Yesterday, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepherd Bill into law, extending prosecution of hate crimes to cover those acted out against persons because of their sexual orientation. It’s a very positive step for a nation that has been telling the world we believe in the safety and protection of every citizen. Most of the world had grown very skeptical of that from 2000 to 2008, since we developed a very dismal record of human and civil rights protections under Cheney/Bush. And the GOP has for the most part put up many roadblocks against legislation like this for years as well, and King George vowed to veto any bill resembling this if it arrived on his desk. Those horrible years were put a little farther behind us yesterday, as Matthew’s mother was present for the signing. She was also present as several cons had the despicable gall to stand up in Congress a few weeks ago and claim that Shepherd’s murder was not actually a hate crime based on his sexual orientation, and that such claims were simply a liberal hoax, in spite of the written confessions from the suspects claiming otherwise.
Blogroll
Archives
- February 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
Drew, why do we need a special hate law. What is the difference between killing a homosexual and anyone else. Why do they or any other group need a special hate law? I really am curious. Tks
It’s a shame…in America no man is created equal anymore…we have to make hate crime laws to treat people differently because of the color of their skin, their religion, sexual orientation, etc. what ever happened to “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” I guess in Drew’s eyes some of us are MORE equal than others, and deserve more of everything, including justice.
There must be someone (even a liberal) in her that can answer this question …?
Can I, as a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant straight non-handicapped male…have my civil rights violated? If so, how? If not, is it because I don’t have any? Why?
I think it’s a good question, that in here, will get no good answer. Prove me wrong.
Why was the law necessary? Re-read your own posts gentlemen.
You guys need to stop sniveling. It’s pathetic.
So do you girls…
Neal, you obviously cannot come up with an argument as to why there should NOT be a law, so you needed to resort to the above comment. I suppose in your world, calling mainstreeter a “girl” is one of those things that makes you feel manly? I have learned something new about you tonight.
Mainstreeter has never represented herself/himself as any gender. Why do you assume”its” a “He”?
A better question was asked by me earlier, corie…do you have an answer for it?
Hate crime is pre meditated just as the classification for other crimes have their own penalty phase. You would think a bigot like Neal would understand the difference and not act betrayed.
Ya know?
Not surprising, corie and the brain trust can’t answer my simple question.
I don’t question that minorities can suffer civil rights violations. Just wanting to know if I have any as well.
“Just wanting to know if I have any as well.” ROTFLMAO?
Well, I knew SHE wouldn’t know…
Are you going to pout?
Pouting is for girls…I’m sure you’re familiar.
This is sounding more and more like kindergarten with each parry and thrust. With the exception of Drew’s illumination of the Matthew Shepherd Bill, we are doing precisely what Republicans want us to do, scruffle among ourselves.
right wingers need to realize we will shove our bills down their throats.
And when health care passes, we can insure their mental illness.
Neal, before you make a total ass of yourself, let me just say that I know both Mainstreeter and Drew personally, and I assure you, they are definitely men—men who apparently are more confident of their manhood and don’t need to resort to calling others “girls”, much like I hear at recess on many days.
Second, you asked if you have any civil rights? Well, let me ask you a few questions..
Have you ever been denied entrance to the front door of an establishment, instead being told to go around to “your” entrance?
Have you ever been told you cannot drink out of certain water fountains?
Have you ever been denied housing or a job because of your race, your religion or your sexual preference?
Has it ever been suggested to you that you should stay home and take care of your children instead of working?
Have you ever been beaten up because of your sexual preference?
Have the police ever raided the place where you were out drinking with friends because of your sexual preference?
Have you ever been the butt of jokes or had people pull their children away from you because of your sexual preference, believing that your preference is contagious?
Ever had a cross burned on your lawn?
Ever had people yell at you to go back to Europe?
Ever had to have a court determine that you had the right to attend public school?
Ever had someone decide to take away your right to marry, or even to BE married in the first place? Or to be able to have a civil union ceremony? Or denied the right to visit your loved one in the hospital, or make important life decisions on their behalf?
So, do you have civil rights?
It is a sad thing that our country has to even have hate laws on the books…hate crimes that occur because of someone’s gender, race, religion or sexual preference.
Neal, unless you have led a very enriched and sheltered life, you are very aware that your civil rights can be endangered. White supremacy is only a privilege for those that have never been beaten down by prejudice.
Stuneros, you are aware that racial hate crimes are more horridly contrived against racial minorities and are more a product of hate-filled minds, than say a robbery in which person or persons just want what someone else has. Racial or anti-cultural hate is exactly why we have gang problems in Y city. One group conjurs up imaginary hysteria about the other and has been convinced or challenged to shoot the shit out of the other. It matters not whether the differences are finger signals, bandanas or homo phobia, the law is totally appropriate.
