I've had my absentee ballots for today's special election for at least three weeks, but I still haven't filled them out. I am really torn on how to vote on the various propositions, for many reasons.

1. The California Legislature is seriously dysfunctional. The 2/3rds majority vote for budget measures has made things worse. (Ironic how a simple majority was sufficient to deprive people of their civil rights, but to spend anything needs a super-majority.)

2. I really see the need for this special election rising out of that dysfunction. The Legislative isn't willing to compromise one single bit, so they've pawned the decision off to the voters.

3. I see voters being woefully uneducated about the true cost of providing services. You get what you pay for, folks, and you've been paying almost jackshit for many years now.

4. No matter what the outcome of the election (and they're not likely to pass), there are likely to be another round of cuts next year, almost as bad as this year's round.

I'm definitely in the minority out here in California - I think we don't pay near enough taxes. It simply comes down to you get what you pay for, people just don't get that. Or even worse, they don't care. Living in Orange County, I've seen so many anti-tax bumper stickers around here. It really disturbs me that people care so little about their community.

I'm going to vote yes on all of the Propositions, but I'm resentful that it has come to this point.

I had planned to move onto different topics today, but alas, it was not to be.

I've read quite a few posts about this topic in the past two days and I've been experience some of the drama myself. I've had several incidents with family members (both at home and on Facebook), that were less than pleasant, so this prompted me to post a poll:


Poll #1292722 Post Election Family Strife
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23

Have you had any post-election family strife?

If yes, with whom?

What was the nature of the conflict?

And here's a link to Obama's transition website rss feed: change_dot_gov. Just watching that speech made me feel a whole lot better.

Like it wasn't a bad enough idea the first time around.

Nadar flirts with 08 bid.

Anyone from hp_orangecounty have a copy of that inter-house unity picture we took? My camera was being a biatch and wouldn't go off?

Also, I got my 3rd absentee ballot yesterday in as many months - this time the final election for 48th district of the US House of Representatives. I'm not holding out for a result in my favor, since this is Orange County. Yay for the permanent absentee ballot list.

Today, I'm heading down to the Harry Potter and Friends Wizards' Maze down in Oceanside to help out, along with zorb and constancev. Also looking forward to seeing sunny1192 and chickadilly down there. We'll be pimping for Lumos as well as helping out, and then going to see GOF again tonight, yay.

Prop 74 was rejected, whew. I went to bed thinking that sucker would pass.

ETA:Stupid hamster got out for the third day in a row. Grrrr.