A Daily Caller piece by Log Cabin ally Ric Grenell 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.

This article was first published in the Harvard Republian Alumni Network Journal.

Posted: July 28th, 2010 under From the Right, In Focus, In the World.
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The Log Cabin Republicans released a press release on Friday July 9th laying out details pertaining to the Log Cabin Republicans v. United States case that will be heard this week. The case challenges the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy. The Obama Administration is being forced to defend this policy which the President is in favor of repealing. Politico printed the following story on the situation.

“OBAMA CAN’T SHAKE GAY-RIGHTS FIGHTS

By JOSH GERSTEIN | 7/10/10 7:03 AM EDT

When President Barack Obama agreed to back legislation in May that could eventually repeal the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, the resolution seemed to offer twin benefits for the White House:

Posted: July 12th, 2010 under Action Alert, In Focus, In the News, In the States, In the World, Issues in Focus, Log Cabin In Focus.
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Victory for Marriage Equality! A Boston Judge ruled today that the 1996 DOMA is unconstitutional because it interferes with a state’s right to define marriage. U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro handed down two influential rulings Thursday declaring DOMA unconstitutional.

The first case was brought by the state of Massachusetts. Judge Tauro declared Congress violated the Tenth Amendment by originally passing DOMA. They took away the states decisions determining which couples can be considered married.

 His second ruling was on Gill v. Office of Personnel Management. It was decided that DOMA violated equal protection embodied in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. This case was argued by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), GLAD represented eight married couples and three widowers in the suit.

 Two other major equality court cases continue to develop in California, the Prop. 8 trial and Log Cabin Republicans trial against the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The decision in Boston today is a great step toward equality for all Americans, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Posted: July 8th, 2010 under Action Alert, Chapter News, In Focus, In the News, In the States, In the World, Issues in Focus.
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Yesterday the Log Cabin Republicans issues a formal press release statement urging President Obama to sign the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) President, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace joined with Log Cabin to urge the signing of the sanctions. The sanctions include key provisions that prevent companies that do business in Iran from contracting with the U.S. Government.  Now, companies covered by this legislation will have to choose between doing business with Iran and doing business with the U.S.

Read the entire press release at http://online.logcabin.org/news_views/reading-room-back-up/log-cabin-republicans-call-3.html

Posted: June 30th, 2010 under Action Alert, In Congress, In the News, In the World, Log Cabin In Focus.
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CNSNews reported today that “the Bush administration was twice able to pull off what the current administration has not” after three countries refused to back sanctions to Iran. Turkey, Brazil, and Lebanon voted against the resolution. (Read the entire story below)

 “The Obama administration is playing down the absence of U.N. Security Council unanimity in adopting new sanctions against Iran on Wednesday, attributing three members’ refusal to back the resolution to differences over “timing and tactics.”
 
Turkey and Brazil voted against resolution 1929, while Lebanon abstained.
 
For all its supposed unilateralism and unpopularity at the U.N., the Bush administration was twice able to pull off what the current administration has not – a 15 out of 15 vote in the council for sanctions against Tehran. On a third occasion, the Bush administration achieved a 14-0 vote, with one abstention.
 
Resolutions 1737 (in 2006), 1747 (2007) and 1803 (2008) were, at China and Russia’s insistence, less robust than the U.S. would have wished. But at least the unanimous vote result in the first two cases demonstrated a unified position on Iran’s nuclear activities by the world body’s most powerful organ.
 
The Bush administration was widely accused of substandard diplomacy, not least by its domestic critics. U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice said last September the new administration had “dramatically changed the tone, the substance, and the practice of our diplomacy at the United Nations” and accused the previous one of “stiff-arming the U.N. and spurning our international partners.”
 
Yet under some of her predecessors – John Bolton in the months leading up to the 2006 resolution, Alejandro Wolff in 2007, and Zalmay Khalilzad in 2008 – the U.S. managed to win over several non-permanent Council members either sympathetic to Iran, or at least not pro-Western in outlook.
 
They included Qatar (2006 and 2007), Indonesia (2007), South Africa (2007 and 2008), Vietnam (2008) – and even Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya (2008).

In voting no on Wednesday, Brazil and Turkey argued the sanctions would endanger a diplomatic solution to the standoff, which has dragged on since 2002. (According to Beirut’s Daily Star, Lebanon abstained after its cabinet could not reach agreement on the matter. Western-leaning ministers wanted an abstention; Hezbollah and its allies wanted Lebanon to vote against the resolution.)
 
