Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 18:45:52 -0500 (EST)
From: danceswithcarp <dcombs-AT-bloomington.in.us>
Subject: Re: Flag Desecration Act




On Thu, 25 Feb 1999, Jerald Hellemeyer wrote:

> There are 535 members in the House.  

That would be +435+, bub.

> 200 isn't even half.  

That would be damn close if you figgered right.

> To get the 
> 2/3 majority they need, they would have to get 354 votes.  And they 
> would still have to convince 2/3 of the senate (67 members) and 3/4 of 
> the states (37 state legislatures).  No easy task.

Bullshit.  Don't they have newspapers in Texass?  The last anti-flag
burning amendment lost the 2/3 by like, 15 votes in the House when your
liberal democrats had a 40+ margin and there was still some pretense of
giving a shit about freedom.

What you seem to be naive about is that there isn't any ideology anymore
in american politics except for WINNING.  Politicians _want_ a simple
patriotic issue to take to the voters.  They are absolutely helpless about
doing anything that would have a real impact on our lives, like reining in
transnational capital.  So voting to jail commie flag-burners is just the
ticket.  

And if you think a bunch of simpleton state legislators and local
political hacks are going to stand tall and take the high ground in a
debate like this, you are not naive, you are deluded.

Not to mention that the way the U$ has legislated behavior *outside* of U$
borders (Um, Manual Noreiga NEVER broke a law inside of the U$ or its
territories), making flag burning illegal would give us an excuse to
arrest those pesky muslims overseas who insist on burning the flag of The
Great Satan.

You crack me up, Haggermeir.  If you have that much faith in the
legislative processes protecting us, why are you on the anarchy-list?



carp






 
> And keep in mind that the house is always voting on stupid things.  The 
> senate, fortunately, seems just a little more level headed (though not 
> by much).  A recent example would be the impeachment ordeal.  The house 
> voted to impeach Clinton and the senate acquitted him.  
> 
> Jerald 
> 
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