PTSD and Acute anxietyWe keep pushing The Dallas Principles and helping America change — what the President referred to as “changing hearts,” and Rahm will develop an acute anxiety disorder which will relieve his PTSD symptoms. With the gAyTM shutting down for blanket contributions, and money only flowing to those actively progressive pro-equality candidates and elected officials, the Party will get the message.
Can we straighten the spines of our ostensible friends? I hope so, but, if not, we will replace them, sooner or later.

Consensus needed to close the “gAyTM”While the continued emphasis on closing the gAyTM is nice in princicple, it’s going to require a consensus of our own within the LGBT community.  That means publishing the names of any LGBTs that gave to Obama and the democrats or whether we only give to progressives actively working on our issues.
Honestly, I’m not sure we should give to Democrats at all, even the ones that are working on our issues because it might send a bigger message to the overall party.
More importantly pushing for continuing boycotts of Democratic events, even ones that seem like their scratching our backs, like the recent dinner at the White House.  There’s no point in saying we’re going to do something, if were hesitant to follow through on the actual and risky work involved.  

Abuse vs NeglectOne “parent” (Republican party) abuses us. The other (Democratic party) neglects us.
I want the Department of Community Fairness Services (DCFS) to advocate for us to be adopted.

How was the propaganda dinner?I hope that they at least had top shelf stuff to drink….

Roll Out the PollsAs this analysis is confirmed by the White House Chief of Staff…
Every advocacy organization should roll out polling on each issue (hate crimes, ENDA, DADT, DOMA) by legislative district (House, Senate, population at large) to prove to any wavering vote that it’s OK to sign on to the bill and bring it up for a vote.
Good polling in Nevada?  Publish it and flood Sen. Reid’s airwaves with it.
Wavering DADT votes in House or Senate committees?  Issue polls for those districts to prove the legislator will not pay a price for voting away this relic.  If the member doesn’t change their mind, go public with the poll in their district.
Advocacy groups, research groups, foundation funders — get to it.  

DNC ProtestI drove from Jacksonville, FL to Washington DC for the DNC Fundraiser protest and there were only about 50 folks there. We can not influence action with such small numbers. Most people I spoke with while in DC did not even know a protest was scheduled. We have to get the word out more and be more organized before we hope to create any change.

I’m not criticising DanaI doubt that anyone really believed that the President would ultimately be quite so crass in orchestrating a pure media event to shut us up.

Prosecuting torturers gives Obama the vapours too.And getting out of Afghanistan. And ending secrecy and wiretapping.

Pulling troops willy-nilly out of the cities was a disasterand a PR stunt.
The FOB’s did not have the capacity to hold the displaced soldiers, or the water to sustain them. Showers are only once a week
Many men are now camping out in the desert.
Oh, and hat’s off to the Corps of Engineers soldiers unofficial efforts to improve morale along the Iraq-Iran border for these poor exiles….they sent up a broadcast using I-podded music, all 80′s, called “tony..tony…tony…TONY and The Doc” on “W-IRAQ”
done daily by an engineer and a medic.

“Extending Civil Rights”? One quibble, Pam – this is not about “extending civil rights to taxpaying LGBTs,” this is about recognizing the inherent equality of LGBT people and recognizing the rights we already have, but are unfairly denied us by legislative fiat.
It’s a distinction that the President clearly does not get at this point, as he continues talking legislation instead of social change. The biggest help Obama could be, other than instructing the DOJ not to argue against our equality in briefs, is in challenging the anti-gay rhetoric of our opponents, particularly when it comes from the Bishop Jacksons of the world (the MD minister who is leading the charge against recognition of out-of-state gay marriages here in DC). Obama does not even need to change his opinion on civil unions vs. marriage to argue that the invective used by the anti-gay side is both unproductive and insulting, not to mention false. It is through his own words and actions, more than even through signing legislation, that he could do the most to bring about the full equality of LGBT people.
If I were advising him, I’d urge him to take Michelle on another date night, but this time to Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse – one of the oldest and most well-loved restaurants in the gay ghetto of DC’s 17th St.  

Ah, won’t be hearing from Miss Bishop Jacksonanymore though. That whole case with the referendum was thrown out of an appeals court.

Thanks for picking up the Post Article
Thnaks for posting that Pam.  I posted it over at my blog at http://www.back2stonewall.com and then posted over at AmericaBlog so more people would see it.  (I’m just a little guy not like you heavy hitters but I try)
Anyway I think its very telling about whats happening and relates to the lip service we’ve been getting.  
This is something we really need to fight against and get pushed to the front of the line.  Because if there isn;lt a second term we get nothing.

