It is he who commands you! It is he who flung you from the gates of Heaven to the depths of Hell!

Just in case anybody is interested here's how I voted on the important stuff---

President: Are you kidding?

U.S. Senator: There are lots of reasons to despise sometimes-moderate Gordon Smith but in my own estimation Gordo showed he was unfit for office years ago when he voted to impeach President Clinton over a peccadillo. I proudly voted for Jeff Merkley.

A couple of ballot intititives I support---

Measure 54: (Voter Eligibility) Fixes a portion of the Oregon Constitution that says voters need to be 21-years old and pass a literacy test. We'll have no literate voters here.

Measure 56: (Kills Double Majority) I've hated the double majority measure which voters put in place in 1996. Essentially it's one of those deals where over 50% of registered voters have to vote for any property tax to pass, regardless of whether it pulls a majority of votes. 1) Non-voters shouldn't get as much of a say as actual voters and 2) Vote by mail has made the original arguments for the double majority obsolete.

A measure I was sympathetic to but voted against---

Measure 65: (Open Primaries) The measure opens primaries up to all registered voters regardless of primaries with the top two vote-getters going to the general. This was a tough one but I do think this opens the primaries up to a lot of mischief that will hurt moderate-leftists more than those on the other side. I would like to see instant runoff voting instead. Having said all that I can see why progressives are voting for the measure, I'm just worried about the consequences.

Most of the other measures are the typical anti-state government nonsense that wind up on the ballot every election. Every state seems to have a resident loon who makes a living getting these things on the ballot. In Oregon that loon is Bill Sizemore. I will never vote for a Bill Sizemore inititive. He makes that declaration easy by throwing the worst sort of crap on our ballots.

No on measures 57,58,59,60,61,62,63 and 64.

Happy election everybody!

Oh gee, thanks Dave, bang-up job so far. Extortion, coercion; you'll pardon me if I ask you to kiss my pucker.

Any of you in California (Overdroid) please put some effort into defeating this horrendous ballot initiative sponsored by Republicans. I know it sounds alarmist but this simple initiative would be the difference between putting a President in office that acts responsibly towards the environment, the budget and foreign affairs or a Bush-clone like Giuliani.

I have nothing against proportional representation but agree with many critics of this measure that it needs to be put in place nationally and not unilaterally as California may do here. I also think on simple the substance of fairness this measure fails. It awards electoral votes by winner of congressional districts rather than vote percentages. In reality this would put a system in place that's not much different that we have now where the minority is over-represented and the will of majority of voters is diluted.

I long for the day when Republicans will move away from shenanigans as their foremost political tactic. From the Rovian games played at the Federal level with U.S. Attorneys to this ballot initiative I would like to see the Republican party re-engage with the electorate and try winning elections by just having better and more appealing policy positions.

I know that's a pipe dream.

But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.

How I voted...

(Not that anyone cares)

Ballot Initiatives

I'm personally not much of a fan of the initiative system which has strayed far and wide from it's progressive roots. It's simply too easy in Oregon to get an initiative on the ballot and the potential for mischief just too great. I particulary have a problem with amending the state constitution by ballot and vote against measures I might be more inclined to support if they take a marker to the state constitution. The initiative system needs a fix.

With that in mind I voted "yes" on only Measure 42 this year which prohibits the use of credit ratings in determining insurance rates. The measure has a lot going against it- Bill Sizemore is it's chief petitioner for example - but in the end I was unswayed by the arguments of insurance companies that there is a correlation between bad credit and bad driving.

The ballot initiatives are always that little asterisk to election evening that can take the wind out of the high I get out of big wins by candidates I support. This year the biggest threat we face is Measure 48 which puts a Colorado style TABOR law in place in Oregon. Real potential for damage if that passes.

Candidates

It will come as no surprise that I'll voted to re-elect Democratic Governor Ted Kulongoski. Kulongoski's been a mediocre Governor but Oregon could do much worse. That "worse" goes by the name Ron Saxton.

On other lines I voted straight Democratic candidate for probably the first time in my life. I just went down the ticket and checked the names with a "d" next to them. If they were non-partisan positions such as judges I'd write a "d" next to the candidate that had a democratic-sounding name and vote for them.

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I have some videos, quotes and stuff planned to post Monday that pretty much sums up my current feelings about the state of America and the importance of this election. As always I look at our system of elections - with the peaceful transfer of power - with awe and reverance. But mixed in with that this year is a certain amount of dread of the "waiting for the other shoe to drop" variety. The time has long since passed to put some sort of accountability on the people in power and my faith in the willingness of the American people to demonstrate the revolutionary roots that founded this nation in facing down power is just about extinguished.

If the Democrats win at least the House I will be drinking champaigne. If they take the Senate I'll get something a little better than Cooks to drink.

Villainy wears many masks, none of which so dangerous as virtue...

I've become hugely disenchanted with the petition process in Oregon over recent years. While I respect the democratic principle that the voters can have a direct say in the government I feel it's simply too easy to get an initiative on the ballot, particularly one would amend the Oregon state constitution. Add to that the tendency of conservatives to use fringe initiatives to get out their base in the general election and it's pretty clear initiative petioning is not working as intended.

Unfortunately the initiative process remains popular even if the bloom has fallen of the rose in recent years and state lawmakers from both parties have been loathe to toy with it.

Which leaves progressives to take a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach to initiatives. And join them they have. Their are many progressive proposals aiming for the ballot this year including changes to the tax system and, my personal favorite, a proposal to allow the state to legally negotiate drug prices with big pharma- something specifically left out of the Republican's Medicare legislation recently enacted.

For weeks now I've been walking by a variety of people in downtown holding big, pre-printed yellow signs displaying a pair of glasses and reading "Read Before You Sign." While I applaud the sentiment there was something about the canned appearance of the sign that didn't sit right with me. After a little research it turns out I was right.

Petition wars continue
Just two weeks to go until the July 7 deadline for turning in petition signatures, and things are getting hot out there.

A business-backed group says it is launching a campaign to encourage voters to be wary of signing initiatives. They hired temp workers to cruise big signature gathering spots in Portland Friday carrying signs that said, "Read before you sign."

J.L. Wilson, a lobbyist for the National Federation of Independent Business, said the effort will also include radio ads and cost up to $100,000. Several business groups are kicking in money for the effort, he said. Wilson said they're not targeting any particular petitions. But the business community has spent millions of dollars in past years fighting a wide variety of initiatives, and they would undoubtedly like to head some off at the pass.

If big business has real concerns about the initiative process it would be really nice if they would put just some of the money they're dumping into stopping truly popular inititiatives from making the ballot into reforming the inititiative system itself. With their resources they could attack the problem at it's origin rather than nibble around the edges.

Unless the edges were all they really cared about in the first place. But how cynical is it to assume that?

Not cynical at all. Just common sense.