In July, the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) was, unsurprisingly, DOA.  But, advocates of traditional marriage should not be disappointed.  FMA is already in the Constitution.  The Ninth Amendment decrees, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people" and Amendment Ten orders, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."  Two amendments granting each state the right to pass laws governing issues not specifically covered by the federal government.  In a society that truly respects the Bill of Rights, FMA should be redundant because the states should be able to decide.  Unfortunately, though, our society's respect for the Bill of Rights and the Constitution is fading away.

The reason liberals hate retiring Attorney General John Ashcroft is pretty simple, although "hate" is probably too mild a word for the outright loathing and utter contempt that the Left holds for the man.  Their reason is simple: for the first time in several years, we have an Attorney General who actually upholds the Constitution as a revered document that should be applied to actual citizens, not a convenient, loophole-ridden artifact that can be torn, twisted, and pasted into new shapes so that it will apply to everyone who has ever thought even briefly about America.