Here is my letter to the McCain website earlier today...I'm not expecting a reply...but I gave them all my contact info anyway:

As a decorated war veteran, your hokie pokie, right-foot-out on DADT is a disgrace. The flip/flop and walk-back should be beneath a man honored by his country for military service and elected to high government office.

Which of your DADT positions is to be believed? Are you to be believed ever again? Not in my household! Ever!

I for one am ashamed of you personally and for the state of AZ (which already looks foolish and contemptible on border issues) without your adding to the disgrace by blocking military funding.

I want the wars ended and the spending on our bloated military cut back....but not before our personnel (Yes, John...some of them might have "the gay") are either home or out of middle east hostilities.

A couple of comments.

Senator McCain, very precisely said: "that is not the policy". This is technically correct but, doesn't directly address the question that had been posed.

In addition to your refutation of the GOP claim that they can't vote for the Defense Authorization bill because the DADT portion is not connected to Defense (your list of prior GOP additions was brilliant) there is also the fact that the original DADT was part of a Defense bill.

DADT was passed as a amendment to the Defense Bill. I am a retired military person.

No, the nation was not weakened today.  We do not need gay men and lesbian women in the military.  They represent only a small and  insignificant part of the equation. We all know this is really about principle...about whether the current generations of Americans are about tolerance,  intelligence, and enlightenment or intolerance, ignorance, and stupidity. We just found out that we are still ignorant, intolerant, and fairly stupid, that is, the people really running this country, Bubba and Bubbette, to whom a substantial number of politicians like John McCain still pander (of course he is not the sharpest knife in the kitchen in any event).  This time it is the conservatives who are jackasses, tommorrow it will be the liberals.  As an independent with some conservative and some liberal views, none of which are inconsistent with reality and real common sense, I just accept I am awash in a sea of absurdity. 

Rachel, the SecDef and the Chairmen Joint Chief of Staff are both appointed by the Pres. Of course they support his decision, they are both in a political position and we all know what happened to GEN McC for his actions. You bashed the Marine Corps General and simply state that he is speculating. I can tell you, from first hand, that he would be able to speak the opinion of the majority because he is not detatched but embedded with the guys on the ground. There are A LOT of folks that are bothered by this. Catering to this will bring down discipline and esprit de corps. If gays have a right to be in the military, does that mean straight people will be able to have their own shower facilities or are we going to make everything COED. It's the same principle. If a homosexual male is allowed to shower with a straight person than there shouldn't be a issue with straight males showering with straight females. Of course that would spark large amounts of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment complaints. This is all BS. Out of the 13000 people that have been released from the service was due to their own demerit. People should be careful what they ask for. Innocent people from both sides will see assaults go up. The first time a homosexual gets caught eyeballing a straight male in the shower and he feels threatened, you can guarantee that something would happen. If a strong homosexual gets tire of being harassed, he will defend his ideology. It's a disaster. If gays want to serve their country and they are loyal to the US Military, they should understand what disruption they would cause and serve without projecting their sexual preferences. It's being done now and it works.

In reply to hoodoo-2252218 (the reply didn't take, sorry): You say "We do not need gay men and lesbian women in the military. They represent only a small and insignificant part of the equation."

You could not be more wrong.

Because of DADT, this nation has lost many good, professional interpreters - people who have true fluency in both the Kurdish and Arabic languages - at a time when we needed them the most. Now, in a time when we need as many people as possible to stave off the insurgencies, help the Iraqi people rebuild their infrastructure and open diplomatic negotiations to end this senseless war, we are instead sending them home in disgrace based upon whom they sleep with.

Though I will definitely agree with you that we are awash in a sea of absurdity in this nation.

Don't wait for Congress to do anything. The Republicans are only interested in pandering to their fundamentalist base, rather than asking the question of what is best for the United States' security. Here's my suggestion: call everyone out on this. There are approx 48,000 gay/lesbian members of the US military at the moment. Tell them all to out themselves, which would then require the military to kick them out. Fine. See where that gets you, homophobes.

The current Senate is broken! If the Democrats keep the majority in the next, they should throw away all the meaningless procedural crap. They only work for civilized people. They would make more progress beating each other in a rink with clubs. Also, the tea bagger and Republican bigots should remember that the second amendment applies for both conservatives and liberals. There is a reason why the oppressed riot on occasion. Although the fault is not just with the bigoted right. If the progressive left is so disappointed with the overall progress and achievements of this administration, where the hell have they been in its support. I thought a healthy Democracy is one where the citizenry are active participants. Seems to me the left thinks it's enough to cast their measly votes and then wait for everything to magically get better. If people aren't motivated for this mid term, then it's their own damn fault!

Could someone inform Sen. McCain et al that if openly gay service people are so dangerous we cannot call on the countries of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Uruguay to come to our aid in battle as all permit openly gay service people in their armed forces.

