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

No thanks!

On 12/15/2010 3:17 PM, Tommy News 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_repeal_dont_ask.html  

--
I reserve the right to do as I please.

"There is no crueler tyranny than that which is exercised under cover of law, and with the colors of justice ..."
- U.S. v. Jannotti, 673 F.2d 578, 614 (3d Cir. 1982)

"If Americans wish to be free of judicial tyranny, they must at least develop basic knowledge of the judicial role in our republican government. The present state of affairs is a direct result of our collective ignorance."
- Ron Paul

Our courts will never be fair and just again until we force the courts to follow their own rules. Do not allow yourself to be ruled by tyrants. Learn how to control corrupt judges and crooked lawyers so you can get Justice! Learn to litigate: Buy and Study JURISDICTIONARY. The best course available for Pro Se and Pro Per litigants.

I Refuse To Comply With The Unconstitutional Demands Of The Federal Government
Read the US Constitution

Government is only as strong as those who allow themselves to be governed are weak.

"We have plenty of rights in this country, provided you don't get caught exercising them."
- Terry Mitchell

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free it expects something that cannot be."
- Thomas Jefferson