In New York (and probably every other state), the native populations were forced onto tiny slivers of their own land. On the bright side, these lands are considered sovereign nations (and, as we all know from George W. Bush, sovereign means they have sovereignty). Among other things, these nations aren’t required to collect the $2.75 per pack NY State cigarette tax. Well, except for a law that was passed quite a while ago that said non-Native people were required to pay the tax, but nobody’s really ever tried to collect it. Except for George Pataki, that is. He tried in 1997, which led to protesters shutting down the New York State Thruway, setting fires, and duking it out with State Troopers. Pataki then retaliated by blockading the reservations, but he eventually caved in, and that was that. Since then NY’s tribes have sold something like 300 million packs a year, and are now getting into the manufacturing process. Times being what they are, with NY trying to close a huge budget gap, Governor Blinky is once again looking at trying to get his hands on all those potential tax dollars (which would be over $800 million a year, which aint chump change).
The Governor has sent a letter to US Attorneys, asking them to assess the potential for “violence and civil unrest” if NY once again tries to collect tax revenue. I reckon there’s quite a bit of potential there, personally. Or, as Richard Nephew, chairman of the governing council of the Seneca Nation – NY’s biggest tribal seller of cigarettes – puts it:
“We see the letter as nothing more than the Governor doing his job to assess the historic consequences of what happens when the state tries to violate our treaty rights.â€
Indeed.
Looks like Nancy Pelosi will soon announce the House version of Health Care reform – including a “public option” tied to medicare rates + 5%. A preliminary CBO report says the plan is revenue neutral, will cover 96% or Americans, and will require $900 billion of new spending over ten years. If you’re keeping score, that’s only slightly more than Max Baucus’ bill w/o a public option that will cover less people. Hopefully this will meet with President Snowe’s approval.
Oh well, time to get it on.
We used to see this funny plant that we called “indian tobacco” growing wild in fields. It was stalklike and it turned brown. That is all I could find about it. Anybody else heard about this?
Never heard of it, but a google search yields this, among other things:
Not sure whether I like bladderpod or pukeweed better.
Those are attractive names. Some more info
Although I did not have a couple of skunked dogs, I did go out to my car Monday after a short 2 hour visit to an office at which I have been doing some work. While there there was a downpour it did not look too crazy since the wind was not making it horizontal like the week before. I hopped in my car to get to the PO before it closed and noticed some SFFD activity on the street where I had parked. About 20 minutes later I arrived at my neighborhood PO with 5 minutes to spare and reached for my mailing bag and noticed it was wet. After I ran in to mail my parcels I looked at some of the stuff that had accumulated on the passenger side floor. I pulled a bunch of the waterlogged material out and there was quite a bit of water. Same in the back so I grabbed some rags and sopped it up. I had to leave pretty quickly to go to have dinner with some friends in Marin. On the way an ABS idiot light popped on but it did not show again when I drove home.
Yesterday I noticed there was more water on the floor, driver’s side, back seat, so I threw in more rags. I just could not figure out from where the water had come. I have an old beater of a car with a side window taped up but it was all dry and sealed.
Meanwhile I became curious about that SFFD activity on Monday and took to the Google. I found this
Heavy Rain Brings Flooding To Bay Area
Now I am trying to find a city feller to get my car dried and sanitized.
:growl: :rant1: :fustrate: :crap: :barf:
Jack Nelson, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, dies at 80; journalist helped raise L.A. Times to national prominence
🙁 :gate:
Last night, someone broke the passenger side window of my car in order to rob it. This morning, however, we could find nothing missing save the window bracket for the GPS…but NOT the GPS itself. All the cd’s were there and the binoculars under the seat. Perhaps our thief just couldn’t stand digging through the mess Hubby likes to throw in the back.
But, all is not good news. Cousin Ne’er Do Well did have 2 cats and both were found dead. No one seems to have any idea how long he had been dead before he was discovered. The police said that there would have to be an autopsy to determine the cause of death but the body was released without one having been performed.
Sorry to hear about the skunks, cats, floods, and car break-in. What a hassle.
So, it’s starting to sound like we’re getting into the electric car manufacturing business.
:slap: :yippee:
Thank you, Al!
PJ,
About the Indian Tobacco, Lobelia is not the thing I was thinking about.
This is a picture with no explanation, but you see it all the time in the Midwest:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/fullsize/1230795761014370529LtyZdj
It could be something called Mullein but I don’t see any other pictures in this dark brown state. That is why we called it Indian Tobacco cuz it looked like something that you would smoke.
Still a mystery.