Obama to End ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ But When?

Analysis …

President Obama again pledged to end the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law at the Human Rights Campaign fundraising dinner Saturday. While the latest Nobel Peace Prize recipient’s support to repeal the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military received support, he also received criticism for failing to provide a timetable on when that repeal would happen. Obama’s speech came the day before National Coming Out Day; that was also the day when thousands of gay activists marched in Washington, D.C., for GLBT rights.

HotAir |  “All it would take to end it is an executive order.  Obama is, after all, the Commander in Chief.  Obama wants Congress to take the heat for this as well, though, and has passed the buck on the issue since his first day in office.  What’s more, on this issue, Obama has it right.  DADT served a useful purpose in showing that gays can serve honorably in the military, but the time has come to end it.  Unfortunately for his cheering throngs at the HRC dinner, Obama doesn’t have the courage of his own convictions to take that step himself. In other words, these sound an awful lot like his other promises — which Jim Geraghty reminds us always come with expiration dates.”

Andrew Sullivan @The Atlantic |  “Look: I didn’t expect these issues to be front and center given his appalling inheritance; I know he has many other things on his plate; I didn’t expect the moon; I didn’t believe he would do any of this immediately; I understand that the real job is for us to do, not him, and that most of the action is in the states. And I remain a strong supporter of him in foreign policy and in the way he is clearly trying to move this country past the ideological divides of the recent past. But the sad truth is: he is refusing to take any responsibility for his clear refusal to fulfill clear campaign pledges on the core matter of civil rights and has given no substantive, verifiable pledges or deadlines by which he can be held accountable. What that means, I’m afraid, is that this speech was highfalutin bullshit.”

Balloon Juice |  “Could someone please tell Andrew Sullivan and the rest of the crowd that the last President, a fellow named Bush, dedicated his administration to openly persecuting homosexuals through the FMA and through ballot initiatives in tight races in 2004 all while his Justice department refused to hire and even fired gays and lesbians or anyone who had any ties to organizations that might associate with gays and lesbians. The President before him, a Democrat by the name of Clinton, passed DADT and signed DOMA. Now, you have a President who not only campaigned on and has stated repeatedly that he will work to end DADT, DOMA, and any number of other issues important the cause, but who went to the HRC, proudly took the podium, and advocated his support for their cause in front of the entire nation. And the result? He’s getting shit on for not doing things fast enough.”

Pandagon |  “This was a well-crafted, oddly familiar address if you’re a political junkie, because it felt like a stump speech, a post-election speech and a WH LGBT photo op address patched together. I understand his support for equality; what I didn’t hear is that civil rights of human beings are any more important than any other political issue he faces. That correcting a grievous wrong affecting the lives of American taxpayers he wants support from on other issues is ok to shuffle down in the pile of issues. Honestly, it’s good to know where you stand—statements of support without any timelines at this stage in the game is frustrating and very informative. But it doesn’t mean we won’t continue to press for them, no matter what Barney says.”

The Daily Beast |  “The real question for gay-rights supporters is whether anyone should be surprised by the administration’s inaction given Obama’s public opposition to gay marriage. In Maine, opponents of marriage equality are handing out flyers with quotes from the president, who has cited his “Christian values” as the motivation for supporting civil unions instead of marriage. In the run-up to the election, the hope was that he was concealing his true feelings in order to get elected. But the fact that gay-rights organizations and activists settled for this shows how far behind the political process trails the culture. The president and the gay lobby may wake up soon and find that, as the president said of Republicans at the Democratic National Convention, the ground has shifted beneath them.”

Related link: Gay Rights No Longer a Fringe Issue  |  Global Post

News & Analysis …

Nearly One in Four Persons on Globe is a Muslim  |  Informed Comment

The Muslim world is the labor pool of the next century, and is also the custodian of much of the world’s fuel. New American crusades of the sort favored on the right of the Republican Party may finally induce imperial overstretch and deeply harm the US. Some 5 percent of the population cannot dominate by force 25 percent of the globe and what may eventually be 33% of the globe.

Obama’s strategy, of positive engagement, is the only viable way forward.

Stuff White People Do: Shuttle Between Whiteness and Ethnicity   |  Stuff White People Do

(Today) is Columbus Day in the United States. Like many other countries in “the Americas,” we still mark this day, officially and otherwise. Celebrations of the efforts of Columbus usually erase the horrors of what he and his men did to indigenous peoples, thereby erasing as well the indigenous peoples themselves.

Blinded by the Light  |  Miller-McCune

Plants, animals and humans developed with an internal clock — the circadian rhythm. It’s a 24-hour cycle that affects physiological, biochemical and behavioral processes in almost all organisms.

Civilization brought with it artificial light to homes in every village, town and city across the world, and as more buildings and factories came online, industrialization increased and the population continued to expand, our nighttime sky looked a lot like the day, changing our deep, dark sleep patterns and altering that 24-hour internal timekeeper.

With that, all living creatures’ lives changed in ways only now becoming clear to us.

The Scarlet A in Oklahoma  |  Political Animal

If you haven’t heard about the new abortion restrictions in Oklahoma, take a few minutes to watch this segment from “The Rachel Maddow Show” from the other day. (The segment on Oklahoma begins in earnest around the 2:12 mark.)

The Atlantic’s Tali Yahalom had a good item summarizing the problem this week: “A new Oklahoma law will require the details of every abortion to be posted on a public website.

Mothers — or would-be mothers, rather — will be prompted to answer 37 questions that range from her marital status and race to how many times she’s ever been pregnant.”