the kentomatic voting guide for the november 4th election
national election
president & vice president: obama/biden
obama has his sights set on strengthening the middle class, which is exactly what our country needs and has been losing. the republican ideal of supporting the wealthy who will in turn trickle down the wealth doesn’t work — the rich want to get richer and keep the money for themselves, even if that means cutting costs by hiring foreign suppliers and labor. all of the world’s successful nations have a very strong middle class. countries that have primarily the very wealthy and the very poor? disasters.
california propositions
1a: safe, reliable high-speed passenger train bond act: yes
a high speed, clean energy train connecting southern and northern california would reduce flights and be a starting point for creating a culture of public transportation which we’re going to eventually have to move to. the train would be able to take me from la to sf in about 2 and half hours which if you consider airport security is about the same amount of time as flying.
2: standards for confining farm animals: yes
i’m an animal lover, and while i’m also an animal eater, i think that these animals shouldn’t suffer while they are alive. being allowed to walk around and move their wings and lay down doesn’t sound like too much to ask, and if a chicken breast increases by ten cents to allow them this decency, that’s fine with me.
4: waiting period and parental notification before termination of minor’s pregnancy: yes
i’m definitely pro-choice. but i’m also young enough to remember how stupid and emotional children are and how they make rash and unreasonable decisions, i mean hell, they were dumb enough to get pregnant in the first place, let’s put a bit of a restraining order on their decision making rights after that. in some cases, maybe in most cases an abortion is in everyone’s best interest, but if they are a minor, giving the parents 48 hours to discuss this with their child and the doctor is completely reasonable.
7: renewable energy generation: yes
like proposition 1a, we need to be investing in the future, and a large part of that is reducing our dependency on fossil fuels. requiring our government owned utilities to increase their use of renewable energy 50% by 2025 sounds like a reasonable goal and a responsible step forward in both protecting the environment and producing a majority of the energy we use here in the united states. i also just have a similar argument for prop 10.
8: eliminates right of same-sex couples to marry: no
i know this is a bit of an about-face for me and what i’ve said in the past. i think before i was married i had a more ideal view of marriage, that it was more than just the sum of its elements. and while there is definitely something very special about being married and not just in a committed relationship, as far as the law is concerned i think same sex couples should be afforded the same benefits. it’s almost like the hangup with most people (and to be honest a little bit for me still) is just the word “marriage” and that the sanctity of marriage in general will be tarnished if same sex couples can marry. i kinda feel like if same sex marriage was just called narriage or something everyone would be cool with it (although even in just typing that, that sounds pretty discriminatory), everyone would get their rights and life would go on :shrug:
i don’t really have much of an opinion on props 3/5/6/9/11 & 12, so if anyone wants to chime in, please do. i mean 3 sounds like yes, who doesn’t want more hospitals for kids? 5 sounds like yes, expand treatment for drug programs, and limit the amount of time you can be jailed for drug related, non violent crimes. 6 sounds like yes, give the police more money to fight bad guys. 9 sounds like yes, let victims of crimes know about the offender’s bail and whether they might be coming to get you. 11 i don’t really understand and 12 sounds like a yes, providing home aid to california veterans is the least we can do.
but yeh, happy to hear anyone’s input on any of these propositions. and whether you agree with me, or think i’m wrong on every single issue, vote.
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vote No on 9, Marcy’s law. The LA Times ran an article about this last Friday. What they want to do is basically not make anyone eligible for parole for at least 15 years, have the victim’s families have uninterrupted monologues during the parole hearings and deny the prisoners access to an attorney during parole hearings. The Victim’s Bill of Rights was already passed. This bill just strips them of more constitutional rights.
I just have to disagree on #4. Many years back some lady was outside of albertsons trying to get people to sign a petition to get that law on the ballot. I said no. She tried to say “it’s not whether you agree on it or not, it’s just to get it on the ballot so people can vote on it.” My thought was “well, I don’t agree with it, so I don’t care if people can vote on it… not my problem.”
As a girl, I saw what some of my friend’s parents were like growing up. While mine were great, not all my friends had great parents and I can say that forcing a teen to tell their parents about a pregnancy could lead to some serious long term pain. I realize they may not be mature enough to make decisions on their own, but ultimately- it IS their decision to make. It’s the girl’s body and life. I know some parents that would have forced their daughters to keep the babies against their will. Where would they be today? I know some that probably would have beat their kids and made their life a living hell. Not all teens have parents who would be supportive and helpful in making these decisions. That’s why I don’t think this should be mandatory!
I just babbled and I’m not going to proof before I hit submit… so sorry if I sound like an idiot.
although now that I’ve proofed it… after submitting…I realize I should use the shift key a bit more to capitalize my Is :)
@elsja:
the stylesheet on my blog lowercases everything, so don’t worry about trying to capitalize anything :)
as for prop 4, i see your point, and that’s actually exactly the argument that a commercial keeps pointing out, that is, your parents might’ve been cool, but some parents are abusive. the ad is paid for by teen safety, which is an affiliate of planned parenthood, and that’s an organization that’s obviously very familiar with these situations.
it just seems to me though that more girls would benefit from being forced to talk with a parent and have them help make this decision. how often is the guy that knocked her up going to be pressuring her for an abortion when she might not really want one, or make a rash decision and regretting it for the rest of her life. i’m not going to pretend that i have any understanding how hard that decision must be to make, but it’s a parent’s right to know what’s going on with their child medically. i think abusive parents are a terrible, but separate issue.
[...] past election i voted no on proposition 8, per my little election guide. i didn’t really look into the proposition, other than what i heard both sides arguing in [...]