endorsements for the 2012 general election

the nic endorsement memo fall 2012

the chill is in the air, the pumpkin spice drinks are at starbucks, must be time to vote again.  as usual i am finding that there is a lot more stuff on the ballot than i realized.  based on the TV ads i thought i would only be voting to get rid of the kenyan born muslim atheist anti-christ socialist president who has wreaked havoc on everything that god-fearin’ ‘mericans hold dear.  but it turns out that a few other issues and candidates have snuck themselves onto my ballot.

 

going straight down the ballot here is what i am endorsing and voting for:

 

washington state

initiative 1185:  no (frikkin way).  it appears that the citizens of the evergreen state will never tire of voting on the brain farts of one tim eyman.  yet again we are asked to effectively overthrow the concept of majority rule when it comes to taxes and allow 1/3 + 1 vote in the legislature block any tax or fee increase (or even get rid of a single tax break or loophole no matter how ill-conceived or flawed).  the sole purpose of this nonsense is to make our state ungovernable and for the republicans to effectively control state government even though they cannot win an election.  the fact that our state universities budgets are being gutted making college education more and more unaffordable by the year is a direct result of this bullshit and we all need to vote no every time this comes up.  it will no doubt pass and then people will all grumble that politicians in olympia cannot get anything done.

 

initiative 1240: no.  i am all for positive effective school reforms, but allowing charter schools is not a panacea for anything (except providing a way to siphon public school dollars into for-profit companies).  my reasons are simple: 1) the data (even that provided by proponents of charters) shows that while a few charter schools out-perform public schools – mostly they under-perform, kids on average get a worse education than in public schools, 2) the initiative sets up the schools as non-profits (as has been done in many states) but does not prevent the ‘non-profits’ from simply sub-contracting everything to large for-profit companies once again, as has been done in many other states.  personally i trust government more than large corporations whose primary goal is shareholder profits not into education.

 

referendum 74: hell yes approved. it is not often that we get to vote on basic human rights, but when we do it is as crystal clear an issue as there can be.  do we chose to legislate discrimination or not?  allowing bigots and religious zealots to tell us that we need to outlaw gay marriage because they personally believe in ‘traditional marriage’.  this country and state pretends to have a separation of church and state so the matter of what various religions believe really should not matter and even if it did it is abundantly clear from the old testament that marriage was not at that time ‘between one man and one woman’ as we are told.  Polygamy appears to have been the norm. http://www.rickbeckman.org/men-of-the-bible-with-multiple-wives/ .  we live in the 21^st century and need to have laws that reflect our society today and outlawing gay marriage is no more acceptable than outlawing interracial marriage was 60 years ago.

 

initiative 502: yes.  the everyone gets to be a stoner initiative.  prohibition of alcohol was a dismal failure as is the current prohibition of marijuana and other drugs  and pot is demonstrably less dangerous than alcohol.  personally i think it smells and tastes like fermented skunk oil and people who are stoned on it generally act dumb and think they are having the most profound insights into the world ever while they are actually just sitting around eating bags of doritos, but whatever, there are a hell of a lot more harmful things they could be doing with their lives.

 

engrossed senate joint resolution 8221:  rejected.  as i understand this the state wants to legally mandate that it can borrow less money.  austerity is all the rage these days, but we only have to look as far as greece, spain, portugal, ireland and britain to see that government austerity in times of recession only drives you further into recession and massively increases unemployment while removing the social safety net.  this is a horrible idea, which is why it will probably pass.

 

engrossed senate joint resolution 8223: rejected.  while on the face of it this appears to create more money for the universities, it actually takes their funds and allows someone to take them to the casino that is the stock market.  i believe there are some places where safe low-risk investments are appropriate and keeping public funds in public bonds is a good idea.  let us not forget that eager state officials told us that they would make money for the state on GET program, but now the program is running in the red.  the stock market is not a magic place that automatically grows your money, it is a form of poorly regulated gambling.  if people want to play it with their own cash, more power to them, however this looks like the sort of risk that will have us all wondering in a few years where the billions of dollars disappeared to. 

 

advisory vote 1 engrossed senate bill 6635: maintained. this must rank as one of the all time most confusing issues ever on a ballot and in the end the vote is purely advisory so the legislature will ignore whatever we say.  increasing taxes on financial institutions sounds good to me though, even if the list of people not getting a b&o tax break does not include structural engineers.

 

advisory vote 2 substitute house bill 2590: maintained.   tax increases on petroleum products, always a good idea (unless you think pollution is good and global warming is a hoax).

 

king county

proposition 1 tax levy:  approved.  automated fingerprint blah blah blah, i generally hate cops but recognize that having these sorts of systems in place is for the public benefit.

 

federal

presidente and presidente of vice of the untied states: obama-biden.  after some consideration i am casting my vote with the democrats, even though i am personally more aligned with stein-honkala of the green party, i know they will never come close to a  single electoral vote and my vote would effectively be for the catastrophe in waiting known as rmoney-ryan of the plutocratic party who rank behind: obama-biden (democratic party), stein-honkala (green party),  anderson-rodriguez (justice party), lindsay-osorio (socialism and liberation party), harris-kennedy (socialist workers party), johnson-gray (libertarian party), goode-clymer (lunatic-fascist-tea-constitution party) and a poke in the eye with a sharp stick (still better than the republican party). 

