Don’t Ask Don’t Tell(DADT) was a policy introduced under the Clinton Administration. In short, it prohibits any gay or bisexual servicemember from discussing their sexual orientation.  That includes any casual mention of a relationship, a family, you get the picture. Apparently it creates an “unacceptable risk” to the morale, good order and discipline of our military.

 Sounds to me like another homophobic policy.

One of President Obama’s campaign promises was to repeal DADT, a policy that has since made it difficult to retain qualified servicemembers. As stated by Dr. Larry Korb, a former national security advisor and Senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP) in Washington,

“…the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy continues to undermine their efforts to attract qualified men and women. Moreover, since its enactment, this outmoded law has cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of service men and women who were working to keep our country safe.”

For details on the March: Meet at Farragut Square at 2:00PM EST. You will then walk over to the White House and gather in Lafayette Park.

Good luck and have fun! I would be there on the group with my gear but your little sister only graduates from high school once. :)

Hundreds of Iranians and supporters showed up with flags, signs, and shades of green to urge the White House to intervene in what has become a widespread uprising between Iranians for democracy and the government, lead by the Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei  and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

BBC reported from that 10 people have died so far in the Tehran protests. One woman I interviewed denounced that and said the real numbers are in the low hundreds. While all of this goes on, dozens of journalists have been jailed while others, like BBC’s John Leyne, have been removed from the country. Total chaos.

I came across this protest unexpectedly but luckily had my Flip Video on me. Check it out and be sure to get the take from the ground with my live tweets next time.

One U.S. blogger, Andrew Sullivan, described President Ahmadinejad’s leadership and said he is dedicated to “conflict abroad,” manipulative of “rural, religious voters,” and engaged in other abuses of “the state.” Even perhaps more illuminating, Sullivan asked whether Iranian voters can “trust the process” when they have a President who “pulls tricks” like Karl Rove.

Back in Iran, tens of thousands of Iranians took the streets in opposition to Ahmadinejad victory. Citizen journalism video reports and the use of micro blogs and hash tags(#iran #iranelections) broadcasted a raw and emotional look at what Iranian organizers, press and activists were going through in the capital of Tehran.

One YouTube user, theamirzare, who apparently just signed up on the video sharing network to post this video, sent a simple message:  ”Ahmadinejad is NOT my President.” In just two days, the video has over 23,000 views.

Back in the U.S., activist bloggers chased the story with original content created by on-the-ground reporters from the New York Times, CNN and others. Tracy Viselli, a blogger at Care2, pulled together a well-organized summary of key highlights as well as a few videos from the ground. Below I posted my favorite, which is from CNN’s Chief International Correspondent, Christiane Amanpour. Her cameras caught one woman shouting, “People in Tehran hate Ahmadinejad! People in Tehran hate Ahmadinejad!”"

Finally, on Sunday night, as hundreds, if not thousands of U.S. bloggers watched the chaos unfold, some decided to start a little chaos of their own. TechPresident broke the news that a group of cyber strategists had temporarily shut down Iran’s state-run media web site, www.IRIB.ir. The effort was lead by D.C. political consultant and new media authority, Josh Koster, who leveraged free web app called Page Reboot, to bring the site down. The customized anti-IRIB link was passed around through Twitter and list servs until finally, at 9:24 PM EST, @joshkoster proclaimed, “(PLS RT!): We just brought down Iran’s media site. 2 More: http://tinyurl.com/m42b65 http://tinyurl.com/lmgzmf #iranelection (PLS RT!)

Oh, democracy. Aren’t you fun.

I got word of a protest happening just a few blocks from my place after work - so I went home, recharged, grabbed the gear and ran over to check it out. I uploaded photos and live-blogged via my Twitter feed - and finally, took some of the best clips for this video below. Be kind, this is a rough cut - but I wanted to get it up anyhow. Check it out.

Earlier that day just a few blocks down - at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House had this to say about California’s decision. Don’t blink or you’ll be sure to miss it.

Finally, don’t miss what celebrities had to say on Twitter - thanks to E!’s new celeb twitter feed.

Funny they said that. A few weeks ago I had a conversation with Helen Thomas where she talked about the military’s use of drones. I was probing her on the defense budget - asking her how I can learn to study it well enough to know when something doesn’t add up. She told me she wasn’t an expert on budgets, but that she does know a little something about the sophistication of the weapons we are using.

After I came home to upload and watch the video, I got a little nervous. Was this kind of stuff classified? I had never heard any of it before. So I called her to make sure.

“No,” she told me, “this is all open information.”

Once again, the student had been schooled. How I love when that happens.

