traitors and collaborators. It was most commonly used for fascist political parties and military and paramilitary forces in occupied Allied countries which collaborated with Axis occupiers in World War II, as well as for their members and other collaborators.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même merde.

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by: TechBear @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 09:01:00 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

brilliant! n/t

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by: chiefscribe @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 22:32:25 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I've loathed Reid for over 8 years

the fact he's also a Mormon doesn't make him any more endeared to my heart.

"race, taste. and History finally overcome....and you ain't there"
by Tony Kushner

---

by: peteyPornpig @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 20:12:52 PM CDT

Sorta like the marriage equality thing.

The legislature should do it, no the courts should, no the people...
The only good thing about Prop 8 is that when it is overturned next year, ALL three estates would have passed it; the legislature, the courts, the people...then what will the Antis and the Anitas say?

My gay $$$ only goes to pro equality Democrats now and forever.

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by: Karen in Kalifornia @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 20:17:44 PM CDT

Pro-Equality Democrats

Please make sure your pro-equalty democrats are also NOT cowards. Pro-equality is crap when they are afraid to do anything.

Close the GayTM. Only give to candidates who have actually done something other than make promises - most are just pandering for our cash.

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by: JohnVisser @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 20:24:23 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

PROVEN pro-equality, Karen

Not just pretty speeches delivered to chosen crowds...

Give money to candidates with a resume of support for equality causes.  

No more $ for the DNC until there is a result that can be measured / witnessed / recognized.

Make them EARN it.

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by: Patrick @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:08:21 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I'll give my $$ to a pro-equality republican

if they have proven themselves.  Or a pro-equality Martian, for that matter.  Prove to me that you''ve delivered, convince me that you will continue to do so, and you have my support, party be damned.

Click HERE and sign up: Campaign For Military Partners.

Lurleen on Twitter.

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by: Lurleen @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:21:58 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

OMG, I love that image

Bwa ha ha!!  Too rich.

My plan for 2010.  Give to pro-equality candidates (who have PROVEN the pro-equality label), and everything else goes to The Task Force and The Victory Fund.

"There are two kinds of people in this world -- the kind who separate the world into two kinds of people, and those who don't."  -- Gloria Steinem

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by: red7eric @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 20:22:21 PM CDT

Right on!

All LGBT should write to our sentate and congress reps and let them know that money and support is cut off until there is a major turnaround.

If it were only possible to know the number of LGBT that voted for Obama.  I have a feeling that if you took that number away from his total, we'd be Sarah Barracudin' it up right now.

As someone else on here said, NO GAY RIGHTS, NO GAY MONEY

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by: deezero @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 20:29:25 PM CDT

Turning off the money is critical

I've been doing a bit of looking around on OpenSecrets.org to look at giving patterns of some zip codes with large GLBT populations.  Places like West Hollywood, the West Village and Chelsea in New York City, Capital Hill in Seattle.

Giving in these zip codes is huge -- millions and millions of dollars with the vast majority going to Democrats.  Turn off the tap and it's like turning off the life support system in the ICU.  

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by: Smartypants @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 20:30:38 PM CDT

The challenge, though, is to convince the cash cows to dry up

The "If you do not support the Democrats 110% then the Republicans will come in and send you off to concentration camps" meme is pretty damn strong. I know far too many people who cry about what the party is doing but still give hundreds each year, because "the Republicans will be worse."

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même merde.

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by: TechBear @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 09:04:41 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I'd love to hear one of them explain

what the Republicans have ever done to us that is worse than Obama's hate brief.  They've done things equally bad, to be sure, but worse?!?  Nope.

Cynic, n.  A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.  
-Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

---

by: QScribe @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 09:16:51 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

The sentiment seems to be...

"Sure, the Democrats are breaking both of our legs and leaving us for dead, but the Republicans will do the same thing, and break both of our arms as well!"

Therein lies the fundamental flaw with the Two Party system: both parties can be as horrific as they want as long as one or the other party is seen as being less horrific than the other.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même merde.

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by: TechBear @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 10:16:53 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

We need GLBT Senators

We have none. We have never had a GLBT Senator (that anyone knows for sure of).

Think about it like this. Say, you're a heterosexual liberal Democrat, a Senator for some state. Your constituents want you to introduce GLBT equality legislation. Then again, there's a handful of really rich and politically influential bigots in your state that are just making life hell for you for even thinking about it. You really just want the whole thing to go away so you don,t have to deal with the headache. Besides, its not like its ever going to affect you personally. You can marry, join the army, adopt-nobody thinks you personally are so strange you should have a civil union instead of a marriage. Churches won't try to legislate your personal relationships. So fuck it, why not just ignore it to death?

