Right wing attacks CBS for ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ story.
Right wing attacks CBS for ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ story.
On CBS’s 60 Minutes last night, correspondent Lesley Stahl reported that “discharges of gay soldiers” due to the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy “are dropping dramatically.” In the report, Stahl told the story of Army Sergeant Darren Manzella, who was “told to go back to work” after revealing to his battalion commander that he was gay. Speaking to CNSNews today, Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America attacked CBS for airing the story:
“If the bleeding-heart lefties over at CBS News and the SLDN really want to do something to support our troops and help the military, they should abandon their attempts to radically alter and undermine the armed forces, pipe down, put a cork in it and let our brave fighting men and women win this war on terror,” he added.
Andrew Sullivan notes how the 60 Minutes report “reveals that, in fact, wartime is the period when gay discharges routinely decline.”
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Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America
I stopped reading right there.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:35 pm“Matt Barber” of “Concerned Women”??
Something does not compute.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:35 pmNotice how many men are Concerned Frigid twats for Amurica?
Kind of like Jonah “Pantload” Goldberg who went to an all womens college. How fitting.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:36 pmof course gay discharges decline in wartime… but it’s not due to acceptance of gays, but just pure need of numbers… it’s like when women began working in factories while the boys were away during WWII… it wasn’t enlightenment on the part of the companies that caused them to employ women, it was pure necessity… there were few men to do those jobs…
if Barber wants to help the military, as he implies, he ought not support a policy which excludes good candidates from enlisting!
December 17th, 2007 at 1:39 pmMatt Barber: “…put a cork in it…”
- – Gay.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:41 pmNo story on Ron Paul’s record-breaking donation day yesterday on TP? Way to go. I thought at least TP would give it some coverage.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:42 pmNo story on Ron Paul’s record-breaking donation day yesterday on TP? Way to go. I thought at least TP would give it some coverage.
Comment by FuzzyToedDog — December 17, 2007 @ 1:42 pm
###
I would like to see more coverage of that myself. I am a member of a number of different veterans groups. So far it looks like the majority of donations from the military have gone to Obama and Ron Paul.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:45 pmMatt Barber sounds like such a confused soul , knowing that he is gay, but has to keep it locked up inside of him!
December 17th, 2007 at 1:48 pmDo the “Bleeding Heart Lefties” at CBS have a club or a website? I’d like to send them my thanks.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:50 pmThe usual line from the reich wing: Reporting truth is un-american.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:50 pmI don’t care if our “brave fighting men and women” are gay or not. This stupid thing called the “war on terror” is.not.winnable.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:53 pmanybody for declaring war on Concerned Women for America?
December 17th, 2007 at 1:56 pmi know we’re stretched a little thin with this War on Christmas and God and all that, but what the heck! it’s for a good cause!
And some servicemen are just Gay on Tuesdays. How does that play out? http://tshirtinsurgency.com/node/18
December 17th, 2007 at 1:57 pmFrank M,
no need for you to advertise your abnormality. it’s common knowledge.
December 17th, 2007 at 2:07 pmQuotes from Matt Barber that make thinking people go “huh?”:
“the bleeding-heart lefties over at CBS News”
– CBS?? Are you kidding? Katie Couric obediently parrots every talking point the White House shovels out in their press releases. CBS hasn’t had anything close to a bleeding-heart lefty since Edward R. Murrow. And even he was more interested in fair journalism than a political agenda of his own — he just got that moniker because he went after Joe McCarthy.
“The military is no place for such radical San Francisco-style social experimentation, especially during a time of war.”
– People like Matt Barber said a lot of things like this in 1948, when the armed forced became integrated. I doubt Matt has a problem with black and white soldiers fighting side by side. Furthermore, gays and straights fighting together is hardly “radical” — it’s been going on for quite some time, despite people like Matt pretending it hasn’t.
“It’s been the Department of Defense’s long-standing position that to allow open homosexual behavior and other immoral conduct harms unit cohesion and troop morale.”
