WATCH: Clips from the DOMA Hearing

Grassley talks mess


Al Franken checks Grassley


Sessions runs his mouth


Clarification on benefits for gay couples

Barney Frank Plans to Introduce ENDA the Week

Word on the street is ENDA will on the table this week. Metro Weekly has the details:

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) plans to introduce the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in the House on Wednesday, according to two LGBT equality advocates with direct knowledge of the congressman's plans. Frank's communications director, Harry Gural, confirmed that the plans are "to formally announce ENDA this week," although he added over the weekend that specifics are not yet nailed down and were expected to be so by this afternoon.


The bill, which Gural says will be the same exact bill as that introduced in the 111th Congress, would prohibit most employers from discriminating in hiring and promotions on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.


Although the bill is not expected to move forward in the House under the leadership of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Frank, talking with Metro Weekly on Sunday, March 27, says, "It's an organizing tool. Obviously, with the Republicans in power, you're not going to get the bill even considered."

But, Frank -- the longest-serving out member of Congress -- says, "I'm going to be urging people to spend their time talking to those who have voted in the past for ENDA and are supportive of ENDA but where we're not certain they're still with us on the transgender issue."

Hopefully, they will add the Transgender piece in the bill. Our fam has to be represented! 

The House Passes Tax Cuts for Middle Class 234-188

Well, here we go as 'The Mess in Congress' series continues. Today the House passed the Democratic bill to extend middle-class tax cut.
Here's more:

The House has passed a bill to extend middle-class tax cuts while letting those for the wealthy expire, even as talks continue on extending the cuts for everyone.

The bill is a political maneuver to satisfy Democratic supporters who oppose extending tax cuts for the wealthy. Even if the bill passes the House, it has no chance in the Senate, where Democrats need Republican support to pass a tax bill.

Sweeping tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush expire at the end of the year. A small bipartisan group of lawmakers and Obama administration officials continued negotiating Thursday on a deal that could extend all the tax cuts, at least temporarily.
The House passed the Democratic bill by a vote of 234 to 188.

The Senate is next, let's see what happens.

source

Dems Press Conference on DADT: We Will Get the Job Done

Harry Reid will bring DADT back on the Carpet before the end of year

Action Time! Harry is bringing DADT back on the floor!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to schedule a vote to end the Pentagon's ban on gays serving openly in the military before the start of the new Congress in January.


"During the work period following the Thanksgiving holidays, I will bring the Defense Authorization bill to the floor, including a repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,'" Reid, a Democrat, said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Our Defense Department supports repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' as a way to build our all-volunteer armed forces. We need to repeal this discriminatory policy so that any American who wants to defend our country can do so," Reid said.

I hope they have better luck this time.

source

Barney Frank's Gloomy Outlook for LGBT Rights

Barney Frank didn't lift my spirits with his outlook of the next 2 years involving LGBT rights. Here is what he said in the Washington Blade:

“Next year there’s no chance of anything happening,” he said of pro-LGBT legislation. “There’s zero chance.”

He added, “It will be a status quo. They don’t have the votes to hurt us but we don’t have the votes to advance anything in the cause.”

Frank also said he was certain that Republicans would fail in an attempt to overturn D.C.’s same-sex marriage law.

“Do you think Barack Obama is going to sign a bill to repeal the D.C. marriage law,” he asked. “It won’t go through the Senate. There is no chance that could happen. None—zero.”
Frank noted that only five out of 179 House Republicans voted earlier this year to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

“The Republicans have become much more anti-gay in their voting patterns,” he said. “There is zero chance of anything good happening with Republicans in control of the House.”
Frank said he was hopeful that the Senate would vote to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the congressional lame duck session over the next two weeks.

I'm still hopeful, though.

source

Defense Secretary Robert Gates Says Congress should act Quickly on DADT

Robert Gates said Congress should move forward with DADT, before the new Congressmen take their seats.
 Here's more:

He, however, did not sound optimistic that the current Congress would use a brief postelection session to get rid of the law known as "don't ask, don't tell."

"I would like to see the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" but I'm not sure what the prospects for that are," Gates said Saturday, as he traveled to defense and diplomatic meetings in Australia.
Unless the lame-duck Congress acts, the repeal effort is considered dead for now.

The current, Democratic-controlled Congress has not acted to lift the ban, which President Barack Obama promised to eliminate. In his postelection news conference Wednesday, Obama said there would be time to repeal the ban in December or early January, after the military completes a study of the effects of repeal on the front lines and at home.

With Republicans taking control of the House in January, and with larger margins in the Senate, supporters of lifting the ban predict it will be much more difficult.
Gates also urged the Senate to ratify a stalled arms control treaty with Russia before the end of the current legislative session in January.

The defense chief said the huge midterm gains for Republicans will not set back Obama's strategy for the war in Afghanistan. Obama wants to begin pulling U.S. forces home next summer, so long as security conditions allow it.

source

Question of the Day

What are your predictions for the mid-term elections?

Me, I think the media has over-hyped Democrats losses, but what do you think?

Valerie Jarrett to Dan Choi: Aim your anger at Congress

I'm having some issues with Dan's choice to re-enlist when the injunction was not set in stone. But that's another issue for another time

Openly Gay David Cicilline wins the Democratic Primary in R.I.

Providence Mayor David Cicilline has won the Democratic Primary in Rhode Island. David will face Repub, John Loughlin for Congress.

If he wins, David would become the fourth openly gay member of Congress.

Good Luck!

Meet the Gay Candidates running for Congress

While we are being hit with stories about DADT, Tea Party, Terry Jones and Lady Gaga, I wanted to take this time to highlight 2 gay candidates running for Congress.

David Cicilline and Steve Pougnet.

Here's some info about them from Edge on the Net:

In Rhode Island, Cicilline is the best known and best-funded candidate in Tuesday’s four-way Democratic primary, having raised more than $1.3 million, about three times the amount of his nearest Democratic rival and of the leading Republican.

He had about $450,000 in his account as of August, according to federal filings, after going on a TV ad spending spree with commercials on seniors and jobs - an important issue in Rhode Island, which had the fourth-worst unemployment rate in the country in July at 11.9 percent. The expected Republican candidate, state Rep. John Loughlin, had just $67,000 in his campaign account. There have been no reliable polls in the race.

Kennedy has for eight terms represented the 1st District, which stretches from blue-collar communities around Providence in the north to the blue-blooded seaside mansions of Newport in the south. Cicilline’s sexual orientation has not been an issue in the race so far, and voters don’t seem to care. Cicilline, who is single, has been attacked by his opponents, but for his record as mayor, not his personal life.

"People are really focused on the issues that are important in their own lives, and what they think the individuals running for Congress can do to respond to the urgent challenges that their families are facing," Cicilline said in an interview. "I think the sexual orientation of candidates in this race, including mine, have been irrelevant to voters, and I think that’s progress."

Pougnet married his longtime partner in 2008, after same-sex marriage was legalized in California but before it was banned by the ballot initiative Proposition 8.

Since 2007, he’s been mayor of Palm Springs, which has a large gay population, and he’s mounting the most serious challenge yet to Bono Mack, who has for 12 years represented the 45th District in California’s Inland Empire, a huge district that stretches from the Arizona border nearly to Los Angeles.

Pougnet had raised more than $1.2 million as of the end of June to Bono Mack’s $1.7 million. That makes Pougnet her best-funded challenger ever. He launched his first TV ad last week in which he says Bono Mack "isn’t getting the job done" on bread-and-butter issues such as jobs and foreclosures.

I wish these guys luck.