My Vote and Thirty Minutes of Utoptia

I voted yesterday. It took me slightly over three hours, but I’m glad I did it. For those of you living in AR, here’s how I voted on the major things:

• President: Obama/Biden, duh
• FOR Amendment 1-would remove obsolete language from the state Constitution and allow alteration of poll worker qualifications
• FOR Proposed Constitutional Amendment 2-would require the Arkansas General Assembly to meet every year rather than every other year
• FOR Proposed Constitutional Amendment 3-would allow the creation of lotteries to fund education
• FOR Referred Question Number 1 (which my dad helped write, btw)-a measure to finance water-related projects
• AGAINST that damned Proposed Initiative Act Number 1-would make it illegal for homosexuals or single people to adopt or foster children

I’m a little worried about Referred Question Number 1, because the opposition is just flat out lying, and too few people are going to bother to research the tiny little bit it would take to find out the truth. (The oppostion is riling people up by telling them that a yes vote would give the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission imminent domain. The fact is, the Commission and its predecessor have had imminent domain since 1937–and they’ve never used it.)

I’m also worried about Proposed Initiative Act Number 1, because we’re in the Bible Belt and the people who initiated it are just the type of people who will play on the religious guilt feelings that so many of us have–you know, the ones that make us forget that our own religious views are in no way an appropriate basis for legislation.

And Proposed Amendment 3…I still don’t have a firm opinion on lotteries, to be honest. I haven’t done enough research yet to satisfy myself. I’d like to know how much it will increase crime; what percentage of the money will actually go to education; how many poor people lose their whole lives there vs. rich people who just piddle a bit of their extra money. However, since I lean toward allowing them, and the anti-lottery people REALLY annoy me, I decided to vote for them just to piss off the OMGNOONAMENDMENT3 people.

And then I voted for a bunch of senators and judges and stuff. Mostly Democrat, a few Green, a Libertarian here and there.

I also want to discuss Obama’s infomercial. I didn’t watch it, but I’d love to hear from someone who did. I didn’t watch because I already had my mind made up, and I figured it would be thirty minutes of Obama riding a unicorn through flowery, rainbow-accented fields, singing about change, while soft music played in the background. Reviews I’ve read seem to corroborate that suspicion, but I’d like to hear from people who are not journalists.

I’m tired, and I suspect this entry reflects it. Ah, well.

Discussions With Other Liberals

I recently posted a blog here about my views on abortion, liberalism, and feminism. I posted the same entry in my Livejournal–and boy did it cause a stir!

Two of my quite-liberal friends strongly disagreed with me, and were not shy about letting me know. I absolutely love the discussion! Why? Because they are respectful, intelligent, accepting of my views even when they don’t agree and–and this is important–they don’t argue with points I didn’t make!

Intelligent discourse is so rare these days. I’m glad I’ve found a group of people who are capable of it, and I’m glad I’ve learned to ignore those who aren’t.

An Oldie But a Goodie

From Cyanide and Happiness.

Hmm…

Lately I’m finding it hard to care about absolutely anything. Maybe I need to adjust my meds. Anyway, this caught what little interest I do have.

People are freaking the fuck out about Biden’s interview with Barbara West, about the campaign’s subsequent cancellation of future interviews. OK. Whatever. But these people don’t seem to mention that the McCain campaign cancelled an interview with Larry King after a rough interview between Campbell Brown and Tucker Bounds–and Bounds isn’t even a candidate for anything!

I think all four candidates should be able to take the heat–and frankly, the socialism/democratic link is not so unheard of that Biden should have been anything but prepared–but if one campaign can cancel in a pissy fit, I don’t see why it’s so absurd when the other one does. Or so much more absurd, anyway.

Bigger Government; More Laws!

As a liberal, obviously I want the government to be as involved in my life as possible. Last night a new law occurred to me, one that I think would benefit damn near everyone.

I think it should be a federal mandate that DVDs always include a gag reel. I mean, every movie and TV show has them; they’re funny as hell; so why allow these huge corporations to deny us the bloopery goodness that we deserve?

