A military board in Syracuse could decide if Lt. Dan Choi should be the first New York National Guard member discharged for violating the military’s policy against homosexual conduct.

The hearing is being held Tuesday morning in Syracuse because it’s the headquarters of the 27th Brigade Combat Team, which overseas the 28-year-old’s National Guard unit.

Choi, a 2003 West Point graduate, announced in March that he is gay. The California native served in Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum.

From his decision to include Rev. Rick Warren in his inauguration to silence about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”  President Barack Obama has not been the fierce advocate of the gay and lesbian community that was promised in the campaign. So the White House should not have been surprised when Obama was met with protesters last night when he was talking at a Beverly Hills fundraiser.

Officially called “a welcome” (yeah sure), about 200 people gathered to wonder where was the hope that was talked about last fall. One of the protesters was U.S. Army Lt. Dan Choi, an Arab language specialist, who was recently booted out of the service because of his sexuality. We are supposedly in a war against terror, and we do not need the expertise of an Arab language specialist? Mmmmmmmm.

Based on a purely cold calculus, Obama’s silence works for him politically. He stays above a conversation where passions get heated. Independent conservative voters who might not be the most liberal on sexuality issues, warm to him and his policies when they see gay and lesbian voters are dissatisfied. Finally the attempt by Republicans to paint him as a crazed radical fall flat when he matches them point for point on gay and lesbian issues.

We need to accept that Obama is our adversary. He’s not a Westboro Baptist Church nutty. Nor is he the spokesman for the Family Research Council. He’s a politician and contrary to popular belief politicians are not brave. They only do what’s right when forced or for some political gain (to those still upset about the Democratic primary: Hillary Clinton would be following the same script if she were in charge). Let’s not forget that Obama, in the campaign, hinted he expected us to be funky with his work on LGBT matters.

So if Obama comes to your town, throw him a  “welcome.”

Rachel led us through a brief history of Cheney’s best sound bites, including my personal favorite, the assertion that because of torture “we successfully defended the nation against a follow-up attack for seven and a half years.”

Based on that logic, torturing people has also kept us safe from werewolves, triffids, Ming the Merciless, swarms of carnivorous bunnies, basilisks, flying saucer invasions, the earth breaking free of its orbit and hurtling out into empty space, robot sharks, giant bats, the dead rising from the grave to feast on the living, rat-monkeys, oobleck, cat-women of the moon, sentient clams, and centaurs.

So I guess we have to keep hanging people from the ceiling.

Besides, Cheney points out that in desperate times, we have to use torture to get “quality information.” Like the quality information elicited in the 1600’s that numerous criminals used animal familiars in the shape of pigs to bewitch their neighbors.

Hey, Dick! You know where you could have gotten some quality information on potential terrorist attacks? From the departing Clinton staffers who begged you to keep an eye on Bin Laden months before 9/11 happened.

Rachel welcomed Retired Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who wishes the Republican Party would get some tranquilizer darts.

Now, now, Colonel Wilkerson. Don’t knock the guy just because he lied to us for years. Remember: You can’t spell “Liberty” without “Lie.”

Or at least that’s what Cheney’s tattoo says.

“We shouldn’t torture people” seems like a bipartisan no-brainer. Why on earth are Republican leaders falling into the trap of making Hooray for Torture into a Republican position? They were happy to distance themselves from Bush and Cheney during the election. Why not now?

This Way Out?
In other news that seems depressingly not new, Rachel reported on the latest horrific violence in Afghanistan and mentioned again that our strategic goals are a wee bit unclear.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran Andrew Exum of the Center for a New American Security returned to make you feel a tiny bit better about the change in leadership and then bum you right out of existence.

Ms. Information
Rush Limbaugh picks up the ludicrous “Obama is purposefully trying to destroy the economy” idea and Melissa Harris-Lacewell takes him down, Obama wins a nuclear battle, and Dan Choi would like a word. Enjoy.

The Eliot Spitzer Interview
Maybe the saddest thing about the Eliot Spitzer scandal is that we lost someone who had the knowledge and righteous anger to go after some of the sleaziest of the weaselbag financiers.

Spitzer joined Rachel in the studio to talk about the collapse and explain in infuriating detail how much we’re not getting out of the bank bailout and the disturbingly close ties between Washington and Wall Street.

