San Diego Voters Quick Guide

Election Year 2012 - Who is Least Likely to Make Things Worse?

Race for the White House 2012

The choice is pretty clear. Mitt Romney believes that the poor, the working poor and the middle class should stop whining and work harder at being rich so the government can spend its time making the really rich even richer. If Romney wasn't in fear of sounding like a democrat he would be quoting JFK's famous "Ask not what your country can do for you... Instead he prefers the Mel Brook's imperial soliloquy as Louis XIV from History of the World Part I, "... fuck the poor."

He believes war is a good economic stimulant - why not arm all the rebels in the Middle East and boost American jobs by making weapons of war and recruiting teenagers to lay down their lives for their Commander-in-Chief. And Mitt Romney believes that a constitutional amendment banning equal marriage protection for same sex couples is just what America needs to stop their escalating cry for equality. Constitutional subjugation will wake up the gay community and help them acknowledge that their lifestyle choices make them second class citizens. Perhaps then future numbers of homosexuals will decline and the straight and narrow will prevail. Romney refuses to admit that straight couples make gay babies and not by choice, but by chance and by science.

Barrack Obama spent his first term reeling from the economic crisis brought on by 8 years of George W Bush with his reckless spending of trillions in the Middle East and 8 years of Bush economic advisors who apparently looked the other way as the rich took advantage of weak regulations in the mortgage industry and then cried... "Well, we didn't know." Now add the mid-term elections where the voting illiterate thought that giving the democrat in the white house a republican congress to do battle with better provided checks and balances. What it provided was political grid lock and once again we had screwed ourselves and we'll probably do it again on November 6. Obama has worked to give a more fair shake to the middle class while extending the safety net for the poor and extending health care opportunities for all Americans. He knew it wouldn't be politically popular but he also knew that the rich insurance companies, drug companies and power-house litigators who rail against tort reform would never do this on their own. And Obama doesn't believe that the federal government should decide who we can love and who we can marry but that the states should have the right to decide. While this doesn't open any doors for the opposing 44 states to champion equality it does incentivize the people to press their states into action.

Gee I wonder if Romney has roots in the founding of America? I say that because our founding fathers were mostly slave owners who believed that women belonged at home, silent in the kitchen. But they did have a few good ideas and at the top of the list is the democratic ideal that the people determine their own fate equally under one rule of law. Loosely translated this means that you may stand up and be heard or sit quietly in the background and take what you get. It's our two party system that is responsible for denying us the abundance of opportunity our forefathers envisioned. It's got to be either the right or the left. Bipartisanism is becoming a 20th century cliché. How lovely it would be to take the best of both sides and put them together to make an American candidate. Please wave the flag here.

San Diego Mayoral Race 2012

Another election where the voters are tasked with choosing the lesser of two evils and we have picked Bob Filner as the candidate least likely to screw up San Diego more than it already is. If you chose Carl DeMaio you might as well stand up and cheer for the right wing homophobes that own and operate the Union Tribune. Don't be fooled by his gay affect - Carl Demaio is a conservative Republican who is not being endorsed by the UT because of his pepsodent smile, but rather because they know he will bend over backwards to take care of them and their special interests. And don't be fooled by DeMaio's campaign promising a "young, new approach to government"... he will deliver business as usual. Filner may be known as a tyrant on the job but his past accomplishments suggest that he will work for the people of San Diego supporting local business and education and not likely to buckle under for building magnate Papa Doug who wants to turn our downtown water front to "Manchesterville".

No New Taxes OR Tax Extensions Until
there is Marriage Equality in California

PROP 30 - Temporary Tax Increase - Hell NO
Revenues from this 'temporary' tax increase are slated to the general fund where state lawmakers will continue to spend them wastefully. Force Sacramento to spend the state dollars wisely instead of givign them more. Prime example? Thousands of non violent offenders behind bars are costing us a fortune sitting in jail, doing nothing or working out at the gym when they really need to be on the strret with brooms and weed wackers cleaning up this filthy state. You want to pass more laws, then give our judges the responsibility to sentence appropriate non violent offenders to pay back their communities with the sweat of their brows.

