If Rachel Maddow is right [Ed: She is], and Rep. Ike Skelton’s angst about debating DADT openly in Congress arrives from a fear of forcing families to discuss The Gay, then she certainly did him the biggest disservice last night in discussing The Gay. Openly. On live television. In front of millions of viewers, watching from their living rooms. Where children might be lurking. Count up how many times she mentions the word! Horrors.
taunts
Rachel Maddow Made Rep. Ike Skelton Very Uncomfortable Last Night
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Cam
Oh Please, he isn’t worried about it being open and children watching the debate (How many kids watch C-SPAN)?
What he is worried about is that people who are happy to be somewhat annonomous bigots, and excuse their votes to keep DADT with platitudes, being too scared to really fight and show their bigotry for all the world. Remember, what brought down Senator McCarthy was the fact that the McCarthy hearings were broadcast on TV and people who supported him before did not like what they saw.
Same here, to actually defend DADT they will have to be honest aboutt heir bigotry, that is the LAST thing bigots want to do.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
Sorry, Skeletor is just too easy a target, simply being consistent with the bigotry he displayed in 1993 when he was the chief House sponsor of DADT.
Our condemnation should be focused on the REAL game changer in all this who has sided with those who worry about “the children.”
For how is Skeletor’s HONEST, blatant homophobia any worse than the Gates Speak about needing to delay ending discharges indefinitely while spending MILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to “study” the “impact” on “military families” which OBAMA EMPOWERED?
How is Skeletor any worse than THE PRESIDENT who pays lip service to caring about gay rights and, then, per Nancy Pelosi, et al., FORCED Congress to GUT from any MAYBE-SOMEDAY so-called “repeal” bill the requirement of a military gay nondiscrimination policy, a deadline for ending discharges, and the ability of those already discharged to reenlist ….three things that Candidate Obama explicity promised to fight for not against…..while forcing them to insert the requirement that “repeal” not “negatively impact” “FAMILY READINESS,” whatever the fuck that is?
Why strain at this gnat while continuing to swallow the camel who betrayed us in favor of those no less bigoted than Skeletor in the Pentagon? They just don’t have an old bigot’s balls to say what they REALLY mean…which is EXACTLY the same: we must not “expose” children in “military families” to the fags!
[img]http://02b4964.netsolhost.com/images/509_1OBAMA-WHOM-DID-WE-ELECT.jpg[/img]
Cam
@Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com:
Michael,
If you read my comment, that is what I was getting at, You can give a bland platitude in a 15 second news clip, but if they have to debate the issue on the floor, those won’t fly, they will have to actually pull out real reasons, when they can’t do that they will have to fall back on bigoted reasons.
Ronbo
The core problem is Religous Bigotry. Homosexuality is as natural in humans, as in, all animals. However, we have Religious Bigots fighting against reality. President “God is in the mix” Obama is at core, a bigot. He fights his hateful impulses; however, his bigotry usually wins. That is because he is weak and fearful of losing all those Religious Bigot votes and their support. What he doesn’t know is that few, damn few, of those bigots would ever vote for him.
We need to organize and fight the Religious Bigots. This is not an organized campaign. Come out to your Priest, Minister, Rabbi, etc…. Once you come out of the shadows, your Spirit will rise. It will change minds and if they don’t like reality, FUCK ‘EM! But being in the closet is what perpetuates Religious Bigotry. My church is open to LGBT persons. Yours will too. If not FUCK ‘EM again.
tjr101
Joe Sestak 2010!!!
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
@Cam:
But, with respect, they’ve already been honest, if mostly less explicit than they were in ’92 and ’93. In Congressional hearing after hearing, in TV and newspaper interviews, Skelton, McShame, Commandant of the Marines Conway, et al., have repeatedly defended their bigotry.
And, worse, OUR FRIENDS in Congress, and cowardly MSM interviewers, have let them get away with it.
When Mullen first talked about the effect ending discharges might have on “military families” LAST YEAR, the reporters he was talking to didn’t say, “But WHAT does that MEAN? HOW could out gays affect ‘military families’?”
