Will flag burning save the GOP?

[Cocoa]

or will this be the election when people FINALLY see this inane issue for what it is?

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Campaign/092005.html

The Republican-led Senate is unlikely to vote on a flag-burning amendment this fall, but the measure will almost certainly hit the floor months before next year’s elections.

Republicans will use the proposed amendment to the Constitution as political ammunition in 2006. Several targeted Democrats in the upper chamber oppose changing the Constitution to prohibit flag burning, including Sens. Jeff Bingaman (N.M.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Robert Byrd (W.Va.).

The fate of a pending flag-burning amendment lies in the hands of a few senators. Because Sen. Orrin Hatch’s (R-Utah) amendment would alter the Constitution, it needs 67 votes, two-thirds of the Senate, to pass.

Including Hatch, the amendment has 58 co-sponsors. Based on previous votes, the measure has the likely support of 63 senators — if senators vote the way they have previously.

more...

[valerief]

1. I've spent a friggin' lifetime listening to this flag happy

horseshit. It's like a wart. It never goes away.

[whistle]

2. The republican party burned this country's flag when they backed

...Richard Nixon's secret plan to end the Vietnam War in 1968 and allowed Nixon to go on bombing and killing 40,000 more Americans and millions of Southeast Asians and then supporting the war criminal racist Ronald Reagan and his genocidal policies in Latin America.

The only time the American Flag serves any humane purpose by being burned is when a republican has wrapped themselves up in one and claiming that they are patriotic Americans!

[DanCa]

3. I dont want to see burn marks on a soldier from a war based on a lie

I think thats a little more in important than a flag. On a side note. I love this country I hate it's leaders.

[rwheeler31]

4. Why buy a flag when you can't

drive it around to show how macho you are. When you run out of gas you look like a fool,when the car explodes from being hit, the flag burns with the car?

[nankerphelge]

5. It is not even remotely surprising...

that they would bring out this turd and try to wipe the dust off it. It's worked so well for them in the past. "Why worry about any of the issues that have any actual impact on what happens in your life? Hippies are BURNING YOUR FLAG!" It's a variation on the current "Why worry about any of the issues that have any actual impact on what happens in your life? Gays are done getting married." They are running out of non-issues to fool the idiots with... I'd like to think they've underestimated their stupidity, but people have a way of disappointing.

[Mend]

6. why don't they just make flags flame-retardant

or out of plastic or metal mesh. Then we could stop wasting everyone's time on this shit.

[rfrrfrrfr]

10. Well because

It would be more difficult to properly dispose of old, damaged,unpresentable flags. The preferred method of disposal is burning.

[Mend]

11. we could melt them in our nuclear facilities.

it would tie in the military-industrial complex so well and be such a comfort to the wing-nuts.

[Zynx]

7. That issue is one people really don't care about.

Ask people if they really care and they don't.

[nonconformist]

9. I agree. Flag burning is not a wedge issue. nt

[jmowreader]

8. There's only one way flag burning could save the GOP

That's if they (metaphorically, of course) were to soak about five hundred flags in gasoline, pack the flags and the Bush administration in the same box, and throw in a match.

The only thing that's going to save the GOP is getting rid of the albatross around its neck.

[paineinthearse]

12. WTF?? Flag burning is the preferred way to retire a flag!!!!

Do you mean "flag desecration amendment?

Anyone have a copy of the proposed amendment?

[markus]

13. This is only for the raw red meat reliable Repubs anyway

Nobody who is any sort of swing voters is going to be swayed by this.

It's value as a wedge issue died long ago.

Now, the pledge, that'll get em out. Gotta save God, since he's all sort of weak and namby pamby and can't be relied on to care for himself.