A Valley community's decision to change the way trash is picked up provided further proof of how deeply the nation's anti-government, "tea party"-fueled sentiment is running.
A decision by the Fountain Hills Town Council to hire a single trash hauler and begin a curbside recycling program has been met with angry protests from residents who accuse town leaders of overstepping their bounds and taking a leap toward socialism.
Some even likened it to "Obamacare" for garbage, calling it "trashcare."
An Arizona website affiliated with the Alexandria, Va.,-based Campaign for Liberty, azc4l.com, features an intimidating, cigar-chomping man standing in front of the town's famous fountain next to a story about the issue.
And last week, a flier was circulated around Fountain Hills with an ominous icon and the phrase, "The Hills Will Have Eyes," and that claimed the "Fountain Hills Green Police" checked residents' garbage and recyclables, and as a result, "you are wanted for questioning."
On Thursday, a divided council approved a five-year contract with Allied Waste Services to be the single hauler and begin a recycling program. Residents currently can choose among five haulers and the town has no curbside recycling.
That single issue generated a nearly five-hour public hearing and council debate that went past midnight ...
From Talking Points Memo and the Arizona Republic.
Come on! Anyone of any kind of conscience would have to be thinking that these guys are seriously off their nut. Right? Socialist garbage collection. You have got to be kidding me. If this is the kind of substantive work they will be doing, progressives have nothing to worry about.
I'm almost looking forward to the next couple of years for entertainment value alone. Here's hoping that Michele Bachmann gets a leadership position in the new Republican Congress.
