Pelosi calls for Obama to stop discharging gay servicemembers immediately

[kpete]

Source: Americablog

Pelosi calls for Obama to stop discharging gay servicemembers immediately
Posted by John Aravosis (DC) at 4/30/2010 09:02:00 PM

...........

Pelosi Statement on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Policy

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement in response to a letter sent this afternoon by Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Secretary Robert Gates concerning the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy:

“We all look forward to the report on the review of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy by the Defense Department. In the meantime, the Administration should immediately place a moratorium on dismissals under this policy until the review has been completed and Congress has acted.”

Read more: http://gay.americablog.com/2010/04/pelosi-calls-for-obama-to-stop.html

[Beetwasher]

1. Good Stuff!

Go Speaker Pelosi!

I think Obama just might listen to her. Just a feeling.

[saigon68]

46. Homophobe Mullen needs to go

Another pillar of the status quo

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[IndianaJoe]

3. Good for her! n/t

[Walk away]

4. Go Nancy.

:yourock:

[msongs]

5. "we look forward to..." denying equal rights to all Amercians til it's studied to death lol nt

[Tx4obama]

6. Betcha Obama called Pelosi & asked her to release that statement ;) n/t

[IndianaGreen]

10. Obama is opposed to using STOP-LOSS to keep LGBT servicemembers on active duty

Pelosi is saying what Obama should have done a long time ago, but won't.

[Tx4obama]

11. Time will tell ;)

Obama wants CONGRESS to vote to repeal DADT, that way it would be permanent.
But my bet is that he had Pelosi release her statement and soon he will sign a stop loss in the interim since it looks like Congress won't get to this issue until next year.

[Lerkfish]

41. Its secret hyperdimensional chess!

[Ken Burch]

18. Well, on that there's a case to be made for the position.

It's not all that "gay-friendly" to keep LGBT troops in Iraq so that the chances of their being killed by IED's is increased.

(However...if there were to be such a death...Obama could probably end the whole debate by giving a gay or lesbian soldier a posthumous medal and inviting his or her partner to the White House for the ceremony.)

[No Elephants]

32. I disagree, Ken.

Being "gay friendly" is not "protecting" gays by discharging them from the military against their own wishes.

Women (hetero or gay) have always been "protected" by keeping them from out of tough places, from the voting booth, to jobs, to the military, to combat (supposedly), to whatever else men felt like women were too delicate to endure. It's bull do.

Gay friendly is giving gays the right to be in the military, if they so choose, on the same terms as hetereo, not closeted or lying.

Next, "gay friendly" is a term that may apply to private town folk, innkeepers, churches and the like. Government is not hetereo friendly or women friendly or African American friendly. Government either gives equal rights under the law to all humans or it doesn't. In the case of gays, only a few state governments have granted equal rights under the law. So far, the federal government has done the opposite of that.

Gay adults don't need government to be friendly. They need it to be fair.

[Ken Burch]

35. OK...what I was trying to say

was that keeping gay servicemembers in the service through "stop-loss"(which would keep them in combat zones and at greater risk of getting blown to bits by roadside bombs)was, well, not really that "fair".

Not that "stop-loss" is really fair to anybody, of course.

[No Elephants]

31. I thought he had no control over Congress? And why would he not have asked her in 2/09?

Hundreds of sacrificial lambs were discharged after he took office, while he claimed there was nothing he could do about the discharges, even with his Constitutionally granted powers as CIC and even with his Congressionally granted powers under 10 USC 12305.

Just so we're clear, a call from Nancy Pelosi is not the equivalent of an Act of Congress, not even close. So, while I'd like to see him do the correct thing ASAP, the call changes nothing. If he stops on the basis of the call, great, but he could have stopped the discharges on Inauguration Day.

[Stinky The Clown]

45. I bet, if try REALLY hard ......

..... you can tie yourself into an even tighter knot trying to defend the who is for the what is rather than push for the what should be.

[katandmoon]

7. K&R for Nancy Pelosi

[Bluebear]

8. THAT is leadership on the issue, Mr. President.

[bluestateguy]

9. I bet you he'll do it, if DADT repeal is spiked until 2011 (which means DOA).

and that will be the "compromise" we will be asked to live with.

