Quick post before leaving for work: True Facts about Markos Moulitsas

Really quick today, as I have to look for webhosting. You see, there's this list of carefully researched facts that I gathered about Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas that I'm looking to set up as a website - to showcase my journalistic skills. After all, the research behind each of these facts easily meets the standard of The New Republic, and maybe I can get a job as a pundit.

Oh, and "OTTMANN", your comment hasn't appeared yet, but I'm not censoring it. I plan to use you as an example to show how the Right name-calls because they have nothing left.

This Space for Rent: Vanilla Week

Doesn't look like any of my current bidders are going to be sniping at me for stepping in their Technorati this week - we have three bidders, two artists and a budding paranormal investigator. We'll also toss in some local news and a cute little story from Iraq, so this should be a fair bit o' reading.

First up, we have Full Metal Photographer - I'm always at a loss to judge art and photo blogs, as I have the default black template from Blogger for a reason. Nevertheless, I think these photos are pretty good, but despite that, you should go look for yourself.

Next up, a shout-out to Winsome Gunning Art Walk - Again, I'm at a loss to judge the art, but Winsome also adds a little paragraph with each one, describing the creative process, or with a little art lesson. While I'll admit that the art doesn't do much for me - my talent, such as it is, and tastes run more towards manga - it might be just what you're looking for, so go see if there's something you like.

Finally, we have Paranormal Experience - looks like a brand-new blog from Joanna, who is starting to research and investigate the paranormal. Joanna, if you're reading this, I found Lloyd Auerbach's ESP, Hauntings, and Poltergeists: A Parapsychologist's Handbook to be a helpful guide in researching and investigating paranormal phenomena. Sure, it's a little old so it won't go into cryptozoology or EVPs, but in my opinion it's still the best - and only! - do-it-yourself guide out there.

What?

Okay, the renter will be announced at the end of the post.

In local news, looks like the mayor of our fair city has been indicted over a garbage-contract scandal that's been brewing. We don't learn which political party he belongs to - which is fine with me, as it doesn't matter. We do learn, from the details, that unless I misunderstand the story our Mayor can be bribed for $10,000, which frankly is chump-change in these times. God, man, where's your pride?San Jose's in the big leagues now - look at Mayor Daley in Chicago.

So, that's one politician indicted, and too God-damned many to go.

And I promised a story out of Iraq - here it is. Apparently nobody told them we couldn't withdraw because we're fighting the terrorists in their country so we don't have to fight them in ours.

Or maybe somebody did, and they're starting to wise up about what that means for them.

Anyway, look. They're calling for a timetable for our withdrawal! Isn't that cute? Look at them, acting like a little elected government of a sovereign nation! Apparently they believe us when we say we're there for their interests, and are trying the ask nicely method of removing their occupiers - famous throughout history for its efficacy.

It's so sweet you almost hate to be there when they discover the truth. Well, we'll see - maybe it'll work, God knows they've tried everything else. Except a full-scale civil war, which I'm thinking is next on the hit parade if not already playing.

Okay, after pondering upon it, I'm going with Paranormal Experience for this week's renter, but please be sure to visit all three of the entrants and show them some Electronic Darwinism lack of apathy.

Impeachment As It Stands Now:

Here's a link to a summary of the state of the impeachment process. There are many helpful links and resources, for those of you in the - God, am I seeing 79% support for impeachment? Well, once they factored out the Fox News viewers. No, I'm not kidding.

Summary provided by the Impeach Bush Coalition. Thanks for the banner and traffic, guys.

Now I need to go sit for a while - so this is what it feels like to be in the majority.

Torture Doesn't Work.

In case you're one of the four or five people who haven't heard about Ron Suskind's new book, THE ONE PERCENT DOCTRINE, please allow me to introduce you. Not having met, you probably haven't heard this little tidbit, regarding the complex decisions after the capture of Abu Zubaydah, which I bring to you via Barton Gellman's review at the Washington Post:

Abu Zubaydah, his captors discovered, turned out to be mentally ill and nothing like the pivotal figure they supposed him to be.



Abu Zubaydah also appeared to know nothing about terrorist operations; rather, he was al-Qaeda's go-to guy for minor logistics -- travel for wives and children and the like. That judgment was "echoed at the top of CIA and was, of course, briefed to the President and Vice President," Suskind writes.



