Tidbits:

Senator wins review of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’

A Senate panel, after prodding by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, will examine the future of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy governing gays in the military.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, agreed to a hearing on the issue after Gillibrand dropped her push for an 18-month moratorium on discharging service members under the policy.

At a meeting with Hearst editors at Hearst Tower, Gillibrand said the hearing – the first Senate review of the policy since it took effect in 1993 – would take place in September.

---

Substance abuse expert regrets raising drinking age

One of the people who was instrumental in pushing for laws to increase the legal drinking age to 21 now calls his actions “the single most regrettable decision” of his career.

Dr. Morris Chafetz, a psychiatrist who was on the presidential commission in the 1980s that recommended raising the drinking age to 21, made his remarks in an editorial that he is shopping for publication and which he released to the advocacy group Choose Responsibility. Chafetz wrote the editorial to mark the 25th anniversary of the law that was signed by President Ronald Reagan on July 17, 1984.

“Legal Age 21 has not worked,” Chafetz said in the piece. “To be sure, drunk driving fatalities are lower now than they were in 1982. But they are lower in all age groups. And they have declined just as much in Canada, where the age is 18 or 19, as they have in the United States.”

Chafetz said the law instead has resulted in “collateral, off-road damage” such as binge drinking that occurs in underage youth and crimes like date rape, assaults and property damage.

---

Former coach sues Dearborn schools over religion

Detroit — A hall of fame wrestling coach filed a federal lawsuit Monday accusing a Detroit suburban school district and its principal of firing him because of his Christian beliefs.

Gerald Marszalek, 64, said his troubles began in 2005 when a Protestant minister lost his job as a volunteer assistant coach after he introduced Muslim students to Christianity. The discussions took place during a private off-campus wrestling camp for the Fordson High School’s team.

Marszalek said he was ordered by principal Imad Fadlallah to keep the Rev. Trey Hancock away from the Dearborn school. The lawsuit said that was impossible: The minister’s son was a star wrestler at the school.

---

Obama’s meeting with professor, police officer to be Thursday

It’s official: The so-called “beer summit” between President Obama, African-American professor Henry Louis Gates and white police Sgt. James Crowley will be held 6 p.m. Thursday at the White House.

“Weather permitting, they’ll probably sit out at the picnic table behind the Oval Office,” said Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs, confirming the time.

The meeting is “a chance to step back a bit” from the flap surrounding Crowley’s disorderly conduct arrest of Gates at the professor’s home near Harvard University. Gates called the charges — since dropped — racially motivated.

There is no formal agenda for the president’s meeting, Gibbs said, but rather “a chance to talk and a chance to have a dialogue.”

Morning Widdershins: Catching Up!

Been on vacation and had a great time on the Florida coast! Here are some updates on items that broke while I was on vacation!

Lucia Whalen, the woman who called police when she saw two men getting forcing open the door to the Gates residence. This woman has been on the receiving end of some viscious false attacks on her character. I just can’t believe it’s still in the news!

Tapes released Monday show that neither the woman who called 911 nor the Cambridge police dispatcher who put out the alarm described the race of the two men seen forcing the door at the home of world-renowned Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr.

“Are they white, black or Hispanic?” the 911 operator asks the caller.

“Um, well, they were two larger men. One looked kind of Hispanic, but I’m not really sure,” the caller says. “And the other one entered and I didn’t see what he looked like at all. I just saw it from a distance.”

So much for accusations that the caller assumed the men were criminals because of their race.

Who’da guessed??

ABC News has learned that the autopsy of Michael Jackson found the powerful anesthetic propofol, as well as several prescription drugs, in his system, and law enforcement sources say that investigators believe their final report will list the propofol as a “contributing factor” in his death.

Jackson’s personal doctor, Conrad Murray, who was with him when he died June 25 at his rented California home, has been identified in court papers as the subject of a manslaughter investigation.

And now that we have been sidetracked by the issues above, it is becoming absolutely clear that healthcare reform is in the shitter! I’m depressed about it!

They have framed the healthcare argument wrong! It disgusts me that the main argument against it is $$. How much is a life worth?? I’m with you Patch Adams! He’s a tad radical, but if you don’t look to the extremes and start somewhere in the middle, all you’re gonna get is a watered down piece of legislation that is no different that what we have now!

Dr. Patch Adams isn’t laughing about healthcare reform.

In an incendiary commentary at the Aspen Health Forum on Monday, the professional clown and famed pioneer for alternative medicine said the current debate on healthcare is missing the point. Instead of arguing about how to pay for health insurance, he said, we should be discussing how to get rid of health insurance and how to improve humanity.

“For 40 years, the business/greed model has tried to take care of healthcare,” said the doctor, wearing a curly-cue mustache, a Day-Glo flower-patterned shirt and blouse and unmatched neon socks. “They’ve done an absolutely revolting, disgusting job and they’ve made trillions of dollars from it. So, why we would want the greed model to take care of people, I don’t know.”

If Hillary were President and 70% of the population wanted single payer or a real public option you can be gawd dayum sure it would be achieved! Tell all the obamamaniacs to put this in their hope bong and smoke it! To see this moment lost makes me want to vomit!