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Democrats are preparing next year to lift the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on gays in the military, an uneasy culture-war compromise instituted under the last Democratic administration, should Sen. Barack Obama win the presidency. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, the Walnut Creek Democrat, said a hearing Wednesday by a House Armed Services subcommittee is aimed at educating Congress and the public in preparation for a full-scale push to end the policy, first imposed in 1993 under President Bill Clinton, in the next Congress. By then, Democrats expect to have won the White House and to have expanded their House and Senate...

"Don't ask, don't tell" was a compromise that has been vilified since its inception in 1993. Former President Bill Clinton had campaigned that he would lift the ban barring LGBT people from serving in the military and allow them to serve openly. Once in office, he ran into opposition, and "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was born. A compromise that makes neither side happy, the policy prohibits the military from asking service members about their orientation and requires the military to discharge members who acknowledge openly that they are LGBT. Fast forward 15 years and now, even politicians who supported...

WASHINGTON — The Army and Air Force discharged a disproportionate number of women in 2007 under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that prohibits openly gay people from serving in the military, according to Pentagon statistics gathered by an advocacy group. While women make up 14 percent of Army personnel, 46 percent of those discharged under the policy last year were women. And while 20 percent of Air Force personnel are women, 49 percent of its discharges under the policy last year were women.

Associated Press WASHINGTON — Democrats say the nation should be ashamed of its ban on gays serving openly in the military. It discourages qualified people from joining the ranks at a time when the armed forces are stretched by two wars, they say, and is degrading to those willing to serve their country. So what have the Democrats done about it? Nothing, really. Since taking control of Congress in January 2007, Democrats have not convened hearings on the matter or taken up legislation that would let gays serve openly, although most party members favor repealing the prohibition. Instead, Democrats have...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., June 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr has published an op-ed in todays Wall Street Journal calling for the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," the policy which prohibits gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military. Barr, who was a member of Congress from 1995 to 2003, opposes same-sex marriage as well as efforts to classify gays and lesbians as members of a constitutionally protected minority class. On the gays-in-the-military issue, however, Barr feels differently. In the Wall Street Journal op-ed, he argued that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in...

First off, this is a column about national security — period. It is not about homosexuality per se. I don't want to know about whatever lawful activity two civilians — in a civilian setting — conduct behind closed doors. It's none of my business. At the same time, the lives of millions of Americans depend on a strong dedicated cohesive well-disciplined military, and that is everyone's business. That is what this column is about — enabling those brave Americans sent into harm's way to do their job — protecting your security and mine. Our lives could very well depend on...

By Associated Press WASHINGTON - Barack Obama said if he is elected president, he will repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that prevents gays from serving openly in the military. The Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate said he would not require his Joint Chiefs of Staff to be opposed to the policy, which was introduced during the Clinton administration. He said his priority for the Joint Chiefs would be that they make decisions to strengthen the military and keep the country safe, not their position on the policy. “We’re spending large sums of money to kick highly qualified...

YouTube has an undated 52-second clip of Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barrack Obama outlining his plans for America’s national defense. Obama’s presentation demonstrates either total naivete about important national security programs or he is just pandering for votes among the extreme left. Watch Obama’s message and consider some inconvenient facts about his national security promises. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl32Y7wDVDs “I’m the only major candidate to oppose this war from the beginning and as president I will end it.” No one likes war: especially those who have to do the fighting and dying. Yet, our military leaders make clear that the consequences of a...

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 8, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton appeared on Ellen Degeneres' television talk show on April 7 to pledge support for the homosexual community if she is elected.Degeneres, who is openly homosexual, made Clinton's support of homosexuality a prominent feature of the show. Clinton, who spoke about homosexual friends and neighbors she has had in the past, vowed to procure legal recognition for same-sex couples like Degeneres and her partner, Portia de Rossi."I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that people like you and Portia and others have a chance to have,...

US military forces, and ground forces in particular, have operated at a high pace since the attacks of September 11, 2001, including the support of ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Between 2001 and July 2007, approximately 931,000 US Army and Marine Corps service members deployed for overseas military operations, including about 312,000 National Guard or Reserve members, according to the Department of Defense. To support ongoing military operations and related activities, the US Congress has appropriated billions of dollars since 2001, and through September 2007, the Department of Defense has reported obligating about $492.2 billion to cover these...