 

us senator: maria cantwell.  i have heard a rumor that there is a republican running even though he is apparently not campaigning anywhere within a 50 mile radius of seattle or a TV camera.  i understand that baumgartner is mainly campaigning on an anti-war platform, which is fabulous and i am all for anti-war candidates and as we all know that other than a couple of minor actions like iraq (twice), afghanistan, grenada, panama….. the republican party has never ever ever started a war in recent history.  cantwell works hard and generally makes the right calls (wars excepted).

 

us representative congressional district 7: gentleman jim congressman for life mcdermott is consistently in line with his constituency.  you could vote for some idiot called ron bemis who apparently prefers the republican party and has zero qualifications for office.

 

state

governor:  jay inslee.  one of the easiest calls ever, mckenna is a fake moderate and generally snarky little shit.  jay is hard working, thoughtful and willing to take on the challenges of our state in this fiscal times we live in.  i think he will be trusted by the legislature and that will be critical in getting through the next few budget cycles.  jay is un-flashy, but has an amazing record of good calls, even when it is not the way his party is voting.

 

lieutenant governor: bill finkbeiner (republican).  i cannot actually believe this guy ‘prefers republican party’  he does not seem to hold the views of a neanderthal and if that were not enough, his opponent the lonnnnnng term incumbent democrat brad owen is possibly the biggest idiot ever elected to statewide office anywhere in the universe.  i know that this is essentially a symbolic office, but if our governor were to die in office this moron would become governor.  owen can continue to pursue his dream of rock and roll stardom singing anti-drug ballads on his own time.

 

secretary of state: kathleen drew.  i strongly believe that this office should be non-partisan (and not party partisans pretending to be non-partisan, but actually people from outside the two parties).  we might get lucky and kim wyman might turn out to be a moderate republican like the last 156 republicans who have held this office, but frankly with the wide-spread voter suppression around the country led by the republican party, that is not a risk i want to take

 

state treasurer: jim mcintire might possibly be the most boring man in politics, but that might go along with being treasurer.  he seems to love the job and be good at it, no reason to vote him out.  i think he has an opponent, but there is no reason to.

 

state auditor: troy kelley.  this position should be filled by someone with an impeccable record.  sadly the incumbent is stepping down so that is not an option.  james watkins is a tea party moron who would use the office to try and destroy government from within.  kelly has a checkered past and i can only hope that he will do an adequate job, but even a shitty performance will be better than his opponents best efforts.

 

attorney general: bob ferguson.  is possibly the most hard working politician ever (i think he actually virtually knocked on every door in his district the year he was first elected to the county council and the districts here are massive), not only that, he is smart and usually pretty ok politically on most issues.  his opponent is a thuggish lazy jerk named reagan dunn.

 

commissioner of public lands: peter goldmark.  the incumbent has fought for the protection of the environment (pretty much the whole purpose of the office).  his opponent clint didier thinks the role of the office is to auction off public lands and assets to the lowest bidder and stop president obama imposing sharia law and blue-helmeted un troops on the US.  i am not making this up, he is a nut-job who should not have a driver’s license let alone be elected to state wide office.

 

insurance commissioner: mike kreidler is an excellent incumbent and exactly the sort of person we need to have in this office as obamacare gets implemented and the insurance companies try to find ways to exploit things to their personal gain.

 

legislative district 46

state senator: david frockt. is unopposed and is ok.

 

representative position 1: gerry pollet.  is the incumbent by appointment and an excellent state rep.  nice guy and one of the great environmentalists of our state.

 

representative position 2:  sarajane siegfriedt.  this open seat seems to have two good candidates.  i am inclined to reward the one who has spent years fighting for what she believes in and will be a fearsome state rep.

 

county

sheriff:  john urquhart.  it is so strange that we elect sheriffs.  having heard both of the candidates speak on the radio, i like the sound of urquhart a lot better than incumbent steve strachan.  in addition i find it really troubling that strachan was picked by his predecessor sue rahr who was picked by her predecessor dave reichert.  no organization can stay healthy if leaders pick their replacements, it is a formula for corruption and it is no surprise that the king county sheriff’s department is having issues.

 

state supreme court

justice position 2: susan owens, unopposed and deserving her position

 

justice position 8: steve gonzalez, unopposed (fortunately after beating out his grossly unqualified opponent in the primary).

 

justice position 9: sheryl gordon mccloud deserves election over her opponent richard sanders who was a justice and wants to be again after electoral defeat.  sanders is really strong on most civil liberties, but is a racist, hates gays and abortion rights.  sanders real hypocrisy comes on the gay marriage issue, where he believes in upholding ‘traditional marriage’ while engaged in a polyamorous relationship himself.  mccloud seems strong on all the right issues without the bizarre sanders baggage.

 

court of appeals division 1 district 1

judge position 4: ronald cox, unopposed strong incumbent deserving reelection.

judge position 7: marlin applewick, same as above, a good guy, just the sort of person who should be a judge.

 

superior court

judge position 42: christopher washington is the incumbent and is hated by prosecutors, because he seems to have a conscience and tries to give reasonable sentences.  his opponent seems decent, but given the campaign by prosecutors to unseat him, i am more inclined to keep him and have her run again for another seat.  a justice system that is controlled by prosecutors is inherently problematic.

 

district court

judge position 1: johanna bender, was appointed to her postion and seems like a smart judge deserving reelection.

 

city of seattle

proposition no. 1: approved.  this is for a shitload of money, $290m, but replacing the alaskan way seawall is a critical infrastructure project (as opposed to building a new basketball arena so that billionaires can get richer quicker).

 

i think this is all that was on the ballot, damn it was a long one.

 

vote early and often and sent mittens back to his 12 houses that are not the whitehouse.