Oh. My. God. It’s like someone built a machine to extract my very dreams: Texas seceding from the union, and Chuck Norris as its president.
Does anyone get the feeling the entire Trinity project is cursed? And exactly why weren’t they testing the ground where they wanted to build something before they started trying to build it? You know, for sand. Or Indian bones?
I’m not sure I buy the argument that voter fraud isn’t a problem, given that groups like ACORN are out there doing their level best to turn every election into a Chicago-style hoax fest. On the other hand…No, there really is no other hand. Seems to me voting is the one place where you should have to show some kind of ID.
Also up in the Lege and needing support — a bill to require written consent to search a car in a traffic stop. This is important because police, like potential date rapists, need it drilled into their heads that no means no.
“Anyone who has been around Texas for any length of time knows exactly what we’d do if the going got rough in America. Let there be no doubt about that. As Sam Houston once said, ‘Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.’â€
Good grief. How exactly is Texas suffering compared to say, Michigan? The last time Texas threatened to take it’s football and go home, a bit of ugliness ensued.
re: voter id
watch elections around the world and you see citizens showing photo id. And in some countries you even dip a finger or thumb in to an inkpot so that you can’t go elsewhere and vote again. this is designed to reduce the potential for voter fraud.
I have to show my photo id before i can board an airplane and the TSA agent has a tool to determine whether or not the proffered id is valid or not. So if I have to show proof for an airplane ride why not for something more important like an election?
“How exactly is Texas suffering compared to say, Michigan?”
we aren’t thank goodness since Texas isn’t overtaxed like Michigan or held hostage by unions. Hopefully those folks moving from Michigan to Texas won’t infect the state with the Michigan illness
Michigan’s problems are self inflicted. Even when they are in the middle of horrible economic woes, they find a way to impose some new labor rule to make things worse…if they starve to death it will be because they won’t allow non-union people from bringing them something to eat.
I hope a few of us who moved here in the recession of the ’80′s have made some small improvement to Texas. *Cough, cough*
Collective bargaining has allowed individuals working for large corporations to gain benefits such as health insurance, retirement benefits, not to mention safer working conditions. Unions unfortunately have morphed away from this role, and have become more a “fee-for-service” organization for protecting the status quo (and the lifeblood of their income source). Which is why their power has waned over the last several year.
Michgan’s state taxes are based on net income, not on gross sales. The Texas franchise tax revisions have many low-margin Texas businesses re-examining their business locations. They may not put a lot on the bottom line, but employ many people, doesn’t matter, they are taxed on their gross sales regardless of the cost of doing business. Our franchise taxes amounted to over 10% of our net income. Ouch.
On top of that, the building where we are located has seen a 100% increase in property taxes since the state’s mandated property tax cut because it was “undervalued”. For 5,700 square feet (rented) our property taxes (just on the real estate) will total over $40,000.
My businesses unemployment taxes have been extremely low over the years, now the system is under stress because it’s underfunded, so I expect my unemployment taxes to go up.
Oy, I’m going back to bed.
I thought if Texas Seceded from the US it would then HAVE to join Mexico. Wasn’t that part of the Mexican-American War treaty?
I don’t think the Trinity is cursed, nor do I think the original bond was intended to be a money funneling machine. But now? Welllllllll….
I’m disgusted with select members of the 4th estate, especially their baffling support of the Trinity tollway, and their ham-handed attempt to ride the coattails of Mayor Tom’s declining popularity.
In the end, the pinnacle of the Trinity project may be the infamous outdoor Trinity Launch “celebration.” I hope I’m wrong.