Analyst: Lifting homosexual ban could drive up HIV rates in the military, hurt readiness Chad Groening OneNewsNow.com October 22, 2007 A conservative military watchdog says there would be serious readiness problems in the military if the next president repealed the law that prohibits homosexuals from serving in the military. Hear this Report advertisement Elaine Donnelly is president of the Center for Military Readiness, based in Michigan. Earlier this month she sponsored a panel discussion on the likely social and disciplinary impact of repealing the 1993 law that bans homosexual conduct in the military. She says since that law was passed,...

BEIJING, Aug 30 (AP) -- Gay sex was punishable by death under Genghis Khan's rule. That was among the findings of Chinese researchers who spent more than a year compiling the legendary Mongolian conqueror's code of laws, the official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday. His early 13th century empire stretched across Asia all the way to central Europe. Article 48 of the code said men who "committed sodomy shall be put to death," according to experts at a research institute in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia. The experts at the Research Institute of Ancient Mongolian Laws and Sociology said...

WASHINGTON - Democrats on Saturday touted legislation to guarantee troops time at home between deployments to Iraq. In the party's weekly radio address, Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., criticized President Bush for threatening to veto the bill, contending his administration's policies on troop deployments have weakened the military. "The president's surge has sent many of our Army units to Iraq for the second and third time. We are asking our troops to make heroic sacrifices — yet as soon as they return we rush them back into battle," said Tauscher, author of the bill that passed the House Aug. 2 on...

During a recent Democratic debate, both Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama indicated that all female U.S. citizens should register for the Selective Service. Neither candidate was as ridiculous as former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, who said, when it comes to men and women being drafted, "What's the difference?" But the radical and dangerous implications of the front-runners' policies are not that far from Gravel's query. The attitude the Democrats have on this issue has already caused harm to the military. Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, has been watching the feminization of military-personnel policy for decades....

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I might consume. Mr. Speaker, this is a well-motivated bill. I want to commend my colleagues on the Armed Services Committee for all the great work that they do, Democrat and Republican. Most of the time we're on common ground. In this case, I think that this bill does not accrue to the benefit of the troops. I think it hurts the troops. I think that is a question every Member of the House has to ask themselves: Is this going to be good for the troops, or is...

Nineteen Cuban migrants came ashore in the backyard of the home of Naval Air Station Key West's commander, officials said. The group of 12 men, five women and two children was discovered Wednesday morning by an off-duty Defense Department officer who was jogging on U.S. military property at Truman Annex, Key West police said. The officer knocked on Capt. J.R. Brown's front door, alerting him to the situation and asking to use his phone to call authorities. The group arrived in what appeared to be a homemade boat, police said. Brown asked a Spanish-speaking neighbor to meet with the Cubans,...

WASHINGTON - More than two-thirds of the Army National Guard's 34 brigades are not combat ready, mostly because of equipment shortages that will cost up to $21 billion to correct, the top National Guard general said Tuesday. Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum spoke to a group defense reporters after Army officials, analysts and members of Congress disclosed that two-thirds of the active Army's brigades are not ready for war.

 The Army’s Chief of Staff, General Peter Schoomaker, has recently done something extraordinary within the realm of Beltway politics – he told the truth about our Army’s readiness. His message before the House Committee on the Armed Services was simple and disturbing: Five years after 9-11 and the US Army, the service that bears the largest burden in this conflict, is still struggling to build a force capable of conducting a long -term global war within established budget constraints.  This grim assessment may be hard for some to accept, but we need to know the unvarnished truth if we are to be...

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 20, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A pro-homosexual group known as Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military (CSSMM), a think tank at the University of California, Santa Barbara, claims to have unearthed a current Pentagon document that lists homosexuality as a psychological disorder.According to the CSSMM the Department of Defense Instruction that so categorizes homosexuality was signed by the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness in 1996 and re-certified as "current" in 2003.Although homosexuality has traditionally been considered a psychological disorder the American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed homosexuality from its list of...

WASHINGTON -- A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position. The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders. Critics said the reference underscores the Pentagon's failing policies on gays, and adds to a culture that has created uncertainty and insecurity around the treatment of homosexual service members, leading to anti-gay harassment. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin said the policy document is under review. The Pentagon has a "don't ask,...