Okay, so now that the anti-flag-burning amendment has failed (by only a single vote? WTF?), could someone convince the senate to start working on things that really matter, and quit getting distracted by this election-year pandering? It’s not like this is a new debate. This has been settled for a decade!
“The First Amendment never needs defending when it comes to popular speech,” Leahy said. “It’s when it comes to unpopular speech that it needs defending.”
[..]The Texas v. Johnson case came to the court five years after Gregory Lee Johnson burned a flag at City Hall during a political demonstration at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas.
Johnson was convicted of violating state law, sentenced to a year in prison and fined $2,000. The Supreme Court ruled his arrest was unconstitutional.
Writing for the majority, Justice William Brennan stated, “Johnson was not, we add, prosecuted for the expression of just any idea; he was prosecuted for his expression of dissatisfaction with the policies of this country, expression situated at the core of our First Amendment values.”
Kudos to the Republican senators who voted against this amendment, no matter what their reasons. And big time boos to all the Democrats who voted for this. Show some spine, Senators!
[sigh] I am going to miss the Cherry Creek Tattered Cover. I didn’t get to stop by very often, but it was a cherished landmark. And a true destination for the Cherry Creek area. From DenverPost.com
Her flagship Tattered Cover store has been a mainstay on East First Avenue in Cherry Creek for two decades. Meskis is moving operations about a mile north to the Lowenstein Theatre redevelopment project, where she will be joined this fall by independent record and music stores, an independent movie theater and two locally owned restaurants.”A move is always a risk, whether it’s down the street, around the block or a mile away,” Meskis said in an interview with Colorado Public Radio that aired this week. “It’s not difficult to get there, but it’s a risk, of course, and that is constantly on my mind.”
I have no doubt that the new Tattered Cover will survive and thrive. And I don’t doubt that it will help anchor a successful renovation of that portion of Colfax. The Tattered Cover here in Highlands Ranch has been a bedrock for our Town Center, and has made that shopping center a resounding success. But the loss of the Cherry Creek store is a downer.
Anyone who seriously thinks that Bob Beauprez would be a good governor for the state of Colorad really, really needs to read DenverPost.com’s profile of Bob Beauprez. Anyone who isn’t scared away by the following passage needs to re-evaluate their priorities:
A devout Catholic who says he has been visited by his late father’s spirit, Beauprez says he is guided in politics by his faith and his dad’s example. He speaks as though it’s his destiny to succeed Republican Bill Owens as governor and cast his own shadow of decency throughout Colorado.”It’s sort of an unspoken thing. People need better role models in public life. I didn’t think Ozzie and Harriet were so bad,” he says.
But ask what Beauprez plans to do as governor, and his answer is less than specific.
“I don’t blame people for being cynical about what this (governorship) will look like,” he says. “I guess people won’t know … until after the fact.”
So Beauprez feels that he is entitled to be the governor. So much so that he doesn’t even need to tell us just how he’ll go about running the state if he is elected. We’re just supposed to elect him because he listens to ghosts and is a Republican, apparently. What the hell is wrong with this guy?
For all my fellow Coloradoans, please do the right thing and vote Bill Ritter into office in a landslide. Ritter is intelligent, dedicated, forthcoming, open about his plans and his beliefs. He is a very strong candidate for governorship. Beauprez? Well, to be semi-polite about this, lemme just say that it might be best for everyone if Beauprez’s political career is over and Bob finds other things to preoccupy himself with.
Vote for Bill Ritter!
Over at Elevated Voices, Jeralyn Merritt brings up a point that I’ve been wondering, too: Is it appropriate to celebrate anyone’s death, even someone as evil as al-Zarqawi? As she puts it:
Am I the only one who thinks it is inappropriate to rejoice over the murder of another human being? What ever happened to the days when miscreants were apprehended and brought to justice in a court of law? When did assassination become not only acceptable but a cause for giddiness?
al-Zarqawi did some horrible, disgusting things. He is responsible for innumerable deaths, tortures, crimes against humanity. But still, how does rejoicing in his death help? Aren’t the terrorists bad specifically because they kill people? And aren’t we better than them because we abhor death and destruction?
It is good that al-Zarqawi will not be able to kill or torture anyone else. But that does not mean that we should be happy that he was killed. Relieved, yes. But happy?
Fortunately, there’s video available for this Must-See TV moment, as Keith Olbermann lays the smack down on Bill O’Reilly over O’Reilly’s continued assertions that American soldiers gunned down defenseless SS Troops at the Malmedy Massacre. The truth is, of course, that it was the SS troops that slaughtered defenseless, surrendering American troops. Olbermann is simply amazing in this video, as he points out what a crime it is that O’Reilly keeps making these false accusations against long-deceased American soldiers.
