Q. WHAT’S THE MOST SIGNIFICANT — LET ME ASK IT THIS WAY: WHAT’S THE MOST GUT WRENCHING DECISION YOU’VE EVER HAD TO MAKE AND HOW DID YOU PROCESS THAT, COME TO THAT DECISION?

A. WELL, YOU KNOW, I THINK THE OPPOSITION TO THE WAR IN IRAQ WAS AS TOUGH A DECISION THAT I’VE HAD TO MAKE NOT ONLY BECAUSE THERE WERE POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES BUT ALSO BECAUSE SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS A BAD PERSON AND THERE WAS NO DOUBT THAT HE MET AMERICA ILL.

BUT I WAS FIRMLY CONVINCED AT THE TIME THAT WE DID NOT HAVE STRONG EVIDENCE OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION AND THERE WERE A LOT OF QUESTIONS THAT AS I SPOKE TO EXPERTS KEPT ON COMING UP, DO WE KNOW HOW THE SHIITES AND THE SUNNIS AND THE KURDS ARE GOING TO GET ALONG IN A POST SADDAM SITUATION, WHAT’S OUR ASSESSMENT AS TO HOW THIS WILL AFFECT THE BATTLE AGAINST TERRORIST LIKE AL-QAEDA, HAVE WE FINISHED THE JOB IN AFGHANISTAN?

SO I AGONIZED OVER THAT AND I THINK QUESTION OF WAR AND PEACE GENERALLY ARE SO PROFOUND YOU KNOW WHEN YOU MEET THE TROOPS, THEY ARE 19, 20, 21-YEAR OLD KIDS AND YOU ARE PUTTING THEM INTO HARM’S WAY THERE IS A SOLEMN OBLIGATION THAT YOU DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO GET THAT DECISION RIGHT.

AND NOW AS THE WAR WENT FORWARD, VERY DIFFICULT ABOUT HOW LONG DO YOU KEEP FUNDING THE WAR IF YOU STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT IT’S NOT AMERICA’S NATIONAL INTEREST AT THE SAME TIME YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE TROOPS WHO ARE OUT THERE WITHOUT THE EQUIPMENT THEY NEED. SO THAT ALL THOSE QUESTIONS SURROUNDING THE WAR HAVE BEEN VERY DIFFICULT FOR ME.

Say WHAT, OBush?? YOU did not have to make ANY decisions on the War in Iraq! YOU were not in the SENATE yet!! How in the WORLD does this guy get away with these blatant lies and mind-boggling (delusional) revisionist history??

Wait - here’s another goody. Oh, dear goddess, McCain is going to have a FIELD day with this statement come August 28th. I’ll show you why after the question and answer: (more…)

This platform effort is deeply important to Hillary. If you haven’t completed the survey, please do so today. If you haven’t posted a story about the survey at your own blog, please do so today or tomorrow. If you haven’t e-mailed all of your friends, please do so right away. Please also encourage everyone you know to sign the IOwnMyVote.com pledge. (Of note: We are very pleased that JustSayNoDeal.com has featured the survey on its home page.)

Hillary is not the only key person who will personally receive a copy. Charlie Rangel and Sheila Jackson Lee will also receive copies, delivered directly into their hands. They will all lobby the Platform Committee on our behalf.

It is vital that Hillary, and our other key backers, see as many signatures as possible! She will also see the survey results, complete with bar graphs. (No Quarter will be publishing the bar graphs that display the voting results for each of the 10 measures.)

It is also vital that all of you who can get to Pittsburgh next weekend (August 9-10, 2008), do so. The Platform Committee will be meeting at Pittsburgh’s convention center. We will have precise times and the meeting room location for you very soon. Stay tuned. If we have a polite but persistent group of supporters at the meeting, we stand a greater chance of getting our platform proposals included in the final edition.

The foreign press has featured this platform story more than U.S. media Here’s an excerpt from an excellent piece, “Clinton supporters urge Democratic Party to act on ‘pervasive gender bias’” in The Irish Times: (more…)

The following is from the SLDN email:

Staff Sergeant Eric Alva, U.S. Army Major General Vance Coleman, and Navy Capt. Joan Darrah all testified on the devastating impact of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on the military today.

Rep. Murphy is correct: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is an insult to all of our troops. It’s also a danger to the American people, since thousands of qualified, capable members of our armed services are losing their jobs for no other reason that their sexual orientation. (more…)

But what I do not recall Obamessiah talking about while he was in Iraq was a story CNN covered entitled, “Gays In Iraq Terrorized By Threats, Rape, Murder.” Maybe I missed it, but I do not recall him mentioning this issue at ALL when he was in Iraq on our time getting his photo ops. Oh, he would do whatever his handlers told him to do would LOOK good for him, but deal with real issues?? C’mon, he doesn’t have time for things like that! Sheesh - there’s only one of The One, after all!!

