Do Obama’s Private Promises on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Matter?
By Steve Clemons on May 9, 2009 at 6:00 PM in GLBT, Gay Rights
Second Lietenant Sandy Tsao is being discharged from the military for informing her chain of command that she is gay. She wrote in a letter to President Obama that she could not live according to one of the “seven army values” of personal integrity and not be truthful about the issue — even though a legal provision of the military, passed by Congress, and signed by President Clinton promotes and protects a safer choice for gay military staff: duplicity.
Remarkably, Sandy Tsao received the letter from Obama above.
Handwritten, Barack Obama’s letter reads:
Sandy – Thanks for the wonderful and thoughtful letter. It is because of outstanding Americans like you that I committed to changing our current policy. Although it will take some time to complete (partly because it needs Congressional action) I intend to fulfill my commitment. — Barack Obama
Obama’s administration has been silent on the expansion of same sex marriage — and his White House team has in an Orwellian, image-shifting way softened the language on the president’s website about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. The Rick Warren inaugural invocation still rankles.
But we have the private letter to Sandy Tsao — who despite Barack Obama’s own views is about to lose her job. Dan Choi is too.
I hope that David Geffen gets on the phone to the President and to Rahm Emanuel and tells them that this is not an issue that they can leave way back in the White House closet.
– Steve Clemons
(Release: November 13)
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Obama’s promises, like the old saying about verbal contracts, are not worth the paper that they are written on.
There is no excuse for losing 2 good soldiers. An executive order, working with a Democratically controlled congress, can easily save these folks their jobs. It could be simply put by our illustrious leader, “We have 2 wars going on and we need all the help we can get.” America will buy it lock stock and barrel, and the neanderthals who still don’t accept the reality of LGBT folks in the military should step back and realize our soldiers have been working along side gays and lesbians for years. Some hidden in the US corp, but others out on the UK side while supporting our efforts in Iraq.
This guy has a perfect opportunity to use these 2 soldiers to make good on his campaign promise. But that would take cajones, an ability to actually stand for something substantial. Not easy for 0.
Imagine the uproar if lesbians and gays didn’t want to serve in the miltary… the US would probably institute a draft just for lesbians and gays.
And, how sweet of him to take the time to hand write a personal note. That should help keep a roof over the gals head once she is discharged.
She should auction off that letter on eBay and make some money.
You know, he got high fives and lots of praise after agreeing with the military plan to take out the 3 pirates. Just the image they wanted for him. Tough guy, decisive, take no quarter.
Where is the same spine now that the jobs, careers and in some sense, the lives of those particular servicemembers are on the line. Like Meileen said, he could take care of the matter in short order. But he doesn’t have a spine of steel because that kind of action would cause some flack. Barack don’t like flack.
Rather than ‘no drama obama’, it should be ‘no flack barack.’
Oh, how naive can Steve Clemons be!
I believe Hillary would have acted on her pledge to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” before now, and with conviction. 0 won’t.
I think the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy is stupid. But why is it even relevant to tell anyone what you’re sexual preference is at your job?
CORRECT….
Well, to be fair, it involves a lot more than simply saying your sexual preference directly. You spend 40 hours a week with your co-workers, and if you’re military overseas, you spend 24 hrs. a day with them. A straight person routinely says, “my girlfriend sent me a card”, or, “My boyfriend and I went to see a good movie”. In order to “not tell”, a gay person has to hide a lot of their life, edit a lot of their everyday language, that straight people don’t.
Imagine having to go through every day making absolutely sure you don’t mention the most important person in your life, your social activities, etc. People at work routinely share their social life as part of casual conversation – the gay person in the military has to always be alert to hide things, while at the same time not appear to be rude, or anti-social. It’s a big job “not to tell” – it’s not as simple as just not declaring one’s sexuality.
Heh heh, well Geffen and the other LGBT ingrates and traitors thought the Clintons did’nt do enough for them (as if this were the only or most pressing issue facing the country) and 0fraudo would be the community’s knight in shining armor. Riiight. They should have compared notes on Hillary’s continued commitment to the LGBT and 0fraudo’s. Like everything else in their respective records Hillary has ALWAYS been a public servant. 0zero has always been about serving his own interests.
You betcha, Catherine. I have a post coming up tomorrow that mentions that very thing…
Okay, I don’t want to restart the O handwriting analysis marathon, because I think we did pretty well with that last time–But does anyone else think it’s odd that he does not begin the letter below the “White House” letterhead? Wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t I? You bet. “Sandy–” is actually written at a slightly higher level than the letterhead itself. What does it mean? I have no idea. Does he always do this? Is this the way the letter really is?
I’ll bet I’m being stupid again, but do you suppose the letter was written by a handwriting machine? It looks very symmetrical, and the lines are so straight. I’m sorry for being so clueless, but I’m just a citizen and I don’t know how things are done among the Great and Powerful. And really, the message is so generic that it could cover a great many queries written to The White House–just change the first name. Could a clerk with a writing machine handle this job?
Well gosh, here I am talking to myself again. Does the White House have a machine capable of “handwriting” a letter such as the above? Does such a machine even exist?
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7327884/description.html
Who would have such a machine? Well, probably someone who was really busy and didn’t have enough time to personally answer the bizillions of letters sent to him, but wanted some folks to feel they were getting personal attention. Someone with the bucks to afford cutting-edge technology. Someone really important, like, say . . .
Interesting points. I also thought it was weird that his signature is so much bigger than the rest of the writing. When I write a letter, I start it below the letterhead & my signature does not dominate the page. What an egomaniac he must be.
