The US Congress seems to be in line to amend the First Amendment--you know that one about freedom of speech?
The House passed a constitutional amendment Wednesday allowing Congress to prohibit the desecration of the American flag.
It'll go to the Senate, where the vote is too close to call.
No one can recall when a flag was last burned in protest here in the US, (it might have been when those evangelical Christians were mad because they had to take the 10 Commandments monument out of that Alabama state building) but they're burned regularly on the streets of Baghdad, where our boys seem to be losing a war the Administration pretends is a game of Monopoly.
Republicans are a wily race...they've found another "issue" to plump up their patriotically correct base and give the Democrats a wedgie.
The wedge comes between the Dem's and Americans who view Old Glory as Moslems do the Koran--unusable as toilet paper or kindling or as a potent form of political speech.
The wedge is a public anal exam of patriotism for Democrats administered by the Republicans. "Bend over, please."
It's another brickbat of righteousness to smack future candidates like Senators Hillary Clinton or Maria Cantwell over the head with if they vote against it; or to stir up shit with their base if they vote for it.
Democrats bitterly remember the 2002 Georgia Senate race when Sen. Max Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, lost re-election after Republicans assaulted his patriotism. They smeared him by running ads with pictures of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and blamed him for thwarting plans for a Homeland Security Department.
A totally meaningless, feel-good non-issue, it's another nasty-but-nice little distraction from the war we're losing in Iraq; the widening prisoner torture scandal; the uptick of media attention to the Downing Street memos; the failed nomination of John Bolton and the Bush Social Security "reforms" that Americans seem to reject in larger numbers each day.
Most American flags, these days are a manufactured in China, one of the
few "Communist" nations left on earth. They need the trade, they say,
in order to buy up American corporations and to finance our burgeoning national debt.
Thank god Congress has mitigated, if not completely eliminated the urgent problems before them. Otherwise we'd have to conclude this was just an indulgent and cynical partisan political move.
What? Has there been a rash of flag burnings lately that I didn't hear about?
Posted by: Scott | June 23, 2005 at 06:46 AM
Some of us republicans know it's a trojan horse "look what i'm for!" campaign pumper.
And, some of us americans who've worn the uniform know it's an extraordinary symbol and nothing more. No one ever "died for the flag."
If some Richard Cranium wants to engage in the contradiction of expression-by-destruction(of the guarantee of the 1st amendment) then go ahead. It means nothing when an american burns the flag. It's done for the same reason Mercer Island teenagers get piercings.
Enshrining a flag burning amendment only politicizes an occasional fringe act, therefore making it political expression.
That being said, Scott's a dick.
Posted by: Scrilla | June 23, 2005 at 09:25 AM
I seem to recall a recent entry in which you avocated the suppression of KVI and other talk radio involvement in a local intitiative campaign, calling this free speech "illegal." You say that the opponents of an intiative can't buy tht kind of airtime, so it's "unfair."
Pappekak.
1. not everyone listens to those stations or those shows.
2. not everyone will agree, there is no coercion
3. it's a private company and they can give free advertising to anyone they want. I suppose it was unfair if Alan Prell interviews Ron Sims but not David Irons?
You're a hypocrite and a poor thinker.
Posted by: Amused by liberals | June 23, 2005 at 10:52 AM
Scrilla you seem VERY concerned with my dick. By the way, I'd bet the farm you've never been in the military. Do you know it's a crime to falsely claim that you served? You're just another GOP chickenhawk aren't you?
Posted by: Scott | June 23, 2005 at 03:33 PM
Scott
just a sample:
HHT 2ACR 1990-91
19D20 C/2/11ACR 1992-96
19D30 E/82 CAV 1996-99
not that it's any of your bidness.
DD214 on file at Multnomah Co.,OR.
and you?
is yer daddy about?
Posted by: Scrilla | June 23, 2005 at 04:04 PM
BTW- I tagged with "Scott's A dick."
Not "Man! I'm concerned with Scott's dick!"
Scotto delenda est
Posted by: Scrilla | June 23, 2005 at 04:06 PM
Wow Scrilla you just managed to prove that you're a fag and you have a subsription to Soldier of Fortune magazine. You're a poser, liar, traitor and coward like all republicans. Fess up, it will make you feel better. And if you DID have a DD214, I am SURE it had DISHONORABLE tagged on it.
Posted by: Scott | June 23, 2005 at 08:21 PM
Of course you are. You're a bitter, homophobic issue-skirter.
Posted by: Scrilla | June 24, 2005 at 03:38 PM
P.S.- "I'd call you a sadistic, necrophiliac equiphile...But that'd be beating a dead horse."
Posted by: Scrilla | June 24, 2005 at 05:11 PM