The Tom Blog

I always like to actually read our propositions here in California and make up my own opinions about them as much as possible. Often I don't seem to have the time, but this year with all the focus on the politics of the presidential election it has made me actually remember to do this. Thus, here are my picks for the statewide propositions. There are a bunch of San Francisco propositions that I have not yet received the voter guide for, so those will have to come in a later post.

Prop 1A - Yes - High speed rail is a good thing. I would love to be able to actually take the train to LA

Prop 2 - No - I realize that being nice to farm animals seems like a humanitarian thing to do, but I agree that this is ill-conceived and would most likely cause more harm than good in the way of increased samonella and other issues since it would probably stop all in-state egg production.

Prop 3 - No - In general I'm opposed to additional bonds without really good reasons. This appears to be mostly a "it's for the children" plea for money that I doubt really has a good ROI.

Prop 4 - No - Oh hell no to any sort of "girls have to tell their parents before getting an abortion" type bill. This is government trying to enforce morality in a really stupid and dangerous way.

Prop 5 - Yes - I'm not happy about the cost and allocation of money here, but the concept of replacing incarceration with rehab for drug offenders would have a hugely positive effect on prison overcrowding and overall on the budget issues. Plus, the war on drugs is stupid.

Prop 6 - No - The cops want guaranteed funding. I philosophically oppose mandated funding levels. I'd prefer the government have the freedom to vary budget according to demand.

Prop 7 - No - This is a reasonably complication proposition that uses words that sound good, but in reality appears to be a way for the non-public utilities to squeeze out the public utilities and to setup a situation where they would have no incentive to actually implement renewable energy properly. This stinks of corporations trying to influence public policy to increase their profit margins.

Prop 8 - No - VERY IMPORTANT : This is the stupid gay marriage ban. Retarded. Enough said.

Prop 9 - No - So called "victim's rights" actually means more expense and complication to operating our prisons while being a poorly written proposition to begin with. This is silly.

Prop 10 - No - Screw T. Boone Pickens and his convoluted attempts to turn energy policy into his own natural gas windfall. Plus, $5 billion in bonds - are you fucking kidding me? Notice how I've already voted against less than a billion for so called children's hospitals? (Although I did agree to $10 billion for trains. Trains are cool, kids suck I guess is what I'm saying :) )

Prop 11 - Yes - Another complicated proposition where I feel at least one side is misrepresenting who they are and what their motives are. If you read the actual proposition I think this is a reasonable law for taking the redistricting out of the hands of the officials who have an interest in screwing it up and putting it in an otherwise non-interested parties hands. I think it is actually a big strength that not only are the redistricting commissioners not elected (they are chosen by random draw from all qualified applicants) - but they also can't BE elected for the length of time that the district maps they drew are in effect. That's only going to attract pretty non-partisan people I would say. Yes, there is room for abuse, but I feel it's less room than the current system.

Prop 12 - Yes - Another $1 billion for a program that helps veterans, no one opposes, and that is setup to pay back the money. This is really just the state co-signing veterans loans. It would be silly to oppose this.