Tuesday, May 13, 2003

Killer D's hole up in Oklahoma. A group of Democrats, furious about Republican efforts to redraw Texas' congressional districts, fled across the Red River into Oklahoma in a dramatic boycott Monday of the Texas House. More than 50 Democratic legislators -- dubbed the Killer D's by some after 1979's "Killer Bees," who shut down the Texas Senate -- were being sought late Monday by state troopers under orders to haul them back to the state Capitol. The ploy left the House paralyzed with less than three weeks to go in one of the most contentious legislative sessions in modern history. [...] The boycott stopped a scheduled hearing of a congressional redistricting plan in its tracks by robbing House leaders of the 100 votes necessary for a quorum. [Star-Telegram] Good for them! I hope more politicians follow their example--it would be really nice if enough politicians boycotted that no legislature could get anything done. 1:28:00 PM    comment () Yesterday I discovered that Games of Westwood, one of the best game stores in Los Angeles, has gone out of business. It sold role-playing games, wargames, and strategy games such as Go and Chess, and had a very good selection. Alas, there is apparently not enough of a market for products that promote creativity, intelligence, and education in that location. It was replaced by something more appropriate to its location, across the street from UCLA--a Birkenstock store. 12:54:20 PM    comment () Quote of the day. It is fortunate for this community that I am not a criminal. Sherlock Holmes, from "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington... [Survival Arts] Ironically, if Sherlock Holmes were a real person living in modern London, he would be a criminal. 9:17:27 AM    comment () Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - The Phony Tax Cut Debate - The House passed a tiny tax cut, but for all the wrong reasons. We should be talking about a $500 billion per year tax cut, not $300 billion over ten years. The watered-down tax cut passed in the House of Representatives last week, while predictably small, is better than nothing. It does reduce taxes on dividends slightly, lowers marginal income tax rates by very small percentages, and increases some deductions available to businesses. Still, the speeches on the House floor showed the current tax cut debate is strictly about politics and not serious economics. Both sides use demagoguery but don't propose truly significant tax reductions. Both sides use the outrageous expression "cost to government" when talking about the impact of tax legislation on revenues. This implies that government owns everything, and that any tax rate less than 100% costs government some of its rightful bounty. ... One way to silence the class war argument would be to cut payroll taxes, which are paid through FICA withholding by even minimum-wage workers. This is never suggested because to do so would expose the Social Security "trust fund" lie. Since there is no trust fund and all government revenues are spent immediately, a payroll tax cut could make it impossible for the government to pay current Social Security benefits. [End the War on Freedom] 9:01:08 AM    comment ()

© Copyright 2006 Ken Hagler. Last update: 2/15/2006; 1:54:15 PM.