{"id":860,"date":"2008-10-28T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-28T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bobtherieau.com\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/10\/28\/2008-10-28-jaunty-election-guide-html\/"},"modified":"2018-06-13T01:27:22","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T01:27:22","slug":"2008-10-28-jaunty-election-guide-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bobtherieau.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/2008-10-28-jaunty-election-guide-html\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaunty Election Guide!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-src=\"v5\">\n<p>My Friends (sorry about that&#8230;),<\/p>\n<p>I know everybody worries about what I think when it comes to the vote for California&#8217;s bazillion ballot propositions. Usually, my rule is simple&mdash;no new bond measures and stop amending the Constitution. That stance is overly simplistic, I admit, and this year I&#8217;ve reconsidered my position for a <strike>single proposition<\/strike> couple propositions. You&#8217;ll have to read on to catch the subtle clues&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Prop 1A &#8211; Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act:<\/b> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov\/title-sum\/prop1a-title-sum.htm\" target=\"_blank\">This one is first on the list<\/a> and a dizzying brew of magical thinking combined with not so much. Get this, this measure asks voters to approve $9.95 billion in general obligation bond sales that the state can&#8217;t afford AND hopes that the feds will pitch in (you may have noticed they don&#8217;t have any spare cash either) along with private investors (who&#8217;ve slammed their checkbooks shut right about now). It doesn&#8217;t even require that a train system gets built. We just need to think about it and hire consultants! Whee! I&#8217;m sure these cats can spend the cash at way over 220 MPH.<\/li>\n<li><b><font color=\"green\">Prop 2 &#8211; Standards for Confining Farm Animals:<\/font><\/b> Farm animals <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov\/title-sum\/prop2-title-sum.htm\" target=\"_blank\">get to get out of their cubicles<\/a>, stretch their legs, have a smoke break (I made that last part up). Opponents say that this will force California farmers to pack it in, with the void filled by dangerous salmonella-tainted Mexican eggs! Boo! Look, this thing is gonna cost us money if it passes and I still think it&#8217;s worth doing. Would you pay extra for California cheese from truly happy California cows? Of course you would. It&#8217;s happier.<\/li>\n<li><b>Prop 3 &#8211; Children&#8217;s Hospital Bond Act:<\/b> No more bonds. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov\/title-sum\/prop3-title-sum.htm\" target=\"_blank\">These guys want $980 million<\/a> to give to children&#8217;s hospitals. They haven&#8217;t spent the money from the last bonds. But hey, it&#8217;s about the children, right? Right?<\/li>\n<li><b>Prop 4 &#8211; Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor&#8217;s Pregnancy<\/b> Wow. You could say that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov\/title-sum\/prop4-title-sum.htm\" target=\"_blank\">this is about<\/a> chipping away at privacy rights and you&#8217;d be right. You could also say that minors needn&#8217;t be afforded those rights. Patient&#8217;s rights versus parent&#8217;s rights versus danger of retaliation. I still have no idea what to do with this one because I&#8217;m wholly unqualified to judge.<\/li>\n<li><b>Prop 5 &#8211; Nonviolent Drug Offenses. Sentencing, Parole and Rehabilitation:<\/b> This saves the state some money by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov\/title-sum\/prop5-title-sum.htm\" target=\"_blank\">kicking folks out of the penal system early<\/a> to rehabilitate. We&#8217;ve got a big problem funding the huge prison system in this state, but shouldn&#8217;t folks convicted of crimes punishable by prison time spend their time in prison? Isn&#8217;t it supposed to be unpleasant? I&#8217;m not sold on this one.<\/li>\n<li><b>Prop 6 &#8211; Police and Law Enforcement Funding. Criminal Penalties and Laws:<\/b> Following on Prop 5, this one <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov\/title-sum\/prop6-title-sum.htm\" target=\"_blank\">seems to be designed<\/a> to scare everybody and pigeonhole funds for cops while upping penalties for certain crimes while creating new ones. C&#8217;mon, guys. Aren&#8217;t we a little smarter than to fall for this bunk?