quote, i was one of the service chiefs when the don t ask, don t tell compromise was reached in 1993. until then, every person coming into the military was asked questions dreked at establishing sexual orientation and admitted homosexuals were automatically rejected. thus, the don t ask part of the rule actually means gays no longer have to lie. so if you re gay you don t have to lie about that in the military now? does general merrill mcpeak really believe that s true? it s totally prove bli obviously not true. in iraq during the height of the insurgency the air force conducted a search of my private e-mails solely to determine if i had violated don t ask, don t tell and to gather whatever evidence they could use against me. i was relieved of my duties leading nearly 200 airmen. the proponents of the policy
assigned with in my jaud drawn or that i fly with in my squadron knew about this case until this moment. even if general mcpeak s only recently acquired information about don t ask don t tell was garnered from watching cable news, say at 9:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc in the last few months would have provided him with direct evidence that people do have to lie if they are in the military and gay right now. but even being totally closeted is not enough to stop the witch hunting of people in the military to drum them out of the service. so general mcpeak s op-ed was a strange addition to the debate today. another one of the service chiefs from the time that don t ask, don t tell was put into place is also trying to make himself part of the debate now to similarly awkward effect. he s general mundy, the former commandant
automatically rejected, thus the don t ask part of the rule actually means gays no longer have to lie. so if you re gay you don t have to lie about that in the military now? does general merrill mcpeak really believe that s true? because it s totally provably obviously not true. in iraq during the height of the insurgency the air force conducted a serve of my private e-mails solely to determine if i violated don t ask don t tell and gather whatever evidence they could use against me. i was relieved of my duties leading nearly 200 airmen. the proponents of the policy say that you personally, you being gay, has a negative effect on your squadron s good order and discipline. how do you feel about that? not one single person i m
not try this social experiment because you can t really tell if it s going to work during peacetime. their approach is to somehow avoid what would make american men and women in service act in an honorable way, be able to not lie to themselves and lie to those around them and there is nothing but, in a sense, some hatred, a little bit of fear and a great deal of ignorance that is driving this force to keep this don t ask, don t tell policy in place. general mcpeak s op-ed today, i thought, was important because he did his arguments and i don t mean this as an insult to general mcpeak at all. his arguments were strange, in my view. he argued, for example, that warriors are inspired by male bonding and don t ask, don t tell interferes with male bonding and weaken warrior culture. as a former secretary of the army, i just have to ask your response to that argument.
against conservative tea partyesque radio host j.d. hayworth and facing that fight, john mccain brought today the biggest republican gun anybody can find these days. he brought to arizona newly elected equestrian trailer pulling, truck driving lawyer, massachusetts senator scott brown, who appeared alongside mccain at a rally in phoenix in order to throw his support behind john mccain s re-election effort. hello, phoenix. my name is scott brown. i drive a truck and i am here to support senator john mccain for another term in the united states senate. let me tell you how brave john mccain is as a politician. john mccain has today introduced an amendment that would prevent the senate from ever making any cuts to medicare using the reconciliation process, using a 51-vote simple majority. ladies and gentlemen, i m here to tell you it took a lot of political courage for john mccain to introduce that because john mccain himself has done this thing he now wants to ban four times.