Congressional Mayhem

The Senate approved unanimously the International Protecting Girls by the Prevention of Child Marriage Act of 2010. In the Senate there were 42 co-sponsors and people like the YMCA actively lobbied for it. It is estimated that over 60 million young girls are forced into marriage every year in developing countries. The bill would have put the United States in the lead in fighting these marriages as a violation of human rights. There were 112 House co-sponsors. But it died in the House because Gentleman John Boehner and Ricky Cantor objected to the expenditure of funds for the bill--this a day after getting billions in tax-cuts for the rich--and because the Christian Right argued it might--might--lead to more abortions.

The President addressed the country through his weekly address that the Senate needs to ratify the New Start Treaty for the sake of the country's national security. Since every living Republican Secretary of State supports the treaty as well as two former Presidents, this would seem to be a no-brainer. As President Obama said, party differences stop at the water's edge. Oh no,they don't. Senator Corker of Tennessee, the man who was against the Auto industry bailout,went on the floor of the Senate to link the New Start Treaty to DADT. If the Democrats managed the vote to repeal DADT, then Republicans would kill the New Start Treaty. Who knows where this bluff will lead. But it's clear that Republicans, who once held the edge in national security matters, have now lost it in my mind for a long time to come.

If an undocumented immigrant or a foreigner volunteers to fight for our country, isn't it rather logical to allow that person--if they lived through a war--to apply for American citizenship? Or if a similar person is in college, wouldn't you want that person to remain in the United States and become a citizen? That's why the DREAM Act was thought up by a wide group of bipartisan sponsors. While it passed the House,the Latin community has spent the last two days lobbying the Senate intensely. Now this act is labelled as part of the "liberal" agenda, having once had as a cosponsor Orrin Hatch of all people. Harry Reid promised during his campaign he would bring the Dream Act up on the Lame Duck Session. He did.

This is an act, which over 70% of Americans support. The cloture vote for the Dream Act was 55 to 41. In other words, it did not reach 60 to be even voted on. In essence, the Dream Act died with every single Republican voting against it. Hopefully, the Latino community will remember those who opposed it.

The United States has spent $2 billion--that's right--to discharge 16,000 gay and lesbian servicemen and women. Not only is this a waste of money but it also doesn't include the additional waste of the millions spent training these service people. Forget the civil liberties argument on DADT. It's a big waste of money and it also perverts the Military Code of Honor--you have to tell the truth. This was Admiral Mullens biggest complaint about DADT--it forced service people to lie--which he thought incompatible with military service.

I've always been against DADT, even in the Clinton days. We're lucky to get as many people who volunteer to fight for our country as it is. But I never have really experienced the vitriol this issue conjures up. Last night the Washington Post printed a small piece about today's procedure and quoted advocates of repeal on their hopes for success. The posted comments were simply amazing by right-wing homophobes, who went into graphic descriptions of anal sex and the biblical admonishments against gay behavior. As in the same sex marriage debate, lesbians get a pass. The fixation on gay men was over the top and the webmaster for the Washington Post should have deleted these endless rants about the United States going the same way as Sodom. One earnest soldier posted a comment saying that he served with gays and found them focused on combat and that he was proud of them. This was countered by alleged Korean war vet saying his men won't serve with gays. Another commenter remarked that George Washington hired a gay general Von Steuben to train our revolutionary troops. The response to this was that Von Steuben was cashiered from the German Army for pedophilia. And off we went down the rabbit hole.

The Focus on Your Family, not Mine crowd--now known as the Family Research Group (or some other vanilla name) sent out a prayer request to their members to pray to defeat the repeal and also vowed to primary all Republicans who voted to repeal. And of course they named all Republicans who have been on the record to vote for repeal.

It seems they are going to do alot of campaigning. Hapless Harry went for the clouture vote this morning. Here again about 70% of Americans support repeal. The cloture vote passed by 63 to 33 so the standing alone repeal will have to be voted on. At last count I had 62 votes committed to repeal. Even before the vote, the Obama Administration informed Barney Frank they would not defend anymore the cases before the courts.

If it is repealed as it seems, we have to acknowledge the role played by Joe Lieberman, who actively rounded up the votes to repeal it, along with Susan Collins from Maine.

And special mention has to be made of the sad fate of John McCain. Now he's not only the first white man who ran and was beaten like a drum by a black man for President but he also lost on a gay rights issue this week. What a legacy!

In the How Do You Sleep At Night category (tip of the hat to John Lennon), the Republicans actually managed to block medical assistance to the 9/11 responders through filibuster. John Stewart's last show of the year is devoted to the 9/11 responders. Somehow this doesn't surprise me. The New GOP would like to have 9/11 as a holiday but not do anything responsible for those who ran through fire and flames to rescue people. It all makes sense really.

One horrible side note to this week in Congress is the passage in the Defense Bill of the prohibition of trying Gitmo prisoners in civil trials in the United States and closing down Gitmo. Even the Democrats couldn't muster up a reasonable explanation for this nuttiness.

As of now, I count 66 votes for the New Start Treaty. That's one short. We've been through all the ancillary reasons it needs to pass such as Iran, Afghanistan and other nuclear proliferation. Perhaps once the bluff is called, Republicans will buckle under.

And I am grateful that our media didn't forget Captain Beefheart. His death even made it in the Washington Post. Maybe I should spend the day listening to Trout Mask Replica.