Now, say you,re a GLBT Senator. The whole picture is different. For one thing, if you won't stand up for your own rights, whose would you stand for? Your constituents are going to look at that as a barometer for whether they can trust you to stand up for them in time of need. Further, this issue does affect your home life-your spouse just won't shut up until you take him/her down the aisle. And your friends just won't see you as authentic unless you stand up for your right to do so.

http://www.victoryfund.org/home

Send your money here. The only people that will receive it are GLBTs just like you, who are running for public office. These folks can't make the GLBT issue go away, because they are the GLBT issue-it stares back at them every time they look in the mirror.

Break through.  

My dad was a steelworker
My mom was a kitchen girl
and that's why
I'm a socialist.
-from an old song I used to hum to myself

---

by: DaveB @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 20:34:13 PM CDT

This is, indeed, what we need.

THis is what we have to do.

All of us.


http://www.dyssonance.com  Breaking all the rules...

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by: dyssonance @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:39:11 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Are there any senators with openly GLBT sons, daughters,

grandsons or granddaughters?

We might be able to get them.

The real question is finding them.  

Marriage equality.  Now with 50% more cake.

equalitycake.blogspot.com

---

by: Maureen @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:49:44 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

The closer to the bone, the less able you are to dodge it

So yes, having GLBT relatives makes it harder to dodge than someone who is unrelated to a GLBT person. Having close relatives cuts closer to the bone; and BEING GLBT is the closest of them all.

I wish we lived in a world where people thought about the needs of others before they considered their own. However, the sad truth is that human beings, and perhaps American politicians even moreso, nothing weighs so heavily upon the mind as the issues that directly affect your own life.

Consider Alan Keyes, who has a lesbian daughter-he threw his own child out on the streets, because she was a political liability to him.

We need GLBT Senators-not straight allies, not 'proven track records', not closely related to's-ain't nothing like the real thing.

Break through.

http://www.victoryfund.org/con...

My dad was a steelworker
My mom was a kitchen girl
and that's why
I'm a socialist.
-from an old song I used to hum to myself

---

by: DaveB @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:56:36 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Fuck 'em ALL!

And ACT UP

That is all!

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by: kevinchi @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 20:43:09 PM CDT

I'm with you

ACT UP!!

You may not be gay, but you may be next.

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by: LeslieK @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 23:52:46 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

me too

ACT UP
FIGHT BACK
FIGHT AIDS

"race, taste. and History finally overcome....and you ain't there"
by Tony Kushner

---

by: peteyPornpig @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 02:34:47 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Harry Reid

He who said that 3 different African American candidates to fill Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat were "unelectable." And got totally played by Rod Blagojevich. And odious Mormon he is.

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by: kevinchi @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 20:45:42 PM CDT

UAFA - Uniting American Families Act

I want that too - the truth is I don't care much about ENDA, we need repeal of DADT, DOMA and passage of UAFA.

I changed my voter registration to Green, and told my congresscritter (who has been great) that it was nothing personal, but since the Dems werent supporting me, Im not supporting them

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by: tiponeill @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 20:56:36 PM CDT

I hate Reid, but he's right about this....

Reid didn't go around the country, implying that he would work to repeal DADT - it was Obama.  

Reid is right - Obama should issue an executive order halting the enforcement of DADT and then engage congress to repeal it.

But I agree with everyone - the Democrats in general are ball-less. Why are they and Obama still trying to appease the Republicans?  

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by: Gary SF @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:03:31 PM CDT

AMEN...

There's no reason why we can't continue to try to pressure memmbers of Congress about eventual repeal, but the first step is to put greater pressure on the man who built and rode on the Great Big Red, White, & Blue DUMP DADT Float.

Rub Reid's "hope" in Obama's face and Robert Gibbs and Robert Gates and James Jones etc etc etc and don't stop until the discharges do.

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by: Michael Bedwell @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:13:37 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

They're not trying to appease the Republicans.

They are the Republicans.

Obama should issue his orders to end discrimination based on Bill Clinton's odious bigoted law DADT. Reid and Pelosi should themselves author bills to repeal Clinton's bigot law if everyone else is afraid.

Fat chance.  

With Democrats like these who needs Republicans. I mean, really, what's the difference.  

The looter rich much prefer working with Democrats like Obama and the Clintons - they're greedier, they fool more people and they're able to get away with a lot more than Republicans.  