Will the real Huey Long please stand up?please stand up?
While Obama is acting like Clinton, he’s really in a situation very similar to FDR. A Huey Long, for all his faults, is needed.

After Roosevelt’s election, Long soon broke with the new President. Aware that Roosevelt had no intention to radically redistribute the country’s wealth, Long became one of the few national politicians to oppose Roosevelt’s New Deal policies from the left. He considered them inadequate in the face of the escalating economic crisis. Long sometimes supported Roosevelt’s programs in the Senate, saying that “[W]henever this administration has gone to the left I have voted with it, and whenever it has gone to the right I have voted against it.”[10] He opposed the National Recovery Act, calling it a sellout to big business. In 1933, he was a leader of a three-week Senate filibuster against the Glass-Steagall Banking Act.

At least a Huey Long type would help matters just to keep Obama honest.

Attack poodle

“They know the consequences of ’94. It looms,” White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said of the legislative debacles in President Bill Clinton’s early tenure that produced the 1994 Republican landslide. “That division led to failure. . . . Our chances for success only come about by unity. That, as a culture up there, has been enforced by enough people that enough members believe.”

Sheesh, and this is the feared and fearsome Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s take-no-prisoners attack dog, known for his foulmouthed, kamikaze, “he sends one of your guys to the hospital, you send one of his guys to the morgue! That’s the Chicago way!” fighting force?  Clutching his pearls, diving under the bed, and living in fear of the Republican response (in 2009, with this set of Republicans?!) to even the most basic pro-GLBT action?
I never thought I’d say this, but for god’s sake, Rahm, man up already.

ExactlyThe republicans are nowhere near the threat now that they were from 1992-94.

So what we should do is wait to lose?So the democowards want us to wait for what they already recognize as our civil rights until the can, with their usual ineptness, lose more seats in 2010 and 2012?
They must be sniffing the glue of their own agendas if they believe that they have been winning seats and political position based on their solid legislative work and moderate sensibilities. Face it, any gains the democowards have made in the last few election cycles have been based on the abject rejection of the uber-rhetorical republicrats and their ignorant support of stupid. Either way the chances that we will find ourselves in a better political position by allowing either party to lead us is why we are in the position of fighting against DADT and DOMA today. With our entire government sitting on the sidelines and attempting to remind us that we are a nations of laws.    

Creating a riftWe need to poke holes in the Democratic Party unity they seek in order for our rights to be addressed.  Which is why anyone who enables the Democratic Party should be held accountable to we, the LGBT people of the United States.

that makes no sense…A fractured democratic coalition is one that will be even less likely to address LGBT issues. Indeed part of the problem now is not that the Democrats lack power its that they lack unity on major issues. If any LGBT legislation came up for a vote tomorrow, it would die not at the hands of the GOP but because some Democrats would join them in opposition to pro-LGBT policies. Democrats out in the center of the country or up in the rust belt won’t lose anything by being anti-gay.

But “the democratic coalition” as it is currently constituted is not helping matters much, either.

That’s not consensus.Consensus is a process that’s characterized by thoughtful and patient airing of opposing views until agreement is reached.
What you’re describing is bullying.

We may need toToo many of us curry favour with our oppressors, begging for crumbs from the hands attatched to the jackboots affixed to our collective throats.

The Carpetbagger Bishop must be furiousHe might as well give up his efficiency apartment in DC.

You say thatbecause the ONLY thing that matters to you is how much you’re paying for your health insurance. That’s your single issue, and everything revolves around that.
Screw everyone else, screw the people who are losing their homes when their spouse dies, screw the people who are paying ridiculous taxes on inheritance even if they do inherit, screw the people who lose social security benefits they should be eligible for, and retirement accounts, and their health benefits, and everything else. All that matters is you’re paying too much for your health coverage.
You don’t care if the rest of us rot, as long as you get a break on your insurance policy. And you wonder why we’re not rallying around your flag.

That’s an ad hominemand PHB is not the place for that sort of thing.

That’s only ad hominemif it’s untrue. Go back and read his earlier posts, when this swell of anger with the current administration started. He’s singing a different tune now, but earlier he flat out said his only concern was how much he (not his employer) had to pay for health insurance, and he didn’t want any LGBT issues to derail health care reform because he wanted his premiums to go down. His words, not mine.

Actually…I NEVER said that…not even once. You know how I know I never said that…because what you just wrote is not true. I don’t know where you got the idea that I was concerned about my insurance premiums but that is not an issue for me (I have employer covered insurance). I have said that I don’t want anything to derail health care reform. I have said that I’m concerned with people that don’t have insurance or have substandard coverage. I’ve been insistent that there are bigger issues that need addressing now.