"Our country's unique because our dissidents have a voice"
Senator Daniel Inouye, Hawaii
A Wizard thank you to the thirty-four real patriots in the United States Senate who yesterday stood up for the real United States instead of pretending to stand up for a cheap plastic imitation of the United States. These 34 Senators voted against a constitutional amendment that would have allowed Congress to pass laws that would "prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." This is the so-called "Flag Burning Amendment."
Senator Inouye is a World War II veteran, a decorated war hero who lost an arm in the war. Inouye received the Medal of Honor. In the Senate debate Inouye said,
"While I take offense at disrespect to the flag, I nonetheless believe it is my continued duty as a veteran, as an American citizen, and as a United States senator to defend the constitutional right of protesters to use the flag in nonviolent speech."
I couldn't have said it better and I couldn't agree more.
The constitutional amendment had already passed the House of Representatives, as it has every year for the last six years. And every year the Senate has rejected it. But this year was different, this year it only failed by ONE VOTE!
Voting to Approve the Amendment ("Yes") were 52 Republicans and 14 Democrats.
Voting to support our long cherished Constitution right to free speech (i.e. voting "No") were 30 Democrats, 3 Republicans and one independent.
Alabama: Sessions (R) Yes; Shelby (R) Yes.
Alaska: Murkowski (R) Yes; Stevens (R) Yes.
Arizona: Kyl (R) Yes; McCain (R) Yes.
Arkansas: Lincoln (D) Yes; Pryor (D) No.
California: Boxer (D) No; Feinstein (D) Yes.
Colorado: Allard (R) Yes; Salazar (D) Yes.
Connecticut: Dodd (D) No; Lieberman (D) No.
Delaware: Biden (D) No; Carper (D) No.
Florida: Martinez (R) Yes; Nelson (D) Yes.
Georgia: Chambliss (R) Yes; Isakson (R) Yes.
Hawaii: Akaka (D) No; Inouye (D) No.
Idaho: Craig (R) Yes; Crapo (R) Yes.
Illinois: Durbin (D) No; Obama (D) No.
Indiana: Bayh (D) Yes; Lugar (R) Yes.
Iowa: Grassley (R) Yes; Harkin (D) No.
Kansas: Brownback (R) Yes; Roberts (R) Yes.
Kentucky: Bunning (R) Yes; McConnell (R) No.
Louisiana: Landrieu (D) Yes; Vitter (R) Yes.
Maine: Collins (R) Yes; Snowe (R) Yes.
Maryland: Mikulski (D) No; Sarbanes (D) No.
Massachusetts: Kennedy (D) No; Kerry (D) No.
Michigan: Levin (D) No; Stabenow (D) Yes.
Minnesota: Coleman (R) Yes; Dayton (D) Yes.
Mississippi: Cochran (R) Yes; Lott (R) Yes.
Missouri: Bond (R) Yes; Talent (R) Yes.
Montana: Baucus (D) Yes; Burns (R) Yes.
Nebraska: Hagel (R) Yes; Nelson (D) Yes.
Nevada: Ensign (R) Yes; Reid (D) Yes.
New Hampshire: Gregg (R) Yes; Sununu (R) Yes.
New Jersey: Lautenberg (D) No; Menendez (D) Yes.
New Mexico: Bingaman (D) No; Domenici (R) Yes.
New York: Clinton (D) No; Schumer (D) No.
North Carolina: Burr (R) Yes; Dole (R) Yes.
North Dakota: Conrad (D) No; Dorgan (D) No.
Ohio: DeWine (R) Yes; Voinovich (R) Yes.
Oklahoma: Coburn (R) Yes; Inhofe (R) Yes.
Oregon: Smith (R) Yes; Wyden (D) No.
Pennsylvania: Santorum (R) Yes; Specter (R) Yes.
Rhode Island: Chafee (R) No; Reed (D) No.
South Carolina: DeMint (R) Yes; Graham (R) Yes.
South Dakota: Johnson (D) Yes; Thune (R) Yes.
Tennessee: Alexander (R) Yes; Frist (R) Yes.
Texas: Cornyn (R) Yes; Hutchison (R) Yes.
Utah: Bennett (R) No; Hatch (R) Yes.
Vermont: Jeffords (I) No; Leahy (D) No.
Virginia: Allen (R) Yes; Warner (R) Yes.
Washington: Cantwell (D) No; Murray (D) No.
West Virginia: Byrd (D) No; Rockefeller (D) Yes.
Wisconsin: Feingold (D) No; Kohl (D) No.
Wyoming: Enzi (R) Yes; Thomas (R) Yes.
2 comments:
I propose an amendment to the anti-flag burning amendment: Stop burning up our military in the un-provoked, unnecessary, largely unilateral invasion and unplanned occupation of Iraq (UULUIUOI), and I'll think about signing on to not burning our flag. As things are, the current administration in Washington has desecrated our flag a gazzillion times more than the four flag burnings on record this year.
Do you know about the situation the other Hawaii Senator is in? Senator Akaka? He voted with his fellow Senator from Hawaii on that amendment.
He's in a heated primary. It's a reverse Lieberman situation, where anti-war Akaka is being challenged by Bush sympathizing Case. Akaka is one of 13 Senators to vote for a firm timetable of withdrawl of U.S. troops from Iraq, while Case rubberstamped Bush's war in a house vote the week before. I wrote about it on my blog and I thought you might be interested in. Akaka needs as much support as we can give him.
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