07/18/2009
Digesting the sweeping Democrat/Left triumph involved in Thursday night’s Hate Crime Bill vote is not a happy experience.
For one thing every single Democrat not literally on their death beds (like Byrd and Kennedy) voted for it. What amazing pressure the other side must have exerted! After all, this was actually a vote on an extremely dubious legislative stratagem — not directly on the merits of the bill itself, questionable though they are.
This terminates my interest in Jim Webb (D-Va), despite Peter Brimelow’s personal affection for him.
Secondly, a fifth of the Republicans dodged the vote. Inside-the-Beltway creep Lindsay Graham (Establishment-SC) was to be expected: but what happened to Alexander and Corker from Tennessee?
Illustrating how bad S.909 (now part of S.1390, the Department of Defense Authorization Act) is one can invoke, amazingly, the ACLU:
The American Civil Liberties Union believes that without the speech and association protections included in the House bill, the Senate hate crimes legislation could have a chilling effect on constitutionally protected speech and membership …
Unless amended to block evidence of speech and association not specifically related to a crime, the Senate hate crimes amendment could chill constitutionally protected speech and association. An otherwise unremarkable violent crime should not become a federal hate crime simply because the defendant visited the wrong website, belonged to a group espousing bigotry, or subscribed to a magazine promoting discriminatory views.
Hat Tip, TalkLeft The Liberty Counsel group believes the fight is not lost. I hope they are right.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.