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

This is the course President Obama wants this repeal to take.

On 12/15/10, GregfromBoston <greg.vincent@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 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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--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

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