DADT Failure

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DADT: US Congress’ Woes

The Advocate reports:

White House Says DADT Is Not Dead

White House officials pushed back Monday on the notion that “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal is dead for the year.
“The White House remains fully committed to passage of the NDAA, including the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, during the lame duck,” said White House spokesperson Shin Inouye. “This is a priority for the President, and are we confident that the Congress will be able to address this issue this year.”

Reid Stalls DADT Vote After Collins Talks

On Wednesday evening, Senate majority leader Harry Reid postponed a full vote in the Senate on the bill that includes language to repeal the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian troops. The roll call vote is now scheduled to take place around 12:00 p.m. Thursday, shortly after votes on the DREAM Act and the 9/11 firefighters health and compensation bill.

The postponement came after an afternoon of negotiations where independent Sen. Joe Lieberman served as a de facto intermediary between Sen. Reid and Republican senator Susan Collins, who supports the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” but wants a “fair and open” process for the Defense Authorization spending bill, which contains the DADT repeal provision. 

Dan Savage reports:

Fuck Susan Collins

Seriously.

No DADT Vote Tonight/Fuck Susan Collins, Part 2

Things are looking grim.

Joe.My.God. reports:

 

DADT Vote Scheduled For Today?

AmericaBlog reports that the cloture vote on the Defense Authorization Act is now scheduled for noon today. As we know, that could change. [Obviously, it did.] Right now the Senate is voting on the DREAM Act, which passed in the House yesterday. Watch live on C-SPAN.

UPDATE: The Senate has voted to table the DREAM Act until next week by a vote of 59-40.

UPDATE II: I’ve been bumping this post back to the top of the blog as we keep getting hints that the vote is imminent. Or that it won’t happen at all.

Towleroad reports:

Activists Deliver 528,000 DADT Petitions To DC Office Of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

Moments ago, Organizing for America delivered more than a half million petitions urging repeal of ‘DADT’ to Senator Susan Collins of Maine, whose demands regarding debate and amendments on the Defense bill have thus far been the sticking point to a vote moving forward.
Greg Sargent at the Plum Line says Harry Reid has not yet responded to Susan Collins’ offer of a15 amendments. The implications of this are not immediately clear, but certainly not positive, writes Sargent:
Guess what: Reid has yet to respond to her offer, according to a spokesperson for Collins. “As of this morning, Senator Collins has not received a response from the Majority Leader,” the spokesman, Kevin Kelley, tells me.
This is potentially bad news. Word is that the Senate may vote today on the defense authorization bill containing DADT repeal. It seems likely that if Collins’ every demand isn’t met, she’s prepared to stop the defense authorization bill from proceeding, and other moderate Republicans who generally support repeal may also vote No.
***
The Senate being the hall of mirrors that it is, we can’t be too sure what these latest developments mean. Perhaps Reid has simply decided to call Collins’s bluff by holding the vote now without responding to her latest offer, in the belief that she’s not negotiating in good faith and needs to be forced to vote and show her cards. But if Reid doesn’t meet Collins’s demands, it seems likely that repeal will fail.
Of course, in the Senate, things can always rapidly change, so all this could be moot within the next hour. More when I learn it.
The Human Rights Campaign is warning not to rush the vote:
Fred Sainz, a spokesman for Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement, “If senators move forward with a vote on NDAA before a deal has been solidified, the vote will fail and all key players will share the responsibility.”
To follow news on ‘DADT’, check out our HUB. And “LIKE” it to follow updates on Facebook.

Visa & Master Card DOWN: WikiLeaks Supporters Take Down Site As ‘Payback’

The Huffington Post reports:

Just hours after MasterCard’s website was disabled by WikiLeaks supporters, Visa.com is now down as well.
Via its Twitter account (@Anon_Operation), Anonymous, an activist hacker group, claimed responsibility for the denial of service attack—part of “Operation Payback”—that brought down Visa.com.
“TARGET: WWW.VISA.COM :: FIRE FIRE FIRE!!! WEAPONS http://bit.ly/e6iR3X ::: SET YOUR LOIC TO irc.anonops.net ::: #DDOS #PAYBACK #WIKILEAKS,” Anonymous tweeted. Shortly after it posted a tweet thatWWW.VISA.COM :: FIRE FIRE FIRE!!! WEAPONS http://bit.ly/e6iR3X ::: SET YOUR LOIC TO irc.anonops.net ::: #DDOS #PAYBACK #WIKILEAKS,” Anonymous tweeted. Shortly after it posted a tweet that read, ” IT’S DOWN! KEEP FIRING!!! #DDOS #PAYBACK #WIKILEAKS.”
Anonymous explains that Operation Payback is “an ongoing campaign by Anonymous against major anti-piracy & anti-freedom entities.”
MasterCard and Visa are among many sites that have been targeted—and taken down—by “hacktivists.” Websites belonging to Swiss bank PostFinance, Senator Joe Lieberman, PayPal, and Sarah Palin have also been disabled.
Like MasterCard, Visa also announced that it would suspend payments to WikiLeaks, a move that has rankled WikiLeaks supporters.

What’s funny about this is that the hackers took the time to shut down Sarah Palin’s website.

AS THE WORLD BURNS: How The White House

Missed Its Best Chance To Deal

With Climate Change