Brazil and Turkey last month negotiated an agreement for Iran to send some of its low-enriched uranium abroad for processing, and said afterwards that there was no longer any need for additional U.N. sanctions.
 
But the U.S. and others pressed ahead with negotiations on a draft resolution, saying the Turkey-Brazil-Iran deal did not resolve the core questions driving suspicion that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability under the cover of a civilian program.
 
When the Security Council a year ago unanimously approved a resolution tightening sanctions against North Korea, U.S. diplomats stressed the importance of the fact the council was “speaking with one voice.”
 
Testifying before Congress in February, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told lawmakers that it was important that “we speak with one voice, one voice within our government and one voice internationally, against Iran’s failure to live up to its responsibilities.”
 
Administration officials on Wednesday minimized the significance of the 12-2 vote.
 
“The passage today of resolution 1929 occurred with a very strong majority of the Security Council,” U.S. ambassador Rice said after the session. “We are very pleased by the outcome and pleased by the strong support that was demonstrated by Council members.”
 
“The fact that Turkey and Brazil chose to vote no, I think as you heard in their statements, was a reflection largely of a difference of timing and tactics,” she said.
“Both countries affirmed their view that Iran should not have a nuclear weapons capability, we share that goal. They differed with the other members of the Security Council about the timing and appropriateness of sanctions at this stage.”
 
“We would have welcomed a unanimous vote,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told a briefing. “We didn’t get the unanimous vote, but we got a very, very strong, compelling statement from the international community.”
 
Asked whether the absence of unanimity weakened the signal of collective will, Crowley alluded to the difficulties faced by diplomats.
 
“I would say that given the amount of effort and length of effort by Iran to try to do everything in its power to avoid this moment, I think we are satisfied that this sends a very strong message,” he said.
 
“We have a difference of view over perhaps tactics and timing. We respect that. But I think we are very satisfied that this resolution will raise the cost of Iran’s noncompliance,” Crowley said.
 
“We are going to, now working with international partners, move ahead with aggressively enforcing this resolution. And we expect that it will have impact in Iran.” ”

Posted: June 18th, 2010 under Democrats, GOP Heroes, In the World.
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On Wednesday May 19, 2010 the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. and Palm Center organized a speakers’ panel to discuss open service of gay men and lesbians in the military in our allied nations. Military leaders from Australia Canada, Israel, and the United Kingdom all gathered to describe their experiences and share the policies that allow gay men and lesbians to openly serve in their militaries.

 In the coming weeks, Congress will be facing the issue of whether or not to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that will ultimately determine the future of gays and lesbians from serving our nation.

 The allied military leaders shared the consensus that the problems are few to none by allowing gay men and lesbians to openly serve, and actually strengthen their forces.

 “Gays and Lesbians are just as effective as straight soldiers. Sexual orientation has no effect for how well a person does their job,” declared Commander Luc Cassivi, a seasoned naval officer of the Canadian Forces.

 The United States is one of the few allied countries that do not currently allow open serve in the military. The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is negatively affecting our nation and hurting our military’s strength.

 Lieutenant Colonel Mick King of the Australian Army stated, “These men and women sign up to serve their countries and do their jobs, nothing else. It is all groups of people working together and pulling together as part of a team to protect all.”

 The Log Cabin Republicans and numerous other groups are vigorously working to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to fight for the equality of all Americans.   

 Read more about the Brookings Institution series.

Posted: May 20th, 2010 under In Congress, In Focus, In the News, In the World.
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Newly installed Prime Minister David Cameron tapped openly gay Conservative MPs Nick Herbert as the Minister of State for Justice and Home Secretary for Police and Alan Duncan as the Minister of State in the International Development Department.

Duncan and Herbert, were among the first out gay election candidates who currently hold civil partnerships with their longtime partners, they are now some of of the highest-profile and most senior openly gay ministers in any government. Duncan and Herbert join Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s Vice Chancelor, as one of the highest ranking openly gay elected officials.

During the campaign, Herbert took a leading role in recruiting support among the gay and lesbian community in the United Kingdom for the Conservative Party. He underlined a number of advanced positions which his government would support, including combatting hate crimes, a matter he now overseas as Minister of Police, employment non-discrimination and even expanding the current right for same-sex couples to have civil partnerships to full marriage equality.

Posted: May 14th, 2010 under In the World.
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