i agree, chuck hagel wants to spend more than we need. if you take the deficit problems seriously. on the other hand, it s a lot less than defense secretaries have pushed for in the past. so the time may have overrode it a little bit. i m encouraged to have him talk about getting rid of some weapons systems and reducing the military. the biggest issue here is that he does seem to me to be agreeing at this notion of american intervention with significant military force in various parts of the world basically for geopolitical influence as opposed to a national defense, is a bad idea. i think it s a good thing that he wants to reduce the military to a point where we wouldn t be able to do some of these things. now, we need to continue to push for this. and what i m afraid of is that members of congress are going to not only go on with him in the cuts but that they ll want to do
members of congress are going to not only go on with him in the cuts but that they ll want to do even more. so, yes, he s talking about more than we need to spend, can afford to spend, should wisely spend, but having the secretary of defense on the we can do less than we ve been doing side is a good idea. and the sequester we know is a little unrealistic. it was put in there to threaten i think it s a good thing that even though i voted against it because i didn t think it was a wise way to make cuts. and i i think the key point, though, is this. he s done us a favor by raising this. everybody in america who wants to see the deficit reduced without cutting environmental protection, or local police, or aid to education, or food stamps, or housing for the elderly, or social security, literally everybody who believes any of this ought to jump in here and say, you know, mr.
but not far enough. i think this is the opportunity for the american people to say what i think they want to say, we ve been overspending on the military, we ve been over-intervening elsewhere in the world to our disadvantage, and let s bring some of that money back into the domestic economy where it can do some good. the thing that strikes me as the thing that strikes me as strange about these developments today is because there is the sequester, which is deeper cuts than secretary hagel was talking about today, what he s arguing for is actually increases in the defense budget compared to sequester. congress doesn t seem ready to get rid of the sequester. so both sides of this fight are blaming the other for being too reckless and cutting defense too much and they re both arguing that defense ought to have more. i m worried we just started a process that looks like it s starting with cuts but really it s all about people competing to add as much as they can to the budget. again,
even though these american activists were trying desperately to distance themselves from the kill the gays bill when it came out, prominent ugandans aware of how the bill came to be were crediting the same americans for helping with and inspiring the legislation. one priest we spoke with said members of the ugandan parliament present at the march conference left the meetings saying they needed to draft a new law to deal with the homosexuality issue. we learned it was not just the three american activists who had a front-row seat to what was happening in uganda. remember c street? a swanky town house in washington, d.c., run by a secretive religious group called the fellowship or the family. lots of conservative members of congress from both parties are believed to be members of the family. but they re pretty secretive. the family mostly operates off the radar. the one thing they do that everybody knows about is they run the national prayer breakfast every year in washington. other th
immigration advocates there to strategize and lay the groundwork for actions this coming here. on the occasion of that big confab of immigration activists, this weekend, the arizona republic did some reporting on the prospects for any movement on the immigration reform nationally. the paper quoting the number two democrat in the house, steny hoyer saying the house democrats idea for a discharge petition to get a vote on immigration reform even if john boehner doesn t want it. steny hoyer telling the paper that probably won t work but it s a way for democrats to keep the pressure on republicans on this issue. not so fast, though, because it s not just democrats in washington pressuring republicans in washington on this issue. it s not just members of congress pressuring each other. there s also a big movement here, a big and under-covered and very energized movement for immigration rights. and they re still very, very fired up and very, very ready to go. this is them in phoenix this