Congress Turns to Most Important Topic

With the world in such a peaceful state these days, corrupt politicians imprisoned, corporate greed brought under control, now that the religious (self)right(eous) have rediscovered the Beatitudes and are loving their enemies and working together for world peace and the elimination of the last few pockets of poverty, Congress can take this comfortable occasion to smooth out the few remaining rough edges of our society.

Yesterday the House came to the most important issue of all: whether the Pledge of Allegiance should include the phrase "one nation, under God." Because really, if you look around, it's the only problem they haven't solved.

WASHINGTON - Legislation to bar federal courts from ruling on constitutional issues arising from the Pledge of Allegiance, including the "one nation, under God" reference, passed the House after lawmakers argued that the pledge is linked to the nation's spiritual history.

Opponents countered that such a law, a priority of social conservatives, would undercut judicial independence and deny access to federal courts to religious minorities seeking to defend their rights.

The measure faced an uncertain future in the Senate after the House voted 260-167 on Wednesday.

"We should not and cannot rewrite history to ignore our spiritual heritage," said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn. "It surrounds us. It cries out for our country to honor God."

The pledge bill would deny jurisdiction to federal courts, and appellate jurisdiction to the Supreme Court, to decide questions pertaining to the interpretation or constitutionality of the pledge. State courts could still decide whether the pledge is valid within the state. House OKs bill guarding Pledge from courts

Let me comment on this very briefly, this idea of "activist judges" re-writing the law. What these judges are doing is interpreting the Constitution. Seems modern-day "conservatives" are not satisfied with that musty old document, and don't want some pointy-headed, book-reading judges going back and making every law conform to it.

In sum: disrepect for the Constitution that these congressmen are sworn to uphold.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said that while he supported the pledge, the bill would "intrude on the principle of separation of powers, degrade our independent federal judiciary and set a dangerous precedent."

Yes. Thanks, homeboy.

The legislation grew out of a 2002 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the pledge is unconstitutional when recited in public schools. The Supreme Court in 2004 reversed that decision on a technicality, but the case has been revived.

Supporters in the House argued that the "under God" phrase, added to the pledge in 1954, must be protected from unelected judges.

Just like newspapers should not be written by unelected journalists.

Listen, there's a reason judges are "unelected." It's so they can be objective, so they don't have to cave in to every idiotic whim that excites the population. I'm not saying every judge is perfectly objective, or that appointing them makes them apolitical, but the fact that they don't have to run for election does remove them from popular control in a way that is ... perfectly sensible. It's like lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court. Those guys don't have to brown-nose the public, they got nothing to lose.

Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., who sponsored the measure, said that denying a child the right to recite the pledge was a form of censorship. "We believe that there is a God who gives basic rights to all people and it is the job of the government to protect those rights," he said.

It's weird, isn't it, that God didn't give those rights until some guys got together and appended them to the Constitution in 1791. I mean, God has been managing humanity since -- what was it? -- 4,000 BC, when He created the earth. Or was that 4,000 years ago, well, I forget the exact date. I wonder why He waited all those years to tell people what he wanted. And ... why did He write it into a secular document, authored by mortals?

Tell me, is this really on anybody's list of Things That Are Wrong in America Today?

I mean ... really.