Another Way To End 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

A Federal judge in California pre-empts Congress and our Commander in Chief and leads the way on military readiness:

The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gay members of the military is unconstitutional, a federal judge in California ruled Thursday.

Judge Virginia A. Phillips [Wiki-bio] of Federal District Court struck down the rule in an opinion issued late in the day. The policy was signed into law in 1993 as a compromise that would allow gay and lesbian soldiers to serve in the military.

The rule limits the military’s ability to ask about the sexual orientation of service members, and allows homosexuals to serve, as long as they do not disclose their orientation and do not engage in homosexual acts.

The plaintiffs challenged the law under the Fifth and First Amendments to the Constitution, and Judge Phillips agreed.

“The 'don’t ask, don’t tell' act infringes the fundamental rights of United States service members in many ways,” she wrote. “In order to justify the encroachment on these rights, defendants faced the burden at trial of showing the 'don’t ask, don’t tell' act was necessary to significantly further the government’s important interests in military readiness and unit cohesion. Defendants failed to meet that burden.”

The rule, she wrote in an 86-page opinion, has a “direct and deleterious effect” on the armed services.

It will be interesting to see how what we politely but implausibly refer to as our "leaders" in Congress and the White House react to this. I assume the Administration will appeal - Obama can insist that the courts can't compel him to do what he has already set out to do, which is logical but probably won't soundbite well.

Apparently the topic was not raised at Obama's press conference.

THEN AGAIN:  The blogprof thinks Obama let the judge do his dirty work and had the DoJ go into the tank:

Obama promised to overturn it but it became a political hot potato for him. The military certainly wasn't going to change it. So Obama had a federal judge of the ruling class overturn it for him? How did he do that since the branches are supposed to be separate? Easy - refuse to defend it. From Ben Smith's blog via memeorandum: Federal judge overturns 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'. Here was Obama's part in the story:

"[D]efendants called no witnesses, put on no affirmative case, and only entered into evidence the legislative history of the act," she wrote.

I have no idea whether that is common or appropriate.  As to the foundation of the decision, back to the blogprof:

A Federal Judge in California has ruled that the ban on gays in the military violates the Constitutional rights of gay and lesbian soldiers to due process and to freedom of expression.

District Court Judge Virginia Phillips -- a Clinton appointee -- also wrote that the policy has had a "deleterious effect" on the military and issued an injunction restraining the military from enforcing the policy, though the government may appeal.

Excuse me, but do soldiers have the right of "free expression" in the military? Really? When did that happen?

Here is how the NY Times explained that:

First, they said, it violates their guarantee of substantive due process under the Fifth Amendment. The second restriction, the plaintiffs said, involves the free-speech rights guaranteed under the First Amendment. Although those rights are diminished in the military, the judge wrote, the restrictions in the act still fail the constitutional test of being “reasonably necessary” to protect “a substantial government interest.”

So neither Congress nor the Commander in Chief are capable of correctly judging the importance of this issue to our military?  I would have thought that national defense was one of their prime responsibilities.

Well.  I don't have a problem with the result, but the process is deplorable and will lack the legitimacy that would have followed from a push from the Administration and votes in the House and Senate.  Instead, we got a mini-push, a House vote, and then the back-burner.

Comments

[peter]

I blame everything on FDR. Once we had judges disregarding their constitutional duties, the inevitable slide to chaos began.

[JamesH]

This ruling is of a piece with Judge Walker's on gay marriage. I hope the new congress exercises its impeachment powers to remind the judiciary of its proper role.

[squaredance]

Oh come on, this is what he wants. It gives him an out. "well hay, the judge says so what can In do?"

I bet they were in cahoots in the first place, the judge and himself.

Just disgusting. What do either of these left-wing idiots know about "unit cohesion"?

What possibly could they make the determination of what will have a " 'direct and deleterious effect' on the armed services"? How is one judge to make a determination that so effects us all, in fact all of the world?

Great usurpations in the name of sexual perversion, and made so self righteously too.

What decadence. What moral decline.

why would they have to prove this? why is it a constitutional matter for the courts to decide? When did the courts set army policy?

This is the same bunch that is trying to stamp out expressions of Christianity in the Armed forces.

This point was planned when they first came up with "Don't ask don't tell". It was pure and willful incrementalism from the get go.

They cannot help themselves: they must assault all the the is great, good and decent.

Short of a radical change of direction in this country they will have their way. And no, I am not talking about Nov. That is just a drop in the bucket. It goes far beyond momentary wins in a mid-term election.

The GMZ, this nonsense...they just throw it in our faces. How arrogant; how brazen. A absolutely tiny elite is standing the world upside-down and they are getting away with it. When will Americans rise up and say that enough is enough? How weak and supine we are.
What utter contempt they have for this nation, for it people and for Western Civilization.

[squaredance]

I don't have a problem with the result

Then you are brain dead. How disgusting.

Every decent person should deplore this.
"Don't have a problem with it" indeed.

You need to get you head out of smug little cuteness and figure out how the real world works. Homosexuality, inside the military or not, is a great evil

Pope Benedict says it well

And from his '05 Curia speech:

It is necessary to have something like an ecology of man, understood in the right sense. It is not outdated metaphysics when the Church speaks of the nature of the human being as man and woman, and asks that this natural order be respected.

This has to do with faith in the Creator and listening to the language of creation, which, if disregarded, would be man's self-destruction and therefore a destruction of God's work itself.

