Deadline Passes for Commandments Monument

[Khephra]

A federal judge's deadline for the removal of a Ten Commandments monument from a state judicial building had passed, but the granite marker still stood Thursday, with no sign that it would be taken by force.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's emergency plea for a stay late Wednesday afternoon, declining for the time being to be drawn into a dispute over whether the monument violates the Constitution's ban on government promotion of religion.

The associate members of the state Supreme Court also discussed the issue Wednesday, considering a proposal to overrule Moore and move the monument at least temporarily. But they declined to step in for now.

After U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson's deadline for removing the monument passed Thursday, dozens of supporters remained outside the building, where several hundred had gathered earlier for a rally. Scores of Moore supporters sang and prayed outside the building throughout the day as those inside were removed from the rotunda.

snip..............

(Alan Keyes said)

"This must end or freedom will end with it," Keyes said. "No longer can we tolerate this crime that is being done against our movement for almighty God."

snip..............

"The U.S. Supreme Court's denial of a stay today will not deter me from continuing to fight for the right of our state to acknowledge God," Moore said in the statement, read to reporters by his spokesman, Tom Parker.

more.....................

http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/apmethods/apstory?urlfeed=D7T2BKTO0.xml

Hasn't Moore just esentially proven all us 10 Commandment critics right? It IS about the Separation of Church and State, even to Moore.

Quote:

"....fight for the right of our state to acknowledge God..."

The STATE has NO RIGHT to do such a thing. In fact, it's prohibited from doing exactly that.

[philosophie_en_rose]

1. In other words...

Moore can't acknowledge his god without a big fat marble monument.

Nice.

"The U.S. Supreme Court's denial of a stay today will not deter me from continuing to fight for the right of our state to acknowledge God," Moore said in the statement, read to reporters by his spokesman, Tom Parker.

[Walt Starr]

10. Doesn't that make him an idolotar?

HE needs a graven image.

[sybylla]

2. Exactly, Kephra

"Hasn't Moore just esentially proven all us 10 Commandment critics right? It IS about the Separation of Church and State, even to Moore."

That is exactly what he said which demonstrates just how much he needs to be impeached. This man has never had any intention of acting within the law as it is written.

[oneighty]

3. This man is a spoiled petulant brat.

This is no longer "God Stuff". It is a yes you will, no I won't tug of war.

Shame on you Judge Moore.

Go stand in the corner, put on the dunce cap.

You jerk.

180

[kskiska]

4. Since most of the protesters have been bused in

and can't stay forever, there probably won't be any action till they've gone.

[Ripley]

8. They have run a campaign of "prayer sitters"

People will be coming in from all over the country to take the place of the ones they arrest. They said they could go on for a year. The local news said in a year the fines would add up to $1 BILLION dollars.

If I had a hammer, as in jack-hammer.....I'd fix that monument.


Edit: To clarify how $5,000/day fines equals $1 billion a year...the fines go up weekly, exponentially.

[R Hickey]

12. In one year the first billion can pay for one week or our Iraq invasion

...and sometime next year, the exponential increases of the fine will pay off Bush's entire invasion, with Afghanistan thrown in, and God willing, should the prayer-sitters' fines continue, the federal government will be able to pay off the trillions of the new Bush National Debt by the end of the second year.

[northzax]

15. but the fine is to the State of Alabama

they certainly don't have a billion or two to spare.

[Scurrilous]

17. Elian Redux?

At the outset of the Elian fiasco in Miami, there were hordes of true believers in the streets of Little Havana vowing to do battle with the Feds and prevent Elians return to his father. The Feds just waited them out, letting time thin out their numbers. By the time the INS raided his relative's home and rescued him, the street mob had mostly dispersed and the promised battle never materialized. I think whomever is responsible for removing the monument from the rotunda in Alabama should take the same course of action.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

5. saw that they put up an interior partion wall around the monument...

yesterday evening to keep the protesters from seeing it being removed...i believe it is already gone...no one can see behind it........but that is just my $0.02

[BigMcLargehuge]

6. What pisses me off most about this whole thing...

is the fine. Five Grand a day shoved onto the backs of every Alabaman is outrageous. It's a pity that everyone in state will pay for that nutjob's line in the sand. If I were governor it'd be bulldozer time. I hope the people of Alabama realize the potential damage this idiot can do to their state economy and thus fire off a gigantic class action suit to reclaim any tax moneys spent on the accrued fine.

They should do to him what they'd do to pretty much anyone else in contempt of court, shove his ass in the slammer until the monument is gone.

[Mari333]

7. If any of US small fry

had defied a federal court order, you can bet your ASS we would be locked up PRONTO in the StonyLonesome
Looks like Moore gets a free pass on being dragged off to the cell with a large man named Bubba..
5000 dollars a day, and tis said it will go up every day til the damned thing is gone.

[bicentennial_baby]

11. And

it doubles weekly! So it's 5000/day this week, 10,000/day next week, and so on and so forth

[TahitiNut]

9. One can merely observe that there could be no issue ...

... if it weren't "Alabama Chief Justice' Roy Moore who erected a monument on public property. If "WalMart Greeter" Roy Moore had attempted to place such a monument on public property, he'd be removed by security guards. Both his action in placing the monument and his action in defying a federal court order are conducted as a public official, acting not in the interests and service of the public from whom his authority is derived, but in his private and personal interests using his delegated authority in a manner contrary to public trust.

This is the very core and essence of political corruption: acting contrary to the public trust for personal interest.

[Khephra]

13. UPDATE

Makeshift wall in front of Ten Commandments monument removed

By BOB JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer




Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monument was briefly walled off from public view Thursday as a federal court deadline passed for the marker to be out of public sight. Then the wall came down, displaying the monument again.

It was not immediately known who ordered the partition placed in front of the monument - or who ordered it removed. The public entrance to the Alabama Judicial Building was locked, with a sign saying only those with official business would be allowed inside.

What appeared to be plywood-like material was erected around 6:30 a.m. CDT, angering some of Moore's supporters who remained outside the building. Patrick Mahoney, who has organized demonstrations backing Moore, called the pertition "the Berlin Wall of religious tyrrany."

It came down about three hours after it went up.

more..............

http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030821/APA/308210590

[sybylla]

14. Tore down the wall of separation

how apt!

[OldSoldier]

16. How this is gonna end

Some fine, Bible-believing individual who also believes in the majesty of law and the reality that Alabama can't afford to drop $35,000 the first week, $70,000 the second and so on just for Roy Moore's fifteen minutes of fame will drive his forklift to the Justice Building, scoop up the monument and drop it off a bridge.