Political Rant

Originally posted 21 May 2008

Yesterday the AP reported the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the U.S. discriminates against the blind in the way the Treasury Department designs its bills.
“The decision could force the Treasury Department to make bills of different sizes or print them with raised markings or other distinguishing features.”
“The American Council of the Blind sued for such changes, but the government has been fighting the case for about six years.”
I thought we’ve heard this before?
The article sites opposition from the makers of vending and change machines, but I suspect something far more sinister. We’ve all heard of the controlling influence “Big Oil” and “Big Tobacco” have on Washington and organized lobbying groups like the NRA and the ACLU seem to be in the news everyday, but very few people have hear of the most powerful lobbying firm in Washington.
The American Stripper Society.
If the American Council for the Blind has its way, the hardest hit won’t be vending machine manufacturers. It will be the very people whose profits the ASS was formed to protect.
The ASS was formed in 1773 from the remnants of the now defunct British Union of Tavern Trollopes, whose last big fight with the early colonial government was the Corset Reform Act of 1765. Since then they’ve won numerous legislative battles, the most notable of which were the Mandatory Bustle Laws of 1883 and the great Silicon Tax battle of 1974. Their newest engagement seems to be the largest and most devious to date.
It’s estimated that strippers earn $4.2 billion a year as a direct result of drunken patrons’ inability to tell a $1 bill from a $20 in dark, smoky strip clubs. If the Treasury Department decides to vary the size of U.S. currency, these strippers will see a marked decrease in their annual profits and millions upon millions of honest hardworking strip club patrons will cease to be taken advantage of. The ASS is throwing all their considerable weight behind a grassroots effort to ensure that doesn’t happen.
This cannot stand. Call your congressman today and tell them you are tired of being pushed around by “Big ASS”.