A Daily Caller piece by Log Cabin ally Ric Grennell published July 28, 2010

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice has been on the job for 18 months now, but she doesn’t have much to show for it.  Her record of accomplishments and performance on behalf of the American people is embarrassing.  While Rice has been active in the social scene of Washington and The White House, a study released by the uber-serious non-profit group Security Council Report suggests that the past year has been the most inactive Security Council since 1991.  Rice missed crucial negotiations on Iran’s continued enrichment of uranium, she failed to speak out when Iran was elected to the Commission on the Status of Women and three other UN Committees, she failed to call-out Libya when they were elected to the UN’s Human Rights Council, she recently delivered an Iran sanctions resolution with the least support Iran resolutions have ever had and she called her one and only press conference with the UN Secretary General on the issue of texting while driving.  For an administration that promised to utilize the UN and improve our reputation around the world, its dinner party circuit strategy isn’t making America more secure.

Much of the blame for the weakness belongs to Rice and her habitual silence.  Rice has not conducted the hard negotiations nor done the sometimes unpopular work of engaging the UN on the United States’ priority issues.  When Rice does attend UN negotiations, she is all too willing to avoid confrontation.  While other foreign Ambassadors speak fondly of Rice and the Obama Administration’s easy ways, they have been weak negotiators for the American people.

This lack of American leadership at the UN has resulted in the general Security Council inactivity spotlighted in the study by the Columbia University-affiliated group – Security Council Report.

The Report says:

“In 2009 the total number of Council decisions (resolutions and presidential statements) decreased by 26 percent from 2008. The number dropped from 113 to 83, the lowest level since 1991.

Resolutions dropped from 65 to 48 and presidential statements from 48 to 35.

This significant trend is also mirrored in a matching reduction in formal Council activity.  The number of formal Council meetings decreased by 20 percent, from 243 to 194.

The number of press statements, which is one indicator of Council decision making at the informal level, also decreased by 23 percent, from 47 to 36.”

While Rice launched her tenure at the UN with a glamour spread in Vogue Magazine by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz showing her kicking back in an empty Security Council Chamber, she seems to not enjoy the Chamber when it’s full of diplomats.  During the Haiti crisis, Rice was not only absent from the Security Council vote to expand the UN’s peacekeeping operation, but she also failed to call an emergency meeting in the immediate aftermath to request more help.  In fact, 7 days after the Haiti earthquake left tens of thousands of people in the streets without food or shelter, it was UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that came to the Security Council to request more troops – the American Ambassador hadn’t bothered.

 Read more at the Daily Caller.

Posted: July 28th, 2010 under From the Right, In Focus, In the World.

Associated Press July 23, 2010

“RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Lawyers for a Republican gay rights organization will ask a judge for an injunction to halt the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy during their closing arguments in a federal trial challenging the law.

Lawyers for the Log Cabin Republicans say they will ask U.S. District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips on Friday to declare the law unconstitutional.

The case is unique in that it is not based on an individual’s complaint but rather is a broad, sweeping attack on the policy. It is the biggest legal test of the law in recent years.

The case has put the Obama administration in the awkward position of defending a policy the president wants repealed. Government attorneys have argued throughout the two-week trial that Congress should decide on the policy — not a federal judge.

They presented only the policy’s legislative history in their defense.

The Log Cabin Republicans’ witnesses included former officers discharged under the policy and other experts who presented studies of how openly gay troops do not affect unit cohesion or military readiness, as proponents of the law have argued. The group’s attorneys also submitted President Barack Obama’s remarks that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy weakens national security.

The plaintiff’s lead lawyer, Dan Woods, argued the policy violates the rights of gay military members to free speech, due process and open association.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” prohibits the military from asking about the sexual orientation of service members but requires discharge of those who acknowledge being gay or are discovered to be engaging in homosexual activity, even in the privacy of their own homes off base.

The group says more than 13,500 service members have been fired under the law since 1994. The 19,000-member Log Cabin Republicans include current and former military members.

Phillips is expected to issue her verdict in writing. Lawyers say she could take weeks or longer to make her decision.

Legal experts say she may hold off to see if Congress is going to repeal it.

The U.S. House voted May 27 to repeal the policy, and the Senate is expected to take up the issue this summer.

In deciding to hear the challenge, Phillips said the “possibility that action by the legislative and executive branches will moot this case is sufficiently remote.”

Woods, a Los Angeles attorney from the firm White & Case, said if Phillips rules in their favor and the government appeals, he will ask her to suspend the policy until the case is decided.”

