LISTENING TO CONSERVATIVE TALK RADIO -- AND MORE ON TEXAS HOUSE BILL 3

I despise the rantings of Michael Savage of The Savage Nation. Nevertheless, on rare occasions I'm forced to note that he seems to have more of a populist and independent spirit than his fellow arch-conservatives cohorts such as the Bush-pandering Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and others of that ilk. Today I happened upon his radio show on a very long commute home where he was holding forth on the need to raise the minimum wage. He hit all the right points, passionately making the case against the "it'll ruin the economy" argument by pointing out Congress's recent vote to raise their own salaries, CEO's skyrocketing compensation, etc.

Dallas conservative radio hosts Darrell Ankarlo and Greg Knapp of KLIF have taken up the cause of defeating Texas House Bill 3, which I have already railed against. Their reasons are, as would be expected, simply because they are anti-tax of any kind, but nonetheless, I welcome their support. Knapp even today pointed out that the proposed additional $1-per-pack increase on tobacco is unfair since smokers already pay an inordinate share of our taxes (a point rarely made, especially by my fellow liberals), a nearly-libertarian view that taxing "behaviors" is another attempt by government to regulate personal choice, or at least a cynical attempt to appear to do so -- when, in fact, government has no intention of trying to do so, since it depends on that continued "behavior" to raise revenue. Greg's real opposition is to the 3% "snack tax" on soft drinks, potato chips, doughnuts, etc. All these additional taxes, such as the "fax tax" included in Texas House Bill 3 fall most heavily, of course, on lower-wage citizens, who are proportionately more likely to smoke and snack. And that is exactly the intention of this bill, to divert the tax burden from wealthier property owners. Whatever happened to all that wonderful lottery money, which was supposed to support our education system in Texas? Just yesterday a study was publicized that says 36% of Texas youth drop out of high school before graduation? 36%????? Could any state possibly have a higher dropout rate?

Incidentally, Ankarlo swears he has evidence that Speaker Craddick is intimidating Republican legislators into voting his way, threatening to cut them off from lobbying money and promising he'll make sure they lose their seats in the next election if they don't vote in favor of House Bill 3.

Greg Knapp had Alan Colmes on as a guest today. Alan once again did a creditable job of shutting Greg down on a variety of subjects and talked through Greg's rants as much as Greg talked through his speeches. Why can't he hold his own with Hannity as well as he does his fellow Dallas KLIF hosts?