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.

AP via USA Today

 

I don't see why burning the flag is a big deal, but whatever.

AP via USA Today

 

I don't see why burning the flag is a big deal, but whatever.

 

Because there is an election coming up. Ignore legit problems. Do nothing congress at its best.

 

Oh and Hillary has played politics on this too.

Im gonna go out on a limb and say that a 20 year old fighting crazy people in Iraq might think its a big deal to burn the American flag.

 

I just might be crazy though.

 

Doesn't mean it should be illegal.

 

I think people over 70 and most females shouldn't drive. People still think that no one but white people are real human beings. Some believe that drinking alcohol at any point is wrong. Even others believe that you should chop theives' hands off. Doesn't mean any of those should be laws.

I guess this is the Republicans attacking the previous court rulings which defended flag burning as a freedom of speech/expression.

 

Granted, I don't like flag burning, but it should still be protected.

don't like it but it should be protected

Well you know, if we allow flag burning, next thing you know, gays'll want to marry, women will want to control their own bodies and....blacks will marry whites!!!!

 

What makes this one likely to win is the feeling that if you burn the flag, you must be a TERRORIST! Bush & Co. will play on that fear....

Doesn't mean it should be illegal.

 

I think people over 70 and most females shouldn't drive. People still think that no one but white people are real human beings. Some believe that drinking alcohol at any point is wrong. Even others believe that you should chop theives' hands off. Doesn't mean any of those should be laws.

 

 

 

Juanky, I didnt say it should be illegal. But you said it was no big deal. I think its a big deal.

 

We'll agree to disagree.

Is it right?

 

No.

 

 

Should it be illegal?

 

No.

Well you know, if we allow flag burning, next thing you know, gays'll want to marry, women will want to control their own bodies and....blacks will marry whites!!!!

 

What makes this one likely to win is the feeling that if you burn the flag, you must be a TERRORIST! Bush & Co. will play on that fear....

 

That folks, is your Tool? comment of the day brought to you by Black and Decker.

 

 

 

Innovation. Performance. Quality.

Flag burning should be protected. It's an extension of freedom of speech and is an effective means of expressing discontent.

 

J.S. Mill says it best:

 

"If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth produced by its collision with error."

 

I never have a problem with flag burning for the above mentioned reason.

I hate the idea of it but,

 

 

it is part of free speach as the flag is a symbol and that is the most needed and basic freedom of this country.

 

The single most important freedom of a republic or democratic form of government is freedom of speach.

Flag burning should be protected. It's an extension of freedom of speech and is an effective means of expressing discontent.

 

J.S. Mill says it best:

 

"If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth produced by its collision with error."

 

I never have a problem with flag burning for the above mentioned reason.

 

 

 

I think flag burning is wrong when young men are dying for our country and our freedoms. I DONT think it should be illegal.

 

With that said, your post smells like a big pile of hot steamy poop.

 

With all due respect of course.

 

:thumbup

Like abortion, most people are against it, but they think it should remain legal. Why can't we maintain the status quo when nobody is particularly bothered by it?

Flag burning should be protected. It's an extension of freedom of speech and is an effective means of expressing discontent.

 

J.S. Mill says it best:

 

"If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth produced by its collision with error."

 

I never have a problem with flag burning for the above mentioned reason.

 

 

 

I think flag burning is wrong when young men are dying for our country and our freedoms. I DONT think it should be illegal.

 

Well, the flag is a representative symbol. It doesn't mean sh*t when our government is being evil, doing illegal things or being lame. That being said, when people feel like our government sucks (for any of the above-mentioned reasons), it should be there for their use, to burn as a demonstration of their unhappiness with said government. Now, for every Fred Phelps who's writing on it with bloody "God hates fags" lettering and protesting soldiers funerals, you potentially have someone legitimately burning it (let's say the hippies burning it during the Vietnam military action; I think that's a good enough reason).

 

To be honest, I don't want to take away Fred Phelps right to burn it for retarded reasons anymore than I want to take away the person who has legit beef. Plus, there's some sense of education that comes from seeing that image of Phelps doing his protest badly or wrongly, and someone who really has a message and really stands for something doing it, in some sense, rightly or, let's say, for the right reason.

