Is "Obtusity" A Word?

IT IS!!!

I don't normally watch C-SPAN.... Today is such an important day though.. Unfortunately, I've come away even more frustrated with Republicans. The upside, I'm very impressed with the Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman. Of course, I only have about 6 minutes worth of speaking to base my opinion on, but this country would run so much more smoothly if all Senators could be so rational and plain spoken.

Today's mission in the Senate? Democrats want to move forward and start working on the Defense Authorization Act... Republicans want to stall this process until the schematics are worked out.

To be fair, yes, I'm a democrat. Does that mean I always vote party? No. I try my best to vote my conscience; be it Dem, Rep, or Independent... Whether it's with my party or against it. I vote for who or what I feel is right and I'm not so obtuse as to think that my party is always right... (Sorry Grandma, but yes, at times you are very obtuse.)

The Defense Authorization Act (DoD) is nothing new. They have passed one every year for the last 50-something years. This is basically the budget and plan that pays not just for our military supplies and operations around the world, but military family allowances, benefits, and programs. At this time, there are three Amendments that are being attached to this Act. 1) The repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," 2) The Dream Act, and 3) an Amendment that would allow military hospitals to provide abortion services.

The Republicans are trying to delay the working on this Act because they don't agree with the Amendments. My understanding, based on what was debated today, is that they will get their time to debate and vote on these Amendments once they agree to begin working on the DoD.

The biggest argument is in regards to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". Apparently, the Pentagon is working on a study as how to best implement the changes that Congress has yet to agree upon, but the Republicans in the Senate don't want to vote to even work on this bill until that study is back....... Perhaps I'm being obtuse, but .... how can a study properly be conducted when the parameters of change haven't even been laid???? The bottom line is that a federal court ruled that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is unconstitutional... Therefore, it HAS to change. This is not debatable... Hide behind the claim that you want to consult the men and women of our military to see how they feel about it... but what they feel, really, doesn't mean a fucking thing. Were they consulted before being sent to Iraq? Did anyone give a damn about how they felt when Bush BROKE THE LAW and DEFIED government leaders around the world? Why do you give a shit what they think now?? OHHHH cuz it serves your purpose! Duh, me!

Republicans are trying to say that this doesn't have a place in the DoD, but the fact of the matter is that this Act was initially adopted AS PART OF THE DoD during the Clinton administration. COULD THERE BE A MORE RIGHT PLACE TO REPEAL IT???

They don't think that the Dream Act should be attached to it. Ok, I'll give them that. I don't really think it should either. The Dream Act has to do with illegal immigrants. One of the most adamant speakers against this what Az Senator John McCain........ saying that irrelevant amendments shouldn't be tacked on to the DoD.
        "As Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich) noted right after he spoke on the floor, the Senate had previously considered hate crimes legislation in 2001, 2005, and 2008. McCain himself "offered a non-relevant amendment to the defense authorization bill," Levin added, proposing "to acquire campaign finance disclosure by the so-called 527 organizations as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization.""  -excerpt from The Huffington Post

...... something about persons in glass houses shouldn't cast stones..... I'm just sayin'.

The Republicans are muddying the waters on the abortion Amendment, big surprise. This Amendment would allow abortion services to be offered at military hospitals. The Republicans are trying to say that this would allocate government monies for abortion services when the Amendment clearly states that the patient would have to foot the bill.

If you want my opinion, I think that a birth control such as Depo should be required for all active women in the military and, if that proves ineffective, I think abortion should be required if one turns up pregnant. Though this opinion would probably be considered extremist by most people and highly unpopular, I think that to willfully sign up for your 4 years of military service and then get yourself knocked up is not only irresponsible, but I think the equivalent of going AWOL and, yeah, could be considered treasonous. There, I said it!

The bottom line though, is that today's vote doesn't allow for any of these Amendments, but allows the Senate to start putting together a Bill and initiates the process of debate and Amendment writing... But Republicans will try to filibuster and block work on this because, yes... they want to add their special irrelevant Amendments and are just pissed off that they didn't get the first shot at tacking their crap on to the DoD.

Those fuckers!.... Yeah, I'm pissed off!