Extremist Republicans have sided with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and President Obama once again. To be exact, 18 Republicans joined with the liberals and abandoned 158 of their colleagues. Ironically, none of their votes were required for passage of the bill and 17 Democrats adopted a common sense position on this bill.
What is the big deal? If someone kills or beats up a heterosexual, white, Christian they get a "normal" conviction. If someone kills a non-white, non-Christian, non-heterosexual they get a much longer prison sentence. So much for "equal protection" under the law.
In fact, this law makes it clear that if it is "perceived" that the crime was motivated by hate, the extra penalties would apply. How does the government "perceive" if that is the case? How do they prove it?
Forgive me, but if someone kills or beats up someone, isn't that "hate" in and of itself? Why is it worse to kill or beat up someone as compared to someone else? Doesn't equality mean equality? Not for liberals and these extremist Republicans.
As usual, the language is so vague that there are worries that charges like "conspiracy" or "incitement to violence" could apply.
So if a religious person preaches or states that homosexuality is "wrong" or "sinful" and someone kills or beats up a gay person, the person who UTTERED the words could also be found guilty of a "hate crime". Paranoid? Hardly. In Canada this is becoming routine. In fact, just like Canada, internet communications, and presumably even emails, could be designated as hate crimes even if no other crime was committed!
Here is an interesting opinion piece in the uberconservative magazine TIME:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1849412,00.html
How did our Pennsylvania Congressional delegation vote?: http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2009&rollnumber=223
Yes:
Dent (R-15th)
Gerlach (R-6th)
Todd Platts (R-19th)
Chaka Fattah (D-2nd)
Mike Doyle (D-14th)
Joe Sestak (D-7th)
Allyson Schwartz (D-13th)
Kathleen Dahlkemper (D-3rd)
Paul Kanjorski (D-11th)
Tim Holden (D-17th)
Robert Brady (D-1st)
Patrick Murphy (D-8th)
Jason Altmire (D-4th)
No:
Glenn Thompson (R-5th)
Bill Shuster (R-9th)
Chris Carney (D-10th)
Joe Pitts (R-16th)
Tim Murphy (R-18th)
No Vote:
John Murtha (D-12th)
Pelosi bill eliminates CHIP program
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4 comments:
Hello
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Jessica
The worst hate crime is abortion, but since it is mostly democrats that support abortion, we will never hear that simple fact from the media. Does anyone want to bet that only conservatives, Christians and Republicans will be charged with hate crimes? This is just another attempt to shut up conservative talk shows.
I subscribe to both "liberal" and "conservative" magazines so my thinking doesn't get inbred. I personally do not fit neatly into either label, as it depends on the issues being discussed. Anyway, browsing through the latest "The Nation" (liberal), and "The New American" (conservative) and there were articles arguing AGAINST the "hate crimes" bill.
I found this refreshing that BOTH principled self-described "liberals" and "conservatives" could find common cause. Actually, this is not the first time this has happened.
Personally, I have always believed "hate crime" legislation an offensive "slippery slope" to the first amendment, and a cheapening of the value of the victims who were not in a specially designated PC category.
Lighthouse,
Thank you for your comments.
I have been involved in the fight for responsible, accountable, limited government for about five years now. I have been amazed at the number of hard core liberals who are also involved in this same fight.
As we have often joked, we have the same goals to get government under control again. THEN we can argue about the priorities of government and spending.
I agree.
But there is no doubt that government is COMPLETELY out of control, secretive, unaccountable and irresponsible. We all have a lot to fix.
THEN we can get back to the traditional debates. "We have a limited amount of money. What should we spend it on."
But at least we limit the amount of money, we know how much we have and where it has been spent, and we know if career politicians are benifiting from it. Then you and I can roll up our sleeves and debate what our hard earned resources should be spent on.
I long for those days again. Though, I must admit, I will miss all those liberals (along with conservatives) who are busily working with me to develop open, accountable government!
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