Just a sample of what I overheard at the office the morning after the election:
- Worried Obama will be assassinated
- Cheney is evil
- Sarah Palin can just go back to Alaska and shoot moose
- Maybe Cheney will join her and shoot each other
- Glad it was an ass-whooping
- It become a world election, change in the rest of the world now
- Floodgates to a new world, less polarized
- Unify as one American people
- It's a very proud day for African-Americans
- Now I can tell my grandchildren they can be whatever they want
- It's a new day, it's a new world
Kssschhhh, Houston, the "one" has landed.
Whole lot won't change immediately in January, but if you had any plans of buying a firearm in the next couple years I'd accelerate those plans.
Proposition results were a mixed bag. Too bad 1A passed, but I'm glad 11 passed so we can get some districts that make sense. No to gay marriage, but no to parental notification, really California?
And that ends the deluge of political posts. Juicy D90 vs D70 comparisons coming soon.
Tagged with: election, Obama
Posted under: Political Stuff
Got all the propositions covered so that just leaves the presidential, legislature, judicial and city council slots to cover.
On President and legislature I'm going party line. If you disagreed with The Blarg and me on a majority of the propositions then it is safe to assume we aren't voting the same here. If you tend to agree with us then you'll be well served by these other choices.
Judiciary
Office #72 - Hilleri Grossman Merritt
Office #82 - Thomas Rubinson
Office #84 - Pat Connolly
Office #94 - Michael J. O’Gara
Office #154 - Michael Jesic
Downey City Council
3rd District - Roger Brossmer
5th District - Gary De Remer
Central Basin Municipal Water District
Division 1 - Ed Vasquez
Tagged with: election
Posted under: Political Stuff
Coming down to the wire so I'll post all these at once like The Blarg.
PROP 11 - REDISTRICTING. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND STATUTE.
PROP 12 - VETERANS’ BOND ACT OF 2008.
Take a minute to do a little exploring of the electoral districts in the Los Angeles area at this site. Congressional District 38 is my favorite, it was gerrymandered in 2001 and now includes a little bit of everything from Norwalk and Pico Rivera to Pomona. Steve Horn (R) was the incumbent for about 8 years in the Long Beach area district until it got redistricted. The 2000 election was pretty close too, 48.5% for Horn (R) and 47.5% for Gerrie Shcipske (D). After gerrymandering District 38 to create a Hispanic majority the 2002 election result was 71.2% for Grace Napolitano (D) and 26.2% for Alex A. Burrola (R). I'm sure this happened all over the place and both sides did whatever they could to keep their seats safe.
Prop 11 will be every state politicians worst nightmare. It takes the redistricting process out of their hands and gives it to those whose power is not at stake. Districts should be drawn up by geography and neighborhoods not by whatever gives a politician a nice cushy career.
Vote YES on Prop 11.
Prop 12 would take out a bond to help the CalVet program give loans to veterans to purchase homes and farms. I'm would stick to my guns on this one and say no, but the money will eventually come back and I'll agree with McClintock and The Blarg on this one.
Vote YES on Prop 12.
Measure R is just for us in Los Angeles County. 0.5% sales tax increase to go towards different transportation projects. Funny how we never get to vote on lowering our taxes, just increasing them.
Vote NO on Measure R.
Tagged with: election, proposition, taxes
Posted under: Political Stuff
PROP 9 - CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM. VICTIMS’ RIGHTS. PAROLE. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND STATUTE.
PROP 10 - ALTERNATIVE FUEL VEHICLES AND RENEWABLE ENERGY. BONDS. INITIATIVE STATUTE.
Busy week so I'm falling behind on the propositions. I'm starting to experience an acute episode of political fatigue so I'll be happy once the process is over (not necessarily happy with the results though). Check out The Blarg for more analysis on these since I agree on both of them.
PROP 9 - YES
PROP 10 - NO
And in other news I should have a nice little package showing up on my doorstep this afternoon. More on that later.
Tagged with: california, election, proposition
Posted under: Political Stuff
PROP 8 - ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME–SEX COUPLES TO MARRY. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
Before you read any further, read this article by Al Rantel. Al is a gay talk show host on KABC here in Los Angeles and when it comes to issues of homosexuality I actually look to him for inside information, much like I look to Larry Elder for insight into the black community.
Under the law same-sex couples have the same rights as everyone else. This proposition isn't about ending discrimination, it is about trying to make same-sex marriages socially acceptable. If this doesn't pass then the same people that oppose this amendment are free to get their own amendment up on the ballot and let the people decide. The people had decided in 2000 to define marriage as between a man and woman, but four judges made short work of that mandate from the masses.
