DADT: Movement on the Hill! (and healthcare)

Preliminary Note: Scroll down to see what action to take (in red, below) on this issue. Please note the updates at end for bill number and link to track bill.

In the middle of the legislative healthcare debacle (and if YOU have not supported folks like ME, a cancer survivor, essentially uninsurable, but are interested in DADT, please realize that no matter WHAT the issue is we have to stick together and this takes WORK. Are you fighting for ME on healcare, cuz I am fighting for YOU on DADT!), word now comes that Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy (Pennsylvania-08) (and here) a Iraq Veteran and officer, BTW, is taking up the fight through the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (MREA).

Go here and here and here to read about Murphy's engagement. [NOTE: This last link is dedicated, at this point, to THIS (DADT) issue].

Watch Murphy today (July 8, 2009) address this issue in a press conference:

"It's our job," Murphy said of a repeal. "This was an act of Congress in 1993 and it will take an act of Congress" to reverse it.

The measure got a subcommittee hearing last year, but Murphy says Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has promised him a full committee hearing on the bill this session.

And though gay-rights groups have been critical of the Obama White House for what they see as a lack of attention, advocates of repealing the 16-year-old policy see new evidence that the administration is willing to move on reversing "Don't ask, don't tell."

Here is an older video (referred to in the above highlight) which shows part of his questioning in the 2008 House hearings on DADT:

Action for Thursday, July 9:
All States:
Contact Rep. Murphy in DC.
1. Dial toll free (ask for Rep. Patrick Murphy), 1-866-338-1015.
2. E-mail Rep. Murphy, go here, use the zip code 19007 or 18901.

Message: Tell him THANK YOU for beginning, again, the repeal process for DADT. Ask how you can help him succeed! Also, PLEASE, tell him on healthcare to support a public option with no co-ops and no triggers available to all... a medicare-like plan.

This is what is reported about his healthcare stance on the public option, but remember, this is a Democratic Blue Dog, and it is important we continue to pressure him to support a good, strong public healthcare option:

"Rep. Patrick Murphy (Penn.) still backs a public plan without a trigger, said his spokeswoman Kate Hansen. "Congressman Murphy stands with President Obama in supporting the inclusion of a public option without a trigger in healthcare reform legislation, and believes it would be a good way to introduce transparency, competition, and cost-control into the insurance market," she said." --PDA, 09 June 2009

The clock is ticking. Make the calls. Send the e-mails. Get it done. Then take this information and put it on YOUR website, or link to this post, and forward it to friends and family.

UPDATE 1: Here is a very recent and good article on DADT and its history. (Update on Committee information and state x state contact info coming.)

UPDATE 2: You are perhaps wondering who the hell Elaine Donnelly is (second video). It's a good question. Here's a piece from 31 March 2009, Towleroad, and one from Lavender Newswire, 02 May 2008. In a nutshell, Donnelly is a homophobic, misogenistic whack ala Phyllis Schlafly.

UPDATE 3: The bill is HR1283. It was introduced by Rep. Ellen Tauscher (CA-10). However, Ellen was appointed to a state department position earlier this year, thus Patrick Murphy is apparently taking over the bill. GO HERE to get information on the bill, and bookmark this site as it will track history.