This video contains several references to Web sites and resources that I used to do research. All of the links can be found below. This video is available on YouTube, Yahoo! Video, Meta Cafe and Daily Motion. So get into it and pass it on.

Drones: America’s New Air Force, CBS News 60 Minutes, and CNET, May 10, 2009

Air Force to Build Up Its Drone Supply, Washington Post, March 19, 2005

Lobbying Spending Database, OpenSecrets.org

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

After that MTV piece aired our paths kept crossing. We were both at the Republican National Convention, where he delivered a speech for the Campaign for Liberty. Later that week, he was all over CSPAN, MSNBC and CNN, as the spectator who interrupted Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) speech with a sign that read: “McCain Votes Against Vets” and “Your Can’t Win an Occupation.”

Today Kokesh is back in his hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico. On May 3^rd, 2009, the 27-year-old Marine announced he would explore a run in New Mexico’s 3^rd Congressional District. If he decides to do it, he will face freshman U.S. Representative Ben Ray Luján.

Here is an exclusive Q&A with the possible youth candidate - his thoughts on running, party politics and the use of new media tools in the halls of Congress.

EricaAmerica: On May 1^st, you created an exploratory committee to run in New Mexico’s 3^rd Congressional District. What brought you to this point and this decision? Obviously, your time in Iraq served as a major influence.

Adam Kokesh: The formation of the exploratory committee is just the formalization of a process that has really been going on for years. Since I was first politically active, people have been encouraging me to run for office, especially for Congress. This might just be the time and the place for me. When I got back from Iraq I realized that the issues we debate are more than just academic or intellectual issues, but when we are talking about government, the use of force, and war, the issues are in one way or another a matter of life and death. That’s what motivated me to get involved in the first place.

[Fallujah, Feb-Sep '04]

EA: You must be one of the youngest potential-candidates for Congress in the country’s history. How old are you?

AK: I am 27 years old. I’m sure there have been many younger candidates, but that’s pretty young by today’s standards.

EA: You said if you are elected, you will not accept the Congressional salary of $170,000, but the national average income. Why make that kind of monetary sacrifice?

AK: It’s time someone on Capitol Hill had some skin in the game. I don’t think our current leadership has any credibility when they are all making extraordinary sums of money (and I’m not just talking about their salaries) when they are supposed to be servants of the people.

EA: You are a member of the Libertarian party - but you will be running on the Republican ticket. What can Libertarian leadership bring to the 112^th Congress? To the Republican Party?

AK: As of yet, I have not committed to running with any party and I’m not ruling out any possibilities.

EA: Has new media (instant video uploads of your speeches, a blog to communicate with supporters) made it easier for you to enter into politics at such a young age? Has new media and online transparency of who you are and what you stand for created any problems?

AK: I don’t think new media has made it harder or easier, it’s just where it’s at. Some people who can’t adapt are getting left behind, but it’s not like it gives me an edge any more than any other tool at my disposal. When I first got involved with the anti-war movement, the war was still relatively popular and it would drive me nuts to see some of the comments about me online, but that’s just another part about being a public figure these days. It doesn’t get to me any more.

EA: Will you consider using Twitter to update voters and constituents on your day-to-day meetings, votes and observations of the Congress like Claire McCaskill (http://twitter.com/clairecmc ), John Boehner (http://twitter.com/johnboehner) and others do?

AK: I have been a little reluctant about Twitter since I have such success with Facebook status updates, but I’m getting more familiar with the platform. I think the idea of instant updates from representatives is a great idea, and I will use whatever’s available to do that effectively.

EA: Any additional thoughts to add?

AK: My political philosophy is based on my attitude towards humanity: love, faith, respect. Freedom and liberty are the political measurements of how respected we are by governement and people in our communities. When we have a society like ours that is so seemingly dependent upon violence and coercion, the real message of change is love.

I recently had a conversation with a progressive news organization. They intrigued me by explaining how they are expanding their political coverage online. But employees, for the time, are to be based in New York City. Don’t get me wrong, I am currently wearing a tee with those exact letters strewn across it. But leave Washington at this moment in history? It would feel so wrong.

It is a natural concern for all of us, as newspapers collapse and resources constrict, that American journalism is about to suffer. In an article in The New Republic called “Goodbye to the Age of Newspapers (Hello to an Era or Corruption),” Paul Starr wrote:  

“One danger of reduced news coverage is to the integrity of government…” He went on, “…corruption is more likely to flourish when those in power have less reason to fear exposure.”

Does anyone else think it is ironic, and completely illogical - that at a moment when the news media is finding it financially impossible to do their job, the government has more power and influence than ever before?

