Archive - Sep 18, 2007

Date

I'm still paying taxes without a vote in return

Posted September 18, 2007 - 8:28pm by Expat Teacher

I still live in an oligarchy...

D.C. Vote Bill Dies in Senate

42 Republican Senators (and maybe Senator Byrd) think I'm a second-class citizen who is required to pay federal taxes, but can't have any say over the laws that effect me.

DCist has a rundown on what next. I like their idea that we keep the pressure up:

Let's force the voting rights message on to everything the District owns, controls or has even the scantest of influence over. The new baseball stadium? We'll call it Taxation Without Representation Field. The Wilson Building? Let's get a big sign out front tallying how much in federal taxes we have paid, how many residents we have lost in foreign wars and for how many days the injustice has continued. Let's partner up with local businesses to have them display signs supporting District voting rights. Whenever members of Congress come back to town, they should know that the cause is still alive. Whenever tourists come to visit, they should be forced to ask what the ruckus is about, and then ask their own members of Congress where they stand on it.

I Hate You: The New Political Ethic

Posted September 18, 2007 - 8:18am by Will Hinton

Ever since the '60s, people in America have become emboldened to make political statements. Wearing a ribbon, driving a certain car, or eating certain foods have been turned into political statements. Unfortunately we have reach the level of using people as political statements.

There is a sense in which this has been true in the case of politicians for a long time. The irrational hatred of Bush and Clinton over the past decade is the continuation of an ages-old phenomena of the personification and demonization of political ideologies.

I am now seeing instances where non-politicians are being made the target of a political statement. Yesterday I read about Barry Manilow trying to make a political statement. Apparently Barry had been invited to appear on The View but decided to pull out of his scheduled appearance because one of the co-hosts, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, is conservative.