---

by: donal1944 @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 22:13:29 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

We wouldn't expect anything more from Reid

Harry Reid is a waste of carbon who couldn't push his own grocery cart let alone progressive legislation.

It looks to me like Obama is playing a game of "make me do it." So, lgbt community, how do we make him do it?

Saw Howard Dean on Rachel Maddow a few minutes ago. Love the guy... pro gay but very pragmatic. He basically suggested, you want gay rights, demand them. He condemned the DOMA brief three times. But he also said there is a natural tension between those who want progressive reform, and the lawmakers. He equated it to MLK with civil rights. MLK demanded it, LBJ thought it should wait. It got done.

So... who is our MLK? Who will step up if we don't have one? How do we play hardball with BO? What are the best way to make our demands? I don't think giving up and saying a pox on both your houses is the right thing. Yes it feels good for a day or two.

And it's Nancy Pelosi who should be leading this in Congress. She is the one to be lobbied - by us. She's from San frigging Frisco for cripe sake. Reid is a Mormon and also a walking corpse.  

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by: Mr. Larry @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:08:05 PM CDT

Someone from Dallas

I don't know who's our MLK, but it's definitely not one of the establishment figures.  It's got to be one of the drafters of the Dallas Principles - I vote for Pam.

Marriage equality.  Now with 50% more cake.

equalitycake.blogspot.com

---

by: Maureen @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:15:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Okay then. Works for me. Pam?

How good are you at giving speeches to half a million people? :)

---

by: Mr. Larry @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:21:00 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

And if we don't have a gay version of MLK, and we probably don't...

Then we do the updated, leader-less version of persistent activism. Do everything to put Big O on the hot seat.

Starting with big money gays pulling out of the Biden fundraiser this month. That gets noticed.

It's pride month fer chrissake. Where are the protest floats? I went to pride in West Hollywood yesterday. The parade was the same ol same ol. Sure it's nice to see the sisters of perpetual indulgence. But unless I missed it, where were was the float of gay discharged army men and women? Where was the Obama Keep Your Promise float?

Who is organizing an effort to dry up the gay dollars across the country?

Just for starters...

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by: Mr. Larry @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:19:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

we're looking in the wrong place for our MLK.

The vanguard of our movement is not in Washington D.C. and not in a pulpit--though we have some awesome preachers and inspirational speakers in MCC, UCC, and the other "welcoming and affirming" faith communities--but in the movie studios, in the recording industry, in the TV scriptwriters' meetings, etc..  

Just a week or so ago I saw a great pro-marriage equality piece by Russell Simmons on HuffPost.  Add Ellen Degeneres, Melissa Etheridge, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins...  The list of sane and reasonable entertainers is a lot longer than the list of sane and reasonable politicians and religious leaders.  Fortunately (? in this case), people pay way more attention to entertainment.  

Where cultural leaders go, the law will eventually follow.

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by: chiefscribe @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 22:38:41 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Melissa can stay home with her BFF Rick Warren

I'll take Alec Baldwin. He, at least, is unconditionally supportive.

God save ornery old queens! - kevinchi

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by: Keori @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 22:44:21 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Uprising!

Protests, hit and run tactics, posters, graffitti, whatever it takes to put the Dems into a position where the public shame of their treatement for us becomes a liability

We don't need an MLK or a Harvey for that, after all, we already ought to have them in each of our hearts

I tell you Chica that no greater abomination exists than women denying their spirit of sisterhood and instead becoming the oppressor. -Rebeca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

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by: MauraHennessey @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 06:15:25 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Being a resident of Nevada

I'm actually getting a good chuckle out of anybody that actually had the audacity to think Harry Reid would put his ass on the line over anything.     You could introduce a resolution that "Killing People is bad mmmmkay?" Just symbolically, and this spineless toad would still waffle over it.

Until you put a metaphorical gun to his head, or show him there's absolutely NO risk to him supporting something, and NO possibility that he might be held responsible for unintended consequences of that action, he won't do shit.

I've actively campaigned against this spineless wuss, and somehow, a majority of the residents of this state seem to think it's better to have the Senior Member of the Senate, instead of somebody that actually DOES anything.

Morons.

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by: sfalken @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 12:00:40 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

YES, finally everyone is getting it,

  The LGBT Community has been the token vote for the Democratic Party Long Enough.  There are some who have been actively supporting our rights and equality and they should receive our support.

 Democrats have been riding other supportive Democratic coat tails for too long.  Request your Congress Critter to be Actively Supporting our rights and equality or send them packing home for good.

If I make sense? it was quite by accident.

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by: HappyCat @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:14:37 PM CDT

DNC doesn't represent me

Tiponelli is absolutely right (see above).  

