AOL News has a new home! The Huffington Post.
Click here to visit the new home of Politics Daily!Hot on HuffPost:
Supreme Court To Decide Blockbuster Cases Soon
Controversial Book On Obama Appears To Have Lifted Key Quote
mikemullen
Mullen Wishes House Had Waited on Gay Ban Vote
By not in system - AOL NewsWASHINGTON (May 30) -- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today he would have preferred that Congress had waited before voting to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" law that bans gays from serving openly in the military. Adm. Mike Mullen did not directly criticize a House vote on Friday that marked a step toward repealing the ban. But he said it would have been better for lawmakers to wait until the Pentagon completed its review of how to make the repeal work. That study, due in December, is based on a current survey of troops and their families. "Ideally, I would certainly have ...
'Don't Ask, Don't Tell': Way May Be Clear for Repeal of Military Gay Ban
By Patricia Murphy - Politics DailyOffice of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag notified key members of Congress late Monday that the Obama administration will support a specific measure to repeal the Pentagon's longtime ban on gays serving openly in the military. The news, which one advocate called "a dramatic breakthrough," virtually assures the measure will pass Congress later this week. As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama vowed to end the military's policy within his first year in office, but progress of the repeal has been marked by fits and starts since his inauguration as he focused on the wars in Iraq ...
Pentagon Relaxes Policy on Gays and Lesbians
By David Wood - Politics DailyUnder a new administrative directive signed Thursday morning by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, members of the armed forces cannot be discharged for alleged homosexuality simply on hearsay evidence. Until now, the allegation by anyone of homosexual activity on the part of a military person could result in that person being discharged from service. The new Pentagon rules also prohibit a service member being discharged merely because of statements that person made creating a "presumption'' that the person is homosexual. Any allegations of a service member's homosexuality must now be given ...
Arguing About Gays in the Military: It's So Over
By David Wood - Politics DailyWithin the boisterous, hard-living ranks of enlisted soldiers and Marines, where I spend most of my reporting time, it's been 16 years since I heard anyone argue about whether the military should allow homosexuals to serve openly. And that was only because I asked. I was penned up with several hundred Marines on the amphibious assault ship USS Barnstable County, coming home from fighting in Somalia, and because I knew that back home in Washington, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' had become a Big Issue. ...
Top Brass Calls for Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
By Patricia Murphy - Politics DailyDefense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that they both personally support the repeal of the law banning gays from serving openly in the U.S. military. They then detailed the Pentagon's plans to prepare for eventual changes to the law. Mullen began his remarks by telling senators that he will obey any law that Congress passes, but, "It is my personal belief that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military is the right thing to do," he said. "It comes down to integrity-- theirs as individuals ...
Military Chief Defends Obama on Afghanistan
By not in system - AOL NewsWASHINGTON (Dec. 3) -- Public praise for their civilian superiors is expected of senior uniformed leaders. But the nation's top military man seemed to go out of his way on Wednesday to praise President Barack Obama's plan to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, then begin withdrawing them by the middle of 2011. "His is a more balanced, more flexible and more achievable strategy than we have had in the past, one based on pragmatism and real possibilities," Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a pair of congressional committees. "And speaking for the ...
Afghanistan: The Obama-Bush Exit Strategy
By David Wood - Politics DailyU.S. troops will train and fight alongside local forces. Meanwhile, other U.S. forces will continue to target al-Qaida. And when the violence has begun to subside, U.S. troops can begin to come home -- if conditions permit. President Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan sounds a lot like President Bush's new strategy for Iraq. In fact, it is Bush's Iraq exit strategy -- which then-Sen. Barack Obama bitterly opposed. So did then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, who defended Obama's war plan on Capitol Hill Wednesday, along with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman ...
Obama's Timeline No Guarantee of Afghanistan Withdrawal, Senators Told
By Patricia Murphy - Politics DailyOn the day after President Obama laid out his new Afghanistan strategy, the question of when American troops would leave the country quickly drew the most attention, and at times the most confusion, during a Senate hearing Wednesday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs, went to Capitol Hill to explain to senators the finer points of the plan. Gates took the lead, telling the Senate Armed Services Committee that an extended commitment from the United States is an "arduous but vitally necessary ...
Twitter, Facebook Banned by Marines on Military Network
By Emily Miller - Politics DailyThe U.S. Marine Corps on Monday banned social media Web sites Facebook, Twitter and MySpace from its computer networks. ...
Follow Politics Daily
POPULAR
- Nancy Pelosi Confirms House May Skip Up or Down Vote on Senate Health Bill
- Debrahlee Lorenzana: A Double Take on Those Double D's
- Palin Earnings Estimated at $12 Million
- Campbell Brown Quits CNN With Shockingly Frank Farewell
- The Five Most Racist Obama Cartoons?
- Soraya M., Stoned to Death for Being an "Inconvenient Wife''
- Jimmy Carter Leaves Church Over Treatment of Women
- No posts are available.
News From Our Partners
- Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st
- Picking new leader, Egyptians search for superman
- Egyptians vote in first free presidential vote
- Moon chips from Vegas casino mogul sent to NASA
- Egyptians vote to rid nation of autocratic rule
- More Stories »
- Romneys Love Fancy World of Rarefied Sport
- Rudy Giuliani: Mitt's Great. I'm Just Better
- 'Masters of the Universe' Sure Have Fragile Egos
- Romney: My Mistakes 'Haunt Me'
- Newt Lauds Romney: He's Like Eisenhower
- More Stories »
- The 7 Best Moments from Sunday Talk
- Know Your Enemy
- Cannes’s Mischief Maker
- Cut It Out, Internet Bullies!
- Cut It Out, Internet Bullies!
- More Stories »
- Ambition Counteracting Ambition
- Robert Blagojevich Speaks Out
- In Iowa, Obama Calls Romney's Words 'A Cow Pie of Distortion'
- In Iowa, Obama Calls On Congress to Act on Clean Energy Tax Credits
- Romney Has Interesting Morning in Inner-City Philly
- More Stories »
Top News
More News
More on Aol
Local News
More Blog/Sites
Sites and Services
HuffPost Politics