Check it out. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is holding a march today to call for an end to Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. (DETAILS  AT END OF POST.)

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell(DADT) was a policy introduced under the Clinton Administration. In short, it prohibits any gay or bisexual servicemember from discussing their sexual orientation.  That includes any casual mention of a relationship, a family, you get the picture. Apparently it creates an “unacceptable risk” to the morale, good order and discipline of our military.

 Sounds to me like another homophobic policy.

One of President Obama’s campaign promises was to repeal DADT, a policy that has since made it difficult to retain qualified servicemembers. As stated by Dr. Larry Korb, a former national security advisor and Senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP) in Washington,

“…the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy continues to undermine their efforts to attract qualified men and women. Moreover, since its enactment, this outmoded law has cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of service men and women who were working to keep our country safe.”

For details on the March: Meet at Farragut Square at 2:00PM EST. You will then walk over to the White House and gather in Lafayette Park.

Good luck and have fun! I would be there on the group with my gear but your little sister only graduates from high school once. :)

Protest. Today. White House.

Hundreds of Iranians and supporters showed up with flags, signs, and shades of green to urge the White House to intervene in what has become a widespread uprising between Iranians for democracy and the government, lead by the Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei  and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

BBC reported from that 10 people have died so far in the Tehran protests. One woman I interviewed denounced that and said the real numbers are in the low hundreds. While all of this goes on, dozens of journalists have been jailed while others, like BBC’s John Leyne, have been removed from the country. Total chaos.

I came across this protest unexpectedly but luckily had my Flip Video on me. Check it out and be sure to get the take from the ground with my live tweets next time.

If you haven’t been paying attention - here is the skinny. Over the weekend, Iran held presidential elections. The incumbent, supreme leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, pulled out a landslide victory. Or so it looked. Massive amounts of people organized in a visceral reaction to Ahmadinejad’s second-term victory, claiming his contender, Mir Hossein Mousavi, had been cheated. Mousavi almost immediately demanded the election results be annulled.

One U.S. blogger, Andrew Sullivan, described President Ahmadinejad’s leadership and said he is dedicated to “conflict abroad,” manipulative of “rural, religious voters,” and engaged in other abuses of “the state.” Even perhaps more illuminating, Sullivan asked whether Iranian voters can “trust the process” when they have a President who “pulls tricks” like Karl Rove.

Back in Iran, tens of thousands of Iranians took the streets in opposition to Ahmadinejad victory. Citizen journalism video reports and the use of micro blogs and hash tags(#iran #iranelections) broadcasted a raw and emotional look at what Iranian organizers, press and activists were going through in the capital of Tehran.

One YouTube user, theamirzare, who apparently just signed up on the video sharing network to post this video, sent a simple message:  ”Ahmadinejad is NOT my President.” In just two days, the video has over 23,000 views.

Back in the U.S., activist bloggers chased the story with original content created by on-the-ground reporters from the New York Times, CNN and others. Tracy Viselli, a blogger at Care2, pulled together a well-organized summary of key highlights as well as a few videos from the ground. Below I posted my favorite, which is from CNN’s Chief International Correspondent, Christiane Amanpour. Her cameras caught one woman shouting, “People in Tehran hate Ahmadinejad! People in Tehran hate Ahmadinejad!”"

Finally, on Sunday night, as hundreds, if not thousands of U.S. bloggers watched the chaos unfold, some decided to start a little chaos of their own. TechPresident broke the news that a group of cyber strategists had temporarily shut down Iran’s state-run media web site, www.IRIB.ir. The effort was lead by D.C. political consultant and new media authority, Josh Koster, who leveraged free web app called Page Reboot, to bring the site down. The customized anti-IRIB link was passed around through Twitter and list servs until finally, at 9:24 PM EST, @joshkoster proclaimed, “(PLS RT!): We just brought down Iran’s media site. 2 More: http://tinyurl.com/m42b65 http://tinyurl.com/lmgzmf #iranelection (PLS RT!)

Oh, democracy. Aren’t you fun.

Earlier today, California’s Supreme Court ruled to uphold Proposition 8. Known as “Prop 8″ for short, this initiative eliminates the right of same sex couples to marry.

I got word of a protest happening just a few blocks from my place after work - so I went home, recharged, grabbed the gear and ran over to check it out. I uploaded photos and live-blogged via my Twitter feed - and finally, took some of the best clips for this video below. Be kind, this is a rough cut - but I wanted to get it up anyhow. Check it out.

Earlier that day just a few blocks down - at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House had this to say about California’s decision. Don’t blink or you’ll be sure to miss it.

Finally, don’t miss what celebrities had to say on Twitter - thanks to E!’s new celeb twitter feed.

As CBS’s 60 Minutes called it on Sunday, May 11th, drones are America’s new “air force.”