UAFA is overdue.  DADT is old news.  DOMA is a festering sore that was just doused in salt.  

We are being treated like shit by the party that is supposed to be our allies.  Our fierce advocates are full of shit and they aren't ashamed to continue playing football with our citizenship....like they couldn't care less about the ways - the number of ways - that we are all affected by their lack of commitment and courage and integrity.

We must cease support of them.  We must stop giving money.  We must not be silent and patient and passive.

They are counting on us to continue doing the same thing - supporting them because the Republicans are worse.

I'm sorry, but I am much angrier when a friend stabs me in the back or stands by watching while I am being beaten than I am upset with someone I know I can't count on.

Let 'em have it!

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by: Patrick @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:16:08 PM CDT

It should be obvious to the most obtuse queer by now

(except possibly sci-fi geek, than whom none is more obtuse) that even though the Democrats keep telling us the Republicans are worse, they are not.  The two are equally atrocious.  Our electoral choice is between a pile of steaming manure and a pile of steaming shit calling itself a petunia patch.  Supporting either--with money or votes--is tantamount to suicide.

Cynic, n.  A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.  
-Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

---

by: QScribe @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 22:11:05 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Well.

We could get as many of those currently enlisted in the services to Tell. Then Barry would have to put 'em out, right?

And replace them with Nazi skinheads, criminals, and the like.

Would that make him do it? And I'm talking about from private to 4 or even 5 star general.

Would that make Barry do it?

Time to ACT UP!

---

by: kevinchi @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:16:32 PM CDT

Kevin!

Sure than would be dramatic, but you might as well resurrect the old wish that we ALL wake up lavendar tomorrow morning. At least for a day. Our overall "invisibility" has been our greatest vulnerability.

That ain't gonna happen and every LGBT in the military outing themselves ain't gonna happen either. Something like less than ONE % of those who get discharged go public. Approximately 250 gays have been discharged since Obama was sworn in. How many facing discharge have gone public since then? TWO.

So far we only have three, count them, THREE general/admiral level gays who've come out, and all three of them AFTER they'd retired. Studies show that even in countries and domestic police and fire forces where gays ARE legally protected FEW come out.

I'd love to see a reliable current study on how many CIVILIANS are out to their parents, siblings, bosses. I bet the number would shock the hell out of most about how few still aren't. From Anderson Cooper's public self to mid-discharge Lt. Col. Fehrenbach who was not out to his family until after discharge proceedins began against him last fall, the closet is still alive and sick, certainly among those over 35.

Unfortunately, those of us who can be out at this point in our lives have to fight for those who can't ...from those in the military to emerging gays in schools.

And the greatest way to do that at the moment is to rub Reid's "hope" in Obama's face and not stop until the discharges stop!

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by: Michael Bedwell @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:41:26 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Why aren't Kerry and Kennedy speaking up?

They're two of our strongest allies in Congress.  Why do they remain silent?  Any MA readers here?  Please demand an explanation from your senators, who used to be champions of LGBT civil rights (marriage excluded).

Click HERE and sign up: Campaign For Military Partners.

Lurleen on Twitter.

---

by: Lurleen @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:18:04 PM CDT

The 411....

Anti DADT lobbyists in DC have been saying for months that the strategy in the Senate was to try to get a Republican to introduce a DADT repeal bill there...rather than Ted Kennedy who was totally willing to.....for the obvious reasons of a bipartisan attack. They allegedly have been trying to get Repub Senator was Susan Collins and/or Olympia Snowe to do it, as both have been criticizing DADT for years.

Why neither has, particularly after the election of a President who swore he supported repeal, is strange at best.

More recent word was that Ted Kennedy was going to introduce one after all. One can only assume that his health issues have impacted that. But that leaves, as mentioned, Kerry and Feinstein and several others with relatively pro gay reputations.

The intertia is a mystery, but, AGAIN that Reid has called for STOP LOSS in the interim is a political miracle that we must exploit to the fullest.

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by: Michael Bedwell @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:54:28 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

not using those words he didn't

And I'm sorry, but if he can't even say it, he's sure not doing it...your interpretation is interesting, but words have been failing lately...and putting them in the mouths of faux fierce advocates is even more specious than their own hollow words.

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by: Patrick @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:59:33 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Is looking below the surface too much to ask?

Do you think Pam inserts those hyperlinks to the source articles by mistake. Had you used this one you would have discovered:

"'My hope is that it can be done administratively'.