Corrie
I read your last post and I would have to say that your party violated Sarah Palin’s civil rights…according to your list of questions that you posed to Neal, you asked “Has it ever been suggested to you that you should stay home and take care of your children instead of working?” That is exactly what your party suggested that Sarah Palin should do. Lets pass a hate crimes law for mothers, since her civil rights were violated, according to you.
Have any of those things happened to you? You brought up the “right to marry”….where is that in the constitution? It must be right next to the right to “free health care”, you are making up rights, or confusing privileges for rights.
let me ask you something else…why should the law (punishment) be any different for a murderer that kills me or a minority. Justice is blind…but not in your world? Please help me understand why my life might not be as valuable as a person that is protected by a hate crimes law?
The right to Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It means different things to different people, but for those who it means the ability to get married..what business is it of yours?
Sarah Palin can do whatever she wants because women a generation or two ahead of her worked their asses off to make sure women had more choices. Merely disagreeing with her choice wasn’t a “hate crime”, but you already knew that.
Nice attempt to twist my words or add things I didn’t say…but you have come up short. Face it Jason, you, like most conservatives, get off on telling the rest of us how to live our lives. You want to decide who does and does not get health care, who does and does not get to marry the person they love, blah blah blah based on some established internal merit system. You have what you want, and you don’t want to share it with anyone you disagree with. Selfishness is not an attribute. And the American people rejected conservative authoritarianism a year ago.
corie, I can answer YES to at least a bit of your questions.
Having lived several years in Maui, I’m quite familiar with being referred to as a “haole”. Now, folks over there are in disagreement whether it’s racial or not, but when the last day of school every year is referred to as “Kill Haole Day”, it’s a bit obvious the message.
Locals over there (admittedly in court) routinely target “haoles” for assault.
And yet, never once in my time there was it prosecuted as a “hate crime”.
I was very used to getting second-rate treatment at establishments (even Costco)
Because there is no “Al Sharpton” voice, violence or racism on whites seems to never get prosecuted that way.
Ergo my question.
As for streeters gender? If he needs another man to stand up for him, he must be very used to sitting down for most everything else.
And corie? I didn’t catch where you vote yet. I suppose I won’t.
I’ve been to Hawaii twice, never was called that name. They thought I was cool. Didn’t go around acting like a mainland version of McGarrett. Now I have seen republicans there getting their ass stomped like a narc at a bikers rally.
You really are confused, Neal. I am a woman, not a man. And I wasn’t defending Mainstreeter..he can take care of himself. I just thought you should put the shovel down before the hole you were digging got any bigger.
As for where I vote..i posted this on a different thread:
October 30, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Blogs are specifically designed to allow people to have a place to express an opinion, Neal. I have no need to have any “standing” anywhere, not even in Yakima politics, to have an opinion of concern that people who have a little power misuse it. That goes for anywhere–in any city, town, hamlet or village around the world.
Where do I vote? At my kitchen table, in a hotel, at work–I have an absentee ballot and I can vote anwhere I can reach a mailbox to have my ballot in on time. Other than that, I won’t share with you where I live because I don’t announce that on the intertubes.
And, you didn’t get the joke.
I’m sorry if you were duscriminated against in Hawaii..hate crime was not in our vocabulary back then. Nobody should be subjected to harrassment because they are different. I would hope that being on the receiving end of it, you are more sensitive to when it happens to others, and welcome the creation of a law that will punish people like those who tormented you.
Apparently neal’s traveled to a couple of places in America, but still didn’t realize where he was. In this country, we can be critical of the political representation of our communities if we want. If we see fit, we can publicly comment on the government activities of neighboring communities too, even when the supporters of those activities don’t want us to talk about what their doing. I don’t live in ID, but I can still comment on Larry Craig’s hypocrisy. I agree with most educated adults that Michelle Bachmann is a dangerous idiot, even though I don’t reside in MN. What’s the difference?
The difference is that the cons of Yakima don’t want people from other communities to expose the unethical behavior of people like Ensey and Smith, but not because we don’t live there- it’s because the same cons that tell us to shut up and mind our own business have been allowing and enabling the corrupt behavior of their favorite candidates and representatives for a while now. When we expose the behavior of those politicians, we expose their enabling supporters at the same time.
And we know that neal understands the reason for the Matthew Shepherd Bill, as does Jason. Pretty sure that no one in Hawaii has ever been lynched by an angry mob and dragged down the road for a few miles on a chain behind a truck because he was white. How many times has a bar patron been dragged from his car, taken into an alley, and beaten to death because he was a “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant straight non-handicapped male”?