I am writing to my representatives, and I hope you’ll join me. This injustice cannot continue. These rich corporate suits cannot continue to take that to which we are entitled!

Barack Obama and Citizenshipgate

In August, a lawyer named Phil Berg filed suit challenging Obama’s status as a U.S. citizen and, therefore, his right to run for President.

Friday, a U.S. Federal judge dismissed the charge.

In a 34-page memorandum and opinion, the judge said Berg’s allegations of harm were “too vague and too attenuated” to confer standing on him or any other voters.

Surrick ruled that Berg’s attempts to use certain laws to gain standing to pursue his claim that Obama was not a natural-born citizen were “frivolous and not worthy of discussion.”

The judge also said the harm Berg alleged did “not constitute an injury in fact” and Berg’s arguments to the contrary “ventured into the unreasonable.”

There was a similar flap about McCain a while back, and I paid it equal attention: that is, none. It’s absurd to think that the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, Congress, and the Supreme Court would all miss these things.

If you’re interested, here’s the article from Snopes.

OK, NOW I’m Angry

I can’t work myself into a lather about Palin’s wardrobe, but I can sure enough get pissed off about this. As soon as I saw that chick’s face with that backwards “B” etched into it, I knew something wasn’t right. Sure enough, bitch was lying. This is horrifying on so many levels.

• Now women who really are attacked will have that much harder of a time proving it. As a rape victim, this really hits home for me.
• If she was going to lie, why did it have to be a black man who overpowered her and scratched a B-for-Barack into her skin? Couldn’t she have lied and left the racism alone, or was she following the “anything worth doing is worth doing right” creed?
• Why did you make the “B” backwards, moron? Seriously.

What kills me, though, is that before she admitted her lie, Conservatives were getting busy with the, “How could they elect someone who has a supporter who would do that?” As if Obama could possibly be in control over every single person in the country who plans to vote for him on November 4. But now that it turned out to be a hoax, will they switch teams themselves? Of course not. And it would be stupid for them to do so based on one action by someone McCain has never even met.

But the right thing to do would be to notice how utterly out of hand the racism is getting, how comfortable people are feeling with it, that lie was so easily uttered, so easily believed. But then, we wouldn’t want to do that. Because people are just looking for things that aren’t there. Because racism isn’t nearly the problem it used to be. Because it’s easier to just ignore, right?

I am disgusted.

I’m Just Sayin’…

I don’t really find myself full of righteous indignation at the news that the Republicans have spent $150, 000 on Sarah Palin’s wardrobe. I’m a little more aggravated at news that seems to indicate that it wasn’t all spent on her–or at least, not at the places the party claims. Still, I’m not too outraged at that, either.

I just want to remind everyone of the uproar over John Edwards’ $400 haircuts. He could have a haircut a week until he’s 95 and still have money left with $150,000.

Like I said, I don’t really care as much as I feel I should; I just think it’s a funny bit of hypocrisy.

Just Curious

I have a question about ethics–well, ethics and common sense.

Let’s say one owns a business.  This business is very successful and one is able to obtain multiple cars, two airplanes (one regular and one jet), three fully-staffed houses (the cheapest of which is estimated at one million dollars), and regular exotic vacations.

When the economy starts to crumble, one begins to lose business. Money is tight. People are laid off, salaries are reduced, benefits are slashed, older employees are “encouraged” to retire. One does not sell a home or a jet, fire any of one’s household staff, or cut back on the vacations.

Obviously, it would be entirely inappropriate for the government to require one to sell some of his or her belongings or reduce one’s own level of comfort. But would it be ethically imperative for one to do so, to attempt to lessen the impact on the people who have made one so comfortable? How about from a common sense standpoint?

Thoughts?

Job Front

I’ve heard through the grapevine that my job is quite secure. So much for living a life of leisure at the expense of the government. If I continue to work to support myself, do I have to be a Conservative?

On the other hand, it’s possible that the rumors of leisurely luxury are exaggerated. I know a gentleman who is on total disability. He makes the equivalent of someone who works 30 hours a week for minimum wage. He must be managing his money poorly, because he lives a very spartan life. Of course, that’s just what he gets for being disabled, I guess.