<\/li>\n<li><b>Prop 7 &#8211; Renewable Energy Generation:<\/b> Requires <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov\/title-sum\/prop7-title-sum.htm\" target=\"_blank\">certain percentages<\/a> of renewable sources in the electricity mix. The Union of Concerned Scientists isn&#8217;t feeling the love here for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ucsusa.org\/clean_energy\/solutions\/renewable_energy_solutions\/no-on-CA-prop-7.html\" target=\"_blank\">many reasons<\/a>, but I heard only one statistic that made sense to me&mdash;this calls for 20% renewables by 2010. We&#8217;re at 10% now so it&#8217;s hard to believe that the 20% target is even attainable. There are noncompliance penalties, but I&#8217;m guessing Edison, PG&#038;E or SDG&#038;E aren&#8217;t going to absorb them, will they?<\/li>\n<li><b>Prop 8 &#8211; Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry:<\/b> Maybe <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov\/title-sum\/prop8-title-sum.htm\" target=\"_blank\">just call it<\/a> the &#8220;I hate the gays&#8221; amendment. Hating? Bad. Amending the constitution <i>again<\/i>? Stupid. Thanks for nothing, dimwit right wing bigots.<\/li>\n<li><b>Prop 9 &#8211; Criminal Justice System. Victim&#8217;s Rights. Parole:<\/b> Most of this is already covered in those silly laws. Not good enough! Somebody needs to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov\/title-sum\/prop9-title-sum.htm\" target=\"_blank\">amend the Constitution<\/a> to drive the point home. How about no?<\/li>\n<li><b>Prop 10 &#8211; Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy Bonds: <\/b> I&#8217;ve heard this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/opinion\/ci_10787599\" target=\"_blank\">called<\/a> the &#8220;T. Boone Pickens Bailout Act&#8221; by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov\/title-sum\/prop10-title-sum.htm\" target=\"_blank\">selling bonds<\/a> (that we still can&#8217;t afford) to give folks cash for natural gas cars and <i>research<\/i>! That&#8217;s a lot of new cash out of the General Fund, eh?<\/li>\n<li><b><font color=\"green\">Prop 11 &#8211; Redistricting:<\/font><\/b> Opponents of Prop 11 have ads up trying to frighten voters with the idea that this <i>constitutional amendment<\/i> will establish an independent board to draw legislative districts every decade. That&#8217;s not a bug, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov\/title-sum\/prop11-title-sum.htm\" target=\"_blank\">that&#8217;s a feature<\/a>! A commissioner is selected based on specific criteria, then by random drawing. Not a legislator drawing his or her own safe district boundaries! Again, a feature. If you vote in favor of one thing, if you hold out hope that the process can potentially ever be fixed, this is the last best hope. I think we should take a chance on it.<\/li>\n<li><b><font color=\"green\">Prop 12 &#8211; Veterans&#8217; Bond Act of 2008:<\/font><\/b> This is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov\/title-sum\/prop12-title-sum.htm\" target=\"_blank\">only bond measure<\/a> that actually has the beneficiaries pay for it. And who do we saddle with the bill? Veterans, fer crissakes. We shouldn&#8217;t have to do anything like that. In my perfect world, veterans get whatever they need on a silver plate. Sadly, this world isn&#8217;t perfect, but $900 million seems cheap to provide loans for vets to buy homes and farms in the state. Hell, they might even raise herds of happy cows.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So go vote, won&#8217;t you? What are you waiting for?<\/p>\n<p>Your pal,<\/p>\n<p>bob<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My Friends (sorry about that&#8230;), I know everybody worries about what I think when it comes to the vote for California&#8217;s bazillion ballot propositions. Usually, my rule is simple&mdash;no new bond measures and stop amending the Constitution. That stance is overly simplistic, I admit, and this year I&#8217;ve reconsidered my position for a single proposition &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bobtherieau.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/2008-10-28-jaunty-election-guide-html\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Jaunty Election Guide!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,12,18],"class_list":["post-860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-elections","tag-politics","tag-punditry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobtherieau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobtherieau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobtherieau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobtherieau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobtherieau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bobtherieau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1035,"href":"https:\/\/bobtherieau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions\/1035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobtherieau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobtherieau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobtherieau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}