At
The Atlantic, Yoni Applebaum writes—
Why Is the Flag Still There?
The flags of the United States and of South Carolina, atop the Capitol dome in Columbia, were lowered to half-staff last week in the wake of the Charleston shootings. The Confederate battle flag flying on the Capitol grounds was not.
“It’s a shame that those people were killed, and we all greatly regret that incident,” a spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans told The New York Times, “and we were upset that anybody would try to tie people who are proud of their heritage to an act like that.”
But, of course, Roof understood the symbolism of the flag he waved only all too well. When South Carolina seceded in 1860, it issued a Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina. It glossed over states’ rights. It did not mention the tariff. South Carolina was seceding, it explained, due to the “increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery,” and the election of a president who believed “that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.” [...]
It was in Charleston, South Carolina, that the fiery secessionist Edmund Ruffin fired the first shot of the war. And on June 17, 1865—exactly 150 years before the Charleston attacks—Ruffin learned of the South’s surrender, reportedly wrapped himself in a Confederate flag, and then took his own life rather than accept defeat. Those, like Roof, who now want a secessionist banner of their own can order one from the Ruffin Flag Company. [...]
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2007—Parliamentary Procedure: What the hell are they doing in the House?:
By now, even the C-SPAN junkies among you have probably turned the channel, as the House plods through consideration of the State Department and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill. Last week, you may have watched the House struggle a bit with some planned Republican obstructionism in working through the Homeland Security bill, and you may have wondered, "What the hell are they doing, anyway?"
If you were puzzled at all by the seemingly endless parade of speakers, or by the magic words they would utter as they rose -- "Mr. Speaker, I move to strike the last word" -- you were not alone.
What you were watching was the result of bringing those appropriations bills to the floor under "open" rules -- that is, a special rule controlling debate, adopted by the House before consideration of the bill itself (called the "underlying bill"), which essentially allows for an unlimited number of amendments to be considered. When the opposition party is feeling feisty, they can gum up the works with literally hundreds of amendments, calling for a vote on each one. This sometimes leads the majority to consider legislation under a closed rule, which allows no amendments, or only those pre-approved by the Rules Committee (usually at the suggestion of the Chair of the committee that wrote the bill). In between, there are varying types of rules. Modified open rules, modified closed rules, plus wacky hybrid rules like the King/Queen of the Hill, which are ridiculous enough that we'll set their discussion aside for now.
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