Needless to say I’m voting Democratic in the State and Federal elections. Here is how I plan to vote/support on ballot issues and local elections.

Statewide Ballot Issues:

1A.-1E.:
I now work in a municipal public works department and I know how stretched local communitie are trying to make capital improvements given the dollars they currently have. I’m also happy that there will be more (though still not enough) for public transportation.

Prop 83: Yes
Prop 84: Yes
Prop 85: NO NO NO
Prop 86: Yes (Sorry smokers)
Prop 87: Yes
Prop 88: Yes
Prop 89: Yes
Prop 90: No

Local Elections:

Board of Education:
Dan Kelly
Bob Twomey
Jane Kim

Supervisor District 2: Undecided
Supervisor District 4: Doug Chan
Supervisor District 8: Alix Amelia
Supervisor District 6: Rob Black
Supervisor District 10: Sophie Maxwell
BART Director: Emily Drennen
College Board: Undecided

City Ballot Issues:
A: Yes
B: No
C: No
D: Yes
E: No

F: Undecided
This is a tough call for me and one for which I would appreciate any input. On one hand, paid sick leave should be a basic right. On the
other hand, I know there are many small businesses that truly operate right at the margins, and I worry about the consequences of
such a policy. What does everyone think?

G: No
H: Yes
J. YES YES YES
K: Yes

Ok, that where I stand as of tonight. I welcome all opinions, suggestion, criticism or general rant you may have about what I wrote. Before I stop, I want to than SF For Democray for putting on the canssidates forum yesterday on Fillmore. I thought I knew who I was going to support and who I would not support, but watching the
candiates changed my mind in several instances. I wound up supporting Green candidates for School Board and BART Board. I also learned that Jaynry Mak is as vacant as Fiona Ma and Hydra Mendoza’s tenure in the Mayor’s office did NOT prepare her for the School
Board, IMHO. 😉

(X-posted at GovernorPhil.com)

Folks, folks, let’s get back to the subject at hand here.

Apparantly the Schwarzenegger campaign, like many elected officials don’t have the slightest understanding of computers.

What they hope is that the press, on the whole, doesn’t either. And sadly, in many cases that is true. The cries and  whining about “hacking”, and whining and crying they are, are preposterous. To these idiots world, anything vaguely involving computers that they don’t like is hacking. I work in IT, and i’m damn good at it, to say the grounds they are talking about is shaky is giving it far, far too much credence.

Let’s get back on point now.
There are the same apologists that always say “What’s the big deal?” everytime somebody makes a racist and stereotyping remark. Everybody is just being “too pc” and should lighten up.

Here’s why the “hot blooded” thing makes a difference.

“All jews are cheap.” “All blacks are dumb.” “All Muslims are terrorists.”

Neither of these statements are true, and if somebody said them, they would be rightfully harrangued as a racist and a fool, perhaps a dangerous one.

It’s a stereotype, and repeating the myth doesn’t make it go away it reinforces it, moreover it shows true character. Just like George Allen’s ties to the KKK and other hate groups.

Character matters.
Everybody seems, for some reason, to be buying the acting job that Arnold is a moderate now,
It reminds of the David Cross bit about Trent Lott making racist statements at Strom Thurmond’s 768th birthday. He goes on BET and apologizes:

“Well first of all… I didn’t know them microphones were on.”

The guy is sleazy, plain and simple… to be fair, it doesn’t matter if he said it in private, it really doesn’t even matter if the woman in question wasn’t offended.

I. DON’T. CARE

Because it’s not about that statement, or that person, it’s character.

Immediately after Arnold made some racist and steretyping statements, suddenly the right wing pundits and blogosphere started thumping their chest and talking about procedure and process… HOW did somebody get this conversation? The content itself is absolutely irrelevant.

Why is that the real issue?
Because the pundit class says it is? Because they are too damn lazy to any kind of research.
(see Joe Lieberman’s website being “hacked” for that)

Perhaps Arnold should call in some plumbers to fix the leak, like his hero Richard nixon.
Anyway it’s always nice seeing some Democrats tripping all over themselves to defend the Governor.

(Willie Brown i’m talking to you.)

And Media outlets, do your damn job for once and do some investigative reporting would you.

thanks in advance.

-C.

( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

(cross-posted on dailykos)

Why is that every big primary day we hear about massive problems with electronic voting machine?  The easy answer is that the machines are crap and our electoral system is a mess.   This quote from President Jimmy Carter says it all:

Terry GROSS: One of the things you do with your Carter Center is to monitor elections around the world, and you’ve monitored over 50 elections around the world. We are facing a US presidential election here and I’m wondering if America was a foreign country and it had asked you to monitor the election, would it meet your criteria. Could you monitor the American elections if you were asked?

Mr. CARTER: No. We wouldn’t think of it. The American political system wouldn’t measure up to any sort of international standard for several reasons.

Luckily, here in California we have a real champion for election protection/reform in Debra Bowen.  She has a long history of fighting the good fight, going back to her freshman year in the Assembly, where she authored bills pushing for permanent absentee voting and campaign contribution limits.  This year she has authored 10 separate pieces of legislation, six of which are waiting Schwarzenegger’s signature.

The difference between Bowen and her oppenent McPherson could not be more stark.  Take for example Bowen’s bill SB 1062, which would expand the “Safe At Home” program to include sexual assault victims.  The program, as it currently stands, only allows domestic violence and stalking victims to enroll in this confidential address program, which allows people to receive mail at confidential address set up and maintained by the Secretary of State.  The program costs the state a couple hundred thousand dollars a year to maintain.

What was McPherson’s response to this expansion proposal?  How about demanding an additional $9.8 million to administrate the program.  Absolutely ridiculous.  This bill is sitting on the governor’s desk and Bowen is hopeful he will sign it.

Sen. Debra Bowen is one of those rare creatures in California Democratic politics, a person who inspires us.  I can’t tell you how many activists I have met who positively light up when her name is mentioned.  During the primary between her and  Deborah Ortiz no pollster seemed to be able to grasp the base of support that Bowen had.  I didn’t quite get it myself until I saw the two of them speak at the CA Democratic Convention this spring.  I have never seen so much cheering for a voter verified paper trail in my life.  Bowen of course thrashed Ortiz 60-40 in the primary.  Now she needs our help in the general.

Last night I had the pleasure of being on a blogger conference call with Debra.  She and the staff assured us that they plan on coming back to the kos and diaring again soon.  You can read her past diaries here.

Right now, what they could really use are a few good parties.  The campaign is hosting house parties on Thursday.  Click the graphic for more information.  Anyone hosting a party will have the opportunity to join Bowen on a conference call.  If you can’t make a party, you can always contribute on ActBlue.  I just chipped in another donation today on the Calitics ActBlue page.  The CRaP may well be pushng some cash into this race, given the wingnuttery of the majority of the Republican ticket.

Debra said last night she reads dkos and other blogs on a regular basis.  I can’t guarantee it, but am pretty damn certain she will read this post, so feel free to leave her messages in the comments section.  This will be a netroots fueled campaign.  Do what you can to help.  Pass the word on Debra to your social networks.  Signup for her email list.  Find out more about Sen. Bowen at her campaign site.