Hate crimes bill advances over GOP opposition

September 27, 2007

If the president plans to sign a massive defense spending bill, Bush will have to make a new hate-crimes bill the law of the land, as well — the Senate added the hate-crimes measure as an amendment today .

The Senate attached hate crimes legislation to a must-pass Pentagon spending bill Thursday, but opponents predicted it ultimately would fail.

“The president is not going to agree to this social legislation on the defense authorization bill,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “This bill will get vetoed.”

Well, we’ll see. The White House opposes the hate-crimes bill because it extends new protections to gay people, but would Bush reject funding the military just to prevent these protections from becoming law? Graham’s convinced he’d rather veto the whole package; I’m not convinced. Rejecting funding for the Pentagon during a war just to limit safeguards for gays seems a little over the top, even by Republican standards.

The GOP, of course, filibustered the proposed amendment, but supporters just barely shut it down, 60 to 39. Nine Republicans — Warner (VA), Lugar (IN), Collins (ME), Snowe (ME), Voinovich (OH), Specter (PA), Coleman (MN), Gregg (NH), and Smith (OR) — most of whom are up for re-election next year, broke party ranks and voted to allow the measure to move forward. From there, it was added to the defense spending bill on a voice vote. Every Dem and both independents (Sanders and Lieberman) supported the measure. McCain did not vote.

Most of the debate sidestepped whether to extend protections to gays, and instead focused on whether the hate-crimes bill was germane to the Pentagon budget.

Indeed, even James Dobson’s Focus on the Family tried to avoid sounding homophobic, emphasizing instead that the hate-crimes bill should be considered as a stand-alone measure.

But Dems saw an opportunity to make landmark progress, and they took it, even if that meant a strained argument connecting the two seemingly disparate areas of policy.

Writing violent attacks on gays into federal hate crime laws is an appropriate add-on to legislation funding the war, Democrats argued, because both initiatives are aimed at combating terrorist acts.

“The defense authorization is about dealing with the challenges of terrorism overseas… This (bill) is about terrorism in our neighborhood,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, the chief Democratic sponsor. “We want to fight terrorism here at home with all of our weapons.”

Agreed the Republican co-sponsor, Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith: “We cannot fight terror abroad and accept terror at home.”

The argument won out, and with House support, will be sent to the White House. Stay tuned.

i’ll cautiously say that this is really good news. now, i would hope that if bush does in fact veto it, then the senators should say, too bad, that was your funding bill, we’re not going to bother to debate it again – now you get no f**king funding a**hole.

  • Sorry. Did I miss something? Since when has there been a concern about unrelated measures tucked away in a bill?

    Yes, of course. A social construct needs a Constitutional amendment to protect it from the states. But living human beings don’t need federal protection from dim-witted thugs, the states should be allowed to decide. Fucking hypocrites.

    Indeed, even James Dobson’s Focus on the Family tried to avoid sounding homophobic, emphasizing instead that the hate-crimes bill should be considered as a stand-alone measure.

    So they can send their hordes of knuckle dragging bastards to DC to engage in massive displays of homophobia. I heard those cretins who disrupted the Senate prayer by a Hindu priest were in town to lobby against expanding the hate crimes bill.

    This is the quote I got from your link CB:

    Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said: “Senator Kennedy’s hate-crimes amendment doesn’t belong in the Defense spending bill, and it doesn’t belong in law, period.”

    I didn’t see any mention of Dobson.

  • Let’s look into the crystal ball and see how this plays out.

    shimmer effect

    AP headline: President Bush Vetoes Unnecessary Democrat Waste, Saves Kittens

    Democrats: Well, let’s remove it and pass the spending bill without it.

    AP headline: Republicans Triumph at Absolutely Everything

    American people: Hello? Can you hear us?

    shimmer effect

    Sounds right on script, right?

  • One question: why didn’t the Senate ReThugs (including G.I. Joe Lieberman) threaten to filibuster this one?

  • Ashley Horne agrees that we are supposed to be able to hate these sub-human groups not protect them. They should be executed for being gay just like they do in Iran. We agree with Iran on these issues…except they are terrorists.

