I need some DU love to smack down my freeper realtor.

He told me that there is a bill in Texas up that will require unemployment benifits recipients to be required to submit to drug testing. He said he doesn't believe that HE as a TAXPAYER should pay for dope fiends to sit around idly doing drugs and drinking.

I said politely, "I haven't examined this issue and I can't say whether this is a good idea or not."

I think this drug testing is nonsense from the get go, but what arguments can I present that will lay it to rest? I don't think very many people that are unemployed are just druggies and drunks. I figure most of these people are normal folks that just got laid off or their job was outsourced. The cost and humiliation associated with drug screens seems excessive to me in order to find the isolated cases of abuse.

I have already sent a message in the Texas forum asking if there are any lib/Dem realtors in my area with which I can do business.

http://blogs.kxan.com/austinnews/2009/05/21/when-every-vote-counts/

Don't know wat to tell you except have your ducks in a row if or when you decide to pick this battle.

No matter what, know with certainty of what you speak :hi:

I am missing something here.

My realtor is a freeper and loves to bring his politics up because I am a white middle aged man living in Texas. I would love to avoid politics in this matter but he is a stalwart idiot.

2 great guys in Dallas. They specialize in the Lakewood area/White Rock Lake area.

They can probably still help you out if your not interested in this area, but why wouldn't you want to live in these mostly progressive neighborhoods? (Sorry, guess I'm prejudiced.) :-)

(edited for really bad writing, not enough coffee this morning!)

...they shouldn't need drug tests to take it back out.

Make sense?

What if banks or retirement plans took your money without drug tests, but then required tests to get it out?

I mean, my drug test would probably generate enough activity to light up NYC - not you - for at least a week.................

I'm not in favor of sitting around drinking and doing drugs, but the money has come from the ex-workers who paid for the unemployment insurance, not him. Or is Texas different?

yes.

Just for openers, consider George W. Bush.

Without Molly Ivins and Ann Richards, Texas is a whole other solar system, as far as I'm concerned.

(And that photograph is so goofy, it breaks me up every damn time I see it............)

You cannot qualify for benefits if you were fired for refusing or failing a drug test. That is considered your fault just as showing up late everyday would be.

I have never heard of anyone having to submit to a drug test to qualify for benefits, and I know two Texan tokers who have collected benefits in the past.

There was a proposal for such legislation in Florida that would have paid the cost for the test out of the benefits of each recipient.

and to shut the feck up!

Ask him how much he gets paid for promoting a huge governmental social spending program. That's OUR tax money he wants to spend on all these searches. I'd tell that damn liberal where to get off with these costly spending bills.

Seriously. He is unprofessional enough to inject politics into a business relationship with a customer. He can be expected to do other unprofessional things.

if he was on drugs or drunk he couldn't have negotiated the best price for you, so he'll have to prove he wasn't RWI (realtoring while intoxicated)

Also insist that a complete stranger physically observe him peeing into the bottle, otherwise it doesn't count. Actually perhaps the realtor is female, they hate the observation even more on average. That'll give 'em pause.

of the citizens personal life. So now they are all for and without probable cause to allow BIG BROTHER to drug test people by using their excretion samples to study what they have ingested or inhaled? Tell your realtor to PISS OFF!

I find it's always best to make them answer for their odd beliefs.

ask him if he's willing to have mandatory drug testing for every citizen, no matter the social status ... since he believes that "you give an inch, the government eminent domains 100 miles" mantra ...

Conservatives have this twisted view that it is possible to shame and embarrass people off of Government assistance. Having people who receive unemployment benefits meet at some location and undergo the degrading process of submitting a urine sample serves to discourage them from applying. They would probably never even analyze the samples because that was not the purpose of the exercise.

not when you're fired.

I don't see the correlation between unemployment and alcohol/drug use, and I doubt he can find one, either.