On Tuesday, the US House quietly added an amendment to a funding bill for the Interior Department that would prohibit the Confederate flag from being displayed at federal cemeteries. The amendment passed by a voice vote to no opposition, and the House moved on.
Turns out “moving on” lasted about 24 hours or so.
Despite the amendments’ quick passage on Tuesday, the vote left some House Republicans outraged. Rep. Steve Palazzo (R-MS) protested the House vote on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
“I strongly oppose the inclusion of this amendment, which was slipped into the bill in the dead of night with no debate. Congress cannot simply re-write history and strip the Confederate flag from existence. Members of Congress from New York and California cannot wipe away 150 years of Southern history with sleight-of-hand tactics,” Palazzo said in a statement. “I will fight to ensure that this language is not included in any bill signed into law.”
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) announced on Wednesday evening that House Republicans scheduled a Thursday vote on an amendment that would allow Confederate flags to be displayed at federal cemeteries, according to Roll Call. The amendment would undo the amendments to the Interior spending bill passed on Tuesday.
“This amendment will codify existing National Park Service policy and directives with regard to the decoration of cemeteries and concession stands,” Calvert said when he announced the amendment on the House floor, according to Roll Call.
The House will vote on the amendment before voting on final passage of the Interior spending bill on Thursday.
Not surprised at all by this, considering Republicans love them some Confederacy. It’s who they are, and it’s what their party stands for, and most importantly it’s what the people who vote for them stand for too.
EconWatcher
So the U.S. Congress is now more pro-Confederacy than the legislature of South Carolina?
Origuy
Not 150 years. Your rebellion lasted five years. You’ve spent the last 150 years pissing and moaning about it.
MattF
So, this is a thing that is actually done right now? I mean, one doesn’t expect any new burials of Confederates at Arlington, right?
Cervantes
Under current rules, the Confederate flag is allowed at those cemeteries only in limited circumstances:
Just to be clear: that is the policy that Huffman’s amendment is meant to shut down.
c u n d gulag
I love it that they talk about that treasonous traitorous flag of slavery and rebellion, as their “Heritage!”
Hey, it was 4 years out of hundreds.
And you got your asses kicked, to boot!
SHERMAN’S boot!
Attached to Lincoln’s and Grant’s legs!!!
You want to celebrate some REAL Southern heritage?
How about your novels, poetry, plays, music, food, etc.?
Oh wait!
Most of the literature is about your racist history.
And the music and food mostly come from blacks (and, though I LOOOOOVES the food, enough of it will kill ya!).
So, I guess…
NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVER mind…
Amir Khalid
These are Republicans, you say, defending the Confederate battle flag? As in, people from Abraham Lincoln’s party? I am truly amazed.
Cervantes
@Origuy:
Who’s to say that 150-year period is not precisely what some want to celebrate and extend?
Mnemosyne (tablet)
Since some people had a problem with renaming the Confederate Battle Flag as the Dixie Swastika given that the swastika itself is an innocent design element, how about calling it the Sore Losers Flag?
Elizabelle
Doug Muder: Not a Tea Party, a Confederate Party
KG
@Cervantes: just the first 100 years of that 150 years, right up until about July 2, 1964, let’s say.
MomSense
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
I’ve been calling it the Losers Flag. Sore Losers Flag works for me.
dedc79
@EconWatcher: The U.S. Congress doesn’t have to worry about consequences in the same way as state politicians do. In congress, their main worry is getting out-crazied in a primary. At the state level, they’re hearing from businesses that won’t hold a convention in the rep’s state or city, or won’t relocate a plant or other facility there b/c of the negative publicity surrounding the flag.
Cervantes
@KG:
I think what you’re referring to is a key element of the demagogic complaint; and I doubt these people want their constituents to forget it (not that forgetting it is likely in the near future).
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Has an element of truth to it — and yet it’s hardly calculated to restore unity!
Librarian
Unfortunately, it’s only partially a sore loser’s flag. The South lost the war, but won the peace.
bystander
“…it’s what their party stands for…”
The next thing you’ll be suggesting is that Donald Trump speaks directly and effectively to the core of the repub party.
Roger Moore
@Cervantes:
Flying the Sore Losers Flag is intended to be divisive, so it’s hardly fair to complain about calling it by that name for the same thing.
