Posted on 12/06/2007 10:43:47 AM PST by vietvet67
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate has dropped its insistence that Congress pass legislation expanding hate crime laws to include attacks on gays, after it became clear the measure wouldn't pass the House, according to congressional aides.
House and Senate negotiators agreed on Thursday to drop the provision from a major defense policy bill. The legislation authorizes the military to spend some $150 billion in money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and provides detailed policy guidance on the Pentagon's multibillion weapons programs.
The exclusion of the hate-crimes legislation, sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., is a blow to civil rights groups who say it is necessary to address a rise in crimes motivated by prejudice against a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.
The military bill is ''the last clear chance this year for Congress to make a meaningful effort to stop hate crime violence,'' said Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
But Democratic leaders said the bundled legislation posed too high a hurdle. A substantial number of liberal House Democrats routinely vote against the annual defense policy bill because of the billions of dollars it authorizes for the war and expensive weapons programs like missile defense.
At the same time, some conservative Democrats and Republicans said they would oppose the legislation if the hate crimes provisions were attached -- either because they don't think hate crimes laws should be changed or because they don't think the issue should be tied to a bill for the troops.
In a private meeting on Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and House Democratic Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., told Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., that if the Senate continued to insist on the hate crimes provision the defense legislation would fail.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Good move. Well done. Say, dontcha just HATE Ted Kennedy?
Won’t be too long before our schools will be nothing more than gay recruitment centers. The gay agenda is moving forward on every front.
Why isn’t this in Braking News? (sic)
Yup. If they can’t pass legislation, leave it up to the judges, local politicians, and the bureaucrats.
Just read on Drudge about a Baltimore girl being beaten up by 9 (that’s NINE) brave students. Read the article (which actually mentions race) and ask whether or not those “students” (who probably cannot read or write, but can rap) will be charged for committing a “hate” crime.
Good move. Well done. Say, dontcha just HATE Ted Kennedy?
Yep. He is definately EVIL!
- All people are created equal; some are just extra specially protected by laws. Murdering my wife is less significant than murdering a homo.
The politicians behind such nonsense are disgusting vote chasers who stray from the most BASIC concepts laid down in our Constitution and in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. Such people are treasonous to the principals upon which this nation was built.
Uh, they are now...........
haaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaa, you owe me a keyboard. LOL and the answer is YES.
Well a little common sense raises it's head here. These so called civil rights groups act as if a crime isn't punished unless it is a hate crime. If someone commits a crime against a gay person(or transvestite)it is still a crime and punishable under our present laws.
Hate crimes are just another excuse to limit our freedoms and one more step down the road to slavery.
The high-pitched shrieking from the gays lobby can’t be far away...
My question is why is this in a Military bill to start with.
oh but you see the victim is the hater, because she wouldn’t sleep with anyone of a different race, so she should be charged with a hate crime.
/liburalism off
ooohhhh, we’re juth tho mad we could thpit!
The military bill gets all the trash from the dems.. they should just put the bill forward on its own merit.. if it is so great..
Physical attacks on anyone should be crimes, and it shouldn't matter what kind of person the victim is or what the motive was, so long as it was malicious.
Guess the Sinate didn’t want their approval rating to hit below zero.
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