PDA

View Full Version : The props have been terminated.


Ghoulish Delight
11-09-2005, 10:12 AM
Ding dong, the props are dead.

All of them. And this "special election" is officially a collosal waste of time and money. I can't say I'm not a little delighted at how much of a fool this makes Arny look. While I would have much rather this didn't go forward at all, from my perspective this is the best possible outcome.

This would have been the first time an election results mirrored exactly what I voted for, but at the last minute I decided to vote yes on 80 (energy re-regulation...never thought dereg was a good idea) even though I knew it had no chance.

But essentially, I voted no on everything as my little form of protest against this stupid special election. It helped that I would have voted no for all of them anyway, 'cause they sucked.

Neither of the perscription props seemed like they'd do any good. I have no desire to give the Governor (whomever it is) the amount of power over the budget that was propsed, and forgetting any debates over minors notifying their parents of abortions, I certainly wasn't going to vote for language defining abortion as "the killing of an unborn child" or whatever the exact wording was. Waaay too politically charged.

Even the local measures here faired poorly. The only thing in all of OC that passed was a Newport/Costa Mesa local measure that wasn't on my district's ballot. All 5 of the measures on my ballot were county ones, and man were they idiotic. 5 different agencies vying for a bigger cut of money from a propositon from a couple years back funneling state sales tax money to bolster homeland security. It was the most petty, and complicated, little web of money grabbing. And each of the 5 had complex caveats about which would take precedent should more than one pass. It was ridiculous, so I voted no on all of them because what the hell do I know about which one of these agencies deserves the money more than the others?

My brother in law said it best. He almost always votes no on any props because they are usually either poorly written, or written in a politically charged fashion as to make them hard to agree with, even if you agree with the principle. He plee was, "Why can't we just come up with a system where we elect people who write laws and vote them in for is?" ;)

Alex
11-09-2005, 11:12 AM
What I don't get is the special election whining. When Arnold was elected, he has several reforms in his stump speech. He said he would try to get them through the legislature and then if that failed he would come directly to the people with them.

He was elected. He actually did pretty much what he promised he would do (and several of the props played big roles in his stump speeches so they can't be called surprises).

I'm an opponent of the initiative and referendum process in totality (I always vote "no" on them regardless of the merits*) but this is another example of the people electing someone saying "I'll reform the system" and then punishing him for attempting to do so. We have a long history of this.

We like reform speeches but we don't like reform.



*Except for the redistricting one, I feel so strongly that this has to be done that I was willing to forego principal to see it come about through the initiative process.

Ghoulish Delight
11-09-2005, 11:16 AM
I didn't vote for him.

Prudence
11-09-2005, 11:38 AM
You don't vote for kings!

(Sorry! I can't help it! Blame Wendybeth!)

wendybeth
11-09-2005, 11:40 AM
I thought we were an autonomous collective.

Prudence
11-09-2005, 11:45 AM
ooh! That's right! Wendybeth's in WA. Howdja like the initiative returns? 912, 330, and 336 all headed down the drain! Yeehaw!

Alex
11-09-2005, 11:52 AM
I didn't vote for him.

I'm sure you didn't, but I'm not talking about you with my post, but the California voters as a whole. The last election produced a guy who promised to hold special elections if necessary to achieve the reforms he proposed.

Then when presented with that actually happening, the same collective group of people said "no, never mind" and "isn't this a waste of money?"

I'm sure it is just because most people didn't actually pay any attention the first time around but either way it doesn't make the governor look like an idiot, it makes the voters look like idiots.

Though I am sad to see that the teachers union didn't get the neutering they so richly deserve (even if I didn't vote yes on that proposition). At least it was fun watching them whine while it lasted. Now they can go back to destroying our children feeling all empowered and impervious. (I think teachers individually are wonderful things but that the unions have done more to damage education in this country than anything else save one thing.)

scaeagles
11-09-2005, 11:55 AM
(I think teachers individually are wonderful things but that the unions have done more to damage education in this country than anything else save one thing.)

Scaeagles bows, applauds, claps, cheers, mojos, gives kudos to, and does whatever other praising activity possible to this statement (but I am curious as to what the "one thing" is).

Alex
11-09-2005, 12:01 PM
The domination of local school boards by religious nutjobs.

Prudence
11-09-2005, 12:11 PM
The domination of local school boards by religious nutjobs.

Amen and hallelujah on that one!

Not Afraid
11-09-2005, 12:33 PM
Well considering I forgot to vote (it is TUESDAY today??????) I'm glad they are all dead. I should stay home more often and get the outcome I want. ;) (J/K)

Ghoulish Delight
11-09-2005, 12:49 PM
The domination of local school boards by religious nutjobs.Well, they lost some ground yesterday, it least in one district. link (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9973228/)

Prudence
11-09-2005, 01:18 PM
Well, they lost some ground yesterday, it least in one district. link (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9973228/)

But they also gained the state of Kansas.

Gemini Cricket
11-09-2005, 01:59 PM
Sometimes it feels like propositions are a waste of time. I mean, it seems like a lot of brouhaha, a lot of money and then if they pass they get overturned somewhere along the line.
Maybe it's just me.

I, too, am glad that they got terminated. Even though I'm in Massachusetts and not supposed to be conerned about California shenanigans...
:)

Name
11-09-2005, 05:44 PM
In SD we probably woulda had a special election anyway, considering we have been without a mayor for the last several months, and been missing 2 city council members.....

At least now we have a mayor, but the two districts without council members still have to have another elction to fill those seats.....

Damm this city needs some help....

€uroMeinke
11-09-2005, 07:45 PM
Well, I forgot to vote yesterday - such is the validity of my opinion - but I too dislike the "proposition system" I'd rather have our legilators write our laws through a political process. It's nice to know the Californian people voted the way I would have anyway.

Prudence
11-09-2005, 08:41 PM
Sometimes I support citizen initiatives. We've had some situations here where politicians basicially refuse to act lest they anger one side or the other. What particularly annoyed me this time around is that the legislature had finally gotten off their collective butts and done something and we were voting to undo it. Never mind that the rationale for shooting down several prior initiatives in prior years was that the legislature should be acting, not leaving it to the people to legislate major issues (in this case, transportation funding). Now that the legislature had acted, the people complained. Gah! Yes, government should, ideally, serve the people. But micromanagement rarely increases efficiency or efficacy.

tikiboy
11-20-2005, 10:37 PM
The reason we have propositions is because our legislature has hijacked our state. They have gerrymandered the districts in a way that makes them impervious to the popular will.

As far as reading "I'm glad they're all dead" I just don't understand this line of reasoning.

I never heard a well reasoned argument against Prop 75, that would have required public employee unions to ask members for permission before collecting money for political purposes. I heard nothing but emotion ridden tripe. Nothing but scare tactics from the unions. The "reasonable" argument came in the form of "Well, since the big evil corporations can use shareholder money..." which is just a non sequitur.

And prop 74? Why do high school teachers have tenure in the first place? I don't see high school teachers taking the unpopular stands that college profs sometimes need to take. The teacher's union just uses it as a shield for the incompetent.