State Ballot Measures - Statewide Results

Proposition Title		Yes Votes	%	No Votes	%
Yes	13 Property Taxes and Seismic Retrofit of Buildings	3,155,333	84.5%	581,305	15.5%
Yes	14 Primary Election Participation	2,050,398	54.2%	1,735,596	45.8%
No	15 California Fair Elections Act	1,575,147	42.6%	2,115,040	57.4%
No	16 Local Electricity Providers	1,800,205	47.4%	1,993,053	52.6%
No	17 Auto Insurance Pricing	1,820,336	47.8%	1,980,248	52.2%

Each of these clips are pretty short.



There are some things that are perfectly ok to say if you're not vice-president.



Oh well, he's no Dan Quayle or Bingo Bob Russell.

Also, Robert Gibbs is no C.J. Cregg...

Some may disagree with me (heck, I don't think 'may' is the best word there). That's ok. We live in a representative republic, and we're all ultimately in the same boat. The CAUTION SHARED PATH icon is representative of that. I try to remember to use this icon when posting about political subjects, because it helps remind me that whichever road we're on as a nation, we're all on it together.

Bob Reich* says what I can't really find the time to say in A Short Citizen's Guide to Kooks, Demagogues, and Right-Wingers On Tax Day. It's true. Taxes are a good thing. They pay for all those things we often take for granted, like co-workers with basic reading skills, roads, and drinking water.

My brother's father-in-law noted on Saturday that the folks who grouse loudest are the same people who complain the most when there's a pothole in their cul-de-sac. I think he might have been talking about a specific person at the time. Anyway, sylphslider said it succinctly enough, "Hurray for paying taxes."

* I don't really call him Bob, though I'm told his friends do.

Professor Reich (former Secty. of Labor) wrote a post on his blog about the necessary priorities for the coming administration, specifically economics. He writes that since the economic downturn (mini-bagel, not a Great Bagel) is consumer based--which is to say that as consumer wages have failed so far to keep up with costs, consumers have eventually run out of money to spend--that the consumer economy won't improve unless those consumers actually get the money to start spending again. Since consumers account for 70@% of the economy, and investors aren't spending until the consumers will, then the government has to be the kick-start for the economy.

His rather Keynesian idea is that the way to fix the economy is to use government debt to give money to consumers in the form of infrastructure jobs. We should spend lots on infrastructure (you remember those crumbling roads, bridges, levees, ports, and trains?) which will have dual benefit of boosting the economy and making the economy better in the future (by way of better infrastructure).

It's elegant in its simplicity. There's more, but Prof. Reich does it better than I, so read the link above. Funny enough, this spring in Prof. Reich's class, I was tasked with putting together a public policy plan, and it was just this.

Here's one of my favorite No on Prop 8 vids. There's a bunch of them out there:


Oh, and other one? Priceless.

"I totally gotta Amend her!"



"She'd be even better with a little discrimination in her. You know what I mean?"

I'm taking a quick break from mid-term studies to remind y'all:

Alameda County voters can check their registration status online: http://www.acgov.org/rov/voter_reg_lookup.htm

If you're concerned, if you don't know, even if you're just curious to see if it works, check it out.

(It worked for me, but it just confirmed what I had inferred when I got my sample ballot in the mail.)

loupyone posted a cool youtube video encouraging people to vote, or not vote. Anyway, it made me curious. How many of us vote? This is a totally non-scientific self-selecting poll, so the data are useless on a large scale, but I'm still curious. I'll collect the data and provide the percentages, but otherwise the poll is confidential. If I knew how to make it anonymous, I would.

Anyway, here goes.

[Poll #1270701]

Not if you want to stay out of jail, anyway:

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/125968.html

Your tax dollars at work.

Found on democracyinusa.
x-posted to war_on_error

From Harper's Index for October 2006:

Minimum amount of USDA farm subsidies since 2000 that have been paid out to people who do not farm: $1,300,000,000

Minimum value of “small business” contracts given out by the U.S. last year that went to Fortune 500 firms: $1,200,000,000

Dairy Industry Crushed Innovator Who Bested Price-Control System

I get really frustrated when folks claim that our socio-cultural-economic system rewards people who work hard and punishes layabouts. Many people who self-identify as conservatives rail against 'the Welfare state', even as they support initiatives that provide government assistance to those (rather, companies who purchase their candidates of choice) unable to compete in the market without help. Cornel West describes some of these people as free-market fundamentalists. At first I thought this was a misnomer, as these free-market fundamentalists don't hew to a strict view of the free market, where each actor has an equal chance in the market to face off against his or her competitors. Then I realized that 'fundamentalist' means less a fundamental interpretation of the intent of the original concept, and more a personal interpretation about how to self-justify one's own prejudice, nevermind the consequence. Just like much other fundamentalism, really.

It's not fair. While Jon Carroll was away on vacation, he managed to do something I've been dreaming of for almost a year now, but have yet to achieve. I'm not bitter, but Jon Carroll made it on to Bill O'Reilly's enemies list. Those media types get all the breaks.