The Washington State Initiative Problem

Theres a problem in Washington state. His name is Tim Eiman(sp?). This guy just came out of nowhere and started making up crappy initiatives. Whats worse is that the morons around here KEEP PASING THEM!

First, he proposed the I-695 initiative which would let automobile liscence plate tags cost a flat $30 per month. Of course this took a huge chunk of money away from the WS-DOT, and now a bus ride costs $2, up from the 50 cents it used to be.

Then he made another initiative that lowered some kind of tax (I forget what), and took even more from the DOT.

Now, another retarded Eiman initiative (I-747) has just been passed that limits the funding for the fire department, which will probably cost up to half the fire fighters in this state their jobs. I hope someone sets fire to his house. Then he'll have to wait as the fire dept. takes forever to show up HAHA!

Anyway, I cannot believe the stupidity of the people in this state. Whoever votes for his initiatives is an idiot. Not only did I-695 suck, but it was also not a legal initiative. It had two parts (the other stating that the people have to vote for all state legislative decisions), which is not legal in this state. There was some debate in the government over this, but I forgot what the outcome was. Whatever it was, we still have $30 car tabs, which is more than the $15 my mom would be paying for our 86 Chevy Astro.

Can you smell an autocracy in motion? ahh...eet smells like sheeeit!!!

autocracy

Is that some kind of joke about the DOT? j/k

Anyway, that one that was just passed (I-747) lowers the property tax cap from 6% to 1%. Thats just fucked. Don't people realise that taxes are a necesity?

You believe people don't understand the importance of taxes? Then let's teach our children the tax system.

You can teach your child our tax system in a way that is easy to grasp and will allow him to understand the benefits. Offer him, say, $10 to mow the lawn. When he has mowed it and asks to be paid, withhold $5 and explain that this is income tax. Give $1 of this to his younger brother, who has done nothing to deserve it, and tell him that this is "fair" because the younger brother 'needs money too'. Also, explain that you need the other $4 yourself to cover the administrative costs of dividing the money and for various other things you need.

Make him place his $5 in a savings account over which you have authority. Explain that if he is ever naughty, you will remove the money from the account without asking him. Also explain how you will be taking most of the interest he earns on that money, without his permission. Mention that if he tries to hide the money, this, in itself, will be evidence of wrongdoing and will result in you automatically taking the money from him.

Conduct random searches of his room in the small hours of the morning. Burst in unannounced. Go through all of his drawers and pockets. If he questions this, tell him you are acting on a tip-off from a mate of his who casually mentioned that you had both earned a bit of spare cash last week. If you find it, confiscate all of that money and also take his stereo and television. Tell him you are selling these and keeping the money to compensate you for having to make the raid. Also lock him in his room for a month as further punishment.

When he cries at the injustice of this, tell him he is being "selfish" and "greedy" and only interested in looking after his own happiness. Explain that he should learn to sacrifice his own happiness for other people and that since he cannot be relied upon or trusted to do this voluntarily, you will use force to ensure he complies. Later in life he will thank you.

Make as many rules as possible. Leave the reasons for them obscure. Enforce them arbitrarily. Accuse your child of breaking rules you have never told him about and carefully explain that ignorance of your rules is not an excuse for breaking them. Keep him anxious that he may be violating commands you haven't yet issued. Instill in him the feeling that rules are utterly irrational. This will prepare him for living under a democratic government.

He is too young to understand the benefits of democracy, so explain this wonderful system as follows:

You, your wife and his brother get together and vote that your son should have all privileges removed, be caned, and confined to his room for a week. If he protests that you are violating his rights, patiently explain his error and tell him that the majority have voted for this punishment and nothing matters except the will of the majority. When your child has matured sufficiently to understand how the judicial system works, set a bedtime for him of, say, 10 p.m. and then send him to bed at 9 p.m. When he tearfully accuses you of breaking the rules, explain that you made the rules and you can interpret them in any way that seems appropriate to you, according to changing conditions.

Promise often to take him to the movies or the zoo, and then, at the appointed hour, recline in an easy chair with a newspaper and tell him you have changed your plans. When he screams, "but you promised!", explain to him that it was a campaign promise and hence meaningless. Every now and then, without warning, slap your child. Then explain that this is self-defense. Tell him that you must be vigilant at all times to stop any potential enemy before he gets big enough to hurt you. This, too, your child will appreciate, not right at that moment, maybe, but later in life.

If he finds this hard to accept, you can further illustrate the point as follows. Take him on a trip across town with you, to a strange neighborhood. Walk into any random house you choose and start sorting out their domestic problems, using violence if that is what is required.

