Time: Looking for a Corpse to Make a Case

[Rose Siding]

Federal troops aren't the only ones looking for bodies on the Gulf Coast. On Sept. 9, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions called his old law professor Harold Apolinsky, co-author of Sessions' legislation repealing the federal estate tax, which was encountering sudden resistance on the Hill. Sessions had an idea to revitalize their cause, which he left on Apolinsky's voice mail: " Jon Kyl and I were talking about the estate tax. If we knew anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with.".....

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1106213,00.html

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I take it Sessions is a rich so-and-so himself?

[Pirate Smile]

2. Diary on Daily Kos on this:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

by DavidNYC
Sat Sep 17th, 2005 at 15:33:49 PDT

For years now, I've put nothing past the Republican Party - no matter how low they can sink, I know they can sink lower. Watching them do so is almost like a sick, malign sport - sort of a combination of Rollerball and Bob Roberts. Now, they've added a bit of Wes Craven:

"Federal troops aren't the only ones looking for bodies on the Gulf Coast. On Sept. 9, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions called his old law professor Harold Apolinsky, co-author of Sessions' legislation repealing the federal estate tax, which was encountering sudden resistance on the Hill. Sessions had an idea to revitalize their cause, which he left on Apolinsky's voice mail: " Jon Kyl and I were talking about the estate tax. If we knew anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with."

...

Only a tiny percentage of people are affected by the estate tax--in 2001 only 534 Alabamans were subject to it. And for Hill backers of repeal, that's only part of the problem. Last year, the tax brought in $24.8 billion to the federal government. With Katrina's cost soaring, estate tax opponents need to find a way to make up the potential lost income. For now, getting repeal back on the agenda may depend on Apolinsky and his team of estate-sniffing sleuths, who are searching Internet obituaries among other places. Has he found any victims of both the hurricane and the estate tax? "Not yet," Apolinsky says. "But I'm still looking." (Emphasis added.)

Calling them ghouls is almost an insult to legitimate grave-robbers. In the 19th century, these vermin would have been stealing cadavers to sell to medical students. Today, they try to cut taxes on the uber-hyper-mega-wealthy while claiming they simultaneously need to cut spending to fund the Katrina recovery efforts.

Of course, the Republicans have no sense of precisely how ghoulish this endeavour is - what kind of idiot actually reveals this kind of B-movie scheme to the media? Well, the same kind of horror-flick idiot who grabs the flashlight to head down to the basement alone while everyone else cowers in the living room. And just like that poor bastard, this plan is gonna be DOA.

(Hat tip to Jesse Lee.)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/17/183349/266

[Bluebear]

3. YOU SAID JEFF SESSIONS! Cue banjo music....

Ever since someone said they hear the theme from Deliverance every time Sessions speaks, I can't get it out of my mind!

[smartvoter]

4. That damned Kyl from my state. He and J.D. are the worst. nt