That which has come to be expressed and understood with the term 'gender' effectively results in man's self-emancipation from Creation (nature) and from the Creator. Man wants to do everything by himself and to decide always and exclusively about anything that concerns him personally. But this is to live against truth, to live against the Spirit Creator.

You people need to stop calling yourself conservative: You are left of center moderates. Quit deceiving yourselves.

You do not even know what you are here in your little echo chamber. How pathetic. How shameful.

[Young Lurker]

it's absurd that people are trying to make this change during two wars. (oh wait, it's just one war now, i almost forgot.) if you're trying to make the point that you're just as fit to be in the military as a straight person, you're not doing your argument any favors by demonstrating you think you are more important than the mission. our troops don't need to be thinking about anything right now besides that mission. let's talk about this later.

[Cecil Turner]

I don't see how this ruling can pass review (assuming it gets one). The Constitution leaves this as a strictly Congressional prerogative:

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

The idea that talking about a sexual relationship is protected is hard to feature. If the military can successfully prosecute fraternization cases (as it has for decades), then the right to an open sexual relationship is clearly subject to military regulation. It's hard to see how the authority to restrict open homosexual relationships is fundamentally different.

[peter]

Squaredance, I don't think you'll get much traction here calling our esteemed blogger braindead.

[Young Lurker]

"You people need to stop calling yourself conservative: You are left of center moderates."

zing! now THAT is an insult! ;-)

[Ignatz]

--It's hard to see how the authority to restrict open homosexual relationships is fundamentally different.--

It is fundamental to leftists that certain classes, races and categories are to be granted legally superior status even when the constitution, statute or precedent says they aren't.
When they say all people are entitled to equal protection or due process they really mean quite the opposite. And SCOTUS is one retirement or death away from saying exactly the same thing.

[Captain Hate]

You people need to stop calling yourself conservative: You are left of center moderates.

Whenever a sentence starts out with "You people" I tend to ignore whatever nonsense follows.

[Rob Crawford]

Whenever a sentence starts out with "You people" I tend to ignore whatever nonsense follows.

You people got that right.

:-)

[Rocco]

This ruling should be reversed lest we incite violence in the Arab Street.

[JM Hanes]

Obama votes present yet again.

(Ditto what Captain said!)

Was it squaredance or bunkerbuster who started out his/her career here apparently thinking that calling someone unmanly was a scathing condemnation from which any right thinking guy would recoil in horror?

[Barbara]

"[D]efendants called no witnesses, put on no affirmative case, and only entered into evidence the legislative history of the act,"

So, the federal government followed the lead of Gov. Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown in California, and refused to put on a defense thereby bolstering the plaintiff's case.

[Pofarmer]

So, is there any law or statute that some judge somewhere can't declare unconstitutional? Is there any " right" that some judge somewhere doesn't feel free to grant some aggrieved group?

[Pofarmer]

"So, the federal government followed the lead of Gov. Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown in California, and refused to put on a defense thereby bolstering the plaintiff's case."

It's frigid Federal law, how would you defend something that has passed both houses of congress?

[TGSG]

So, we have a new CiC who wears black, sits behind a bench and orders by edict eh?

[Captain Hate]

O/T Tammy Bruce is skewering Colin Powell, who burnished his squishy RINO status by appearing on The View, for supporting the GZM. OMG the denseness: "It's a center for the entire community; there will be a swimming pool". I guess we're all Scooter Libby in his eyes.

[Porchlight]

So, the federal government followed the lead of Gov. Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown in California, and refused to put on a defense thereby bolstering the plaintiff's case.

Exactly. This is the new way for the administration to do an end around Congress. All that is needed is a plantiff to sue and argue the preferred position of the administration (in this case, dump DADT). The administration then conveniently fails to defend itself, and gets the change it wanted. Why would Obama appeal?

[narciso]

Couldn't he just go back to playing tennis with Prince Bandar, where we first found him, you would think there would be shame, then again consider Ted Koppel's latest offering

[anduril]

"You people" is just the reverse of "We" or "Us". How else would one express the self identification when addressing "We" or "Us"? "You" alone doesn't seem sufficient to express the generally incestuous nature of this forum.

[Extraneus]

Is it really going to be a center for the entire community, General Powell? Can we all go visit there when we're in the City, swim in the pool, say a little prayer, read the Torah?

[narciso]

This is exactly what the late Dr. Neuhaus meant in that "First Things" seminar back in 1996, where he talked about the people rebelling because the courts no longer relied
on the consent of the governed

[Rob Crawford]

So, the federal government followed the lead of Gov. Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown in California, and refused to put on a defense thereby bolstering the plaintiff's case.

Um, shouldn't that result in the defense attorney's disbarment? I mean, aren't they required to put forward their best effort to advocate for their side?

Or is that just clap-trap put forward by the money-grubbing and criminal-loving lawyers?

[anduril]

Super article from the estimable M K Bhadrakumar at ATOL. So, Russia is for a "reset" in relations, but thinks Obama is too weak to overcome the view that Russia is an enemy of the US. The Russians obviously have a very high opinion of the capabilities of the "Israel Lobby"--and, unlike in US public discourse, when Putin and Barak meet and talk it's permissible to mention the existence of the Israel Lobby. Two shrewd operators like them surely know when it's appropriate to mention the emperor's attire and when it's not:

Israel joins Russian ballet school

The mystery surrounding the death of the deputy head of Russia's military intelligence agency has somewhat eased. When 52-year-old Major-General Yuri Ivanov's body was washed up on an eastern Mediterranean beach in the Turkish province of Hatay in mid-August, bloggers had a field day.

