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***There Is No Spoon*** · 06-18-2011, 09:54 PM

The 2010 midterm elections were a disaster for Americans who are not extremely wealthy or do not own corporations, and some of the fault lies with Democrats who decided to sit out the elections because they were disappointed that Barack Obama had not waved a magic wand and granted every group their wishes. Now that is has been nearly 5 full months with Republicans in charge of the House and many state legislatures and governors mansions, it would seem that wayward voters may have seen the disaster they had a part in causing by refusing to vote. However, there are still those within the “professional left” who are provoking a tiny segment of the population to speak out against the Obama Administration because the president is governing from the center and not acquiescing to the demands of special interest groups. Instead of using common sense and understanding that the president is not a monarch or a dictator, these disaffected sycophants are lashing out at the president and actively campaigning against their only chance at achieving their goals and desires.

For the past several months, Fire Dog Lake’s leader, Jane Hamsher, has used the case of Bradley Manning to demean President Obama by accusing the president of torturing the soldier who admitted he stole state secrets and passed them off to be published in the Wikileaks case. Hamsher is at it again and this time has attached herself to Lt. Dan Choi, the gay soldier who was excused from the military for exposing himself as a gay American, and is making outrageous claims that could help Republicans win the White House and Senate in the 2012 general election. It is no secret that Hamsher, who claims to be a stalwart liberal advocate, openly opposes the president. This week, Lt. Choi said that President Obama is the “worst president in U.S. history” because he has not made a royal decree giving gays the right to marry.

There is no argument that gays deserve the right to marry the person they love, and that it is patently unfair under the Constitution’s guarantee of equal rights in the 14th Amendment that they are not allowed the same rights as heterosexual Americans. There have been great strides made in the two-and-a-half years since Barack Obama was inaugurated, and there are still many hurdles to clear, but change in America has always been painfully slow. It is especially difficult for new ideas and change when conservatives are attempting to go back in time to the 1950s and have convinced half of the population that progress is the work of Socialists who want to destroy America. Even with the opposition from the homophobes on the right, President Obama has worked to ensure the gay community is not discriminated against and although it isn’t perfect, much progress has been made.

President Obama supported ending the unfair DADT law that forced gays to hide their sexuality for fear of being kicked out of the military, and he directed the Justice Department to stop defending the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act that says marriage is defined as one man and one woman. Republicans have taken up the task of defending DOMA at the behest of the Religious Right and conservative Christians. So it is very strange that Lt. Choi, with urging and support from Jane Hamsher, calls President Obama the worst president in history when the alternative is a neo-conservative, homophobic slate of Republicans. Lt. Choi seems to have forgetten what Republicans have in store for the gay community if they control both houses of Congress and the White House.

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http://www.politicususa.com/en/obama-bas...elf-defeat

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I used to have sympathy for Dan Choi, he's turned out to be a massive ass hole.

**nofurylike** · 06-19-2011, 12:29 AM

very well said.
how ironic that in doing that, they guaranteed it would be even harder for President Obama to make progress. Banghead

aren't they just complete geniuses at self-fulfilling prophecy?

thank you for posting that, TINS!

**Eponine** · 06-19-2011, 08:05 AM

People who didn't vote last November or attempted to suppress the vote shot themselves in the foot. Set back progress in this country, and now they blame President Obama for it. Makes me see red.

**The Capitol Punisher** · 06-20-2011, 10:22 AM

These people withhold their votes under the mistaken assumption that Obama and Democrats will then be prompted to fulfill their wish list in every way imaginable in order to win their vote back. What they don't realize is that there are fewer on the fringe left of the party than there are votes to be won in the middle. If Democrats were to acquiesce to the fringe left, they'd lose the middle and the independent voters, which would put them even further out of office.

Basically, you can please most people some of the time, or you can please some people most of the time. But you can't do both, and only one will keep you in office. No one should ever question which is the smarter course of action.

**Number23** · 06-20-2011, 07:20 PM

This week, Lt. Choi said that President Obama is the “worst president in U.S. history” because he has not made a royal decree giving gays the right to marry.

I think this is in dispute. Exactly when did Dan Choi say this?

I think I owe PoliticalTiger an apology. He was concerned that Choi was more opportunist than advocate a long time ago while I was still under the impression that Choi was a righteous advocate. I think PT may have been right all along.

Folks have been calling Choi Cindy Sheehan 2.0. I don't think that's a good thing.

***There Is No Spoon*** · 06-20-2011, 07:39 PM

(06-20-2011 07:20 PM)Number23 Wrote: This week, Lt. Choi said that President Obama is the “worst president in U.S. history” because he has not made a royal decree giving gays the right to marry.

I think this is in dispute. Exactly when did Dan Choi say this?

I think I owe PoliticalTiger an apology. He was concerned that Choi was more opportunist than advocate a long time ago while I was still under the impression that Choi was a righteous advocate. I think PT may have been right all along.

Folks have been calling Choi Cindy Sheehan 2.0. I don't think that's a good thing.

Choi seems to have his detractors in the gay community. I have seen the O/P story reposted on several gay sites without dispute. Here is a comment from one person who read the O/P story:

Quote:http://www.topix.net/news/gay/2011/06/ob...tual-elite
...
This week, Lt. Choi said that President Obama is the “worst president in U.S. history” because he has not made a royal decree giving gays the right to marry. Editor's note: Dan Choi is really a train wreck.

