Austin city council shoots local economy in the foot

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The leftist idiots who control Austin's city council were oh, so pleased with themselves:

The Austin City Council passed a resolution this morning aimed at ending business and travel ties to Arizona to protest a new state law that allows Arizona law enforcement officers to detain people they suspect are in the country illegally.

The resolution, proposed by Council Member Mike Martinez, calls for ending all business-related travel to Arizona by city employees, unless it is related to police investigations, providing humanitarian aid or protecting Austinites’ health and safety. It also asks the city manager to review all city business with and investments in the state of Arizona and devise a plan to end those ties.

Council members have said that the new law is discriminatory and that they don’t want to put city employees at risk of being detained during business travel. Martinez said Thursday that he wanted to clarify that the resolution calls for ending business ties with the state of Arizona, not businesses located there.

Only a few people showed up to speak in favor of the item before the council approved it unanimously.

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

The city council’s decision to boycott travel to Arizona is resulting in organizations and individuals boycotting the city of Austin in protest.

A growing number of political organizations, including the Odessa and Burleson Tea Parties, have decided not to do business with the city of Austin until the council rescinds the Arizona boycott they passed a few weeks ago.

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The boycott apparently is already being felt according to the Austin Hotel and Lodging Association who sent KXAN this statement:

“The AHLA is not a political association and does not in any way support travel boycotts of any kind. Hotels in Austin are now beginning to experience concrete evidence from the many visitors now canceling their leisure or business plans to Austin.”

KXAN was told some of the cancellations include riders who normally take part in the Republic of Texas Rally.

So it never occurred to the council members that their little resolution would be subject to Newton's Third Law of Motion, i.e., for every action, there is a reaction equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. But that's the problem with leftists -- they don't think. They act on pure emotion, and their first inclination is to punish whoever they feeeell is responsible for their imagined outrage.

Wow, they really showed those raaaacist Arizonans, didn't they?

It's not like the Austin City council didn't have better things to do than pass moronic leftist resolutions:

At a time when the City of Austin faces a $28 million budget shortfall, its electric utility admits its own bankruptcy, and its public transportation system is in shambles, members of the Austin City Council Thursday decided that making a symbolic statement against Arizona is a more important use of their time than dealing with the problems which impact its citizens.

The stupid in that council chamber must have been so thick you could cut it with a Bowie knife. But that's the political left for ya, folks.

God bless Arizona and its governor for standing up for the rule of law. God bless Gov. Palin for standing with her. And God help the hotel and restaurant owners, waiters, waitresses and other employees in Austin who will suffer the consequences of the City Council's hubris.

- JP