Ivanov was on a sensitive mission to Syria to oversee the Russian military base in Tartus and was apparently heading for a meeting with the Syrian intelligence when he went missing. Israel is concerned about Tartus, a technologically advanced Russian listening post that could spy on its communications and military movements.

However, any speculation that Israel was involved in Ivanov's death can now be laid to rest. Or else, the military agreement between Russia and Israel signed in Moscow on Monday would not have been possible.

A strategic alliance ...

That is only taking a momentary measure of the developing Russian-Israeli military ties, which promise to be an absorbing aspect of the geopolitics of the Middle East.

No matter the relatively modest scale of the military relationship so far, it is high-tech and has a leitmotif distinct from what Russia has with Israel's two main adversaries in the region - Iran and Syria - insofar as it is symbiotic and goes beyond commercial considerations that galvanize Moscow's arms sales.

Israel is a grandmaster in exquisitely carving on small pieces of ivory and has the genius to transform small steps into long, profound journeys. This was how the saga of Israel's strategic ties with India, which from its humble origin in 1992 has today come to assume such profundity that neither side can contemplate doing without it.

Equally, when Russia and Israel, two countries untainted by idealism in their foreign policies bond, anything is possible. Hardly a month passed, after all, before Russia commenced the loading of nuclear fuel in the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, a move that was bitterly criticized by Israel, and they are already looking ahead.

The Russian-Israeli military relationship is also a keen battle of wits since it involves two countries that invariably see things through the prism of their self-interest but are open to trade-offs. The Russian-Israeli pirouette is already stunning. When Defense Minister Ehud Barak headed for Moscow last weekend, Israeli media reported that his mission was to lobby the Kremlin to stop arms sales to Syria.

If Russia's P-800 Yakhont supersonic cruise missile, a highly accurate weapon with a 300-kilometer range capable of carrying a warhead of 200 kgs reaches Syrian hands, it will be a force multiplier, enabling Syria to target Israeli naval ships. The Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper reported recently that Israel was working to "thwart a Russian arms deal with Syria" and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to stop the sale of P-800 Yakhnot.

The report provoked the Kremlin to clarify that Russia "honors all the agreements that were previously signed" with Syria. Kremlin aide Sergei Prikhodko alleged that the Israeli media were "distorting Russia's position on the implementation of its obligations to Syria, including in the sphere of military and technical cooperation".

Evidently, Barak didn't take Prikhodko as the last word. Following the signing of a five-year military agreement with his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov in Moscow on Monday, Barak headed for Putin's summer residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for a meeting where they discussed the range of security and diplomatic issues.

The agreement, according to the Russian media, "boosts military ties ... to help them fight common threats, such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction"; "sketches out" a five-year prospective military cooperation program that includes "exchange of experience and information in spheres of mutual interests" relating to issues of international security, development of military education, medicine, physical training, etc.

Serdyukov said, "Our views on many modern challenges are close or coincide. First of all, it has to do with terrorism and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction." He seemed to hint at intelligence-sharing over the activities of militant groups operating in the Middle East and North Caucasus and Iran's nuclear program.

Barak said Israel "follows closely" the situation in Russia's North Caucasus, because both Russia and Israel are under the threat of "radical Islamic terrorism".

...or tactical move?

Whether Russia would want to overtly identify with Israel's war against "Islamic terrorism" remains to be seen. Russia views the Caucasus security to be extremely vital to its regional strategies and is loathe to see external influence upset the current balance in a direction that could lead to unpredictable consequences. What Russia expects Israel to do is not to mess around in the Caucasus and, specifically, not to arm Georgia or train the Georgian soldiers.

A highlight of Monday's agreement is the US$100 million deal for Israel to provide unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Russia - which enables the Russian security forces to tighten surveillance over Georgia. The Russian military keenly felt the need to develop advanced reconnaissance systems in the wake of the brief military conflict with Georgia in August 2008, when the effectiveness of Russian military operations was severely hampered by the lack of reliable intelligence.

The Russian military reportedly needs up to 100 UAVs and at least 10 guidance and control systems to ensure effective battlefield reconnaissance. Russian defense companies tried to launch UAV development programs but so far have failed to come up with effective spy drones. Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin said in April that Moscow spent about 5 billion rubles (US$170 million) on the development of indigenous drones, which ultimately failed the tests.

Israel is now agreeable to setting up a $300 million joint drone production facility in Russia. No doubt, it is a leap forward to graduate to the sophisticated level of co-production of weapon systems. Fifty Russian technicians are presently undergoing training in Israel to operate the drones.

Moscow is expected to spend up to 10 billion euros (US$12.2 billion) on European and Israeli weaponry in the coming five-year period. Russia is a large-scale exporter of weapons but also has a need to revamp its arms industry (and fulfill the needs of its own military's modernization) after years of underinvestment, for which technology infusion from Israel is useful.

Meanwhile, in an extraordinary gesture usually reserved for strategic partners like India, Moscow has shown willingness to build laser-distance measuring stations in Israel linked to Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (Glosnass). Putin revealed that the specialists of the two countries are discussing the project.

This brings up an interesting issue, though. Israel sources its cutting-edge technology from the United States. In the case of India, Israel became a conduit for transfer of advanced US technology although Washington had restrictions on direct technology transfer to India. But in the case of China, Washington prevented Israel from transferring advanced military technology. What could be Washington's position vis-a-vis Russia?