PROP 31 - Two Year Budget Cycle - NO
The boys and girls representing us in Sacramento complain that they spend too much time arguing over how not to spend our money wisely and how not to balance the budget effectively. If this were an initiative to simply create a two year budget cycle then anchors away but like most of what is on the ballet this November there is too much confusing language. The ambiguity alone will keep the legal system arguing at a cost that we cannot afford. Stop voting for initiatives that serve little value other than to make lawyers rich.

PROP 32 - Political Contibutions By Payroll Deduction - NO
This is yet another wolf in sheeps clothing proposal which favors super pacs and big business and who knows what other pork. Since women are always complaining that men in power are ruining the world - and since a key opponent of this measure is the Leaque of Women's Voters - that's good enough for me - mark the big NO.

PROP 33 - Auto Insurance Reform - Prices Based on Driver's History - NO
Mercury Insurance is behind this one and almost exclusively. and it is a cheap trick in disguise. The net result will be higher rates paid by responsible drivers. Mercury Insurance takes the fall for this one but they are likely in cahoots with the other major carriers. Where is Nancy Reagan when you need her... just say NO.

PROP 34 - End the Death Penalty in California YES
We call ourselves a country based on Christian principles and yet we seem to love to kill. And nobody is better at justifying killing than the government. In the case of the death penalty, it costs tax payers way too much money and provides no benefit. It takes around 14 years of appeals and expensive legal fees to even get a schedule to die and the number of the convicted who are put to death is too few to be consequential. Killing is wrong and the death penalty does not send a message that discourages killing. A YES vote will ultimately save the tax payers a hundred plus million a year and ensures that we never put an innocent felon to death. California can't afford anything because our legislators are too busy taking care of themselves. We need to afford to pay for this.

PROP 35 - Human Trafficking Penalties - YES
The penalties for human trafficking aren't stiff enough and even with this measure they will not deter the trafficking entrepreneurs but it is a step in the right direction. Sex offender registries... another waste of taxpayer money which only soothes a few victims and creates a quagmire of administrative costs. The proposed costs in educating law enforcement to better deal with these crimes may be well worth the price tag. Makes you wonder if we legalized prostitution if at least part of this issue would be cut down to size. As long as we make sex a behavior for the shadows there will always be a criminal element to deal with.

PROP 36 -Three Strikes Law Revised- YES
The three strikes law has always been arbitrary and fails to allow sentencing judges the flexibility to sentence based on a host of circumstances. This measure does not require 3x convicted to be re-sentenced but it opens the door to the possibility. Let's give our judges more sentencing discretion and then hold them accountable.

PROP 37 -Genetically Engineered Food Labeling - NO

The failure of this proposition is that is is too shallow and does little tp protect consumers. More far reaching is that growers will

This proposal was apparently written by special interests and lacks sensible standards - in fact it lacks comprehensible standards. We should not vote for half-ass legislation like this. Yes the public thinks they want to have food products labeled when they contain genetically engineered "what"? With all the labeling laws we have now, including nutritional stickers on water, we still don't really know what's in the food we buy. When you walk into your favorite produce department can you tell which fruits and vegetables are covered with wax and know what kind of wax it is? Most likely not. And what's under the wax? Was the produce thoroughly washed before it was coated in the"safe and non-toxic" FDA approved petroluem product? What about Organic - the FDA allows organic foods to be coated in petroleum wax... and they might be accidentally contaminated by nearby genetically enginnered products... will they stilll be labeled organic and will they be labeled as "contaminated by GMO?

Read the preface to the bill - it identifies that genetically modified foods can have dangerous health consequences, many of them yet unknown, yet the FDA allows them in our food supply, and has for several years. If you want to pass a bill that effects the potential safety of genetic engineering, lets force the FDA to require growers of genetically modified foods to do the safety research

All the crap they put in processed foods and the stuff they allow growers to call wax on fruits and vegetables continues to be largely unknown. If you question a particular food, don't buy it and tell the seller to voluntarily label foods if he wants to sell them. This proposal will cost the tax payers too much money to regulate and enforce and not provide a better shopping opportunity.

