My Highly Unauthorized & Unofficial Sample Ballot… The Election According to @ddiprima …

by
dominique DiPrima

Ok. The election is on Tuesday. In case you haven’t early voted or figured much of anything out, or in case you just happen to be so crazy about me that you’re just going with my recommendations here they are. Nobody paid to get on this list, I am not an official in anybody’s party, committee, pac, super pac or six pack. I have no letters before or after my name, my book is not out yet and calling me an expert would be a stretch…BUT I got a surplus of common sense and a very good B.S.-ometer. So enjoy, ignore or use at your own risk!

Top of the Ticket – Re-elect President Barack Obama! If you won’t do it for yourself, do it to save your grandma’s Medicaid, your grandaddy’s Medicare, and yo’ Mama’s mortgage modification!

Proposition 30 – YES. I get that it’s not perfect. But 1) the funds do go to a separate account for education 2) If we don’t pass it the state of California goes off it’s own special little fiscal cliff with drastic cuts in education, childcare and other essential services for the states most vulnerable. residents. These cuts will be triggered automatically if Prop 30 doesn’t pass. It will be ugly…

Proposition 38 – NO. Yes, I can count, I know 31 is after 30 but these two go together. Don’t get it twisted, 38 is not the same as 30. 38 does not stop the budget hatchet from coming down on our kids. And it’s either/or, meaning whichever of these two has the most votes wipes out the other.

Proposition 31 – NO. It seems to me that our California budget process is already a complete bullet-train-wreck. I don’t have strong feelings about this proposition, I like the two year budget idea. But anything that makes it harder for these jokers in Sacramento to pass a budget is gonna get a thumbs down from me.

Proposition 32 – NO NO and No again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you are not a huge corporation, a politician who gets all their money from huge corporations or as rich as Romney this is a definite no! This is sheer trickeration. The folks behind Proposition 32 (including Carl Rove & the Koch Brothers) are trying to bamboozle you into believing that it will limit corporate donations to elections. All it does is unfairly tie the hands of working people and the unions that represent them! It will mean progressive, pro-union, pro worker propositions and candidates will stand no chance in California. It will turn our Golden State oasis of common-sense Democrats into an oligarchy of cash-money Republicans!!!

Proposition 33 – NO. This will allow insurance companies to charge more to poor and working class people who have been forced by financial hardship to let their insurance lapse from time to time.

Proposition 34 – YES. This would end the death penalty in California. The death penalty is applied unfairly with Black and Brown people most likely to be executed. It is not cost effective, sucking up 308 million in taxpayer dollars for each death row inmate executed in California. And it is wrong. Under Prop 34 offenders would be forced to work for the rest of their lives and they money would go to victims and law enforcement to help them crack unsolved homicides and rape cases. It’s time for California to lead the way in abolishing the death penalty in America…So we can join most of the worlds human rights-abiding countries who do not allow the state to execute citizens.

Proposition 35 – YES. Tougher laws on human trafficking and sex offenders. That’s a yes.

Proposition 36 – YES. This simply changes the Three Strikes law so that your third felony has to be serious or violent to put you away for 25 to life. People will still be punished for their crimes, and no one gets out unless their sentence was completely unfair and they appeal it under the new law. But Prop 36 makes sure no one spends life in jail ( & boatloads of taxpayer money) for stealing a piece of pizza.

Proposition 37 – YES. I wanna know what’s in my food. I wanna know if that’s a cloned animal or God’s original that I’m putting on my holiday table. If those tomatoes have pig-DNA I want to know that before I put them on my family’s plates. Franken-food should be a choice. True, it may cost a tad more. But if cost is the only factor we could all eat mud – it’s free. Yes to labeling genetically modified food! Most of the rest of the world does this. We should too

Proposition 39 – YES. Sell in California. Pay California. And as a bonus this helps support our clean energy goals.

Proposition 40 – YES. Keeps the state Senate districts as drawn. Do we need any more redistricting drama?

Measure B – NO RECOMMENDATION. Requires porn actors to wear condoms. Sounds like a good idea but, um, well, I’ll be honest and say it’s not at the top of my list of concerns.

Measure J – UNDECIDED. I’ll probably vote no because I hate the idea of South Central Los Angeles paying more taxes for public transportation with no guarantee we’ll see any benefits. But Congresswoman Waters had a good point in that we have to develop public transportation in Southern California. Gas prices are too high. This measure would speed up projects that were supposed to take 20 years down to 5 years, that seems like a good thing. And even if you live in South L.A. you might want to take a subway to the sea…

So these are my recommendations so far…But hey we still have few more days. Make your comments, call my show, make your point. And keep your eye on this page as some things could change given new ideas or information…Bottom line is agree or disagree, there is no disrespect. Let’s turn this mother out (the vote that is…) Let’s visualize victory and do our part to make it manifest.