● Bambi-killers: Montana, Indiana and Kansas are apparently planning to become the 18th, 19th and 20th states to create a right to hunt in their constitutions. No word on if this would include snipes, unicorns or man.
● Ha ha ha: Washington residents (and illegal Mexicans) will be voting whether or not to tax businesses on the carbon dioxide they release. I think they should do this because other states can use the businesses that flee. Sadly, the left is opposed because the initiative would use the tax revenues to help the people hurt by this and leftists don’t like the idea of helping those they hurt.
● Governor Lesbian: The leftist enclave of Oregon, a state known for witchcraft and the stench of hippies and meth, will be deciding whether to vote in their acting Governor Kate Brown. She’s apparently the first “bisexual” governor. Yawn. In this age of gay marriage and trannie bathroom battles, who cares about some woman who can’t make up her mind if she’s gay or not?
● Gimmick Voting: Maine is trying to end the current system of whoever-gets-the-most-votes-wins and replace it with a ranked system where you rank your candidate and then they work their way through the rankings. I guess it’s too hard to make up your f*ing mind in Maine.
● Lebensraum!: Massholes will be voting to require egg and meat producers to give each animal enough space to stand up, lie down and extend their limbs. This would basically wipe out things like puppy mills and “confined animal feeding operations.”
● Hang ‘em High: California and Nebraska may ban the death penalty. So far 18 states ban it. Oklahoma is trying to make it easier to use.
● Colorado: I told you about the single-payer nonsense in Colorado. We also are voting on a euthanasia measure. If this passes, then I’m opening a suicide booth in downtown Denver.
● White Power: Democrats are trying to replace two black Republicans with white liberals in the name of racial justice.
● That’s Hard: California may require porn stars to start wearing condoms.
● Let’s Kill Some Jobs!: Colorado, Arizona, and Maine will be voting to increase the minimum wage. South Dakota will be voting to lower it for teens. We should create a ballot initiative to lower the minimum wage for whites or males and watch liberals lose their minds trying to simultaneously claim that this is racist/sexist while arguing that low minimum wages violate human rights. snicker snicker
● Millionaire Tax: California is looking to impose a millionaire tax on anyone with an income over $200,000.
● Price Controls: Venezuela, er, California is planning to put a cap on the cost of drugs. Ah yes, that worked so well in East Germany and Venezuela that I can’t possibly see a problem with it.
● How, Kemosabe!: Massholes, Rode Islanders, and Jerseyites will vote to allow new casinos. Such racist pale faces... always taking the red man’s market share!
● Bag Man: Californians will be voting to overturn a ban on plastic bags in grocery stores. Why stop at plastic though? They should ban all containers in grocery stores.
Anything good in your neck of the woods?
How did I miss that millionaire tax on my ballot initiative run-down? Not that it affects me, mind you, but A) $200K = a millionaire = math am good, and somebody let the recently revived ABC know about it, and B) I anticipate several of my Hollywood neighbors asking George Clooney to sublet at his Italian estate.
ReplyDeleteOh, that White Power thing also in Colorado?
ReplyDeleteFun stuff all around... The stuff in California, Oregon, and Washington sounds like par for the course there. The Maine voting scheme is ridiculous, too, and sounds a bit like an attempt to lock the Democrats into power there similar to California's two highest primary vote getters go on to the general system. Nebraska possibly voting to ban the death penalty sounds a little out of character for them to me as well (and same for Arizona and the minimum wage - one less point for it, one more for Texas and Florida), though admittedly I don't know the state too well. Since you're our resident Nebraskan any insights as to how it got that far and its odds of passing, tryanmax (or Andrew, if enough NE politics drifts over into CO)? On the congressional races if the GOP had any sense they'd run attacks on the two white Democrats along the lines you suggested, Andrew, but I can't find that dead horse anymore, so... Good luck wiht the suicide booth if euthanasia passes, too!
ReplyDeleteAs for Georgia, aside from the top of the ticket we've got a Senate race that our Republican incumbent, Johnny Isakson, looks ready to win comfortably and my Republican representative, Tom Graves, is running unopposed. They can both be irritating but better them than the local Democrats and Graves had to get by a fringey Religious Right candidate in the primary to get this far, which he did quite easily (even if he's just a bit of a RR monkey himself). Our Public Service Commissioner race is between the Republican incumbent and a Libertarian, so look for the Republicans to win that one easily, and my state senator and representative are both unopposed as well. The Democrats in my particular part of GA pretty much died after 2004 so most of our local and state representation gets decided in the Republican primary with the general simply being a formality.
Now, for our ballot measures... First we have one this, which adds extra penalties from sex crime cases to go the the Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Fund. The language makes it sound like a Religious Right initiative but it does go for a good cause, so hm. Next up we have this, which allows the state to take over chronically failing schools. My instincts say this has got clusterf*** written all over it, especially since the average GA politician, of both the Republican and Democrat subspecies, are a pretty big collection of morons even by politician standards (see: Newt Gingrich constantly beclowning himself, Cynthia McKinney and her random insanity, and Jimmy Carter goes without saying). Next up is this, scrapping the old Judicial Qualifications Commission and replacing it with a new one accountable to the General Assembly. This does sound potentially dangerous but it's mainly liberal groups opposing it, so it'll take some thought. Lastly we have this, which directs our firework sales taxes to, well...pretty much the kind of things that bad use of fireworks cause. Doesn't sound like a tax increase so I'm not seeing many downsides offhand. Of course this blog is filled with greater political minds than mine, so let me know what you guys think!