Whether they are responding to the thread itself, or their attempts to distract the discussion to issues of a commenter’s gender or residency, cons know that their unmentionable concern is that they still want to dictate who in the crowd is worthy of having the exact same things they themselves enjoy.
Obviously, corie, I should have used the same actuarial table in guessing your gender that I did guessing streeters.
I lived in Maui at a time when hate crime was indeed in our vocabulary. It just is never invoked when it’s crime against a white, based on race. I find that to be a double standard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_Up_a_White_Kid_Day
Drew is obviously confused, as usual. Streeter is the one who “traveled” to Hawaii and knows everything about it. (He did the same thing in New Hampshire)
I was never assaulted, but there were and are incidents where “haoles” are indeed dragged from their cars and homes and beaten. It’s unfortunately tolerated even more because a vast majority of the cops are “Locals” too.
I supported the only issue on my ballot that had anything to do with civil rights. And I voted in Yakima. Paranoia doesn’t grip me.
corie, it’s nice we have watchdogs like you, Drew and streeter to “have an opinion of concern that people who have a little power misuse it. That goes for anywhere–in any city, town, hamlet or village around the world.”
Sounds kind of like Superman, fighting evil wherever it occurs.
Except for one little detail: Your fight is only against one party, as if the other never “misuses its power”. Are you really that misguided?
I’m the only writer in here that supports issues on BOTH sides of the aisle. I don’t wear the same blinders the rest of you do. Party politics turns me way off.
I guess if you need someone to tell you how to vote, then, by all means, continue. I, on the other hand, know that neither party completely holds the high ground on issues affecting me. Ergo, I think for myself. Y’all should try it sometime.
Neal, I said I had an “opinion.” Im not a watchdog. I am an interested observer of politics everywhere. Somehow, you choose to garner from that simple expression that I :
*need to have someone tell me how to vote
* am fighting against only one party
* want to be like Superman
* wear blinders
* am gripped by paranoia
Now, be honest. You got A’s in creative writing in school didn’t you?
Oh, and, we accept your apology for caring what gender everyone is. We agree..it doesn’t have an bearing on anything here.
“I’m the only writer in here that supports issues on BOTH sides of the aisle. I don’t wear the same blinders the rest of you do. Party politics turns me way off.
1. No you’re not
2. Yes, you do
3. Me too
Corrie
Your party said that Palin should “stay home and watch her kids”, it is your party that wants to tell people what we can and cannot do. It was YOUR PARTY that went to the house floor and talked about Rush Limbaugh, and how he should not have the right to own a small part of a Football team…YOUR PARTY…why did the government get involved in a private citizen’s attempt to become an owner of a team?
The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness only applies to people that YOUR PARTY deems worthy…the right to life is taken away from unborn babies all the time thanks to YOUR PARTY…you don’t care about the Constitution unless you can manipulate it to your liking…liberty is being taken away from us in the name of social justice, and fairness. Without life or liberty, there can be no pursuit of happiness.
Now Jason, you are assuming again.
But since you feel so strongly about liberty, can we count on your “yes” vote on 71?
Corrie
please tell me what I am assuming. You can see in the examples that I provided to you that it is YOUR PARTY that is denying people certain unalienable rights.
Corie, I got A’s in everything, including logic, debate and history.
I have never seen you post anything against the dems, ergo my post about blinders. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Apology about gender? There was no apology, ergo nothing for you to accept. Sloppy creative writing on your part, though.
Sundance: If you have posted an opinion in here that runs counter to liberal mantra, I haven’t seen it, but apologize in advance of you proving it. That’s number 1.
I have written on at least three different subjects an opinion that runs against Republican thinking, so NO I don’t.
And if you are indeed turned off by party politics….good for you.
There’s a chance we’d enjoy a beer sometime.
Jason, you are assuming I am registered as a Democrat.
Neal, nevermind. lol..
People register as Dems in Washington? Where? Why?
Corrie
I do not care what you are registered as…your ideals are siding with the Democrat party, and that’s why we do not agree on these issues.
So where does one register as a Democrat? 7-11? Subway?
There is no democrat, it is the democratic party. Don’t be a dick like Cheney.
Streeter never understood when he wasn’t being spoken to…why he always gets the wrong lunch at “the home”
Mainstreeter
“Don’t be a dick like Cheney.”***wow you got me good!!! How long have you been waiting to use that one? Did you come up with that yourself or did you have some help with it? I just can’t get over it… “Don’t be a dick like Cheney.”… you are so clever, I might as well give up and surrender, I just can’t match wits with you! You’re a person of rare intelligence; it’s rare when you show any.