Brit Hume: Flag-burning ban fails by one vote (to be discussed on the "All Star" panel)

FoxNewsChannel ^ | 6-27-06 | DTogo

[DTogo]

Brit Hume just mentioned it.

[BJungNan]

The proposed amendment, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, read: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."

[Perdogg]

so if I had a flag with 49 stars instead of 50, it would be legal to burn, right?

[nc28205]

>>>The proposed amendment, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, read: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States."

And, what is desecration? Will we be going after those individuals that violate the US Flag Code by flying it in the rain or failing to properly illuminate it at night?

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"They can buy a flag, but they don't own it."

Maybe they don't necessarily *own it in their hearts*, but they do own it physically.

"The flag and the Constitution are one and the same.......this is the reality."

No, they really aren't, and that's the point. Men and women have not died defending flags, but defending what the flag stands for: The Constitution. And not the physical form of the Constitution, but the ideas contained within. The Constitution is the IDEAS, not the parchment. In the same way, the American Flag is the IDEA of freedom, not the material used to construct any particular flag. No protester COULD burn the idea of freedom.

The American Flag needs no protection; it can't be touched by the hands of people.

"Buy and Burn a Flag in Texas and see if you own it....:)"

In most areas it would be unwise, but I bet you could get away with it on Congress Ave in downtown Austin.

[crail]

Burning a Koran?

Evidently America can find it in it's heart to protect a lot of icons, but not our flag.

If they did use the constitution to make it illegal to burn the Koran, would that make you respect it more? If not, why would a flag burning ammendment make those who would burn it respect it more?

At best, it would just change what symbols they desecrate offend you, perhaps by burning effigies of presidents past and present, or writing and singing offensive lyrics to the anthem, or painting offensive slogans on unburnt flags. Make certain you put all that in the constitution too, plus all the creative ideas I haven't thought of.

[pleikumud]

The Enemy Within:
NAYs ---34

Akaka (D-HI)
Bennett (R-UT)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Carper (D-DE)
Chafee (R-RI)
Clinton (D-NY)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
McConnell (R-KY)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Wyden (D-OR)

[tgambill]

Incorrect......You burn the flag, you are also burning the ideas and the Constitution for what it stands. That is the difference in Sunday Patriots and real Patriots.

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"Incorrect......You burn the flag, you are also burning the ideas and the Constitution for what it stands."

Um, no. As evidence, American flags have been burnt and defaced probably since they have been around. The ideas have not been destroyed. Your claim is disproved.

You can't destroy an idea by burning a symbol.

"That is the difference in Sunday Patriots and real Patriots."

Real Patriots know the difference between an idea and the symbol of that idea. This bill was aimed to please Sunday Patriots.

[alarm rider]

My premise is not as faulty as the lack of seeing the big picture here.

You cannot get away with displaying the flag everywhere, but burning one is ok. You cannot get away with burning a cross as a form of political speech, but burning a flag is ok. You would most likely be attacked and/or prosecuted if you burned a "rainbow" flag as a protest against "gay' rights, but burning an American flag is ok.

Flush a bible, no problem, flush a Koran, watch the stuff fly at you. It's all the same.

[Dimensio]

You cannot get away with displaying the flag everywhere,

Please explain what you mean by this.

but burning one is ok.

Burning a flag is only "ok" from a legal standpoint so far as burning any similar object is "ok" from a legal standpoint. In a situation where burning a similarly constructed and shaped object of different appearance than a US flag is criminally prosecutable, then burning a flag should also be criminally prosecutable.

You would most likely be attacked and/or prosecuted if you burned a "rainbow" flag as a protest against "gay' rights, but burning an American flag is ok.

This argument is only valid when presented to an individual who believes that such a double standard is acceptable. I do not, nor -- I suspect -- does anyone else here.

Flush a bible, no problem, flush a Koran, watch the stuff fly at you. It's all the same.

Again, you are arguing against a double-standard that no one here is promoting. Moreover, I am aware of no laws that would prohibit "flushing a Koran", provided that the Koran was the private property of the flusher and that the resulting flush did not cause damage to plumbing owned by another person.

[billbears]

So I take it you're just both 'conservatives' that don't believe in private property rights as well?

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

Today:

BARBARA BOXER = 1 'Preserve the Flag' Vote shy of passage out of the U.S. Senate


Yesterday:

BARBARA BOXER = Led Anti-U.S. Demonstrations to shut down the City Government of San Francisco during the Vietnam War


The Enemy is now Within...
...and always has been.

[Liberty Valance]

"so if I had a flag with 49 stars instead of 50, it would be legal to burn, right?"

Right. It's also legal to burn a flag with 48 or 50 or 13 stars. The only US flag you can't burn is mine. :o)

[DoctorMichael]

I will not be distracted.

A wall now. A wall first.

[Dimensio]

They can buy a flag, but they don't own it.

I take it, then, that you oppose private property rights? If I do not own the flag, then what have I gained for my exchange of money?

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"So I take it you're just both 'conservatives' that don't believe in private property rights as well?"

Don't you know that people who call for the protection of property rights are the same as those who pushed for slavery in the antebellum south? Property rights = pro-slavery.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1656714/posts?q=1&&page=101#164

:)

[billbears]

Scalia makes mistakes every now and then. Probably has immigrant parents rather than Revolutionary War veterans in his background. Else he'd be more respectful.

Well besides the most ignorant statement I've seen here in awhile, I have Revolutionary War veterans as ancestors on both sides of my family. Does that mean I get a say in your world? I seriously doubt any of my ancestors would agree with making the kiddies say a socialist pledge and engage in a little singsong to a piece of cloth, let alone wasting government time to pass an Amendment to the United States Constitution to protect it. Rather they'd be more concerned with the federal government infringing upon personal property rights, which is all this is.

The political idiots in Washington needed to look 'patriotic' to the party faithful back home. Perhaps garner a vote or two, nothing else.

[Polybius]

I don't think it's a good idea. Too many unresolved issue. One thing is what defines a flag.

Another thing is what defines "burning".

[DTogo]

Oh, c'mon... just a little distraction from the REAL issues facing the US?

[Incitatus]

A flag-burning ban would simply encourage nutbag juhadists to burn the stars and stripes more often. Frankly, I don't want to give them the satisfaction that burning a piece of cloth is going to 'get' to the average American, when all it should really inspire is laughter at their expense. People can burn the US flag till they run our of matches, it isn't going to change the fact that the US is the most powerful nation in the world.

More importantly, flag burning is damn near non-existent in the US. And yet the act of pushing for an ammendment against it has the effect of wrongly suggesting that flag-burning is rampant in the US. It is a defacto insult to the American people. A wrongful accusation that there is a sizeable element in the US populace that just loves to get in on some flag burning. It makes America look ashamed of a crime it doesn't even commit!

I'm also amazed at some of the responses above. Some of them have verged on idolatory. An almost religious fixation with national symbols that is just plain disturbing. A few people here being insulted as UnAmerican because they apparently have the audacity to consider being an American a national identity not a religious one. Weird.

It doesn't matter how many Stars and Stripes get burned, so long as it is flying above the places that matter, all is well. That's the key message of the national anthem.