Funny they said that. A few weeks ago I had a conversation with Helen Thomas where she talked about the military’s use of drones. I was probing her on the defense budget - asking her how I can learn to study it well enough to know when something doesn’t add up. She told me she wasn’t an expert on budgets, but that she does know a little something about the sophistication of the weapons we are using.

After I came home to upload and watch the video, I got a little nervous. Was this kind of stuff classified? I had never heard any of it before. So I called her to make sure.

“No,” she told me, “this is all open information.”

Once again, the student had been schooled. How I love when that happens.

This video contains several references to Web sites and resources that I used to do research. All of the links can be found below. This video is available on YouTube, Yahoo! Video, Meta Cafe and Daily Motion. So get into it and pass it on.

Drones: America’s New Air Force, CBS News 60 Minutes, and CNET, May 10, 2009

Air Force to Build Up Its Drone Supply, Washington Post, March 19, 2005

Lobbying Spending Database, OpenSecrets.org

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

I first met Adam Kokesh in July 2008. I was working on a piece about dissenting Iraq veterans  - and he quickly became a central part of my weekly visits to the Iraq Veterans Against the War group house. While there were many guys in the house, his intellectual edge and candid demeanor stood out on camera. As I went, once a week for a month, I interviewed him more.

After that MTV piece aired our paths kept crossing. We were both at the Republican National Convention, where he delivered a speech for the Campaign for Liberty. Later that week, he was all over CSPAN, MSNBC and CNN, as the spectator who interrupted Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) speech with a sign that read: “McCain Votes Against Vets” and “Your Can’t Win an Occupation.”

Today Kokesh is back in his hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico. On May 3^rd, 2009, the 27-year-old Marine announced he would explore a run in New Mexico’s 3^rd Congressional District. If he decides to do it, he will face freshman U.S. Representative Ben Ray Luján.

Here is an exclusive Q&A with the possible youth candidate - his thoughts on running, party politics and the use of new media tools in the halls of Congress.

EricaAmerica: On May 1^st, you created an exploratory committee to run in New Mexico’s 3^rd Congressional District. What brought you to this point and this decision? Obviously, your time in Iraq served as a major influence.

Adam Kokesh: The formation of the exploratory committee is just the formalization of a process that has really been going on for years. Since I was first politically active, people have been encouraging me to run for office, especially for Congress. This might just be the time and the place for me. When I got back from Iraq I realized that the issues we debate are more than just academic or intellectual issues, but when we are talking about government, the use of force, and war, the issues are in one way or another a matter of life and death. That’s what motivated me to get involved in the first place.

[Fallujah, Feb-Sep '04]

Read the rest of this entry…

The need for Watchdogs in Washington is more important than ever.

I recently had a conversation with a progressive news organization. They intrigued me by explaining how they are expanding their political coverage online. But employees, for the time, are to be based in New York City. Don’t get me wrong, I am currently wearing a tee with those exact letters strewn across it. But leave Washington at this moment in history? It would feel so wrong.

It is a natural concern for all of us, as newspapers collapse and resources constrict, that American journalism is about to suffer. In an article in The New Republic called “Goodbye to the Age of Newspapers (Hello to an Era or Corruption),” Paul Starr wrote:  

“One danger of reduced news coverage is to the integrity of government…” He went on, “…corruption is more likely to flourish when those in power have less reason to fear exposure.”

Does anyone else think it is ironic, and completely illogical - that at a moment when the news media is finding it financially impossible to do their job, the government has more power and influence than ever before? Read the rest of this entry…

I feel guilty for not spending much time on my own blog, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading yours and yours and yours.

In any case, I am always reading what other blogs put together - so I have for you all my top posts around Obama’s First 100 Days.

• 100 Days of Barack Obama’s Facebook Feed, courtesy of Slate.com
• Obama’s 100 First Days: What Did He Do for Women? compliments of Jen N. at Women’s Rights
• Obama’s 100 Days of Progress, a comprehensive compilation from Think Progress

On Monday I was in Ohio for work. Cincinnati to be exact. It was a great morning - I taught a few people how to use Twitter and delivered some facts about the micro-blogging sensation. After the meetings, I headed to the airport. I had a cold and all I wanted to do was fly back to Reagan Airport in D.C. and hail a cab to get home.

I boarded the airplane and got comfortable in seat 5B Window. Right before we took off, I heard a voice come through over a cell phone that asked, “Senator?”

“Senator….” I thought to myself. “Senator?!” Five months after the Big Three Auto execs took private jets to Washington, there was a Senator sitting behind me - scrunched in between a wall and a random dude. You can’t make this shit up, I thought to myself.

I thought. First things first, process of elimination. He is clearly from Ohio. Recess is almost over so it made sense he would be flying back.  I got out my iPhone and did a quick search - but not quick enough. We took off.

Once we touched down, I stole a quick look and confirmed what my phone pulled up. Senator George Voinovich (R-OH), a long time public servant and a guy flying Coach in the center of his constituents. It was too cool to be true.

