Obama’s DADT Speech

It was a great speech. But I was a little disappointed because there was nothing really new.

What I liked:

• He promised to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” this year. But I’m still upset about not doing it sooner. There were urgent requests – All of them noteworthy – By high-ranking military men who were wrongly outed. They wanted him to do something right away – To take a stand against what was happening to them. He did nothing to stop it. He could’ve written an executive order to repeal the old – But instead insisted Congress to take action. Then, when someone in the House came up with strongly worded legislation to do exactly that, the White House blocked his efforts. I mean, what kind of White House does that?

The old Bush White House did that kind of thing. And instead of change, we’re getting the same old thing. Obama has tons of leftovers from Bush, and a few new kinds of Karl Rove’s of his own – Like Rham Emmanuel, Tim Geitner, and Paul Bernanke. This certainly helps me understand why Obama isn’t threatening the prior administration with prosecutions for war crimes, illegal wire-tapping, etc, etc, etc. He’s also keeping a lot of the same illegal executive orders Bush put into place.

Anyway, I’m just glad something is being done now about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.

• I also liked the fact that he confronted the Supreme Court about their disastrous ruling that will flood our elections with unlimited amounts of foreign corporate money. Putting lawmakers’ seats for sale is NOT democracy. I guess former Illinois governo r only needed to wait a year if wanted to legally sell a Senate seat, because NOW, it’s f*cking golden.

What I didn’t like was:

• Obama’s repeated promise to work with Republicans. Seriously. Has our president become some kind of abused spouse who refuses to leave the wife-beating drunkard who keeps promising that he won’t hit her anymore??
  It’s so embarrassing.

• His promise to push for more off-shore drilling and nuclear power. What the heck happened to Green Energy Jobs and Legislation????!!!! Exactly how will helping corrupt oil and nuclear energy companies help the
  environment??? It was just more embarrassing concessions to the very people who put us in the situation we are still stuck in – a broke country with a shameful history of massive environmental pollution.

I have mixed feelings about the high-speed rail project. While I’m very glad we are going to build something that will push us forward in so many ways for years to come, I don’t understand why we couldn’t put this same
money into fixing more highways and bridges. Public investment in infrastructure is an extremely effective way to create more jobs and push the country forward. I guess I’m just a little jealous, maybe, that it will
not be happening in our neck of the woods. I really hope something more can be done for the rest of the country, and not just the south, where Republicans will simply treat you like cr*p for helping them out.

• For example: In Portland, highways are a mess. Especially the bridges. I feel quite sure that we will have a nightmarish bridge collapse in the not-so-distant future. I wish I were kidding, but you only need to drive underneath a few – especially the extremely large bridges that cross over the Willamette or the Columbia Gorge. The one that connects into Portland is especially dismal-looking – and it’s the tallest one – a double-decker bridge with a constant stream of traffic on it. Portland could use quite a big boost of help from a federally funded highway project. It would provide tons of jobs to construction workers, a reliable source of income for the city and surrounding areas, and it would restore and beautify a very old city that is badly in need of help. It would – most importantly – make these bridges safe again. And I’m not even talking about the bridges in Washington state, which could also use a hand – but not half as badly as the ones in Oregon. It rains almost every day of the year here, and the harsh weather makes it even tougher on our heavily traveled infrastructure.

Anyway. those are my two cents.

Thanks.