Posts made by leatherbear

Senate Republicans blocked repeal of "Don't ask, Don't tell" Thursday, significantly dimming prospects that the ban on gays serving openly in the military will be lifted during this lame-duck session of Congress.
The 57-40 vote came on a motion to bring the giant defense budget bill, which included repeal of "Don't ask, Don't tell" (DADT), to the floor, with Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid unable to muster the 60 votes to launch debate.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates had pinned his hopes on the Senate for an orderly implementation of the change in military policy. The House voted this fall to repeal the 17-year-old law, and a positive Senate vote would have allowed the Pentagon to begin a lengthy process to actually lift the ban.
Unless the Senate acts this month, it is likely the courts will order an immediate repeal, an outcome Gates has said would lead to chaos and precisely the kind of disruption of morale and combat readiness many critics of repeal have feared.

Reid and Maine Republican Susan Collins had tried this week to reach a deal to allow debate on the defense budget legislation. Collins was one of three Republicans, including Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who had said they would vote for repeal of DADT. But Brown and Murkowski joined other Republicans in voting to bypass debate on the defense legislation until after the Senate considers extending the Bush-era tax cuts and other matters.
The vote coincided with the release of a new Gallup poll showing that two-thirds of Americans want the DADT law off the books.

The Defense Department had reached a similar finding with a yearlong study which surveyed 255,000 of the 2.5 million service members, as well as their families. It found the majority would not oppose serving with gays or lesbians and did not think it would disrupt combat readiness or unit cohesion.
In urging the Senate to take up repeal of DADT, Reid said the law banning gays from serving openly in the military was "obsolete, embarrassing and weakens our military … repealing it will make our country stronger.''
The vote was taken without debate.
Advocates of repeal say there is less chance the new Congress, which takes office in January, will act favorably on repeal. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which supports repeal, urged Reid to keep the Senate in session to try again for a vote.
"While difficult, realistic options still exist for advocates and senators to move repeal this year,'' said Aubrey Sarvis, an Army veteran and executive director of SLDN.
A U.S. District Court judge has already ruled the gay ban unconstitutional and ordered an immediate worldwide lifting of all Defense Department regulations providing for investigation and discharge of gay and lesbian service members. The 9th District Court of Appeals is currently weighing a Justice Department appeal to stay that order and overturn the lower court decision. A ruling from the appellate court is expected in March.
The Pentagon has prepared an 86-page plan to rewrite regulations and educate the troops before repeal of the law is implemented. Defense Department officials said the process would take months, in part because 97,000 military personnel currently serving in Afghanistan could not receive the training until they return home after their tours, which last from four to 12 months.
Language in the legislation that failed Thursday would prohibit any change until the president, defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs certify that implementation would not harm morale or readiness.
"I believe it would be unwise to push ahead with full implementation of repeal before more can be done to prepare the force -- in particular those ground combat specialties and units -- for what could be a disruptive and disorienting change,'' Gates told reporters Nov. 30.
Similar reservations were expressed by the military chiefs in a lengthy and contentious Senate hearing Dec. 3, during which they expressed much the same reservations as Gates. Of the four military service chiefs, the Marine commandant, Gen. James F. Amos, was most outspoken: " My recommendation is that we should not implement repeal at this time,'' he told the committee.
Some 14,000 gay and lesbian service members have been discharged in the 17 years since the gay ban was enacted during the Clinton administration.

WASHINGTON (Dec. 9) – Senate Republicans have blocked legislation that would have repealed the military's policy of "don't ask, don't tell" and allowed gay troops to serve openly.

Democrats failed Thursday to cinch a procedural deal with Republicans in the waning days of the lame-duck session. The 57-40 test vote fell three votes short of the 60 needed to advance.

The vote ends months of political wrangling on the bill and makes congressional action on the repeal provision unlikely any time soon.

The 1993 law bans gay troops from publicly acknowledging their sexual orientation. A repeal provision was included in a broader defense policy bill and passed last spring in the House.

A meteor shower lights up the sky over the Mexican volcano Popocatepetl near the village San Nicolas …

Skywatchers, grab your blankets. December's night sky spectacular will feature the best meteor shower of 2010 as well as the only total lunar eclipse of the year – sights that should outshine any New Year's Eve fireworks display in terms of sheer wonder.

The massive Geminid meteor shower returns every year, so you'll have more chances if the cold proves too daunting on the night of Dec. 13. But anyone in North America who skips the total lunar eclipse on the night of Dec. 20 will be missing what promises to be the best lunar eclipse show until April 2014.

This year's Geminid meteor shower is expected to be the best display of so-called "shooting stars" of the year and will peak during the overnight hours of Dec. 13 and Dec. 14.

Dazzling Geminid meteor shower

Like most meteor showers, the Geminids will be at their best after midnight (early on the morning of Dec. 14), when the Earth is heading directly into the meteoroid stream. But some will be visible earlier in the night, on the evening of Dec. 13, because the meteors' radiant (where they appear to originate) is nearly circumpolar, so they will stay in view above the horizon all night.

This sky map shows where to look to see the Geminid meteor shower in the direction of the constellation Gemini. Clear dark skies, of course, promise the best viewing conditions.

Anyone venturing outside should dress much more warmly than normal to prepare for a long night vigil while sitting still.

Don't forget to get comfortable: A lawn chair with a reclining back and a blanket or sleeping bag should keep skywatchers snug — no binoculars or telescope are necessary.

Most meteor showers are caused by fragments of old comets scattered along a comet's orbit. When the Earth passes through a comet's orbit, it sweeps up the fragments, which become visible as bright streaks of light in the atmosphere.

