Perri Nelson's Website 

Note to politicians - The Constitution means what it says, not what you want it to.

What is it about politicians, particularly Democratic politicians that they simply can't understand the Constitution, the democratic process, and the will of the people? What Democratic politician ever met a tax he or she didn't like? And why is it that when the people exercise their rights under the Constitution that politicans get offended, citing a need to "uphold the Constitution"?

Before I go further, let's cite the Washington State Constitution. Article I, Section I says "All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain individual rights." Everything that follows in the constitution derives from that.

Article II, Section I of the Washington State Constitution says "The legislative authority of the state of Washington shall be vested in the legislature, consisting of a senate and house of representatives, which shall be called the legislature of the state of Washington, but the people reserve to themselves the power to propose bills, laws, and to enact or reject the same at the polls, independent of the legislature, and also reserve power, at their own option, to approve or reject at the polls any act, item, section, or part of any bill, act, or law passed by the legislature." (emphasis added).

OLYMPIA — Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown said Sunday she will sue in a bid to overturn the tax-limiting provisions of Initiative 960, a Tim Eyman-sponsored measure aimed at curbing the Legislature's power to raise taxes.

The lawsuit, which is technically against Lt. Gov. Brad Owen over a Senate floor ruling upholding I-960, will be filed this morning with the state Supreme Court.

Initiative 960 reaffirmed higher vote thresholds for tax increases and was passed by voters in November. It requires all state tax increases to achieve at least a two-thirds vote in both houses. That was previously mandated by Initiative 601, passed in 1993, which lawmakers have amended and even suspended at times. Under the initiative, taxes passed with only a simple majority have to go to the ballot for ratification.

Brown told The Associated Press on Sunday the two-thirds requirement is "clearly unconstitutional."

"This isn't about 960, and this isn't about undoing the will of the people," Brown said. "This is about defending the Constitution and the Legislature's ability to pass laws under the Constitution."

Clearly Senator Brown has only read the part of the Washington State Constitution that lets the legislature enact taxes. She seems to have forgotten that the people can limit that power, and that they can overturn ANY law the legislature enacts if they so desire.

This is what's wrong with politicians these days. They seem to forget that they work for the people, and that they're meant to represent the will of the people. Instead they seek to impose their will on the people. So when they don't get their way they seek to have the courts overturn the will of the people.

When will we learn? It's past time to vote them out.

Instead of raising ever more taxes to pay shortfalls in revenue, or to expand government's intrusive reach into our lives they ought to be trimming the fat, making government spend its money more wisely. One way to start would be to eliminate feel-good legislation like the liquor tax increase meant to pay for substance abuse treatment, and to eliminate the state's inefficiently run entitlement programs.

These sort of programs have an ever increasing appetite for more and more money, which requires an ever increasing tax burden. A better way would be to simply enforce the stricter laws against drunken-driving. If people actually had to serve jail time for a first offense and if it didn't take four convictions for drunken driving to be a felony, maybe there'd be less need for state-funded substance abuse treatment programs for drunken drivers.

Maybe there should be a legal penalty for legislating under the influence of taxes.

Domestic eco-terrorism is alive and... well?

Al Qaeda isn't the only terrorist organization in the world that Americans have to worry about. We still have to worry about the folks from Rivendell…

Oh, wait. That's not Elrond and company, it's the ELF back in the news.

Do you think these enviro-nuts stopped to think about all of the CO₂ that was released into the atmosphere by those fires?

[Update: Officials are blaming "domestic terrorism" for fires that damaged and/or destroyed several multi-million dollar homes in Snohomish County Washington. Briana Waters, under trial for a 2001 arson that the ELF claimed responsibility for, is probably grateful that her case went to the jury last Thursday.]