And they pitched such a fit when France wouldn't join in the military hoorraw. Well, if gay service people are so dangerous why'd we ask the French for help? Aren't these people afraid our servicepeople will catch the gay?

I'm a little sick of the hypocracy. As in a lot.

Hi, Rachel and others.

One of Senator McCain 's re-election television ads shows him walking with an Arizona police man (or chief) next to a border fence when the policeman says "Senator McCain, you're one of us." Who does that cop think he is, acting as if he's speaking for everyone by saying "one of us" there? McCain's ongoing slogan in his re-election campain has been "Character matters." Did character matter when McCain cheated on his sick first wife with Cindy? Did character matter when McCain was a figurehead of the Keating Five? Did character matter when McCain ran a Presidential campaign with a candidate that he himself insisted he had vetted (Sarah Palin), but then later McCain had admitted that, No, Palin was not vetted? Did character matter to McCain when he flip-flopped about his confidence in the judgement of military commanders for issues like the ban on gay military personelle? Did character matter when George W. Bush and his cronies built up people's mob mentality to invade Iraq under false pretenses? Did character matter when Republicans urged everyone to have patience for The Surge in Iraq to start showing signs of success? Does character matter now that Republicans show no patience for President Obama and his team to fix the military troubles in the Middle East? Does character matter now that the Democrats are taking steps to clean-up the cesspool here at home that previous Republican Administrations Trickled us into ever since Reagan's Trickle Down Economics? Does character matter with angry Teabaggers (which they labelled themselves as first until some of them got the notion it might not be a flattering way to identify themselves) and others distracting from the important accomplishments that President Obama and the Democrats have made or the repairs they will make? Does character matter REALLY to McCain or Kyl or Brewer or Boehner or ANY of the divisive, bigoted, angry Republican politicians, or do they just want to keep America red instead of blue, interesed more in partisan politics than absolutely anything else? We cannot let the GOP or the Tea Party (GOP-lite) have the keys back to the car that they drove into the ditch.

Please don't let them fool people into voting for anyone other than Democrats again. This is far too important for everyone's future.

Thank you, Rachel and others, for your vital reporting of the truth.

Big hugs,

Warren G. Richards

Mesa AZ

equality shot down again. such a gloomy day this is :(

The most searing question to me is how in the world these admirable young men and women who are gay and fighting so hard to stay in the military find it in their hearts to want to put themselves in harm's way to defend a country whose military and political leaders malign, humiliate, and persecute them. It reminds me of the large numbers of black Americans who have served willingly, selflessly and earnestly to protect a country that persists in treating them like second class citizens. Both of these groups of people are far and away better citizens and human beings than those who wave the flag and stand in a protective swarm of like-minded, misguided, misanthropic bullies. Those of us who do not have membership in the gay or black communities owe a debt of gratitude to each and every one of these fine people who have such high standards of honor and devotion to the United States that they are still willing to sacrifice themselves to defend people who harbor nothing but ill will toward them. John McCain and the others of his ilk do not deserve the positions they hold and shouldn't even be allowed to breathe the same air as the fine people they malign.

I no longer have respect for John McCain, even as a "war hero" and military veteran. I do believe he is suffering from dementia and his aides might want to keep him abreast of when he is about to contradict himself.

I am flabbergasted that the GOP would vote down the ENTIRE defense bill because of one item. Like Carl Levin said, approve it and then debate the amendments. To vote the entire bill down really shows just how out of touch the GOP is to their constituents and know nothing of the thousands of servicemembers still fighting in Afghanistan and the ones who were left behind in Iraq.

Senator McCain, I would love for you to look into the eyes of a "straight" servicemember and tell him/her they will not be getting new kevlar vests for their unit because one of their fellow servicemembers is "assumed" gay.

And GOP, y'all wanted to debate the bill yet vote it down so you are UNABLE TO DEBATE the bill. I'm confused. Or is it you that is confused? I shall think the latter.

Why, for goodness sake, did Reid tack this on to more appropriations? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

After hearing Sen. McCain senile childish banter ("It's not the policy... It's not the policy... It's not the policy..."), I'm very impressed that Major Almy didn't call McCain a flat-out bold-faced liar. McCain knows damn well that the military has been doing witch hunts for years. To keep saying what we already know -- we all know what the written policy is -- just to deflect answering the question honestly is SO sleazy, it really does make Sen. McCain beneath contempt. I'm not sure when I've been more angry at... and embarrassed for him. It's no wonder people have such disdain for politicians. They seem utterly incapable of doing the honorable thing when it matters most.

You'd be old & senile too

Why did Rachel not ever elude to the fact that McCain was saying "It's not the policy"? when the fact is, It not the policy. Just because someone or some people "may" have violated someone's privacy, does not mean that it is policy to do so. If a police officer violates someones civil rights, does that mean that it is the policy of the police force to do the same? This is really just trying to demonize John McCain and is really what is turning me off about the Dems these days. It's disingenuous at best, and a poor attempt to support your case.