  • Well, we’ll see. The White House opposes the hate-crimes bill because it extends new protections to gay people, but would Bush reject funding the military just to prevent these protections from becoming law? Graham’s convinced he’d rather veto the whole package; I’m not convinced. Rejecting funding for the Pentagon during a war just to limit safeguards for gays seems a little over the top, even by Republican standards.

    Why wouldn’t he? He’s vetoed a military spending bill that tried to mandate a drawdown, and he suffered no consequences for it. The Dems responded by meekly passing the bill he wanted.

  • LOL doubtful, thanks.
    Hate bill=racism & zionist delight
    I am going to turn gay and possibly black so I can get the special protections offered by the hate crime bill. I can’t wait to be spoon fed my new morality. I liked Sen Hatch’s comment, “Unwise, unnecessary, and unconstitutional”.

  • bushsOneBrainCell says: What’s all this fuss? I’ll pass the dangburn bill, and just attach one of them there, what’s it called?… Oh yeah, here in Texas, and I think in Washington too, we call ’em…,… “signing statements”. Yea, that’s it. He, he, he,he. I need my wars cuz I’m a war Prezident, just like my Daddy, only better see. I do what I want. I am the Decider! You are the idiots who allow me, and people like me, rule over you with complete immunity. Now, go set up a one of them decorous encomiums that I call a “press conference” so I can announce my decision. (under breath), ‘putz!’.

  • It took giving kids health insurance to get Bush to reign in spending. It took a photo of a man in Abu Ghraib with a banana shove up his ass to get talk show hosts to hail the value of the anus as errogenous zone (“What are they complaining about?”) And it takes outlawing beating gay people to get them to restrict executive power and cut funding for our troops.

    Glad to see the Dems turning the tables on the GOP tricks. A two-fer: a wedge issue attached to must-pass spending, and making it unopposable by describing it as terror.

    The media will not fall for it, of course. All that stuff they’ve had to remain silent about is now open season because they have a Democrat to pox both houses, in the same way Hillary’s working of GQ has suddenly been reported in the way hardball battering of journalists by the GOP never will be.

    Look the other way until a Dem can be used to highlight the issue without appearing liberal.

  • Wait a second – was this the same bill that the Republicans attached the condemnation of MoveOn to the other week? I know that they used some kind of procedural maneuver to attach their little political theater to an unrelated defense spending bill (which prevented Reid from blocking it from coming to the floor) – was this the same bill?

    Why such outrage over unrelated amendments today when just the other week…

    Oh, right, I’m sorry – IOIYAR. I nearly forgot…

  • This is just a taste of how much good a veto-proof majority can do after the next election, assuming we get one.

    Stop funding the war.
    Bring the troops home.
    Restore fiscal sanity to the tax structure.
    Eliminate voter suppression.
    Strengthen environmental protections.
    Get help to people who really need it.

    The list goes on and on and on. The day can’t come quickly enough, in my opinion.

  • “Unwise, Unnecessary, and Unconstitutional”
    Help minorities by helping everybody!!!
    Hate crimes do not exist.

    Do you think its ok to laugh at the police & our current laws? If you support hate crime laws you are saying essentially that our current enforcement is a joke.

  • The FBI reports that 14.20% of hate crimes were against victims based on their sexual orientation. Since these were reported without an existing federal hate crime law, the percentage is surely higher.

    This bill is also called The Matthew Shepard Hate Crime bill.

    Oregon Republican Sen. Gordon H. Smith said “For those of you who do not know Matthew Shepard’s story, it is truly heartbreaking,” said Smith. Matthew was a 21-year-old college student at the University of Wyoming when he was attacked. Shortly after midnight, on October 7, 1998, Matthew was kidnapped, beaten, pistol whipped, lashed to a lonely stretch of fence and left to die alone. Almost 18 hours later, Matthew was found alive but unconscious. His injuries were deemed too severe for surgery and Matthew died October 12. He was murdered by two men simply for who he was, because he was gay. To think that such virulent hatred of another person’s sexual orientation drove another to commit such a heinous act is truly unthinkable. Sadly, this case is not isolated.”

    This bill is long overdue.

  • Hate crimes do not exist.

    After looking at the site linked to in your user name, no wonder you oppose the bill.

    Dude … get help.

