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On Tuesday night, Lady Gaga met with former service members and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) clients David Hall, former Air Force Staff Sergeant fired under DADT; Danny Hernandez, former Marine Lance Corporal who was also fired under DADT; Katie Miller, a top West Point cadet who resigned in August to protest the discriminatory law; and Stacy Vasquez, former Army Sergeant, First Class, who was fired under DADT.

She also pitched the need for DADT repeal before performing in the "Monster Ball" at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C.

Said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network: “Lady Gaga’s recognition of these fine patriots casts a spotlight on the unjust burden that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ imposes upon the brave men and women who defend our country every day, and further underscores why the Senate must swiftly act to get rid of this despicable law for good. With expected votes on the Senate floor later this month, advocates of open service still have time to contact both their senators and urge them to show support for all our veterans by voting to end DADT.”

SLDN also issued an action alert for the public yesterday (which hopefully has been given some momentum and pressure by last night's decision in California) urging them to call senators. Details are HERE.

#swissarmyknives They've got millions of people out of trouble since their invention in the 1880s (and opened a few bottles of wine along the way), but how much do you know about the humble Swiss army knife? [Outside] More »

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that if a marriage equality bill were to reach his desk, he would sign it. O'Malley had previously only gone as far as endorsing civil unions.

"I don't have a crystal ball to predict how this goes," O'Malley said, "but I do know this: I know the people of our state well enough that for all of the differences and diversities of backgrounds and opinions, that all of us want to find a way to craft our laws in such a way that it treats people equally under the law." O'Malley said he personally believes that allowing for civil unions would be the best way to reach a compromise in the legislature. But he added that "should the legislature find a way to reach that compromise in another way, I would sign a bill like that ... we need to find a way to support equal rights, and that is true when it comes to committed gay and lesbian couples and the unions in which they choose to enter and raise children and all the issues that go with that."

Maryland's legislature has yet to vote on the issue, where it would face a stiff battle in state Senate, but could succeed in the more progressive state House. O'Malley is presently tied in the polls in his reelection campaign against former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich.Subscribe to Joe.My.God.

Friday opinion, with a hint of fact.

NY Times:

"The don’t ask, don’t tell act infringes the fundamental rights of United States service members in many ways," she wrote. "In order to justify the encroachment on these rights, defendants faced the burden at trial of showing the don’t ask, don’t tell act was necessary to significantly further the government’s important interests in military readiness and unit cohesion. Defendants failed to meet that burden."

The rule, she wrote in an 86-page opinion, has a "direct and deleterious effect" on the armed services.

More discussion in shayera's diary.

Margie Omero on Gallup's fluctuating generic poll (now tied, was a 10 point R lead):

It's hard to know exactly what is causing the fluctuation--whether it's simple poll fluctuation, or "real" movement. But looking at Gallup's breakout of the generic by party, we see most of the movement comes from Democrats consolidating the base. In the current poll, 93% of self-identified Democrats say they are voting for the Democratic candidate, up from 88% in the previous wave. Republican support for the Republican candidate dropped just slightly (96% to 93%). The difference in base consolidation is now even, for the first time in a month. The chart below shows this metric since Gallup began nightly tracking in March.

Democrats will come home. But what about indies?

Paul Krugman:

A decade ago, Japan was a byword for failed economic policies: years after its real estate bubble burst, it was still suffering from chronic deflation and slow growth. Then America had its own bubble, bust and crisis. And these days, Japan’s record doesn’t look that bad to an American eye.

Why not? For all its flaws, Japanese policy limited and contained the damage from a financial bust. And the question in America now is whether we’ll do the same — or whether we will take a hard right turn into economic disaster.

Eugene Robinson:

Just how corrupt is the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan? It should be clear by now that President Hamid Karzai doesn't want us to know. He'd prefer that we just keep sending our troops and our dollars, and not ask too many questions.

Karzai's government announced this week that American and allied advisers, dispatched to Kabul to help investigate massive and endemic graft, will no longer be allowed to do any actual investigating. Karzai's chief of staff told The Post that the government is still determined to eliminate corruption, but intends to do so "within an Afghan framework."