"I said he was important," Bush reportedly told Tenet at one of their daily meetings. "You're not going to let me lose face on this, are you?" "No sir, Mr. President," Tenet replied. Bush "was fixated on how to get Zubaydah to tell us the truth," Suskind writes, and he asked one briefer, "Do some of these harsh methods really work?"

Edited for fair use strictures - I urge you to check out the review.

So, you can guess what happened after that. They started torturing the crazy guy. After the death threats, the sleep deprivation, the waterboarding, the noise and lights, and the withholding of medication, he did what torture victims do to get it to stop.

He started making shit up.

He made shit up about attacks on shopping malls, banks, apartment complexes - does anything sound familiar? Because look what I found over at CBS News in a story about Jose Padilla:

It said Abu Zubaydah, a top al Qaeda lieutenant now in U.S. custody, also envisioned a uranium device when urging Padilla to mount a U.S. attack. At another point, however, the summary said Zubaydah told Padilla the dirty bomb was "not as easy to do as they thought."

Note that they leave out the whole "multiple personality, mentally ill, could barely be trusted with travel arrangements for the families, and was speaking under torture" part and went with "top al Qaeda lieutenant" instead. Guess that's just editing.


Physicists point out, for those of you with a California public-school education, that uranium is very nearly the worst choice for a dirty bomb, the worst being lead. So, Abu also made shit up that may have helped to keep an American citizen imprisoned without due process.

All to "save face" for ol' Chimpy McFlightsuit.

I Bow Before the Master

Who, may you ask?
Michael Moore? As if.
Al Gore? Get real.
Terrorist Sympathizer Bill O'Reily? Only in the alternate universe where I'm smoking crack, and I don't think I can survive smoking that much.

No, the Rude Pundit is the master and I am but a humble seeker after Enlightenment, for he takes what we all - at least those of us that aren't sociopaths - are thinking about our soldiers captured by Iraqi insurgents and sums it up in one sentence:

What if we get pictures of the soldiers, nude, cowering, screaming in a corner, shitting themselves on the filthy floors of a makeshift cell, as their captors hold snarling dogs on leashes just out of bite range of the soldiers?

That is a good question, 'cause it's not like we have the moral high ground there, is it?

UPDATE: Looks like two bodies have been found. Jesus God. Pentagon refuses to confirm whether or not it's the two missing soldiers. One can only hope, for the sake of their families, that Thomas Tucker and Kristian Menchaca are found alive and safe.

Outlook: Civil War

Regarding the Washington Post's coverage of the cables from the embassy in Iraq, here's Howard Kurtz being taken to task, thanks to First Draft:

UPDATE: Howard Kurtz addressed the question as put to him by someone from Greenbelt, MD today in a WaPo online discussion.

Greenbelt, Md.: How do you feel about the burying into the bowels of the papers (particularly The Post) on Sunday of the Al Kamen story about two cables from the U.S. Embassy in Iraq? The conditions mentioned in those cables suggest something worthy of national first page treatment, yet, well...

Howard Kurtz: Maybe it should have been on the front page, but it was hardly buried. It ran at the top of the Outlook section, which is the second section people see on Sunday. Also, a straight news story wouldn't have allowed the paper to run the actual cables.

In regards to the whole Torture Awareness Month thing, I wanted to point out Eugene Robinson's op-ed at the Washington Post, here, with discussion at this link at Burn the Liberals:

In many newspapers around the globe "Guantanamo" is much more than the name of a beautiful harbor on Cuba's southern coast. It has become shorthand for a whole litany of American excesses in George W. Bush's "global war on terror," the most visible example of how the United States blithely ignores the values of due process and rule of law that it so aggressively preaches, if necessary at the point of a gun.

In another case of recursive citations, Moody quotes Brian Varitek quoting Eugene Robinson.

So, the Decider says that he wants to close Guantanamo, but he just can't. Apparently somebody's pointed out to the Decider that all the falafel vendors and taxi drivers we've been torturing there so we can say we've captured hardcore terrorists will walk because of that nasty liberal due process of law - and he'd better do something about that before he releases anyone somewhere where they may actually get a trial. Or sue.

Oh, and although I haven't been over there to look, I've been told that apparently I've been pushing LittleOrangeFox's buttons.