    Oh, and try peddling the whole “there are no hate crimes” line to the parents of Matthew Sheppard. I’ll be they have a different take.

    (I apologize in advance for feeding what appears to be a troll.)


  • mattatattat: Hate crimes do not exist.

    Neither did the holocaust, eh buddy?


    mattatattat: Do you think its ok to laugh at the police & our current laws? If you support hate crime laws you are saying essentially that our current enforcement is a joke.

    This doesn’t make enough sense to respond to directly, but it should be held up for ridicule… so here ya go.

  • Well, now I feel embarrassed. I just looked at mattatattat website. It turns out, the holocaust didn’t happen. My bad.

  • One Republican senator stated with a straight face that all violent crime is hate crime. He’s never been mugged apparently. Most violent crime is committed by amateurs or drug users trying to get money.

  • I am Pat McCollough, also known around campus as, “Coach Pat.” Returned to the education industry at Hawthorne Middle/High School and became the victim of a hate crime.

    on 1 Jun 2007, the last day of school, I feel prey to racial discrimination and a victim of hate. This happened on campus during the school day. My classroom was the only one spray painted with hate graffiti.

    One student was identified as a suspect. Why was this student out of class and allowed to just roam around without a pass or without any supervision anyways. This was exam day.

    The administration was passive about the entire situation. They gave me the impression that they mainly looked the incident as a “criminal act” or maybe “just a prank” and had not taken into consideration how the event traumatized me as a human being. They stated that they must have misread me because I was a pillar of strength and so well composed though out the entire situation. Well, Isn’t that how professionals are suppose to respond.

    If this type of racial behavior continues and is condoned with little or no consequences to the real criminals, someone could get seriously hurt…remember Jena 6? I wonder if those three nooses hanging on the tree traumatized any of the students or were they provided with any type of professional psychological counseling after having been subjected to such hate. I requested professional psychological counseling and was denied at two different levels. I had to eventually seek professional counseling through other resources outside of the school district.

    It is a known fact there is a current issue with safety and security within the Alachua County School District, Gainesville, Florida.

    I did not return to teaching.

