The link he posted is http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/03/ ... index.html.Bush has threatened to veto a bill passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday that expands hate-crime laws to include attacks based on sexual orientation or gender.Read here, and get pissed off.
This is NOT my country.
My reply (that got the 'polite' request to stop posting) was:
We've talked about this way back when, but are there any new arguments for hate crime legislation? I don't think I'm whining that minorities are getting "special protection", but what do these laws add to the protection of minorities? All of the applications that I've heard of seem to have already been illegal. In the linked article, I found this:I've never been clear on this. Murder is illegal. The punishment is already scaled based on intent or accident. There is already protection under the law from violent crime. What extra protection does this add?
I have to look into laws on vote tampering, but are you saying that some gang of redneck thugs can legally throw rocks or some other mischief at women and gays on their way to the polls in order to intimidate them into not voting? That there is no recourse under current law for these groups that other groups enjoy?
What void would hate crime legislation have filled in the Shepard case? Are there hate crime laws that actually cover an act previously not illegal that should have been?But Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, argued that Shepard's killers got harsh sentences without hate-crimes provisions.
"Those perpetrators that did that horrible act -- both got life sentences under regular murder laws," he said.