When was it that you think this nation turned to this “ends/means” philosophy?

I believe Manifest Destiny was an answer to that question.

Hillary had to endure being “Deathwatched” on Slate for months with no (zero) public outcry. Our Deathwatch was a media Deathwatch, that called for the ouster of the likes of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann for being allowed to pollute the airwaves with sexist smears. (Hence they lost the anchor chairs at MSNBC during the election, perhaps partially b/c of all of our calls against their misogyny! We also called for Mr. Geitner to not be confirmed. But objecting to someone’s position is a form of democracy and…far far different than targeting them for personal harm. We chose the to Deathwatch them to make the point to media that if it is OK to Deathwatch Hillary, then you had better be ready to wear that same moniker, as it were.
My ferverent hope is that the next serious-contender female presidential candidate will not be “treated” to a Deathwatch by the media, but until things change, those who purvey sexism to limit women’s progress with be subject to our calls for the end of their employment in positions that allow them to continue to disseminate hatred against women.

What’s tough is that I have to remind myself to honor the gay or black person I’m dealing with in a specific situation and set aside their group’s politics

Isn’t this racist and homophobic?

Own what you write.

Tell me where someone has advocated violence?

Show me examples of gays being violent?

Boycott and protest as intimidation is not violence.

You do not have a clear position on this.

I do not LIKE DADT, but I am saying it is better than what was happening before. YES, bad things have happened since it went into law, but BEFORE DADT, the simple HINT that someone was gay was enough to separate them. And there was a tremendous amt of violence against homosexual service members before DADT (remember the “blanket parties”?).

DADT needs to be abolished, period (not gonna happen anytime soon, though, unfortunately). But it DID make it better in terms of cutting down on the “witch” hunts. IMHO, that is.

Fascism is control of the feisty part of the population while their nation is taken through the final stages of its destruction.

If people, especially leaders at various levels and in various domains, don’t gain perspective on individual issues vs. strategic operations, “ugly” will be an understatement for what will prevail for at least some generations in the future.

Being propelled along the current, not seeing enemies of our nation and its Constitution and what it stands for, who are well-practiced experts in running such operations, is naiveté.

Eschew chaos.

With you and Obama it is ALWAYS personal. You never miss a chance to hurl mud at the man. Calling his supporters thugs, hurling unsubstantiated rumors, and otherwise broadcasting every bit of paranoia, left or right wing that you can find.

A women of your certain age would know that the real Black Panthers died an ugly death in the late 70′s. You would also know that the Panthers were mainly a NorCal phenomena. The “Panthers” that Obamaphobes bandy about are not in any shape or form the same people who raised Cain and raised consciousness in Oakland CA in the late 60′s and early 70′s. Your “Panthers” were young, foolish hooligans who rummaged through dad’s (or maybe granddad’s) trunk and found his old leather jacket and beret. They were posers who only knew that the Panthers were the original bad-asses and wanted to be seen as bad-asses too. They were an offshoot of a fringe group with only the most tenuous connection to a organizing committee that had a marginal connection to a get-out-the-vote campaign by supporters of Obama.

It sickens me that you would drag this rancid. and yes racist, trope of Panther thugs around. You of all people should know better.

Zeroing in on the rest of missive. First please note that the pro 8 forces have also used the very same contributions data to strong-arm businesses to shell out to their cause. Your analysis is far too one sided here.

Plus I must really ask what kind of ministry did you actually run while you were active? Must not have been one that had much contact with real people with real raw emotions. Come on R3A, the LGBT community got hit in the gut by prop 8; just like they got hit in the gut by the assassination of Harvey Milk. Damn strait they were a little raw after the vote and did some foolish things. People do have a limit you know. How long would you allow a group of Bible-Beaters to harangue one of your congregations inside the sanctuary before you called the cops? Even U-U’s have their limits.

Damn straight the LGBT community got into the grill of the manager of Coyote. That restaurant was smack dab in the middle of the beating heart of the local gay community. It would be like a rib-joint in Watts giving money to the KKK. It called “a bad business decision.” If you have problems with gays having equal citizenship rights then maybe, just maybe you should not be doing business with them. And the community has every right to picket your business and boycott your business and exercise their free speech prerogatives in a very rude manner.

R3A real politics is not a U-U congregational board meeting. Real politics has damn little to do with Roberts Rules of order. Real people get real angry and do stupid things. The first amendment type in me tut-tuts the LGBTs who may have rough-housed the Bible Beaters who tried to “lead them back to righteousness” The realist asked “what the hell did those evangelistic morons expect, hugs and kisses?” Those Jesus freaks ignorantly and willfully blundered into a buzz-saw. This not a justification this is just the reality of the situation. This is why every major city has riot police on the payroll.

As for Mr Sullivan he is an interesting conundrum a gay, married, conservative, Catholic, Republican. It is a wonder the man does not collapse into a singularity of contradiction. His party and his church are deeply offended by his sexuality and his he has burned all sorts of bridges with his pro-Bush, Pro-Iraq ruminations that were quickly flipped into Anti-Bush, Anti-Iraq and pro-Gay marriage missives. He is one of those unguided missiles of political/ideological purity that land in some of the most bizarre territory. He is one of those happy fools that rush in were angles dare not tread. Still I must steal a line from Douglas Addams and rate Mr. Sullivan as “Mostly Harmless.”

Going forward it is critical to get over the anger and focus on out-reach. The message to LGBTs must be “come out, come out, where ever you are.” Only when straights are confronted by flesh and blood LGBTs will they reconsider there biases. That is the carrot. But if you ever were a real rebel rouser you damn well know that you never get ahead by just asking. You have to do a Mandela and “keep the pressure on.” You have to get into bigots grills and let them know that their are consequences for denying people their basic rights. You have to let businesses know that there are consequences to betraying their client base. You have to be a Dixie Chick and not be ready to make nice. Real progress sometimes demands that you be willing to throw some very sharp elbows.

It would be lovely if the political field were run like a U-U General Assembly; lovely and a tad boring. But the Mormons and the evangelicals are not interested in an exchange of ideas Amy. They are only interested in imposing there narrow theology on the rest of us slackers. They are the termites gnawing away at the wall that separates church from state and like the title page of this blog there is No Quarter with them.

DADT was actually worse for LGBT servicemembers. The number of discharges/separations went up for LGBTs and the harassment only got worse. Or have you forgotten about the death of the Gay Sailor on the USS Belleau Wood (LHA-3)? Let me refresh your memory; he was beaten to death by his fellow sailors at a public bathroom in Sasabo Japan. I remember, I know the park, I know the ship, I remember the black eye the US Navy got in Japan due to this affair. I also remember that the sailors who perpetrated the crime were let off with very light sentences. (Granted seven years in a Military Brig are not fun times but still not adequate punishment for the crime.)

More recently the Army separated critical Arab language specialists because of their sexual proclivities.

DADT has been a failure from the beginning. It did not help that the military held Clinton in open contempt for his former Draft-evading ways. They were aided and abetted by such stalwarts like Sam Nunn and others to continue their homophobic witch hunt. DADT was supposed to be Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue. The military did all three from day one. Bill Clinton was unable for political reasons to reign in the Brass Hats. Clinton’s heart may have been in the right place but the end results were spectacularly awful.