PROP 38 -Tax Increase to Fund Education - Hell NO
The middle class cannot take another tax increase and we should not let the bleeding hearts twist our arms because the money is slated for education. We need to force our lazy politicians to spend our dollars wisely and not give them more. Want to grow the coffers? Decriminalize marijuana and stop putting growers and dealers in jail. The people want to smoke weed - let them. This notion that governments job is to tell people what they can and can't do is so flawed. The governments jobs should be to enact laws that say if you smoke marijuana and you damage property of hurt or kill someone you will go to hell in a hand basket. Support personal responsibility.

PROP 39 - More Fairly Tax Multi state Businesses - YES
Closing loopholes posed by crafty reformers sounds like a good thing and this proposition looks like a good deal. Could there ever be a law that requires these initiatives to the voters to be written in clear language and without all the BS? The proponents say that this will be a billion dollar revenue enhancer - well don't think that multi-state companies are going to give California a billion dollars annually without taking it from you first. Money doesn't grow on trees - in order to give it to one you must first take it from another.

Prop 40 - Redistricting State Senate Districts - YES
The voting illiterate vote along party lines and largely for their own selfish gains so moving the boundaries here and there matters little. I don't even know who my district Senator is - do you? When the City of San Diego changed its district booundaries we moved from district 3 to 9 with absolutely no say in the matter. A yes vote will save us the cost of paying for the Supreme Court to appoint yet another committee to draw the boundaries that will then be argued ad nauseum.

PROP 41 -Mandatory Employee Start Times- Hell NO
If this entire line up of intiatives isn't amusing enough how about a new state statute mandating California companies with 50 or more employees to require their employees to start their business day at 0600, a move anticipated to reduce the current morning gridlocked commute and replace it with a much earlier one. Good for you if you have read this far... Prop 41 is a delusion, of course many of the above ones are too, but they are real.

San Diego Proposition Z - $2.8 Billion in New Bonds for School Repairs- Hell NO
This bond issue will nearly double our property tax payment for schools and doesn't appear to have sufficient safeguards against high interest financing. Undisputed is the 1.7 billion from bonds approved by voters in 2008 that have yet to be spent. NO NEW TAXES. Beyond the tax burden, why don't they teach school and classroom repair and allow students to provide some of the repairs that are reasonable for them to do like painting, basic plumbing and electrical and concrete work. Wouldn't it be nice to see highschoolers graduate with some practical skills other than social networking.

No New Taxes OR Tax Extensions Until
there is Marriage Equality in California

Trump Endorses Mitt Romney - February 1, 2012

Donald Trump Endorses Mitt Romney, a move that no doubt annoyed the hell out of Newt Gingrich but then Donald has a way of rubbing people the wrong way.  No doubt he got off telling Newt…”you’re fired.”

From a grandstanding 'press conference' at his luxurious Trump Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Romney stood beside the most pompous showman since P.T. Barnam and accepted his endorsement... or was it really just a very big plug for his moronic reality show.

It’s just as well; Romney needs more conservative homophobes in his camp, people who are so concerned with their own wants and desires that concepts of equality become a threat to their burgeoning sense of power.  Comparing civil equality for the GLBT community to using an ‘unattractive’ long putter, Trump surprised the world by announcing that he was a traditionalist and could never support same sex marriage. It will be interesting to watch how well Trump’s endorsement of Romney pays off. Perhaps Romney will just comb over this psychotic pat on the back... or could Trump be throwing his rump into the ring of running mate contenders. Nothing would surprise me this political season.

Homophobe of the Month - December 2011

Congratulations to Republican hopeless Rick Santorum for being elected as AndreAndTerry's Homophobe of the month for December, 2011. In his haste to demonstrate the right's unequivocal fear of American homosexuals, Rick Santorum insists that the only way to secure his agenda of social repression and bigotry is to press firmly for a constitutional amendment defining his vision of the proper social order for all Americans. How amusing, the Republican national agenda includes a fundmental need to reduce the size and influence of the federal government but the Santorum philosophy adds the need for a national referendum to once again take away our choices.