Arguably, Israel would oblige Russia provided the latter agrees to work together within an overall framework of strategic and political cooperation.

An Israeli boost to 'reset'

In the case of India, the Israeli lobby in Washington even helped out in the accretion of critical mass in US-Indian strategic partnership at defining moments like the conclusion of the US-India civil nuclear agreement in 2008. Conceivably, Moscow can expect the Israeli lobby to create positive energy for the reset of US's ties with Russia.

Indeed, Barak's talks with Putin took an overtly political character. Barak sought moderation in Russia's military ties with Syria and Iran and to keep up pressure on Iran's nuclear program. The situation in the Middle East also figured.

Russia is modernizing the Tartus naval base to accommodate heavy warships by 2013. However, the Israelis would estimate that Moscow's Syrian track is vastly different today from the Soviet era strategic partnership and is driven primarily by its burning ambition to become an actor in the Middle East so as to earn points on the global scale. This is no more a zero-sum game between Russia and the US, as during the Soviet era.

As regards Iran, though, the paradigm is entirely different. Russia's urge to have a good relationship with Iran emanates out of profound considerations. To quote from a recent Chinese commentary:

Iran is also an obstacle to US expansion in the Middle East. It can be made use of by Russia to bargain with the US when discussing other important international issues ... Russia is very clear about Iran's significance to it. Out of its own interests, Russia would love to take flexible actions concerning Iran's controversial nuclear program and maintain the bilateral relations instead of leaving Iran alone.

What Russia wants is to please Iran and win hearts and minds of the Iranians, thus having an upper hand in dealing with Iran's nuclear issue and forcing the West, especially the US, to make concessions to Russia over other key international issues.

The Iranian media cautiously reported on the Russian-Israeli military agreement as "a bid to improve bilateral relations".

All the same, the Israeli ingenuity to move mountains is a legion. The dynamism of Russian-Israeli ties could get connected to the template of US-Russia reset. Moscow is nervous about Obama's ability to push through the reset. Obama means well but the reset should go beyond detente. The US politics is in flux and influential quarters in America still view Russia in adversarial terms, while for Russia the key to modernization lies in the Silicon Valley.

Again, the US-Russia Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty's (START) future is precarious but the treaty is crucial to maintaining Russia's "strategic parity". The US Senate foreign relations committee may vote on it in mid-September and the ensuing debate coincides with the acrimonious congressional election campaign. The Republicans have posed 700 questions regarding START.

The influential pro-Israel lobby in Washington can do a great deal indeed by way of addressing the Russian angst although it may not have 700 ready answers.

[Jeff]

this may work in the Army, Air Force and the Marines stateside ... but will casue issues in the Navy everywhere ... communal living conditions will make straight sailors very uncomfortable ... very ... if there are seperate quarters maybe it can work ...
If you think I'm wrong ... try this ...
ask a woman friend how she would feel about sharing shower and bathrooms and dressing space with dozens of guys she's not attracted too everyday for years on end ...

[MarkO]

At this very moment, I am in a country not ruled by Obama. Feels good. Got to get my stuff out. What? This is just a trip?

Never mind. I'm anti-colonial myself.

This binge of judges as legislatures reminds me ever so much of the last time the Demos had the presidency and both houses. Earl the W.

If only we could appease and never offend our enemies. Ceaseless accommodation.

[hit and run]

Extraneus:
Can we all go visit there when we're in the City, swim in the pool, say a little prayer, read the Torah?

Can the moderate Muslim Miss USA swim in the pool in the outfit she wore in the swimsuit competition?

[TheVIMH: That swimsuit is the very definition of immoderate!]
Good point.

[narciso]

You were behaving so well, too, and then you had to blow it, news from Vladikavkaz, indicates their occupation problem is much
more accute, bordering on nearly two hundred
years since Yermolov founded Grozny, it's in
any decent copy of the Cossacks or Hadji Murad

[Ignatz]

The consensus that your interminable and constant page long cut-and-paste jobs in lieu of links are calculated to provoke and offend, in the face of repeated requests that you stop, is not incestuous. "We" are just asking that you employ some of that "it's just common courtesy" you mentioned some time back.

[Porchlight]

but will casue issues in the Navy everywhere ...

I have a friend who is a Marine and he tells stories of being on Navy ships where gay men, after being discoverd in flagrante delicto, had to be helicoptered off for their own safety. He said it happened routinely.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Young Lurker-

This discussion is being brought up now because of there being a war on. Accellerated, in fact. The left feels threatened by militaries.

[daddy]

I hate our media.

How the heck can we have an incident of a PlayBoy Centerfold trying to open the emergency door of a passenger jet in flight, yet not provide photo's of the Playboy Centerfold? Here's ">http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Turbulence-Leads-to-Turbulence-On-JetBlue-Flight-102566229.html"> MSNBC's disgraceful effort. And ">http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/new_jersey/disturbance-on-jetblue-flight-to-newark-20100909-akd"> FOX's story is just as pathetic.

You actually have to go to the ">http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/tiffany_livingston_playboy_mod.html"> New Jersey Star Ledger rag to get a link to VIP mag's pix of Tiffany Livingston, who tells us by the way that her turn-on's are airplane crashes and ">http://www.poole-associates.com/VIP-page62-63-1200.jpg"> "eating biscuits in front of the Television." I think that last link is safe for work (at least where I work!)

[Melinda Romanoff]

daddy-

Those are some superior search skills.