Edward Schumaker-Matos:

In the country's 30 largest cities, meanwhile, more than half of all public school students were the children of immigrants. They were three-fourths in New York.

This history is forgotten in the angry debate over the cost to taxpayers of unauthorized immigrants and their children today. My recent column reporting that unauthorized immigrants were making unexpectedly large contributions to Social Security, for example, led to denunciations that I was being misleading by not looking at the total fiscal picture.

The truth is that unauthorized immigrants are probably a net burden on taxpayers in the short term, but only if you consider education as a cost and not as an investment in the nation's future, as it was seen a century ago.

#watches Kids. If they're not making a million bucks before they're 16, they're building web design companies or showing us adults up some other way. Like designing really cool Tokyo Flash watches at the age of 14. More »

#android With Google focusing Chrome OS on netbooks rather than tablets, their comments about Froyo not being suitable for tablets is a little puzzling. What would you suggest people use, Google? Donut, like ViewSonic's ViewPad 100? More »

#retrofuturism Back in 1909, a fanciful New York Times journalist decided to spice things up by pretending to describe a futuristic 2009 "centennial celebration." His portrait of future NYC is surprisingly eco-conscious and pedestrian-friendly. More »

#nokia Not only is Stephen Elop a former Microsoft business manager, but he's a Canadian. This is big news for the Finnish company, which is in drastic need of an image overhaul in areas other than Europe and Asia. More »

The terrible decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday to prohibit former prisoners of the CIA from putting their allegations of torture before the courts was decided on the basis that ought to have every progressive outraged. Such lawsuits, the court ruled in a 6-to-5 decision, would potentially expose state secrets. It was the culmination of moves made by the Obama administration begun in February 2009.

At the time, there was considerable hope that the state secrets approach of the Bush administration - which we on the left, a few members of Congress and various candidates for high office had been railing about for years - would get knocked down by the Obama administration. Many argued in those first hopeful days, 18 months ago, that the Obama administration's initial support in the courts for maintaining the Cheney-Bush administration's policy in such matters was just a holding action, not at all the new administration's real point of view. Once the new chief of the Department of Justice got settled in, dumped some of the holdovers from the ancien regime and hired some good people of his own, it was said, things would be different.

Be patient we impatient ones were told. Having no choice, we did. Alas, in vain. Just as we awaited in vain for the possibility that, even if there were no investigations of torture and war policy, there might at least be a truth and reconcilation commission.

On Democracy Now! Thursday, Ben Wizner, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, was interviewed by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez Thursday about the Ninth's ruling:

BEN WIZNER: Well, again, we need to look at the broader context in which this case is not being allowed to go forward. We are now almost two years into the Obama administration. Not a single victim of the Bush administration's torture regime has yet had his day in court. And that's because both the Bush administration and the Obama administration have thrown up one after another procedural roadblock to make sure that these claims won't be heard and to make sure that no court will be able to say what happened here was illegal, what happened to these people was a crime.

In this case, as you said in the lead in, the particular device that the administration used was the state secrets privilege. But although this may be viewed in the United States as an arcane dispute about an evidentiary privilege, we need to look at how the rest of the world sees this. And the rest of the world wants to know whether there will be any possibility in US courts for torture victims to have redress. And if the answer is no, if this decision is allowed to stand, we're going to see the foreign prosecutors, magistrates, the Garzóns, the Spataros of the world, who have been on this program, we're going to see those people reinvigorating their investigations into the Bush administration's torture regime, because America can't clean up its own mess.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, it's been your understanding that state secrets have been used in the past around a particular part of evidence in a court proceeding, not over an entire proceeding. Could you explain that?

BEN WIZNER: Well, again, in this case, the Bush administration and then the Obama administration did not invoke the state secrets privilege in order to prevent the disclosure of a particular document, or even a particular piece of information. They invoked the privilege before the lawsuit had even gotten off the ground and said that the entire subject matter of this lawsuit was off-limits for judicial review. Remember, we are required, as a signatory to the Convention Against Torture, to provide a remedy for people who are torture victims. This use of the state secrets privilege violates our treaty obligations, violates international law.