Whatever. I'm still not sure that her site isn't subtle political satire and I'm wondering if I missed the punchline.

But Hey, At Least They Had Lawyers

More on the Guantanamo suicides. Turns out two of them had lawyers, and one was about to be released.

From the Miami Herald:

The Yemeni captive who killed himself at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had an attorney arranging to visit him in August, but did not know it when he committed suicide.

One of the Saudis, Mani Shaman al Utaybi, 30, had been approved for transfer to a jail back home, but also had never been told he was cleared to depart the U.S. detention center.

Oh, and this bit:

But attorneys for the men_who the military initially said had no lawyers_say that had the detainees known of legal efforts on their behalf, they might be alive today.

Emphasis not mine, I tend to use boldface.

Here is the Pentagon, in rebuttal:

The Pentagon said Ahmed and Utaybi were part of the al-Qaida terror movement. It identified the third man, Yasser Talal al Zahrani, 21, as an alleged Taliban fighter who arrived at Guantanamo as a teenager.

Of course, now that they no longer have to prove these statements with a trial, the prosecutors can say whatever they want. Wait, who am I kidding? They never had to prove these statements with a trial.

2500

Apparently "It's just a number".

Way to support the troops, Tony Snow.

We Respond to our Readers II: Helpful Advice

Jut thought I'd respond to this post over at Outlaw Republican. Well, not so much respond, as that would imply I intend to actually debate her, which brings to mind the parable of teaching the pig to sing. It will only waste my time and hers to pointlessly debate politics - I mean, I'm not going to become a Chimpy McFlightsuit fan anytime soon, and she's so far gone she thinks that smaller government, states rights, holding our elected officials accountable for breaking the law, God - the whole concept of the rule of law itself, personal accountability, and the idea that our system of government rests upon three co-equal branches all to be "far-left".

No, what I can do in all sincerity to a fellow voice crying out in the wilderness that is the Internet is to offer helpful advice. And this I shall do.

Comment moderation: Some of us, particularly those of us using free services like Blogger, tend to be targeted by comment spam. As I have it set to notify me of any message, and I have to personally approve it, I can make sure my readers never see an offer for pictures of naked teenagers or black-market prescription medications on my site. Tough job, but someone's gotta do it. Of course, you won't see a badly misspelled, capslocked death threat, either - or someone's real name and home address.

Keyboards: I know what you mean, LitteOrangeFox. I have suffered more than a few technicolor yawns from reading far-right paeans to fascism masquerading as patriotism, cowardice masquerading as bravery, and religious intolerance and hate masquerading as debate. And, God knows, with the President's approval rating hovering around 30% and with 42% of voters wanting to impeach him (according to Zogby - not my favorite, but you blog with the numbers you have), you're going to be seeing a lot more sites offending your delicate constitution.

My solution: the USB Waterproof Keyboard. I've found this invaluable when surfing for credits among the right-wing sites in the morning - what I call my Thirty Minutes of Hate. Just unplug it, towel or hose it off, plug it back in, and you're right back in the fray.

Thanks for the link back, thanks for the traffic, and thanks for the compliment. Please, take my poor attempt at assistance in the spirit that it was intended.

Oh, and on the remote chance that you wind up going to Iraq, or Iran, or France, or wherever our next adventure in preemptive war takes us and serving in our nation's armed forces, I promise not to tear you down, but to support you.

That's right. That very day, I pledge to buy a little yellow magnetic ribbon, and put it on my car.

We Respond to our Readers: The Torture of America

When I read Bob Higgins' post I said I'd post a link, and here it is.

Here's the first paragraph - go read the rest for yourself:

My America, at least the America of my birth, does not resort to the use of torture. We were taught that fact in public schools, American public schools, schools in which we learned old fashioned American values about family and fairness, values like the presumption of innocence, due process, respect for the law and the rights of man.

How anyone can read this post and still advocate for the practice of torture of detainees is beyond me. But, of course, I'm sure someone will.

This Space for Rent: Keeping my Word

I made a promise to myself that, when I accept bids for that thumbnail space over on the right, that I'd have two rules:

1: If I can't decide between the bidders, I determine it randomly. I've had to use this more often than not, so I may amend this to strict random determination in the future.

