It's the Christmas Miracle of 2010. Eight Republican Senators broke with their party to vote in favor of repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

All 55 Democrats, two Independents and six Republican senators  voted for cloture, giving the measure enough votes to override a Republican filibuster. An additional two Republicans joined in voting yes on the final repeal vote.

The bill, which already passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday by a vote of 250-175, has undergone a token final passage vote in the Senate. From there it will head to President Barack Obama's desk for his signature to become law.

And I have to say, a big thank you to Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) who prior to the vote said “The existing 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' policy is in my opinion inconsistent with American values.”

Of course, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, who opposed a repeal of the policy, praised the US military but said of them “They will do what is asked of them, but don’t think it won’t be at great cost.”  Fuck you very much, Senator!

Key to this victory (that I honestly thought had NO chance of passing) were eight Republican Senators who bravely went against their party to vote in favor of the repeal:

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
Olympia Snowe of Maine
Susan Collins of Maine
George Voinovich of Ohio
Mark Kirk of Illinois
Scott Brown of Massachusetts

and two Republicans who didn't vote for cloture, did vote yes on the actual repeal:

Richard Burr, N. Carolina (though he did so in a vey begrudging way, saying he thought it was the wrong time to do so)
John Ensign, Nevada


Thank you for having the bravery to do the right thing, the decent thing. I didn't vote for Mark Kirk in the most recent Illinois election but I've already sent him an email thanking him for his vote, and letting him know that as a Democrat I am so proud of him having the courage to buck his party right out of the starting gate.

Thank you for not giving in to Republican threats to 'punish' you for this vote, to stall negotiations on the START Treaty and other assorted nut-fuckery.

And you know, i hear all the time about "you don't get cookies for doing the right thing." And normally I agree with this. But today, fuck that, I'd send the whole MF bakery to these senators if I could. And YOU SHOULD TO!

If you are mature enough to understand that there may be great cost to these Senators and positive reinforcement actually works, take a moment and send them an email of thanks. Obviously, if you are from their state it has more impact, but even if you're not, or you don't live in the US, take a moment to thank them. Because don't kid yourself, come January, payback against them will begin. Mitch McConnell is a nasty piece of work so I fully expect that these Senators will be publicly flogged by him.

And thank yous to Democrat Senators are also in order. Many of them are representing districts that are quite conservative so this isn't without political risk to them.

(And please, if you really have a thing about no cookies for Senators, wonderful, keep it to yourself. This is not a day of ideological purity (let's leave that for the Repugantcans). This is a day of celebration and I really don't want to have to screen comments).

I'm off to do a happy dance.

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iola1234 reminds me that there are service men and women who have sacrificed their careers standing up against DADT.  To them I give my profound thanks for their service and their bravery at home as well as abroad.
 
And a special thank you to Lt. Dan Choi who was recently hospitalized after a nervous breakdown and an anxiety attack. More than anyone else, Lt. Choi has put a human face on the cost of DADT to individuals and the military. 

I've updated this to reflect the news (thank you sbsS01) that a final vote was taken tonight and a total of 8 Republicans joined the Democrats and Independents in voting 'yes ' to repealing DADT.

There is no rational reason to prohibit all homosexuals from adopting children, a Florida appeals court said in a ruling that upheld a gay man's adoption of two young boys.

Florida is the only remaining US state to expressly ban adoption by gay men and women without exception, the ruling noted.

A lower court found in 2008 that the ban violated the state constitution's guarantee of equal treatment. It allowed the plaintiff, a gay man named Frank Martin Gill, to adopt two boys - half-brothers he had been raising as foster children since 2004.

The Florida Department of Children and Families said the lower court erred and the adoption was illegal under the state's 33-year-old ban on adoption by gays.

But the state's Third District Court of Appeal in Miami on Wednesday upheld the lower court's finding that "there is no rational basis for the statute."

The children were removed from their home because of abuse and neglect when one was 4 years old and the other 4 months old, and their parents' rights to the boys were terminated by a court.

When they were placed with Gill, the older boy did not speak, the younger one had an untreated ear infection. Both had ringworm and other medical problems, the court documents said.

