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Californians have this myth that somehow we're smarter and more sophisticated than the rest of the country. But there's many exceptions to that rule. Take our cartoon character Governator, for example. Take him, please!
His friends at Enron figured celebrity worship was their winning strategy. Ahnold got an ego massage, but they save real bucks. First rule of politics, follow the money.
Perhaps we're seeing the beginning of a wake up call. Yes, the world can't wait to drive these crooks out!
Okay, now for my recommendations for November. Short work. This unnecessary $70 million election is mostly full of really easy choices
Proposition 73 - Waiting period for teen abortions - NO!
Never knew fathers who sleep with their daughters had such a good lobby...maybe this could be entitled the "Power to the Incestuous Act"? This initiative is just so creepy, it's beyond belief. It makes the government an accomplice to child abuse. Daughters actually are not property, and that's the philosophical basis for this. If a teen can't tell her parents about an unwanted pregnancy, I think we can safely figure there's a good reason for that.
But maybe unwanted children make great cannon fodder???
Unbelievable, this one...simply put, women will die if it passes. Can we be any more clear???
Proposition 74 - Teacher tenure - NO!
Here's an idea - for better schools, support classroom teachers. We certainly do need to fire some "educators" - there's a huge population of overpaid administrators and consultants and testing firms and seminar companies and other campaign money laundering organizations we can do without. You see them at the Palm Springs Hilton attending seminars on "Financial Crisis".
This initiative leaves them alone. It just piles more on to the classroom teachers, the vast majority of whom are already working harder than you do any day of the week. So maybe they quit. Maybe the schools fall apart. Maybe the last administrators sign up for that seminar on "Negotiating Golden Parachutes During Financial Crisis".
Maybe if more money and less bullshit actually went into the classroom, we'd have better schools.
Sponsors of this initiative actually want to destroy public education and replace it with some kind of serf training thing. Their kids go to private school, anyway.
After all, educated people (honest ones, anyway) don't vote Republican.
Proposition 75 - Public employee union dues - No
I have a confession to make. I almost voted yes on this one. I don't check off the public financing box on my income tax, simply because I do give real money to real candidates and causes from time to time. I like the direct approach. I don't give to United Way or the Red Cross either.
The idea here, though, isn't workers being forced to pay for political campaigns they don't believe in. The commercials saying that are what you can call "lies". It's all simply (ho hum) political...obviously any organization gets more cash if their members have to opt out instead of in, as people have this tendency not to respond at all, either way.
This is mainly another attack on the teachers, who tend to be the good guys. I wish it only affected the prison guards union, who are in fact slimeballs. Whatever. At the end I came down on the no side.
Proposition 76 - School funding budget cuts and power grab - NO!
Very simple. Ahnold must have had a traumatic encounter with a teacher as a child, because he sure is going after the schools. See comment about educated people not voting Republican, above. There's a budget crisis because the cost of everyone watching everyone else all the time is really high, and doesn't even work anyway. Prisons, bureaucrats, water subsidies, half the tree is low-hanging fruit ripe for budget cutting, or people stealing us blind who do belong in prison. We wouldn't even have to raise taxes. Do I have to do this myself? Okay, I'll vote yes but only if I get to be the governor...
On second thought, nah.
Proposition 77 - Reapportionment - No
In the old days politicians had just a vague idea about how to gerrymander districts. Now they have computers, and very smart demographic consultants. The art of gerrymandering has become a science.
I will admit I have very little insight on how to solve this. Looks like no one's neutral, least of all me. Right now the Democratic incumbents gerrymandered the districts, which may or may not be infinitesimally better than Republicans gerrymandering districts. At least voting no keeps money away from the demographic consultants for a while...
Proposition 78 - Prescription drug discounts (fake) - NO
Proposition 79 - Prescription drug discounts (marginally better)
- Yes
Hey, my first "yes".
Problem is, we need national health insurance. The rest of this is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Perhaps government funded researchers and universities set up to develop and test drugs, and then license companies to manufacture them at cost. Right now once they have the patents...how much would you pay not to die! A lot!? (High fives all around).
This is another new trend where slimeballs try to confuse voters by putting out their own toothless version of the initiative they're fighting. But we're not that dumb, right?
Proposition 80 - Electric service regulation - Yes
Sometimes I wonder whether energy companies spend more money on lawyers and lobbyists than they do producing energy. Set up an incredibly complex regulatory system, then game it. Full employment for consultants.
My solution: all the pot smokers get out of prison, leaving lots of room for energy traders. We put them on treadmills, they generate power. The sun sets happily in the west.
Regulations are the last thrashings of our energy consuming society. Good skills for the future: firestarting, sailing, horseback riding. This initiative may be more of that deck chair on the Titanic thing, but whatever...yes...
"There'll never be peace 'till we run out of grease, and that's why I drive a V-8!" - Jerry Hannan
Other people who sometimes agree with me: