Rachel Maddow
why.....?
follow me below and see for yourself.
Captain Jonathan Hopkins, West Point Grad, Hero.
He graduated #4 out of 901 commissioned officers in West Point’s Class of 2001, where he was also ranked #1 militarily. Infantry company commander with three combat tours, he was slated to return to West Point to teach International Relations until the Army discovered he was gay.
Fired by DADT; discharged for being gay.
transcript
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Cadet Katherine Miller, West Point.
Ranks No. 9 in her class of future Army leaders, stepped out the closet last weekend and quit West Point.
Quit because of DADT; quit because she refused to live a lie, anymore.
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Lt. Colonel Victor Fehrenbach, USAF
He has served honorably for 18 years in the Air Force as an F-15E Aviator. He has received eight air medals, one for Heroism, and was hand-picked to protect the Washington, D.C. airspace after 9/11. He flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, targeting the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Lt. Col. Fehrenbach has only been an asset to the United States Air Force, not a detriment to unit cohesion, morale, or good order.
Suing to block discharge under DADT.
transcript
The NYT Reports:
On Wednesday, Colonel Fehrenbach’s lawyers filed papers in Idaho federal court requesting a temporary order blocking his discharge. The petition contends that a discharge would violate Colonel Fehrenbach’s rights, cause him irreparable harm and fail to meet standards established in a 2008 federal court ruling on don’t ask, don’t tell...
...Lawyers for Colonel Fehrenbach assert that his case is among the most egregious applications of the policy in their experience. The Air Force investigation into his sexuality began with a complaint from a civilian that was eventually dismissed by the Idaho police and the local prosecutor as unfounded, according to court papers. Colonel Fehrenbach has never publicly said that he is gay. However, during an interview with an Idaho law enforcement official, he acknowledged having consensual sex with his accuser. Colonel Fehrenbach’s lawyers say he did not realize Air Force investigators were observing that interview; his admission led the Air Force to open its 'don’t ask' investigation.
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Finally, Rachel finishes off her show with quite possibly the best rebuttal to Robert Gibbs
and his misguided statements, with this:
The Right To Serve.
Transcript from MaddowBlog:
"On the show tonight, we heard from three people whose American military careers are being ended because of Don't Ask, Don't Tell: U.S. Army Captain Jonathan Hopkins, U.S. Military Academy Cadet. Sgt. Katherine Miller and U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach.
ended right now.
"The $25 million that you and I, the taxpayers, have spent on Victor Fehrenbach's training as an F-15 fighter pilot is down the tubes. The decade of investment that you and I paid for that built Jonathan J. Hopkins into a striker brigade combat team commander -- that's down the tubes. That's over. The $350,000 investment that you and I made in building Cadet Sergeant Katie Miller into a top 10 at West Point, Yale-caliber scholar who could also bench press you, if need be - that's down the tubes. All of that is over.
"None of those three men and woman wants it to be over. They want to serve. But as we take our time winding down this policy that everyone says will be ending, as we shamble toward justice, we as a country are continuing to put the lives of these individuals through the meat grinder every day.
"Col. Fehrenbach has filed a lawsuit because his legal team thinks his discharge orders are due at any minute. Capt. Hopkins was discharged this week. Cadet Sergeant Miller's resignation was processed this week on the sole basis of the continued enforcement of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the policy that everyone says it is going to end when they get around to it maybe early next year.
"What's the rush? Why are we kicking people out now, in the meantime, while we are waiting for the views of the commander-in-chief and the defense secretary and the chairman of the joint chiefs-of-staff to be implemented?
"If you are changing the policy soon, why not hold off the ruination of lives under the policy now, in the meantime? Why not do that? I'll tell you why. Because that would take some political capital. That would take some guts.
"And liberals, according to this White House, ought to be drug tested if we're expecting to see that from this White House right now. Stop complaining and be happy for what you have.
"Lieutenant Dan Choi, Colonel Fehrenbach and Captain Hopkins and Cadet Sergeant Miller are all expendable, because doing what it would take to save them would be hard for the White House. So go ahead and watch their careers destroyed but stop complaining about it.
"I talked at the top of the show tonight with Gail Collins about how one way to motivate your natural base for an election is to make your base afraid of what the other side has to offer. And that is true. That works. That works on both sides. It works for conservatives about liberals and it works for liberals about conservatives. But one less soul-sucking way to motivate your base and to win an election and to keep winning elections and to, frankly, have history look kindly upon you is to get your base to cheer for you -- not just to cheer against someone else, but to see you standing up, not just to bad guys with worse ideas than you, but you standing up for what is right because you know it is right, because we know you know it's right, even though you also know standing up for it is hard.
"That is how you regain the enthusiasm of your base. That is how you win the respect of your base. That is how you win the respect of the country. And admit it: that is how you win your own self-respect, too.
"If Don't Ask, Don't Tell is going to end, the president could stop enforcement of the policy pending that change. Why isn't he?"
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For those of you that may not know, if you would like to read the transcripts for the two videos that have the transcript link, once you get to that page you will need to roll-over the auto-start video clip where a sub-menu will appear. Click on transcript and it will appear on the left.
This is somewhat tedious, I know, but there is no way to embed the transcripts unless Rachel posts them on her blog (that's why the last video has a block quoted transcript). Also, there is no transcript available for the second video.
Update:
Rec list for Rachel!!!!
(thanks, but she gets all the credit)
:)
also, I forgot to give thanks to Dallasdoc for his encouragement on writing this up.
We can be an incredible source of strength and encouragement to each other if we choose.