And none of our friends on the Senate Armed Services Committee, when Gates announced the “study” during the February 2nd Senate hearing, asked what the meant when he said:
“An important part of this process is to engage our men and women in uniform AND THEIR FAMILIES over this period since, after all, they will ultimately determine whether or not we make this transition successfully. … The chiefs and I also recognize the stress our troops AND FAMILIES are under, and I have said many times before, should the law change, we need to move forward in a manner that does not ADD TO THAT STRESS. …
What our young men and women AND THEIR FAMILIES want – what they deserve – is that we listen to them and act IN THEIR BEST INTERESTS.”
HOW would open service “add to [the] stress” on “military families”? How would anything about it go against “their best interests”?
And, in that same hearing, when Sen. Webb…the only Dem on the committee to vote against putting even THEORETICAL “repeal” in DEFAUTH two weeks ago….said:
“Because whether the ultimate decision might be here with the Congress, that decision can’t be made in a proper way without a full and open input from all of those who are serving. Not just combatant commanders – FAMILY MEMBERS, people who are in the operating units.”
NO ONE asked, “WHY ‘family members’?” Nor did they on yet another reference from Gates:
“the purpose of the review that we are undertaking is to find out what the force – what the men and women in our armed forces, and, as Sen. Webb said, AND THEIR FAMILIES – really think about this.”
NOR did reporters, including GAY ones, challenge Gates when he said this on March 25th at the press conference announcing the interim changes in implementation:
“There is a great deal we don’t know about this [potential repeal of the law] in terms of the views of our servicemembers, in terms of the views of THEIR FAMILIES and influencers.” [BTW: who the fuck are the “influencers” he drooled about”?
I don’t have to tell you that all the references to “families” are “code” for “straight spouses are going to worry about their husbands and wives being attacke dby fags and dykes and straight parents are going to worry about the possibility of their kids being exposed to/attacked by fags and dykes at military events, anywhere on base, or in military ‘married housing’.”
What it was like in 1993:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PMEXfSqm5k
Rick Brannon
Isn’t it called “Teh Gay?”
JamesStone
He is just an old fossil who has no idea that there are gay people all around him. He has family who are gay. He has friends who are gay. He has neighbors who are gay.
That is why it is so important my friends to come out of the closet..to your friends..family..coworkers..neighbors. My partner and I have been together for nearly 20 years and I cannot tell you how many minds we have changed.
SO..basically..this whole movement will get a lot better if you are honest to the people that you love and are close to.
PEOPLE!!! I did it 20 years ago and I am FINE!! You can do it in 2010! Holy cow!!!! I think people digest it and ultimately respect you more because of your honesty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCB5pJEVjnk
NickadooLA
I love the “…black, white, purple, green” comment.
I remember as a much (much, *sigh*) younger man hearing a racist family member add to their diatribe, “I don’t care if they’re black, white or purple!” to which I raised my hand and said, “Umm… I would care if someone was purple. That might be an indication that something’s wrong and they need help.”
Steve
I think Ike Skelton is gay.
I don’t have any actual evidence of that. But, just look at him. My gaydar alarm rings loud and clear.
His angst about debating DADT openly in Congress comes from being afraid that other people will find out that he is gay. He is so afraid, he hides behind a mask of hateful bigotry. He thinks that if he is sufficiently hateful, no one would believe that he could be gay, and so he will be safe from discovery.
Bill
@Cam:
I have never encountered a heterosexual scared to show their anti-gay bigotry.
Most wear it like a custom-made glove. And celebrate it like a milestone birthday.
It’s one of many fine examples of that heterosexual morality so many of them run around screaming their heads off about…
Just saying .....
Millions of viewers???? Her ratings at headed toward the toilet – for a reason.
Greenlee Gazette
Actually No.12, no, her ratings are not headed to the toilet. While she only gets a million or so viewers in her first-run show (and about half that in the rerun), her ratings have been quite consistant, sometimes besting Olbermann. Her show is almost always the second-highest rated cable news show NOT on FOX “News.” Which is not a news channel anyway, so make that secon-highest period.
Kent
@Ronbo:
I have no need for a “church” – I can think on my own thank you.
Jesse Helms
Rachel Maddow is an ugly bull dyke.