Make sure you use overwhelming force to crush the family into submission - this avoids a protracted visit and becoming involved for long periods of time. Explain to your son that only a coward stands idly by whilst injustice is happening across town. Tell him we are all brothers and problems left to fester will eventually spill over into your neighborhood. Use some of the $5 you took from your son as bus fare and to purchase a baseball bat.

Drink a bottle of whisky and then lecture him on the evils of smoking dope. If he points out your hypocrisy remind him that the majority of people drink and that, as already explained, the needs of the majority are the only moral standard.

Break up any meeting between him and more than three of his mates as being an 'unlawful gathering'.

If he strokes the cat without the cat giving its express permission, slap him hard for feline harassment.

Mark one designated spot in the yard where he can leave his bike. If he leaves it anywhere else, padlock it and demand $50 to release it. If he offends more than three times, confiscate the bike, sell it, and keep the money.

Install a CCTV system in your son's bedroom and also record all his telephone conversations. If he protests, accuse him of having something to hide. Explain that only criminals seek privacy and that good, dutiful children relinquish their privacy in exchange for the advantages which protective parenthood offers. Remind him of the boy across town who was caught smoking dope in his bedroom by just such a CCTV system, and explain that this case justifies installing CCTV in all teenagers' bedrooms.

Lie to your child constantly. Teach him that words mean nothing - or rather that the meanings of words are continually "evolving", and may be tomorrow the opposite of
what they are today.

Have a word with his teachers at school and ask them to share any merit marks your son achieves, with any ethnic minority students who did not get any merit marks. If he
questions this policy, explain that long ago we abused the ancestors of these people, and so it is only fair that he shares the merits around to compensate their descendants.

This is also probably a good time to tell him that his energy, talent and enthusiasm will not secure him a job if the quota of such 'abused' people has not yet been filled.
Tell him talent stands for nothing - it is fairness and sharing which are important. Remind him that his primary duty is the happiness and welfare of people he does not
know, and will never meet.

Ban cutlery from your home and make your son eat with his fingers. If he asks why, remind him of the youth who stabbed a cat to death last week with a fork. Explain that if just one cat is saved by the banning of cutlery, then this prohibition will be worthwhile. If he protests, question him closely about why he is intending to kill innocent cats, or accuse him of being a cat hater.

Issue him with a pass card which he must show before he can enter the house. Stand guard at the front door. When he comes home, politely but firmly take him into the spare room and question him about his movements. Ask him how much cash he has on his person. If in excess of $50, confiscate the lot as it exceeds the house rule for maximum cash allowed. Then search his rucksack and pockets. To keep him guessing,
do the occasional strip search. If he protests, detain him for longer and make the search more thorough. If he gets really angry at this, hold him in a locked room until he misses his next outing or party.

If these methods sound harsh, I am only being cruel to be kind. I think it is important for children to understand the nature of the society in which we live.

Just because he sticks to facts rather than environmental religiosity isn't a legitimate objection.

Wow, you really know how to go down a slippery slope.

All I'm saying is that taxes are a good thing, if used properly. I'm not saying that the federal government does, but taking massive amounts of money from taxes is going to impair the tax money that DOES go to good use.
Your tax money goes into:
-The DOT, which keeps your roads paved and your ferries and busses running.
-The fire department, which will save your ass if your house ever burns down.
-The police department, which will keep the state from being overrun by criminals.
-Your local health services, which will save your ass if you get into an accident or your health starts to fail.
-The education system, which will allow our kids to learn important stuff (and not-so important stuff that is good for propaganda).
And it goes into some other things I can't think of right now. If you take funding away from these things, its going to impact you in a bad way...

>>Wow, you really know how to go down a slippery slope.

Heh. Caught your attention, didn't it?

>>All I'm saying is that taxes are a good thing, if used properly.

And that is the key to all arguments about taxes and the waste of them there of. Taxes are NOT used properly in this country, and some folks are fighting back.

>>I'm not saying that the federal government does, but taking massive amounts of money from taxes is going to impair the tax money that DOES go to good use. <<

Could it be that anti-tax people only want politicians to cut inappropriate spending, but politcians, knowing which side the bread is buttered on, constantly underfund our most important services such as the ones you listed above, so that they can declare "all these important services are
under-funded so we need more taxes"?

And then appropriate $500 million on a Taj Mahal government building so they can rule their subjects...er...citizens in the opulence due government over-seerers...er...servants of the people?

Where do all these billions of dollars in additional revenue disappear every year?

Cases in point:

Remember when the Tobacco settlement betweeen State governments and the tobacco industry was going to fund medical care for smokers, education against smoking, and generally weening farmers to some other crop than tobacco?

What happened to this money? Oh, that's right. Billions went to the vultures...er...lawyers, and what was left for the state was mostly spent. But not on any of the services spelled out in the tobacco settlement.

And the worst crime of all: the folks that suffered from their smoking habit did not get as much as one thin dime in the settlement. Imagine that.