A constitutional amendment will theoretically never happen but as long as people are allowed to vote for the prettiest face or the candidate most likely to give them just what they want with no regard for anyone else... all bets are off. The right's attempt to press for a federal mandate on this very public social issue demonstrates that age-old republican theme, 'the rich should rule the world and the rich should have everything their way'.

Now sure how anyone posing for a picture like this one could win homophobe of the month but Rick Santorum certainly did.

A Wasted Life

Perfectly good 18 year old boy from Wayland, Massachusetts, just graduated from high school, ready to take on Trinity College to play football, chase girls and all the coming of age stuff that kids do today.... but NO... some part of his brain went nuts and on July 5, 2011 he killed his girlfriend Lauren Astley in what was described by police as a gruesome rage for power. Psycho-babble pundits pontificate about these senseless acts of violence but rarely have anything of value to offer grieving family and friends. But they largely agree that the cause of these heinous acts is not the American predilection for world dominance and unrivaled power which is exemplified in everything from Washington to Hollywood. In America, you can say God Dammit on television but not fuck or shit. You can watch every act of human violence and personification of hatred known to the history of mankind but if you want to watch two perfectly beautiful young people walk naked on the beach or make love on the living room floor you have to subscribe to an 'adult' channel or sit in the perv section of your local seedy theater. What does that say about America and our Christian values? How do we teach our children to handle stress and disappointment when they are constantly surrounded by images of rape, murder and the glory of vanquishing your enemies? One’s moral center is not always easy to find particularly when the President of the United States stands center stage and tells you that thousands of Iraqi civilians had to be sacrificed to end the reign of the evil Saddam Hussein. I guess I’m not surprised that for at least a brief moment, Nathaniel Fujita, like many Americans, became morally bankrupt on the sanctity of human life and sadly for him, and those who loved him, he didn't know how to handle it.
Terry K... July 9, 2011

Homophobe of the Month - August 2011- Michele Bachmann

Tired of sleepless nights worrying about the effect homosexuality is having on America? The Bachmann Clinic CAN CURE YOU with prayer and moderately priced counseling sessions. The Tea party is replete with those who believe that homosexuality is a choice and a product of social conditioning in spite of scores of clinical research to the contrary. Bachmann homophobia goes much deeper than the Bachmann Clinic where counselors are being told not to admit to their attempts to de-homosexualize fallen Christians as this will surely be a campaign issue going forward. Non Christians need not apply.

Michele Bachmann's Christian right ideology, shared by a large number of wealthy Republicans, stands side by side with their book of God which apparently says ...
" if you keep feeding the poor and the crippled they will keep asking to be fed" and " thou shalt not kill unless the President of the United States orders it to be done". The Republican Presidents Bush got us knee deep in the Middle East, conflicts of questionable value that have already cost us a trillion dollars, thousands of perfectly good American lives, and given us little to show for it. And in the wake of all that American generosity 4000 people still starve to death each day, the Iranians are building a nuclear arsenal aimed at us and our allies and I now have to work 5 years more than I had planned to before I can retire.

Homophobe of the Month - July 2011- Bob Vander Plaats

Corn fed Christians rally with Bob Vander Plaats as they glorify God by disguising their fear of homosexuals in this amusing political diatribe called "The Marriage Vow." Threatening to only endorse Republican candidates that sign the vow the Family Leader organization did a great job in grabbing headlines and media attention to further their campaign against Americans right to choose.  Aimed at bringing morale order to America by pretending to target the Weiners of Washington – no small task or pun intended – their primary agenda is a constitutional amendment that will deprive same sex couples of their right to marry the partner of their choice. Read the Vow and try not to vomit. This copy was the original one that GOP presidential hopefuls Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum signed. The first bullet point about slavery was then removed because of its absurd and inflammatory tone but not soon enough. It will be fun to watch these would-be politicians defend their choice to sign the Marriage Vow.
July 12, 2011

Marriage Equality - Slowly Sweeping America

World in Shock Over the Casey Anthony Verdict?