OFFS

Well, gay marriage isn't rallying the wingnuts like it used to; the immigrant bugaboo just doesn't have the teeth that it did, and even yelling "9/11!" at the top of their lungs is bringing Republicans more eye-rolling than success.

What to do, what to do... if only they could get Americans outraged again so they'd be taken seriously... hmmmm...

Oh! Of course! Flag Burning!

No, this is not a repeat. You didn't wake up in 1989 all over again. Put away the acid-washed Levi's and the Roxette CD. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is sponsoring a resolution to pass a constitutional amendment outlawing flag burning. And he defended it in an interview recently:

We think that burning a flag is desecration of the flag and that we should not desecrate the flag that there's been a lot of bloodshed by our veterans and people in uniform to protect the flag as a symbol of our country.

So it simply says that desecration of a flag is not protected by the First Amendment because the First Amendment was not written -- if you read the debate in 1790 -- the First Amendment was not written to protect nonverbal speech. It was to protect verbal speech and, more importantly, political speech.

So you weren't put in jail when you talked against the government as you were in England that the particular time. And so we want to make sure that we get the Constitution back to its original intent before the Supreme Court screwed it up.

I also wonder if this may have anything to do with anything else happening recently in Iowa. Hmmm...

Like I said earlier, the Republicans should change their symbol from an elephant to a One-Trick Pony.

(Tip 'o the energy dome to Scott Madin in comments.)