Listening: Machines of Loving Grace
I'd rather be: secure
Desiring: a Kerry win
Enjoying: Slate's early returns

I really hope the swing stays positive, but people are just getting out of work. In the next three hours this could go anywhere.


this is one heck of a nailbiter. After nearly four years of waiting for that motherfucker to get his comeuppance I really don't know if this is what I want. I mean personally I just want to flip the bitch off and tell him to kiss my ass but I want that because I want my country to go back to being a bastion of hope and liberty, not the mockery this current administration favors. And with an eye to the nation, I want, I desperately hope, I'm not alone in this desire.


I've been terribly afraid of the implications of a national vote. After Madrid and Indonesia I've been sure that death and destruction was certain to come our way. To be sure, we're definately out of the woods yet. But I am a little surprised that so far nothing has happened. I hope to God it continues that way. I really wouldn't mind being just another Chicken Little assuiming the sky isn't actually falling.


Oh well, of course the Presidential race is huge and I feel really good to know that around the nation lines for voting booths are huge. I haven't seen that many people in a precinct since the Recall. People are mad. Good.

course I also worry hugely about all the hullabaloo people are making for keeping each other from voting. It's such a mess and you would think in four freaking years we would have fixed it. But no. Out of sight, out of mind.

Anyway The rest of my ballot looks something like this:
Boxer for Senator (I really dig her!)
Roybal-Allard (the incumbent) for US Rep 34th Dist.
Nunex (incumbent) for State Assembly 46th Dist

Judges were picked by little better than dartboard - mainly other people's picks and whoever actually deigned to put info up at Vote-smart.org.

State measures...
1A. Yes. It's funny how Schwarzie does thing A and then goes and puts a law on the ballot to keep anyone else from doing thing A ever again. Like robbing local treasuries.

59. Yes. Open municipal meetings.

60. Yes. Election Rights of Political Parties. rather convoluted and I've already forgotten most of my reasoning.

60A Yes. Sale of surplus property goes to pay for specific bonds.

61. No. We don't need more hospitals, we need more hospital staff, and talented and well-payed staff. Nursing shortage, hello?

62 Yes. open elections

63 Yes. 1% tax on personal income over $1 Million. Personally I would be another 1% on my income, regardless of the level. Mental Health services are atrocious.

64 No. Limits of business lawsuits. Always suspicious of limiting use of lawsuits.

65 No. the writers said so!

66 Yes. Limitation to 3 Strikes. WAY past time.

67 Yes. Telephone surcharge to fund Emergency Medical services. Good idea, especially if it actually works.

68 No Non-tribal commercial gambling expansion. Leave the tribes alone. Shee-it.

69 No. DNA sample collection of all arrestees. When we talk about privacy, that's about the only time you might mistake me for a Libertarian.

70 Yes. Tribal gaming compacts. Still up to the tribes, but they can give us money...? My inner trickster is giggling.

71 Yes Stem Cell research. It's just retarded to allow creation of embryos and not try to a way to see that opportunity for life into actual life. I mean embryoes won't magically become people without the specific technology that would be explored via stem cells. Yes, I KNOW that's not what the research is for...that it's for creating stem cell lines to try to correct disorders. But that's not all the technology would likely, espcially since we're not sure what it will do. The point is the people I know who are against this measure are against most forms of fertility treatment, especially IVF since it creates embryoes that then get discarded. If life is so freaking precious (and if I sound annoyed it's cause I am) then why wouldn't they try to salvage those embryoes? Anyway I could go on for a long time. But in the same way that being anti-abortion without being pro-woman is stupid, it's lame to be against stem cell research without the remotest idea what it is we would be walking away from.

72 Yes. Health care coverage requirement. Please see the part where I'm a flaming liberal.

county measure
A Yes. one half-cent tax increase to pay for public safety, emergency response and crime prevention.

Citu measure
O. $500 Million in bonds to clean water, ocran, river, beach, and bay. This is the pound of cure since people don't seem to like the ounce of prevention.