October 25, 2010

Voter Guide!

The happiest time of the year. The time when I tell you how to vote.

Proposition 19. Pot Legalization. Sure its not the best-written law ever. That's what happens when pot-heads write your law. Yes it will provoke the Feds. But that's part of the fun. Drug laws need to change in this Country. Marijuana is the place to start. California is the place to start. The Chant Recommends YES.

Proposition 20. Redistictring. Add Congressional districts to the citizen's redistricting commission that passed the last time around. Helps to cut down on politicos drawing their own safe districts. Why weren't Congressional districts included in the first go-around? Because the Proposition process is a bad way to do business. But you should still vote for this. The Chant Recommends YES.

Proposition 21. License Charge for Park Funding. This one is 18 extra bucks on your car registration to fund State parks. State parks have been taking it on the chin in the budget mess and we have too many cars in California anyway. The Chant Recommends YES.

Proposition 22. Ban the State from taking money from local districts. Just what we need, more restrictions on how money gets spent in California. Because the budget process isn't hard enough as it is. Taking money from the locals isn't my favorite budget move, but if you won't raise taxes and want to keep the prisons open, you need to take local transportation money. If there isn't any money, you can't pass a Proposition to keep spending money. The Chant Recommends NO.

Proposition 23. Suspends Climate Change Law. God, I hate Propositions. This is from the oil companies. Its a law to let them keep what they are doing, screwing the planet to make more money. The line about jobs is total crap. Look, energy jobs are jobs no matter what kind of energy is being made. You can make money drilling for oil or by installing solar panels. We need laws the encourage the latter, so we don't all die of thirst in a 100 years. The Chant Recommends NO.

Proposition 24. Cancels tax cuts for Corporations. Somehow, in the middle of a massive budget shortfall the Leg passed billions in tax cuts for big companies. That's a shortfall that gets paid for by cuts to education, roads, and everything else the State pays for. Time to spread the pain to our betters. The Chant Recommends YES.

Proposition 25. Ends two-thirds requirement to pass budget. Oh hell yes. The two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget is the worse procedure in government. You want a budget passed on time? Then make it easier to pass a budget. The Chant Recommends YES.

Proposition 26. Require two-thirds vote to pass fees. Oh hell no. We've been over this before. You require a two-thirds vote on things you don't want to pass ever. This Prop would make it impossible to require that polluters pay for the damage they cause. Fees are good things. They pay for stuff, and they get paid for by the people who make needing the stuff happen. The Chant Recommends No.

Proposition 27. End the Redistricting Commission. This one ends the Redistricting Commission that got approved last election before it draws its first district boundary. Why is it on the ballot the same time as a measure to expand the Commission's mandate? Because the Proposition system in California is really screwed up. The Chant Recommends No.

So to review: Pot good. Two-Third Vote Requirements Bad. Fees good. Oil companies bad. Propositions bad.

Any questions?

October 20, 2010

My Cross-Post Moment of Zen

The other blog that I write for, Questionable Stoppage, covers mixed marital arts and fighting. I naturally assumed there would be little cross-over between that and this. However:





For you political only types, baldy is Dana White, President of the UFC and the biggest fight promoter in the world. Mohawk is Chuck "The Ice Man" Lidell, legendary MMA fighter. Reid is currenty in the (political) fight of his (political) life and the election is just a couple of weeks away. White and Lidell showed up to help Reid out at a Get-Out-the-Vote rally.


Here are the White and Reid voting:




This may be the only time in the history of both blogs I can put the same post up on both. Hat tip to Cage Potato for the pics.

October 19, 2010

A History All Thier Own

Media Matters has put together an entire alternative history based on Glenn Beck's version of events. My favorite:
1787: Constitution's drafters include $10 tax on persons "imported" into country to teach immigrants the "value" of being American.

This exercise is useful to show how much of a parallel universe Beck has created. The gap between the conservative and the real grow ever further apart.

October 18, 2010

What The Hell?

So Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller had his private security "arrest" a local blogger/reporter at a public event. Apparently, under Miller's version of the Constitution, you can't have Medicare or a minimum wag but you can have your own private security force haul reporters away in handcuff if you don't like the questions they ask. Apparently Joe Miller loves the Constitution so much that it does whatever Joe Miller wants. The Constitution makes illegal everything Joe Miller doesn't like and gives Joe Miller all the power he wants.

October 11, 2010

Free Peter Diamond!

One of Obama's nominee's to the Federal Reserve, Peter Diamond, just won the Nobel Prize in economics. He is currently blocked from taking his seat, because Alabama Senator Richard Shelby is a dick.

October 10, 2010

This Post

Will be posted at 10:10 pm on the tenth of October, 2010.

That is all.

October 7, 2010

Everyone is a Hypocrite!

Just like every single anti-gay public figure out there seems to be picking up dudes in bathrooms and hiring out "rent boys" all anti-immigration spokespeople will eventually be shown to have hired undocumented immigrants. Its only a matter of time.

October 6, 2010

So Not Worth It

Meg Whitman has spent 140 million dollars in her run for Govenor of California. This staggering amount, combined with a scandle over hireing a undocumented maid, equals...being down a couple of points to Jerry Brown, who has spent only 11 million. Guess where the poll were at the start of the year? Jerry Brown was ahead by a couple of points. Meg Whitman could have bought a couple more jets, or bought the whole State a couple of rounds, or used the money to fund, say, job programs in California. Instead she spent it all on a race she's going to lose.

October 1, 2010

Rahm Leaves

You know, I find this kind of refreshing. Rahm has always been very straightforward about wanting to be Mayor of Chicago, and the opportunity presented itself, and he's going for it. He never made a false front about not wanting the job, or acting reluctant, or pretending to not be ambitious. That's got to count for something.