The Obama Project@WindonWater.net

I’m sharing this because as a religious person, I feel that I can be helpful in ending DADT, by clearly differentiating between my BELIEFS, and GOVERNMENT ACTION:

********************

Dear Senator Schumer:

Isn’t it time we stopped ejecting men and women from the military just because they are gay? Don’t our honorable service men and women deserve to have durable relief from discrimination?

I’m a religious person who does not believe that homosexual acts are appropriate or moral. That said, I also do not believe my personal faith is a guideline for military code of conduct. Homosexuality is not a crime, and we need to stop treating it as such.

I would like to recommend a Strengthen our Military Act of 2009 that:

Stipulates: REPEAL of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell as policy

Provides: for equal protection under the law of homosexual couples

Requires: the same moral strictures of fraternization, promiscuity, etc, for ALL couples, straight or gay, and

Makes exception: For deployment into sensitive areas of actively gay COUPLES…. for instance, in Islamic countries where that may pose a danger to the couple and their unit to be practicing homosexuality openly, such couples may be redeployed.

This seems like a common sense approach, and I would urge you, Senator, to introduce legislation to the Senate that accomplishes this. President Obama has repeatedly stated his willingness to overturn DADT, but doing so requires an act of congress. Please act.

Sincerely,
ME

Until the unrest is settled in Iran, and in fervent hope for peace and justice, this site has turned green.
QT

I have to put forward a constructive criticism of my president.  President Obama has stated his opposition to gay marriage, but his support for civil marriage, his opposition to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and his favorability for equal rights for gays generally.  He has also articulated a distaste for overbroad use of states secrets.

In the case of gay rights, President Obama has stated unequivocably that he wants to move cautiously, but soundly on these issues to produce enduring solutions.  On the states secrets issue, he wanted to find some creative ways of limiting states secrets privilege without damaging the privilege itself.

The presidency is young – not even 1/4th of the first term done.  However, in the short time, President Obama has affirmatively done a lot of things that make people a little uneasy, and some things that look like he’s going back on his campaign promises.  What is needed is definitive ACTION that demonstrates his sense of direction.  I say this because there is definitive ACTION that suggests the opposite of his stated intent.

I’m sure that I’m not really too uncomfortable with the status quo, but for those who believe in what the President is trying to accomplish, and have their hopes pinned on this administration to right these perceived wrongs, I do want to see the President being responsive.

Update: She’s fine, and back at work.  Glad to see, despite the unfortunate sequence of events.

*************************

Maureen Dowd in her Sunday and Wednesday column, plagerized a blogger.  This is pretty awful – bloggers often channel the news, but rarely get credit for doing so… so outright plagerism stings… (and gets widely reported, and quickly noticed.)

The next week, she published this story panning President Obama: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/opinion/20dowd.html. It was a piece unworthy of Maureen, in my opinion, but clearly “red meat” for a certain sector of the liberal blogosphere.  I read it with utter distaste, and concluded that Maureen had dug in a little deeper to placate her liberal readers – the ones most likely offended by her plagerism.

Since then, nothing.  No new articles from MoDo.  I’ve written here on this blog of my appreciation for Maureen, but the silence since that last essay doesn’t sit well with me.  It feels like she, having not drawn the liberal applause for the manipulative piece, has dropped off the map (or been dropped?).

I hope not.  I hope she is healthy, that all is well for her, and that she is still in the NYTimes employ.  Here’s wishing Madame Incorrigible well, despite my recent displeasure.

QT

A critic of Obama’s speech took issue with the President extending the greetings of peace, writing:

According to Islamic law, a Muslim may only extend this greeting — Peace be upon you — to a fellow Muslim. To a non-Muslim he is to say, “Peace be upon those who are rightly guided,” i.e., Peace be upon the Muslims. Islamic law is silent about what Muslims must do when naive non-Muslim Islamophilic Presidents offer the greeting to Muslims.

Really?  Is that also the rule when Jewish people address one another with Shalom Alechem? (Essentially the exact same phrase, but in Hebrew instead of Arabic)?

Even if this nonsensical criticism made sense, here’s what the President said:

I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt’s advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.

In other words – he’s sending a message from Muslim to Muslim.  I think some of the critics should slow their fast fingers and think first…

QT

I don’t usually engage in this kind of “gotcha” wordplay, but I can’t resist this one… “At this time he’s the only [president] we’ve got”??? Doesn’t that seem to tell us how many presidents we had under Bush?

QT
More on Colin Powell
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Sometimes when I listen to General Colin Powell and President Barack Obama, I think – why don’t we let black folks run the country for a little while?

Then I remember Alan Keyes… and think, nevermind.

QT
More on Colin Powell
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Christopher Hitchens talks about his experience with waterboarding (aka drowning/aka torture) here: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/08/hitchens200808

From the link: There was a paramedic present who checked my racing pulse and warned me about adrenaline rush.

Ok. So this would be a possibly fatal procedure for Vice President Cheney. He’s got a bad heart – we don’t want to kill him. But since this is merely harsh stuff, with no threat of death, and therefore reasonable for the US to practice, I say that Liz Cheney, VP Cheney’s daughter, should undergo the practice. She’s young and healthy, and can take it.

Vice President Cheney – I call upon you to put your daughter up for waterboarding – at least 3 times, because Hitchens did it twice.

I hope that we can at least get public television and NPR in the room for the next and future White House Poetry Slams. How awesome is this!

Taking it one step further – how gorgeous in Michelle? I can’t tell if that’s a blouse or a dress – but where are the fashionistas to comment??? She looks simply stunning!

QT
More on Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost