[second entry today; some recent reading/musing on audience and effort in the earlier one]

I fully intend to vote early here in Tennessee, but I held off doing so this week because I hadn't had time to research the independent candidates and the charter amendments. (The sample ballot didn't reach our house until the first day of voting, but at least there is one this time. Progress!)

Anyhow - man, I wish the papers would spend more time on this stuff, and put it out earlier and more often. It should not be this freaking hard to find out what gives with the charter amendments on the November ballot. (Next time, I may take the BYM's advice, which was to contact the vice mayor directly for her .02.)

At any rate, what I've found on Amendment #1 is this bit on WPLN and Councilwoman Emily Evans's explanation of it on her blog. I'm inclined to vote "yes" on it and "no" to Amendment #2, based on PJ Tobia's analysis of the sitch and my general aversion to term limits (I get the reasons for them, and I'm not so against them that I'd actively work to overturn any already on the books or by-laws, but in practice, they generally strike me as the cause of way too many headaches and loophole-hopping in proportion to the anti-cliquery/machinery/dynasty prevention they're intended for). FWIW, there's another discussion of #2 here.

Regarding the legislative races:

President/VP: Obama-Biden. The buzz on my blogroll has mainly been about the Chicago Tribune endorsement, and rightly so (first time the Trib's endorsed a Democrat nominee in ever - one of the first online responses to the editorial was "Is that chill coming from hell? Do I see porcine aviation outside my window??"). It's a good piece, and I like the New Yorker's as well.

Also, as long as we're looking at newspaper endorsements, the Memphis Commercial Appeal has weighed in for Obama as well.

US House, District 5: Jim Cooper's a good guy, and he's considered a safe bet for re-election. John Miglietta is also a good guy, and he's a member of my church. I'm torn between wanting to affirm Cooper's performance as a rep and showing up in Miglietta's total as a demographic that deserves more reckoning with.

U.S. Senate:
One could do worse than either Tuke or Alexander, but I'm not comfortable voting for either of them. Tuke hasn't been a good campaigner and I was frankly weirded out by a phone call from his campaign a month ago, where they tried to collect on a pledge I hadn't made (might have been an honest mistake, but it's not the sort of promise I would make even while stoned on Robitussin); that said, his positions on abortion and same-sex marriage are more palatable than Alexander's, in my book. Alexander is the Republican incumbent; he's one of the more popular former governors of TN, and the seat is considered safely his, for reasons the Memphis CA summarizes better than I can.Of the six independent candidates, the most recognizable name among them is Chris Lugo, who ran before as the Green Party candidate. I'd be reluctant to give my vote to him if the race was remotely close, but it isn't, so no hesitation here.

Tennessee House, District 52: Mike Stewart's the Democratic nominee. The independent running against him, Dan Scott, comes across as scary on the issues that matter most to me, so Stewart gets my vote.

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On a related note (having had a "what's the use of voting" discussion just a few days ago), I found myself nodding vigorously in agreement with Elizabeth Bear's mini-tirade on cynicism vs. disappointment:

I understand that it's been a rough few years, and a lot of us are up to our necks in defense mechanisms. And I understand that sometimes it's more comfortable to assume that things can't be changed. But the answer is not to shoot down the people who are making an attempt.

The answer is to go eat a brownie, and then lie down with a cool towel until the apathy passes. And if you can't pitch in to help, that's okay.