- Daniel
Technically, Nebraskans will be voting on whether to preserve the death penalty. The practice stands as legal as of today, but is set to be banned unless the ban is overturned on referendum. The state unicameral decided to outlaw capital punishment over the governor's veto despite the fact that Nebraskans never asked them to. Polls indicate that Nebraskans will vote to keep the death penalty.
ReplyDeleteThanks for clearing that up, tryanmax! Sounds like the referendum is on the right track, then. I'm curious as to how the state legislature pulled that off, but I know that even heavily Republican legislatures in red states pass liberal bills for the strangest reasons sometimes.
ReplyDelete- Daniel
From the interwebs - Ballotpedia:
ReplyDeleteReferenda on the NY State ballot:
Zero [0, zip, nada, nyetski] - statewide ballot measures are certified to appear on the New York ballot on November 8, 2016.
New York does not allow any form of citizen initiated ballot measures, so all ballot measures must be referred by the legislature.
Ima guessin' weez jist two stupit ta doo stuf lak that...
Bev, Best to leave voting to the professionals.
ReplyDeleteEric, Best to keep them out of Congress for their own good.
ReplyDeleteOn the tax, I think it goes without saying that no good rich, Hollywood liberal will be paying it, so of course they're in favor of it.
tryanmax, At least you are getting a chance to undo it. I would bet the people of most of the states that currently ban it would overturn it too if they get the chance.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Eric, if I was rich, I would have a lot of fun getting intensely stupid initiative on the California ballot. That seems like a great place to make a mockery. :)
ReplyDeleteDaniel, I don't know if school takeovers ever work. What they should do is fire the management.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's the one I'm the most skeptical about on all levels. If there's any group that can take a bad education situation and make it worse it's most of our state governments and Georgia's is no exception. That and I'm wondering how many of them are in places like inner city Atlanta, which you know will draw howls of racism if they do move to take them over. GA Republicans have the same PR sense as most others so odds are they'll just give themselves a black eye in the process, though I don't see it working in the Democrats' favor if that happens. As bad as our Republicans are our Democrats, especially the ones in Atlanta, are even crazier and dumber. Also, any thoughts on the Judicial Qualifications Commission from your perspective as a lawyer, Andrew?
ReplyDelete- Daniel
While abortions overall continue to decline, abortion by prescription is on the rise in the US. I'm sure red tape will be brought to bear to correct the oversight. Not sure how well it will work (past a certain point you are merely pushing it underground) but red tape does discourage the less committed.
ReplyDeleteI think what is most important and encouraging is the fact that abortion continues to fall out of favor with women (convincing them is the battle rather than convincing legislators).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/abortion-by-prescription_us_58170c3ee4b0990edc31f798
When the two medications used to induce abortion won U.S. approval 16 years ago, the method was expected to quickly overtake the surgical option, as it has in much of Europe. But U.S. abortion opponents persuaded lawmakers in many states to put restrictions on their use.
Although many limitations remain, innovative dispensing efforts in some states, restricted access to surgical abortions in others and greater awareness boosted medication abortions to 43 percent of pregnancy terminations at Planned Parenthood clinics, the nation’s single largest provider, in 2014, up from 35 percent in 2010, according to previously unreported figures from the nonprofit.
The national rate is likely even higher now because of new federal prescribing guidelines that took effect in March. In three states most impacted by that change - Ohio, Texas and North Dakota - demand for medication abortions tripled in the last several months to as much as 30 percent of all procedures in some clinics, according to data gathered by Reuters from clinics, state health departments and Planned Parenthood affiliates.
Among states with few or no restrictions, medication abortions comprise a greater share, up to 55 percent in Michigan and 64 percent in Iowa.
Nebraska has a vigorous petition system. You can't go to the grocery store w/o being asked to sign on to some issue. Probably why we have a unicameral. It only takes one roomful of lawmakers to screw things up, so why bother with a second?
ReplyDeleteAnthony - I think the use and readily availability of BC has had alot to do with lowering the rate of abortions too. But the good news is there has been a rapid rise in STD's specially amongst the Tinder set!
ReplyDeleteOT, has anybody else been seeing a lot of articles like this: " X has predicted every presidential election since whenever and says Trump will win. Here's why it's wrong this time"?
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like self-reasureance on the part of the writers.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!
ReplyDeleteTryanmax - Yes, I have seen a lot of that. I have also seen a lot of "nuclear war will happen if Trump is elected" with Clinton using some old ad from the Johnson/Nixon days in called "Daisies" predicting the same with Nixon. Hmmm don't remember the outcome from that ad...
ReplyDeleteBtw, I think we are heading toward a major armed conflict no matter who wins, so I am thinkin' let it be on Clinton's head. Otherwise, it will be Trump's fault even though we will have gotten to this point because of Obama. Yeah, apparently the President is the only one in the room when the decision to push that red button is decided. I will never know anyway 'cause the first strike will be NYC anyway...
Rustbelt - Happy Halloween to you too! Make sure that all the children are safe from "bad candy" like all Hershey chocolate products! Eat them before something bad happens! It's "for the children's safety"! Swear! ;-D
ReplyDeleteMy personal favorite - Huma Abedin, the woman who has been Clinton's #1 bodyman for years now and who all had to go through to get an audience with Clinton, has been downgraded to just "a member of my staff".
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen a lot of those, actually, tryanmax. Instead I've seen "accurate election predictors" that are calling it for Hillary played up. And Happy Halloween from me and my two Halloween cats too!
ReplyDelete- Daniel
Sorry, it was an ad from Johnson/Goldwater in 1964, not Johnson/Nixon in '68...sorry for the misinformaton. But, hey, it's 2016...
ReplyDelete