December 17th, 2007 at 2:07 pm– It would seem to me that open sexual behavior of ANY kind would harm unit cohesion and troop morale. Not to mention being just plain unseemly! I’m all for keeping actual homosexual behavior out of sight as long as it applies to heterosexual behavior as well.
“Matt Barber†of “Concerned Women�?
Something does not compute.
Comment by Doofus — December 17, 2007 @ 1:35 pm
Graduate of Regent University. Splains a lot.
http://gideon.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=12786&department=CWA&categoryid=
December 17th, 2007 at 2:10 pm“Concerned Women for America”?? I thought these people believed gays should be in the closet and women should be at home, silent? ….. Oh, I see now, that’s why they’ve got a MAN speaking for them. It’s perfectly clear….except, um, why should we “let our brave fighting” women be in a war at all, if they are supposed to be silent? Shouldn’t we discharge them, too? That way we can defeat the “bad guys” who oppress women and don’t have any homosexuals in their society because they kill them…oh, wait, now I’m really confused.
December 17th, 2007 at 2:15 pmbut why is it that the gays have to keep advertising their abnormality.
Comment by Frank M — December 17, 2007 @ 2:05 pm
Good question. I also wonder why “Jerry’s Kids” keep advertising their abnormality.
/snark off (**shiver** this one was even creepy to type)
December 17th, 2007 at 2:21 pmBeating terror is easy enough.
Just stop being afraid.
When you stop being afraid, the characteristics of the war become clearer, and the nature of the enemy becomes easier to understand.
It is only through the radical rights fear agenda that you have done so badly on it so far – because it is through their fear mongering that the enemy is winning.
Conservatives cannot win wars, because conservatives must always both exagerate and underestimate the strength of the enemy. A enemy must be dangerously strong, but weak enough to be easily defeated at the same time. In other words, conservatives never know just how big a force they are fighting.
Liberalism teaches us to put aside our emotions and our wishes for vengeance and look at the situation as it is, and then figure out how to fix it, or if it can be fixed. To a liberal saving face comes second to the overall victory.
Iraq is quagmire with no good options. It is entangling ground which is hurting America’s ability to fund its efforts to fight terror with weapons that will actually work. These weapons are politics and humour.
To kill Osama Bin Laden will not beat him. He has become an icon which will gain greater strength via his death. To beat Osama you must shame him. You must use politics to find his weakness and expose it, because no man is without sin and those who pray loudest have the biggest sins to hide.
America cannot beat Osama Bin Laden when America’s only option being kept on the table is to go to war. America cannot win the war on terror, with a president who cannot talk to world leaders and Bush is such a president. He has alienated your closest allies and he has solidified opposition to you amongst your enemies.
But America can win the war on terror under a president who can present you with more options then just guns. Under a president who when faced with something like 9/11, keeps his cool and calms the nation, you can win. Under a president who can talk to world leaders, you can win. Under a president who understands that running a country is not easy, you can win.
But to get this president, you must choose to stop being afraid, to get this president you must win your own personal wars on terror.
December 17th, 2007 at 2:21 pm@15 – There we go – finally getting to the true colors of Frank, the homophobe. Likely, he entertains some racist thoughts too, as we see from Bigfoot, Southern Man, and several of the others.
They’ve adopted a lot of exotic camouflage, and layers of rationalization to support and conceal it, but at the end of the day they are garden-variety haters, with an agenda that’s geared to marginalizing and dehumanizing brown people, women, gay people, and anyone else their archaic worldview deems “deviant”.
December 17th, 2007 at 2:26 pmtombaker
Frank isn’t a homophobe. To be a homophobe he would have to specifically fear homosexuals.
No, Frank is in fact an Omniphobe – he fears everything.
December 17th, 2007 at 2:29 pm.
That’s right CBS. Be proud that these troops are dying enmass for your freedom to shut the F#ck up, O.K.?
.
December 17th, 2007 at 2:31 pmComment by Bruce Gorton — December 17, 2007 @ 2:29 pm
“Omniphobe”!!
I like that term – it has a nice omnipresent, omnipurpose ring to it.