[Barbara]

anduril,

May I make a plea for those of us who have "twinges in the hinges" as they say? Rather than post lengthy comments which require one to scroll past, please provide a link to the source of your information. The joints of my right hand will thank you. I might even be inclined to read your comments from time to time.

Thank you.

[daddy]

FWIW,

The Lisa Murcowsky thing is now devolving into comedy.

Popular local host has put out the ultimatum on air that this is the last day for her to "s**t or get off the pot", and tell us if she's doing the Write In candidacy or not. Otherwise he says its time we have to start putting up the Christmas decorations, and he won't have time to give her announcement the time of day, whatever the heck she does.

Great to see it's collapsing into farce. Couldn't happen to a squishier, dithering, unprincipled, self-serving RINO.

[daddy]

Melinda,

I think I'm most impressed by the 2 off duty cops on board who had to wrestle her to the deck:)

Personally I think the problem is how she carries herself. From the mag:

"Tiffany boasts the immaculate poise of a mature model wrapped with a bubbly demeanor."

Not into "immaculate Poise" myself. If only she had carried herself with the poise and confidence of a seasoned athlete though I think things would have turned out better for everyone. Sad really.

"I'm the kind of person, who needs to feel like everything happens for a reason. When you date a guy and it goes badly, that's horrible. But if you can write a song about it, then it was worth it."

Anybody got any catchy lyrics about explosive decompression at 30,000 feet? I'm thinking a 12 Bar Blues number in the Key of G.

Off to walk the dogs. Later.

[Pagar]

Off topic, But I'm hoping to get Melinda to explain why the Chicago Climate exchange thinks carbon offsets are almost worthless while the RGGI held an auction on 8 Sep 2010 where some parties paid $1.86 per ton.

auction yielded a total of $63,997,020 from the sale of 34,407,000 allowances.

Now I'm not exactly sure how much $63,997,020 is in real dollars, but my guess it is a large sum of money.
"Electric generators and their corporate affiliates purchased 92 percent of the total number of current control period allowances sold."

If you read thru the RGGI propaganda they tell you repeatedly that these large sums are costing the consumer very, very little.

I am puzzled over where the politicians think that 63 million dollars that the electrical generators spent came from?

Why would electrical generators pay $63 million for scraps of paper that the Chicago Carbon Exchange thinks are worth almost nothing?

[peter]

Did someone commend Anduril for not cutting and pasting today? how long did that positive reinforcement last?

[anduril]

James Taranto asks a good question, Why Obama is attacking a congressman hardly anyone has heard of? and comes up with a pretty good answer:

Rule No. 13 in Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" is "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Community organizer in chief Barack Obama has been trying to do just that. His target is John Boehner.

Who is John Boehner? You probably know the answer if you read this column, but that puts you in a minority. (In case you're a minority within the minority, Boehner is the House minority leader and looks increasingly likely to be the speaker in four months.) CNN.com reported Wednesday that "22 percent of the public has a favorable opinion of Boehner, with 23 percent saying they hold an unfavorable view of the Republican congressman from Ohio."

That means at least 55% of the public doesn't know or care enough about Boehner to have an opinion--and we'd bet that some portion of the 23% answers "unfavorable" by default when asked their view of any politician.

Boehner is an odd choice of target for Obama for other reasons. Unlike the Senate, the House runs almost entirely on majority rule, which means the minority leader is powerless to obstruct legislation. Since much of the legislation Obama has pushed for is wildly unpopular, the claim that Boehner is an obstructionist is, to most voters, an argument for giving him a majority. And the president of the United States is the most powerful man in the world. He only diminishes himself by engaging in personal attacks against any other politician, perhaps excepting a serious challenger in a re-election campaign.

So why is Obama doing it? A clue can be found in Alinsky's Rule No. 6: "A good tactic is one that your people enjoy. If your people are not having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic."

There's no question that Obama's people are having fun:

Josh Marshall, TalkingPointsMemo.com: "Obama rolls out fully Boehnerized new stump speech. Did I mention Boehner." (Marshall's post is titled "Boehnermentum.")

Kevin Drum, Mother Jones: "Was this just because Boehner is a local boy who happened to have given a speech in Cleveland a few weeks before? Or is this part of a broader strategy to nationalize the election around Boehner's neck? I don't think this would change the course of the election or anything, but if it's the latter I'll bet it's a good idea. . . . Speaking of Boehner, John Sides points out that Public Policy Polling decided to poll Boehner's tan the other day. Funny!"

Jonathan Alter, Newsweek: "As long as he's venturing onto would-be House Speaker John Boehner's turf, Obama might as well challenge him to debates this fall on the future of the country. . . . Most likely, the GOP will decline to participate. Obama and Biden should then debate empty chairs."

E.J. Dionne, Washington Post: "Between now and November, President Obama should debate both John Boehner, the House Republican leader, and Mitch McConnell, the GOP leader in the Senate. Their confrontations, televised and during prime time, would certainly get the attention of voters and make clear what the stakes in the election are."

Dionne updates his suggestion by acknowledging that Alter had the idea first: "So that makes two of us. Any other takers? Maybe there's a media outlet or a non-partisan group out there that can issue the invitations." You've got to love that contrast between "a media outlet" and "a nonpartisan group." Once, the media thought of themselves as nonpartisan.