A Democratic aide later clarified that Reid was speaking about the possibility of using an executive order to suspend discharges or perhaps halting enforcement of the policy by changing departmental regulations within the Department of Defense."

Thank you.

---

by: Michael Bedwell @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 22:09:58 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

actually, it is

We have experienced enough face value acceptance of empty pledges to know that interpretations of interpretations aren't going to produce anything of value.

"A Democratic aide clairified...the possibility...perhaps..."

Maybe that amounts to telling Obama to impose a stop loss...it is a possibility....perhaps Reid (or his aide) will make that hope become reality.

And maybe he (or the aide) won't.  

He should stop talking about talking about doing it and fucking do it.

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by: Patrick @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 22:19:26 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

And merely screaming about being

And merely screaming about the possibility of being smile fucked again is accomplishing what?

Many of us, including myself, have been doing that for months now. But I've also been suggesting ACTION and the latest one is taking as much advantage as we possibly can of what Reid is CLEARLY saying [tho I expect a retraction] not trying to tear it down which leaves us with what-simply more impotent outrage.

This is the FIRST example we have of the Dem leadership dramatically and publicly disagreeing among THEMSELVES about a gay rights issue. All that's come before has definitely been only pretty words because there was no high status coming with them.

But Reid, the highest ranking Dem in the US Senate, regardless of what we might think of him otherwise, just put Robert Gibbs who must PUBLICLY respect him in the hot seat because HE's been the one denying the freeze option in Obama's name.

Even IF Reid retracts, says he meant something else, IGNORE it and demand to know WHY NOT FUCKING FREEZE? YOU brought it up Mr. Straight Mormon not Barney "Fag" or Tammy Lesby Anne.

It's like DADT architects Gen. Rectum Powell and Sam Homohating Cracker Fascist Nunn saying it's time to "reconsider repeal." I don't for a second believe that either one of them meant it. It was a public job pitch to Obama who they, like many gays, were foolishly enough to believe was serious about DADT repeal.

But ya still say, "Even Powell and Nunn are saying reconsider" and keep hammering those nails, and Reid's, until the lid is shut on DADT's coffin.

---

by: Michael Bedwell @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 22:47:33 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

There's no disagreement

Obama says that the only way forward in the long term is for Congress to pass a law. Which is true.

Reid says that he can't find a single sponsor, so legislation isn't going to happen on his watch. Which is true.

Reid hopes that it can be handled in some unspecified nebulous  administrative way, while Obama hopes it can be handled in some unspecified nebulous legislative way. They both want it handled, they've said so.

Everyone knows it's just a political game. If there was a real military emergency, Obama would have used his Stop-Loss powers long ago. That would have given Reid an opportunity to say "problem solved, no further action needed" and to dodge the issue. But because there's obviously no real emergency, since Obama hasn't acted, why should Congress do what the president won't?

So nothing will happen. Both Obama and Reid are speaking truths that really can't be denied, and so the situation will continue indefinitely unless something comes along to change it.

Until gays spend one election NOT supporting the Dems, and actively donating and canvassing for their opponents, until they show that they can't be taken for granted no matter how badly they're treated, why shouldn't this state of affairs continue?

There is no situation so complex it can't get even worse

---

by: ZoeB @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 23:33:25 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Check this out...

Check out this article over at Salon which details how a ban on military enlistment for individuals involved in white supremacist groups has basically been lifted.

http://www.salon.com/news/feat...

Groups with known ties to violence, who have demonstrated their capacity and objective for eliminating/intimidating people based solely on race get a pass, but gays?  No way!

What a screwed up country we live in.

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting." -E.E. Cummings

---

by: popsiclestand @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:18:25 PM CDT

Excellent Idea!

Because the United States' tolerance for misfits in the military has worked out so very well for them
Just off of the top of my head, the names Tim McVeigh and Lee Harvey Oswald come to mind--where would we be today without the fine training the military gave to them?

I tell you Chica that no greater abomination exists than women denying their spirit of sisterhood and instead becoming the oppressor. -Rebeca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

---

by: MauraHennessey @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 06:23:11 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

You know what

this is almost as big of an insult as that DOJ brief.

Outside that LGBT fundraiser, could someone please have a "HOUSE FAGGOTS" sign or 2 or 15 or what the fuck ever?

---

by: kevinchi @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:19:19 PM CDT

NO...

... because DOJ didn't then turn around and say, "We hope Obama will stop DOMA administratively."

---

by: Michael Bedwell @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:43:14 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Dude, Michael

you really do talk like Obama is the anti-Christ and the source of all evil for LGBT's. You really are obsessed.