JohnK
The so called southern heritage is heartbreaking when you consider what went into their effort to keep and expand slavery since the declaration of independance. The effect of that cultural crap will linger on forever. At least Memphis is removing Nathan Bedford Forrest’s grave site and memorial from their city park, may his eternal soul burn in hell. One down, about a thousand more to go.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Librarian:
If they had truly won the peace, they wouldn’t be bitching and moaning right now. Remember, most of those Confederate flags got pulled out of closets when the Civil Rights Movement hit its stride and the Dixiecrats realized they were about to lose the battle over Jim Crow.
Sore Losers Flag.
Big ole hound
Solution. Fly the flag of every loser who fought the U.S.. French, British, Spanish, Confederate, Nazi etc.and see how these asshole southerners like them apples.
Cervantes
@Librarian:
In his book After Appomattox, Greg Downs argues that the military occupation of the South could have achieved a healthier peace — had the North not cut it short, having grown increasingly weary of the war-time footing and increasingly apprehensive of the reaction.
lamh36
Some people like to say taking down a flag won’t end racism in America and of course it won’t, but symbolism and simple things like taking down a symbol of hate can cause ripples…to quote Mother Theresa..”I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
JUST IN: Governor’s spokesman: #Confederate flag at South Carolina Capitol to be removed Friday morning. http://t.co/VQLLKpGT30
Cervantes
@Big ole hound:
The cut of your jib? I like it.
Splitting Image
I’m confused. If Rep. Palazzo had concerns about the amendment, why didn’t he mention them when it came up in Congress? It seems odd to say nothing when you have a chance to do something constructive but to complain to the news media afterward and issue a public statement about the problem in a fund-raising letter.
Oh, wait. I forgot.
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
You may be under-estimating the political utility of all that complaining.
Patricia Kayden
Is anyone surprised that the Party of Bigotry supports the flying of the Confederate hate flag on public property? Anyone?
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Mnemosyne (tablet): I prefer “Dixie Diaper”. The two folks I’ve unloaded that on were angered into speechlessness. Which is how I like it.
Another Holocene Human
They love to call it “erasing history” when they’re the ones erasing history and rewriting it. Like erasing Reconstruction, the first time democracy ever came to the South since the Cherokee were forced out. Like erasing the illegal methods by which they crushed that flowering of democracy and returned power to a corrupt oligarchy. Like using the flag to pretend that the South is different from other places when in fact people are the same everywhere and they don’t fucking appreciated getting kicked in the head in the South any more than they do anywhere else.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Cervantes:
No, I get that they’re playing the refs like Vlade Divac clutching his shin at a Lakers game. I just get tired of people shrugging their shoulders and saying, Well, they won, what can we do? when the right is acting like a 5-year-old throwing a tantrum. I honestly expect these whiners to threaten to hold their breath and turn blue if you take their
binkyflag away from them.Another Holocene Human
Totally OT, NPR spent so much airtime tongue bathing Dunford this morning (fuck, I went to the store to pick up some snacks and came back out and they were still at it) I’m wondering if he’s not enormously incompetent or something.
Steve in the ATL
@JohnK:
I’m wondering if NBF was reincarnated as Malcolm X
Cervantes
@Patricia Kayden:
As explained, we’re not talking about the flying of a flag in these cemeteries — that has not been allowed for years. We’re talking about ending a policy whereby people are allowed to temporarily decorate graves with little flags.
Not much of a difference, perhaps, but not precisely the same thing.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Cervantes: In Sherman’s autobiography, which is quite interesting – and would be even if he hadn’t fought in the Civil War – he argues for putting the South under military occupation for good, dissolving the Southern states, and (especially) never allowing them any kind of armaments outside of hunting rifles again.
Didn’t work out that way. Lincoln was so desperate for the war to end he was willing to give the South pretty much anything they wanted save slavery, a policy later presidents continued. This was a tragic mistake.
Cervantes
@Roger Moore:
I know what you mean — but adopting their standard* isn’t something I’m prepared to do.
*Pardon the pun, but I mean being divisive.
gene108
@Librarian:
I do not think the North ever set the South up to “lose” the peace.
There’s enough racism in this country’s history to go around.
Patricia Kayden
@Cervantes: I understand what you’re saying but would Germany allow descendants of Nazis to place swastikas in public cemeteries (especially those controlled by their federal government) temporarily?
boatboy_srq
Was Palazzo asleep when
?