  • my name is terry wagar I’m e-mailing you because I’m at a loss as to what i can do about a very dangerous murder conspiracy against me and others, for over 2 and a half years I’ve suffered from this conspiracy, it began { as best as i can tell,} when my wife joan wagar started having a affair with a co-worker named eric carlson, there affair started around April of 2005, i had reason to believe they was trying to kill me back then but i wasnt sure at the time, I’m very very sure now! there is a very interesting fact about eric that joan tried to hide from me and my daughters, he is almost identical in appearance to me! my wife nicknamed him doubleclick, when i learned of my wifes affair i also learned of that nickname and asked joan “why do you call him doubleclick ” she said ” oh thats what everyone calls him at work,” ever since my wife joan insisted her affair was over, it never ended, year and a half all kinds of odd things was happening i started getting very sick from time to time, i suspected she was poisoning me but was not sure at the time, i am now! in early 2006 around Feb or mar i went to the hospital asking to be tested because my wife was talking in her sleep saying she was poisoning me, i went to OHSU and signed in, they informed me that its unlikely that they will find anything but they took my vitals and i waited in the lobby, i waited 4 and a half hours and they never called me back to be checked, and no officers came to question me about my concerns. so i went home, i could tell no one there cared. this is just too long to explain so i will try to get to the point, on march 26th of 2007 at 5;55 am i put a audio recorder in joans purse because i heard my wife whispering to someone in her bedroom, { i slept on the couch, our marriage was falling apart.} i heard what sounded like a guy whispering back, so i put my recorder in her purse expecting to finally catch joan in the act and laid down pretending to still be asleep, ten minutes later my wife left for work, what i caught on there was a lot more than i expected, i caught a murder conspiracy! i didn’t know it right away because the audio i got is like 17 hours long, when i heard on it she was with eric two days later i left her and moved in with my oldest daughter shawna, i spent the next week and a half on and off trying to listen to this audio, it didn’t take long to figure out i was being framed for something by my wife and her lover, and they had help! lots of help, i learned i was under INVESTIGATION BY THE FBI and these INVESTIGATORS were good friends with joan and eric and they all met up at our apartment that morning in joans bedroom, they climbed in through joans window, i learned they were there to frame me as a pedophile, eric was posing for pictures in kayles bedroom,{ our youngest daughter,} while the INVESTIGATOR named ERICA { last name unknown to me.} was taking pictures of him while kayle slept, after words eric climbed out joans window and waited for her in her car, and a john ray climbed in and helped joan put something on our computer and then he left the way he came, joan finished getting ready for work and picked up her purse and left for work, once outside joan was talking to these INVESTIGATORS and discussing what they was going to do next, joan and eric on the ride to work was discussing what they was going to say to other employees when they get there, joan mentioned to eric {you woke her up} referring to kayle, and then they discussed breaking into shawnas apartment with ERICA, after lots of listening to that audio i learned joan eric and erica planed to rape shawna and murder her and then frame me for this! they planed to use a signed check of mine to purchase a gun in my name, remember eric looks almost like me in appearance, eric was going to use my ID and one of my checks to purchase a gun, joan was instructed to collect my sperm, eric was going to rape and murder shawna, erica was going to plant my sperm on shawnas body along with other false evidence, joan and eric met up at walmart along with vickie {joans sister} and the investigators and was waiting at the front door for someone to let them in, other employees showed up and the investigators pretended to have caught me in the act, [ referring to eric in kayles room,} and saying they got me on fotogenic, once inside the investigators proceed to put on a phony show of investigating while in the presence of walmart employees while joan and eric and vickie are trashing my name to there fellow employees turning everyone there against me, joan was even addmeting eric has been impersonating me for other crimes, after hours and hours of the investigators claiming in walmart employees presence that i was doing wrong things and joan and eric telling countless lies about me the investigators gave permission to all of them to pedifie me, joan started printing out flyers about me at walmart,{ unknown to me whether they used them or not.} i learned they had me under a illegal video survealence the hole apartment had hidden cameras and the investigators asked there supervisor to take 6;30 off of joan because john ray broke in there, when i left joan and moved in to my daughters apartment about 3 or 4 days later the FBI took over the apartment above shawna and they proceeded to spread rumors in shawnas neiborhood, and was spying on us as well with hidden cameras, they didn’t know at that time that i knew they were up there, the ceiling in shawnas apartment has no insulation so i could hear them up there talking about editing my audio and discussing ways of killing me, i knew because they are members of authorities i couldn’t get help calling 911, not to mention i was very worried for my family’s safety i was afraid to tell shawna about this at this time for her own safety so i just continued to listen to the audio trying to learn as much about this as i could but for my own safety i pretended to not understand it well, about a week and a half after i left joan on April 7th donna { joans mother who also lives at shawnas apartment complex, } asked shawna if i could go to her apartment to fix her computer she said it wouldn’t work on the Internet, i didn’t want to but shawna insisted so i went over to Donna with shawna and tried to fix her computer, donna offered me a cup of coffee and i accepted, she brought me a cup of coffee and what looked like a mayonaze lid filled with sugar, i put 2 or 3 spoonfuls in my coffee and was sipping while working on her computer, finally i told donna i cant fix it and that maybe she should get a new computer, i drank up my coffee and me and shawna left to go back to shawnas apartment which isn’t far away, by the time i got to the stairs i started not feeling well, once inside i really started feeling very sick and needed to lie