Steny Hoyer on HR-1592, the Hate Crimes Bill

House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer makes an impassioned speech on the floor of the House in support of the Hate Crimes bill.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• steny
• hoyer
• hate
• crimes
• democratic
• leadership

[CristoTruth]

Ask that little girl of seventeen who is facing jail time in Philadelphia for handing out tracts.

[janus303]

You mean Lauren Murch whose charges were dropped way back in 2005?

And those people were doing a lot more than handing out tracts. And they still are. She is still happily on tour with her Repent America friends, engaging in behavior that is only slightly more appropriate than that of Fred Phelps and his righteous clan.

[IOWAforRonPaul]

By the way I am fighting for everyone's freedom. We must remember what happened in Nazi Germany. If a government can silence one they will silence all. Eventually, all get their little badges. I wish you well.

[janus303]

You can make a principled argument against hate crimes laws in general, but you cannot argue against the exclusion of only one group--the group highest affected by hate crimes per capita-- from their protections. When hate crimes laws were originally passed, it was to protect blacks in the south. The opponents of the laws in the 1960s used the same religious arguments against their passage back then.

[MrPunkyBrewster]

One of the politicians that has screwed up Maryland, yet the assholes of that state keep voting them back in.

You get exactly what you deserve, Judgement.

[Nightrunner529]

Notice he uses the same exact hand gestures as Hitler. Hmmmmm makes one wonder whats going on here.

[spooderdoggy]

HR- 1592...Jail a Pastor, Protect a Pedifile Act. Hit a pedifile, get ten years in jail. A pedifile hits you, he gets 6 months to 1 year in jail. Dems will not let any amendments by Repubs to the so-called hate crime bill be added. The wording in the bill for sexual orientation is so broad and general that it allows protection of over 500 different sexual behavior abnormalities and fetishes.

[rlopez8659]

Thank you Steny Hoyer for fighting to help protect the well being of minorities across this great country. Thank for standing up and supporting a bill that will now protect people of different sexual orientations in the same way as we already protect minorities of race, gender and religious groups. As a gay man, thank you for treating me equally. Hate crime laws have been established for years. It will not control free speech. After this passes all of you can still call me a fag, you assholes.

[ERS86]

Democratic Fascists

[callieland]

wise up people. this bill is nothing more than an attempt to control thought.

[omapps]

I hate dirty politics. I hate candy I hate liers in congress. I hate the bullshit he's saying. I hate mind control media. I hate t.v. I hate New world order. I hate the bailouts. I hate the corrupted banking scam baster who put this country at risk. I hate to vote for more puppets. I hate your bill. God bless america. or maybe the name should be god bless corportion america.

[atbrightwell]

This dude is a douche. All he does is bring federal housing into our district, which causes otherwise nice areas to become ghettos. See... Great Mills, Lexington Park, and Waldorf. He also refuses to acknowledge that there are people in St. Mary's and Calvert need many things, but we're not his main block constituency, so he ignores us for PG and Ann Arundel County. Like I said, dudes a douche.

[RogerOnTheRight]

Insanity only works if you can prove you either did not know what you were doing, or could not know it was wrong. Almost never works.

Neither case has anything really to do with motive, either. And while motive might help establish a circumstantial case, it really is irrelevant to guilt or innocence.

Think of this for a moment: we used to think "cold blooded" was the worst sort of crime. Now we think "hot blooded", for hate.

Which is really worse? Does it matter?

[Poppable]

Motive is an aggravating factor in most criminal cases.

Hence, the insanity defense and the sleepwalking defense.