[tomm2thumbs]

12. dat's the way to do it

money meet mouth

[Fearless]

13. Yeah when's that campaign promise coming true again...

:banghead:

[MindandSoul]

14. Good for Pelosi!

[Doc Martin]

15. Great move Speaker Pelosi

[Ken Burch]

16. And she's right. The admin would now have nothing to lose

by issuing an executive order forbidding the processing of any further discharges under "DADT". The only argument for holding back was "we need the votes of gaybashers to get HCR passed". Well, HCR has been passed. That one is over. Now there's no longer ANY excuse for doing the right thing.

[Hissyspit]

17. Yeah.

Why not?

[DesertDiamond]

19. Wow! Thank you, Nancy! You are really standing up!!

[bertman]

20. Better late than never, Speaker Pelosi. I'm glad that this stonewalling from the military leaders

is pissing off some of our Democratic leaders. It's way past time for them to tell President Obama to stand up for our gay service members. We are losing top quality men and women from our armed services EVERY DAY because of this fundamentalist, 9th century attitude toward homosexuality. We need to be promoting the Lt. Choi's and Colonel Fehrenbach's, NOT discharging them.

Rec.

[orbitalman]

21. ABSOLUTELY. nt

[pundaint]

22. Good for Speaker Pelosi. I don't believe that Obama cares about any of the issues he isn't taking

action on. His talk has proven to be empty. We voted to put him in charge based on a bunch of campaign statements that were clearly, now, intended to mislead. In our government, generals and admirals report to and are commanded by the president. The president has been hiding from his responsibility by deferring to the people who have screwed up each problem area. The Bankers for finance, the Insurers for the removal of funds from health care payments, the generals for futile wars of aggression - and now continuance of bigotry. Giving him credit for stuff he isn't doing is just delusional. He does not have the fire to bring the necessary changes, we need powerful leader to contend with the powerful people leading us astray. We've got a faceman.

Yo party, if you want to make it to 2016, it's time to find a leader to run in 2012!

[laconicsax]

23. It's only been 15 months!

Master chess player.
He's just one man.
President, not dictator.
Sit down and shut up The time isn't right.

[jberryhill]

24. ...or at least to use a condom when he does... /nt

[Bluebear]

25. Come on, Mr. President. She's only singing ONE SONG.

[boppers]

26. Pelosi can't be that confused about how the law works....

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/10/654.html

This is a publicity stunt, rather shamefully exploiting GLBTQ rights issues to get headlines. We don't need some "patch" to justify keeping the law on the books (and thus, allow presidents to turn this into a football every election), we need the law actually changed.


edit: typo

[Hekate]

27. Atta girl, Nancy.

:fistbump:

[MarshalltheIrish]

28. As much as I detest Pelosi

She gets a major salute for this. Makes perfect sense in the context of the current review of the policy anyway, regardless of what their decision will be.

[Prism]

29. But I've been told it's impossible!

How comes the Speaker doesn't know the constitution? :sarcasm:

One excuse down, several billion more to go.

[orleans]

30. yeah? and what did obama say? n/t

[No Elephants]

33. More kabuki. Just how gullible do our pols think we are?

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House, publicly putting a Democratic President and head of the Democratic Party on the spot for something she's, for some reason, only now come to believe in--instead of urging him privately, so that neither of them ends up being embarrassed as mid-terms approach?

Seriously, DUers, is that what you really believe is happening here?

Jaysus.

[SargeUNN]

34. It isn't stop/loss totally different thing She is calling for

[No Elephants]

38. How is a moratorium on DADT discharges totally different from suspending

DADT discharges under 10 USC 12305? In practical terms, or legally?

How do we know exactly what she is calling for? The article is not very detailed.

What difference does it make anyway?

[elocs]

36. Obama is THE Commander in Chief. On Veteran's affairs he needs to lead.

If he is truly concerned about veterans then he needs to step up to the plate, kick asses and take names. He needs to have people fired or end their careers if they do not do what he orders to be done within the law. Even within the law he should push the envelope as much as possible to achieve what he has promised.

