Let's see now.... The budget deficit is out of control. Bird flu is threatening a horrific pandemic. The Iraq war is growing in horrors every day. The ice caps are melting. The poor are getting poorer, and so are the middle class. Massive numbers of Americans have no healthcare.

And the Republicans are working up Constitutional Amendments to keep them from turning gay or "desecrating" the flag.

Let's start with the homophobia. Given the parade of self-righteous God Gay-fearing GOP heterogogues who've turned out to be gay, and the strange and malicious Skinner-phillic methods wingnuts employ in attempts to control the gayness within -- and you really must see this watch-me-hug-a-man-and-not-get-an-erection demonstration of "curing" homosexuality through the use of same-sex hugging -- methinks that, when it comes to right-wing leaders, the phobia of homo is less a fear of other gays and more a fear of the homosexual feelings within themselves.

"Curing" each other of gayness is a flourishing cottage industry in Christianist circles.

But since they've so far been mostly unable to simply arrest those they hate, now they want to amend the Constitution to make sure that homosexuals are denied the civil right to marry in a civil ceremony.

My message to these sanctimonious types who fear gay marriage would take away the sanctity of their marriages: If your marriage is so fragile that it is threatened because of the mere legality of your being able to divorce your spouse and enter into a gay marriage, then I'd say you have some serious issues in your personal life and should not turn to the Federal Government in some desperate attempt to make your gay feelings unconstitutional.

The burning question in the Beltway-Christianist power circles is whether Bush's apparent low interest in the amendment proposition will help or hurt the hate amendment's chances.

On the flag desecration front, on the other hand, the GOP is finally standing up, ready to do something about all those flag desecrators we see every day.

I see flag desecration every time I drive, when I see supposed patriots who have pasted Old Glory onto the ass side of their cars, where our American colors get belched on by automobile exhaust and diesel grit and road grime.

Of course, they'd say they're only exercising their first amendment rights. Silly people! Don't you know President Bush has already outlawed the first amendment? (Freedom to protest is something America advocates only for China and Russia.)

At least these Republicans have their priorities, um, straight and have, er, come out to reveal that their #1 priority is not addressing the serious business of this nation but rather cultivating fear and hate in their base in desperate attempts to get elected, again, by dividing and conquering.

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