Posted: July 23rd, 2010 under In Focus, In the News, Issues in Focus, Log Cabin In Focus.

‘DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL’ IS A THREAT TO THE CONSTITUTION AND NATIONAL SECURITY.

The following quotes are extracted from Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper’s  Op-Ed on the DADT policy.

“Recent headlines lead many in the gay community to believe the fight to repeal DADT is over, but the policy and discharges remain fully in force.”

“As a veteran of the Iraq campaign and a current Army reserve officer, I can attest that DADT is a hindrance to servicemember integrity, readiness and security, and is a waste of tax dollars.”

“Further, striking the DADT policy and implementing repeal will be a force multiplier for the retention and expansion of much-needed personnel and resources to fulfill the expeditionary campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other training and peace-keeping missions around the globe.”

Read the entire Op-Ed at Metro Weekly

Posted: July 22nd, 2010 under In Focus, In the News, Issues in Focus, Log Cabin In Focus.

QUOTES OF INTEREST

Mark Halperin:  (Time Magazine, 7/19)

“Democrats also fear that Biggs’ admission will impact the flow of donations from corporate interests and lobbyists, who tend to want to bet on the party more likely to win the majority. Open musing about a Speaker John Boehner, House Democrats believe, will drive mercenary donors to shift their support to the GOP.”

Cook Political Report:  (Meet the Press, 7/18)

“…identifies 64 House seats now held by Democrats that could fall to a Republicans.”

Posted: July 21st, 2010 under Elections, GOP Progress, In Congress.

Yesterday in Riverside California, the head of Servicemembers United Alexander Nicholson, testified in the Log Cabin Republicans lawsuit challenging the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy.

Nicholson is the founder and Executive Director of the nation’s largest organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans. He was one of the lead witnesses in the trial in federal court. Through testimony and facts, Log Cabin hopes to get DADT declared unconstitutional by the federal judge.

“I am especially honored to be the lead veteran witness in this case and to have the opportunity to represent all gay and lesbian troops and veterans on the witness stand today at this very important and historic trial,” said Nicholson, who was discharged under DADT.

“This unnecessary and bigoted law has caused untold harm to each and every person who has served under it, and that, in turn, has harmed the quality and readiness of our armed forces,” he said.

Read full testimony from the trial on Log Cabin Republicans’s website here.

Posted: July 21st, 2010 under In Focus, In the News, Issues in Focus, Log Cabin In Focus.

The following is a guest commentary by Sen. Roy Ashburn originally posted at GayPolitics.com

Startled by the blurry reality of a red light glaring in my rear-view mirror at 2 am on the morning of March, 4, 2010, I knew my life was about to change.  The California Highway Patrol stopped me as I was driving drunk after leaving a gay club in Sacramento, California’s capital.   With my arrest and the media inquiry that followed, my deeply-held secret was no longer my own business.  My private life as a closeted gay man was now the public’s business, and I had a lot of explaining to do.

I should begin with an apology.  I am sincerely sorry for the votes I cast and the actions I took that harmed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.  Just as important to me, I am sorry for not stepping forward and speaking up as an elected official on behalf of equal treatment for all people.  For nearly 26 years, the voters in my area of California trusted me as their elected representative.  I look back now knowing there is so much more I could have done to inform the public about LGBT  people and to fight for equal rights under the law.  Regrettably and selfishly, I took another path in my life and political career—I chose to conceal who I truly am and to then actually vote against the best interests of people like me.  All this was done because I was afraid–terrified, really–that somehow I would be revealed as gay.

My past actions harmed gay people.  In fact, all people are harmed when there is unequal treatment of anyone under the constitution and laws of our country.  I do not believe in discrimination, and yet my votes advanced unequal of treatment of gay people and promoted the suspicion and fear that limits people from being forthright and accepted in society.

Now, from what I have lived and learned, I want to do the best that I can to advance equality and freedom for all people.  Given the shame and confusion that many feel over their sexual orientation, perhaps my situation can serve as an example of both the harm that can come from denial and fear, and the opportunity to try to make things right.

Gay people being treated with respect and having the same opportunities for a good life regardless of sexual orientation should not be topics of political debate.  How can it possibly be that there is a partisan political divide over equal rights in America?  At a time when our country is deeply divided over the proper size and scope of government, when people are hurting in a bad economy and when we face real threats from terrorists determined to end our way of life, shouldn’t we be united on at least one principal–that equality for all Americans is fundamental to who we are as a nation of freedom-loving people?