At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Scott Lemieux writes, “State Secrets” Swallow the Constitution:

I should note here that in a brief, remarkable concurring opinion Judge Carlos Bea argued that even these allegations should be considered state secrets. Under this logic, the use of torture is inherently not subject to legal review because any interrogation techniques that might be used against suspected terrorists are state secrets. The most depressing thing is that this authoritarian Catch-22 differs from the majority’s reasoning more in degree than in kind.

The bare majority of the 9th Circuit deserves all of the criticism it gets for this decision. Shielding the government from any accountability for arbitrary detention and torture before even giving the alleged victims a day in court is a grotesque abdication of basic judicial responsibilities, and indeed despite the pose of deference represents “judicial activism” in the most pejorative sense. As Judge Hawkins — not exactly a staunch libertarian — wrote in his dissent, “The state secrets doctrine is a judicial construct without foundation in the Constitution, yet its application often trumps what we ordinarily consider to be due process of law. This case now presents a classic illustration.” This case represents the judiciary failing at its most fundamental responsibility — ensuring that state violence be applied lawfully.

But we shouldn’t forget who bears the most responsibility — George W. Bush, whose administration performed the renditions, and Barack Obama, whose administration has worked hard to ensure that Bush’s victims are denied their basic due process. There’s no way around the fact that Obama has been a bitter disappointment on this issue, and on this issue he can’t blame James Madison for tying his hands.

Valtin discussed this in a recommended diary late Wednesday.

• • • • •

On this date at Daily Kos in 2005:

See, that's the difference between us and them. They put their party above the country, and would rather stiffle a real investigation than be forced to shoulder any blame.

We say, "investigate away", and let the chips fall where they may. If any Democrats share the blame, then so be it. We need to know what went wrong, who f'd up, and how we can prevent this sort of thing from happening again. If Blanco or another Democrats gets fingered in this epic screwup, that's okay.

But the wingers don't see it that way. "Rethink their calls for an investigation"... Jeez. Talk about projection, as though our motivations are the same as theirs. As though we look at the Gulf Coast and think, "hmmm, how can we best protect Democrats who may have had a hand in this mess..."

Unlike them, we place country first, party second.

#oops This is a Hasbro FurReal pony—basically a $270 stuffed animal that wiggles its ears and neighs. Unfortunately for one little boy or girl, it's apparently the sort of toy that gets blown up by confused bomb squads. More »

This evening's Rescue Rangers are vcmvo2, srkp23, grog (pulling a double duty), dadanation, and ybruti with shayera editing.

• PaulLoeb wants all hands on deck in The Election Needs You, Broken Heart and All. (ybruti)
• Heidiho610 explains Why I'm Going to the One Nation March on October 2nd, which is really a story about political awakening. (grog)
• voice for independents asks Do Any of These People on TV Understand Business? The short answer is no. (grog)
• PopularEconomics explains why Fed's Beige Shows Inflation Bias (not jobs growth). (ybruti)
• cabaretic muses on faith, anxiety and Trader Joe's in The Myth of Scarcity, The Reality of Abundance. (grog)
• pangeaprogress prefers the church/state views of Thomas Paine Contra Glenn Beck. (ybruti)
• fake consultant examines some of the stupidity the American electoral produces On Living With Idiots, Or, An Open Letter To Islam. (grog)

jotter brings us yet another solid High Impact Diaries: September 8, 2010.

noweasels has Top Comments: Canvassing 101 (Yes, YOU can!)s.

Enjoy and please promote your own favorite diaries in this open thread.

"Here we go again. While I believe DADT should have been overturned years ago, I don’t believe it is a court’s role to determine military policy. Let’s just have Congress overturn this law to avoid a prolonged legal battle. [snip] From a quick scan of the opinion, my sense is the judge relies less on the actual text of the constitution and more on twisting past rulings to yield the result she wants." - Gay Patriot blogger and GOProud member B. Daniel Blatt, denouncing the DADT ruling as judicial activism, just as he did with the overturn of Prop 8.

RELATED: Arch-enemy of the Log Cabin Republicans, GOProud has yet to comment on the ruling.

Subscribe to Joe.My.God.