Anyway, look at the list again: Josh Marshall, Kevin Drum, Jonathan Alter, E.J. Dionne. "Obama's people"--the community he is organizing--are left-wing journalists. Once, this community had actual power: "If I've lost Cronkite," Lyndon B. Johnson is said to have lamented in 1968, "I've lost Middle America." As we noted yesterday, Obama has lost Mark Halperin, and it is occasion only to mock Halperin for having been had in the first place.

Obama has been losing Middle America, slowly but steadily, almost since the day he took office, in large part because he has taken his cues from a community of notions whose attitude toward Middle America ranges from indulgent condescension to outright hostility.

[Ignatz]

12 minutes.

[anduril]

OK, left wing journalists are a big enough community that they wouldn't all fit in a phone booth--if there still are phone booths somewhere--but in terms of electoral politics, that's about the size of it.

What great strategic mind came up with that concept?

[Porchlight]

So apparently Rush was talking about this Politico article about Obama not having his wedding ring on at his presser (sorry for the long excerpt, but it's necessary in this case; you'll see why in a minute):

Sometimes, a White House press conference can be a chance for a president to take some weight off his shoulders … but weight off his fingers?

Eagle-eyed reporters noticed that President Barack Obama wasn’t sporting his wedding ring during Friday’s White House press conference.

“big to-do over potus not wearing his wedding ring today,” Tweeted The Hill’s Sam Youngman, who was at the presser.

Journalist Keith Koffler joked, “There was some snickering in the press room afterward that he might have become so hungry during Ramadan that he ate it.”

Obama’s wedding band is “an intricate gold design from Indonesia, where he had lived as a boy,” the New York Times reported in 2009.

Michelle will probably be okay with it; after all, she once left home without her wedding ring, too.

UPDATE: A White House spokesman tells POLITICO that Obama’s ring is being repaired, though it’s unclear what needed to be fixed.

This was posted on Hot Air about 30 minutes ago with a link to Politico.

But now the bolded part - the Ramadan joke - has been scrubbed from the article.

I guess the WH didn't like it.

[Jim Hlavac]

Maybe, if a tiny experiment had taken place that allowed openly gay men to serve only state-side, only in the marching band, or inventorying supplies or something so simple, on bases with individual housing, for a few years, to see how it worked, then this DADT lawsuit would have been avoided. Maybe if those who truly despise we gay people would just tell us you'll pay our taxes we'd be happier too. Or maybe gay people should just take over a state, by moving there by the millions, and voting us in, and then you can decide if you want us to secede or be expelled. And maybe, if straight people come to the conclusion that being gay is some "birth defect" you'd figure out a way to deal with the inconvenient reality that the same percentage of people have been, are, and will be, gay in every society on earth since time immemorial, by God's own hand.

As for the Pope, (mentioned above on "intrinsic evil") last I heard he was a German national living in Italy as the head of a Theocracy, while I'm here in a Free Republic expecting full citizenship.

[Rick Ballard]

Pavlov's bell. Don't take the BOwser bait.

[Pofarmer]

"So, the federal government followed the lead of Gov. Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown in California, and refused to put on a defense thereby bolstering the plaintiff's case."

So,is the present observing Ramadan?

[gmax]

Or maybe gay people should just take over a state

I nominate Vermont, you will love the ice cream.

[Ignatz]

--Maybe if those who truly despise we gay people would just tell us you'll pay our taxes we'd be happier too.--

My non sequitor detecting circuits seem to be in good working order cause I can't even follow that one.
I must say I'd be considerably happier and much more appreciative of gays if they paid my taxes though, no matter how they might feel about heterosexuals.

[anduril]

we gay people

There's that "we" again.

[JM Hanes]

anduril is a narcissist who cannot feel good about himself unless he feels better than someone else.

[Rick Ballard]

What font of idiocy was plumbed to dredge up the concept that not observing the duty to defend was a surefire winner in putting spur to the prog Gallop to Gomorrah? What's on tap for tomorrow? Revelation of Rush Limbaugh's third cousin twice removed threat to burn a gay muslim couple at the site of the President's mosque?

[Sikent member of the seminar]

@peter, ignatz

Mea culpa. In hindsight, I realize that dealing with "a"is not unlike dealing with the Taliban. Appeasement only emboldens them.

Will not happen again. Resuming radio silence.

[DebinNC]

Speaking of "prog Gallop to Gomorrah"...how can this be legal? The regime can decide what constitutes "misinformation" about its policies and punish companies who share this "misinformation" with its members?

[JM Hanes]

Hope it's not to late for a Shanah Tovah!

May all your New Years be filled with pleasures, contentments and good works!

[JM Hanes]

Deb:

"Speaking of "prog Gallop to Gomorrah"...how can this be legal?"

The Commerce Clause! Is there anything it can't do?

[Captain Hate]

Maybe if those who truly despise we gay people would just tell us you'll pay our taxes we'd be happier too.

Why should anyone care if you're happy? Or are you a self-hater posing a rhetorical question?

[Pagar]

"misinformation" from the US government, surely you zest

"$1,361,672,559,288"

"Broken Spending Reporting in 2009"

"How Reliable is USASpending.gov?"

Remember, this is the same government that is planning to "punish those firms who spread misinformation".

[peter]

Grammar police-- It should be despise us gay people, not we

[Ignatz]

--There's that "we" again--

Shouldn't Jim Hlavac have said "us" gay people rather than "we" gay people?
I'm surprised anduril didn't correct him.

[Ignatz]

Heh.