I'm going to follow Al Rantel's lead on this one and vote YES for Prop 8.
Tagged with: constitution, election, marriage, proposition
Posted under: Political Stuff
PROP 7 - RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION. INITIATIVE STATUTE.
- Requires utilities, including government-owned utilities, to generate 20% of their power from renewable energy by 2010, a standard currently applicable only to private electrical corporations.
- Raises requirement for utilities to 40% by 2020 and 50% by 2025.
That's the big part of this proposition. If those goals aren't met then the utilities get charged a penalty per kilowatt-hour, a max of $25 million per provider per year. Investor-owned utilities and electric service providers (92% of our electricity supply) would be allowed to charge 10% over the market price for electricity. I'm going to go with the opponents of this initiative (pretty much everyone, both Republican and Democrat parties) and vote NO.
My biggest issue is the government meddling in electricity production. Renewable energy production shouldn't be mandated by anyone but the market. When it becomes cheaper to produce electricity through solar or wind then the market will shift that way. And until renewables are truly ready for prime time we should be filling the gaps with increased nuclear capacity.
Tagged with: california, election, proposition
Posted under: Political Stuff
PROP 6 - POLICE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT FUNDING. CRIMINAL PENALTIES AND LAWS. INITIATIVE STATUTE.
Like Proposition 5, Proposition 6 deals with the criminal and prison systems. There's a lot of stuff in here and if it passes it will require a minimum of $1 billion in mandatory spending for law enforcement agencies. The programs and changes to the law sound good like doubling sentences for gang members, but we don't have any more money to spend.
Like Prop 5, the general public shouldn't be asked to tack on a huge amount of new spending for things we might not necessarily understand. I'd actually be more willing to look into these propositions if they weren't massive bundles of new laws and spending. Put up an initiative that deals specifically with methamphetamine prosecutions and I can probably make an informed decision. Bundle 30 different things together and the average person won't be able to analyze all of them thoroughly. Plus if there's one thing I don't like in there, I have to vote no on the whole package.
I'm going to vote NO on Prop 6 for the same reasons as Prop 5, we don't have the money and there's just way too much included for the average person to consider.
Tagged with: california, election, proposition
Posted under: Political Stuff
PROP 5 - NONVIOLENT DRUG OFFENSES. SENTENCING, PAROLE AND REHABILITATION. INITIATIVE STATUTE.
It's late and I don't want to fall behind on the Proposition posts. I read through the analysis and I'm not impressed for the simple fact that this initiative adds an additional $460 million in mandatory spending that will increase with cost of living and population. I'm not going to pick this one apart and try to reason through it's merits because it requires the one thing we don't have, money.
I also object to this proposition because this really doesn't need to be decided by the people of California. We don't know anything about prison administration, corrections and probation, try reading the text of the law, we can't possibly make an informed decision on something like this. I just get the feeling that they couldn't get this through the legislature so they are trying their hand with us.
I'm voting NO.
Tagged with: california, election, proposition, voting
Posted under: Political Stuff
WAITING PERIOD AND PARENTAL NOTIFICATION BEFORE TERMINATION OF MINOR’S PREGNANCY.
INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
Didn't write ahead of time so this one will be a little brief. A similar proposition was on the ballot a while back and it didn't pass. I voted for it last time and I'm going to vote for it again. This amendment includes provisions to waive the notification or notify some other adult family member if the child can't go to their parents so that basically makes all the arguments against it moot. This just seems like a commonsense law already in place in many other states and I don't buy the doomsday scenario of scared teens getting abortions in the alley.
I'll vote YES, but I'm not expecting a different outcome from last time.
Tagged with: election, proposition
Posted under: Political Stuff
PROP 3 - CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL BOND ACT. GRANT PROGRAM. INITIATIVE STATUTE.
The word BOND pops up again in Proposition 3, but this time it is for children's hospitals. That sounds like a noble cause so we should pony up $2 billion ($1 billion bond, $1 billion interest) for it right? I'm going to stick with my reasons for voting no on Prop 1A and say incurring any additional debt, no matter how small, is a bad idea for California right now. The proponents of the proposition (3 parents?) even say we should pass this bond because it "is one of the smallest bonds ever".
I'm going to vote NO on this one. There is a point where we have to stop piling on the debt. If these hospitals are so hard pressed for money then they need to request additional funding from the legislature, adjust their own budgets or look to private individuals for donations. Rich people love having capital improvements named after them
Tagged with: california, election, proposition, voting
Posted under: Political Stuff
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