Today in Washington D.C., the nation’s capital of pillow fights, General Counsel Jeh Johnson and U.S. Army Forces Europe commander Gen. Carter Ham stopped by the House Armed Services Committee to talk about their nine month (or ten month, depending on which report you read) review of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. It was, by all accounts, really freakin’ boring. Marine Corps Times:
But no sparks flew during a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s military personnel panel, with two Republican lawmakers who oppose repeal, South Carolina’s Joe Wilson and Louisiana’s John Fleming, making understated arguments that the impact of the current ban is negligible and does not adversely affect military readiness. The three Defense Department officials did not bite on those or any other issues and spent the hearing side-stepping inquiries about their personal opinions.
Both civilian officials said they understood that while they are part of the administration of President Obama, who has called for repeal of the law, they are not going public with their thoughts. “My job [is] obviously not only to be open-minded and objective, but to be ready if Congress actually repeals the law,” said Clifford Stanley, a retired Marine major general barely two weeks into his new job as undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. Nor was an opinion forthcoming from Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson, who is simultaneously producing short-term legal advice for Defense Secretary Robert Gates on whether current policy can be softened within the law.
Well, glad to know we should expect testimony about DADT to be as bland and lacking in opinion as a Supreme Court justice’s confirmation hearing.
Oh, but we didn’t mean to say absolutely nothing happened at today’s hearing. Namely, we learned the Pentagon will spend taxpayer dollars investigating policies about how the armed forces are affected by one man inserting his penis into another man’s anus, or into the mouth of another man or woman.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibits sodomy and oral sex, even among consenting adults and married couples. Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson, who is helping to lead a study on the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, said he planned to review all related aspects of the military legal code. When asked by Arkansas Democratic Rep. Vic Snyder whether that review will extend to the rules on sodomy and oral sex, Johnson said yes.
But what if sodomy has nothing to do with anal sex, and is actually concerned with vile arrogance? Well, let’s review that, too.
How about we take this to the next level?
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(Pictured L-R: Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Dr. Clifford Stanley, and Army Gen. Carter Ham, via)
Daniel
The Dems are just using the military leaders to delay actually doing anything meaningful. They won’t repeal anything. The elections will come up. Another excuse and delay will arise. It will just be put off again and again, and all the while politicians will have their hands out for donations. So instead, close your pocketbooks and stay away from the polls until they do something. They have used these same tactics for years and it’s time for the gay and allied community to call them on their bullshit. Repeal it this year before the summer break of Congress if they want any help at all in the election. Day after day in America, millions upon millions of Americans wake up in the nation that violates their fundamental human rights. It’s time for it to stop.
Stone
Correct me if I am wrong (although I don’t think so) but didn’t former President Clinton get “oral sex” from someone other than his wife, while in the white house? Did the World end? Did the USA grind to a halt? As someone who had a gay brother in the armed forces….oral sex or any other type of sex will go on. Just because it isn’t spoken out loud doesn’t mean it doesn’t or won’t happen.Foolishness. I knew at 10 years old that my brother and his “army buddy” were having sex. Why? because at that age I had known I was gay. Two years before in fact. Those that are trying to cloud the issue with their own bias should remember that Americans (or anyone else) aren’t gullible. We all know what sex is. Gay or straight….and it happens..in and out of service. Gays serve and do a damn good job, thats why my brother served for over a decade. God forbid that he should have sucked a dick or two in the meanwhile. He did his job. One thing (no pun intended) had anything to do with the other. Stop the hypocrisy. There are many in congress who are gay or at the least bisexual. Tammy Baldwin,Barney Frank, and Jared Polis are not the only 3 amongst over 500 members. Does Sen. Larry Craig or others come to mind? It does. Times are different than it was in 1941. Why is it that heterosexuals think they are the only one’s allowed to marry and have sex? Get
with the program people.
http://www.Twitter.com/TweetwithStone
Lukas P.
Saving “Private Ryan Breeder”?
I hate to burst the Pentagon’s bubble of ideology, but put a hetero man in a situation where he’s horny enough, and women are not “available,” and you’ll find Mr Hetero willing to receive oral sex from a man. Think boarding school, prison, truck stops, beauty school, the seminary, and the military. Think pup tents, cockpits, submarines, ships and isolated oases.
Kidding about the beauty school, y’all.
Not too many str8 men return the favor to Pvt Gaymoore, or Pvt Bi-one, however, unless, well, they’re all cool with that and it’s a mutual thing….”I wash your back and you wash mine”
stitch
Is anyone else tired of the “Let’s all just not vote” solution that so many seem to favor? Not voting solves NOTHING. We are a small enough community that politics will just go right along without us, and by not voting we take some of the heat off the politicians. They would have an excuse to stop listening completely. I understand the frustration that we all have regarding the slow pace and constant set backs of our fight. Dropping out of the system all together will not get us any further however.
Kurt
I think we have stumbled on to something here. Why didn’t we think of this before. The Uniform Code prohibits “unnatural acts.” It does not limit itself to gays or even unmarried. Gays are kicked out not on proof that the performed such an act but by evidence they are incline or interested in such. So, can every het who is foudn to have viewed a porn film that includes oral sex also be expelled? It would seem so.
DR
In all fairness, and from a legal perspective, yes the UCMJ would have to be amended when DADT is repealed to avoid allowing heterosexuals to engage in some sort of intercourse but criminalize ALL forms of male/male sexual intercourse. You can’t have a repeal of what boils down to a status offense but criminalize the expression of the status.
Cam
The people that do not want DADT replealed will do whatever they can to engage in a discussion of anal sex. They think that others will find it “Icky” and will therefore be swayed. They’ve always tried to break down being gay into “Cock in Butt” simplification.