Red/Blue States, Europe, Judiciary vs. Legislature
1) Blue states are richer (so much for the GOP being the "party of the rich") but the red states are more "aspiring" -- their income growth rate is much higher. So sayeth BuzzCharts.
2) European Union states that have not adopted EU rules aimed at reducing noise in crowded cities will face court action if they fail to act soon... "The EU's objective is to substantially reduce the number of people in Europe affected by noise by 2012," Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said in a statement.
Don't they have more important things to worry about? And weren't the European states told that the EU wouldn't ever become a super-state? (Maybe I'm wrong about that.) Either way, I think the European commoners are becoming increasingly frustrated with the micromanaging of domestic policy being shoved down their throats by faceless bureaucrats.
3) State judiciaries are overstepping their authority in forcing legislatures to increase taxes and spending. I'll post more on this soon. For now, just one excerpt:
But of course the real nature of [Judge] Bullock’s interest wasn’t education. It was taxation: “As a result of the significant tax cuts passed by the Kansas legislature during the past ten years, the state has forfeited nearly $7 billion in funds which it would have otherwise had in the treasury. The depletion for 2005 alone is $918 million!”
Forfeited? Depletion? Exclamation point? Funding schools is one thing. Writing tax policy is another. Neither of them is typically a judge’s job. By making it his, Bullock worries more than just concerned Kansans. As Washington attorney Megan Brown, commenting on Montoy, noted, “If more states follow this path…reducing deference to legislatures in administering school systems, the jurisprudential and practical effect may be to substantially erode the functional and structural separation of power between branches of state government….”
2) European Union states that have not adopted EU rules aimed at reducing noise in crowded cities will face court action if they fail to act soon... "The EU's objective is to substantially reduce the number of people in Europe affected by noise by 2012," Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said in a statement.
Don't they have more important things to worry about? And weren't the European states told that the EU wouldn't ever become a super-state? (Maybe I'm wrong about that.) Either way, I think the European commoners are becoming increasingly frustrated with the micromanaging of domestic policy being shoved down their throats by faceless bureaucrats.
3) State judiciaries are overstepping their authority in forcing legislatures to increase taxes and spending. I'll post more on this soon. For now, just one excerpt:
But of course the real nature of [Judge] Bullock’s interest wasn’t education. It was taxation: “As a result of the significant tax cuts passed by the Kansas legislature during the past ten years, the state has forfeited nearly $7 billion in funds which it would have otherwise had in the treasury. The depletion for 2005 alone is $918 million!”
Forfeited? Depletion? Exclamation point? Funding schools is one thing. Writing tax policy is another. Neither of them is typically a judge’s job. By making it his, Bullock worries more than just concerned Kansans. As Washington attorney Megan Brown, commenting on Montoy, noted, “If more states follow this path…reducing deference to legislatures in administering school systems, the jurisprudential and practical effect may be to substantially erode the functional and structural separation of power between branches of state government….”