I'm as pissed at the Hyde Parker as anybody but good lord, please...no one in this government wants to handle our issues. Noone.

---

by: kevinchi @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 22:04:24 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Could YOU make up YOUR mind...

Read some of your own posts and you'll discover that I've never said anything worse than want you've said such as

"He's an out-and-out liar and a fraud that's just not that into us" whereas I think he's a selective liar and fraud and I'm no more "obsessed" about that than you apparently are. And I don't need anyone, thank you, putting words in my mouth. If I thought Obama was the AntiChrist I would say it, which I'm certain I've not.

I will never apologize for expressing my opinion no more frequently or forcibly than you do or trying to swat down the apologists and the ignorant generally with facts and figures. And when an identifier like "Idiot" fits I merely ask them to wear their pointy hat with pride.

There's plenty of blame to go around for where we are, including among ourselves, but those most culpable are those with the most power: Obama and Congress.

I have no solution for your seemingly warring personalities about all this, but your own recent prescription for yourself sounds good about now: "I give myself a couple of days (maybe 3 or 4 days if I'm really pissed) to spew all sorts of stuff (justified and unjustified) then it blows over and I do what I can do."

---

by: Michael Bedwell @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 23:20:28 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Not warring personalities

I just have a tendency to be a little more...uh...laconic in my criticisms whereas (get ready of this one!) you're more inclined to "rhetorical flourishes." Which, I have that inclination too, quite frankly.

I just rather get it over and done with. Of course, someone at Rod 2.0 played the race card last night (calling folks at a black gay blog racist!) then SciFi Geek this morning so...it's still there, trust me. :)

Michael if you only knew...that's why sometimes I have to put a stop to myself...  

---

by: kevinchi @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 23:44:15 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Some days we need a bar, not a coffeehouse

And today was one of those days.

((((((((((((Kevinchi))))))))))

God save ornery old queens! - kevinchi

---

by: Keori @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 00:13:58 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Yeah, I gotta stck with the

coffee though. But...still...

---

by: kevinchi @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 00:23:01 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Pizza at our place

Though I may bust into the tequila later.

God save ornery old queens! - kevinchi

---

by: Keori @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 00:31:41 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Be my guest!

Do your thing! Doesn't bother me!

---

by: kevinchi @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 06:42:40 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

No problem...

I'll scorch the earth side-by-side with you anytime.

My own "take no prisoners" rule [well, I do try to separate the innocently ignorant from the willfully ignoran...sometimes] wasn't just the lever I pulled on the candy bar machine of life one day for funsies.

On my long road to being old enough to being to worry I'll die still a second class citizen, I've been fired for being gay, denied promotions for being gay, clubbed to the ground for being gay, buried my share of Reagan's effective murder victims, watched my Mother's mind melt from Alzheimer's, cut off relatives for voting for Bush, etc., etc. And that's just the experience of a white gay guy.

I can't imagine the additional challenges, the scar tissue, of being black and gay. Or black, gay, and a woman. Or a black trans person.

So, yeh, Barry the Kid rides into town and takes over the ranch by lying and cheating and smile fucking the moon and then sends out his henchmen to shoot at the natives...well, yes, Up Against the Wall Motherfucker and your little dog Bo, too!

---

by: Michael Bedwell @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 01:22:44 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

The reason that you two irritate each other

is because you are both a lot a like and frustrated with both the situation and our collective betrayal

Love you both, and know that down underneath, you both love and respect each other...we cannot succeed without a Michael, a Kevin, a Keori, a Pam, Lurleen, a Louise, A Karen, a Lev, Maura, and popsicle....and all of the rest of us...

I tell you Chica that no greater abomination exists than women denying their spirit of sisterhood and instead becoming the oppressor. -Rebeca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

---

by: MauraHennessey @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 06:28:12 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

We are cooties

No one wants to touch our issues with a 10 foot pole.

---

by: Bruno @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:29:24 PM CDT

But our money doesn't have cooties, does it?

Tax dollars or campaign contributions...they'll gladly take the money won't they.

We must stop giving it.

---

by: Patrick @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:55:32 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Our money has cooties now

and we should quarantine it.

The CDC(Center for Democratic Cynicism) has shown that fierce advocates CAN catch "teh Gay!" from campaign donations from LGBT's

It is each of our duty and responsibility to hold on to our green to prevent this catastrophe.

I tell you Chica that no greater abomination exists than women denying their spirit of sisterhood and instead becoming the oppressor. -Rebeca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

---

by: MauraHennessey @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 06:31:11 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

And especially Brigham Reid

Someone would sponsor the bill unless party higher ups were keeping them in line..

