Friday, September 28, 2007

Ghastly Old Patriarchs

Second verse,
Same as the first.
A little bit louder,
and a little bit worse


I was getting ready for work this morning and heard a familiar issue on the radio.
See, way back in the 2000 Presidential campaign there was some talk about how George Bush vetoed a hate crimes bill in Texas. A hate crime bill makes stronger punishments if you beat the hell out of someone because of some bigotry than you'd get if you beat the hell out of someone during a mugging, crime of passion, and the like. The new bill would have expanded on the existing bill by adding gays to the list of blacks, women, hispanics, asians, muslims, etc. who receive some measure of protection with the threat of extra punishment.
When this came up in one of the debates George Bush took the attitude that since a hate crime bill already existed they didn't need another. Al Gore had the opportunity to slam George for refusing to extend the bill to cover homosexuals. He didn't. This is one of the reasons I say Al Gore had more to do with losing the election than Ralph Nader ever did.

Anyway, this morning NPR was talking about how the Senate added a bill onto the increased military budget that would include gays and handicapped in the federal hate crimes bill. Republicans tried to filibuster but enough of the GOP recognize this as a popular bill that the filibuster1 was voted down. The bill now goes to the House where it should get through fairly easy.

The question now is whether George is willing to give up his war money to prevent gays from getting hate crime protection.

Remember, America, this is what being a Republican means. Tacit approval for beating homosexuals within an inch of their life.


1Remember, filibusters? A few years back the GOP thought filibusters were treasonous and unamerican and should be illegal.

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