>>Your tax money goes into:
-The DOT, which keeps your roads paved and your ferries and busses running. <<

Hmmm. Don't we have state and Federal taxes on gasoline to pay for such services? Yet, we have tens of billions sitting around Washington in a "so-called" Highway trust fund that never gets appropriated. Why is that? Perhaps so they can spend the money on something else and shove worthless IOUs in this "trust fund"? Nah. The Feds wouldn't do THAT, would they?

>>-The education system, which will allow our kids to learn important stuff (and not-so important stuff that is good for propaganda).

And it goes into some other things I can't think of right now. If you take funding away from these things, its going to impact you in a bad way... <<

Yes, all those services should be funded, yet for SOME reason, they never are fully funded. Why is that?

Why do we establish programs to increase education funding (like lotteries) yet allow politicians to spend this money on other stuff, mostly pork?

Why is it that the government FIRST cuts all the services that are most important to the taxpayer, yet "important" services like "reconstructing the statue of the god Vulcan" are fully funded with 100s of thousands of dollars in Federal and state tax money?

Or that farmers, already receiving a bail-out package worth over $90 billion over the next ten years, are now set to receive an additional $70 billion dollars this year. "Farmers" will receive $160 billion dollars over the next ten years to grow food we don't need or want.

Mind you these "farmers" are not the "mom and pop farmers" you imagine, but are acutally huge farming conglomerates that absolutely don't need this money.

You think this is a good use of scarce tax dollars?

It's stupid shit like this that leads toward anti-tax legistlation. After all the pork loaded up in the 2002 appropriations, anti-tax sentiments will only increase.

As for the state funding, remember when Lotteries were allowed exclusively to fund education only?

And where does this revenue go? I can assure you that little of it is spent on education (through the old con game called "bait and switch").

Finally, I don't know about your state, but my state has increased spending per year to the tune of $10 billion dollars over the last 4 years (42% spending increase) and yet the state complains that they have no money to fund education, roads, etc. What gives? Where is this EXTRA money going?

Who knows, because no one holds these spendaholic politicians accountable to the massive fraud, waste and abuse that goes on in all levels of government.

So if people decide to fight back through anti-tax legisitlation, don't be too surprised. Government officials have no one to blame but themselves.

BTW, good site: http://www.dumblaws.com/

Try this one: http://www.cagw.org/

And that is the key to all arguments about taxes and the waste of them there of. Taxes are NOT used properly in this country, and some folks are fighting back.

Too true, too true.

BTW, good site: http://www.dumblaws.com/

ROFL, check my sig (Governmentz is dum)...now THATS irony.

Try this one: http://www.cagw.org/

That I will do.

You seem to know a lot more about taxes than I. Hell, I'm not even of legal voting age yet (not for a couple months)!

>>You seem to know a lot more about taxes than I.

Only because I was forced to understand how the Federal Leviathan operates.

>>Hell, I'm not even of legal voting age yet (not for a couple months)! <<

eh...hee...hee. You have much to look forward to.

"Hey, who's this FICA person, and why is she taking all my money?"

;)

Pschmitz, are you married? I love you.

I would just like to comment that some of us grew up in households not far from the ludicrous example you describe, and a frighteningly large (I'm talking, like, %40 here) percentage of the kids around here grow up in homes that really are that bad. Didn't know if y'all were aware of that.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a lower-middle class household. It's a lot better than being lower class.

Hmm, back to the topic of the government of the area in which we live, we just found out what a crappy system we have here for road clearing:

Last night there was an unexpected snow storm, and the county was unprepared for clearing the roads. By the time the snow-shovel trucks and the gravel trucks arrived, it was 2-3 in the afternoon. They weren't prepared at all. Snowstorms around here at this time of the year are not common, but they do happen, once every year or two. Shouldn't they have had the trucks ready maybe late October or so? And didn't anyone notice that it began to snow at about 1 last night?

Well the end result was a complete mess, and there were cars all over the sides of the roads, a jackknifed semi or two, and everyone was late for work. You see, one little slip up and this is what happens...

Thankfully I don't live in a social-fascist household...not that it would benefit my parents for doing so because I have a tendency to put up one hell of a fight, verbally or other. If my dad ever carve up my paycheque, I'd hand him a subpoena for embezzlement and misappropriation of funds, that'd teach him...Anyways, yeah, taxes are greatly abused, that's no lie. Especially in every "democratic" country...Democracy's a fuckin' joke. Dictatorship, that's wear it's at, cuz then you can get shit done, no jumping through hoops. If some politician below you tries to do that, you kill him in the middle of town square and then carry on with your business :p

Yeah, facisms great and all, but when a facist takes power they like to do a lot of killing and opressing. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Maybe anarchy would be a good solution...