big brother

o.k., this is the last time, i promise. well that's probably not true. i can't guarantee that my mind will not wander into realms of the spiritual or political. i have mentioned before that my intention is not to use this blog to espouse my political or spiritual beliefs. and that is still my intention. but really- no one reads this anyway. so i can say whatever i want!
for as long as i have been old enough to vote (and i am going to pretend that that hasn't been but a couple of years!) i have been dissapointed in the system. it seems that every election there are laws the voters enact and repeal that somehow either never actually get enacted or get enacted anyway. if you are from oregon, you will remember the bill that was referred to as the "assisted suicide" bill. voters passed it twice and one judge prevented it from being enacted. this went on for years. or there are the laws that get enacted even without a vote- (in my area:) the smoking ban for example. i have been voicing a concern over the legality or constitutionality of this for years. i am not a lawyer, or someone specifically educated in the area of the constitution, but i was taught in school about the constitution, and what it means. and i am pretty sure that we have the right to vote for a reason.
well, something happened today that has got norman all riled up, so i had to find out more about it. well, here it is: our county comissioners (do they even have the authority?) passed a law today creating a county income tax. that's right, not only did they do it without putting it before voters, they did it even though voters in our area have said no to an identical county income tax in the last two elections! the arguments in favor made these citations: IF congress doesn't renew federal funding... we COULD BE facing a loss of UP TO 40 million dollars annually... they say a 1% county income tax (1% seeems pretty high tp me) COULD raise the needed 30 million (but some say it would raise 2 or 3 times that). additionally, if congress does renew funding the tax will still be there, although they did say it MIGHT be reduced. well, i am all riled up now too! and as i am stewing over writing this, the local news is reporting that the county is considering negotiations to buy a local park area for 26 million dollars! seems to me that's 26 million they don't need to get by raising taxes.