down, fifteen minutes later my head felt like there was acid eating away at me from the inside, not thinking clearly i called Joanne asking if she could take me to the hospital, during the drive there joan was looking at her rear view mirror a whole hell of a lot, which gave me the suspicion we were being followed, keep in mind neither joan nor those investigators knew yet that i knew about them, once at the hospital i was so fucked up and hurting in my head that i needed a wheelchair, once i was admitted and taken back to a emergency room i waited and waited and no doctor ever came and examed me, one person came in acting like a doctor but never examed me, he only wanted to put his finger in my ass supposed for a colon test of some sort, but he never asked me what was wrong, never examed my eyes or mouth or ears, never took my vitals, never took a urine sample, i was holding my head in severe pain and all he wanted was to put his finger in my ass, once done he left, a half hour later a male nurse brought me a bottle of something to drink saying i need to drink the whole bottle and then i was going to some room to have a kind of ex ray of some sort, never once did a doctor examine me nor did a doctor come in to explain what was going on, after i drank the bottle the nurse took me to a room for this ex ray then br
    ought me back to my room, about a hour later a doctor came and explained that the only thing they could find wrong was there was a little bleeding in my colon and he recommended i follow up with a colanoscopie, needless to say i was totally shocked at his blatant attempt to ignore the fact that NOBODY EXAMED ME!!! i knew at this time that those investigators had somehow interfered with my medical treatment and done something to prevent a doctor from examine me! i went back to shawnas apartment still in pain in my head, it felt like acid burning in there, and to this day i am still in pain in my head over this, about a week after this i stopped pretending to know nothing about this crap with joan and the investigators and looked up at the ceiling where they were and called them a bunch of criminals and murderers and that i was completely discuss ted with them, shawna was home at this time but didn’t understand why i did that, an hour later shawna left for work and after that all hell broke loose up stairs, a whole lot of people in suits was going up there and there was some yelling and they seemed very angry, a lot of activity going on for the rest of that day in that apartment above shawnas place, at around 8 or 9 that nite several people went up there talking very loudly acting like they were looking at something and said very loudly { yep thats a pedophile alright.} and then him and a few others from that apartment ran out of there yelling at the top of there lungs through out the hole neaborhood calling me a pedophile, from this point on they was pedifieing me openly in shawnas neaborhood, just flat out calling me a pedophile to others in that neaborhood, this hole time i spent most of my time on the floor in pain from donna poisoning me, i flat out knew i could get no help calling 911 since these were people in authority doing this to me, they stopped doing this when shawna was around they didn’t want her to know about it, i told shawna about this but she didn’t believe me because she never witnessed any of it and no one at work mentioned this to her, she believed donna poisoned me but she never understood any of the other stuff, the investigators were quite until shawna left for work and was loud when she left, they would say things like { were going to FUCK you over now you son of a bitch!} i remained in the apartment for about a week after donna poisoned me unable to walk much because of the pain, around this time eric showed up downstairs talking very loudly up at the investigators, { the investigators were on the third floor on the patio and eric was on the ground talking up at them, shawnas app is in between them} and eric was loudly calling me a pedophile and giving my description to others who were out there trying to piss me off, i didn’t go out to confront him because i knew they wanted to shoot me, before he left he yelled up at the investigators telling them to make sure i drink my coffee, keep in mind they weren’t hiding any of there murder attempts from me, after all eric and joan had permission from the authorities to murder me so they just don’t give a shit, i have reason to believe the authorities pressed charges against me and gave my disscription on tv because where ever i go people seem to recognize me, people in shawnas old neaborhood would point over at me and say “there’s the guy they pedified.” ever since i have been under attack behind my back and in front of my face, i learned from that audio that they pedified me in prison so if i get arrested for anything i will likely be murdered in prison, after they poisoned me at some point they broke into shawnas app and replaced my audio with a differant version hoping i would think its the original, i didn’t fall for that,there version is nothing but a death threat against me and shawna and there demonstrating how they plan to frame my hole family and give them the blame for me being poisoned and pedofied, and at the end of it there flat out frameing me as a pedophile using my voice and kayles, although they made the mistake of admitting somewhere in the middle of the audio that there using kayles voice, on there replacement audio they threatened to pedofie shawna if i say something about this, well they already did that, what it amounts to is they tried to kill me and shawna, i caught them in the act , and then they threatened to kill us if i talk about it and then they tried to kill us again, so it does me no good to heed there threats, as far as I’m concerned they murdered me already and there in the process of murdering shawna right now, there have been too many attempts to tell them all on this, let me suffice it to say the other nite joan and a couple of her friends came here to murder me and that plan failed, but there not scared about it because they have some people in authority covering there asses, i write this on November 13th 2007 and at this very moment this apartment is under a illegal video survielence by the FBI, and they allow others over the Internet to spy on us and make fun of us, chances are there going to murder me for sending this because they made it clear there going to cover there asses, but thats why i saved the best for last.
    p.s. the address where this ocured is 8800 se causey loop n-205 clackamas OR 97086, the whole neaberhood there has heard of this and the authorities used a warrant to kick out the tenants above shawnas apartment

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