After the break, Rachel asked Spitzer about his decision to resign. She may be polite, but that doesn’t mean she shies away from embarrassing questions like “Do you think prostitution should be legal?” She really hits the perfect tone of voice for “I don’t mean to be indelicate, but you’re not getting away without answering this.”

Until next time, be well, and keep an eye peeled for rat-monkeys.

Obama also sent a subtitled video greeting to the people of Iran for the Persian New Year, and let’s all take a moment to hope he had the A-list translators working on that one.

After earning a standing invitation to everyone’s New Year’s party, Rachel welcomed Los Angeles Times Beirut bureau chief Borzou Daragahi, who explained that Obama’s greeting will make it harder to turn the opinions of the Iranian people against the President, since he used the mind-blowing tactics of speaking a bit of Farsi and not calling them evil.

One More Thing:
For his New Year’s greetings, Israel’s President Shimon Peres turned to the style of messaging that we’re comfortingly used to, urging the Iranian people to “rejoin the enlightened world”. So it looks like at least you Middle East peace negotiators don’t need to worry about job security.

Rachel also reported on Stephen Colbert’s discovery that his image was being used to sell trousers in Iran. Rachel conceded victory to Colbert’s “slackses of evil” pun, but I’ve seen Ms. Maddow’s love of hernia-inducing wordplay. Keep at it, Rachel. I know you can do worse.

Cops and Robber Barons
Rachel traced the whole giant nightmare AIG problem back to its very beginnings. I knew it! Screw you, archaeopteryxes! Oh, wait. Not that far.

She took us back to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley act of 1999, which repealed the barriers that we put up right after the Great Depression to separate retail banks, investment banks, and insurance companies. GEE, I WONDER WHY WE PUT THOSE UP.

In between political-financial nerd seduction tips, she also gave us a quick tour of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which should have just been called the We’re Not Even Going To Pretend Anymore Act.

David Cay Johnston, the author Free Lunch, dropped in to say that now that we’ve come within an eyelash of having an economy based on trading siphoned gasoline for looted canned goods, nobody’s going to actually say they were wrong or are sorry, but we might be able to get our financial institutions untangled and back under something that resembles the rule of law.

Then we can go back to crashing economies with tulip panics.

It’s actually a pretty great segment with a good, concise explanation of it all for all those who are just managing to unclamp their hands from their ears and get back out of the fetal position.

Ms. Information
Rachel reported on the latest news of the Employee Free Choice Act, which I’m starting to support just because it has such suspiciously rabid opponents on the Web.

The Wall Street Journal has taken the bold journalistic step of no longer actually lying about EFCA, so I guess they have Casual Friday over there too.

Rachel also showed us footage of an underwater volcano eruption. No one was hurt, so you are allowed to notice how awesome it is. She mentioned the plume of smoke was 25,000 feet tall, and other sources have reported that all plant and animal life on the uninhabited island of Hunga Ha’apai has been completely wiped out.

How do we get Hunga Ha’apai renamed after Bobby Jindal?

One on One
Is there some sort of sports tournament going on? I wish they would be more diligent about publicizing it.

Craig Robinson, Oregon State’s basketball coach, dropped in to talk about how no matter what he does for the rest of his life, even if he cures cancer while spacewalking during the Oscars, he is going to be introduced as “Michelle Obama’s brother.”

Rachel wondered if fame and popularity might lead to some really good recruiting for the Beavers. And I am just going to leave that right where it is.

One More Thing:
As of Friday evening, Rachel’s picks for what I’m assuming is the International Sepak Takraw Tournament were tied with Obama’s, inspiring her to ask “I can has fly on Air Force One?”

Oh, man do I wish they had set up some sort of wager like that.

If Rachel gets to ride on Air Force One was up against Obama takes over the Cocktail Moment, I would watch every second of March Hatness.

GOP in Exile
I’m calling it: Michael Steele is officially not a real person. He is clearly a long-running practical joke, like whatever the hell Joachim Phoenix is doing. But you bring us the joy, Michael, so keep it coming!

Right to Serve
Lieutenant Daniel Choi, the founder of Knights Out, returned to try again after Friday’s audio glitch.

Choi pointed out that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell forces soldiers to lie to their platoons and superiors and then every single light in the studio went out. No, just kidding.

He was eloquent and courageous. And could get kicked out of the National Guard for saying he’s gay on television, so start thinking up outraged yet hilarious protest signs just in case. But let’s hope we don’t need any.

Until tomorrow, be well and enjoy those European netball viewing parties.