Now, I am somewhat of a novelty in politics.  I am a gay Republican.  I have always been a Republican, even as an eight-year-old boy with an intense interest in campaigning, elections and government.  To me, Republican principles hold that each individual is special and unique; each individual should have the maximum freedom and opportunity under our Constitution; that government has no business in the private lives of our citizens.

If these truly are the guiding values of Republicans—how did we ever get into the situation where my party is viewed as the anti-gay-rights party?  Well, maybe because Republicans, including myself, have voted and acted to oppose equality and freedom for gay people.

It’s time for fair-minded Republicans to speak up for what our party really stands for—individual freedom and limited government.  If we truly believe the greatness of America is founded on the individual achievements of ordinary citizens acting with the maximum amount of personal liberty, then there should be no debate over where Republicans stand on the rights of LGBT Americans.

We stand for equality as well as opportunity.  We stand for individuals living their lives without fear or limits imposed by a powerful government.  We stand for a government of limited powers over citizens, including not being involved in the private lives of people.  These tenets of Republican ideology call for bold action by our party when confronted with the real-life issues of discrimination against LGBT people.

I am no longer willing, nor able to remain silent in the face of unequal and hurtful treatment of my community.  It may have taken me a strange, incoherent and long path to get here, but this is where I find myself as a gay Republican Senator.  It’s time for Republicans to find our way and fight for equal treatment for all people, especially the freedom to be unique and have our rights acknowledged and protected.

Roy Ashburn, a California State Senator, is in his final term in office representing District 18, which includes portions of Kern, Tulare, and San Bernardino Counties.

Posted: July 20th, 2010 under GOP Progress, On the Lighter Side.

Testimony and personal stories are being heard this week at the Log Cabin Republicans v. United States court case challenging the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy. The trial began on Tuesday in Riverside California and is schedule to continue through next Thursday. Thousands of servicemembers have been discharged under the policy causing for thousands of lives to be thrown into disarray. Testimony from several members about their personal discharge is often very somber and upsetting.

Former petty officer 3rd class Joseph Christopher Rocha was discharged after harassment and hazing from commanders and other servicemembers. He testified that even with this treatment, if the ban is lifted he will rejoin the military.

Even though President Obama made repeal a goal on his agenda, his administration is defending the policy in court. White and Case partner and Log Cabin attorney Dan Woods stated about the US attorneys, “The fact that they are offering no witnesses, no documents other than evidence from 1993 — I think it weakens their case. They’ve chosen a conservative strategy. And they’re not trying to prove that DADT has worked.”

Today Major Mike Almy will testify about his 2006 discharge from the Air Force after a search of Almy’s private e-mails was conducted by his commanding officer. Lawrence J. Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, will also testify about how the policy fails to prove any justifiable military objectives.

 Read the entire article by The Advocate here.

Posted: July 16th, 2010 under In Focus, In the News, Issues in Focus, Log Cabin In Focus.

THE WASHINGTON POST

By Jeb Bush and Robert D. Putnam
Saturday, July 3, 2010; A19

On our national birthday, and amid an angry debate about immigration, Americans should reflect on the lessons of our shared immigrant past. We must recall that the challenges facing our nation today were felt as far back as the Founders’ time. Immigrant assimilation has always been slow and contentious, with progress measured not in years but in decades. Yet there are steps communities and government should take to form a more cohesive, successful union.

Consider what one leader wrote in 1753: “Few of their children in the country learn English. The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages. . . . Unless the stream of their importation could be turned . . . they will soon so outnumber us that we will not preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious.” Thus Ben Franklin referred to German Americans, still the largest ethnic group in America. A century later, Midwestern cities such as Cincinnati and St. Louis were mostly German-speaking. So worried were their native-born neighbors that Iowa outlawed speaking German in public and even in private conversation.

Proponents and opponents of immigration agree on one thing: Learning English is crucial to success and assimilation. Yet learning a language as an adult is hard, so first-generation immigrants often use their native tongue. Historically, English has dominated by the second or third generation in all immigrant groups. Most recent immigrants recognize that they need to learn English, and about 90 percent of the second generation speak English, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Research by sociologists Claude Fischer and Michael Hout published in 2008 suggests that English acquisition among immigrants today is faster than in previous waves.

Residential integration of immigrants is even more gradual. Half a century ago, sociologist Stanley Lieberson showed that most immigrants lived in segregated enclaves, “Little Italy” or “Chinatown,” for several generations. This segregation reflected discrimination by natives and the natural desire of “strangers in a strange land” to live among familiar faces with familiar customs. Only with suburbanization, encouraged by government policy in the 1950s and 1960s, did the children and grandchildren of the immigrants of the 1890s and 1900s exit those enclaves. That many of today’s immigrants live in ethnic enclaves is thus entirely normal and reflects no ominous aim to separate themselves from the wider American community.