#summer Owning a pool is great—until you realize just how much time and money goes into maintaining it. Thankfully, there are robots like the Solar-Breeze which will remove surface debris and reduce pump usage costs without needing much more than sunlight. More »

Interesting. And hypocritical. Their follow-up tweet says: "DADT has nothing to do with the tradition of marriage between a man and a woman and everything to do with citizens' rights."

(One Man-One Woman is a NOM affiliate.)Subscribe to Joe.My.God.

Human Rights Campaign

“Today a federal judge affirmed what the vast majority of the American people know to be true – that it’s time for the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law to be sent to the dustbin of history. With this legal victory in hand, Congress is right now in a perfect position to strengthen our national security by ending a law that has discharged thousands of capable service members. With House passage already secured, the Senate can and should vote in the next few weeks to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and allow every qualified man and woman the chance to serve with honor.”

American Foundation for Equal Rights

"Today's court decision declaring "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" unconstitutional is yet another significant and long-overdue step toward full equality for all Americans. Along with the recent federal court decisions on DOMA and Proposition 8, it is clear that our nation is moving toward the day when every American will be treated equally under the law, as is required by our Constitution."

Stonewall Democrats

“Today’s Federal court decision calling the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy unconstitutional on grounds that it violates gay military members' rights to free speech, due process and open association is another nail in the coffin of the policy.” Mitchell continued, “We’re glad that the Federal court agrees with President Obama’s position: that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell needs to come to an end. Our Senators need to hear from their constituents demanding repeal. We also call on Senate Republicans to rise above the obstructionism they’ve been playing at for months and let a vote happen on what the vast majority of Americans want: repeal of DADT.”

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network

“We’re pleased by the judge's decision, but this decision is likely to be appealed and will linger for years. Congress made the DADT law 17 years ago and Congress should repeal it. The Senate will have the opportunity to do just that this month and most Americans think the Senate should seize it.”Subscribe to Joe.My.God.

A fairly quiet Thursday on the campaign trail, though we do see some new and encouraging numbers out of the Hawkeye State (and the source will surprise you). We have less encouraging numbers out of Maine (and the source will surprise you there, as well).

That, plus a lesson in campaign comity from the lovely state of Vermont. All that (and more!) in the Thursday edition of the Wrap...

THE U.S. SENATE

FL-Sen: New poll gives Rubio double-digit lead in Sunshine State
A new Sunshine State News poll (put together by sometimes-GOP, sometimes-media pollster Susquehanna Communications) shows that the post-primary bounce for Democrat Kendrick Meek seems to have come largely out of the support for Independent candidate Charlie Crist. The poll puts Republican Marco Rubio at 43% of the vote, with Crist now well behind at 29% of the vote. Meek has now moved into contention with Crist, logging 23% of the vote.

THE U.S. HOUSE

AZ-01/AZ-05: Pair of GOP internal polls tease competitive Fall races
If you buy new internal polling from the GOP out of the Grand Canyon State, political neophyte Paul Gosar could topple freshman Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, while the second time might be the charm for David Schwiekert over Democrat Harry Mitchell. A new Moore Information poll out of the northeastern-based 1st district puts Gosar in a dead heat with Kirkpatrick, with both candidates grabbing 43% of the vote. Meanwhile, down in the greater Phoenix metro area, a National Research poll puts Schweikert (who lost by nine points in 2008) up with a modest lead over second-term Rep. Harry Mitchell (46-38). Both polls were conducted a little over a week ago.

CO-04: Dem internal claims a tie race in swing district
In a rather transparent counterpunch to that ugly Ayers McHenry polling dump last week, incumbent Democrat Betsy Markey has released internal polling showing a coin flip between her and GOP challenger Cory Gardner. The poll, conducted this week by Bennett Pitts and Northington, puts both candidates at 38%, and has two third-party candidates snatching 7% of the vote. One criticism of the Ayers McHenry poll was that (mostly rightward-leaning) third party candidates were not offered as an alternative in their polls.

