21,500 More Troops, Dont Ask, Don't Tell, Wayne Besen on Mitt Romney

21,500! A war fought on false pretenses, a very bad man running the country, but false pretenses for going to war all the same. We have claimed victory, (landing on the air craft carrier,) or "turned the corner", (with the democratic government in place, we have turned a corner in Iraq,) more times than a grieving soldiers family should have to bare. Of course if we question our President's judgement, we are asked, "Do you want to lose this war?", when that very option may not be possible. I am no general or commander in chief, but dont you build up your forces when you go INTO a war, and not 4 years later? As Colin Powell has said, this really isn't a troop build up at all, a surge is accurate, because there are no troops to build up. This is taking those scheduled to go into Iraq on the next rotation, and putting them in earlier, and those scheduled to leave Iraq, will now stay longer, and not be allowed to come home. Well, maybe not in the conventional way, sigh! If you look at the stats, 21,500 is not really a build up, but more of a replacement. We have had over 3,000 killed, and 18,000 is probably close to the number wounded, lots permanently, since this all began. Do I want this to work? Of course!! But the track record is not so good, and I am afraid of the chances of more getting hurt. President Bush, you will take your last, best shot, and for the country's sake, I hope it works. But if it doesnt, Please don't embarrass us any longer with your pitiful stances on gay marriage, stem cell research, a woman's right to choose. You will have lost ALL credibility sir, and you have been hanging by a thread with what's left of your credibility for a long time. God Bless The USA, and bring our troops back safe!!





On a related note, the rumor mill has been swirling about the eventual repeal of "Dont Ask, Dont Tell." We had a lively discussion about this the other night, and here are some of the highlights....On the one side, friends are saying that this is a plot. That they are talking or repealing the law because of the lack of troops and they just want to put us gay's in harms way, as the army and marines shrink. They think that it will be put back in place after the war is over. My feelings are that we need to be united in this and not send out mixed messages. If we are asking for equal status, in marriage, or any other type of institution, we must be consistent and ask for equality in joining the armes services, adoption, foster care, and anywhere else we are being discriminated against. Whether it is politically or strategically motivated or not, repealling the "Dont Ask" law is necessary in order to quash discrimination. Our tough and talented and politcally active youth members of "SoulForce", have been getting themselves arrested for protesting outside of recruiting stations that wont take their applications, after they proudly let them know that they happen to be gay. Don't let their actions be for no reason. It is time to let those brave GLBT men and women who want to serve their country, be allowed, no matter what the state of the country is in, war or not. Equality does not mean just in the best of situations, it's in the trying times of war as well.





And finally, while I am in a political mood this morning, Here is an expose on a Presidential Wannabee, Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachussetts, the only state where gay marriage is legal, so you think he would be a little more tolerant.....WRONG!! This is a great piece by author, activist Wayne Besen as reported for 365gay.com.....talk later.....enjoy........GG



"In my mind, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is the most unacceptable presidential candidate in the 2008 race. He is a fair-weather phony that will say or do anything to get elected. In short, he is a poster-boy for everything wrong with politics and represents the reason many people stay home instead of heading to the polls on Election Day.

On the surface, Romney appears to be a strong candidate. He is articulate, looks presidential and was elected governor of a liberal state. He turned state deficits into surpluses and helped pass an innovative healthcare plan in Massachusetts.

Even with his impressive resume and stature, Romney has an uphill battle for the Oval Office because he is a Mormon. Polls show that nearly 4 out of 10 Americans would not vote for a person of this religious persuasion. In order to offset this baggage, Romney’s strategy is to sandbag gay people.

The legalization of equal marriage rights in Massachusetts has offered Romney a perfect platform to pretend he is a right wing ideologue. Last year, he courted noted fundamentalist leaders and reportedly met with Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Romney also embarked on a self-serving, stomach-turning tour of southern states, where the sitting governor showed remarkable disloyalty by unabashedly bashing Massachusetts. To warm up conservative audiences, Mitt used one-liners such as, "Being a conservative Republican in Massachusetts," he told a GOP audience in South Carolina, "is a bit like being a cattle rancher at a vegetarian convention."

But Romney’s gesture made him look like a jester whose comedic talents as the Bay State buffoon were only surpassed months later by Sen. John Kerry’s crack about our troops in Iraq on the dawn of a midterm election.

Of course, if the Mormon issue does not sink Romney, the moron issue likely will. The undeniable fact is that Mitt is full of it. Like the quintessential snake oil salesman, he changes his sales pitch depending on what audience he is addressing. He seems tragically unaware that satellites and the Internet have been invented and what he says in Red States can be viewed instantaneously in Blue States.

For example, while speaking to the rabidly conservative crowd in South Carolina, Romney flat-out lied about his own stance on gay marriage - erroneously claiming that he has opposed civil unions "from day one". According to an article in the Boston Herald, Mitt had for months backed a constitutional amendment, which would ban same-sex marriage while allowing Vermont-like civil unions.

Such duplicity on gay rights has become a hallmark of Romney’s. In Bay Windows, New England’s largest gay publication, Susan Ryan-Vollmar highlighted Mitt’s metamorphosis. The protean pol pandered for gay votes until he thought it was more advantageous to pound gay voters in his bid for the presidency.

In 1994, when he was running against Ted Kennedy in his bid for U.S. Senate, Romney wrote a flowery letter to the Massachusetts Log Cabin Club saying "we seek to establish full equality for American gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent."

In his successful governors race in 2002, Romney and his running mate, Kerry Healey, distributed pink fliers at a Gay Pride parade, proclaiming, "Mitt and Kerry wish you a great Pride weekend."

You have to hand it to Romney for Chutzpah. He thinks he can sound like Harvey Milk for a decade and then pivot in an election year and milk votes from the Falwell crowd. Sadly, his political calculations may be correct. This is why it is up to the GLBT community to derail Romney’s campaign. However, we have to be smart about it. Paradoxically, the more the gay community denounces Romney, the more viable he looks to voters in South Carolina.

I have a solution. An enterprising activist should start a web campaign, www.RomneyLovesGays.com. The site should list his campaign appearances across the nation so local activists can mobilize and show up at his events. However, instead of calling him a hypocrite, we should call him a hero.

I can’t think of anything that would sabotage his campaign more than gay activists thanking him at campaign rallies for his efforts to outflank Ted Kennedy on gay rights. The signs held by activists at these events should read “Gays Love Mitt” or ‘Thanks for your Support” and contain large rainbows or pink triangles.

The more love we show for Romney, the more the right will love to hate him. Ironically, Romney can bring Falwell and gay people together with both sides saying “Amen” to the concept that character matters for a would-be president."