Schmidlap asked recently what he should do to celebrate the 4th of July parade in his neighborhood. Well, I've got a more detailed answer for him.
Burn an American flag. Put one on the front stoop of your house and walk on it. Revel in free speech.
Senate committee approves flag amendment
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee gave a nod Thursday to a constitutional amendment to protect the American flag from desecration, moving it to the Senate floor where vote-counters on both sides say it could be within one vote of passing.
The 11-7 vote sent the amendment to the floor. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has said the measure will get a Senate vote this month.
To be considered during the patriotic season between this week's Flag Day and the Fourth of July, the amendment's substance and timing is designed to appeal to veterans during this year of midterm elections.
"The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States," the amendment reads. To become the Constitution's 28th amendment, the language must be approved by two-thirds of those present in each chamber, then ratified within seven years by at least 38 state legislatures.
The House a year ago passed the bill 286-130, more than the required two-thirds of those present to pass. Vote-counters on both sides of the issue say the amendment has commitments of support from 66 senators, one fewer than the required 67 votes if all 100 members of the chamber are present.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California was the lone committee Democrat to vote for the measure, saying its language was designed to both protect the flag and First Amendment free speech protections.
The committee also rejected an amendment by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., to replace "desecration" with specific types of defilement. Using the word desecration, he said, would leave the government too much power to define the term.
So, they're one vote short of sending it to state legislators and forcing this debate to go on all over the country. One more Dianne Feinstein, who somehow thinks that the amendment as proposed somehow protects freedom of speech, and we'll have blood red states all over the country going nuts approving this. And if they get to 38...
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if this amendment passes, I will go to the store, buy a flag, bring it home, and burn it.
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I think it will pass the Senate, unfortunately.
But has anyone done the math on the state-level ratifications? They need, what, 37? That seems like a lot to me...there have to be at least 14 bluish states that respect the first amendment a little bit, right?
I will agree that in any case, having to hear this debate 50 times over will be nauseating.
On a related note, I read something interesting the other day about the wingnuts who are pissed the Set The Faggots On Fire Amendment didn't make it in the Senate. They are going to try to have a Constitutional Convention, per Article V, to try to get it done. I don't think this has ever been done since the original Constitutional Convention. People aren't quite sure how to go about doing it.
This is also doomed to failure, but maybe we'll get an interesting civics lesson out of it.
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