“I think I can. I think I can…”
And we’re back. Picking up with State Measures, starting with:
Measure 5. Shall we start spending more money and energy on treatment for non-violent drug addicts and less on locking them up until they all become hardcore criminals with HIV and anger management issues?
I’m voting for this because I’m sick of wasting money and lives trying to win Nancy Reagan’s War on Drugs Not Prescribed by Nancy Reagan’s Pet Doctors.
The scare tactics are the usual Tough on Crime BS about letting dangerous pot-smokers out on the streets but the reality is that judges will still have the authority to come down hard on anyone truly deserving of it.
And it knocks down possession of small amounts of pot from a misdemeanor to an “infraction.” Essentially a cop can now write you the equivalent of a traffic ticket if he catches you smoking up. No word on whether or not you’d get points on your pot license or be ordered to go to Reefer School.
Yes, on 5. (Man, I’m hungry!)
Measure 6. Shall we spend a ton of money, like a billion dollars, on more prisons and longer sentences for gang-bangers?
On the surface this sounds pretty good since gangs are a scourge on all major cities and their taste in music is terrible!
But….
We are broke and putting more people in prison for longer periods ain’t cheap. There seems to be some consensus among people who know this stuff that existing law is adequate for taking the real freaks off the street and that merely throwing away the key is not going to magically eradicate the gang problem.
It will however give lots more money and power to cops and the Prison Industrial Complex.
Bottom-line, this smells like Police Pork-Barrel stuff and I’m voting against it.
No on 6.
Measure 7. Shall we mandate increased generation of power from renewable energy sources from government-owned utilities?
Man, on the surface this sounds like an easy YES, but more careful examination reveals it is backed by a small handful of interested parties and opposed for various reasons by a lot of people who have been pushing a Green game for a long time now. It’s bi-partisan opposition and is joined by serious environmental groups and the Union of Concerned Scientists. I will follow the lead of people better-informed than I who have moral cred on on this.
NO on 7.
Measure 8. Shall we amend the state constitution to take away the right to marry from gay couples?
Y’know, a lot of these things are complicated and nuanced and require deep thought and even a bit of compromise for the greater good.
Then there are the pure moral lay-ups like voting NO on this hateful, despicable, retrograde smear of poison on this year’s ballot.
Thanks to the usual loony fringe, Measure 8 is in serious danger of passing, so get out there and vote against it even if you think Obama’s going to take California in a walk. Do it for all those gay friends and family members you don’t even know you have.
Do it for George “Mr. Sulu” Takei and Ellen Degeneres. Do it to stick your thumb in the eye of the idiots and haters.
HELL NO on 8!
Okay, I’m shrilled out for the night. Tomorrow I take on Swift-Boat ad funder T. Boone Pickens and his attempt to get California taxpayers to grant him a monopoly on natural gas-fueled cars. Jerk.
Good night.