Immigrant intermarriage, then and now, also demonstrates steady progress over generations. In the 1960s, more than half a century after Italian immigration peaked, about 40 percent of second-generation Italians married non-Italians. This pattern characterizes today’s immigrants: 39 percent of U.S.-born Latinos marry non-Latinos, according to the Pew Research Center. Intermarriage among second-generation Asian Americans is even more common. Today’s immigrants are, on average, assimilating socially even more rapidly than earlier waves.

One important difference, however, that separates immigration then and now: We native-born Americans are doing less than our great-grandparents did to welcome immigrants.

A century ago, religious, civic and business groups and government provided classes in English and citizenship. Historian Thomas P. Vadasz found that in Bethlehem, Pa., a thriving town of about 20,000, roughly two-thirds of whom were immigrants, the biggest employer, Bethlehem Steel, and the local YMCA offered free English instruction to thousands of immigrants in the early 20th century, even paying them to take classes. Today, immigrants face long waiting lists for English classes, even ones they pay for.

Why is this important? A legal immigration system is the not-so-secret edge in a competitive, interconnected world economy. Immigrants enhance our ability to grow and prosper in the dynamic global marketplace. We will need every possible advantage to expand our economy amid its fiscal challenges. Moreover, the aging of our population places a premium on young, productive workers, many of whom must come from immigration.

To improve their integration into our American community, we should:

– Provide low-cost English classes, in cooperation with local civic and religious groups, where immigrants build personal ties with co-ethnics and native-born Americans. These connections foster assimilation and help newcomers navigate our complex institutions.

– Invest in public education, including civics education and higher education. During the first half of the 20th century, schools were critical to preparing children of immigrants for success and fostering a shared national identity.

– Assist communities experiencing rapid increases in immigration, which is traumatic for those arriving here and for receiving communities. Schools and hospitals bear disproportionate costs of immigration, while the economic and fiscal benefits from immigration accrue nationally.

Assimilation does not mean immigrants shed ethnic identities. Our national experience with hyphenated identities shows that good Americans can retain a strong sense of ethnic identity.

We’ve lived our national motto, “E Pluribus Unum” (“Out of Many, One”), better than any other country. But we ought not to airbrush our ancestors’ difficulties in assimilation, nor fail to match our forebears’ efforts to help integrate immigrants. Government, churches, libraries, civic organizations and businesses must cooperate to address this challenge, as they did a century ago.

Jeb Bush was governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. Robert D. Putnam is the Malkin professor of public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

View all comments that have been posted about this article.

Posted: July 16th, 2010 under GOP Heroes, GOP Progress, In the News.

The Washington Post conducted an interview with Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper about the Log Cabin trial against the United States ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy. Here are some memorable quotes from Mr. Cooper in the interview

“If [the policy] ends through the executive process, fine; if it ends through the legislative process, fine. But to achieve victory, as in military operations, one has to look at multiple theaters.”

“You can’t walk up to a judge and ask him when to set the trial. We’ve been working up to this court date. It didn’t happen overnight.”

“If you break down those metrics, registered Republicans generally support repeal.”

“For others, it’s the fiscal side. . . . There’s a lot of support data out there that Log Cabin and other organizations have used to show it’s expensive to discharge somebody.”

 “Our moniker is “Inclusion Wins.” We’ve been advocating for years that we should focus on basic, core conservative values and stay away from divisive wedge issues and social issues.”

 Read the entire interview here.

Posted: July 15th, 2010 under Action Alert, Chapter News, In Focus, In the News, Issues in Focus, Log Cabin In Focus.

In Boston last week a federal judge made two significant rulings in favor of gay marriage and striking down aspects of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Massachusetts legalized gay marriage in 2004, yet couples who wed were prohibited from Social Security  benefits, joint tax returns, and leaving work to care for a sick partner. The Boston judge ruled that the government must treat Massachusetts gay married couples the same way as heterosexual ones.

Almost as significant as the judge’s decision, was the fact that Judge Joseph Tauro was an appointee of Richard Nixon. Conservative judges and courts across the country are ruling in favor of equal rights, including Iowa’s ruling allowing gay marriage and other court decisions in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Another major case in California over Prop. 8 is being considered by conservative appointed Judge Vaughn Walker. Conservative judges are the ones stepping up in the name of equality across the nation. Read more from The Boston Globe on this story.

Posted: July 15th, 2010 under From the Right, GOP Heroes, GOP Progress, In the States.