Yeninko of the Umlaut

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Election

I’m not sure my life can get more convenient. As you may know I have a laundry to the right of my apartment and to the left is a grocery. Not only that but when I looked up my local polling place it turns out it is actually right next door in the grocery store.

I’ve voted today and I look forward to the results. In case you care I voted thusly.

Proposition 73
Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor's Pregnancy. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.

I voted NAY on this one because I’m not about to redefine life in the State Constitution.

Proposition 74
Public School Teachers. Waiting Period for Permanent Status. Dismissal. Initiative Statute.

I voted NAY Only because I feel like this is payback by the Governor. I think I might vote for it if it comes up as part of a larger education referendum.

Proposition 75
Public Employee Union Dues. Restrictions on Political Contributions. Employee Consent Requirement. Initiative Statute.

I voted NAY . If you don’t want to support the unions political objectives you are free to not join the union. Additionally, if you are in the union, you get to determine how your funds are spent through political means. And lastly if feels like BS since it only applies to unions that are made of government employees. What is that all about?

Proposition 76
State Spending and School Funding Limits. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.

Yea, I voted NAY on this one. A silly power grab by the Governor.

Proposition 77
Redistricting. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.

A toughie but I voted YEA on this. I realize this is probably a ploy by Republicans to try to get some sort of chance of gain seats both within the sate and federal government. Currently the California legislature determines the districts and since it is, and has been, democratically control for the last many decades what I feel has happened is that the Democrats and the legislature (which are the same thing). This means that the people getting elected are determining the dirstricts taht are electing them. This is where the word gerrymander comes from. So Prop 77 seems like a far way to determine voting districts which will probably mean a few more Republican districts, which I think is generally a bad thing but over all I think we should maintain a sense of fairness in the political realm.

Proposition 78
Discounts on Prescription Drugs. Initiative Statute.

I voted NAY on this bit of corporate appeasement.

Proposition 79
Prescription Drug Discounts. State-Negotiated Rebates. Initiative Statute.

I voted YEA for some a bit of real change.

Proposition 80
Electric Service Providers. Regulation. Initiative Statute.

Again this was hard to decide, but I voted YEA on this one.

I'm going to apologize right now for my spelling/grammer but I've become a total lightweight and as a result I'm feeling quite the buzz of one homebrew. Happy election everyone.

4 Comments:

  • Nice breakdown on the redistricting. I was with you until 79 an 80. 79 seems really scetchy to me. I can't decide if this is corporate welfare, or a just an attempt to make california the drug dealer of the U.S. 80 has some nice environmental stuff in it. We gotta get off the oil, but this scared me a bit: "Imposes restrictions on electricity customers’ ability to switch from private utilities to other electric providers." What is that supposed to mean?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:03 PM  

  • 79 just applies economies of scale to drug purchases by the state. The state negotiates a fair price with drug companies that are Medi-Cal customers. The idea is that if individual hospitals have to negotiate it will cost more than if the whole state does. 80 just sets things up as they were before deregulation, before enron and brownout. THe Public Utilities Commission would oversee all power disributers in the state and it promots renewable energy. Whcih is all moot since EVERY messure failed. So there is $30 million of our money wasted.

    By Blogger Yen, at 8:11 AM  

  • For those of us whose local newspaper only says that "governer Swarzenigger's four initiatives failed to pass", what passed and what didn't?

    Stanza

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:33 AM  

  • All 8 failed to pass. The guvs four were 74-77. Ultimately this is why this was a total waste. Not one passed so there was no real point in spending all that money. Having said that they unions spent $100 defending themselves from 74 & 75, which is a ton of cash. A couple more wins like that and they'll be bankrupt.

    By Blogger Yen, at 10:44 AM  

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