Let’s just think about the facts. As Break the Matrix pointed out, the government is firing CEOs and controlling billion dollar businesses. In the last 100 days, our government has nationalized companies and promised trillions of non-existent dollars to fix the economic collapse.

The best part? Since we don’t have any journalists to comb through records, papers and public documents to track how stimulus dollars are spent, the Obama Administration has created a web site, Recovery.Gov, to track it for us. It feels like a coy PR move - to provide the American people (and strapped-for-time journalists) this service. Let us all have a moment and be honest: how can we possibly take their word at face value and trust that a politician and his staff will offer all the facts?

The fact of the matter is this: no matter how popular, “transparent” or open a Presidency claims to be, journalism watchdogs are critical. The Constitution protects the freedom of the press and with it, emphasizes that a thriving system of journalism was, and is, inextricably linked, to the health of our democracy.  

With all of this, it is no surprise all eyes are all on new forms of media. But even these modern muckrakers, like Daily Kos, Break the Matrix and Huffington Post are facing a great disadvantage and it will not be easy for them to pick up where old media left off. As Paul Starr also pointed out:  

“The reality is that resources for journalism are now disappearing from the old media faster than new media can develop them.”

One thing is for sure: if the amount of original reporting continues to decline, our nation will have far greater problems than the buyout of GM or the wars abroad. We will be facing a government too big, too powerful and too in control to take direction from the public - because the public will know little more than what sites like Recovery.Gov offer.

So what can we all do? I certainly don’t have all the answers. But one thing for sure. I’m going to try and figure it out from inside Washington.

In any case, I am always reading what other blogs put together - so I have for you all my top posts around Obama’s First 100 Days.

• 100 Days of Barack Obama’s Facebook Feed, courtesy of Slate.com
• Obama’s 100 First Days: What Did He Do for Women? compliments of Jen N. at Women’s Rights
• Obama’s 100 Days of Progress, a comprehensive compilation from Think Progress

I boarded the airplane and got comfortable in seat 5B Window. Right before we took off, I heard a voice come through over a cell phone that asked, “Senator?”

“Senator….” I thought to myself. “Senator?!” Five months after the Big Three Auto execs took private jets to Washington, there was a Senator sitting behind me - scrunched in between a wall and a random dude. You can’t make this shit up, I thought to myself.

I thought. First things first, process of elimination. He is clearly from Ohio. Recess is almost over so it made sense he would be flying back.  I got out my iPhone and did a quick search - but not quick enough. We took off.

Once we touched down, I stole a quick look and confirmed what my phone pulled up. Senator George Voinovich (R-OH), a long time public servant and a guy flying Coach in the center of his constituents. It was too cool to be true.

In the next four minutes I popped my head over the seat and smiled. He was wearing a lapel and turned up his hearing aide. While we all waited I told him I was a part-time blogger.

“Oh, you’re one of the new ones,” he smiled. “When do you find time to sleep?”

I shot back with a grin. “Weekends, I guess. What about you?”

“Weekends.”

As the crowd around us listened in on our Midwestern small talk, I caught a few smiles.  Once we got up, I popped in front of him and got him to strike a pose. On the way out the terminal, he shook my hand and said, “Good luck, Erica.” He was so sweet it made my little heart flutter.

I sent it to Twitter and Facebook with the caption, “Spotted: Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) flying Delta Coach to DCA. Way to set an example, Senator.”

The funny thing was this. Somewhere between my coy introduction and the walk off the plane, I made a decision and considered an alternative for myself.

Five months after the private jets symbolized the excess of America, I had just been humbled by a true public servant. Who was I to choose a cab? I grabbed the metro.

In any case, the Mobile Alert was a sore subject. I joked the day before that the Times was beginning to abuse their text privileges. It seemed every afternoon I got another “breaking news,” alert. Or should I say, a 200 character doomsday report.

But this day was different and my fingers found a different notice of news. Iowa had struck down an amendment to ban gay marriage. It was huge.

According to a spokesperson for Lambda Legal, a national gay rights activist group, Iowa was the perfect first move in a strategic game to start winning states over - one by one.

“There is a tradition of independence and willingness to stand up on issues of fairness [in Iowa],” Jennifer C. Pizer, marriage project director for Lambda Legal told the New York Times.

Another advocacy group that no doubt took this ruling as a stripe in the win column is Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD).

If you remember, (which I didn’t but Google is great), Massachusetts voted to allow same-sex marriage in 2004. After that 26 states turned the other way and approved Constitutional bans on the same thing. With the passage of Prop 8 that banned gay marriage in California last November, it seemed the voters were sending a message. Not Yet.

But with the win of Iowa and a strategy to win six more states by 2012, it just might be the decade of the underdog.