Why is that the issue of the State? All the State needs to do for sales tax increases is tell merchants that their Sales Tax Payable will be increased. If the merchant doesn't comply, they lose revenue. This is not something that should take the state more than a day. Sales Tax is a very simple accounting procedure.

I completely agree, but then it wouldn't be a satire of this bill anymore. The bill allows death row to be compared to the population.

I think it really is as simple as Chris makes it. What about sales tax increases or increases on the alcohol tax is hard to administer? It's very simple accounting; just create a new payable account. A corporation faced with having to relay information to all of its retail stores about sale prices or the such would have it done in a matter of days, if not hours. Why is it okay for Government to take weeks? Maybe efficiency is lost on the transfer from the private sector to the public sector.

Chris, I don't think it's very fair for us to look at the actions of the Republicans through this lens. Perhaps it makes the issue more clear if we look at what it would infer if Republicans voted against this bill. This bill was thought to be a large job creating bill in the middle of a recession. If the Republicans had voted against this bill, we would be hearing instead of how the Republicans were against creating jobs that would help the economy of coastal North Carolina. I don't think the Republicans really had a choice but to vote for this bill, even though they are against it in principle.

I would feel bad making fun of this picture. It would just be too easy.

$18.8 million are spent to allow students to take college level classes? I graduated from Enloe high school in 2008. At Enloe, I took at least 8 AP/College-level classes. I don't think I saw a cent of this "$18.8 million". Every year, I had to pay close to $100 per AP exam, maybe more. One of my classes, AP Physics C, required two exams. You must take the exams to get college credit at most universities. Based on this, I would be willing to assert that this money is not being used efficiently and could stand to be cut partially or entirely from the budget.

I think one thing worth noting is that the Teacher's Union cares more about employing teachers than it does about student performance. Small class size means more teachers.

Update: The Supreme Court has put the sale of Chrysler on hold.

Where do you draw the connection between this post and the right to vote?

I can't see a bible study meeting being that disruptive. I would understand if there was a party or something of that nature that was disruptive to the neighborhood. According to reports of the incident in California, it seems to be the issue of assembling for religion outside of a church, not of disrupting the peace of the neighborhood at inappropriate times. "Do you Pray?", "Do you say praise the Lord?", and "Do you say amen?" seem to all be pointed questions at religion and would not be things that would disrupt the peace.

Not to mention the freedom of religion guaranteed under the first amendment, but what about the freedom of assembly? The freedom of assembly is normally not a largely debated topic, but I think it is being stepped on by this local municipality.

Good to see that our boys are getting their stuff together and fighting.