Dana Milbank at the WaPo delivers a stunning and accurate smackdown to the misguided, misleading and unhinged Elaine Donnelly of The Center for Military Readiness, who testified at yesterday's House Armed Services personnel subcommittee hearing on the law known as Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  

Donnelly treated the panel to an extraordinary exhibition of rage. She warned of "transgenders in the military." She warned that lesbians would take pictures of people in the shower. She spoke ominously of gays spreading "HIV positivity" through the ranks.

"We're talking about real consequences for real people," Donnelly proclaimed. Her written statement added warnings about "inappropriate passive/aggressive actions common in the homosexual community," the prospects of "forcible sodomy" and "exotic forms of sexual expression," and the case of "a group of black lesbians who decided to gang-assault" a fellow soldier.

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At any given time there are 1,500,000 individuals enlisted in one of the branches of the U.S. military, 15% of which are women. That's one million and five hundred thousand people enlisted in the institution set up to protect American freedoms from outside aggression. This institution instills values and beliefs that will be carried by those very same men and women for the rest of their lives, even after service, when they attempt to reintegrate into civilian life.

That's why it's so worrisome that our military has become one of the largest national incubators for implicitly sanctioned rape and sexual assault. By allowing our military to slack in the disciplining of sexual assault crimes, we are creating a culture of impunity, where perpetrators of rape and sexual assault escape punishment, and their victims are denied justice. These perpetrators of sexual assault are then free to return to civilian life. That's right, they're free to then visit your neighborhood, your jogging route, your favorite local bar, anywhere. We know our enemy, and it is within.

I've always been amazed that the very people forced to live in the worst parts of town, go to the worst schools, and who have it the hardest are always the first to step up, to defend us. They serve so that we don't have to. They offer to give up their lives so that we can be free. It is remarkably their gift to us. And all they ask for in return is that we never send them into harm's way unless it is absolutely necessary. Will they ever trust us again?

Michael Moore
Fahrenheit 9/11

This won't be the standard-issue karateexplosions diary, and I do apologize for that.  There's just not a whole lot of funny in this story.  But that doesn't mean we have to forgo the kitty picture:

Why does it appear so many soldiers support Obama despite the persistent propaganda that says military people don't like Democrats (see this dKos diary for evidence of this support)?

An acquaintance of mine who is ex-military has explained it well to me. (aside: This is my explanation of his explanation. I am not military so forgive me if I f*ck this up.)

When you join the military you give up an essential element of your freedom. The freedom to say "no".

When your superior orders you to do something, you do it. Most of us understand this at an intellectual level, but how many of us, outside the military, understand it at a gut level? What this means is that if your superior officer orders you to go into downtown LA and start shooting civilians, you do it.

This is a call out diary for military affiliated people in the Hampton Roads (even DC!) area who support Obama!

Having attended Catholic parochial school as a child, I and my classmates were constantly reminded by the good Sisters of St. Dominic to "mind our place". Translation: Remember where you are in the social pecking order.

This was meant to teach us that as we grew up we would begin to establish the individual role we would play in the makeup of our society and that once our station in life was determined we should not overstep the bounds of our position. Of course, this deterministic view of one's fate was not all that surprising coming from religious teachers who themselves had to mind their place in the strict hierarchy of Holy Mother the Church.

Earlier today on Good Morning America, Senator John McCain made an incredibly confusing gaffe about the Middle East. When he was asked whether the situation in Afghanistan was urgent he said it was not, but that we had a "lot of work to do" given the "Situation along the Iraq-Pakistan border".

To anyone vaguely familiar with Middle Eastern geography this would be incredibly perplexing, given the fact that Iraq and Pakistan are separated by over a thousand miles and the land mass of Iran. Perhaps McCain meant to say "Iran-Pakistan" border...? But that wouldn't make much sense. Maybe he really isn't that savvy about foreign affairs.

Here is the clip and the full interview -

Did you know. According to Mike Allen of Politico online:

Barack Obama left Afghanistan on Sunday and made a second unannounced stop in Kuwait, Arab media reported.

Obama was honored at a banquet at the residence of Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, according to the government news agency.

Obama and the other members of his delegation — Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) — also attended a meeting with the ermir and a dozen other state and royal officials of the Gulf state, the government

Also: John Rentoul, of the British Independent wrote this about Obama's impact in England:

The Democratic presidential candidate is Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela rolled into one when it comes to sprinkling stardust. And now that he has ditched his left-wing baggage, Brown and Cameron are hoping that some of the magic will rub off on them.

Well you know I didn't agree with that "left wing baggage part". More on Mr. Rentoul later.

Boy was I Surprised to find my re-posted, slightly updated, diary, from yesterday, on the rescue list, I'll get to that in a minute.

