Obama Going to End Don't Ask/Don't Tell Military Policy

I saw Bill Maher talking about how odd doing the survey to find out if the troops are ok with it is really strange.

They don't ask recruits if they are OK with doing 50 push ups. They don't ask to see if those push ups are going to keep from the being able to carry out the duties, they simply order them to drop and give the NCO 50. The soldier does it without questioning the order.

So why not just order them to get over the fact that they will be serving with open gays.

I think our troops are professional enough to handle it. It's an insult to think that our troops aren't professional enough to do what other nation's militaries are doing.

 

So glad the president compromised on tax cuts so we could get to other business...



GOP Blocks Cloture On Repeal Of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

 

Good job Obama. This "compromising" is really effective...at getting the GOP everything they want.

 

SERIOUSLY!

This having to get 60 votes for anything to advance is just getting ridiculous! NOTHING will ever get done with this crazy rule in place! 57 yeas can't get cloture?!?!?

 

Forget the gays people, The real crime is that women cant get drafted!

Im all for feminism and everything, just saying...

 

nobody can get drafted

 

well i know we dont have a draft now, but if we haddddddd to in the future.

 

I'd never read Borowitz before....the guy's good.../

---his other articles include :

WikiLeaks Attempts to Expose Palin’s Thoughts, Finds Nothing.
Somali Pirates Refuse to Board Carnival Cruise Ships Cite ‘Unsafe Working Conditions’

I have a new bookmark.

 

Hmm. So as it turns out, the Obama strategy that everyone here railed against led to:

1. The policy being repealed permanently instead of just temporarily.

2. The policy being repealed with the force of law instead of executive order.

3. The repeal getting the support of the military, meaning less transitional problems and much better implementation

Across the board, this was the much better solution than the executive order. And on yet another major Democratic issue, the useless failed President managed to deliver a breakthrough policy initiative that Democrats have fought for more than a decade. And that evil tax compromise that has a 2-yr impact was the only reason this was even possible.

The process is never pretty, but the Obama Admin is damned effective in getting results that will have generational impacts. Republicans got 2 years of tax cuts in exchange for Democrats getting a lifetime of DADT repeal.

 

I don't think Obama deserves much of the credit but...



Crow, I eats it.

 

I agree in the late-stage part of this. Oddly, Lieberman probably deserves the majority of the credit in forcing this into reality.

But I do think Obama gets credit for the overall strategy of getting the military review (to get needed GOP & popular support) and forcing a vote instead of an executive order. And I think the quick tax compromise was in part to get votes on DADT, START, and the DREAM Act. Assuming START passes, he'll be 2-for-3 on those. Oddly, DREAM actually got 4 Republicans but lost 4 Dems.

 

You are seriously equating the two? And no, I don't agree that this was the best strategy. He should have issued the executive order and then fought to get a permanent change in Congress. In my opinion. Regardless, I'm glad it looks like it's finally going to happen.

 

I'm saying that's the nature of tradeoffs, and Obama got START, DADT, and $400B in his own tax priorities in exchange for about $150B in GOP tax priorities. Whether you like the deal or not is up for debate, but that's the full list of what Obama got vs gave up in this lame-duck session.

The minute an executive order occurred, there would be no appetite for the DADT fight in the Senate, either for vulnerable Dems or for GOPers to make a stand unpopular with their base. It would have been dead as far as Congress was concerned. And it would have left gay soldiers in an ugly position of knowing that if they came out, they could be kicked out by any future administration that decided to reverse the policy.

 

I'm not so sure about that. It very well might end up with Republicans getting a lifetime of tax cuts. Who's going to "raise taxes" (that is, let the tax cuts finally end) in an election year?

 

Maybe - but that's not the bill. That will be debated in the 2012 election and possibly dealt with in the lame-duck session like this one. It will be the same debate as now except without the "it will kill the recovery!" argument assuming the economy is any better. If Obama remains President (and I think he's the clear favorite) then he always has the same power to kill it then than he has now, or negotiate another 2 years in exchange for more Dem priorities later on. What Obama got in THIS deal was temporary tax cuts in exchange for permanent Democratic policy initiatives.

But possibly making that whole 2012 debate irrelevant, there is a bipartisan consensus looking at revamping the whole tax code next year anyway - removing a bunch of deductions and reducing topline rates. In that case, this extension won't even last two years because the whole system would get replaced anyway with entirely new rates. Who knows if that will happen, but there is a lot of agreement on both sides that it would be a good thing.

 

You think so? I am a bit pessimistic about it.

Rocket River

 

Obama has a lot of things going for him in 2012:

1. The GOP did their best this year in elections where you knew the least about the individual candidates (House). The Senate races were much closer in comparison. In the Presidential campaign, you know far more about both candidates.

2. The current crop of GOP Presidential contenders is a misfit collection of crazies (Palin) to failed prior candidates (Romney, Huckabee), to really semi-extremists (Gingrich). They have a lot of good younger talent (Rubio, Daniels, etc), but no one really in the Presidential mix. As a party, they really value seniority, and it's highly unlikely that any of the younger talent immediately moves into contention.

3. The Dems didn't really lose as much support as the polls seem to suggest - what they really failed at was the enthusiasm gap. Basically, GOPers came out at a ridiculous rate. Midterms tend to have more of that then Presidential elections do, where everyone even remotely interested tends to vote.

I think the two exceptions that make Obama the non-clear-favorite is a major scandal of some sort, or the economy not improving. In either case, Obama becomes very difficult to re-elect.

 

I feel better about it. Thanks.

I don't forsee any major scandals.
The economy . . .presents alot of challenges.
Unemployment being one of the most major ones.

Rocket River