2: Every bidder active at the time I accept a bid, win or lose, gets a link and a shout-out. This has been the tough one, but I don't want an echo chamber here. If you bid on my thumbnail space, I will read as much of your blog as I can stand, and you will get a write-upon my page.

Except for the two poor SOBs whose bids expired before I could get computer time. Take the expiration time up with BE, I'll take the computer time issue up with real life, and we'll see who gets farther.

So, on to this week's bidders. Our runner-up is LittleOrangeFox from The Outlaw Republican, whose two saving graces are a link to an excellent debunking of 9/11 conspiracy theories, and a fellow House fan. Love, before I met my beautiful wife and learned how to be a human being, I was House. Without, of course, the medical degree.

Stop by and say hello, ask her if she'll put the effort into researching the war that she did into researching 9/11, and see when she's leaving. She is, after all, a young and presumably healthy war supporter, and Our Leader needs her help. Oh, and if you're reading this, Ms. Fox, I'm casually curious as to what moved you to bid on my space - go ahead and comment, I'll post it.

Okay, on to our winner - Mike Buffington. One man, one blog. Well, two blogs, counting his eighth-grader's homework blog, but you get the idea. Apparently back online after a server wipe, he's talking about his kids and soccer. Yeah, there's some stuff in there about immigration, and he raises the specter of Governor DeLay - which, incidentally, wouldn't surprise me. In the open sewer that is American politics, Tom DeLay has been and always will be a floater. Sir, you get the same invitation that Ms. Fox did, above. I have some small interest in what brings people to read my site and say "Yeah, I'll go with Moody Loner".

Go on, Gentle Readers, and show our two shout-outs some Electronic Darwinism love - or at least lay off the Electronic Darwinism open hostility.

Hell, I'm Always Going On About Torture

This month, by special request from Bloggers Against Torture, as part of Torture Awareness Month, I'll be going on about it even more.

Because this is it. I need to justify being against Bush - he is, after all, the president. I need to justify what I say about Republicans, conservatives, even Bush followers and evangelicals - because there are decent, kind, and good people in all those categories, misguidedly believing that what they do is good for our country.

But being against torture requires no justification.

Being anti-torture should be the default for every man, woman, and child in the United States of America, whether you just got off the boat or your ancestors were at Plymoth Rock or the Siberian land bridge.

Let the torturers try to justify themselves. Being for the due process of law and against the torture of the helpless is part of what it means to be an American citizen.

Remember when we were better than the Soviets because they shipped political prisoners off to some God-forsaken hellhole and tortured false confessions out of them?

Looks like we're the Soviets now.

Suicide as an Act of War?

Looks like Admiral Harris has been playing too much Tribes 2, or reading too many old Daily Victims.

From this BBC article:

The suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amount to acts of war, the US military says.

The camp commander said the two Saudis and a Yemeni were "committed" and had killed themselves in "an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us".

Yes, you read that right.

The camp commander said the two Saudis and a Yemeni were "committed" and had killed themselves in "an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us".

I thought they were trying to keep drugs out of the military.

Hey, we got al-Zarqawi!

So, now can we leave?

6/6/06

If you're in California, or another state having a primary - go vote.

What did you think this was going to be about?

This Space For Rent: Northern Exposure

This week's renter is one of my favorites on my blogroll, a site called Zaphod's Heads.

Glyn Evans runs a great Canadian political site, paints minis, and knows where his towel is. Drop on by and learn about life north of he border, and tell him Moody sent you.

Moody Loner's Election Guide: Part III

Okay, for those of you coming in late, Part I of my Election Guide covered the statewide initiatives on the June 6 ballot in CA, while Part II went over all the statewide races - yes, even though I don't vote in most of them. Now we are winding up with Part III, the county and local issues on the ballot. Happiness abounding!

Judicial:

Judge - Superior Court; County of Santa Clara; Office 8:

Quick answer: Reluctantly, Douglas B. Allen
Long answer: We start off with a toughie. With no information about political affiliation available, I need to base my decision on - horror! - what I can learn about the candidates and - shudder! - make my own decision based on how I interpret their qualifications.

Seriously, though. After going over the comprehensive biographies and excellent responses from the candidates, Ill have to reluctantly pick Douglas Allen as the most experienced and qualified. I reserve the right to rethink this, probably in the voting booth.