Yes, an egomaniac, no doubt. His signature is so big and overwheming, that it actually obscures the word “commitment” just above it, somehow white-outing the lower portion of it.
Skeptics might say that this calls the veracity of the document into question, but not you, darlin, you will eat what you are told to eat; good girl.
Clearly, it’s going to take someone with actual spine to bring this issue and a lot of others into the 21st century. I don’t see any evidence that Barack Obama is willing to put himself or his administration on a limb for the gay community or anything/anyone else, for that matter.
You get what you pay for. Welcome to the cheap seats!
How did that letter become public?
I have been told that sex on Navy ships is rampant and without discretion
Sure, but it’s like everything else with Obama, he says anything for the moment and blames others for any perceived negative action and still does what he has wanted..
Obama talks out of every orifice he has. He already backtracked from his campaign promise and gave two different stances since then. First he backtracked from his campaign promise to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”, then he said he was going to let the “military Commanders determine what is best for them”. THEN he came out with he wants Congress to address this. And now he’s blaming Congress for why it might not happen.
Obama is such a Weasel and Coward. He doesn’t want to remove Don’t Ask Don’t tell and now he’s blaming Congress for what they knew was a problem for Clinton trying to open the military to Gays, which is how he came up with this policy.
...What’s this, another position, different from this note?
sorry for the garbage, didn’t see it
Speaking of promises, THIS is rich.
Barack Obama’s rich supporters fear his tax plans show he’s a class warrior
Some of Barack Obama’s richest supporters fear they have elected a “class warrior” to the White House, who will turn America’s freewheeling capitalism into a more regulated European system.
By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Last Updated: 7:33PM BST 09 May 2009
Barack Obama: some of his rich supporters fear he is becoming a class warrior Photo: AP
Wealthy Wall Street financiers and other business figures provided crucial support for Mr Obama during the election, backing him over the Republican candidate John McCain as the right leader to rescue the collapsing US economy.
But it is now dawning on many among them that Mr Obama was serious about his campaign trail promises to bring root and branch reform to corporate America – and that they were more than just election rhetoric.
A top Obama fundraiser and hedge fund manager said: “I’m appalled at the anti-Wall Street rhetoric. It was OK on the campaign but now it’s the real world. I’m surprised that Obama is turning out to be so left-wing. He’s a real class warrior.”
Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute, a free enterprise think tank, said Democrats in Congress were unnerved by the president’s latest plan to raise $210 billion over 10 years from multinational corporations.
…Rahm Emanuel, the president’s tough-as-nails chief of staff, has coined a phrase which has become a mantra for the administration. “Rule one,” he declared, “Never allow a crisis to go to waste. They are opportunities to do big things.”
Warren Buffet, the wealthy investor regarded by Americans as an economic seer, is among high profile Obama supporters worried that he is attempting too much by pressing ahead with other controversial reforms such as healthcare.
“Job one is to win the war, the economic war, job two is to win the economic war, and job three,” he said recently. “You can’t expect people to unite behind you if you’re trying to jam a whole bunch of things down their throat.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5301078/Barack-Obamas-rich-supporters-fear-his-tax-plans-show-hes-a-class-warrior.html
and
Obama to Propose More Taxes From Estates, Firms to Fund Health Care Reform
The measures total $60 million, but administration officials describe the plan as eliminating ‘tax loopholes’ rather than hiking taxes
By The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will propose $60 billion in new tax increases over 10 years on wealthy estates, businesses and others to make up for shortfalls in its fund to pay for an expensive overhaul of the health-care system.
The measures go beyond plans the White House has announced in the past few weeks. Officials said that upon further analysis they realized that they had overestimated savings and tax increases proposed in February to help pay the bill.
…How to pay for a health-care overhaul estimated to cost more than a trillion dollars over a decade is one of the trickiest questions facing the administration and Congress. The White House has proposed a combination of health-care spending cuts and tax increases.
In February, the administration identified $634 billion over 10 years to set aside in a health-care “reserve fund,” enough to cover about half the total cost. The money would be needed to pay for new subsidies to help people buy insurance, among other things.
The cuts to government health-care spending are controversial because they mean lower payments for various providers, and they are not expected to raise anywhere near enough money to pay the full tab.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124183390482402969.html
…uh oh, here we go throwing seniors under the bus!
I’m a Linda too writes: Obama is such a Weasel and Coward. He doesn’t want to remove Don’t Ask Don’t tell
And then, with her bare face hanging out, reproduces this newspaper article text:Obama, who pledged during the campaign to overturn the law, does not want to ask lawmakers to do so until the military has completed a comprehensive assessment of the impact that such a move would have on military discipline. Then, the president hopes to be able to make a case to members of both parties that overturning the 1993 law would be in the best interest of national security..
If you’re going to lie, darlin, take a tip from compulsive liars posting here and do it right: for heaven’s sakes, don’t link to or provide text that clearly rebuts your bullshit.
Although it will take some time to complete (partly because it needs Congressional action
That is BULLSHIT! He could end it by executive order the way Truman ended segregation in the military before.
Including the text of the letter that Obama is replying to would seem to be in order.
Why do you not do this simple thing?
Right, why’d I ask.
he can’t do simple.it has to be complicated
I assume your comment refers to Steve Clemons. Why is “simple” a problem for him?
Right, why’d I ask.
[...] linguist recently (H/T to American Girl in Italy), as Steve Clemons mentioned in his post, “Do Obama’s Private Promises on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Matter?“). Below is an interesting history of how the act came to [...]
It easy to bow, hard to stand up.
Excellent phrase!