Taxation without representation

There are many things to enjoy about living in DC.

This is not one of those things. If you live in DC you have no one with voting power who represents you in Congress. Thus the heading of taxation without representation. But there's a further rub. Washington is a Federal District which in essence is governed by the Congress. This means Congress has to approve most legislation. It also means that at any time a member of Congress can step in and decide to halt legislation passed by the city council. The most recent case in point is the take over by the city of the public schools. Here's the story in the post. It seems that yesterday after frantic negotiations the Senate passed the plan.

It would be nice if Congress would keep its nose out of our business but that certainly won't happen. The most notorious abuse of this power was exercised over the issue of repealing the sodomy laws in DC. The Senator who always blocked it was Jesse Helms. Finally one year it came up and Mr. Helms let it go. I find it ironic that a southern states rights Republican thought it would be ok for the federal government to interfere in a local decisions. That just goes to show the hypocrisy of these conservatives.

In this case alls well that ends well but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.