Judge - Superior Court; County of Santa Clara; Office 13:

Quick answer: Timothy Pisker, I guess. Can I write-in for this?
Long answer: Another toughie - but for precisely the opposite reason as Office 8. Whereas those candidates were all too happy to discuss their positions, experience, and life history, these three say nothing. Well, except for Michele McKay McCoy who deigns to share with us unwashed masses her political philosophy, to wit:

• public safety
• rule of law
• victims' rights

And that's a direct cut-and-paste. I'd vote for none of them if I could, but since I must, I rolled a d6.

County:

County Supervisor; County of Santa Clara; Supervisorial District 4:

Quick answer: Linda LeZotte by a nose. No, that isn't a comment on anyone's facial features.
Long answer: At first I didn' think this was going to be tough, as one of the candidates didn't bother to respond to the questions posed by the League of Women Voters and got crossed off the list early.

But after researching Ken Yeager and Linda LeZotte, I'm going to have to go with Linda. You see, at this level, politics becomes personal. No, I don't know either candidate - but I do know Sally Leiber, who personally helped me out with a certain asshole mobile home park manager (who will remain nameless) and Ms. Leiber impressed me with her professionalism, loyalty and willingness to do her job - advocating for her constituents, even her Decline-to-State constituents. She endorsed Ms. LeZotte, so that's what tipped it.

Any candidates reading this guide, higher office or local, take note.


Assessor; County of Santa Clara:

Quick answer: Incumbent, God damn it.
Long answer: I was really looking forward to voting for "Primo". But, "Primo" didn't offer any information to the League of Women Voters. I couldn't find "Primo"'s website. Other than that he's a member of the Board of Supervisors, I can't find anything that suggests that ol' "Primo" particularly wants this job, let alone that he's capable of performing it.

Any candidates reading this guide, higher office or local, take note.


District Attorney; County of Santa Clara:

Quick answer: Dolores Carr.
Long answer: Another drowning-in-information contest - not only do I have the candidates' websites and the League of Women Voters' information, but this race has been burying me in mailings. In fact, my daughter's making something out of a Karyn Sinunu mailing now. Hat? Airplane? Nope, blanket for her doll.

OK, seriously though - not enough info on Marc Buller, Jim Shore wants to monitor sexual offenders 24/7 with GPS, so it's down to a coin-flip between Dolores Carr and Karyn Sinunu, which Dolores won.

Whew!


Sheriff; County of Santa Clara:

Quick answer: Laurie Smith. Are you sure I can't write-in for this?
Long answer: Laurie Smith is running unopposed. Dammit. I hate voting for people running unopposed almost as much as I hate voting for incumbents.

City:

Mayor; City of San Jose:

Quick answer: Looking like David Pandori for this one, but we'll see.
Long answer: Okay, if you're going to run for the mayor of the tenth-largest city in the world, you might want to take the time to proofread your candidates' statements. At least click the little button with the check-mark and ABC on it.

I'm talking to you, John Michael Candeias. I am also talking to you, Timothy K. Fitzgerald.

Now that those two are off the slate, it looks like David Pandori is the best pick, but this is another one that I'll be going back and forth over in the voting booth while people wait impatiently.


Director; Santa Clara Valley Water District; Division 4:

Quick answer: Larry Wilson, dammit.
Long answer: Well, we have Larry Wilson, and we have Joe Pandit - who wants to do pretty much what Larry Wilson wants to do, far as I can tell. Both candidates are solidly for clean drinking water.

While I'm sure Joe Pandit is a hell of a guy, with a family and everything, I don't see any reason not to stick with the God-damned incumbent if the only other option is to elect someone just like him.

Convince me differently, Joe. You have three days.


Local Measures:

Measure A: Sales Tax -- County of Santa Clara
(Majority Approval Required)
Shall a one-half cent sales tax be enacted, for 30 years, for general county purposes, such as:

The County hospital and clinics;
Trauma and emergency services;
Affordable homes for families and seniors;
Health insurance for uninsured children;
Prevention programs for at-risk youth, families and seniors;
Transportation improvements approved in city and countywide transportation plans;
Services for abused and neglected children;

with a Citizens Oversight Committee ensuring fiscal accountability by reviewing the Annual Audit?

