Tag Archives: Matthew Shepard Act

Breaking: Hates Crimes Bill Dead

From the Washington Blade: Capitol Hill sources are telling the Blade that the hate crimes measure has been stripped from the National Defense Authorization Act. The House passed a freestanding hate crimes bill in May, but lawmakers in the Senate, led by Sen. Edward Kennedy, attached it to the spending bill as part of a strategy to avoid a presidential …

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Setbacks

Today Nancy Pelosi is expected to announce a postponement of the final vote on the defense funding authorization bill to which the Matthew Shepard (hate crimes) Act is attached. The Out Of Iraq Caucus, a group of as many as 20 gay-supportive Democrats, are threatening to vote against the act because it would provide funding for President Bush to continue …

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Obama To Bush: Sign Hate Crimes Act

Barack Obama has issued a statement urging Dubya to sign the Matthew Shepard Act. “This vote was about who we are as Americans and whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality. Those who commit hate crimes should be punished no matter whether those crimes are committed on account of race, gender, religion, disability, …

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Matthew Shepard Act Squeaks By!

By a 60-39 vote, the Senate just passed the Matthew Shepard Act. Sixty votes were required for cloture. Happy day! John McCain was the missing voter. Yes/No vote tally here. In a gracious gesture after the vote, Sen. Kennedy suggested a unanimous approval of Sen. Orrin Hatch’s competing hates crimes amendment, which would merely have authorized a study of hate …

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Hate Crimes Bill On C-SPAN2

If you have access to tv at the moment, turn on C-SPAN2 to watch our senators debate the Matthew Shepard Act. At the moment, Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is bloviating against the bill’s inclusion as an amendment to a defense appropriations bill. “What’s this amendmend doing attached to this bill when the president has already said he’ll veto it?” Hatch mentions …

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Senate Hate Crimes (Matthew Shepard Act) Vote Tomorrow

From yesterday’s HRC’s Backstory: This afternoon, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), one of the lead sponsors of the Senate hate crimes bill, took to the Senate floor to urge the Senate to pass the hate crimes bill (S. 1105) and for President Bush to sign the legislation into law. Earlier today, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) filed a cloture motion on the …

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White House Vows To Veto Any Bill Attached To Hate Crimes Legislation

White House spokesman Tony Fratto yesterday said that President Bush plans to veto any bill to which the Matthew Shepard Act (MSA) is attached. Fratto: “The qualifications [in the bill] are so broad that virtually any crime involving a homosexual individual has potential to have hate crimes elements. The proposals they’re talking about are not sufficiently narrow.” Last month Sen. …

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Hate Crimes Bill Dead For Months

The Democrats’ ploy of attaching the federal hates crimes bill (the Matthew Shepard Act) as an amendment to a Department of Defense appropriations bill did not work because the Dems also attached an amendment requiring troops to pull out of Iraq by May 1, prompting Republicans to plan a filibuster on the item. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pulled …

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Hate Crimes Bill Suspended

Lacking the 60 vote threshold needed for approval, the Department of Defense reauthorization bill (to which the Matthew Shepard Act has been attached) was just removed from consideration by Senate Majority Leader Reid. Negotiations continue to get the bill reintroduced.

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PhoboQuotable – Terry Mangum

“I believe I’m Elijah, called by God to be a prophet. I believe with all my heart that I was doing the right thing.” – Terry Mark Mangum, 26, (left) arrested for the murder of 46-year old Southwest Airlines flight attendant Kenneth Cummings, Jr. (right), whose charred remains were found in a shallow grave on the Texas ranch of Mangum’s …

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Mrs. Edwards Gets It

“This president talks a lot about good and evil and the need to seek out evil doers. But he doesn’t seem to recognize the evil in hate crimes. The right to live without the fear of being murdered for whom we love is not a special right.” – Elizabeth Edwards. Why isn’t SHE running?

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PhoboQuotable – Richard Land

“The U.S. Senate is expected to vote within the next few days on legislation that could ultimately cost Christians their freedom to share their biblical beliefs on homosexuality.” – 2007 Combover Olympics gold medalist and Southern Baptists Convention head Richard Land, lying once again.

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Breaking News:
Hate Crimes Bill Vote May Come Today

Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) have attached the Senate hate crimes bill, the Matthew Shepard Act, to a Department of Defense reauthorization bill which may come to a vote as early as today. Call your Senators NOW and urge their support of S.1105. The right wing has been burying Senators with calls opposing the bill. Call them …

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Hate Crime Victim Commits Suicide

David Ritcheson, the Texas youth who at 16 was the victim of a brutal hate crime at the hands of neo-Nazi skinheads, leading to his becoming a passionate and articulate advocate for hate crimes laws, jumped to his death from a cruise ship on Sunday. He was 18. At a party in 2005, Ritcheson was beaten and sodomized with a …

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Bishop Harry Jackson Takes Out
Anti-Matthew Shepard Act Ads

Bishop Harry Jackson: “Gay activists around the country are getting nervous that they are about to experience an embarrassing political setback. Instead of amending the hate crimes legislation that protects churches in a substantive way, they are simply crying out in a louder, more threatening manner. Gay advocates are not looking for fairness; they are looking for an upper hand. …

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