According to Politico “The chances that the Senate will take up the National Defense Authorization Act (which includes the sort of DADT Repeal) before the next recess are declining by the minute; “contingency planning” is now the operative phrase. Defense industry and lobbying sources are scrambling to prepare for any number of possible courses of action that are dependent on congressional leadership, and, to some extent, election poll results. One Senate staffer’s bet: “Seventy percent is pretty good odds for the Senate to do anything, the staffer tells Morning Defense”
With Republican obstruction at every turn it literally is all up to Harry Reid at the moment to get National Defense Authorization Act/DADT Repeal up on the floor and passed before the midterm elections where the Democrats seem almost certain to lose their majority status. (Which they don;t know how to use anyway it seems)
Reid’s spokesman, Jim Manley has said “It’s on the list of things we would like to do in the next few weeks,”
“Like to do”? I’d like to do a lot but can’t. And with you in charge it seems like I will never be able to do anything because you can’t get your own house in order Harry and we the people are suffering because of it.
The Democrats had so much power once Obama entered office. Unfortunately they floundered by trying to stupidly work with the Republicans and not play hardball with their own “conservative” Blue Dog Democrats (Undercover Republicans) even after it was clear that the Republicans did not want to work with them and were going to be as obstructionist as possible.
The DADT Repeal MUST be up on the floor and passed before November. If not there is no chance.
We need to face some facts here lids. The Democrats have used the LGBT Community. They took our money and made promises that they either had no intention of keeping or were just to weak to keep. Perhaps they think they are holding us hostage because they think we have no one to vote for. And we really don’t. But we can, not vote at all. And if that means bending over, grabbing our ankles and biting a towel and letting Republicans take control for two years so be it. We’ve lived through it before. We REALLY need to send a message to Democrats that we will vote for them ONLY if they actually do things for us. Because f we really want Democrats to not take us for granted and then just ignore our issues, we must deny them our vote until we see results.
*About the poster above: The “Don’t Vote” poster was produced in 1964 by the New York Committe, Anti-Vote Campaign. The Anti-Vote Campaign was an apolitical group made up of individuals, anarchists, radicals, and libertarians. The message is simple, but poignant: “direct action not politics!” Clearly, the intent of the declaration is to call on individuals to seek out “direct actionist” alternatives to voting in the 1964 elections. The anti-vote movement believed that the political rights and liberties which people enjoy today are the result of individuals’ strengths and actions — not of their governments, independent candidates, or party platforms.