Election Propositions

[davidology]

Okay, having already figured out the candidates, I've finally gone through all the propositions, and I think I've mostly decided. I still need to Google some of the judges to make sure none of them is batshit crazy (assuming I can find anything about them online).

Anywho, this isn't meant as recommendations—just the decisions I've come to and my reasoning behind it. If you disagree, you have until around 18:00 PST to change my mind.

Prop#
1A	Transportation Funding Protection	YES	I'm leaning YES on this one. Too often politicians get voters to approve money for fixing things we want fixed only to have that money diverted and then them hit us up for money again. Only concern: will this prevent using gas taxes for the exploration of alternative fuels?
1B	Hwy Safety, Traffic, Air Quality	YES	Our freeways are in dire need up upgrades.
1C	Housing / Emergency Shelter	NO	Torn on this one, but leaning towards NO, only because housing prices are out of control for everybody. I think there's a better solution. This feels like a stop gap for certain classes. I could change my mind by tomorrow, but probably not.
1D	Public Education Facilities	NO	I'm only leaning towards NO because I feel as if we just approved money for the same exact thing.
1E	Disaster Preparedness	YES	Paying for maintenance is cheaper than footing the bill after the fact (as we saw after what happened to New Orleans). We also know we can't rely on the federal government for shit.
83	Sex Offenders	NO	GPS for monitoring sex offenders? Problem here is the term sex offender is applied so haphazardly that I can't even consider this. You could probably be labeled a sex offender for getting caught skinny dipping.
84	Water Quality, Safety, Supply	NO	It sounds as if 1E covers a number of these, so I'm going NO.
85	Waiting period-abortions for minors	NO	Absofuckingly not. NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO. I'm so sick of the fundies trying to roll back Roe v. Wade and acting like a zygote is an effing human being. It's not. NO, NO, NO, NO. NO!
86	$2.60 per pack Cigarette tax	YES	86 & 87 have some of the most disingenuous ads opposing them. They have done more to sway me in favor of these props than anything. Sorry, to my smoker friends, but I don't care if they use the funds to skin baby seals to make panties for Celine Dion with the money. If it means being downwind from cigarette smoke one less time, or one less cigarette butt ending up on the beach, or one less cigarette butt thrown out a car window causing a brush fire, then it was worth it. Besides, I don't like New York besting us for most expensive tobacco products. We need to reclaim our title! It's on!
87	Alternative Energy/Oil Drilling tax	YES	I've gone back and forth on this one. I was initially leaning towards NO, but then the No on 87 ads just got ridiculous. The one that says we should vote NO because Prop 87 "contains 12,000 legally binding words." ZOMG NOT WERDZ!!11!1 The ads are insulting to the voters' intelligence. For that reason alone, I'd vote YES. I do feel better about my vote after Clinton decided to support the bill.
88	Education Funding, Parcel tax	NO	Housing in this state is ridiculously out of control. I'm not adding to it.
89	Political campaigns, public funding	NO	Although I'm generally in favor of publicly funded elections, if done I think it should be mandatory and all 3rd party funds eliminated. I'm not sure this goes far enough. Also, not sure raising corporate taxes is a good idea considering how high they are now.
90	Govt Acquisition / Private Property	NO	If CalTrans needs to buy your property to expand the freeways, then let 'em do it. Needs of the many, yadda yadda yadda. Plus, I hate traffic.

Supreme Court Justices

I'm voting YES for both of the Supreme Court Justices based upon this neocon website. The bigots on that site clearly can't stand these two judges (just read the site; they're batshit crazy). So vote YES for both Supreme Court Justices! I'm glad they posted that. They made my decision so easy.

Important Links you might need/want

L.A. County Polling Locations

SmartVoter.org - Nonpartisan info put out by the League of Women Voters. Summarizes the propositions; gives links to candidates' sites, etc., etc.

Comments

[mrezkill.livejournal.com]

yay, i filled in the ones I had blank based on most of your choices since we pretty much had the same ones picked. Now if only we had the same everything else on our ballots I wouldn't have to do so much reading blah. lol

-ez

[davidology.livejournal.com]

ha.. argh. the judges part is killing me. I think I may have to cop out and stop at the Supreme Court. There's not much info on the rest, and I'm tired of looking shit up. At least the two Supreme Court nominees seem to be okay. I'll vote YES on those and skip the rest, I think.

[caseyle82.livejournal.com]

Hey, my name is Casey, I'm one of Silvio (terrancraft)'s friends. I added you to my friends list cuz I like your political entries and you seem interesting. Add me back if you want. =)

[huckie.livejournal.com]

Yah! for 1A! 1A is an issue that totally pisses me off living up here in the Bay Area. They've been raiding 2-4 billion dollars a year from the gas taxes, while raising bridge tolls to pay for everything transportation related. It's like, wait a minute, you wouldn't need bonds or increased bridge tolls if you'd stop stealing the money that has been set aside for transportation, and using it for other things.

On the bond issues - I can't vote for bonds on principle alone. If something needs to be funded, we need to find a sustainable funding mechanism, and preferably, a progressive one. We've reached the point where we seriously need to reform our tax code, and if we have to spend several years starving out programs and cutting services to realize that we've had enough and we should address the real issue, then that's what we should do. We can't keep borrowing against our future.

I'm torn on 87, I'll probably vote for it just because the oil companies are giant bastards. However, I know any money raised from it will be wasted.

I'm also torn on 89. I'll probably vote for it just because it won't pass, and we need reform, so maybe if it gets enough vote they will address the issues in it and put it back up for vote in the future.

[davidology.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on the bonds. I guess I just finally got beaten into submission, if we want to get anything done. I hate how they put it: "THIS WILL NOT RAISE TAXES." Yes, because free money fairies exist. Argh.

I ended up voting against 89, but it was up in the air until I got to the booth.