Re: The House Votes to Repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell 250-175! Keep the pressure on the Senate.

Bravo!

Perhaps Obama's court challenge will become irrelevant.

On Dec 15, 6:17 pm, Tommy News <tommysn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The House Votes to Repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell 250-175! Keep the
> pressure on the Senate. Many of the debate arguments from House
> Republicans against repeal were extremely offensive, false, hateful,
> and homophobic.
>
> House votes to repeal 'don't ask, don't tell'
> By Ed O'Keefe
> House lawmakers approved a bill Wednesday to end the "don't ask, don't
> tell" law, giving new momentum to an effort backed by President Obama,
> Pentagon leaders and gay rights activists to end the ban on gays
> serving openly in the military this year.
>
> The House voted 250 to 175 to repeal the 17-year Defense Department
> law that bars gays and lesbians from serving openly in uniform. The
> 75-vote margin was wider than a similar vote in May. Fifteen
> Republicans voted for the bill while 15 Democrats opposed it.
>
> Wednesday's vote sends the bill back to the Senate, where a vote will
> not occur until next week at the earliest, if at all, according to
> Senate aides.
>
> The bill's language originally appeared in an 800-page defense
> authorization bill passed by the House in May. But the bill failed a
> procedural vote in the Senate last week, requiring the House to vote
> again on a new measure to end the ban.
>
> Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine)
> introduced the new bill last week, believing it will earn broader
> Republican support after the Senate completes consideration of the New
> START Treaty and government spending.
>
> Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said Wednesday she would join Republican
> colleagues Scott Brown (Mass.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) in voting
> to end the ban if the Senate votes again on the bill.
>
> The House voted first on the new bill because its cosponsors, Majority
> Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) believed
> doing so would allow the Senate to consider it more quickly as a
> privileged resolution requiring fewer days of debate.
>
> "It's time to end a policy of official discrimination that has cost
> America the service of some 13,500 men and women who wore our uniform
> with honor," Hoyer said Wednesday. "It's time to stop throwing away
> their service -- their willingness to die for our country -- because
> of who they are."
>
> Most House Republicans opposed Wednesday's vote. In a conversation
> with reporters before the vote, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif), who is
> slated to chair the House Armed Services Committee in the next
> Congress, said Democrats "were more concerned about 'don't ask don't
> tell,' I believe, than about the military and about carrying out our
> responsibilities for those who are laying their lives on the line
> every day to protect us. That's a bad system."
>
> In a bit of levity, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) later echoed McKeon's
> sentiments on the House floor: "Maybe that's why our approval ratings
> are somewhere between used car salesman and embezzler," he said. (A
> record low 13 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is
> doing, according to a Gallup Poll survey released Wednesday.)
>
> A new version of the defense bill without language ending "don't ask,
> don't tell" is expected to come up for a vote in the House later this
> week.
>
> In a joint statement, gay rights groups pushing to end the ban cheered
> Wednesday's vote, saying it "provides another resounding indication
> that 'don't ask, don't tell' can and should be repealed legislatively
> this year." The groups, ranging from the liberal Center for American
> Progress to the pro-gay Log Cabin Republicans, plan to lobby the
> Senate this week to vote on the new bill.
>
> Forty-seven senators are cosponsoring the bill, including Senate
> Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). He is not expected to schedule
> a vote on it until next week at the earliest, a spokeswoman said.
>
> More:http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/12/house_votes_to_r...
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy

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