Read the rest of this entry…

Last Friday my iPhone made the usual buzz from the back of my desk. I had a hunch it was a New York Times Mobile Alert because those are the only text I get during the day. I know, such a tool.

In any case, the Mobile Alert was a sore subject. I joked the day before that the Times was beginning to abuse their text privileges. It seemed every afternoon I got another “breaking news,” alert. Or should I say, a 200 character doomsday report.

But this day was different and my fingers found a different notice of news. Iowa had struck down an amendment to ban gay marriage. It was huge.

According to a spokesperson for Lambda Legal, a national gay rights activist group, Iowa was the perfect first move in a strategic game to start winning states over - one by one.

“There is a tradition of independence and willingness to stand up on issues of fairness [in Iowa],” Jennifer C. Pizer, marriage project director for Lambda Legal told the New York Times.

Another advocacy group that no doubt took this ruling as a stripe in the win column is Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD).

If you remember, (which I didn’t but Google is great), Massachusetts voted to allow same-sex marriage in 2004. After that 26 states turned the other way and approved Constitutional bans on the same thing. With the passage of Prop 8 that banned gay marriage in California last November, it seemed the voters were sending a message. Not Yet.

But with the win of Iowa and a strategy to win six more states by 2012, it just might be the decade of the underdog.

ThinkProgress reports:

Al Jazeera’s Nazanin Sadri reports that Iran is considering a new law that would allow the death penalty for “offensive” bloggers:

Under a strict interpretation of Islamic law, Individuals can be sentenced to death for two main categories of crime. The first is murder. The second is known as ‘fasad,’ which means spreading mischief or undermining the authority or stability of the state. What that constitutes is open to interpretation. In the past it has been applied to rape, adultery, drug-related offenses, and homosexual behavior. Iran now wants to introduce the death penalty for bloggers who write about and promote illegal activities.

Obama’s global op-ed, “A Time for Global Action,” ran in over 30 newspapers and dozens of dialects yesterday. From the Sunday Times of South Africa to the Estado de Sau Paulo of Brazil, his 1,024 word essay asked the global community for help in “a new era of economic engagement to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again.”

Another big moment for the international media came last night at Obama’s second live Prime Time press conference, when a dozen random outlets were called for questions. One of them was Agence France-Presse, (AFP).

CQ Politics reported:

The AFP correspondent might have been the only reporter to have squeezed any news out of Obama. He asked a basic question: what would Obama do to advance peace in the Middle East, when it’s likely the new Israeli government will soon be led by a prime minister not supportive of the two-state solution and a foreign minister who has insulted Arabs? Obama replied, “It’s not easier than it was, but I think it’s just as necessary.” No doubt, the first half of that reply will be splashed throughout the media in Israel and Arab countries, and be read as something of a no-confidence vote in Benjamin Netanyahu.

Who didn’t get called on? The New  York Times, USAToday and the Wall Street Journal to name a few.

Looks like bloggers aren’t the only ones edging their ways into the conversation. It appears international media, too, will give traditional outlets in America a run for their money.

Here is the next installment. I hope you enjoy. For links to the articles relevant to the video, check out the list below.

Israel Stance Was Undoing of Nominee for Intelligence Post, New York Times

Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper
March 11, 2009

What are U.S. goals in Afghanistan?
Helen Thomas
March 12, 2009

Bush, top aides apparently home free
Helen Thomas
March 7, 2009

Thomas: Why shouldn’t Obama aim high?
Helen Thomas
February 26, 2009

I just have to ask. What was the Republican National Committee thinking when they made their Request for Proposal (RFP) for a complete rebuild of their Web site public?

On Friday, the conservative blog, RedState, published a copy of the two-page RFP. After reading the RFP,  RedState managing editor, Erick Erikson delievered a swift blow at the GOP leadership by writing, “they don’t know what they are doing.”

Not long after posting, which appears in full below, the comments began to roll in…giving voice to a frustrated and confused Republican niche - the bloggers themselves. But they bring up a good point. Why is the RNC leadership not bringing the conservative bloggers to the table for some very dire, much needed advice?

I stumbled across an interesting article tonight about what Rush Limbaugh means to America. Though I have never heard of such a perspective, spiritual leader and Huffington Post guest blogger, Deepak Chopra, makes a compelling case for the dueling identities Limbaugh brings to American life: something “ugly and incendiary” and something “to be proud of.”

As far back as Mark Twain, the American character has been ornery. We secretly love rascals, bank robbers, tricksters, swindlers, hell raisers, and outlaws. And when we feel so inclined, we laugh at them. Rush Limbaugh may represent a toxic form of entertainment — and the bile he spews bears no resemblance to true morality — but the fact that America makes room for him is something to be proud of.

Read Chophra’s article, Rush Limbaugh: Icon of Anti-Morality, here.