Really?
Another Holocene Human
@Big ole hound: I particularly like the Imperial Japanese flag.
Cervantes
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
What can I say?
Sherman was a dreamer.
Cervantes
@Patricia Kayden:
Do you think I oppose Huffman’s amendment?
I was just clarifying what it’s about.
JaneE
When are we going to start referring to the GOP as the slaver party?
Robert M.
Because of course he’s from Mississippi.
On one hand, it’s awful that the federal government is now debating whether we should continue to allow an explicitly white-supremacist flag to fly on federal land. On the other hand… please, House Republicans, go right ahead and keep winning hearts and minds.
kindness
So some of this has to be because we currently have a black man as President. When Hillary wins, will Republicans then hate wimmens even more and if so how would we know?
Amir Khalid
The House Republicans seem to have stayed their hand, at least for now.
Roger Moore
@kindness:
They’ll propose repealing the 19th Amendment.
Chris
@lamh36:
Put it like this: is taking down Nazi flags all over Germany, in and of itself, enough? Course not.
Even so, if you saw Nazi flags displayed in Germany today with the frequency that you see for Confederate flags in America… would we not take that as a sign that our denazification efforts had been totally inadequate?
Botsplainer
@Cervantes:
If somebody went through some of those Confederate cemeteries at night with a fucking sledgehammer and a few big folks who know how to swing it, the problem would solve itself.
J R in WV
I was driving cross-country some time back, and wanted to reserve a room, so I did the normal thing at a rest stop, booted up and googled for hotels in Forest City, Arkansas. No results, nada. That’s strange I thought.
Then I pulled up the map, and saw that it was Forrest City, Arkansas… I thought about it for a minute, remembering Nathan Bedford, and booked a room anyway, as it was as far as I intended to drive that day. Nice looking town, college, locally owned restaurants on the main drag. Didn’t look particularly segregated, as people of all stripes seemed to be present and getting along OK.
But a town named for a racist terrorist!?! I’ve never stopped there again. Won’t. Drive through on I-40 at top speed. Lunch somewhere else, anywhere else.
I like Dixie Swastika myself, loser’s flag is OK, Dixie Diaper, pretty good punch line. Hate to get attacked for a punch line, though..,
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: As you said, for now. I wonder what kind of pressure Boehner will apply behind the scenes to get the yahoo caucus to drop the issue? If it’s as effective as his other attempts at yahoo control, the offending reps will probably bring forward articles of secession next week.
Bobby Thomson
@Roger Moore: fuckin’ A.
RSA
Gallup has the results of a new poll, with data from last week, about the acceptability of flying the Confederate flag. Unsurprisingly, and in contrast to some conservative views, Republicans own the Confederacy.
Paul in KY
@JohnK: Bout fucking time! Glad to see Memphis finally do this.
Paul in KY
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Great point!
Paul in KY
@Steve in the ATL: NBF isn’t fit to lick the shit off Malcolm X’s stained underwear.
Bobby Thomson
@Cervantes: enjoy your concern purity. Avoiding embarrassing/irritating southern white supremacists has been tried for about 400 years. It has failed. Fuck those losers.
Cervantes
@Bobby Thomson:
Certainly you should do what you think is right.
Assuming that precept has any meaning for you, that is.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Cervantes:
So do they celebrate Benedict Arnold’s birthday on that same day, or is there a separate day for that?
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
There’s no bad day for a birthday party.
Another Holocene Human
@Bobby Thomson: Sometimes I think the rhetoric about how much white Southerners suck and the Sherman jokes go a little too far myself (not that it stops me from wearing my “Heat A Peach” sweatshirt and waiting for people to get it). However, I am in agreement with you that the simple act of pushing for a free, fair, open, and democratic society in the South is enough to arouse and offend these dirtbags. And to the extent that’s the case (which really, despite the pose of lying about it these days, is almost all of it), fuck them.
Mike in NC
Why would a guy named Palazzo give a flying shit about the Confederate flag? None of his ancestors fought for it. Oh, Republican…
Another Holocene Human
@RSA: Fascinating, and that was a good link with good graphs and copy which I must say isn’t the rule.
Looks like the Great Realignment is almost complete. And that Independents are skewing more conservative than they did 15 years ago.
Cervantes
@Another Holocene Human:
What’s the average wait-time?
