Lt. Col. Fehrenbach meets Obama.....still losing job and pension after 18 years.

Run time: 08:34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x31lMbeSaT0   Posted on YouTube: June 30, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 30, 2009 By DU Member: madfloridian Views on DU: 3224

 
"MSNBC's Rachel Maddow: "Fierce Advocate" Obama Has A Gay Cocktail Party - Lots Of Promises, No Action - 06/29/09"

I felt very sad when I watched this tonight. I posted about it, but I deleted the post because praise for Obama on this issue seems to be the way things go here.

Fehrenbach has about 5 months, and he said change would not come fast enough for him.

Lt. Dan Choi gets his trial tomorrow.

I did not see this video as a positive, it did not give me warm feelings. I am not gay, but I can not imagine losing my pension if I were in that position.

Obama told him it was a "generational issue." Actually it is a religious right issue, and our party is scared to death of them. I am pretty old, and I disagree about the generational thing. The religious right succeeded in using this group as scapegoats, and there is no one in the administration speaking out strongly.

BTW Fehrenbach is gracious, he says he understands. But he is still losing his job and Choi still goes on trial tomorrow.

what a fucking pile of SHIT - it is a BIGOT ISSUE

It is bigotry.

about how the interview made me feel, but then I read the other posts and deleted mine before it got shat on.

Some things are just wrong. There is no excuse anymore with our majority.

Why can't we all accept gays as the brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and friends that they are? This story is horrible. While I am not gay, I still feel that it is a crime that gays don't share the same and equal rights as the rest of us. I can only hope that that day will come while I am still alive.

when the hell will this country stand up for real justice?

By the time you get to a man who is losing his pension over this stupidity, it's a financial issue. It's bloody outright bigotry, and it has a negative effect on morale in the services.

I do not, probably never will, understand why a gay person hasn't got the same rights as anyone else....and why there is any reason to look down on someone who's sexuality is simply determined by genes or hormones....this is hurtful and assinine, and the more I think about it, the less sense it makes.

And then to come here to DU and see all the praise for the meeting.

18 years of hard work and loss of his pension for being gay and honest about it?

I wonder what will happen to Choi tomorrow.

for people like Choi and Fehrenbach. Obama merely needs to sign a "stop loss" executive order regarding DODT. It would not yet repeal the (stupid, ignorant, unconstitutional) law -- which would take an act of Congress, thus would take more time and political muscle -- but would be an executive order effective immediately. That needs to be his first step. It would insure that none of our fellow citizens are discharged from the military for sexual orientation. Of course the next step would be to repeal the law. But this is one way he can get around the "generational issue" without a fight. He knows that and no one understands why he isn't acting on this immediately. Yesterday would have been a perfect day to have signed such an executive order since it was the Stonewall anniversary. I think it would have meant much more to the people in that room than an invitation to the White House and another pretty speech.

PDJane,

Your post is right on the money! Let's hope for justice in the future.

You have full power, you can do it with an executive order tomorrow.
You sold us out on FISA, on TORTURE, and a dozen other things, now this.
Where are your principles? WHERE ARE THEY?

Blowing in the wind.

on DU is really getting sickening (not your post).

From the beginning of the policy to currently. Call it a belated apology.

Face it folks, we were sold a bill of goods last November.

Bitter pill to swallow but true.

Same bushco, prettier package.

I believe that it is against the rules of mother nature to have gay relationships something is not right in that type of relationship since it will not allow the line to reproduce. Now don't get me wrong I feel it is improper but that does not mean I condone people that attack others for there sexual orientation people should have the right to do as they please and enjoy life to the fullest as long as they are not physically or mentally hurting others! The thing that breeds the most hatred for those who are gay is that old fairy tale named GOD Religion is the root of most evil and most wars including this here war on terror.
Is God just a man made adult fairy tale? Since children we are force fed fairy tales and magic and father Christmas, only to later realize these things aren't true, It teaches us a lot as children like being nice to people, the good will always overcome the bad etc, and if you remember all those fairy tales there's always a message, but even though the message is real the fairy tale isn't! What if God was just a fairytale created by man to give the adults of the world the same messages, man couldn't keep us believing in fairy tales because as we grow up we see there are no facts supporting fairy tales, but with God it seems like there isn't any evidence suggesting he's real or not, so most can't stop believing in this "God Fairytale".

Of course it's a fairy tale. One to make you fearful of consequences if you don't act as others want you to. There is NO god period. There never was, and there never will be. If you take some time to do some critical thinking you will reach the same conclusion.

Folks are told from the time they are kids into adulthood that there is this mysterious magical being that sees everything, knows everything, does absolutely NO wrong, and controls the universe and more. That's very powerful stuff. When one hears that over the course of a lifetime without asking serious questions just as you have they are inclined to believe it as fact. In fact it's the only thing they'll believe without actual proof. Seems silly really.

If you approach the subject objectively, that is throw away the years of people telling you god is watching, god will punish, god this and god that etc. If you set all that aside and ask yourself, where is the proof? Many will say the bible. The bible is a fairytale myth written then copied from several early civilizations. Do some checking into the Egyptian gods and so on and you will find the story is just a legend passed on through the ages.

There will always be freaks who strongly (to the point of fanaticism) believe god is real and all the rest of it. But if you want to live your life without all the guilt and shame and B.S. that goes with all that god stuff, just ask the critical questions and don't settle for someone's ideas as proof.

Religion has been the root cause of almost all wars; it has been the root of much suffering and pain. If people could just agree that we are all just sharing a little precious time on this planet together. Things could be a lot better and in that vein I do believe in Karma such as whatever goes around comes around I have seen it many times in my years!

Just letting you know.