Quick answer: No.
Long answer: Laudable goals. Who could be against those? Why didn't they add sunshine and puppies and kittens and happy faces and unicorns?

And we'll get a bunch of citizens to look over the books once a year. That'll prevent any funny business.

Yeah, right.

Measure B: Parks -- County of Santa Clara
(Majority Approval Required)

Without increasing taxes, shall the Santa Clara County Charter be extended to provide for the acquisition, development, maintenance, and operation of parks, by continuing the annual transfer from the general fund of an amount estimated to equal $0.01425 per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation of all real and personal property commencing on July 1, 2009 for twelve years?

Quick answer: Sure, why not?
Long answer. I don't own property, they're not raising my taxes, and my daughter likes parks. Sure, why not?

Measure K: Fire Station Construction -- City of San Jose
(Majority Approval Required)

To improve fire suppression, emergency medical services and increase essential emergency facilities available for disaster response within the Evergreen and East Hills area, shall the City be authorized to construct a two-company fire station on one acre in Silver Creek Park?

Quick answer: Oh, all right.
Long answer: Silver Creek Park is about 3.8 acres. We can burn one (no pun intended) on a fire station.

So there you have it, the final chapter in Moody Loner's Election Guide. I'd like to thank the candidates and the League of Women Voters for making this analysis possible.

In conclusion, I exhort you all to study the issues, draw your own conclusions, and vote your conscience - and, above all, ask for a paper ballot!

There He Goes Again

Oh, Falafel Boy - looks like you need a refresher on that history lesson.

Here's the three things you need to remember about the Malmedy atrocity:

1. The 82nd Airborne was not there.
2. The Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper committed the atrocity. They were not the victims of it.
3. You, Mr. O'Reilly, are an idiot. Oh, and a terrorist sympathizer.

Blame the 82nd for Malmedy again, and every member of the 82nd and every surviving relative of the soldiers of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion that died in the massacre gets to kick you in the balls. Assuming they can find them.

Moody Loner's Election Guide: Part II

This continues the Moody Loner voting guide - Part I covered Prop. 81 and 82 while Part III will cover the San Jose, CA races. This, Part II, will go over my picks for the statewide races starting with the powerful and glamorous Member of the Board of Equalization races that we've heard so much about, and winding up with that Governator thing.

Okay, on to the statewide elected officials:

Member of the Board of Equalization, District 1:

Quick Answer: Oh, Jesus God.

Long answer: Already, I run into a conundrum. See, I hate - hate - voting for incumbents, and the absolute, unshakeable law of this voting guide is that I will not tell you to vote for a Republican. Yes, even if the Republican is better qualified. Republicans, by signing up and running under that party, you support everything Republicans have been doing for the past six years - the disenfranchisement, the torture, the lawbreaking, and the shredding of the Constitution. This is the payoff.

My first choice would be David Campbell from the Peace and Freedom Party - "soak the rich" ought to piss off the Republicans - but, if you must, vote for the Acting Member, Betty T. Yee.

Superintendent of Public Instruction:

Quick Answer: Jack O'Connell, wait, Sarah Knopp, wait, Grant McMicken. Ah, hell.

Long answer: Lovely, a non-partisan position - which means that they don't have to list political affiliation. Well, I like voting for someone for this position who's actually been a teacher, so that cuts half the slate out right there (including the woman who thought that listing her Republican Party accomplishments would help). Of those three, Sarah Knopp looks good right up to he point she wants to legislate my wife out of her life's work - see Prop 82 in Part I. Grant McMicken looks good - if "entrepreneur" isn't "stealth Republican". And Jack O'Connell, of course, is the incumbent, which is extra poisonous, given the state of California's public education.

Looks like a coin-flip between Sarah Knopp and Grant McMicken. Yeah, they want different things - but both of them want to make major changes, and a good shakeup - at minimum - is what we need.

Insurance Commissioner:

Quick answer: John Kraft.

Long answer: Anybody with a campaign website that crappy gets my vote. Seriously though, I don't like him being an "insurance consultant" but he, as far as I can tell, meets the two requirements for this position: He isn't supported by the insurance companies, and he isn't a Republican. The cheese stands alone!

Attorney General:

Quick answer: Jerry Brown or Michael S. Wyman.