Ahem. As you might guess, life for gays is a far, far cry from, say New York City (which has the largest gay population in the USA):

Kamal was just 16 when gunmen snatched him off the streets of Baghdad, stuffed him in the trunk of a car and whisked him away to a house. But the real terror was about to begin.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSPxGmePSiA

You know, I am pretty tired of having to write about Barack Obama and whatever crapola he is claiming/twisting/changing today. I am sick of him and his duplicity. Not that I am surprised by it - not one iota. I am just sick of it. And I miss hearing Hillary Clinton. I miss her speeches, I miss her rallies, I miss her passion, I miss her personality. So, I thought I would pull up a great video of her speaking to the HRC board. So, if you have been missing her like I have, sit back and enjoy listening to her, and appreciating all that she has done (and would have done as president) for the LGBT community. As has often been noted, she has been a stalwart supporter of this community. And has long been a friend to the HRC.

If only HRC had been as good of a friend to Senator Clinton. On June 6, HRC endorsed BARACK OBAMA. Yes, they did. Why? Oh, their director, Joe Salmonese said it was because of his Civil Rights record (which is what, exactly?), his strong support of the LGBT community (which he has demonstrated HOW exactly?), and all of the other hooey people generally spew then. I terminated my membership to HRC. After over 20 years. For HRC to not endorse HRC after all of the accolades they have bestowed upon her, and after her COMMITMENT to our community is simply reprehensible. I have lost all respect for them (and frankly, I was never all that thrilled with Salmonese anyway, and even less so now).

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Okay, Okay, I’ll get to the point: Obama wants to continue the Faith Based Initiatives Program, and EXPAND the amount of federal dollars GOING to the organizations involves in it. But wait - it gets better! He wants to allow them to HIRE and FIRE on the basis of RELIGION!!!

You read that right — this self-titled Constitutional scholar wants to allow YOUR tax paying dollars to go to faith-based initiatives, allowing them to decide if the person is religious enough, their KIND of religious, and to dismiss them should they decide the employee’s belief system does not match closely enough to the organization. Hold on, there is even more! According to the AP Article, “Obama TO Expand Bush’s Faith-based Programs“:

Obama proposes to elevate the program to a “moral center” of his administration, by renaming it the Office of Community and Faith-Based Partnerships, and changing training from occasional huge conferences to empowering larger religious charities to mentor smaller ones in their communities.

Pay attention to that name change, so that you KNOW he is talking about faith-based programming using federal dollars in the future. (more…)

I just finished reading Ms. Brownworth’s piece, “Why Do They Hate Us.” It moved me to tears. As one who has followed this election campaign VERY closely, I have been horrified, and furious, at the treatment of an attorney who worked for poor women and children, a Former First Lady of Arkansas, a Former First Lady of the United States, and a TWO-TERM Sitting US Senator by the Mainstram Media, Senator Barack Obama, and the DNC.

It is simply staggering how accepted sexism, even misogyny, is in this country. It is mind boggling that Main Stream Media can make demeaning, disparaging remarks about a US Senator because she is a WOMAN. I am a lifelong (50-year-old), straight-party-ticket Democratic voter, or I should say I was, until the treatment of Senator Clinton, and ALL women, by the DNC elite and Senator Obama.

I have now left the party to which I have dedicated myself, my money, and my vote. (I might add, my decision was reinforced when the RBC/DNC decided to take actual votes cast for one candidate, Clinton, and give them to a candidate who was not even on the ballot, in addition to the sexism, even misogyny, in which the above three have participated this year.) (more…)

Evidently, Obama has hijacked the DNC and moved it lock, stock, and barrel to CHICAGO!!! WOWIE ZOWIE!! How do the OTHER 57 states feel that the DNC has now become the BONC? Holy freakin’ Toledo.

This is really hard to fathom. Obama is a JUNIOR Senator. Hell, he has barely been there for his first term, and certainly has done very little real work since he has been so busy stealing - um, I mean - campaigning - for votes.

As we all know by now, he could not even chair his own subcommittee on piddly matters like AFGHANISTAN and NATO because he was busy running around the country on his Unity Unicorn. And now, and NOW - he has essentially taken over the ENTIRE DNC.

How does this happen, I ask you? Is it that people have HANDED over that much power to him, and if so, WHY? Why would they give a junior senator who has essentially ZERO experience, the reins to the WHOLE enchilada??? If I were still a Democrat, I’d be mighty upset by this.

Even still, I have never, in my entire 50 years on this planet, EVER heard of a presidential candidate having THIS much power over the organization, never mind one who had so little experience. Oh, wait - there hasn’t BEEN a presidential candidate with so little experience before - maybe THAT’S the issue!! (more…)

I turned 18 in November. My first thought? Oh God, I have to vote.I hadn’t listened to the pundits, I didn’t even know who was running. Some Hispanic guy, some black guy, and the former First Lady of the United States; oh, and some other white guys. The only one I recognized was Edwards and my heart did an awful large thump for what could’ve been in 2004. (I hadn’t forgiven John Kerry for conceding Ohio, I still haven’t and he’s invoked my ire ever since.) Yet, it wasn’t John Edwards and his invincible haircut that caught my attention; it was the woman I had never noticed and the history I’d never cared about.
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