California Propositions

Yes on 1a, 2, 3, 5, 12.
These are official SSnot endorsements.

1A High Speed Rail -- Trains might actually be kind of nice.

2 Farm Animal Conditions -- The standard claims of animal rights and from groups like PETA tend to try to exploit the desire for animal welfare with animal rights. While the former is a position everybody agrees with the latter is fairly silly. That said, this prop supports the former and suggests that farm animals shouldn't be forced into tiny boxes and never get to move around until they are killed for food.

3 Children's Hospital Bonds -- This sounds like something you'd call a proposition that creates death camps and forces people into slavery. Who would vote against Children's Hospitals? According to latest polling very few and according to the letter of the proposition it does what it says it does.

4 Parental Notification -- If a kid is under 18 and wants an abortion they gotta tell their parents. This is about as extreme as the pro-life people could get a bill in the state. The latest PPIC finally has it polling as a fail.

5 Drug Rehab Programs -- We love our drugs and our forced drug rehab rather than prisons.

6 Anti-Gang -- No, LOVE THE PRISONS INSTEAD!

7 Renewable Power Standard - Seems to force up the amount of renewable energy requrements at different levels but groups like the Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists because they say it's really poorly written.

8 Anti-Marriage -- Removes the constitutional rights of certain individuals to enter into a private contract because we hate them. Thankfully the PPIC study finally has this polling at a loss. The No on 8 crew sucked. They were caught completely offguard by a large influx of Mormon money pushing for a yes vote. "Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that would end same-sex marriage in California, is losing among likely voters, 52 percent to 44 percent" -- After the silly laws against same sex marriage were overturned and the polling looked good then no so good and now good again.

9 Victim's Rights -- REALLY! LOVE YOURSELF SOME PRISONS!

10 Pickens Natural Gas -- Eh, no. Pickens doesn't seem like a bad guy from the commercials but screw giving him massive amounts of money. Sierra Club again against. I like my fighters for an energy secure future far from fossil fuels to not advocate switching to fossil fuels, especially one he has a massive stake in.

11 Redistricting -- Fair redistricting is a massive loss for the Democrats. If the dems can't draw the lines then a number of seats will be lost. I have nothing in principle against redistricting or against fair redistricting... but unless every state does it it's going to be a strong disadvantage to one party over another. Take the proportional delegate amendments that come up in California here and there, those serve only to make the Republicans win the presidency if they passed. BTW the PPIC polling says Obama is up by 23 points in California.

12 Veterans Bonds -- Much like the childrens hospital it's hard to vote against helping veterans.

Work then voting...

Off to work (at a real job not a campaign) then vote for Barack Obama, I'd recommend the latter. The former is making me get up at 6 in the bleeding morning.

God Snot, teetering on the edge, switches to Obama.

Well, now that John Edwards has dropped out of the race, I'm supporting Obama without the nagging feeling of betrayal. I, like many people, was torn between Obama and Edwards. Initially I supported Edwards because he spoke to a lot of the core values I endorse. He wanted to get rid of the lobbyists and reform those things you can't reform because of the lobbyists and also because he was white. Not that there's anything wrong with race, but I was worried that racists would keep Obama down. A good section of this country is downright unacceptably hatefilled and I thought this race was too important to avoid the same charismatic, southern, Christian, white, male mold that has served this country well since the founding fathers stopped getting elected (mostly deist). However, I was ready to jump ship after South Carolina. Specifically for the reason I didn't want Clinton. I think the Hillary Clinton lacks coattails. There's honestly close to two decades of built in hate. And even people who stand no chance of voting this their state blue (electoral votes are such that if you live in Illinois or California, there's basically no point voting; you should always vote). However if they drive out to vote against Hillary, a number of other pivotal candidates will lose. There are opportunities to make large strides in the Senate and some strides in the House but mostly if democratic voters vote and to an extent if Republicans don't (addendum: if you're a Republican go ahead and ignore the always vote advice). Well, Obama drove out so many voters in SC and young voters in Iowa that I was tempted to switch based on the fact that he could win in a landslide and drive a vast number of voters to the polls who might not have gone otherwise the the voting booths as Democrats.

With Edwards out of the race. Obama has it pretty well sewed up. That and the coattails issue. I have a choice now between negative coattails and positive coattails. Also Hillary is pretty right wing. Her position against video games may put her heavily loved by mothers, but not so heavily on the other side of me. Also, I view her as an establishment figure.

I was ready to jump ship and now I will. I hope Obama will choose Edwards as VP. Hillary could be secretary of state, Dean the surgeon general. It could be one happy family. And we could replace everybody incompetent with competent people. Ah, competence!

God Snot: Official Endorsement.

God Snot is Officially Endorsing: Alan Keyes for the Republican Nomination for President. (Via Pharngula, Via Amygdala).

My position up until now has been to: Don't sink the leaky boats until they're in the race. Well, with this new possibility, I think there is a boat *SO* leaky that it needs to be in the race. It is for these reasons that God Snot (Where God's Not) is officially supporting Alan Keyes for the Republican Nomination.

God Snot is also supporting John Edwards for President.