Entry tags:
Pre-Election Reading
The election is looking quite good for Democrats. McCain is horribly down in the polls, McCain continues to make remarks that alienate supporters and make decent people cringe, Palin continues to run on her real small town America platform while spending several times an average American's annual salary on clothes, Republicans are jumping ship, one of the only guys to survive membership in the Bush administration with his popularity intact endorses Obama (watch the speech, it's great), and the endorsements keep coming.
So of course we're bracing for the worst. Which may be justified, with voting machines flipping votes, partisan purging of voter registrations, and a determined effort to make this the dirtiest campaign ever. Obama remains calm as always, though.
I've been looking over the ballot for my area. The only opposed race, aside from the presidential election, is the senate race in which John Kerry is up for reelection. I still have a low opinion of Kerry after the 2004 election, not just for running a poor campaign, but also for wimping out after the election instead of insisting that every vote be counted accurately. Given that I was voting in Ohio at the time, I think I'm justified in taking that one personally. I'm toying with the idea of supporting the eccentric Libertarian candidate instead, although his position on the issues is probably farther from mine than Kerry's, there are some other advantages to getting more third-party candidates in congress. It's sort of a moot point, though, since Kerry's basically guaranteed to win.
In addition, there are a few ballot questions. At the state level:
1. Abolish the state income tax. NO, obviously, that's an incredibly rash move considering that the state government is already fiscally insolvent. Would be (Chinese curse) interesting to see it pass, though.
2. Decriminalize marijuana possession. YES, because throwing people in jail for possessing marijuana does more harm than good (previous discussion here).
3. Ban gambling on dog racing. NO, although this one was tough for me to decide and I may yet change my mind. Supporters (including the state chapter of the ASPCA, which I respect) say that the dogs are treated cruelly, opponents say the dogs are treated quite well. The law would cost jobs, and who knows what would happen to the racing dogs as a result. If animal cruelty is a problem, it would be better to tighten regulation as opposed to banning the sport entirely. I don't think racing animals in inherently cruel, no one's looking to ban horse racing for example.
There are also two non-binding local referenda (update: added link):
4. Instruct our state representative to support some resolution supporting a Federal resolution saying that we oppose laws that favor people of one religion over another and that means you too, Israel. NO. Although I agree with the sentiment, the "Israel is Apartheid" propaganda sent out by supporters makes me worry that it's thinly veiled antisemitism. Also, the question has so many levels of indirection as to be clearly useless. (Update: This question is the work of these guys, and further examination caused me to revise my position from "not decided" to "no".)
5. Instruct our state representative to support an amendment to the state constitution which replaces the elected state legislature with "The Commonwealth Jury": 100 citizens, randomly selected every year, with all the powers of the old legislature. Not decided, sounds rash, but is a really interesting idea. (Update: I've decided this one merits further consideration. A supporter of the initiative discusses it here.)
So of course we're bracing for the worst. Which may be justified, with voting machines flipping votes, partisan purging of voter registrations, and a determined effort to make this the dirtiest campaign ever. Obama remains calm as always, though.
I've been looking over the ballot for my area. The only opposed race, aside from the presidential election, is the senate race in which John Kerry is up for reelection. I still have a low opinion of Kerry after the 2004 election, not just for running a poor campaign, but also for wimping out after the election instead of insisting that every vote be counted accurately. Given that I was voting in Ohio at the time, I think I'm justified in taking that one personally. I'm toying with the idea of supporting the eccentric Libertarian candidate instead, although his position on the issues is probably farther from mine than Kerry's, there are some other advantages to getting more third-party candidates in congress. It's sort of a moot point, though, since Kerry's basically guaranteed to win.
In addition, there are a few ballot questions. At the state level:
1. Abolish the state income tax. NO, obviously, that's an incredibly rash move considering that the state government is already fiscally insolvent. Would be (Chinese curse) interesting to see it pass, though.
2. Decriminalize marijuana possession. YES, because throwing people in jail for possessing marijuana does more harm than good (previous discussion here).
3. Ban gambling on dog racing. NO, although this one was tough for me to decide and I may yet change my mind. Supporters (including the state chapter of the ASPCA, which I respect) say that the dogs are treated cruelly, opponents say the dogs are treated quite well. The law would cost jobs, and who knows what would happen to the racing dogs as a result. If animal cruelty is a problem, it would be better to tighten regulation as opposed to banning the sport entirely. I don't think racing animals in inherently cruel, no one's looking to ban horse racing for example.
There are also two non-binding local referenda (update: added link):
4. Instruct our state representative to support some resolution supporting a Federal resolution saying that we oppose laws that favor people of one religion over another and that means you too, Israel. NO. Although I agree with the sentiment, the "Israel is Apartheid" propaganda sent out by supporters makes me worry that it's thinly veiled antisemitism. Also, the question has so many levels of indirection as to be clearly useless. (Update: This question is the work of these guys, and further examination caused me to revise my position from "not decided" to "no".)
5. Instruct our state representative to support an amendment to the state constitution which replaces the elected state legislature with "The Commonwealth Jury": 100 citizens, randomly selected every year, with all the powers of the old legislature. Not decided, sounds rash, but is a really interesting idea. (Update: I've decided this one merits further consideration. A supporter of the initiative discusses it here.)