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Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Time to abandon ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ foolishness
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Back in 1993, a brash young president named Bill Clinton tried to force an important cultural change upon the U.S. military by requiring acceptance of gay men and women in uniform. The resulting controversy forced Clinton to back off that policy change and damaged his presidency, but it also helped bring the question of gay rights to the forefront of the national conversation.
A lot has changed since then. The military, like the rest of the nation, is now much more comfortable with gay Americans as a part of our national fabric. In 1993, only 44 percent of Americans supported letting gay people serve in the military; today, the number stands at 75 percent.
President-elect Barack Obama has said he wants to repeal the current “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, but not by signing an executive order.
“I would not do it that way,” he said during the campaign. “The reason is because I want to make sure that when we reverse ‘don’t ask-don’t tell,’ it’s gone through a process and we’ve built a consensus or at least a clarity of … what my expectations are, so that it works.”
“I believe that the way to do it is make sure that we are working through a process, getting the Joint Chiefs of Staff clear in terms of what our priorities are going to be. That’s how we were able to integrate the armed services to get women more actively involved in the armed services,” Obama said.
That’s a wise approach toward a good and necessary end. In fact, a group of more than 100 retired senior officers recently signed a petition urging the outdated policy be changed. The petition stated:
“We — the undersigned — respectfully call for the repeal of the ‘don’t ask-don’t tell’ policy. Those of us endorsing this letter have dedicated our lives to defending the rights of our citizens to believe whatever they wish. Scholarly data shows there are approximately 1 million gay and lesbian veterans in the United States today as well as 65,000 gays and lesbians currently serving in our armed forces. They have served our nation honorably.
“We support the recent comments of former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. John Shalikashvili, who has concluded that repealing the ‘don’t ask-don’t tell’ policy would not harm and would indeed help our armed forces. As is the case with Great Britain, Israel and other nations that allow gays and lesbians to serve openly, our service members are professionals who are able to work together effectively despite differences in race, gender, religion and sexuality. Such collaboration reflects the strength and the best traditions of our democracy.”
That’s well put.
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Lieberman gets off light
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) offered a qualified apology — and accepted a relatively light punishment — in exchange for a deal that keeps him firmly in the Senate Democratic fold.
Democrats, meeting in the Capitol this morning, voted secretly to allow Lieberman to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — despite his support for John McCain and criticism of Barack Obama during the presidential race….
“It’s a resolution of reconciliation and not retribution…I appreciate it,” Lieberman told reporters after the two-and-half hour meeting in the Old Senate Chamber.
Sources who were inside the meeting said Lieberman did not apologize for supporting McCain during the campaign, but that he did say he was sorry for some of the statements he made about Obama….
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who pushed for tougher punishment prior to Obama’s intervention, bristled when reporters asked if he had let Lieberman off lightly….
“There is a time in Joe Lieberman’s career I will never understand or approve,” he added. “The question is, ‘Do I trust Sen. Lieberman?’ The answer is “Yes, I trust Sen. Lieberman.’”
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A veritable river of spam runs dry
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At roughly 4:30 p.m. Eastern time last Tuesday, the volume of junk e-mail arriving at inboxes around the world suddenly plummeted by at least 65 percent, an unprecedented drop caused by what is believed to be a single, simple act.
According to security experts, one Silicon Valley based computer firm was playing host to computers of various organizations that controlled the distribution of much of the world’s spam. Confronted with evidence tracing the spam activity back to the hosting firm, McColo Corp., Internet service providers pulled the plug, severing McColo’s online connections.
By nearly all accounts, spam volumes have remained at far diminished levels, though experts interviewed for this story expect spam to soon bounce back or even exceed previous levels. But the question remains: How could such a massive concentration of spam activity be hosted for so long from the servers at a single U.S.-based facility, in the belly of the security and tech community in Silicon Valley?
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Race, the Deep South and the Obama vote
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Charles Franklin at Pollster.com takes a look at a volatile issue, assessing the role that race may have played in a state-by-state analysis of the presidential race:
“Normally when a party improves from one election to another, it does so across most demographic groups. This holds true for Obama vs Kerry in general and among whites in particular …. (But) three of the four deep south states dropped clearly below their 2004 white support for Kerry.
Georgia did not, matching its 23% white support for the Democrat in both years. Mississippi, the lowest state in 2004, shifted from 14% to 11%, while my home state of Alabama dropped from 19% to 10%, claiming the prize for lowest white support for Obama of any state in the Union. Louisiana went from 24% to 14%, the largest point drop of all….
There were a number of states with considerable increases. The most interesting are North Carolina (up from 27% to 35%) and Virginia (up from 32% to 39%.) Clearly Obama could not have won those states on the white vote alone, but those shifts amount to roughly a 5-6 point boost in statewide vote share, certainly enough to matter.
Keep it reasonable and respectful, please.
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