 

There is no literal connection, in my mind, between the flag and soldiers dying. Okay, when they bury soldiers or bring back our dead they wrap the coffin in a flag. But, while the flag might represent those soldiers deaths or any number of crazy things you can name (because let's be honest, no flag represents the same exact things to the same people; except, in some sense, it always seems to stand for America in general), it's definitely in their spirit, that protest lives. They just as much "died" for our right to speak freely and protest how we want to protest as much as for some flag. The flag is, in my mind, the physical and iconic representation of America; under which falls all things, be it the image of American soldiers raising it on the Iwo Jima sands, or the Abu Ghraib prison torture scenes.

 

And I want to say there are instances where people who have been wronged, or believe our government is wrong, have enough reason to burn the flag as a sign of protest.

Yeah, it should be legal, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to kick someone's ass if I ever see someone doing it. The fact is that people with any sort of intelligence find better ways of making their point without burning a flag. It's called..... the ballot.

Yeah, it should be legal, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to kick someone's ass if I ever see someone doing it. The fact is that people with any sort of intelligence find better ways of making their point without burning a flag. It's called..... the ballot.

 

 

One vote only makes such a difference...

 

I highly doubt some Vet who lost his legs and in Vietnam finds that a good way of demonstrating his anger with our policies. Plus, a ballot doesn't have the power the possibly change other's perspectives. Flag burning, POTENTIALLY, does. If you have the right message and are able to express it in the right way.

Flag burning doesn't make sense to me.

 

You are burning the flag of the country who allows you the right to burn the flag.

 

Seems like a pointless endless cycle.

Yeah, it should be legal, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to kick someone's ass if I ever see someone doing it. The fact is that people with any sort of intelligence find better ways of making their point without burning a flag. It's called..... the ballot.

 

 

One vote only makes such a difference...

 

I highly doubt some Vet who lost his legs and in Vietnam finds that a good way of demonstrating his anger with our policies. Plus, a ballot doesn't have the power the possibly change other's perspectives. Flag burning, POTENTIALLY, does. If you have the right message and are able to express it in the right way.

 

I don't think burning the flag symbolizes discontent for the government, Buckeye. I think it symbolizes hate for the country.

Flag burning doesn't make sense to me.

 

You are burning the flag of the country who allows you the right to burn the flag.

 

Seems like a pointless endless cycle.

 

 

Isn't that the whole point?

 

Our country is so awesome we don't care when people do it; in fact we give them the right and a huge stage on which to do it.

So why burn the flag?

 

It just doesn't seem like the way to get across an opinion would be to burn a flag to protest the government when they allow that.

 

'Man I hate these taxes, let me go take out a flag.'

So why burn the flag?

 

It just doesn't seem like the way to get across an opinion would be to burn a flag to protest the government when they allow that.

 

'Man I hate these taxes, let me go take out a flag.'

 

 

It's a pretty strong image when done right.

 

And it gets a reaction. It's hard to be in the middle when someone does it (you have the people who get pissed off and maybe the people who recognize what the issue that the burning of the flag is against, who can be really for it). I'm disgusted when the Fred Phelps desecrates it and yet when done right... I don't know, I understand, I get it, I feel their frustration; I empathize.

 

What other way gets that kind of non-partial reaction?

 

The more I think about it, I could very well ask the same question of people who wear the flag as a shirt, etc.

I think that you cross a line when you burn the flag to 'make a point about an issue'

 

I just don't think that's what flag burners are doing Buckeye.

You empathize with a guy who interrupts soldier's funerals and spews hate towards homosexuals, because he can burn a flag?

I think that you cross a line when you burn the flag to 'make a point about an issue'

 

I just don't think that's what flag burners are doing Buckeye.

 

 

So, you speak for all of them? It's never once been burnt for a good reason in protest?

 

Why are flag burnt, then?

 

Hmmmm... What about when people in other countries burn our flag because they hate us? Isn't it the same thing?

 

I think flag burning encompasses "making a point about an issue," but I think that's kind of short of what protest is anyways. So, I think you're half-right.

 

You empathize with a guy who interrupts soldier's funerals and spews hate towards homosexuals, because he can burn a flag?

 

 

No, I said it disgusts me, but he should have the right. You'd be harder pressed to find an example of evil in this world. Fred Phelps is a great educator on what sucks. Which goes back to my John Stuart Mill quote. I think you mistook what I said, it's not like I agreee with Fred Phelps. When I said, "if done right" I was saying in other instances. I don't think Phelps' message is a very good one so of course I think his burning the flag sucks. But, he's got the right to do it and I think THAT'S great even if I disagree with the man himself..