Was that there was no more important an issue in America than this -- for the crazy fundamentalists who make up the Republican base. The rest of the us just couldn't care less, but apparently we don't count.

Sorry, folks but there are a lot of people who think banning gay marriage is the most important issue facing America (aside from not having the 10 commandments one every corner).

that 49 out of 100 senators voted yes to this travesty of an "amendment" is chilling enough. That the vote didn't get the 2/3rds needed is cold comfort.

Whoever runs against Sen. David Vitter needs an ad that is a montage of the destruction wrought by Katrina and his quote in bold type at the end.

I'm getting a little tired of the right-wing whining about activist judges.

Progressives wouldn't need help from the law, if the republicans hadn't gerrymandered all the election districts. When are people going to get outraged about the systematic disenfranchishement of millions of Americans through gerrymandering? So when Bush trumpets the "democratic" basis for the state bans on gay marriage, remember how this "democracy" was achieved - by decidedly undemocratic means. Remember the Texas democrats hiding in New Mexico? Remember why? Democracy in action - bah.

Happily, all the polls show you're wrong, Vincent. Next to nobody thinks banning marriage equality is the most important issue facing America. The point is that only the craziest of the crazy do, and those are the Republican party base.

Could you have imagined that this was going to be life in the 21st Century? That this country would be run by pandering to a lunatic fringe composed of the most mentally and emotionally damaged of individuals? Can this country's "government" possibly sink any lower?

They didn't vote "yes" to the amendment. They voted for cloture.

I called my wife, who is out of town, to let her know that the Senate has told me that our marriage is under attack. I am headed over to the local Home Depot right now to by some cinder block and morter to build our bunker that we plan to spend the rest of our matrimony in.

Can someone send us periodic shipments of canned food until this attack on my marriage has been successfully repelled.

Will the Senate call me when this war on marriage is over? Thanks in advance since I wont have Internet access from my matrimonial bunker.

My mother, who is now a relocated Katrina refugee, voted for this man. I may have to rescind her Mother's Day card.

devastated by Katrina

come marching back in

they should head straight

for Senator Vitter's house.

Oh, I want to see them throw firebombs

straight into Senator Vitter's house.

Oh, I want them to witness the look on his

face

when the Good Senator realizes he's homeless.

Oh, I want them to ask him

how important shit that's none of

his business is,

when his family doesn't have a home.

Now that would be perfect karma

and a good song.

You are correct and right to point it out. I guess I was jumping ahead.

Of course I stand by the spirit of my original disgust and incredulity. In my view, 100 senators should recognize that their job One is to refuse to write discrimination and disenfranchisement into our great Constitution. And the most important border these people should concern themselves with protecting is the one that separates Church and State.

male to marry another hetero male so I can get a freakin' tax break!

It's moments like these that make Frank Zappa sound like our most insightful cultural pundit (which he likely was...), when he said:

"Government is the entertainment arm of the military-industrial complex."

Sums it up right nice, as Dr. Frist might say. Or not.

The amendment didn't get 49 votes for passage; it never came up for a vote.

The 49-48 vote was on cloture. How the Republican leadership failed to see that they were morally obligated to try to invoke the Nuclear Option on "the most important issue in America" is beyond my comprehension. Certainly a proposed Constitutional amendment, especially one without which our entire civilization will collapse next Tuesday after lunchtime, deserves an up-or-down vote on the floor of the Senate.

Fort Laramy in South Dakota was the place Custer started out from in 1876 to meet his doom at the hands of Sitting Bull. Can't help but see Chief Joseph, Geronamo, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull as the non-related ancestors of Osama and Zarqawi. Bush has all but made it clear that forts [bases] will be in Iraq forever, just as Clark ABF in the Phillippines and Gantanamo in Cuba remained bases for the United States long after the official occupation ended. Same as it ever was.....