House votes to bar Confederate flag from VA cemeteries

[mystery-ak]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/paul-ryan-house-confederate-flag-vote-223361


House votes to bar Confederate flag from VA cemeteries

Paul Ryan's willingness to bring the amendment up for a vote suggests he plans to stick by his commitment to taking tough votes on spending bills.

By Rachael Bade and Ben Weyl

05/19/16 11:02 AM EDT

The GOP-led House on Thursday morning voted to bar the Confederate battle flag from flying over some federal graveyards, with Speaker Paul Ryan and his top lieutenants joining Democrats to approve the measure despite most Republicans voting against it.

Lawmakers voted 265-159 on a Democratic amendment offered by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) that would bar the Civil War symbol from being flown at cemeteries run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. It was the first time the House has cast a ballot on the divisive issue.

A similar Democratic amendment last year — offered after the racially charged shooting of Black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C. — tanked an entire appropriations bill after Southern Republicans objected to the measure. Back then, GOP leaders under Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) decided to pull the entire Interior Department spending bill rather than litigating the matter in a roll call vote that could have been used by Democrats to accuse the GOP of supporting a racially divisive symbol.

Many of those same Southern Republicans opposed the amendment Thursday. But all three top Republicans, including Ryan, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Whip Steve Scalise voted for the Democratic amendment. Ryan's willingness to even bring the amendment up for a vote marked a sharp break with past leadership strategy, and suggests he plans to stick by his commitment to taking tough votes on spending bills where the rules give members wide latitude to offer amendments.

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[ExFreeper]

I guess my family members who fought against the "Northern aggressors" and were buried in VA since 1864/5 will need to be relocated to GA in our family cemetery.

[Cowboyway]

Once again Constitutional rights trumped by political correctness.

[ArneFufkin]

I guess my family members who fought against the "Northern aggressors" and were buried in VA since 1864/5 will need to be relocated to GA in our family cemetery.

I might be wrong but I think VA refers to federally run veterans' cemeteries ... not those in Virginia.

[Cowboyway]

I might be wrong but I think VA refers to federally run veterans' cemeteries ... not those in Virginia.

Which means that free speech is being denied by the federal government, precisely what the First Amendment is about.

[Oceander]

Quick show of hands: how many people would approve of flying the battle flags of Imperial Japan or Nazi Germany in VA cemeteries?

Yes, it is precisely the same. 

[Cowboyway]

Quick show of hands: how many people would approve of flying the battle flags of Imperial Japan or Nazi Germany in VA cemeteries?

Yes, it is precisely the same.

Quick show of hands:  how many people think that the sons of Imperial Japanese or Nazi's were American's?

Another quick show of hands:  how many people who have more knowledge of American history than the PC crap taught in public schools believe that the Southern states were the equivalent of Imperial Japanese or Nazi's?

Precisely the same?  Hardly.

[ExFreeper]

I might be wrong but I think VA refers to federally run veterans' cemeteries ... not those in Virginia.

Your are correct.  My answer remains the same though.  My two family members are buried in a Federal cemetery in Virginia.  It is a shame their own country would treat them in such a manner and dishonor them.