[Vision2020] Celebrate freedom, kick a flag--burner's ass!

[Tom Hansen]

If the Republican Party should lose either the House or the Senate (or both)
in November, President Bush's primary (and virtually ONLY) concern will be
his impeachment proceedings in January.

To prevent this from happening, and in lieu of anything positive having
transpired during the past six years, the Bush-Cheney-Rove trifecta must
play the patriotism/family values card.  They must get the voting public
thinking "Burning the flag is un-American" and "Same-sex marriages would
destroy family values." It worked twice before.  And people continue to buy
into it.

Heck.  Bush, during Monday's press conference, even brought up an old
reference; words to the effect that we are fighting them over there so that
we will not be fighting them here.

It was the religious right that got Bush reelected in 2004.  Bush is
noticing that his own party is beginning to fall apart.  So, Bush begins to
schmooze the religious right by mollycoddling them with thoughts of amending
the US Constitution barring same-sex marriages and making it a crime to burn
the flag.  Everybody realizes that these amendments will never be realized.
But, they also realize that these topics will be discussed over and over
again at family dinner tables well into November.  And just like last
election, same-sex marriages and burning flags will be forgotten within a
week after elections.

Here is a Congress that initiated impeachment proceedings against a
president for lying to the American people about having sex with an intern,
yet continues to fill body bags in a war that never had an exit strategy and
lacks justification.

We debate same-sex marriages and the first amendment as it applies to flag
burning as the war in Afghanistan smolders, the war in Iraq worsens, health
care costs increase, and our environment degenerates, among so many other
issues we should be discussing not only here in Moscow, but in the House and
Senate.

As a nation we will probably never totally agree on same-sex marriage or
whether or not flag burning is a first amendment issue.  But, we all agree
that unjustified war is wrong, affordable health care must be accessible to
everybody, and a healthy environment must be available to our children.

The last six years has not provided any answers, optimism, or
accountability; only more questions.

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho 

"Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up,
at least a little bit."

- Edward R. Murrow