I tell you Chica that no greater abomination exists than women denying their spirit of sisterhood and instead becoming the oppressor. -Rebeca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

---

by: MauraHennessey @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 06:32:24 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Ok, don't they know

that the cooties is contagious? Didn't they get the memo?

---

by: kevinchi @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 06:40:46 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Not one

Coming from one who could do it himself.

http://www.dyssonance.com  Breaking all the rules...

---

by: dyssonance @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 21:40:01 PM CDT

Surprise Level: Zero

Remember, these are politicians.  They lie.  Remember that we are nothing but their own version of evangelicals, the people who's votes are guaranteed because we view the opposition as so much worse.  In other words, we can be ignored because they feel our votes are guaranteed.

I say make it part of your daily routine, coffee, newspaper, and your calls to Reid and one of your local representatives.  Screw the Dems, screw playing the game, the game is BS.

The republicans go on and on about national security and then find reason to use DADT against Arabic and Farsi translators.  The democrats go on and on about equality and then find all the more reason to allow DADT to discharge human beings daily.

They are both crooks, and the sooner we all see that the sooner we gather our power to shine the light of truth on these joker's hypocrisy the sooner the BS stops.

---

by: Doc @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 23:35:57 PM CDT

Reid has been a Tower of Jell-O for us all

Wow, just wait till push comes to shove on health-care reform. 60 Senators, a popular President, and he's still quivering? Yuk.

Let's just keep remembering, Senator, that 10 USC § 654 is a Congressional enactment, and there's only so much a President can do on his own authority. (See Justice Jackson's concurrence in the Youngstown case to see just how far the Commander-in-Chief's authority goes with, without, or against Congressional authority).

Tell you what. Don't ask me for your vote, and I won't tell you what I think of your spine, which at this point seems to have the properties of an èclair.

You'd do it for Randolph Scott!
-- Blazing Saddles

---

by: coram nobis @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 23:40:41 PM CDT

Why does he always look lost?

I have dubbed Reid 'The do nothing at all times guy while looking like he has a sour candy in his mouth'.

I wish the Dems would get rid of him and put Howard Dean in his place. Reid is ineffective and seems lost most of the time.  Dean would do SOMETHING!


Support the UAFA

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by: LoveMoby @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 23:45:28 PM CDT

nice idea, but Dr. Dean isn't in the Senate

How about Russ Feingold? Now that's somebody who leads -- and doesn't look back to see if anybody's following him.

---

by: coram nobis @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 23:48:43 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

My Letter to Reid

Dear Sen. Reid,

You recently mentioned at a press conference that you have no plans to introduce a bill overturning the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. You stated that you know of no sponsors, and that you hope that it would happen "administratively."

If by "administratively" you mean that the executive branch will overturn it, you already know that they can't. The only thing the president can do would be a temporary fix in the form of a stop-loss order, and he has already stated he will not do this.

Senator Reid, where is the change in LGBT rights?  All that we have actively gotten from elected Democrats is marginal support for a "hate crimes" law, which God forbid we would ever need to utilize.

I don't expect an overturn of DOMA and DADT and an inclusive ENDA all in the first year of Obama's presidency.

But you and the other Democrats don't even seem to be trying.

You don't even seem to be even looking in that general direction.

In fact, the only times we've heard Democrats mention DADT and DOMA since January is when they are arguing FOR them in court.

Please stop the excuses and start making solutions.

Thank you.

---

by: shaz4005 @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 00:10:03 AM CDT

My hope is that it can be done administratively.

HUHHHHHHHHHH???????????????

This asswipe is the Senate Majority Leader and doesn't realize it CANNOT be done administratively????????????

Wow, what a liar!

---

by: oddjob @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 00:34:11 AM CDT

Excusefucking me...

If you mean to still be playing the Obatuba tune that he doesn't have the legal authority to freeze discharges when such things have been going on all the way back to WWII, then, please, put yourself out of OUR misery.

---

by: Michael Bedwell @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 01:26:38 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

the Office of Circumlocution

Charles Dickens, in Little Dorrit, said this,

The Circumlocution Office was (as everybody knows without being told) the most important Department under Government.  No public business of any kind could possibly be done at any time without the acquiescence of the Circumlocution Office.  Its finger was in the
largest public pie, and in the smallest public tart.  It was equally impossible to do the plainest right and to undo the plainest wrong without the express authority of the Circumlocution Office.  If another Gunpowder Plot had been discovered half an hour before the lighting of the match, nobody would have been justified in saving the parliament until there had been half a score of boards, half a bushel of minutes, several sacks of official
memoranda, and a family-vault full of ungrammatical correspondence, on the part of the Circumlocution Office.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Congress and the Administration.