CT-05: Even GOP internals in district put Murphy at a toss-up
In addition to their work in central Arizona, National Research has been busy in the northeastern part of the country, as well. Even their polls, however, could not provide a lead for GOP challenger Sam Caliguiri. The internal poll, conducted last week, put second-term Democrat Chris Murphy one point ahead of Caliguiri (40-39). Another GOP poll, that one from Ayers McHenry, had Murphy ahead of Republican Steve Greenberg (who wound up losing the primary to Caliguiri).

IA-01/IA-02/IA-03: GOP poll puts Dems ahead in three key races
Call this one the "holy shit" surprise poll of the day, especially when you consider the source. GOP pollsters Voter/Consumer Research headed into the field in Iowa, and found that all three Democratic incumbents polled hold respectable leads over their Republican challengers. The big surprise among the three is veteran Rep. Leonard Boswell, who most folks conceded was trailing Republican challenger Brad Zaun. The GOP pollster begs to differ, however, putting Boswell up by nine points (48-39) over Zaun. In Iowa's 2nd district, second-term incumbent David Loebsack holds a similar edge over Mariannette Miller-Meeks (47-39), while over in the 1st district, second term Democrat Bruce Braley holds a slightly larger edge over Republican Ben Lange (50-39). The pollster found slightly closer races when they confined their sample to so-called "certain to vote" participants.

KS-04: Hartman flirtation with Libertarian bid ends
A slight disappointment for Democrats, or anyone who likes a good political grudge match. Wealthy businessman Wink Hartman, who lost a bloody GOP primary to nominee Mike Pompeo, has reversed course on plans to run on the Libertarian line. The Libertarian candidate had withdrawn due to health problems, and as recently as yesterday it appeared as if Hartman and the Libertarians were close to marriage. Hartman appeared to have been the recipient of extensive lobbying by the GOP, who feared that Hartman on the Libertarian line might provide enough erosion from Pompeo to hand the victory to his hard-charging Democratic rival, state legislator Raj Goyle.

ME-01/ME-02: Dems under 50%, with single digit leads, according to PPP
If the Iowa polls were an unexpected dose of good news in our polling universe today, DK polling partners PPP provided the buzzkill, adding two races to the potential GOP target list that were largely off the radar screen. Their new polls out of Maine have both freshman Democrat Chellie Pingree and veteran Democratic incumbent Michael Michaud with leads only in the high single digits against their GOP opposition. Pingree leads Dean Scontras by a 48-39 margin, while Michaud is out in front of Republican Jason Levesque by a slightly smaller margin (45-38). Pingree won this open-seat in 2008 by a 55-45 margin, but Michaud has been re-elected easily since his initial win in 2002.

THE GUBERNATORIAL RACES

NY-Gov: Paladino tries to win this election through the mails
Perhaps this is an interesting and novel sign that basing a campaign's late push solely on saturation TV ads really is a thing of the past. The New York Observer has an interesting piece about the final week campaign blitz by wealthy GOP businessman Carl Paladino. Rather than solely taking to the air, as has been standard practice for candidates for years, Paladino is adding a sizeable direct mail component to his final push against former Republican Congressman Rick Lazio. The direct mail, according to the Observer consists of "letters [that] are long—usually clocking in at two-to-three pages—text heavy, and are aimed at older voters for whom sitting down with the day's mail is an important part of the day." Paladino and Lazio square off in next Tuesday's New York primary, though either is likely to be sizeable underdog to Democratic state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

RI-Gov: Frank Caprio's ugly news day
It is safe to say that today's news cycle was not particularly swell for near-certain Democratic gubernatorial nominee Frank Caprio. It has become evident in the last 24 hours that the GOP is trying to make Caprio unelectable to his own party. First came the revelation from the RNC that Caprio met with the committee last winter, with the implication that Caprio was coming to discuss running under the GOP banner. Caprio strongly denies that, but it is worth noting that he was locked in what seemed like it would be a bitter showdown with state AG Patrick Lynch at that time for the Democratic nomination (Lynch eventually folded his campaign). Later in the day, GOP candidate John Robataille piled on, dishing that Caprio had met with him personally and tried to entice Robataille into dropping out of the race. Robataille claims that offers were made both through an emissary, and by Caprio himself, over the past month.

