Posted on 06/22/2006 9:34:21 AM PDT by IrishMike
If anyone needs further proof - not that anyone does these days - that the Republican leadership in Congress is both desperate and clueless, it's the election-year revival of that mother of all non-issues: flag desecration.
The U.S. House passed this tread-worn measure last year, and the Senate Judiciary Committee approved it last week. Even though Congress has no shortage of real issues, ranging from the war in Iraq to global warming, clamoring for its attention, the full Senate will begin debate next week on a proposed constitutional amendment to solve a problem that doesn't exist.
As if that weren't dismaying enough, here's worse news: Even though the proposal has repeatedly been defeated in the past, supporters are within just a vote or two of passing this great flapping albatross of an amendment. If that happens, it would go to the states for ratification, and it's unnerving to remember that legislatures in all 50 have adopted resolutions in support.
So, once more we rise wearily to point out the obvious - a constitutional amendment allowing Congress to criminally punish the "physical desecration" of the American flag isn't needed because no one is out there burning flags. Even if they were, the First Amendment states with unmistakable clarity that Congress shall "make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech." That applies to everything from Ku Klux Klan marchers to federal lawmakers who wear stars-and-stripes neckties.
(Excerpt) Read more at registerguard.com ...
Smells good... like rare filet mignon with mushrooms & sauteed onions
Don't care about this issue-- burn away, moonbats-- and look like the moonbat jackasses you are on national television.
Get the EPA and Fire Dept. on them for pollution and unsafe fire in public.
I'm sure that there can be public ordinances about this (burning anything, not just flags).
I don't care about the issue either. It provides a good opportunity for people to reveal themselves.
I hear flag burning contributes to global warming.
LOL, global warming?? This mutant thinks the Congress can do a damned thing about global warming?? So what should Congress do, pass legislation restricting solar output? The fool who wrote this piece reveals his true libnut colors with that remark, along with the idea that Congress has any role to play in Iraq other than on funding. I'm sure what he thinks needs done is passing some sort of retreat and defeat resolution. Sorry loser, it's not going to happen. I'd rather have Congress working on flag burning resolutions than on bridge burning resolutions regarding Iraq.
Wrong forum to voice such nonsense. I and many other Freepers will not allow you or anyone else to easily toss our flag over to be desecrated by the barbarians.
A amendment to cancel part of the 1st amendment. No thanks.
...no shortage of real issues, ranging from the war in Iraq to global warming,....
You're absolutely correct, this obvious ClinToon/Bore fan considers global warming equal to WAR.
Not to throw cold water on this, but I don't think anyone knows how often the flag gets desecrated by people who want to protect it.
http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagbush.htm
Isn't that flag desecration?
Just FYI, but here's what the US Flag Code says about what Bush did:
TITLE 4 > CHAPTER 1 > § 8
§ 8. Respect for flag
(g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
I'm not sayin' anything, i'm just sayin'.....
I love the flag as much as you do-- but I love what it STANDS for so much more that I am compelled to accept the FREEDOM that comes with it-- even if that freedom allows a jackass moonbat to destroy a flag on television.
Flags are symbols. Flags are woven from cloth, like a shirt. Flags are not sacred objects-- they REPRESENT sacred ideals.
Additionally, what defines a flag? Can I make a flag with 12 stripes and burn it without penalty? Can I remove a star and burn it? Can I make one out of an old bedsheet and weak dye, like the ragheads do, and burn that without penalty?
Just like freedom of religion does not equate to freedom "from" religion-- we are not free from the vile intentions of moonbats and America haters.
They will ALWAYS find a way to piss you off.
So I am not moved by this ammendment and never particularly will be.
And by the way, this is EXACTLY the right forum to post this kind of nonsense.
No one has a right to desecrate my flag, nor to give anyone else the permission to do so.
Flag desecration is an act of war. I fight only in self defense.
I've always wondered about those Chinese made American flags they hand out at the Fourth of July parades.
I consider that desecration, especially since they're made in a Communist country by people who live on less than $3/day. I would be in favor of an Amendment requiring all flags be made in America, then maybe you can convince me to support an Amendment banning burning it, MAYBE...
Isn't it amazing? These same people who don't think we can defeat a few thousand jihadists in Iraq and think we need to retreat at once think however we can control the earth's temperature and the sun's output. LMAO. What dopes.
It's simple...if you're going to allow flag-burning protests as a free-expression issue, then you should allow setting the flag-burners on fire as an acceptable method of joining the debate. It's only fair.
That's not the american flag.
The code (if you read it further) also stipulates the 'size' of the flag.
That 'memento' that the President is signing doesn't constitute a 'flag'.
so it's ok to burn it, then?
Burning is the only 'santioned' way of disposing of a flag.
But buring that 'memento' does mean anything.
santioned = SanCtioned.
Yes, it's the fear that Congress will not put this on the agenda. This November, the Democrats have quite an arsenal. They will show what a Republican controlled Congress and White House can do, debate flag burning, debate marriage amendments, call a special session to debate Terri Schiavo, etc. Then they will ask what the Republican controlled Congress was able to do about immigration reform, social security reform, Medicare prescription drugs, gas prices, and the annual appropriations, none of which will be approved by the elections.
In addition, the Senate seems impotent when it comes to handling judicial nominations lately, but can find the time to debate Iraq pullout resolutions. But, I suspect they will find time for the Summer recess.
Fear? Doubt it.
Our only hope is that Murtha, Kennedy, Feingold and a few others keep flapping their gums.
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