Every now and then the newspapers tell us that a large asteroid is headed for Planet Earth and that something must be done NOW to save humanity . Sometimes we're told that the asteroid will his us in 2047, and sometimes we find out after the fact that, cosmically speaking, an asteroid came within inches of the Earth but astronomers did not know it was coming. I always figure that if an asteroid did hit Planet Earth, it could throw the planet off course and change the orbit or the axis and winter becomes summer and it's all over.

An asteroid nearly hit the United States yesterday, and it came in the form of 66 United States Senators willing to desecrate and destroy the Constitution. According to this morning's New York Times: "The 66-to-34 vote on the amendment was one vote short of the 67 required to send the amendment to the states for potential ratification as the 28th Amendment. It was the closest proponents of the initiative have come in four Senate votes since the Supreme Court first ruled in 1989 that flag burning was a protected form of free speech." "Had the Senate passed the amendment, it would have been likely to win ratification from the required 38 states since, supporters say, all states have endorsed the amendment in some form."

Some commentators will say that the Senate tried to amend the Constitution for political expediency, and of course such an act would be devastating and irreversible. But I prefer to call it as I see it: these Senators are a disgrace to the country and are slapping at the pinata because patriotism is an issue that cannot lose and we love war and can do what we want in the name of war and country, even if it means we are tattooing a vulgarity on the face of a newborn.

Each and every Senator who voted for this Amendment, which would have altered the Bill of Rights for the first time in over 200 years, should be removed from office. That's right, forcibly removed. If they are on the phone when removal arrives, just cut the phone cord with scissors and drag them from their offices and into the streets of Washington D.C. If they are in a meeting when removal arrives, tell all the participants to go home, pack up all the crap on the conference table and drag the Senator into the hallway with his box of personal items, like the pictures of his grandchildren and that trophy he was awarded at the last American Legion dinner. If they are eating breakfast when removal arrives, dump the food into the garbage, wipe his mouth, push him into the lobby and lock the door behind him.

The last time the Constitution was amended for purposes having nothing to do with individual rights or the structure of government was in 1917, when Prohibition was written into the Constitution as the Nineteenth Amendment. That's right: amid constitutional provisions dealing with separation of governmental powers, freedom of speech, elections schedules and amendments to make slavery illegal was an amendment that made it illegal to sell and buy liquor. The amendment stood out like a sore thumb, like a clown at a funeral, like a disco ball at a Sinatra concert. In 1933, little more than a decade later, we realized how stupid this was and passed the 21st amendment to repeal the 19th. I believe this was the first and only time that we passed a constitutional amendment and then repealed it. And for good reason: it was a stupid idea and had no place in the Constitution.

No one is burning the flag these days. And if they do so they are probably hurting the cause. But it is free speech just as much as reading the newspaper or talking to people on the street corner or writing a letter to the editor.

Amending our national charter to handle a totally non-existent problem like flag burning is a f*cking disgrace to everything we stand for. Or maybe we don't stand for such things anymore. There is little national outrage over this, maybe because we are at war and we love war and soldiers and it's easy to get mileage out of emotional "remedies" like patriotism. We love to silence people whom we disagree with. But real patriots don't tattoo vulgarities on the heads of newborns, or sell their children into slavery to buy drugs, or drive on the Long Island Expressway at night with a blindfold, drunk. Or fire a gun into a classroom filled with students. That's exactly what these animals tried to do yesterday, and if we really cared about freedom and constitutional rights and common sense, these animals would be thrown into a cage and prohibited by law from ever holding public office or any position of authority again.

Right wing ideologues like to throw around epithets like "anti-American" and "unpatriotic" to besmirch people who have the gall to disagree with the war and other policies of our beloved Commander in Chief. But the true anti-Americans are the following animals who came within one vote -- that's one vote -- to forever tarnish the Constitution with a frivolous amendment:

Grouped By Vote Position YEAs ---66
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Allen (R-VA)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burns (R-MT)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
Dayton (D-MN)
DeMint (R-SC)
DeWine (R-OH)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Frist (R-TN)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Reid (D-NV)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Santorum (R-PA)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Talent (R-MO)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)