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.
-- A. Lincoln

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by: coram nobis @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 00:44:57 AM CDT

Reid is dreadful

Reid and Pelosi have both been huge disappointments as leaders.  Reid consistently lets the threat of a filibuster act like a ring through his nose.  Why?  Why can't he stand up to the GOP on anything?  He seems and sounds weak, indecisive, incompetent.

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

---

by: Lev Raphael @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 06:14:27 AM CDT

Evidently one of the things you can fail at...

without it being noticed is basic grammar (emphasis mine):

If you can cast doubt on the abilities and skills of others, there is no end to the the things that you can fail at without being noticed.

In that pic the only thing Reid's succeeding at is looking like a Galapagos turtle. Without the gravitas.

____________________________________
Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum.

---

by: tavdy79 @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 06:15:38 AM CDT

This spineless buckpassing makes me want to puke

This is beyond ridiculous at this point. SEVENTY percent of the American people favor allowing gay and lesbian men and women to serve openly in the military. 58% of CDONSERVATIVES favor allowing gay and lesbian men and women to serve openly in the military.

I don't see repealing this disgusting policy solely as a civil rights issue. I see it also as a national security issue. Dan Choi is a Arabic linguist. 54 Arabic translators have been discharged from the armed forces since 1993 solely because of their sexual orientation. As long as we're going to be in Afghanistan and Iraq we NEED those people. Hell, we need people with skills who can help defend this country. And those people should be allowed to serve our country openly...without having to lie about who they are...like places like...oh, Uruguay. Argentina. Israel. I could list all of the countries, the countries who have lifted their bans on gay men and women in their armed forces, but the list is too long. And getting longer.

What Harry Reid said yesterday is why I'm so fucking angry with the Democratic Party. Yeah, there's a House bill...which is languishing. Is the Military Readiness Enhancement Act going ANYWHERE right now? Like I checked, there was something like 100 co-sponsors. But it's just going nowhere. Thank you, Nancy Pelosi. ANOTHER practicioner of spineless political expediency.

My checkbook is closed to the Democratic Party now. I can find organizations out there that actually care about equality for GLBT Americans.

---

by: Terry @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 06:27:00 AM CDT

One way

Here's one way of letting the powers that be in the DNC you're dissatisfied with the House and Senate.

Those of us who've donated to the party get these lovely letters from the DCCC and the DSCC begging for money.

Use their lovely pre-paid envelope to send them the letters they sent you shredded beyond reading.

Then enclose a letter addressed to Pelosi and Reid, telling them you're a member of the TLBG community, and you're damned sick and tired of finding the promises made during the last election shredded beyond recognition.

Tell then your donations will stop until they start recognizing the fact we are citizens of the US and demand the leadership start pushing through the legislation a clear majority says should be passed!

Listen to "TransTalk" every Monday from 4-5pm ET on http://www.falconradio.org beginning January 11th!

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by: Marlene @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 07:52:52 AM CDT

democrats don't think we have a choice..

..so they think we can't do anything to them.  however, it is all about the money and i will be only giving it to very young and new politicians that will vote to make us equal citizens.  we can vote out the current democrats and get new ones.  we need to lobby the rich glbts to cut off the money and stop attending fund raisers.  the hollywood connected need to be making films that show skinhead graffiti in iraq next to 1lt choi and his awesomeness.  we need to be having pflag and other groups working with us on public advertising showing the cost in wasted money [for the fiscally conservative] and showing the immorality of discrimination.  we can spend our hard earned dollars reaching out to other discriminated against groups and working for their equal rights so they will know us and work with us on ours.  my democratic politicians will get no money and just stoney silence from me.  they just lie and i've had enough of that.

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by: swabby @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 08:21:17 AM CDT

I'd suggest that

anyone who is not satisfied with the siutation vote for and support the Republicans next time. If you're a single issue voter then you probably won't notice a difference anyway.

The rest of us will try to push on with out you.

Reid is wrong on this BIG TIME. He knows full well that an "administrative solution" is a bandaid that can be peeled off at any time at the whim of the president (just like family planning funding keeps yoyoing back and forth). The GOP loses nothing by reinstating the ban at the first opportunity. The only lasting solution is to change the law, which is his constitutionally mandated JOB.

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by: SciFi Geek @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 09:23:45 AM CDT

I agree with you on Reid, though

---

by: kevinchi @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 09:42:52 AM CDT

[ Parent ]