Long answer: Okay, like I prefer to vote for a teacher for Superintendent of Public Instruction, I hate to vote for a prosecutor for Attorney General. Not particularly enthused with a criminal attorney, for the same reasons - I think a certain distance from the daily workings of our justice system is important to maintaining our rights, having worked more closely with it in high school.

Looks like a coin-flip between Jerry Brown and Michael Wyman. Their positions are somewhat different - but close enough for my book. I lean towards Wyman as he despises the Patriot Act nearly as much as I do, but Brown pisses off the wingnuts and that counts for something too.

As an aside - God, Jerry Brown got old and bald! When the hell did that happen?!?

Treasurer:

Quick answer: Oh, Jesus God. Not the incumbent - please. All right, Bill Lockyer.

Long answer: Let's see, we have a marketer, someone who wants to raise revenue through State ownership, and two Republicans. Go with the incumbent, dammit.


Controller:

Quick answer: John Chiang.
Long answer: Going back and forth between him and Laura Wells, but her website hadn't been recently updated and had misspellings. On such small hinges does our democracy turn.

Secretary of State:

Quick answer: Debra Bowen
Long answer: Debra Bowen. This is an easy one - she's been fighting Diebold long before it was cool.

Lieutenant Governor:

Quick answer: Donna J. Warren.
Long answer: I have to burn at least one of these votes on a third-party candidate, and she's a good one. She wants to amend three-strikes to violent felonies only - a position I heartily agree with - and from my early-morning researches, is one of the few candidates in this election not phoning it in. I'm sure she's received much more enthusiastic endorsements, but she'll have to settle for mine.

Governor:

Quick answer: Phil Angelides, dammit.
Long answer: Not particularly happy about how he and Westly have been running this race, but I think Angelides is the marginally stronger candidate.


Okay, to answer the obvious questions: Yes, I know that this is a primary, and that I won't see most of these people on my Decline-to-State ballot (unless I pick up the Democratic one to vote for Debra Bowen. Which I may do).

This isn't so much how I'm going to vote as how I think you should - and who I want to see survive until the November election.

So, thanks to the League of Women Voters' site and to the candidates' online materials for providing the information I needed to make my recommendations. Next up, Part III - wherein I regale you with the horse-hockey we will be inflicted with in our local election. God, I love democracy.

And remember - ask for a paper ballot!

Moody Loner's Election Guide: Part I

Well, we here in California have an election coming up soon, and I know y'all have been clamoring for a Moody Loner Election Guide.

Well, here it is. Part I will cover the initiatives, my picks for them, and the reasoning behind those picks. Part II will cover the statewide elected officials, while Part III will cover more local issues.

So, on with the fun. Life on the edge.

First, let's start with the propositions.

Prop. 81: California Reading and Literacy Improvement and Public Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act of 2006. Or, as I call it, the Closed and Empty Building Construction Act.

Quick answer: I don't think so.

Long answer: A laudable goal, to renovate public libraries and build more. The hours and staff for our current libraries have been cut - so rather than restore them, we'll just build more libraries we can't stock or keep open. No, I don't think so.

Prop. 82: Preschool Education. Tax on Incomes Over $400,000 for Individuals; $800,000 for Couples. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute. Or, as I refer to it, the Put My Wife Out of Work Act.

Quick answer: Oh, no.

Long answer: Again, I can't argue with the goal - but I can sure as hell argue with the method. See, no one - the Secretary of State's office, the people pushing it on Daily Kos, the people that organized the initiative - no one is able or willing to tell me the impact on my wife's daycare. I'd have to believe that were the impact good, they'd waste no time doing so in order to secure our enthusiastic votes, but instead they tell me how children need a preschool curriculum and usually toss in a few snide remarks about home-schoolers.

Some of them, to be fair, point out that we can sign up for this program and get funding - but my wife will have to go to school again to get a degree. The little blurb about how much schooling an ECE teacher needs on the summary doesn't take into count the prerequisites, I have to point out - so my wife's already taken three years of college for a job that pays worse than flipping burgers. Now they want to improve her pay - which is great - but what do we do with our daughter while I'm working and my wife's in school?

I look over at my wife working on curriculum, while my home-schooled daughter works on her workbook, and I'll have to vote with our long-term interests. You lost me.