Category Archives: Ethics

This is getting nuttier every day. In 1993, when the Democrats controlled everything in DC, they passed a piece of legislation that pretty much everyone hated. It was affectionately referred to as the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994“. Now, a lot of people don’t keep track of things like they should so I’ll remind everyone how the Senate voted:

I hilite the “yea””s for a reason. Wannna guess what it is? OK, I’ll give one clue. Democrats passed this thing 51-12. Without one single Republican needing to vote, they passed it. The military didn’t like it, the gay community didn’t like it, no one liked it. The Democrat controlled House, the Democrat controlled Senate, and the Democrat President rammed it through anyway. According to Clinton, it wasn’t perfect, but it was a start. Media pretty much ignored “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” for a while until it became expedient. Over time, it became purely a Republican issue as the Republicans did exactly as the Democrats did years before and effectively ignored it. The media bias culminated itself this year when Lady Gaga chastised Republicans for talking about filibustering the bill that would eliminate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell:
http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt.swf

“I will not stop calling until I reach them to tell them to vote with Sen. Harry Reid to end John McCain’s ‘shameless filibuster,’” she said.

She then calls two Democrats who refuse to take her call. There was no filibuster, Harry Reid never sent it to the floor. The gays returned to attacking the hell out of Republicans only even though the Democrats once again had all the votes they needed to pass the legislation to end it. All the while, no one was mentioning the fact that a lawsuit was working it’s way through the legal system to undo what Bill Clinton and the Democrats did in 1993. It wasn’t filed by Lady Gaga. It wasn’t filed by any Democrat. It was filed by the Log Cabin Republicans. And then a weird thing happened. They won. Republicans, who controlled nothing in DC, did what Harry Reid refused to do. They ended “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. The Obama administration thought about it for a couple of days. And, knowing how the gays felt about DADT, had this to offer:

WASHINGTON — After two days of silence, the Obama administration urged a federal judge on Thursday to let the military press on with its “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays serving openly in the military. Still, President Barack Obama insisted the policy that has divided the nation for two decades “will end on my watch.”

The Pentagon said the military “will of course obey the law” and halt enforcement while the case is still in question. But gay rights advocates cautioned gay service members to avoid revealing their sexuality in the meantime.

A federal judge abruptly threw out the Clinton-era ban on Tuesday, setting in motion a legal, political and human-rights back-and-forth that put the administration on the spot just two weeks before crucial midterm elections. Obama has consistently argued against the ban, approved by Congress in 1993. But he says it is up to Congress to repeal it.

The policy, summed up as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” refers to guidance that gay or lesbian Americans can serve in the military but not openly. Their superiors are forbidden to ask about sexual orientation, but service members can be thrown out or denied enlistment if they talk about being gay or let it be known that they engage in homosexual acts.

Obama’s Justice Department asked U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips to stay her ruling that overturned the ban while the government prepares a formal appeal. Asking the judge for a response by Monday – “given the urgency and gravity of the issues” – the government said that suddenly ending the ban would be disruptive and “irreparably harm the public interest in a strong and effective military.”

Obama, challenged Thursday at a town hall meeting by a Howard University faculty member who questioned his “alleged commitment to equality for all Americans, gay and straight,” said his stance has not wavered. He can’t end the ban with the stroke of a pen, he said, but “we’re going to end this policy.”

You read that right. The Obama Administration is asking for a delay in the ruling so the Obama Administration can prepare an appeal to the ruling. They wanna fight it. So, even though the Democrats wrote DADT, passed DADT, have ruled over DADT for nine of the seventeen years it’s been existance, refused to vote to end DADT, and now are fighting legally to keep DADT, I bet you good money there won’t be a single liberal gay person come out and point their finger where the problem is, has been, and continues to be. If they do, I’d love to see their comments here. The reason DADT has survived all these years considering no one seems to like it is because the Democrats know they won’t be held accountable for it so no need to antagonize their moderate to conservative base, and the Republicans know that no matter what they do they won’t get any credit so they have no reason to antagonize their base either. When media and gays become less partisan and more objective then maybe they’ll get what they want.

Until then, they’ll have to keep relying on the Republicans. It’s a core issue with Republicans in a way most people don’t really think about. In expecting the government to protect a minority, the government has to do it in a way that is equitable to all people affected by the minority. Sometimes that doesn’t necessarily work to the minority’s advantage. By NOT recognizing the minority as a minority, it removes the issue of being a minority and allows the issues that affect that minority to be addressed. There is no reason to protect gays in the military. They are already protected by our Constitution. What needs to be protected are the rights gays have as US citizens. When that occurs, gays will have all the same rights as anyone else in the military and I am quite sure that would make everyone happy. Repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell therefore is kind of moot to me. What needs to happen is all references to discriminating on the basis of sexual preferance need to be eliminated. I really don’t buy the argument that it would be disruptive to the military at all. Obama may want you to believe that, but I don’t.

Originally posted at Moonage Political Webdream.