'Equally good parents'

Both sides in the case, including state officials, agreed that the children were thriving in the care of Gill and his male partner. The parties in the case also agreed "that gay people and heterosexuals make equally good parents," the appellate ruling noted.

"Given a total ban on adoption by homosexual persons, one might expect that this reflected a legislative judgment that homosexual persons are, as a group, unfit to be parents," the opinion states. "No one in this case has made, or even hinted at, any such argument."

"Finally, a piece of 30-year-old prejudice has been struck from the law books in Florida," said Howard Simon, who heads the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida and represented Gill. "This is good news for the advancement of human rights and the children in Florida's troubled foster-care system."

Gov. Charlie Crist lauded the court ruling as "great" and said he would immediately stop enforcing the ban.

During the original trial, psychologists, social workers, family experts and a clergyman gave conflicting testimony about the development of children raised by gays. DCF presented testimony from two university professors — one an ordained Baptist minister, the other a scholar who acknowledged he was guided largely by the Bible — to bolster the agency's contentions below.

The court found such children were no more likely to be homosexuals themselves, engage in early sexual experimentation, suffer mental illness or domestic violence, or abuse drugs than children raised by heterosexuals. (Ministers and bible scholars are not qualified experts on anything but guilt and opression).

The Department of Children and Families argued that children would have better role models and face less discrimination if they were placed in non-homosexual households, preferably with a husband and wife as the parents. (Yes, DCF was sooo worried about the discrimination these children would face. Guess they don't allow adoptions by Jews, Muslims, or people with disabilities based on this principle.  No? I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked.).

But the court said the statute did not accomplish that goal since it allows single people to adopt and it allows gays to serve as foster parents.

"It is difficult to see any rational basis in utilizing homosexual persons as foster parents or guardians on a temporary or permanent basis, while imposing a blanket prohibition on adoption by those same persons," the court said.

Florida also allows people with criminal histories or histories of substance abuse to be considered as adoptive parents on a case-by-case basis, the ruling noted. (Is it any wonder that bad things happend to kids under DCF's watch when they will allow criminals to adopt but not a gay couple).
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For years I’ve suggested that racism was in decline and yeah, there are some, you know, incidents that still happen with regards to racism, but most of the claims I’ve said for years, well, they’re not really real. But I realize now that I was wrong. For I now too feel the pain of racism. Racism has been dropped at my front door and the front door of all lighter-skinned Americans. The health care bill the president just signed into law includes a 10 percent tax on all indoor tanning sessions starting July 1st, and I say, who uses tanning? Is it dark-skinned people? I don’t think so. I would guess that most tanning sessions are from light-skinned Americans. Why would the President of the United States of America — a man who says he understands racism, a man who has been confronted with racism — why would he sign such a racist law? Why would he agree to do that? Well now I feel the pain of racism.  

More here: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/30/thompson-tanning-racism/

Oh the angst! You're kidding right? Cause nobody could actually be this stupid. Right? No really...you think a tanning booth tax is racist because more whites use tanning booths.

Uh...Ok...Doc, have you ever heard of skin cancer? Can you say and spell melanoma? Uh guess not. What kind of Doctor are you? Where is your degree from?  Do you prescribe cigarettes for nervous people? How about encouraging people to drink and drive as a way to relieve tension?

You know Doc I think you should show your contempt for the Health Care Reform Act by tanning the crap out of yourself. Until your skin is like shoe leather and your are as brown as..uh..  hmmm.   Doc? If you hate dark skinned people so much why do you want to artificially darken your skin. I be so confused.
....

Yeah, this is what the right wing loonies are reduced to criticizing. Taxes on cancer-causing tanning booths.  Not cause it disproportionately affects stupid people, but because its racist.

 

Beck's theory: Dems walked through tea party crowd because they wanted to be killed to prove political point.

And on Monday, a former Alabama militia leader took credit for instigating the actions (vandalism).

“We can break their windows,” he said. “Break them NOW. And if we do a proper job, if we break the windows of hundreds, thousands, of Democrat party headquarters across this country, we might just wake up enough of them to make defending ourselves at the muzzle of a rifle unnecessary.”

Vandals hit at least five Dem offices nationwide, threaten to ‘assassinate’ children of pro-reform lawmakers.

Catholic nuns break with bishops and urge passage of health care reform.