Marines: A Vote For Repeal Is A Vote To Sacrifice Soldiers

From FRC and Alliance Defense Fund:

Marines: A Vote for Repeal Is a Vote to Sacrifice Soldiers




Anyone who's trying to pick a fight with the Marines over "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" should have to answer this question, which Gen. James Amos turned on a hostile reporter yesterday: "Have you been out with the Marines in an intense firefight, you personally?" The President certainly hasn't. Nor has his Secretary of Defense. "I don't want to lose any Marines to the distraction," the Commandant warned yesterday. "I don't want to have any Marines that I'm visiting at Bethesda [ Naval Medical Center ] with no legs be the result of any type of distraction... Right now is a very intense period of time for a pretty healthy slice of the United States Marine Corps. This is not training. This is what I call the real deal. And the forces that wear this uniform... came back and told their commandant of the Marine Corps that they have concerns. That's all I need. I don't need a staff study. I don't need to hire three PhDs to tell me [how] to interpret it... [I]f they have concerns, I do too. It's as simple as that." In the end, Gen. Amos is going do what's in the best interest of his Marines and the security of America . If Congress wasn't going to take his concerns seriously, why put him in the position in the first place? "When your life hangs on the line," he told the press, "Mistakes... or distractions cost Marines' lives."



This isn't just hyperbole. In his Senate testimony last March, Gen. John Sheehan (USMC-Ret.), Supreme Allied Commander for NATO, told a shocking story of how one gay soldier almost took out an entire combat patrol (page 16 of the congressional record). "Homosexual marines create problems on the battlefield... [In the] early years of Vietnam, 9th Marines, West of Da Nang, rifle company on a ridgeline combat outpost, the intelligence was that the North Vietnamese were going to attack, that night. The unit was put on 50-percent alert, which meant one slept, one stood on watch. About 1 o'clock in the morning, a fight broke out in a foxhole because the young marine was being molested by his squad leader. To the right of that foxhole, there was a machinegun section that opened [fire] and almost killed a combat patrol that was out in the front [because they thought the unit was under attack]."



That happened under a strict military ban. How many brave men and women are liberals willing to sacrifice so that homosexuals can flaunt their lifestyle? The only reason for changing the present policy is if it would help the military accomplish its mission. So far, no one has produced a single reason how it would. Until then, the Senate has to ask itself: Do they want the blood of innocent soldiers on their hands just to appease the political base of Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)? If they can live with that, then they're unlike any human beings I've ever met.



Omnibus Stalls in Senate Express Lane

Christmas may be about giving--but not to liberal projects! Unfortunately for most Americans, Democrats are in a generous mood, and they plan to prove it by spending over a trillion taxpayer dollars. Yesterday, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) filed the blimp of an omnibus, plumped up with over 6,600 earmarks. The 1,924-page mammoth, which clocks in just 125 pages shy of ObamaCare, packs in everything from "cool season legume research" to "pig waste management." (You may laugh (or cry) at Tom McClusky's hilarious take on the earmarks via Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) over at The Cloakroom Blog.) Obviously, Democrats are hoping that with a government shutdown looming, Republicans will have no choice but to swallow the pork and pass the bill. We've seen this same strategy play out the last two years. Leaders push the controversial votes up against Christmas to extract votes from members who just want to go enjoy their families. Liberals are banking on the fact that the Senate will cave to get home sooner.



Not so fast, say Republicans. "[I]t is completely and totally inappropriate to wrap all of this up into a 2,000-page bill and try to pass it the week before Christmas," said Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) couldn't believe the Democrats' nerve. "This omnibus was written as if the election in November never happened." And earmarks aren't the only thing to be furious about. FRC found plenty of pro-abortion measures hiding out in the fine print. The spending includes $750 million for an ObamaCare "slush fund" with zero oversight. Among other concerns, taxpayer funds could be used for abortions in D.C., $740 million would go toward international population control, and Title X funds would get a multi-million dollar boost. "Senate Republicans have the power to stop this railroad exercise," the Wall Street Journal insists, "if they stick together and insist that the Senate do the business the right way." But the right way means saying "no way" to the parade of bad bills.



Breaking down Family Breakdown

This morning, FRC was proud to unveil the first-ever Index of Family Belonging and Rejection--authored by our Dr. Pat Fagan. Using the Census Bureau's American Community Survey as its guide, The Index delves deep into the culture of divorce and family breakdown--and how it affects various regions of the country. "Only 45 percent of U.S. teenagers have spent their childhood with an intact family," Dr. Fagan explained in the news conference this morning, "with both their birth mother and their biological father legally married to one another since before or around the time of the teenager's birth ... 55 percent of teenagers live in families where their biological parents have rejected each other. The families with a history of rejection include single-parent families, stepfamilies, and children who no longer live with either birth parent but with adoptive or foster parents." American society is dysfunctional, Dr. Fagan told several members of the press. "Our culture needs a compass correction, learning again how to belong to each other when we have begotten children together. If we fail in this, as a nation we will continue to 'define deviancy down'..." To read more or to see how your state stacks up in the statistics of Belonging and Rejection, click here.



Stop Hating, Start Debating!

If Southern Poverty Law Center thinks FRC is a "hate group," they're in the minority! An open letter, signed by more than 150 organizational leaders, members of Congress, and other elected officials, hit the pages of the Washington Examiner and Politico today. Together with FRC, American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, National Organization for Marriage, and Liberty Counsel, these men and women are standing with us in calling for civil debate--and an end to the Left's character assassination. SPLC, which was once known for fighting racial bigotry, is sinking its reputation by trying to smear groups that uphold Judeo-Christian views, including marriage as the union of a man and woman. This is intolerance--and our movement won't stand for it. Join us in supporting free speech and honest debate by signing on to the petition at our new website, StartDebatingStopHating.com.