oh my goodness please count the votes already!
Mood: cheerful
Posted on 2008-10-31 13:42:00
Tags: politics links
Words: 420
This cheery bit by CNN asked people to say something nice about the candidate they're not supporting. Here's mine: John McCain served our country honorably. I can't imagine being locked up in a POW camp for five and a half years. I appreciate what he tried to do with campaign finance reform. I like that he believes in global warming. I think he really would try to reduce lobbyist influence. Sadly, before this campaign this list would have been a lot longer...
Here's my list of things I want to happen on Election Night, in order of importance:
- Obama is elected, preferably by a fairly wide margin to avoid shenanigans.
- Prop 8 in California (the one banning gay marriage) fails - the polls show it will be a tight race and I'd like to stay up until it's called. Prop 8 passing would be a huge huge setback for the gay rights movement.
- Democrats get to 58 senate seats (60 is required to stop a filibuster but 58 is probably close enough for most issues) - seems pretty likely.
- Larry Joe Doherty wins our congressional district (TX-10) - seems fairly unlikely now.
- Rick Noriega wins the TX senate race - seems pretty unlikely now.
I'll post my predictions on Monday. In the meantime there's this neat Google electoral map to play with.
Looks like abstinence-only education is losing support. (I wrote about abstinence-only education pissing me off a while back)
"Spreading the wealth" as an attack on Obama doesn't seem to be catching on. I would add that raising the tax rate on income above $250,000 from 35% to 39.6% is not "socialism". If you're against higher taxes on those making more than $250K a year, fine, but is it too much to ask to have a reasonable discussion about it? (yes is it, mostly) I also read an editorial (well, OK, the first few sentences of an editorial) in the paper this morning about how raising taxes lowers the incentive of entrepreneurs to make more money. I see how this is true in the abstract sense, but who says "well, I was going to make millions but it's not worth it if I might have to pay slightly more of that extra money in taxes! I'll just keep watching football or whatever."?
We drove by the early voting place at Randall's (183 and Braker) and the place was packed - the line to vote was well out the door. Burnt Orange Report has been tracking the early voting stats - here's their latest.
Happy Halloween!
9 comments
Comment from quijax:
2008-10-31T14:45:08+00:00
Since I didn't change my address until the day I voted, I was still listed as TX-25, so I didn't get to vote for Larry Joe. Sorry.
Comment from gregstoll:
2008-10-31T14:48:17+00:00
That's OK - Lloyd Doggett is cool too :-)
Comment from krikwennavd:
2008-10-31T16:39:28+00:00
Taxes are socialist. Period. They are taking a measure of a person's earnings and devoting it to society, for the benefit of all.(Or at least the many) How the numbers work out to redistribute the wealth(taxing one group more than another, for instance) does nothing to change that fact.
It kinda bugs me that people can still get a negative gut-reaction from people simply by using a word that describes a policy of mutual responsibility for others. Isn't that what we want, instead of saying, "Every man for himself, no matter what?"
Comment from gregstoll:
2008-10-31T17:03:39+00:00
Socalism (as defined by Wikipedia, the reference of our times!) is "broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and the creation of an egalitarian society."
Raising taxes doesn't mean advocating state or collective ownership of private businesses (although it does of infrastructure) or administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. It does somewhat lead towards an egalitarian society, I guess?
Comment from krikwennavd:
2008-10-31T17:22:33+00:00
It is socialist - collective means of ownership of infrastructure definitely, but the government(thus representing all of us) is a part owner of any business. Taxes are the government's way of making income - it owns a portion of every dollar you earn, and it spends it to collective benefit. It also has a LOT to say(in our country) with the distribution of goods.
Comment from anonymous:
2008-10-31T20:25:43+00:00
I live in California and I am voting NO on 8!!! It goes against the 14th amendment to the constitution. Don't forget we voted that english was the official language of California and that never came to fruition.
It is scarry to think that if a majority of voters wants to overturn the constitution that they could.
It is mostly the religious right that is for Prop. 8 and they are using lots of money and lies to attempt to pass it. You wouldn't believe the things they are saying.
If (when) the majority of people in this country are muslums/jews/atheist/agnotics they (religious right) would be yelling their heads off if we passed laws that opposed their belief system.
Thanks for this forum. BTW, this is Joanne Godfrey from Camarillo, California
Comment from gregstoll:
2008-10-31T22:21:46+00:00
That's great! It's frustrating being here in Texas not able to vote (of course, we had our own version a few years back and it passed 80-20...grr...)
Yeah, it sure seems like they're pouring a TON of money in to support it.
Comment from medryn:
2008-11-02T02:36:14+00:00
Have you seen the prop8 donation database?
There are about 14 Austinites who donated in favor of 8, and about 130 against it. Unfortunately the 14 in favor have rather deep pockets...
Curiously, Apple's celebrated $100,000 donation shows up as being from Austin. Huh.
Comment from gregstoll:
2008-11-02T09:52:40+00:00
Wow, that is quite interesting. And all the "support" donations came in the last few days...
(I gave in opposition, but it was through HRC so it doesn't show up here, I guess...)
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