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There already is a structure for municipalities to get their issues heard at higher levels of government. For example, in California there is the League of California Cities, http://www.cacities.org/index.jsp, which lobbies the state to change laws on behalf of communities in the state. On the state to federal level there is the National Governors Association, http://www.nga.org./ They advocate states issues to the national level.

If enough local governments advocated to their state leagues and enough Governors advocated to the Governors Association things would change. Trying to create change by local revolt outside the established channels has little hope of working. All that will happen is the jurisdiction that has the right to make the laws will just void the local laws. Sorry but few people are not going to protest in the streets over net neutrality.

They seem to be stretching the truth on this one, the truth is that the official National Governors Association position is that they will happily make any kind of ID's requested as long as the federal government provides the funds.

Here is the official NGA statement:

http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.8358ec 82f5b198d18a278110501010a0/?vgnextoid=3f90d3add6da 2010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD

Policy Position

printable version

03/03/2005

EDC-18. Driver's License and Personal Identification Card Integrity

The motor vehicle driver's license, which is issued by each state, is used as an official identification document as well as a document that demonstrates an individual's knowledge and ability to operate a motor vehicle. States also issue personal identification cards that can be used as an official identification document. Most driver's licenses and personal identification cards have common elements displayed, such as a photo, a signature, a unique identifier number, and the individual's physical description. This has made the state-issued driver's license and personal identification card the most acceptable forms of identification in America.

Governors are concerned about the security and integrity of state driver's licenses, state personal identification cards, and the identification process. They are committed to working cooperatively with the federal government to develop and implement realistic, achievable standards that will enhance efforts to prevent document fraud and other illegal activity related to the issuance of driver's licenses and identification documents.

In making changes to the current system of issuing driver's licenses and personal identification cards, Governors believe that any rule or regulation requiring a change to the driver's license document or the personal identification card document should only apply to newly issued, renewed, and duplicate driver's licenses and identification cards produced by a state. Furthermore, any rulemaking body that is prescribing new standards for driver's licenses or personal identification cards must perform an assessment of the annual benefits and costs of its recommendations. The federal government should provide adequate funding to states to implement any required mandate stemming from the rulemaking. At no time should the rulemaking body propose an unfunded mandate on states.

Paul03244's Recent Submissions
Title Datestamp
Gates Urges Governors to Improve High Schools Sunday February 27, @01:49AM Rejected


Only I also submitted more analysis & links to a more substantive NY Times article, the National Governors Association website, and the text of Gates NGA speech

"Though immigration has been rising, Social Security projects that it will taper off sharply, from 1.2 million a year to 900,000 in 20 years. This forecast is curious, because if the birthrate in America declines as anticipated, the country will need more foreign workers."

There are two problems with the author's argument. First of all, it ignores the very strong argument made by Wharton Business School Professor Peter Cappelli that there will be no such labor shortage. Secondly, it ignores the fact that immigration is not simply a matter of demand (from the US for new workers), but also of supply. And we have two factors that we can expect to choke off immigration in the next few years: The rapidly growing economies of India and China (which means that more Indians and Chinese will choose to remain in their home countries), and the rapidly aging population of Mexico (it is overwhelmingly younger Mexicans who cross the border into the US, so as the birth rate of Mexico continues to decline we can expect fewer and fewer Mexicans to come to the US).

My second objection with the article is that he mentions only one time that the Social Security payroll tax increased (1983), but ignores that many other times that it has increased. It would have put the whole program into a different relief if, rather than saying that we only need to increase the payroll tax another 1.89% to close the deficit, he had explained that the program had started out (in 1937), with a 2% payroll tax, and now is at 12.4%, and will require a 14.29% tax rate in the future. It would have put it into an even starker relief if he had put that side-by-side with Medicare (which is also funded by a payroll tax), which started with a 0.7% tax, is not at a 2.9% tax, and is running a projected deficit 5 times as large as Social Security. Put these two numbers together, and you find us starting with a payroll tax of 2.7%, increasing to 15.3% today, needing to rise to 24 or 25% to close deficits in the future.

I also object to a couple of misleading notions in this section:

The C.B.O. assumes that the typical worker would invest half of his allocation in stocks and the rest in bonds. The C.B.O. projects the average return, after inflation and expenses, at 4.9 percent. This compares with the 6 percent rate (about 3.5 percent after inflation) that the trust fund is earning now.

Proponents hail the plan for forcing savings on the government. But the diversion of money into individual accounts would save the government nothing, since it would have to borrow to offset the loss of the diverted dollars. The individual accounts represent a transfer, not a savings.

The way the author words his comparison of the rate of return (inflation-adjusted with private accounts to nominal with current system, with the inflation-adjusted of the current system only in parentheses), he makes it sound like the current system gets a higher rate of return, when in fact the opposite is true.

Secondly, he totally misses the point when he says that "Proponents hail the plan for forcing savings on the government." Proponents advocate for the plan not because of its impact on the short-term government, but because long-term the higher rate of stock market return make it a much cheaper way to fund people's pensions. Let me put it this way - if you had the choice of getting taxed at 14%, having the government buy treasury bonds, and get back $9500 at the end, or getting taxed at 12.4

And the funny thing is, he's a Democrat. Just like the other paragon of family values, Senator Lieberman.

Which raises the question: are they still considered 'Religious Right' when they're Democrats and/or Jewish?

Find your AGs contact info here.

And for good measure, copy, paste, and submit your letter to the National Association of Attorneys General here.

And if the AG in your state is not independently elected, send a copy to your governor as well.

According to the
National Governors Association, Schwarzenegger ran as a Republican.

According to the state of California's list of governors by party, he is a republican.

Streamlined Sales Tax Project and click on the graph.

or

States Participating

Streamlined Sales Tax Project and click on the graph.

or

States Participating

check out this National Gov. Assn. link and click on the map at the right of the screen. the states in blue are participating.

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