Long And Boring, No Pictures, How I'm Voting

I would never tell anyone how to vote, BUT I will provide you with how I'm voting in case you aren't up to date on all the issues and are easily swayed. I highlited the ones that are especially important, which you should definately agree with me on.

President: Obvi Barak Obama

State of California:
Prop 1A High Speed Rail: Yes
It's controversial because of the bad financial timing but I truly believe CA needs a high speed rail system. It will def save us all environmentally, in transportation construciton costs and just straight up monitarily when we travel.

Prop 2: Standards for Confining Farm Animals: Yes
Please vote yes for this, whether you eat meat or not I think we can all agree that we need to hold ourselves to a certain standard of humanity. I know a lot of people are saying it's going to put CA farmers out of business but that's what they said about seat belts too.
If you vote NO please don't tell me, I'll be upset.

Prop 3 Children's Hospital: Yes
Yes it's a ton of money but it's state money coming to Oakland Children's Hospital and as I will elaborate on later, Oakland is broke. If you live in Oakland you should vote for this measure. Plus, the children.

Prop 4 Parental Waiting Period for Minors Having Abortions: No
Sorry I just think we don't need more restrictions on our reproductive rights, even if you are a minor.

Prop 5 Non Violent Drug Offenses: Yes
Creates more programs for non violent drug offenders as an alternative to prison. Not only is it humane but it's one of the few propositions that will actually save CA money. Lots of money.

Prop 6 Police Funding: No
Set's a minimum amount to spend on cops per year. I think it's crazy to lock down so much money when the state's in a budget crisis.

Prop 7 Renewable Energy: No
If every environmental group in the country is against it, you should be too

Prop 8 Gay Marriage: NO
You must vote no on this, or we are not friends. We should not be in the business of taking away civil rights. This is based on fear and, I'm just going to say it, EVIL!

Prop 9 Victim's Rights in Parole: Abstain
I don't know enough about this one and it's really hard to balance the civil rights of the criminal with the basic rights of the victim. Sorry, I just don't know.

Prop 10 Alternative Fuels: No
It throws money all over the place, including helping people buy hybrids. Dumb use of funds

Prop 11 Redistricting: Yes
Right now our districts are drawn by the people who represent them creating a system where incumbents are elected 99% of the time. This prop will create a bi partisan commission chosen by lottery and overseen by lawyers. It's just fair.

Prop 12 Vetran's Bond Act: Abstain
I can't vote against vetrans, but I can't vote for such a huge expenditure of money. Sorry vetrans.


City of Oakland:
I have no knowleged of any of the supervisors or judges or school board members, sorry I usually just don't vote for them.

Measure N - No
This is the one that supposedly gives more money to teachers, but I find it to be vaguely worded and honestly, I'm sorry but Oakland has no money for anything, including teachers. Sorry.

Measure NN - abstain
This one's a parcel tax to hire more police officers and update our crime labs. Obvi we need that but I'm just against allocating funds from the ballot box.

Measure OO - No
This one would fund after school programs which I'm also very pro but again, Oakland has no $$$ and I don't believe now is the time for voters to be hamstringing the budget.

Measure VV - Yes
This is a parcel tax fund MUNI. Though there will be output of money in the beginning I believe this will save us money in the future, environmentally, in road construction and in taxes since MUNI is a vital link for many people and their work.

Measure WW - Yes
This one creates a bond (that's repayable) to extend the East Bay Regional Park District. It seems frivolous to fund this expansion except beyond the benefits, EBRPD has proven to leverage bond money with a super low cost to tax payers. However it's still more funding that I believe legislators should be in charge of apropriating.

WTF is up With Voting on Tuesdays????

I mean, it's so dumb right??? We all have to work on Tuesdays which means you either have to go to the polling place before work which, like my own reality show, is not going to happen, or you have to go after work.

After work in November it's dark, and there's a lot of dudes who hang out on the corner of Telegraph and 40th streets, between me and my polling place, who seek the attention of young females. Like myself.

Duh, I'm obvi going to vote regardless, but that's because politics are an all consuming occupation for me. If I was less interested and maybe smart enough to figure out that my electronic ballot was just going to be thrown out anyway, I might not want to put in the effort.

SO...WTF is up with voting on Tuesdays?? Most other developed countries vote over the weekend, why are we so persecuted?

Well apparently it made perfect sense in 1845 when our founding white dudes in Congress decided that Tuesday was the day. According to this op-ed in the NYTimes: To understand the decision Congress made that year, let’s imagine ourselves as members of early agrarian American society. Saturday was for farming, Sunday was the Lord’s day, Monday was required for travel to the county seat where the polling places were, Tuesday you voted, Wednesday you returned home, and Thursday it was back to work.

I mean, nothing else has changed since 1845 right? We still own slaves, don't have toilets, wear wool stockings in Summer and have open sewers in the streets. So why should we change any of our mentally disabled election laws???
Gawd!