GLBT want equal rights in the military, not special rights. This is an all volunteer military and when people join they should know full well that there is a possibility that they will be sent into harm's way. Overall, just like police and firefighters, members of the military do not get to decide case by case which action they support and whether or not they will go. Within the law they obey orders. GLBT want the right to serve equally alongside of the other members of the military.

[Shining Jack]

37. Shit...The US is being laughed at: bunch of idiots !

Stop it !!! DADT is beyond comprehension for a normal country.Period.

[No Elephants]

39. I'm sure the timing of this had nothing to do with folks calling out Obama when he tried to

campaign for Boxer recently. Neither of them got a pass. I mean, if you can't count on liberals to let a popular liberal Senator campaign in peace while she is being threatened in a liberal district, what can you count on in this unprecedented mid term campaign season?

Yeah, the timing is probably just a total coincidence. No, really.

[Laughing Mirror]

40. Reminder: Pelosi wants Don't Ask vote this year in the House

As plans for the House vote emerged, pressure continued to build on President Obama to make a greater effort to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” this year. Activists were planning a White House protest Sunday to draw more attention to the issue.

...

Alan Bounville, a member of Queer Rising and East Coast organizer for GetEqual, said the focus of Sunday’s protest would be to press Obama to send to Congress language repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as part of his budget recommendations for the defense authorization bill.

“We want the president to transmit to the Senate Armed Services Committee the language that’s put into the budget to repeal this ridiculous law immediately,” he said. “We want that to happen right now; we want him to do that this moment.”

Activists are urging Obama to send such language to Congress soon because the defense committees are expected to hold markups next month for defense authorization legislation. The Senate Armed Services Committee, which advocates have been pushing to take up the issue of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is scheduled to hold its markup on May 26.

more details here

[robcon]

42. Gates said a moratorium would be illegal.

The regulation still stands, unfortunately.

[NorthCarolina]

43. Good for Pelosi, but her letter was likely forwarded directly to

the circular file.

[change_notfinetuning]

44. If Obama does finally decide to do the right thing, I certainly hope he doesn't

expect, or take, any credit for it. It's a bit late for that. Besides, as Commander-in-Chief, by getting rid of perfectly competent members of the military for no reason other than discrimination, he is weakening our armed forces and their ability to achieve success. Nevertheless, better late than never.

[perdita9]

47. The Best Things about Nancy Pelosi...

She's tough as hell.

She makes the freepers crazy.

She gets stuff done.

[JerseygirlCT]

48. She's so right. And he needs to be pressured to do the right thing.

In political terms, there has to be more to lose by not doing the right thing than by ignoring it.

The right will be fighting to maintain the bigotry. There needs to be the same strong steady pressure from those who don't like discrimination.

[Maraya1969]

49. I bet Obama is afraid it will affect the midterms negatively and is

waiting until they are over.

[defendandprotect]

50. Good for Pelosi -- !!! But Gates is doing his rw best to stop this . . .

after how many reviews now? We don't need more reviews -- we need more people in charge

of the military who respect human rights -- all of them! Including the right to personal

conscience!!

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

51. Pelosi should shut up, and just repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

has she not had the necessary votes for months ?

[Bluebear]

52. Shut up?? She's calling the White House's bluff.

Soon we will see who is running the show, Obama or the military, who wants this pushed back further and further.

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

53. as this is an actual law .. it requires congress to repeal it.

so asking the president to not enforce the law is lame.... just repeal it.

[Bluebear]

54. Obviously you know nothing about the history of this. And Obama doesn't enforce every law.

So your argument is "lame" but thanks.

[EvilMonk]

55. Step one...

...in establishing precedent for Gay Rights.

2. Sign repeal of DADT.

3. Draw attention to the disparity between Service to Country and lack of Marriage Rights.

4. Gay Marriage becomes reality.

Perhaps...

[mzteris]

56. GO NANCY!

I agree 100%...

though I'd agree more if the damn thing was just done away with today. (along with DOMA!!)