I’m not the only one who says G.I.’s Ladner cherry-picks data
Republican insurrectionists take Congress hostage over tax cuts for the two percenters
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Neoconfederate conservatives in the Republican Party are taking their celebration of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War (sans slavery) Secession Defended on Civil War Anniversary way too far — Republican insurrectionists have just taken Congress hostage.
A day after their "bipartisan" media event with President Obama and just hours after Democrats and Republicans had agreed to bargain on tax cuts, Republicans today took Congress hostage over their demand that the "two percenters" receive a permanent extension of their tax cuts.
"Class war" is no longer a literary device, it is a reality. America's wealthy elite and their Republican servants in Congress have just declared war against the other 98% of American citizens. This is an insurrection and should be treated as such. Republicans Threaten To Block All Dem Initiatives | TPMDC:
According to a letter delivered to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this morning, Republicans will block all debate on all legislation until the tax cut impasse is bridged and the federal government has been fully funded — even if it means days tick by and the Senate misses its opportunity to pass DADT, an extension of unemployment insurance and other Dem items.
"[W]e write to inform you that we will not agree to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to any legislative item until the Senate has acted to fund the government and we have prevented the tax increase that is currently awaiting all American taxpayers," the letter reads. "With little time left in this Congressional session, legislative scheduling should be focused on these critical priorities. While there are other items that might ultimately be worthy of the Senate's attention, we cannot agree to prioritize any matters above the critical issues of funding the government and preventing a job-killing tax hike."
It was penned by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and signed by all 42 Republicans.
According to the AP, which first broke the news of the letter, and portrayed it as a GOP effort to block all Dem initiatives unilaterally, the START treaty would be exempted. But everything else — particularly DADT, unemployment insurance and the DREAM Act would be ensnared.
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As recently as yesterday, Republicans were on the fence about a number of issues: DADT was a big wait and see; and an unemployment extension would have to be paid for. But it now appears all of those items will have to wait until Democrats and Republicans finish all their work on tax cuts and appropriations — work which thusfar been slow-going.
You can read the entire letter here. (copy below the fold. H/t talkingpointsmemo.com)
UPDATE: Here's Sen. Jon Kyl's "principled" stand on the New Start treaty: Sen. Kyl (R-AZ) tells Dems and the White House, give in on taxes or forget about the START Treaty.
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The ball is in your court, John
Only a minority of Tea-Publicans, and John McCain, stand in the way of DADT repeal
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Pew Research has a new poll out showing that the nation has shifted on Don't Ask Don't Tell, since the 1990s. Fighting The “Gay Agenda,” Not So Much Of A Political Winner Anymore:
Only 27 percent of Americans oppose gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, down from 45 percent in 1994. Fifty-eight percent of Americans support ending DADT. Even among Republicans, there is a narrow split: 44 percent oppose gays serving, while 40 percent favor. One in three white evangelicals support allowing gays to serve, and among those who attend religious services weekly, the divide is 40/40. In short, opposing the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell is not a political winner for most politicians.
Greg Sargent at the Washington Post's Plum Line blog has more on the Pew poll. Dear moderate GOP Senators: Moderate GOP voters want DADT repealed:
[T]he fate of Don't Ask Don't Tell rests in the hands of a few moderate Republican Senators. With Senator John McCain continuing to threaten a filibuster of DADT repeal, only support from a handful of moderates, such as Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Dick Lugar and possibly John Ensign, will be enough to make repeal a reality.
Maybe someone should tell these moderate GOP officials that according to the internals of the new Pew poll, moderate Republican rank-and-filers strongly favor DADT's repeal. Indeed, the only group that opposes repeal are conservative Republicans.
The Pew poll finds that Republicans overall are closely divided on DADT repeal, 40-44. But the breakdown of Republicans is striking. It finds that "moderate" and "liberal" Republicans strongly favor repeal, 62-26. The only reason Republicans are closely divided at all is because conservative Republicans oppose it, 28-52.
This becomes even more pronounced when you factor in Republicans and Republican "leaners." It turns out that this group favors repeal of DADT, 44-39. And the only subset of this group who oppose repeal are those who support the Tea Party: They are against repeal 38-48.
By the way, independents overall also strongly favor repeal, 62-23.
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Self-described moderate GOP Senators have a choice: They can support repeal, siding with large majorities of moderate Republican voters, independents, and the American people overall, not to mention the nation's military leadership. Or they can oppose repeal, siding with Mitch McConnell, who wants to deny the Dems a victory at all costs, John McCain, who has put his quest to refight the 2008 election over his own previous vow to go along with the military leadership on this question, and a small but very vocal and reactionary Tea Party minority.
The Pentagon moved up the release of its DADT Study to Tuesday. "The Pentagon has concluded that allowing gay men and women to serve openly in the United States armed forces presents a low risk to the military’s effectiveness, even at a time of war, and that 70 percent of service members believe that the impact of repealing the 'don’t ask, don’t tell' law would be either positive, mixed or of no consequence at all." Pentagon Sees Little Impact if Ban on Gays Is Repealed:
In an exhaustive nine-month study on the effects of repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” 
Defense Department Report (pdf), the 17-year-old policy that requires service members to keep their sexual orientation secret or face discharge, the authors concluded that while in the short run a repeal would likely bring about “some limited and isolated disruption to unit cohesion and retention,” it could be mitigated by effective leadership.
The report, by Jeh C. Johnson, the Pentagon’s chief counsel, and Gen. Carter F. Ham, the commander of the United States Army in Europe, also found that much of the concern in the armed forces about openly gay service members was driven by misperceptions and stereotypes. Leaving aside those with moral and religious objections to homosexuality, the authors said that the concerns were “exaggerated and not consistent with the reported experiences of many service members.”
At a news conference on Tuesday announcing the release of the report, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said that repeal “would not be the wrenching, traumatic change that many have feared and predicted.”
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In a survey of 115,000 service members, the report found distinct differences among the service branches. While 30 percent predicted repeal would have some negative effects, some 40 to 60 percent of the Marine Corps and those in some combat specialties said it would be negative.
The report also found that a majority — 69 percent — believed they had already worked with a gay man or woman, and of those the vast majority — 92 percent — reported that the unit’s ability to work together was very good, good or “neither good nor poor.”
In the most strongly worded section of the report, the authors concluded that while their mandate was to assess the impact of repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — and not whether it should be repealed — they had done just that.
“We are both convinced that our military can do this, even during this time of war,” Mr. Johnson and General Ham wrote. “We do not underestimate the challenges in implementing a change in the law, but neither should we underestimate the ability of our extraordinarily dedicated service men and women to adapt to such change and continue to provide our nation with the military capability to accomplish any mission.”
As Greg Sargent notes at the Washington Posts' Plum Line, "Bottom line: The military has spoken. And the pretexts for opposing repeal are running out." Pentagon report will leave opponents of DADT repeal little to work with.
Mr. Gates said it was a “matter of urgency” that the lame-duck Senate vote in the next weeks to repeal the law. If not, he said there would be a fight in the courts and the possibility that the repeal would be “imposed immediately by judicial fiat.”