[rse]

Sebelius has put out a letter to insurance companies that the Administration will have zero tolerance for any attempts to state that rate increases have anything to do with Obama care or the new required provisions like free preventative care or kids stay on until 26.

I started laughing at the sheer inanity of it. You may not state the obvious because of the political implications.

[Rocco]

Jeeze, I missed this too!

The imam behind a proposed mosque near Ground Zero is a prominent member of a group that helped sponsor the pro-Palestinian activists who clashed violently with Israeli commandos at sea this week.

[Rick Ballard]

When will Sebelius realize that she pulled a Waxman with her announcement? I foresee Congressional hearings allowing insurance industry execs the opportunity to lay out their rationale in great detail regarding why Obamacare drives rates through the roof.

[anduril]

The other day I stated the obvious fact that Israel is under NO pressure at all to come to any accord at all with the Palestinians. The peace talks are just a charade that Netanyahu has consented to participate in because Obama somehow thinks this will help him (Obama). It's Netanyahu's way of allowing Obama to save some face--hey, if Obama thinks so, why should Netanyahu care?

Along those lines, the major Israeli newspaper Maariv ran a poll this week. Here are the results:

Q. In your opinion, what are the most important subjects for the coming year?

Education—36%;
the Iranian threat—13%;
the war on corruption—12.7%;
peace with the Palestinians—11.3%;
traffic accidents—11.2%;
dealing with poverty—7.9%

So, "peace with the Palestinians" comes in pretty much in a dead heat with "traffic accidents."

Some pressure Israelis are feeling, huh?

But for all those paranoid delusionals who think that Israelis really feel threatened by Iranians, Palestinians, or any combination of the two, please note that "Education" at 36% beats out the combination of Iranians and Palestinians, which is only 24.3%.

Is it any surprise that Israel is selling high tech stuff to a Russia that's helping Iran "go nuclear?" And that Russia will be using that gear to keep Georgia (Israel's erstwhile "ally") under tight surveillance?

Who at JOM will shed a tear for Mikheil Saakashvili?

[Extraneus]

The administration seems a bit too comfortable in the knowledge that they have congressional majorities in both houses. Which is kind of great, if you like rude awakenings. I know I do.

[clarice]

Thanks, jmh. I am glad to see you are feeling better.

[anduril]

From Powerline:

WHY DID THE FBI VISIT REV. JONES?

September 10, 2010 Posted by Paul at 4:43 PM
Bill Otis, at the Crime and Consequences blog, notes an under-reported aspect of the story of Rev. Terry Jones plan (which he subsequently called off) to burn the Koran. It is this: FBI agents visited Rev. Jones shortly before he changed his mind about the book burning.

The AP story about the FBI's visit linked it to concern about public safety. But, as Bill observes, any reasonable public safety concern stemming from the action of Rev. Jones and his church would have only a local dimension -- i.e., retaliation against him and his church. Thus, Bill, a former federal prosecutor, concludes that there is "no visible nexus whatever for FBI involvement."

This raises the suspicion that the FBI visit was an attempt to intimidate Rev. Jones. A vist for this purpose would be an entirely improper infringement on his (and by extension our) civil liberties.

I had no sympathy for Jones' plan to plan the Koran -- better that Americans should read the book and evaluate the relationship between its words and the behavior of jihadists. But Jones has a constitutionally protected right to do what he was planning to do, and the FBI should not throw its weight around attempting to "persuade" Jones not to exercise that right.

As Bill stated in an email to me:

Since when does the AG -- who I strongly suspect knew about this, given its prominence and his own earlier comments [about the matter] -- get to send in the FBI to try to snuff patently legal behavior? If an imam had threatened to burn a Bible to protest American imperialism, and a Republican AG preemptively sent in the FBI, the liberal press would have gone into orbit about (1) McCarthyism, (2) censorship, (3) abuse of law enforcement authority, and (4) the attack on the Constitution.

Obama's AG does exactly the same thing, and I haven't seen a murmur of protest, or even recognition that something might be amiss.

[anduril]

From FR:

Giving Muslims the right not to be offended, and if offended, the right to threaten violence. This is a status no other religion in the world enjoys, NOR EVER SHOULD.

[bgates]

Anybody got any catchy lyrics about explosive decompression at 30,000 feet?

Well since my baby left me
I found a new place to dwell
I started at thirty thousand feet and
From there I fell

You opened the cabin door baby
You opened the cabin
When you opened it up we depressurized.

Now coach don't seem so crowded
I have plenty of elbow room
The fat guy who was next to me
Just vanished in a cloud of fume

You opened the cabin door baby
You opened the cabin
When you opened it up we depressurized.

Well, if you want to leave your baby
Wait until your plane gets back
Or the air marshals will get you
Charge you with terrorist attack

Don't open the cabin door baby
Don't open the cabin
If you open that plane door we could die.

[narciso]

I do occasionally forget my manners, JM, I am glad that you are feeling better

[Threadkiller]

--"Journalist Keith Koffler joked, “There was some snickering in the press room afterward that he might have become so hungry during Ramadan that he ate it."--

Porchlight, Obama does not eat with his left hand.

[Porchlight]

Aha, Threadkiller. He uses his right hand to remove the ring from his left hand. See? Voila!
:)

[Extraneus]

Bravo.

[DebinNC]

Looks like the regime purposefully disseminated misinformation">http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2010/09/09/asterisk-alert-ap-story-jobless-claims-doesnt-note-labor-dept-report-mis">misinformation in this week's jobs report, perhaps to affect possible questions in today's presser.

