The Glade 4.0

Lady Gaga to lead rally against military's 'don't ask, don't tell'

Washington (CNN) -- Pop star Lady Gaga will headline a rally in Portland, Maine, on Monday calling on the state's two Republican senators to vote yes on taking up a defense bill that includes authorization to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward gay and lesbian servicemembers.

A crucial Senate vote is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, and supporters of the repeal say that as of now, they do not have the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster blocking the bill.

Maine Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe are publicly undecided, and could each potentially provide Democrats the votes they need to bring the issue before the Senate.

Lady Gaga's rally is being organized by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), a gay rights group mobilizing grassroots support to repeal the controversial policy. The organization also helped the singer set up a lengthy YouTube video posted Friday urging her fans to call their senators and ask them to support Tuesday's procedural vote.

The singer sent word of the planned rally via twitter Sunday night.

A spokesman for SLDN says Gaga will be accompanied at Monday's rally by both gay and straight military veterans. Both of Maine's GOP senators have been generally supportive of the gay rights community, and this issue in particular.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Too bad the support they seek also includes voting a bill that has been packed with other controversial proposals.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

In comic strips the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin

It'd take a lot to convince me that the threatened filibuster is honestly about anything besides DADT.

It'd take a lot to convince me that the threatened filibuster is honestly about anything besides DADT. We're heading into a mid-term election, and this is a do-or-die wedge issue for many conservative activists. I'm sure the Republicans figure that if they let it go through without maximum opposition, the base will make them pay for it. Any other rationales are just to provide plausible deniability for moderate/independent voters.

Wow, so apparently I need to post Senate Rule #22 ... again ... and explain it, because people are still operating under the delusion that a filibuster is voluntarily invoked. This baffles me, since the Democrats were the party that changed the rule in the Fifties ...

You guys do understand that if a piece of legislation is opened to floor debate it is BY DEFAULT already in filibuster right? That a cloture motion MUST (as in mandatory, obligatory, required) pass before it can be put to a passage vote? That all this hemming and hawing about the filibuster for the last 4 years is bloody nonsense?

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Arathain:

Except they don't, because an actual filibuster, in the sense you are using it, requires an endless debate on the subject: hence all the "legends" of Strom Thurmond reading the NY City metro white pages on the Senate floor for days on end.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

Arathain:

Except, you continue to demonstrate you don't understand the filibuster at all. At what point is continuing debate on legislation inundated with controversial and objectionable provisions a filibuster? At what point is voting "no" on a cloture motion when the legislation at hand has not been resolved or finalized a "filibuster", because that's exactly what you're arguing.

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

RangerDave:

Except, denying a cloture motion is not a filibuster; using the terms interchangeably is both dishonest and politically motivated.