Caprio is locked in a strange position, given that he is facing both a Republican candidate (to be determined next week), and a Republican-turned-Independent (former Senator Lincoln Chafee), who for all intents and purposes seems to be running to Caprio's left.

VT-Gov: The feelgood tour of the late Summer
This is how you handle a difficult and close primary election, kids. The five candidates who competed for the Democratic nomination for Governor are touring the state together, even as a recount to determine the nominee is underway. The recount, which is more than halfway completed, has not changed the calculus much at all, which favors Peter Shumlin, who led the semi-official returns by almost 200 votes.

THE RAS-A-POLL-OOZA

The House of Ras hits the stage with a quartet of polls today, the majority of them extremely bullish on the GOP. We also get a little example Rasmussen-esque placement of a thumb on the scale--the Illinois Senate poll includes the Green Party candidate by name, but curiously omits the much more conservative Libertarian candidate on the ballot. I'm also not sure I buy a toss-up in West Virginia, either, but with little other polling in the field, it cannot be discounted.

AZ-Sen: Sen. John McCain (R) 51%, Rodney Glassman (D) 37%
IL-Sen: Mark Kirk (R) 41%, Alexi Giannoulias (D) 37%
MO-Sen: Roy Blunt (R) 53%, Robin Carnahan (D) 43%
WV-Sen: Joe Manchin (D) 50%, John Raese (R) 45%

#autotune It's a fact: everyone sounds better Autotuned. Smule's I Am T-Pain app now lets you send autotuned voicemails to friends and family for a small fee. Because there's no better time than the present to start calling your Aunt "shawty." More »

Write the diary!

While Steve Singiser's outstanding roundup highlights news of many races in this election cycle, it is you - the Daily Kos community - who can be on the ground to provide the insight and information to help our candidates at every level. The Election Diary Rescue is back, and now we need you to write those diaries!

This Rescue Diary covers the period from 6 PM, Wednesday, 9/8 to 6:00 PM EDT, Thursday, 9/9

Today's Menu Includes :

27 Diaries Overall

- 6 On House races

- With 6 covering individual Districts in 6 states

- 10 On Senate races

- Representing 6 different states

- 9 On Various election races and ballot issues

- Encompassing Governor, Secretary of State, Local, and more

- 2 General election-related diaries

And be sure to follow the Election Diary Rescue on Twitter

(Tonight's compilation and more after the jump............)

#imagecache This might technically be a music video. But I'm not—however down I am with Girl Talk—watching for the music. I'm watching for the endless, perfectly timed parade of (nearly) every animated gif I've ever loved. You should too. More »

It's been a while since we've heard from the Dred Scott Republicans on amending or repealing the 14th amendment. Apparently the Burlington Coat Factory Islamic Center was a far shinier wedge issue, so they dropped this one. But circling back on it to close the loop, it turns out to be a self-defeating policy idea.

[E]nding birthright citizenship is also bad policy for those who want to decrease the population of illegal immigrants — because it has the exact opposite effect. The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute reported today [pdf] that even the most conservative changes to birthright citizen could cause the proportion of children without  documents to double, from 2% of all children living in the U.S. to 4%.

The report looked at the likely growth of the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. between now and 2050, not taking into account changes in the flow of immigrants based on enforcement or the economy. Under the current system, all children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents are citizens, meaning illegal status is not passed down the line to future generations. The illegal immigrant population is younger, on average, than the population overall, and had about 340,000 babies in the U.S. in 2008 — about 8  percent of the total number of children born in the U.S. that year.

If those children were undocumented, they would pass down illegal status to their children. The report projects that by 2050, about 4.7 million undocumented immigrants would have been born in the U.S., 1 million of them to U.S.-born parents.

So the only policy solution that would make any sense for the Dred Scotters would be to round up and deport everyone in the country who is here without legal authorization. Then take away birthright citizenship. Because if you do it without getting rid of all the undocumented folks, well, you just end up with more undocumented people. But even Haley Barbour recognizes that "common sense tell us we’re not going to take 10 or 12 or 14 million people and put them in jail and deport them."

In other words, Republicans are short on common sense, long on crazy, divisive rhetoric. Nothing new in that, just sayin'.