Repealing DADT?

by: j cicirelli

Wed Jan 27, 2010 at 19:59:09 PM EST

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITI...

Of course, because discrimination has worked so well, Bohner and the Republicans are against changing the policy.

Bush's Final SOTU LiveBlog and Open Thread

by: Dean Barker

Mon Jan 28, 2008 at 21:08:59 PM EST

Check out this SOTU tag cloud that goes all the way back to George Washington.  For Bush II, the most frequented words are Iraq, terrorists, and Qaeda, while the better George was fond of Constitution, freedom, and liberties.

Also, looks like the opposition to telecom immunity has prevailed yet again.  And how could it not with words like these from Senator Chris Dodd?

It took three decades, three branches of government, four presidents, and 12 Congresses to patiently, painstakingly build up (the FISA) machinery. It only took one president to tear it down. Generations of leaders handed over to President Bush a system that brought security under the law, a system primed to bless nearly any eavesdropping he could conceive.

And he responded: "No thank you. I'd rather break the law."

He ignored not just a federal court, but a secret federal court; not just a secret federal court, but a secret federal court prepared to sign off on his actions ninety nine point nine percent of the time. And he still hasn't given us a good reason why. He still hasn't shown how his lawbreaking makes us safer.

This is a LiveBlog/Open Thread.

Sununu Speaks on the Eve of the State of the Union

by: Dean Barker

Mon Jan 28, 2008 at 20:09:49 PM EST

And from the United States' perspective, I believe that the new government and a stronger, credible government chosen by the Iraqi people will help accelerate the process of training Iraqi security forces in order to deal with the insurgents and also to enable U.S. forces to over a long period to withdraw.

WOODRUFF: Senator, the Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, is saying today that above all now there needs to be an exit strategy, among other things, he said, so we know when the job is done. Do you agree with him?

SUNUNU: Well, I don't agree with the premise that there isn't an exit strategy. There's been a process for withdrawing U.S. forces in place for well over a year now.

...WOODRUFF: And what -- how long do you think it is going to take for Iraqi forces to be able to stand up on their own without the support of American troops?

SUNUNU: I don't know. I was asked that question yesterday, and my honest perspective is I don't know precisely what the timetable will be.

I'm not an expert in determining what level of training, how many weeks it takes, it is a six-week course, an eight-week course, a four- week course. Do you train 5,000 at once, a thousand at once. That's what our armed forces are there to do. That's the job that they should be focused on.

That was three years and two thousand, five hundred and sixty-eight soldiers ago.