President Obama Signs Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act
President Obama Signs Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act
#1President Obama Signs Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act
Posted: 10/22/09 at 5:36pm
History is made!
The bill will sent to the president by the end of the day today.
Obama will wait to sign it until next week, so Judy Shepard and other family members can fly to Washington for the signing.
#2re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 5:40pm
YAY!!
Why would anyone vote against it?
#2re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 6:02pm
Great news!
Are we allowed to support Obama again? I don't dare do so without gay mafia endorsement.
#3re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 6:13pmjrb - They're busy memorizing the lyrics to Bad Romance. Oh crap! I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. Well, at least in the gay mafia, you'll never have to sleep with the fishes.
#4re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 6:47pmDoes anyone have the list of yay's and nay's? I'm trying to find that info...
--Aristotle
StockardFan
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/08
#5re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 7:19pmI also can't imagine how anyone could vote against it. But it is great news!
#6re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 7:21pmThe voting is a matter of public record. We'll find out soon enough who voted for and against.
JustAGuy
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/03
#7re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 7:39pm
The legislation was attached to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010.
The roll call can be found....
HERE
#8re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 7:42pmI can't say for sure but I have to imagine that few people voted against the hate crime part but the fact that it was attached to National Defense Authorization Act.
#9re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 7:55pm
Yeah, why the hell is it attached to that?!
Stupid gubbermint.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#10re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 8:03pmIt's like saying "You can have this nice, fuzzy bunny but you have to take this vicious attack dog as well"
#11re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 8:13pm
Previous hate-crime amendments have been attached to military appropriations bills. It's a way of getting them passed.
===
Senate Republicans conceded that the Shepard bill swung their votes against the defense package. "The bill includes hate crimes legislation, which I firmly believe is unnecessary, irresponsible, and certainly not germane to this bill," Saxby Chambliss of Georgia said. "There is little evidence that indicates that violent crimes motivated by hate go unpunished in the United States. Every single state has come from laws that prohibit the behavior addressed by hate crimes legislation, including laws against rape, assault and battery."
Those are states' rights issues, said Chambliss. "I do not believe the federal government should interfere with the criminal laws already on the books in our states," he said.
John McCain decried the inclusion of the hate crimes provision as an "abuse of the Senate process," arguing that it was not germane to the broader defense authorization bill. But Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) noted that this was nothing new -- the Senate has included hate crimes provisions in previous defense bills.
Only Sens. Dick Lugar of Indiana, George Voinovich of Ohio and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine voted with Democrats to move the legislation to a final vote, which is expected Thursday night or Friday.
35 GOP Senators Vote Against Defense Bill With Hate-Crimes Amendment
#12re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 8:27pm
Well, I'm glad it passed, but I do agree that it's a wonky government practice.
I hope they don't attach a fishermen's rights provision to the Public Option Health Care bill.
"Those are states' rights issues, said Chambliss. "I do not believe the federal government should interfere with the criminal laws already on the books in our states," he said."
Well, then it shouldn't make a bit of difference to you, right? Shut the hell up, for crap's sake.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#13re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 8:27pm
Is there really a Republican senator named "Senator Crapo"?
Here are the Nays and the Not Votings:
NAYs ---29
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feingold (D-WI)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
LeMieux (R-FL)
McConnell (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)
Not Voting - 3
Byrd (D-WV)
Hatch (R-UT)
Murkowski (R-AK)
#14re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 8:30pm
I'm just so proud of those two idiot senators from my home state of Kansas. I grew up in the one "blue" county in the entire "red" state.
*sigh*
At least I was lucky in that respect.
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
TulitaPepsi
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/13/04
#15re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 8:33pmThis is the best news of the day...thanks for posting it, PJ!
winston89
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/18/06
#16re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 8:55pm
Besty, I can sort of understand where you're coming from. My brother started college in 2000 in upstate New York. And, during the ride up there we saw tons of Bush Cheney signs. He turned to me and said, that he thought New York was a blue state.
In any event, I am glad that this bill has passed. It is great news indeed.
#17re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 9:14pmI love how all the nays are Republican except for one. Classy.
#18re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 10:31pmcorrect me if I'm wrong, but isn't Byrd ill and been missing almost all recent votes. Plus, I wouldn't say he is a nay, just not voting (very different)
#19re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 11:42pmOkay, I'll correct you. It does list him as "not voting."
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
Mekroth
Broadway Star Joined: 2/23/08
#20re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/22/09 at 11:53pmI think cats is referring to Feingold.
#21re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/23/09 at 8:19am
Corey Johnson and Dan Savage were on Anderson Cooper discussing it.
AC360 Talks Hate Crimes with Corey Johnson and Dan Savage
BDrischBDemented
Broadway Star Joined: 11/13/05
#22re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/23/09 at 11:08amDid Feingold say why he voted nay? Wasn't he like, always in favor of gay marriage, or am I thinking of someone else?
#23re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/23/09 at 1:33pmI think it had more to do with the military appropriations than the hate crimes.
#24re: Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act Passes Senate 68-29
Posted: 10/23/09 at 1:41pm
I'm not too fluent in Cro Magnon, but could someone explain to me how the wingnut line against hate crimes got to be "It protects pedophiles"?
I guess if you really got down to it, you could say that about any law I guess. Making it illegal to run a stop sign? It protects pedophiles! (that car you might have otherwise broadsided could have had a pedophile as a passenger)
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