“Bush’s foreign policy is omniphobic in both cause and effect.”
Yes, it’s an excellent term.
December 17th, 2007 at 2:38 pmAnybody seen Daryll? Shouldn’t he be here by now?
I’m kinda worried.
December 17th, 2007 at 3:00 pmI’ve got no doubt that you don’t have to be a straight to shoot straight, but why is it that the gays have to keep advertising their abnormality. I don’t want to know if you’re gay and you shouldn’t force it on me.
Comment by Frank M — December 17, 2007 @ 2:05 pm
Gee, Frankie…like you force YOUR abnormality on us every friggin’ day??
December 17th, 2007 at 3:05 pm…and who gives a flaming flip what Duncan Hunter (sounds like a gay porn name to me!) thinks? Isn’t he in the minority party? What does the Chairman of that committee have to say about this policy?
December 17th, 2007 at 3:13 pmIsn’t that gay code for something?
December 17th, 2007 at 3:17 pmAnybody seen Daryll? Shouldn’t he be here by now?
I’m kinda worried.
Comment by ralph the wonder llama — December 17, 2007 @ 3:00 pm
It is odd (well . . . ) having a homo thread without Daryll but maybe he’s on his way to those naughty beaches in Brazil. How do you say “butter my beans!” in Portuguese?
December 17th, 2007 at 3:17 pmIf one reads the history of the racial integration of the Armed Forces, especially the history of the US Navy, one can read the same obstructionism. Despite FDR’s begging and cajoling, the USN found a million different reasons why it could not integrate during war. It took the heroic efforts of Adlai Stevenson, James Forrestal and some brave naval officers to finally overcome the objections. Even then, the Navy went out of its way to put Southern white officers in charge of black units because “the Southerners knew the Negroes better than Northern officers.”
December 17th, 2007 at 4:43 pmWhy is the spokesman for “Concerned Women of America” a guy? And why couldn’t they find one who is not apparently a slobbering mouth breather?
December 17th, 2007 at 5:18 pm“If the bleeding-heart lefties over at CBS News and the SLDN really want to do something to support our troops and help the military, they should abandon their attempts to radically alter and undermine the armed forces, pipe down, put a cork in it and let our brave fighting men and women win this war on terror,†he added.
Getting rid of good soldiers who have never done anything to compromise the job they do, just because you think they are “immoral”, thus robbing their unit of another warm body that the Army is having a hard time replacing……
If that doesn’t scream “support the troops”, then I don’t know what does.
Frank M,
December 17th, 2007 at 5:44 pmgay people in the military don’t dress like they’re in the Village People, you know.
The military pretty much shuns any kind of clothing that doesn’t abide by regulations.
#15 – “I don’t want to know if you’re gay and you shouldn’t force it on me.” Comment by Frank M — December 17, 2007 @ 2:05 pm
Why the he!! are you forcing your heterosexuality on me? I don’t care that you like snatch, but I don’t want you forcing your lifestyle on me.
Geez, why do all heterosexuals feel they have to spend their whole lives holding hands in public, kissing, and forcing everyone to watch their open displays of affection when nobody wants to see them? Forcing people to watch it in public is going too far.
/sarcasm
See how that sounds, Frank M? You make yourself look and sound incredibly silly when you trot out that tired old line about “shoving your lifestyle in our faces” canard.
December 18th, 2007 at 7:06 amAn exhaustive study by the Rand Corporation in the early 1990s proved that gays can be assimilated in the military services without damage to “morale and unit cohesion.”
Read Randy Shilts’ “Conduct Unbecoming” for a shocking revelation of the way gay men have been treated by the U. S. military throughout history.
Then recall that it was a GAY MAN who whipped George Washington’s ragtag army into a fighting machine that defeated the best army in the world 230 years ago. (Baron Fredrich von
Stuben.)
Late USAF Staff Sergeant Leonard Matolovich, awarded the Silver Star for heroism in Vietnam, lamented: “The military gave me a medal for killing two men but kicked me out for loving one.”
December 18th, 2007 at 4:11 pm