The 'inaudible' part is "You can say that pigs fly"

Oh my Senator McCain, your lies and politics are getting a bit annoying. I am someone who is third generation military, with two older brothers who are Army, my Father was Navy, and my little brother was in the Marine Core, so I have all the services covered within my family, and I can assure you that people get discharged from the military still, from being gay. While this didn't happen to myself, this I would say was because I got a medical discharge from the military before I even discovered my sexual orientation, I did date someone who was discharged under this policy, and I can assure you it wasn't from telling people he was gay, it was from discovered emails. Furthermore I had friends who were discharged from this policy, again not from revealing themselves, but from other people revealing them to their superiors. If Senator McCain knows people in the military as intimately as he states, then he knows this to be true, I was just a lowly enlisted man dating lowly enlisted men, and I know this, you can't tell me that a senator with all his resources and funding does not know what the low man on the totem poll knows himself. It deeply disturbs me that this is happening, not only that DADT remains in place, but that our elected officials can lie, so convincingly, and somehow remain in power.

Oh my Senator McCain, your lies and politics are getting a bit annoying. I am someone who is third generation military, with two older brothers who are Army, my Father was Navy, and my little brother was in the Marine Core, so I have all the services covered within my family, and I can assure you that people get discharged from the military still, from being gay. While this didn't happen to myself, this I would say was because I got a medical discharge from the military before I even discovered my sexual orientation, I did date someone who was discharged under this policy, and I can assure you it wasn't from telling people he was gay, it was from discovered emails. Furthermore I had friends who were discharged from this policy, again not from revealing themselves, but from other people revealing them to their superiors. If Senator McCain knows people in the military as intimately as he states, then he knows this to be true, I was just a lowly enlisted man dating lowly enlisted men, and I know this, you can't tell me that a senator with all his resources and funding does not know what the low man on the totem poll knows himself. It deeply disturbs me that this is happening, not only that DADT remains in place, but that our elected officials can lie, so convincingly, and somehow remain in power.

Oh my Senator McCain, your lies and politics are getting a bit annoying. I am someone who is third generation military, with two older brothers who are Army, my Father was Navy, and my little brother was in the Marine Core, so I have all the services covered within my family, and I can assure you that people get discharged from the military still, from being gay. While this didn't happen to myself, this I would say was because I got a medical discharge from the military before I even discovered my sexual orientation, I did date someone who was discharged under this policy, and I can assure you it wasn't from telling people he was gay, it was from discovered emails. Furthermore I had friends who were discharged from this policy, again not from revealing themselves, but from other people revealing them to their superiors. If Senator McCain knows people in the military as intimately as he states, then he knows this to be true, I was just a lowly enlisted man dating lowly enlisted men, and I know this, you can't tell me that a senator with all his resources and funding does not know what the low man on the totem poll knows himself. It deeply disturbs me that this is happening, not only that DADT remains in place, but that our elected officials can lie, so convincingly, and somehow remain in power.

Just an EXCELLENT comment by Mr. Richards, and straight to the point as to why anyone would vote Republican (a strong LACK of character for one reason). Thank YOU Mr. Richards, and finally a comment from someone with grammer, spelling and context in proper perspective...it's a pleasure to read!

mannjhn is a rebuplican ?????   more lies or unknow facts

Senator McCain has transformed from an American Hero to an embarrassment. He has revised almost every opinion he had from the past. It is a wonder that the younger McCain could have be so strong as a prisoner in Vietnam. Is this politically driver or a sign of organic mental changes?

Rachel, I tend to agree with you on many points, but the point is missed on this case. There are no witchhunts going on, and there was no witchhunt conducted with Almy. As a retired Army officer that dealt with information security and privacy issues, I know that there are very important things left out of this showcase story about Almy. No higher ranking officer picked his name out of a hat and decided that his "private" emails be grabbed. The undisputed fact is that what he used was not a private email (i.e. google, hotmail, etc.) but instead the openly-monitiored DOD network. Almy even admitted such in his testimony. Also, the emails do not publish to a file system on the open network, so only individuals with account access can find them. If you search you C: drive on your computer, do your emails pop up from outlook. I doubt that they do. So, Almy likely had other wirtten materials that he may have used to copy emails and such. Any military personnel will tell you that this would be considered a violation, and spur further inveestigation, including checking emails, just as they would if he was being investigated for laundering unit funds, sending threats, or even making suggestive advances to Soldiers of the opposite sex (as is done for sexual harassment cases, so it is not limited to certain sexual preferences.) Almy considering things are "private" is completely inaccurate. Email authorization agreements that all military members sign, especially in a warzone, to have an email account state that everything is monitored and can be recovered for use if you are under investigation, which he was under.

I DO believe the DADT should go away. But, to make the case that there are mass conspiracies and witchhunts to find and toss out gay military members is HIGHLY INCORRECT and misleading. You stive to enlighten veiwers with your opinion, so, please do not begin the charge of misinforming the public to fit your opinions.