There is reportedly some 43 million voters who are Veterans of our Military, active duty Members of our Military, as well as direct Family Members of both of those groups. Anyone who wants to keep cruntching numbers could keep a fairly close number of all three groups, births, deaths, enlistments etc., a huge task but a rough estimate could be had. The PLUS comes from the fact of not only the Extended Families of but also includes the Friends, Neighbors, Communities and how much they take into consideration Military Service especially when in occupation of two countries, or any dedicated service, to Country. The figures for that can't be put into a raw number, a close figure, or a percentage, they are Unknown.

I recently gave an update on my PCS move to 82nd Airborne. I've learned that I am definitely deploying to Iraq "sometime around November."

We're about to leave for dinner so this Diary will be short and sweet.

UPDATE: I just got back from seeing a the play Peter Pan in Raleigh. I didn't expect this to make the Rec list! Thanks, everyone for such an overwhelming show of support. And the select few who had something negative to say is no skin off my back, so no worries. I'm not leaving until around November so I'll still be around for a while. Between now and then I'll periodically be sent to various different training sites and schools.

Equality takes another step forward. The American people, 3 to 1, oppose discriminating against gays in the U.S. military, according to the Washington Post.

Seventy-five percent of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll said gay people who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military, up from 62 percent in early 2001 and 44 percent in 1993.

Majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents alike now believe it is acceptable for openly gay people to serve in the U.S. armed forces. Shortly after he took office in 1993, Clinton faced strong resistance to his campaign pledge to lift the military’s ban on allowing gay people to enlist. At that time, 67 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of conservatives opposed the idea. A majority of independents, 56 percent, and 45 percent of Democrats also opposed changing the policy.

The most stunning statistic after the jump.

reposted with a few changes and add ons.

Fort Hood Town Hall Presidential Forum

The country's wartime status has riddled this Presidential election year with added questions.

That's why several non-profit military groups have come together to try to hold a Presidential town hall meeting at Fort Hood.

Sen. Barack Obama is the missing ingredient for a town hall meeting at Fort Hood.

If Obama accepted, the two would be on stage together taking questions from an audience of military families and veterans.

I would want to see that, wouldn't you?

Obama believes in the power of you... well so do they!

We need your help!

Call Obama's campaign at 1.866.675.2008 and urge him to attend the Fort Hood Presidential Town Hall on veterans and military families!

Hello folks.

The Death Cult Zombie Senator is scheduled to visit the new Maine Military Museum in South Portland, Maine on Monday and I may attend as the public's been invited! In the event we're allowed to ask questions I thought someone might have some great substantive suggestions for what to ask him.

The country's wartime status has riddled this Presidential election year with added questions.

That's why several non-profit military groups have come together to try to hold a Presidential town hall meeting at Fort Hood.

Sen. Barack Obama is the missing ingredient for a town hall meeting at Fort Hood.

This is a nobrainer for the Obama Campaign, especially as to recent remarks by Senator McCain, and he isn't as great as he and others think as to Town Halls or other formats. The Obama camp have many like Wesley Clark and other knowledgable Veterans of our Military who have more than just his back, as well as the many running on the same ticket for federal offices.

Does Obama have the guts to lead a change in our global military strategy? Are Iraq and Afghanistan merely giant pimples on a much greater obscenity that seems too big to focus on?

Per Al-Jazeera, as part of new defense strategy, the United States is currently spending billions of dollars to turn Guam into the new Okinawa.Two thirds of the estimated cost of $15 billion will be to relocate 8,000 soldiers from Okinawa. But it's the hardware that has the locals worried.

US building up Guam base

On the apron, old but still operational B-52 bombers... were standing by....The US outpost will see a whole array of the latest military hardware including nuclear-powered Trident submarines which can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles and unmanned Global Hawk spy aircraft.....By next year, the base will receive the latest state-of-the-art F-22 fighter jets, reflecting Guam’s strategic defence position in a volatile part of the world.

Here is another perfect example where Obama needs to feel the Progressive HEAT. How the kind of  INTERACTIVE campaign I have been writing about using the Internet as the platform can have a major impact on the kind of candidate Obama will be during the General Election and as President if elected.

I was going to post a followup to a recent post I had done referancing some disturbing news, but suspected, out of Afganistan. That post, a few days ago, followed the extremely sad news about the loss of the nine soldiers, fifteen injured, in a battle at a small fire base they held by Afgan insugents. This U.S. Abandons Site of Afghan Attack is a recent report on that and as the title says the American forces abandoned the base. It was than apparently retaken by the Afgan Insurgents as well as the little town near it, and control of the territory well around the town and base.

Another report came out yesterday, in the Asian Times, but was dated for today, I've already seen that other sources have been picking it up today, that will follow shortly.

"We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of biography"   Oscar Wilde

To save our education system, we need not institute testing or accountability so much. We should seek to bring the arts back to education! A generation of children are being left behind because the arts are not offered as a viable alternative mode of study (especially in poor communities) Our educational bureaucracy stresses tests, science, and math. However, they forget that the abstract arts are also important. One can only do so much using just half their brain.