Friday, May 16, 2003

I'm Outraged! What am I outraged by today? 1. The Department of Homeland Security evidently assisted the Texas GOP in tracking down the Democrats that had fled the state to avoid voting on the redistricting plan. From where I sit, this is a positively staggering development--a national agency, newly created to protect Americans from external threats of terrorism, uses precious resources to get involved in a state-level party dispute? A number of Dems, including Joe Lieberman, have called for investigations into the matter--Lieberman points out that there are police and firefighters facing layoffs because of underfunding by the federal government, but those concerns must be secondary to redistricting efforts in Austin. I'm entering debate mode now, and will offer preemptive arguments against those that defend this. First, one might quote the DOHS, who said they were "misled" into getting involved. This is implausible on its face of course--we are talking here about the party of the President AND the state of the President! Coincidence? Right. I'm sure they didn't know what was going on in Texas and that they didn't find anything suspicious about the Texas GOP reporting that the minority leader's plane was down. Beyond that, why is the DOHS looking into plane crashes? What the hell is the FAA for? Give me a break. Second, one might argue that the Dems have done stuff which is just as outrageous. Like what? We're not talking about utilizing planes for personal reasons or whatever. We're talking about national involvement in a state dispute, using resources specifically designated for fighting terrorism. If terrorism can be used as a rhetorical hammer to silence dissent, surely the money used to fight it should be sacrosanct, right? This is egregious. Any conservative who opposes so-called "Big Government" should be offended and outraged. Will this be relegated to a back-page story? 2. New tax cuts passed the Senate yesterday. The White House has been claiming that tax cuts will create a million jobs by the end of 2004. A million jobs. No one can probably explain why the last round of tax cuts has been followed by thousands and thousands of jobs lost. Watch closely--the Senate bill is $350 billion dollars. But in the unscrutinized conference committee where the Senate and House will look to rectify differences between the bills the two chambers passed, I'm predicting a cut larger than either one passed. Apparently, in order to make the numbers work, a number of gimmicks were employed. For example, taxes have been raised on Americans living overseas. As one of those Americans, let me say that I'd happily pay extra taxes in order to see more money given to states, for instance, or for national health care. But now I'm paying extra taxes so rich stockholders don't have to pay the dividend tax. Assholes! 3. Where's the freaking WMD? WHERE IS THE FREAKING WMD? 1:54:14 PM    Let's hear it. []