burning a flag is a form of free speech, yes?

i think some people's concern is that it's "hate" speech, or acts as a threat or intimidation, like burning a cross on someone's front lawn.

there are protections against hate speech, but as a form of free speech that is not hate speech, why the hell do we need an amendment protecting an inanimate object? so, no.

Commies and revenooers, whole damn lotta yas.

this is retarded.

and besides, who still burns flags outside of the middle east? and didn't we already bomb all of those guys?

It failed by one vote (66-34).
Big ups to Lincoln Chaffee (R-RI) and Jim Jeffords (I-VT) for going against the grain and voting to bring this down.
And boo to about a dozen Dems (including my own Debbie Stabenow) for caving on this and making it so close. Funny enough, Hillary - who's always seemed in favor of banning flag burning - came up "nay". Color me shocked.

Here's the breakdown;
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/r ... vote=00189

I'm all for free speech, and if one feels they can only get their message across by setting fire to Old Glory, then so be it.

That said, when a crowd of wannabe cab drivers starts dancing around their dirt-paved marketplace burning the flag, send in the gun ships.

*Sigh*

You just had to remind me that Mike Dewine is one of my senators.

Both my senators voted for this, sometimes i hate my state...like in the winter, and when i realize how shitty our senators are

Susan Collins is a nice PERSON, but she's a bit frustrating as the "moderate Republican who will sometimes vote with her peers and sometimes not."

On social issues she's fairly liberal. On military and fiscal issues she's a pretend conservative.

I'm also a moderate but certainly don't buy her fence-sitting on Iraq. I've met her enough times to know she wants us out of there. But she makes a big to-do about proper time frames and getting the job done, blah, blah. I understand she's got pressure from uberhawks and doesn't want to lose her chairmanships, but still, she's not the Bush supporter she sometimes appears to be.

Olympia Snowe, on the other hand, would sell track lighting to a polar bear and call it sunshine.

Both of my Senators voted for it too, but it doesn't surprise me. Ben Nelson needs to if he wants to maintain his lead in the Senate race and keep his seat and Hagel is McCain Jr, so if McCain votes for it, Hagel usually does too. Nebraska is a hardcore love it or leave it state with a huge military base, so it seems like a wise political move all around.