Douchebag idiot waste of oxygen conservatives

[norsegirl]

This is my thoughts on certain conservatives/tea baggers at the moment.

The domestic terrorist pilot was annoyed at the IRS. He ranted about "taxation without representation". I don't think the average conservative understands that phrase. Immigrants enjoy taxation without representation. The first Americans who were a colony of Britain, and subject to rules enacted by their parliament without being able to vote for members of that government were subject to taxation without representation. American citizens who whine about that are just self-centered idiots that think their every thought should become an action by their government without them actually working with said government. They can vote, they can run for office, they can BE the representation if they really want to, and at the very least they still get their single vote. There's a system, and if you can work within it but *choose* not to participate you don't have the right to complain that no one hears your voice.

Here's an excerpt of mine and Jason's MSN discussion on the subject of this douche's manifesto today:

Me: I can't stand americans who complain about taxation without representation

Jason: Yeah, I've actually heard "This guy was clearly crazy, but his manifesto was absolutely right." from some of the office conservatives here.

Jason: (quoting officemates)"The IRS really shouldn't be legal. I mean, if I took your money and gave it to somebody else, they'd arrest me!"

Me: Riiight, so we should be able to get rid of the military and the roads then. After all, it's not like you want us to give your money to anyone else for any reason right?

Jason: I suspect if you're agreeing with the suicidal domestic terrorist, you might want to re-evaluate your positions on those issues...

It's ironic that the conservatives complain the most about the taxes, and yet their war is the thing consuming most of the dollars right now.

Comments

[hel_ana]

Also, the likelihood you'll hear the guy referred to as a terrorist on the nightly news? Pretty damned low.. Certainly the word doesn't appear in the CNN story.

As far as "taxation without representation", yeah, I've been the legal immigrant who gets to pay taxes but doesn't get to vote. It's awesome.

And I read the other day about a sucktastic example of what happens when you get people directly involved in decisions about state budgets:
http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/02/17/budget-deficits-by-state/

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Living in Nevada during a financial crisis has made me more aware of the problems with direct democracy initiatives. It sounds good in theory: citizens can directly introduce propositions for voters to decide on, outside of the legislative process. And certain government decisions must be approved by voters, allowing a level of citizen oversight.

But there are downsides to this, as anyone familiar with the California situation is acutely aware. While Nevada has an operating budget gap of over $800 million dollars, we have roughly $4 billion in our construction fund due to bond initiatives, none of which is currently being used. I recently went to a legislative town hall, and a lot of people asked why we can’t just move some of that money over to the operating budget to avoid huge cuts to state services.

Well, because the legislature isn’t allowed to do so without voter approval. Twice. Or to change most non-business taxes. To do these things, they would have to be put on the ballot for people to vote on, and if approved, put on the ballot again for the next session (2 years later), and THEN be approved by the legislature (though I presume if the voters approve something twice, the legislature will too). This is generally a 4-5 year process, assuming the proposal is approved both times in the first place.

So in some states such as Nevada, the issue isn’t simply that there’s a budget gap or that the state is broke. The ability to pass citizen-sponsored initiatives can limit states’ abilities to deal with with financial (or other) crises, and the requirement that voters approve many legislative proposals (in the case of Nevada, usually twice) means that almost any possible solution to our current situation can’t be implemented for years, even if voters agree to it.

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So what they undoubtedly consider to be "taxation *with* representation" is every bit as an impossible way to run government as the Soviet Union's 5 year planning model, and for the same reason. When you tie the hands of government, either to the direct will of the people or to an unalterable plan, you can't deal with shit as it happens.

[eve-the-just.livejournal.com]

Nice article.

That said, there is some virtue to having 2 sides to the budget... operations and capital spending. It's good if you do this in your personal life too, and corporations do it all the time. You set yourself one pool for everyday things and instant gratification (everything from the utilities and groceries to vacations) and then another budget for "assets" that you expect will last more than a year (cars, homes, retirement). And while you *can* steal from the long-term plans to make up short term shortfalls (which is what this guy is suggesting for Nevada) if you do it all the time, you'll soon find you simply don't have the funds for those big things when they come up. Sometimes you have to commit to cutting the operational expenses so you can get the big pay-off down the road. Or get a better job (increase taxes) if you aren't willing to make the sacrifice.

Yes, you need to be able to "deal with shit" and react, but you also need to make sure that you are taking measures to reduce the occurrences of "shit". You can't live your life always reactive and behind on your bills, and in their effort to please voters, that is exactly how most politicians behave.

[hel_ana]

Oh agreed (and I point out that it was the people at the legislative town hall who were initially asking why that money couldn't be moved.. I'm not sure what the author's opinion is). However, the general point is that, however reactionary politicians are, the population is considerably more so (hence the rush to pass citizens' initiatives that say that taxes can't be raised, or that moving money around requires some crazy process), and that these initiatives invariably tie government's hands.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medb_/]

I'm glad I'm not the only one confused/irritated/whatever by the use of that term- ironically I was rewatching the John Adams mini-series again on the weekend.

[utsi.livejournal.com]

i'm boggled. simply boggled.

[haworth-attard.livejournal.com]

I'm just glad you are safe!