Sorry guys I can’t answer all of your questions. I don’t know why other sites are going off the way they are. Maybe the people in question didn’t actually read the props they are against. Maybe they don’t understand that even non-tenured teachers can’t be fired “on a whim.” Trust me, I had a family full of teachers telling me that the only sane vote on 74 was yes. Without answering for anyone else I would say that it is simply personal-hatred and not real politics. 74 would have prevented some VERY bad teachers from gaining tenure. When you consider what happens to bad tenured teachers then you know the real reason for voting no. Those bad teachers get shipped around from district to district and guess where they end up? In the poorest schools where the parents don’t have the money or time to fight back. So those who voted NO on 74 want bad teachers in poor schools. Those who voted NO on 75 simply don’t believe that individuals should have a voice. They believe that paychecks should be RAPED and that money should be spent any way Union thugs decide it should be spent. I challenge those who talk of a power grab to volunteer a percentage of their own money to a boss who can spend it on a whim. I promise you this, if Bill Gates tried the same thing, these same folks would have their panties in such a punch that they wouldn’t be able to untie them for a week. It’s called hypocrisy. (On the bright side, this Union power grab may help un-do many of the campaign finance laws that have hurt real people and made Unions and other interest groups way too powerful.) The NO on 76 crowd just didn’t read the prop. They also are short-sighted or perhaps just really, really want the big tax increase that the Ultra-left in the Assembly wants. (But will bitch about it when it comes.) Finally….I know….I READ 77 so quit bitching at me. The bumper-sticking touting poli-cheers didn’t read it. They either hate Arnold or are just not very aware that JUDGES and not a governor would select names from a list of other judges who want to serve. The names would be pulled from a hat and then whatever they decided would be voted on BY THE PEOPLE. Imagine that. What a horrible thing to let happen. I hope that the struggle to get California out of the mess it is in will continue. There is much work to be done and the Union thugs, Mecha-Socilists and Poli-Cheer ass clowns are the only ones gained any power this week. And yes, we ARE tired of the bull shit. Tired of the Unions having power that the rest of us don’t have, tired of bad teachers being shipped to struggling schools, tired of districts that are 280 miles long and 20 yards wide to assure no turn over, tired of all of over-spending and tired of people who either blatantly lie about what the props would have done or who were just too lazy to actually read them. Yep, the real working people are pretty damn tired.
I want to say thank you to everyone who showed up to vote in the California election yesterday and also to those of you who wrote in. It is nice to know that some people still enjoy hearing common sense and thoughtful analysis rather than simple parroting of bumper sticker ideology. To those who sent in opposing views, I appreciate your email as well. (Yes even the ones who mindlessly reprinted everything that the partisan hate sites told you to. Nice work.)
Unfortunately for working Californians, the election went to the Union thugs, the Mecha-Socialists and those who seek to drive us back to bankruptcy. After the HUGE step forward we took by removing Gray Davis from office, those corrupt forces who helped empower the ousted Governor came out in force yesterday with a two to one spending edge and rammed their “no to reform” addenda right down our throats.
73 went down to defeat in a very close vote. This would have required doctors to notify the parents of any minor 48 hours before performing an abortion. Many of you wrote in with the same concerns that I had about this. (That parents must not only be notified, but must give consent for things like tattoos and aspirin, but not abortion.) I realize that my “no” vote on this went against this line of logic, but I still believe that we can’t risk the safety of those young women who can’t inform their parents for whatever reason. This was the only good news of the days.
74 went down by a large margin. This one is really sad because it assures that all teachers who stick around for two years are basically entrenched in their jobs and can’t be fired. Teachers were so behind it that the Union even offered to give this one to the Governor if he would take 75 off the table. Tenure at 5 years was a great idea that most teachers actually support, but the Union used a good portion of their 100 million dollar war chest to confuse the issue. Somehow it became less about improving the quality of teachers and more about the 3 billion dollar INCREASE the Governor gave them last year. (Which they call a “cut” because Davis in his stupidity, offered 5 billion.) The Kool-Aid was flowing on this one and it worked. Now we are stuck with more bad teachers in schools that are already under-performing in spite record high spending numbers. That’s something to proud of, right?
75 was a lot closer than I expected, but again Union thuggery and one of the most disgustingly misleading ad campaigns in history helped keep the status quo in tact. Most people polled after voting on this had no clue what it actually did. Even people I respect and who are intelligent folks were way off base. This one didn’t touch “pensions” or “silence” workers at all. All that it would have done is require public worker unions to ask for permission before spending political money. Those who opposed this idea clearly don’t want people to have a voice. They want every cop, teacher, nurse and firefighter to goose step along with the ultra-left causes supported by the Union thugs. Under the current plan, teachers’ union dues are used to support candidates who regularly support early release for sexual predators. Requiring their unions to be more responsive to the actual members would return power to the people, but that doesn’t seem like a good idea to the extreme left. The Kool-Aid drinkers were right. This is a power grab and the Unions have grabbed it away from the hard working men and women of California. Now it is time to shed light on the horror stories of those hard working cops and teacher who try to opt-out of the extremist political activities supported by the thugs who run their Unions. Anyone celebrating this as a victory is someone who hates individual power and fair political practices. It is indefensible on any other level. (Which is why no one is even trying.)
76 was way too confusing to pass. Exit polls indicate that no one realized the circumstances required for the Governor (and remember, this power would have been given to democrats when they hold the office) to force emergency cuts. People didn’t realize for example, the in such a “state of emergency” the LEGISLATURE would have 45 days to make the required cuts and if they failed, only then would the Governor step in. Yeah, people forgot to tell you that when they were spending 100 million dollars on petty, personal adds. There was no way that the Mecha-socialists were going to let this one pass. They need the budget to be messed up again so that they can get the tax increase that Davis promised them. No one gets to bitch when they nail us with the same sort of economy crippling policies that helped make Gray Davis a sad mistake in our rearview mirrors.
How fucked up do you have to be oppose Prop 77? Pretty fucked up apparently. Every major newspaper in the state supported it, including the LA Times. Those who fought against it must be happy with districts that are rigged to never change hands. They must be happy the Republicans in Congress made a deal with Democrats at the state level to trade one for the other. They must be happy that these districts bring out only the extreme right and the extreme left. A similar measure was defeated in Ohio and the Soros klan kept chanting the “Texas” mantra, ignoring the fact that they were arguing AGAINST the very thing that they were complaining about. This defeat assures status quo and political extremism on both side. That’s probably why you can’t find any intelligent opposition to it on any web site.
Did anyone care about 78, 79 and 80? Even the “we got Arnold” crowd is ignoring the fact that they got their hats handed to them on 79 and 80. I’m glad that we shot down these three propositions since they don’t make any sense at all.
So thanks for voting everyone. Hooray for the status quo and a hearty “get over it” to those who feel the need to laugh at and spin the idea that people should “work together.” Personal hatred is not an intelligent political take and paints you as even more of a left wing nutbar than the dual-headed
Beatty/Bening troll.
This election and the silly bullshit it brings out is exactly why I’m so in favor of libertarian ideas. The extreme left won in California yesterday and only those who side with them against the people are pumping themselves up today.