The Geminid shower is unique in being associated not with a comet, but with an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon.

The Geminids' radiant is, as the name implies, in the direction of the constellation Gemini, just north of the northernmost of Gemini's two brightest stars, Castor and Pollux. In the early evening of Dec. 13, the radiant is low in the northeast. By 1 a.m. EST, after the date has changed to Dec. 14, the radiant is almost directly overhead. By 6.a.m. EST, when the shower is at its peak in the Eastern Time Zone, the radiant is low in the west.

Moon's holiday treat

The December holiday sky show doesn't end with the Geminid meteor shower. On the nights of Dec. 20 and Dec. 21, parts of four continents will be treated to a total eclipse of the moon — the only one to occur in 2010.

This NASA lunar eclipse chart shows the visibility of the eclipse from different regions around the world.

The last total lunar eclipse occurred on Feb. 20, 2008. While there are two total lunar eclipses in 2011, North American skywatchers will have to wait until April 2014 for one as potentially spectacular as the eclipse occurring this month. [Amazing Total Lunar Eclipse Photos]

Lunar eclipses occur when the moon passes through a point in its orbit in which the Earth is directly between it and the sun. When the moon enters the shadow of Earth, it creates a lunar eclipse. Unlike a solar eclipse, no precautions to protect the eyes are needed.

A total lunar eclipse is when the entire moon is completely inside the Earth's shadow. Since the sun's rays are bent by Earth's atmosphere so that some still reach the moon, the moon is still visible in an eclipse.

Lunar eclipse skywatching tips

For the Western Hemisphere, the eclipse will "officially" begin on Dec. 21 at 12:29 a.m. EST (9:29 p.m. PST on Dec. 20) as the moon begins to enter Earth's outer, or penumbral, shadow.

As for the Geminid meteor shower, don't forget to dress warm. But you won't be outside all night moongazing. This total lunar eclipse lasts only 72 minutes from start to finish.

But even in clear weather, skywatchers will not notice any changes in the moon's appearance until about 45 minutes into the event, when a slight "smudge," or shading, begins to become evident on the upper left portion of the moon's disk.

The entire total lunar eclipse will be visible from all of North and South America, the northern and western parts of Europe, and a small part of northeast Asia, including Korea and much of Japan.

Totality will also be visible in its entirety from the North Island of New Zealand and Hawaii. In all, an estimated 1.5 billion people will have an opportunity to enjoy the best part of this lunar show.

In other parts of the world, only the partial stages of the eclipse will be visible or the eclipse will occur when it's daytime and the moon is not above their local horizon.

Portions of western Africa and central Europe can catch the opening stages of the eclipse before the moon sets below the horizon during the morning hours of Dec. 21, while the eastern third of Asia and central and eastern Australia can catch the closing stages just after moonrise on the evening of Dec. 21.

December's total lunar eclipse and Geminid meteor shower promise to ring the year 2010 out with a dazzling show, weather permitting, this holiday season. But bundle up and stay warm!

In an hourlong ABC interview with Barbara Walters, Oprah Winfrey again denies any sort of romantic relationship with BFF Gayle King.

"Describe that friendship to me," Walters says.

After a long pause, an emotional Winfrey answers: "She is … the mother I never had. She is ... the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don't know a better person. I don't know a better person."

Choking back tears and eventually beginning to cry, Oprah continues: "It's making me cry because I'm thinking about ... how much ... I probably have never told her that."

See the interview clip and hear O's exact words on the lesbian rumors

hXXp://www.popeater.com/2010/12/08/oprah-winfrey-gayle-relationship/?icid=maing|main5|2|link2|30082

Walters says the sit-down with Winfrey is, "Probably the most personal interview I've seen her do. I've never seen her quite as revealing throughout the interview."

Despite the emotional and personal nature of the conversation, Oprah remains as pointed as ever in her speech. "I have said we are not gay enough times. I'm not lesbian … I'm not even kinda lesbian," Winfrey says. "And the reason why it irritates me is because it means that somebody must think I'm lying. That's number one. Number two, why would you want to hide it? That is not the way I run my life."

"Every time we showed up in public... there'd be another exploitive story," Oprah says. "So I made a conscious effort around 2003, 2004, to pull back on my public appearances with Stedman."

Describing live-in significant other Stedman, Winfrey deems him: "The love ... the lover ... the man ... the partner ... the mate ... I do not know of another man on this planet who could have lived this life with such dignity, with such grace and such respect and humility in it. And still hold his own and be his own."

Winfrey also speaks about never having children and fears about starting her own network, the impetus for her concluding 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' after this season, the 25th for the daily talk show.

:jaj: So glad you are back with us again!!!! :jaj:

Back!!!!

:cheers: :lovp: :drool2: :mbounce: :mb2:

I would guess blackdid  ???

I did not mean to come across as flippant before. I spent 20 years in the Education and Treatment Funding fight.

Executive board for 11 local,District and State Agencies.

No Glove = No Love has not changed since 1984/85 and will not soon change.

I only meant that if the $15-20,000 was worth no condom then it is time to pay the Piper.



EZ GIF Animator  hXXp://www.blumentals.net/egifan/

Advanced EZ Giff Animator  hXXp://www.gif-animator.com/

Both free downloads :jaj:

Performers should not need any extra educational benefits above the standard HIV /AIDS education that has been in place since 1984.

Sounds to me like $$$$ were more important to him than his own life. You made a decision now live with the results.

:rotfl: :funny2: