title: BREAKING: SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE CAVES: VOTES TO REMOVE CONFEDERATE FLAG FROM STATEHOUSE GROUNDS…BECAUSE IT’S ALL ABOUT THE FLAG, YA KNOW
text: Another successful cleansing of our history   like it or not what s next?Just a reminder of something Michelle Obama said in 2008 on the campaign trail in Puerto Rico: MICHELLE OBAMA:  Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change our conversation; we re going to have to change our traditions, our history; we re going to have to move into a different place as a nation.   Change our traditions and change our history. What did she mean by that?Changing history means not just telling the same old tall tales of the free market system and the Founders. No, it s the history according to progressives. And it s not merely spinning the old facts; it s taking current events and molding them to fit the progressive agenda and, in this case, completely ignoring history. HERE S A BACKWARDS TIMELINE OF WHAT HAPPENED TODAY VIA THE POST AND COURIER:Members of the South Carolina Senate have voted 37-3 to remove the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds.Sen. Lee Bright, R-Roebuck, objected to giving the bill automatic third reading, which is usually a procedural vote, on Tuesday. For the bill to be sent to the House, it will need a two-thirds vote.Monday s three  nay  votes were from Bright, and Sens. Harvey Peeler and Danny Verdin. Plus, for the bill to be amended on third reading, it would need a three-fifths vote.Senate is scheduled to return Tuesday at 10 a.m.3:20 p.m. update: The senate has voted to table amendments that would have pushed the vote on the Confederate flag issue to a statewide referendum (36-3), allow the flag to flown on Statehouse grounds on Confederate Memorial Day (22-17) or replace the current flag with the First National Flag of the Confederate States of America (34-6). Now, various senators are taking turns speaking about the issue. No one has yet made a motion to vote on the bill that would remove the Confederate battle from the Statehouse grounds.1:50 p.m. update: After a short break, the Senate returned to debate the fate of the Statehouse s Confederate battle flag just after 1:15 p.m.Roebuck Republican Sen. Lee Bright s amendment has already died on a 36-3 vote. It would have placed the fate of the flag in the hands of voters.The Senate has now moved to discuss an amendment by Sen. Danny Verdin, R-Laurens. It would allow for the flag to be flown at the Confederate Soldier Monument on Confederate Memorial Day, which is May 10. Verdin has the floor.COLUMBIA   It s been a morning of impassioned speeches in the South Carolina Senate, as lawmakers brace for discussion on a bill that will determine the fate of the Confederate battle flag on the Statehouse s grounds.The Senate is on recess until 1 p.m. Senate President Pro Tempore Hugh Leatherman said the heads of both the GOP and Democratic Caucus asked for body to break for a recess so that the caucuses could meet. But lawmakers are still planning on discussing the bill today. My intent is to give it second reading today and my intent would be to give it third reading tomorrow,  Leatherman said.  Will the Senate do that? Don t know. But we ll try to head in that direction. If the bill follows Leatherman s planned track, it ll be before the House for a vote on Wednesday. Only one amendment has been proposed in the Senate so far.Roebuck Republican Sen. Lee Bright s amendment would place the fate of the banner in the hands of voters. When the bill crosses the hall, it ll likely be met with an amendment by Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, who said he d like to see the battle flag replaced with Bonnie Blue.Meanwhile, members from both sides of the aisle have made speeches calling for the flag s removal this morning, including Pickens Republican Sen. Larry Martin, who said his view on the flag changed after the shooting that took the lives of nine churchgoers in Charleston on June 17.Martin said he looked at the flag as if it was given some sort of  official status,  because it flies on the capitol s grounds. That doesn t represent all of the people of South Carolina,  Martin said.  It isn t part of our future. It s part of our past. A two-thirds vote in each chamber is needed to do anything with any monument on the capitol s grounds, including the battle flag which is part of the Confederate Soldier Monument. That vote threshold has been met, according to a survey by The Post and Courier.Outside the Statehouse, dozens of protesters began to arrive Monday morning. Some called for the flag to come down. Others, such as Nelson Waller in his rebel flag tie, said the state was giving in to Northern liberals and civil rights activists. Waller carried a sign that read  Keep the flag. Dump Nikki!  Two decades ago, he carried a  Dump Beasley  sign after then-Gov. David Beasley made an unsuccessful attempt to get the Confederate flag off the Statehouse dome.