DCist: Should D.C. Push Obama to Use "Taxation Without Representation" License Plates?

juanfe

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:25:15 -0500

I wonder if Eleanor's unwillingness to push in congress for the full two-senators and one representative alternative is due to how that would dilute her own power. She gets power by being the only one, even if she has none...

HCE

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:37:01 -0500

They must have a huge stock of those "BJ" plates, because if you were to request a non-Taxation plate today, that's what you'd get.

ledroitist

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:04:46 -0500

It seems like the "www.washingtondc.gov" plates all started with "BJ". So all the Secret Service black Suburbans are running around town with "BJ" tags. I'm almost sure DMV picked that out a random. Maybe Monkeyrotica can pick up the ball and run with that.

HCE

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:38:12 -0500

We inexplicably received the plates with www.washingtondc.gov instead of Taxation Without Representation on them the last time we bought a new car. I thought the Taxation plates were the standard issue. Now everybody probably thinks we're Bushies or with the Secret Service, but hell if I'm shelling out $15 and standing in line at the DMV to get the Taxation plates.

cminus

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:22:06 -0500

Stupid italicization bug. That last paragraph is also from the Utah letter.

cminus

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:21:33 -0500

Hillman: Scalia's citing of the record was at a roundtable that I don't think was reported in the press, but some of the same material was cited by the Utah Attorney General in his open letter to Bush endorsing the D.C. Voting Rights Act. Notably: Finally, at least one Framer, Alexander Hamilton, did want to include an affirmative provision for voting representation by District citizens in the House. He introduced an amendment in the New York ratifying convention to require that representation. There appears to be no congressional historical documentation as to why this amendment did not pass, but the circumstantial record indicates that it was because the Framers believed it was not needed since 1) the District’s citizens could continue to vote with the ceding states, Maryland and Virginia – which they all in fact did for approximately 10 years after the District’s creation in 1791 or 2) Congress could act to provide representation under the District Clause. Some congressional members believed that District residents would be disenfranchised only temporarily. Representative Benjamin Huger of South Carolina pointed out during a post-enactment debate over the federal authority under the Organic Act of 1801, effective February 27, 1801, 2 Stat. 103, ch. 15 (establishing the District of Columbia as the Nation’s capitol) that just “because [District residents] are now disenfranchised of their rights, it does not follow that they are always to remain so.”

ledroitist

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:59:17 -0500

Sure, it would be petty and small for Fenty and EH Norton to make a stink about this. But seeing how the Council is already hard on the case, they've got the "petty and small" beat pretty much covered, as always, dontcha think?

Hillman

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:56:43 -0500

CMinus: I did not know that. Have you got a good link to that info?

cminus

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:11:41 -0500

Most historians think the Founding Fathers mostly thought there would be few if any permanent residents in DC, since most of them, rather shortsightedly, thought of government service as a part time thing at most. I don't think any of them imagined disenfranchising half a million residents. Indeed. In fact, Antonin Scalia, in remarking that he felt a law giving Congressional representation to D.C. could well be constitutional, pointed out that the record of the Organic Act (the original law establishing the District) shows that Congress debated giving District residents the vote at the time, and elected not to because there weren't enough people living there for it to matter. That condition is no longer true today.

Hillman

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:51:10 -0500

"We're the nations capital because we agreed to not have voting rights or be considered a state." I'm not a young whippersnapper like you folks, but I don't remember agreeing to any such thing. And is that sortof like how women and black people agreed to not have rights also? Most historians think the Founding Fathers mostly thought there would be few if any permanent residents in DC, since most of them, rather shortsightedly, thought of government service as a part time thing at most. I don't think any of them imagined disenfranchising half a million residents.

dclindybomb

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:10:06 -0500

Um, how about a little history lesson people. We're the nations capital because we agreed to not have voting rights or be considered a state. Get over it or move to a city that isn't the most powerful in the world!

DrLRonHoover

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:24:53 -0500

Let him spend some time with Eleanor Holmes Norton, Paul Strauss and Crackie.. Then he can have his own license plates printed "Taxation With Representation by Fuckwits"

jtmeyer

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:46:20 -0500

i'm all for no taxation without representation. i'd rather not pay taxes, thank you.

DC Daddy

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:48:22 -0500

Screw "voting rights." How about equal rights. We need statehood. But yeah, someone on his transition team is tasked with outfitting his ride. The Chicago equivalent of Entourage's "Turtle" no doubt. That person should definitely do the TWR plates. And Wizzyliz, excellent idea. While we're at it, rename Reagan National "Taxation Without Representation National Airport."

Wizzyliz

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:18:51 -0500

I vote to rename the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue "Taxation Without Representation Street." President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Taxation Without Representation Street, NW Washington, DC 20050 Now THAT'LL get everyone's attention!!

cminus

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:36:45 -0500

It's not as if Obama's going to need to devote a lot of mental energy to deciding what his license plates are going to look like. Asking him to support the "Taxation Without Representation" plates will not stop him from giving the economy or the war in Iraq all necessary attention, so we might as well ask.

jtmeyer

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:34:34 -0500

Nice poll btw, little loaded don't you think? Pretty sure I've seen one just like it somewhere else, but the question was "Should Obama wear a flag pin?" and an option was "Definitely. He's said he supports America, why wouldn't he want to wear the pin." ugh.

jtmeyer

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:30:15 -0500

this reminds me of another big stinky deal that got made about Obama not participating in a meaningless "show of support" for something... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmHtGQq-z_Y Except for then it was the republican baddies who were criticizing him.

IMGoph

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:29:03 -0500

why the hell does it have to be one or the other for people? yes, change the plates, and push for voting rights as well. a mentally challenged cat could do both, so why not push for both? remember during the election when obama said a president has to be able to do more than one thing at a time (when mccain "suspended" his bid to deal with the financial mess)? this is a small example of that.

tenleytownist

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:25:47 -0500

trivial. focus on stuff that matters.

newsjunkie

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:25:21 -0500

Why should we push him to put license plates on the vehicles? We should be pushing him to push Congress into giving us voting rights! You know they can't doing anything on their own.

yonas

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:21:08 -0500

I don't think it's a bad idea at all, but at the same time I don't think it's super-duper important. I doubt it'll happen though, being that there's so much other stuff to focus on.

Hillman

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:15:13 -0500

I would be interested in hearing what people think the Obamas could do for DC, aside from voting rights.

Hillman

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:13:27 -0500

Stupid. Why waste the effort? If he's pressured into doing this it'll count in the minds of many as him having 'done his part' for DC. Skip the symbolism and go for substance.