Obama inks defense bill with Hate Crimes Provision

[Phantom]

Hey all, I just saw this post on yahoo, and reading through it made me happy for a lot of reasons. Obama is finally taking a step up on his promise to help fight hate crimes in the US. Read on:

Obama inks defense bill with hate crimes provision - Yahoo! News

Obama inks defense bill with hate crimes provision
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AP – President Barack Obama signs the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, Wednesday, …

WASHINGTON – Trumpeting a victory against careless spending, President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed a defense bill that kills some costly weapons projects and expands war efforts. In a major civil rights change, the law also makes it a federal hate crime to assault people based on sexual orientation.

The $680 billion bill authorizes spending but doesn't provide any actual dollars. Rather, it sets guidance that is typically followed by congressional committees that decide appropriations. Obama hailed it as a step toward ending needless military spending that he called "an affront to the American people and to our troops."

Still, the president did not win every fiscal fight. He acknowledged he was putting his name to a bill that still had waste.

The measure expands current hate crimes law to include violence based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. To assure its passage after years of frustrated efforts, Democratic supporters attached the measure to the must-pass defense policy bill over the steep objections of many Republicans.

The White House put most of its focus on what the bill does contain: project after project that Obama billed as unneeded. The bill terminates production of the F-22 fighter jet program, which has its origins in the Cold War era and, its critics maintain, is poorly suited for anti-insurgent battles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates targeted certain projects for elimination, putting them at odds with some lawmakers. The same spending items deemed unnecessary or outdated by Pentagon officials can mean lost jobs and political fallout for lawmakers back in their home districts.

"When Secretary Gates and I first proposed going after some of these wasteful projects, there were a lot of people who didn't think it was possible, who were certain we were going to lose, who were certain that we were going to get steamrolled," Obama said. "Today, we have proven them wrong."

In another of several examples, the legislation terminates the replacement helicopter program for the president's own fleet. That program is six years behind schedule and estimated costs have doubled to more than $13 billion.

Yet the legislation still contains an effort by lawmakers to continue development — over the president's strong objections — of a costly alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Air Force's fighter of the future. A vague White House veto threat about that never came to fruition.

"There's still more fights that we need to win," Obama said. "Changing the culture in Washington will take time and sustained effort."

Obama signed the bill in the East Room, adding some fanfare to draw attention to his message of fiscal responsibility and support for the military.

He spoke more personally about the new civil rights protections. A priority of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., that had been on the congressional agenda for a decade, the measure is named for Matthew Shepard, the gay Wyoming college student murdered 11 years ago.

Obama acknowledged Shepard's mom, Judy, and remembered that he had told her this day would come. He also gave a nod to Kennedy's family. Going forward, Obama promised, people will be protected from violence based on "what they look like, who they love, how they pray or why they are."

"This is a landmark step in eliminating the kind of hate motivated violence that has taken the lives of so many in our community," said Jarrett Barrios, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

The expansion has long been sought by civil rights and gay rights groups. Conservatives have opposed it, arguing that it creates a special class of victims. They also have been concerned that it could silence clergymen or others opposed to homosexuality on religious or philosophical grounds.

On the military front, the legislation approves Obama's $130 billion request as the latest installment of money toward the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The far-reaching law also prohibits the Obama administration from transferring any detainee being held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba to the U.S. for trial until 45 days after it has given notice to Congress. Guantanamo prisoners could not be released into the U.S.
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I'm very happy and satisfied (alittle) with this new defense bill. It helps in any way in can to help fight hate crimes in the country. Obama has gained some really good points with me, through it took awhile for this bill to finally pass, it will the gay and lesbian communities in a big way, as well as other miniorities in the US, and hopefully this in some small way can bring some repose to the familes of the victims of hate crimes.

[Meier Link]

I willl have to give props to Obama for trying to bring down hate crimes here in the US. I think we should move past those times of descrimination and move forward to becoming a more civilized union of people.

And now I am going to kind of conrtadict myself.

This was an interesting read all the wway through, and some of the things I would have to agree with, specially the hate crime sections. But it also feels like that section is over shadowing one of the critical parts of that bill.

I find it repulsive that Obama has terminated the F-22 production and is also looking forwards to stoping the modifications to the F-35 JFS. It is a proven fact that America's Military legacy Aircrafts are becoming obsolete. Hell even the F-35 as a whole right now before the engine modification is highly outdated. For those that don't know the F-35 and legacy aricraft do not come equiped with the proper items to defend against the ever growing anti-access weapons.

The F-22 is by far the best thing that could happen for the military. It's stelth, speed, agility, and self defence mechanisms make it by far teh supirior to the JFS. It is a given that the F-22 was suppose to be made for U.S. use only while the JFS is made readily availible for NATO and the allied nation.

With the hault in production of the F-22 the USAF are going to be required to fly legacy aircraft along side the less suprior and more costly F-35. I think this is suiside for something that is easily preventable. With the growing safistication of anit-aircraft missles, SAMs, Radar Decoying, and counter stealth technologies along with many other weapons I feel that this is a huge mistake on Obama and Gate's part.

I will come back and add some more when I am feeling better or after a few people have posted.

:edit:

Here is an interesting read for those that are interested in learning a little about this topic. http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-NOTAM-140409-1.html

[Alpha]

Why... why are these two things combined into one? The hate crimes thing is interesting, but I think just makes something intuitive into something official; anyone could have done that. The military aspect is better.

Aside from that, why do you feel that reduced military spending is actually a bad thing? America is already the greatest military power to have ever existed in the history of civilisation, and that is simply not an overstatement. So why more spending? I understand that Obama is forced into spending a significant amount of money on that wars currently engaged; after all, it would actually be safer to 'finish' them to some extent before just packing up shop. So, despite supporting neither war to much of an extent (they do have semi-noble aims, admittedly), I can't begrudge him for not dis-continuing them, yet.

However, in general terms, the world spends $1.2 trillion dollars on the military every year, but only $20 billion on the UN regular budget. We obviously get great kicks out of killing each other, but haven't learnt how to co-exist and co-operate. Why are you concerned that he isn't going to approve some costly weapons projects? I think it's great that someone is saying no to more money being spent on equipment, that when used properly, will cause death.

New Zealand has one major air force plane; a cargo plane used to support Pacific Island nations (and our own, if the need arises) for disaster relief. That is appropriate military spending; money used to aid, not destroy.

Be glad that there will be less destruction in the world from decisions such as these.