[qrstuv]

anduril,

What is wrong with you?! Seriously, are you mentally ill?

How many times do we have to ask you to stop the copy 'n' paste jobs? How many people have to ask you to stop it?

Here's a clue for you: This is not a "good-natured ribbing" the way you seem to think. This is a honest and heartfelt complaint about your wasting of other people's time.

I often read this blog on my kindle, and when I come your giant plagiarized essays, I have to page down and down and down and down just to get to the next interesting thing, which would be an actual comment by a reader of this blog.

I speak for many (maybe most of us) when I say that I am not, and never will be, interested in your data dumps.

Knock it off already!

[narciso]

Taheri, puts the whole question of the 'community center' in sharp relief, in the LUN

[Threadkiller]

I think the important thing is that not only did the plaintiffs have standing; their use of bending and squatting in the courtroom must have done something for the Judge.

[Threadkiller]

Indeed Porchlight, indeed.

[Ignatz]

--I speak for many (maybe most of us) when I say that I am not, and never will be, interested in your data dumps.--

qrstuv, you speak for all of "us" not most. "We" can't stand anduril's narcissistic petulance.
And only a cluless or malicious narcissist thinks everybody in a given place getting pissed off at him means there is something wrong with everybody else, not him.

[DebinNC]

lol, bgates

Do y'all think you know who is open to persuasion? I don't. Do y'all think he enjoys folks futilely begging/demanding that he shorten his posts? I do.

[patch]

I was a soldier once.

I had no First Amendment rights; I was told stop your griping and moaning; shut up and soldier.

You could exercise your right to vote; you kept you political opinions to yourself. This judge is a dumbass.

[narciso]

Ot, I know there is no such thing, but the incident with Tiffany and the coverage in the
Daily News, Ctuluthu's blackboard, indicates
that cant has robbed the paper of even the most basic tabloid instincts, it was a few sentence without pictures, at the bottom of the page, the Telegraph as with most things
is a quantitatively better paper,

[patch]

Continuing...

"First, they said, it violates their guarantee of substantive due process under the Fifth Amendment."

Due process in the military is defined by Congress and governed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

This judge is a dumbass.

[Extraneus]

Thanks for the Taheri link, narciso. So it's not a "mosque," and it's not a "community center" - it's a rabat. That's worth remembering.

[narciso]

As Rush saids, Ex, 'words mean things' the reason why there is so much obfuscation

[centralcal]

qrstuv - anduril is a sick person. One only has to have read the threads over the last 2 years to see that plainly. No amount of rational appeals will stop his sickness.

It truly is best to ignore him. The more one complains, the worse he behaves. Actually, he thrives on our complaints and our appeals for better behavior, and acts even more obnoxiously.

Starve him of the attention.

[hit and run]

rse:
Sebelius has put out a letter to insurance companies that the Administration will have zero tolerance for any attempts to state that rate increases have anything to do with Obama care or the new required provisions like free preventative care or kids stay on until 26.

I wonder if she'll go after companies that tell their employees that their rates are going up because of ObamaCare?

Here at The Firm we're entering benefits open enrollment pre-season. Just got a letter from HR about ObamaCare:

Today, we know that two of the 2011 health care reform changes (the increase in coverage limits and extending coverage adult children) will increase the cost of providing health care coverage

Oh noes.

This also is chuckle-worthy (bold mine):

Some provisions of the legislation may affect our benefits and some may not. Just because things may change, it doesn't mean that all changes will be bad -- some changes may have positive effects and could improve the level of coverage you see.

Well.

"All" not any.
"May" not will.
"Could" not will.

The certainty is on the ObamaCare-will-be-bad side -- at least some of it will be. Ambiguity is on the ObamaCare-could-be-good side -- there may or may not be any.

The arc of ObamaCare is crooked,but it bends toward higher costs and less care.

[Ann Mongrel]

Hi, cc:

Are you back from vacation?

Wish we could be with the JOM ladies in D.C. tonight. Wonder what kinda trouble they are stirring up tonight. :) I am really jealous.

[Extraneus]

The arc of ObamaCare is crooked,but it bends toward higher costs and less care.

Heh.

[JM Hanes]

Thanks, narciso: You've always been quite gallant, in fact.

[narciso]

Your welcome, JM, are you caught up on the Closer this season

[Rick Ballard]

DebinNC,

That's just part of a two month trial of the new Federal Government 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy regarding certain economic data. It was instituted rather hastily at the end of the Summer of Recovery.

Nothing remarkable about it at all.

Really.

Honest...

[Porchlight]

OT,

Say, has anyone seen commenter Chubby (formerly Parking Lot)? Haven't seen him/her around in awhile.

[DrJ]

I'm raising a glass to Elliott, and I hope others here do as well.

Elliott is leaving for London tomorrow. To celebrate, he and I met in Berkeley yesterday. We shared a simple Indian dinner at a hole-in-the-wall, wandered to a local microbrewery at my behest. It was located not that far from the new Islamic school there, but we didn't walk by.

We enjoyed a wide-ranging conversation about many themes that recur here. It was a fabulous time.

Travel well, my friend, and write if you find work!

[Porchlight]

Elliott! Bon voyage! I am toasting you as well...

[hit and run]

Raising a glass as well.

Best wishes,Elliott.

[narciso]

Bon voyage, Elliot

[Captain Hate]

Best wishes, Elliot.

[Rick Ballard]

Best wishes, Elliot.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Travel safely, Elliot!