Senate Poised to Send Anglico to Jail

CHAPEL HILL - In a move that can only be described as pandering to American pseudo-patriots, the US Senate, led by Chickenhawk Richard Burr, is once again taking up a bill that will make desecration of the American flag unconsitutional. The story in USA Today, reports the sorry turn of events.

"It's scary close," said Terri Schroeder of the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes the amendment. "People think it's something that's never going to happen. ... The reality is we're very close to losing this battle."

Congress regularly has debated the issue since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Texas flag desecration law in 1989 and its own Flag Protection Act the next year. But until now, it has failed to muster the two-thirds vote needed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate before states try to ratify the measure.

Next week, the House will vote on the amendment for a seventh time. If history is a guide, it will pass for a seventh time. That's when the spotlight switches to the Senate, where the amendment has always died.

But this time may be different. Amendment supporters say last year's election expanding the Senate Republican majority to 55 has buoyed their hopes for passage. Five freshmen senators — Richard Burr of North Carolina, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, John Thune of South Dakota and David Vitter of Louisiana — voted for the amendment as House members and plan to do so again.

I predict such an amendment will spawn a frenzy of flag-burning unlike anything ever seen in the history of our republic. That dark day will indeed become National Flag Burning Day in America.

Please contact Richard Burr and thank him for spawning the destruction of more American flags than he can count.