JohnS

Dan Choi is a train wreck I agree. At first many of us sympathized with him and his causes.
He was featured on Rachell Maddow a number of times and few of us could disagree with him at that time.

But there is something wrong with this man, that is becoming evident now.

It almost seems he is working for the enemy,(Baggers)or is so addicted to the sudo celib. status he has acquired, to the point if it doesn't relinquish he needs to be denounced by the LGBT leaders of the community.

There is nothing that makes the bagger community chuckle and laugh at us more than to see one that is suppose to be a spokesman for the cause publicly denounce the only man in history in the position to help us. Talk about kicking a gift horse in the teeth.
...

Another news mention on 365gay.com:

Quote:Dan Choi likes the dramatic gestures a little bit too much. Occasionally Dan Choi [7] steps over the line. It's not often, but it happens enough to make me wonder if he lives for the operatic gesture. As reported by the Washington Blade, he was at the Netroots conference on a panel entitled “What to Do When the President is Just Not that Into You." Nick Tschida, a volunteer for the the Obama campaign, offered Choi a pamphlet on where the president stood on gay issues. After the volunteer said Obama wasn't for gay marriage, the West Point graduate ripped up the pamphlet and threw it in the guy's face. That's the kind of tactic I would expect from a college activist, not a guy who planned to make like as a military officer. There are multiple reason to be disappointed in President Obama. However, taking your frustrations out on a campaign worker is small and cheap. http://www.365gay.com/news/062011-monday-watercooler/

Choi has jumped the shark I think.

**PoliticalTiger** · 06-21-2011, 10:45 PM

(06-20-2011 07:20 PM)Number23 Wrote: This week, Lt. Choi said that President Obama is the “worst president in U.S. history” because he has not made a royal decree giving gays the right to marry.

I think this is in dispute. Exactly when did Dan Choi say this?

I think I owe PoliticalTiger an apology. He was concerned that Choi was more opportunist than advocate a long time ago while I was still under the impression that Choi was a righteous advocate. I think PT may have been right all along.

Folks have been calling Choi Cindy Sheehan 2.0. I don't think that's a good thing.

Well, no apology needed, but Dan Choi seems to be under the impression that he speaks for all gay people, like John Aravosis does. I know Aravosis is a phony, and Choi's recent actions seem to show him to be a phony too, only interested in self-serving outbursts designed to draw attention to him and not the cause.

I just heard Howard Dean say on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell that "the important thing is equal rights for everybody. The truth is that civil unions and marriage are the same except for one word." I've been saying that for ages. I wonder now if the "professional left" will turn on Howard Dean?

But people like Choi act as if allowing gay people to have civil unions without calling it "marriage" is somehow the same as "separate but equal." And there is a certain truth to that, but in my view it is a very minuscule one.

The reactionaries on the far-left act as if nothing but "marriage" is acceptable, ignoring the fact, as Dr Dean pointed out, that it's the equal rights that matter, not the word or words one uses to describe them.

And I hadn't heard about Choi being called Cindy Sheehan 2.0 but I think that is true, especially after seeing his childish outbursts! In fact, when I saw Choi tear up that paper and say he wouldn't vote for Obama again I thought of Cindy Sheehan, and I was thinking Dan Choi is the gay version of Cindy Sheehan, but I like "Cindy Sheehan 2.0" better!

**Number23** · 06-27-2011, 11:26 PM

(06-21-2011 10:45 PM)PoliticalTiger Wrote: But people like Choi act as if allowing gay people to have civil unions without calling it "marriage" is somehow the same as "separate but equal." And there is a certain truth to that, but in my view it is a very minuscule one.

The reactionaries on the far-left act as if nothing but "marriage" is acceptable, ignoring the fact, as Dr Dean pointed out, that it's the equal rights that matter, not the word or words one uses to describe them.

I would feel something very, very similar if I was gay or an advocate for this issue.

Somebody, somewhere posted a list of supposed 1200 benefits that heteros get through marriage that gay people don't get because they aren't allowed to marry. If I was gay and in love and wanting to marry, and I could get all 1200 of these alleged privileges, I don't think I'd be in any way stymied by the fact that my union would be called a "civil union" or anything else. There is absolutely no reason not to call same sex marriages "marriage" but if I was gay and they wanted to call it something else, I'd give less than a damn as long as I get all of the protections and benefits that come with marriage.

In the beginning, the only thing that would matter is that we are allowed to be together in the eyes of the law and land. As you get older and acquire assets/have children etc., the only things I would care about is that my wife/spouse/whatever and children/property/assets were protected. The use of the word "marriage" would truly be the last thing I'd care about.

**firedupdem** · 06-20-2011, 08:19 PM

These loud mouths are shooting themselves in the head! What do they think they are going to accomplish with the constant negativity? It's sickening that they are allowed to soak up the attention in the media to really try and sway the uninformed. What do they think will happen if republicans take control?

**PoliticalTiger** · 06-21-2011, 10:49 PM

(06-20-2011 08:19 PM)firedupdem Wrote: These loud mouths are shooting themselves in the head! What do they think they are going to accomplish with the constant negativity? It's sickening that they are allowed to soak up the attention in the media to really try and sway the uninformed. What do they think will happen if republicans take control?

That's what I don't get. They really think by bad mouthing this president and turning people against him is somehow going to help liberal causes? I do believe that's the problem, they simply don't think, at least not in a rational manner. They just react, like a 2 year old does when mommy says no candy before dinner.