And I and my "unnatural" partner appreciate you chiming in.

I'm just sayin'.

people still took it the wrong way its not like I was telling them to go straight or calling them names. As far as religon goes I forcefully agree with John Lennon Imagine a world with out religion.




Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

man in the eye and knowing he would lose his career and pension, he still could not be moved to sign a piece of paper that could have saved his career and others while the law was being hashed out.

How cruel is that? 75% public approval for cover and him with the power to suspend the insanity while a law goes through the process and he still wouldn't do it?

Why? because he feels the need to convince everyone first? Most wanting it is not enough to feed his need to be popular with all?

It's not even human to be that cold or uncaring.

Now that I know of his need to please more than 75% before he will take action I do not believe that those that die from lack of health care every day will move him beyond what the lobbyist tell congress they are allowed to do.

It takes a heart to lead as well as intelligence. I will never forget what I learned here today, apologists be damned.

on this. Probably the whole Joint Chiefs of Staff. He looks like he desperately wants Congress to just go ahead and pass this shit, so he can sign it.

The "President" is getting push back.

Funny, I thought he was Commander-in-Chief.

You may brush this off as mere comedic routine by Bill Hicks, but I often wonder how true that is. Maybe we should ask said scumfucks if it is so.

Or maybe we shouldn't wait to ask.

Obama is a man who genuinely WANTS to do good, but let's face it: he can't.

The reason he CAN'T is because of the old white-man cabal of about 4000 powerful individuals who run corporate America, who run the military, who run criminal conglomerates, who run hit squads . . . who've been doing this since before this century. They can assassinate someone and get away with it and not lose a second's sleep over it, and why not? There'll be plenty of water-carriers and "logical skeptics" with finger-wags at the ready, stating "Republicans are bad, but they're not assassins. The military has nothing but YOUR BEST INTERESTS in mind. Corporate America is NEVER. THIS. BAD."

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFT. WAKE UP. Your wealthy controlling unspoken arch-conservatives ARE this bad and they've BEEN this bad since the dawn of America. People with rights are not as easily controlled. You open up rights for one group, another will want this and that and the other. And it goes on and on, and they KNOW this. It's about "keeping those ants in line", as an animated movie once said.

The only way to stop unspoken corporate/military rule . . . the only way to GET progressive values is, I'm genuinely sorry to inform you, with violent overthrow of this old white man cabal by hundreds of millions of people, ubiquitously.

Then, you'll see which side the Police, the military, the wanna-be "soliders" (i.e. "yes massah" freepers) and the so-called "teabag" brigade are really on.

The reason this will never happen is because it takes too many people already Super-Glue affixed to televisions and iPods to care. It would also result in bloodshed this nation has never seen, worldwide economic collapse, a 20 year recovery period (one RIPE for totalitarianism and a dystopia worse than four decades of Republican presidents would give us) and hope that the people who lead us out of the rubble won't become as over-the-top greedy as this bunch of assholes has.

But short of hyperbole, we can work even harder to expose the actions of the tyrannical powermongers and stop brushing off people who are already working hard at doing this as "loony leftist conspiracy theorists".

Their ideologies aren't dying off. Greed is worse than crystal meth with some people.

Yet, you have to remove them by force. Start making us ashamed as a nation that we still tolerate people getting their rights taken away and that we still tolerate our citizen's hard work being dismissed as a "hobby" which they shouldn't be compensated any better than a common prisoner or third-world slave for.

Otherwise, get used to the same president . . .. over and over and over again.

Get used to listening to the dumbasses going "He's JUST LIKE GEORGE W BUSH LITE!!" GOD I cannot stand it when people say this. "Obama's just like a warmongering fascist bastard with an evil vice president all because everything I want and need isn't happening in half a year." Yeah. That makes a fuckton of sense.

He's not a bad man. He's a hostage to corporate interests. Just like EVERY president. Corporate influence is too huge. Too powerful. He bought into the Chi-school of economics because that's what ALL economic students are buying into. They're not TAUGHT anything else. He bought into the idea of government being a fair and benevolent useful entity and not a tool of corporate bastardry under the influence of rights-suppressing whackjobs with bibles.

"It's not speed, it's the direction".

Your problem, once again, is not with Obama. It's with the GAME. Obama has to play it. We ALL have to play it. Don't believe me? Stop going to your job and see how long you survive. This ain't Sweden you live in, brother.

Do something about the GAME. Expose these corporate bastards and start making them targets. Expose what they do.

Then you should not stand up in front of a group of people telling them you're GOING to do this.

Tell the truth. Say we're going to work on this together. Tell people it won't be easy. While people should already know this, they tend to forget come election time.

Never promise what you cannot deliver on. This has been ingrained into me since I was a child. My word is my bond.

As you can tell, I'm not a politician.

Um..he did say that.

Where he told us what he was going to do as President.

I want to believe in the man. Honestly, I do. However I've heard many things from many politicians and almost always end up disappointed. I will always hope for more, but will always expect less. It's a lot harder to be disappointed and much easier to be pleasantly surprised.

Eight years was eight years too many. Deeds not words.

I found this comment at the Huffington Post blog

"He (Fehrenbach) didn't go on national tv. He was outed by someone a year and a half before he got to collect his pension. He loses everything he worked for. How does Obama justify allowing him to be drummed out while he is commander-in-cheif? I thought the buck stopped with him. Please someone answer this."

How can we excuse this stuff going on with a Democratic congress and president?

Why should a few stand in the way of something 75% of Americans support? This reasoning doesn't cut it.

I had a feeling Obama would be a foot-dragger on gay rights issues when the McClurkin incident blew up during the campaign. He sold out the gay community to suck up to religious fundies.