Posted on 06/05/2006 10:00:29 AM PDT by kellynla
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush and congressional Republicans are aiming the political spotlight this week on efforts to ban gay marriage, with events at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue - all for a constitutional amendment with scant chance of passage but wide appeal among social conservatives.
"Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all."
The president was to make further remarks Monday in favor of the amendment as the Senate opened three days of debate. Neither chamber, though, is likely to pass the amendment by the two-thirds majority required to send it to the states - three quarters of which would then have to approve it.
Many Republicans support the measure because they say traditional marriage strengthens society; others don't but concede the reality of election-year politics.
"Marriage between one man and one woman does a better job protecting children better than any other institution humankind has devised," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. "As such, marriage as an institution should be protected, not redefined."
But Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he will vote against it on the floor but allowed it to survive his panel in part to give the Republicans the debate party leaders believe will pay off on Election Day. Specter has chosen a different battle with the Bush administration this week - a hearing Tuesday on the ways the FBI spies on journalists who publish classified information.
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.washingtontimes.com ...
Imagine that! Not enough votes for this but more than enough on that abomination of an amnesty bill.
One is important to them, the other is shilling for votes in an election year.
"A vote for this amendment is a vote for bigotry pure and simple," said Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, where the state Supreme Court legalized gay marriages in 2003.
We need to tell our uninformed church friends that it is the Dems who do not want to protect us from gay marriage. It is the Dems who are pandering to one of tehir very small interest groups, the gays.
Someone answer this.
From everything I have read, the title of this thread is true - "not enough votes" in favor of a "marriage" amendment in the U.S. Senate. Even most conservative "analysts" I read say the same thing.
Bush, I think, knows that too.
So, don't flame me, but is his recent public notice of approval for that amendment different, politically, than his sending national guard troops to the border in the 11th hour of our "national immigration debate"?
In fact, I will go one step further; are we being bated to "come back to the fold" on immigration because: "see, he really is" "with us" on this issue?
I want him to know that he can appeal to us on any "conservative" topic he wants to, but he will not buy my vote on his and the Senate's immigration non-reforms, no matter what.
Marriage is between a Woman and a....snake?
BHUBANESWAR: A woman, who claimed to have fallen in love with a snake got married to the reptile as per Hindu rituals at Atala village of Orissa's Khurda district, 14 km from here.
The unusual marriage took place on Wednesday with over 2,000 people taking out a procession to celebrate the event.
Attired in a silk saree, 30 year-old Bimbala Das was seen sitting for around one hour as priests chanted mantras to complete the ritual.
The snake which lived in an ant hill near her home, however, was not around and a brass replica of a serpent was kept by the side of the woman instead.
Bimbala said: "Though snakes cannot speak nor understand, we communicate in a peculiar way. Whenever I put milk near the ant hill where the Cobra lives, it (the snake) always comes out to drink."
"I always get to see it every time I go near the ant hill. It has never harmed me," she claimed.
When Bimbala disclosed her idea of marrying a snake, villagers reportedly appreciated it saying the marriage will bring good fortune to the area. They also came forward to offer a grand feast for those who came to attend the marriage.
Johnny one-notes.
The world around can go to hell in a hand-baskets - What terrorist plot based in Toronto that involved 2 Americans and targets both in Canada and the US?
Not important.
What destruction of the very fabric of our society and the child abuse being perpetrated on our school children, starting at age 5 - by the perps who are protected while the parents that object are being hand cuffed and hauled off to jail
What other problems -
"There is only one issue: MINE MINE MINE"
ya know, it is time we start electing real conservatives isn't it?
A woman, who claimed to have fallen in love with a snake got married to the reptile as per Hindu rituals at Atala village of Orissa's Khurda district, 14 km from here.
Where is she registered? My wife and I have to get a gift out. You know this just does not interest me at all. Congratulations to her. Now really this is hurting us so much, how? I married in a Catholic Church so I go by the teachings, but not everyone is Catholic so they do their own thing. I don't get the worry about gay marriage. I would never have known people married other people of the same sex or snakes if it was not for FREEPERS. Honestly, I swear I never heard of a women marry a snake before FREEPERS. What does this say about my friends who do not read this site. There lives are so awful because women are marrying snakes and they don't know about it. Our marriages are doomed.
LOL, it's become an obsession for some.
Keep in mind it only required 51 votes to pass the immigration bill. It will require 67 votes to amend the constitution for a gay marriage ban, so you can't really compare the two. If the immigration bill required 67 votes, it would not have passed either since I believe it got 63 votes.
You only have to look at the history of abortion to see the relevancy of having a marriage amendment to the Constitution. If we had had a ban on abortion in the Constitution before 1973 those horrid men on the SC could not have made abortion legal. Same with gay marriage. If there is a ban in the Constitution some judge is not going to be able to come along and nullify marriage as being just between a man an a woman. Right now there are four states where judges have nullified amendments to state constitutions banning same sex marriage. You are right that God has sanctified marriage as between a man and a woman but the state can come along and make it very difficult to keep marriage that way in society. I for one don't want to leave my grandchildren the legacy of perversion.
The appeal is far beyond that of just social conservatives.
Watch it catch on here. Snakes ... .
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