In Louisiana they know conscience when they see it, and LA's John Fleming thinks it's a great weapon for fighting sanity in our military planning

Right-wing pols who have no conscience in real life like to play-act having one when they pretend to be legislators.

by Ken

What do you do when you look in the mirror and see staring back at you a toxic pool of sludge beyond any possibility of human worth? One solution is to become a jackbooted Christian warrior for ignorance and savagery.

Take Rep. John Fleming (R-LA). Please.

As Chris Johnson reports in the Washington Blade:

A House panel on Wednesday approved as part of major defense legislation an amendment that would make it easier for troops to harass their gay comrades without fear of reprisal.

The amendment, introduced by Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), was approved by the Republican-controlled House Armed Services Committee by a vote of 33-26 as part of the fiscal year 2014 defense authorization bill.

Fleming's measure would expand the "conscience provision" in that already exists in defense law. It would protect discriminatory speech and actions and leave commanders with no recourse against prejudicial conduct when it occurs in their units.

Further, the measure requires the Pentagon to implement regulations within 120 days after the bill becomes law. The defense secretary must consult with "official military faith-group representatives who endorse military chaplains" before the regulations are issued.

What, you ask, is this "conscience provision"? If you have any empathey with right-wing thought processes, you can probably guess that it's an instance of enforced right-wing hooliganism engineered by right-wing thugs whose minds are free of any trace of actual human conscience. Here's Chris Johnson again:

President Obama signed the existing "conscience provision" under Section 533 as part of the Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Authorization Act. At the time of the signing, Obama called it "unnecessary" and said he was signing the defense package under assurances the Pentagon wouldn't "permit or condone discriminatory actions that compromise good order and discipline or otherwise violate military codes of conduct."

But of course if you're a right-wing warrior for Christian psychotic savagery, you understand that a law to require the military to dance to your puppet strings trumps some Kenyan socialist fake president burbling aout Pentagon assurances that it won't "permit or condone discriminatory actions that compromise good order and discipline or otherwise violate military codes of conduct."

According to Chris Johnson's report:

Ian Thompson, legislative representative for the American Civil Liberties Union, said "it is disappointing" the House panel approved "this dangerous amendment" as part of the defense authorization bill.

"It is, quite frankly, puzzling why a majority of members on this committee would support a measure that has the potential to make it more difficult for commanders to responsibly deal with problems regarding conduct that undermines longstanding prohibitions against harassment," Thompson said.

The point about forcing the Pentagon to undermine its own commanders was made more broadly by Allyson Robinson, executive director of the LGBT military group OutServe-SLDN (who herself is an Army veteran):

"This amendment takes an authority this nation has entrusted to commanders in the field since its founding – the authority to exercise appropriate control over their troops' 'actions or speech' to maintain good order and discipline – and puts it in the hands of politicians in Washington," Robinson said. "As someone who has led soldiers in the field, I can tell you that is an untenable situation."

But of course a pile of sludge like Representative Fleming doesn't know or care about how the military operates, just that the military submit to the will of the Crap Christian Crazies. Of course what they're doing end-running around the hated repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and maybe even engineer some reversal of DADT repeal.

You'd like to think that a purposeless and dangerous bit of congressional chicanery like Fleming's can't survive the Congressional conference resolution process. But then, you never know. What price might saner legislators have to pay to make sure it stays out of any final bill? And in the end, who's to say it won't be judge worth the price required to suppress it. You know, the way a certain U.S. president looked the other way when he signed the original "conscience provision" into law.

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