(Is the question a joke in itself? I can’t say.)
Another Holocene Human
@kindness: I actually think they are saturated on racism towards the President. They basically reached the tippy-top already. This flag rhetoric is actually normal stuff. Don’t you recall the fights over Confederate flags in Southern state flags and over Southern state capitals?
The Gallup poll actually tells the tale that support for the Dixie Diaper has slid a lot since 1990, significantly so. If you look at the timeline there has been gradual progress year after year taking down flags, renaming schools, and so on. I’m sure the Black caucus in the SC state house has been chafing about that flag for years and here was a great opportunity to push for change, and good for them. It has been mostly African Americans spearheading these changes throughout the South.
Calouste
@Big ole hound: I don’t think the French ever fought the US. The US didn’t exist yet during the French and Indian Wars.
Another Holocene Human
@Cervantes: I think the image takes a minute to read, which reduces the impact. So far I’ve had one or two catch on but decide not to say anything. It’s funny because my Obama shirt has drawn some pretty weird and frankly uncool reactions. But when I put on the shirt intended to be insulting….
eta: it occurs to me that FOX & Fiends hasn’t told them what to think about the Heat A Peach Tour so they don’t know what to say
Steve in the ATL
@Paul in KY:
Dude, please–I’m eating lunch
Another Holocene Human
@Calouste: Oh well, they fought some of our brave heroes of the Revolution during their salad days before sneakily and wilily changing sides because they are French and sneaky and wily.
For one of our oldest allies we do treat them pretty shitty at least rhetorically. I blame Anglo-American dominance.
Another Holocene Human
@Paul in KY: You’re right, he’d have to throw out that underwear.
Another Holocene Human
@JaneE: They think working for pay is “slavery” (see: clerks crying about SSM, RW liars crying about homophobic bakers), but working extra hours for no extra pay is freedom.
After we undo this Orwellian tangle maybe we can have a chat about Republican views on actual slavery, historic or ongoing.
Felonius Monk
@Another Holocene Human:
IMO, this wins the day for an appropriate name for the Confederate Rag.
ETA: Dixie Diaper — Because those that wrap themselves in it are full of shit.
Calouste
@Another Holocene Human: No, it was the Americans who were sneakily and wilily changing sides. The French were just fighting the British as usual ;-) Can’t go against a tradition that was already running for more than 700 years by the time the US came around.
Tree With Water
“Members of Congress from New York and California cannot wipe away 150 years of Southern history with sleight-of-hand tactics..”.
And nine slaughtered people in a church, Jethro. Don’t forget them.
boatboy_srq
@Robert M.: TABMITWH. Anything the GOTea can do to rub that niCLANG’s nose in his uppitiness is apparently worthwhile. If you don’t believe that, imagine for a moment exactly how much noise all this would generate if pResident Romney were running things.
Paul in KY
@Steve in the ATL: Sorry. Just wanted to let you know exactly how I felt about the comparison.
Hal
A white friend on Facebook continues his meltdown over the confederate flag today with a lamentation on the loss of real freedom in America. White, comfortably middle class, and lives in a nice, classy, NYC suburb. His posts on race are always a command, not a question or statement. This is why Michael Brown was shot, no the police do not profile, and the confederate flag is not racist.
Do not listen to older people from the civil rights era, forget South Carolinians who know the real truth, dammit, I want my, Dukes of Hazard! Put down that history book. I am the only resource you need. The royal opinion of privileged straight white men may not be ignored.
Chris
@Calouste:
There was a quasi war soon after the Revolution. French ships preying on American ones. That’s all I can think of
Cervantes
@Mike in NC:
You might want to re-think your reasoning.
SRW1
@Calouste:
I was told recently that there was a brief episode during WW II in North Africa when Vichy troops and the US army exchanged some hot unfriendliness. Should that be counted?
wilfred
Flags? For fuck’s sake.
Cervantes
@Another Holocene Human:
Insulting? Threatening? Just plain annoying?
Cervantes
@wilfred:
The right epithet can work wonders.
Or so I’m told.
john fremont
@Another Holocene Human: I wonder as well in that Southern cities like Charlotte, Raliegh, Charleston, Savannah, Atlanta and others have seen an influx of younger non Southerners into these cities and these newer residents don’t want to see the Confederate flag flying either.
Damn Yankees!!!