I was sitting here, reading my sample ballot for the June primary election here in California, and noticed something startling. It says here that nonpartisan voters may request a ballot for any of the following parties: Democratic Party, Republican Party, American Independent Party. This is a change. In the past, independents could only vote in the Democratic and AI primaries.
Clearly, the California Republican Party has changed the policy. I assume this happened at the last convention in San Francisco, during which my attention was focused on the platform fight.
This is disappointing to me. As things stand, conservative stalwarts in the party do the state a great service by leveraging their Constitutional prerogatives and limiting the tax-and-spend desires of the Democratic majority. If we allow ourselves to be watered down by ‘independents,’ then we could destroy that, and the Democrats would be able to run amok raising taxes, supermajority requirement or no.
I, for one, personally prefer we go back to having truly closed primaries. Even if “moderating” on spending, taxes, and culture would net us a few more seats, it could cost us what limited success we do have in Sacramento.
So today, former Presidential nominee George McGovern has asked Senator Clinton to quit the race, and endorsed Senator Obama as the Democratic nominee.
Nobody told him that Presidential losers aren’t superdelegates, and that the superdelegates are supposed to prevent him from happening again, I guess.
I just got home with my new, blue Nintendo DS, Picross DS, and SimCity DS.
Curse Nintendo. They just want every dollar to my name, don’t they?
And so the Jazz fall. They didn’t quit, and they even took a lead when Gasol got in early foul trouble, but the Lakers’ bench outplayed the Jazz bench, and the Jazz have nobody who can stop Kobe.
Dare I hope for another sweep?
Here I’d written off the Dodgers as being on the way to a mediocre season, but while I was watching the NBA Playoffs, they’ve gone and won eight in a row!
The fight continues to protect Californians from the abuses of civil liberties authorized by the Supreme Court in Kelo v. New London. Proponents of our civil rights against theft of property have placed on the June ballot Proposition 98. Unlike the last Proposition 98, which began our disastrous budget problems by placing hard lower limits on school spending growth, this one is from the good guys. The new Proposition 98 is a proposed state Constitutional amendment that would place sweeping restrictions on eminent domain abuse statewide, and ensure that “just compensation” is provided even when the takings occur.
However, the forces of big government are not quick to give up. Corrupt city and county governments have in turn put on the ballot Proposition 99, another proposed amendment. Masquerading as an anti-eminent domain law, Proposition 99 would not even have helped in the Kelo case, so narrow are the limits on government set.
As could probably be predicted, I support Proposition 98. I think it’s just the kind of amendment that a state like California needs to pass, revolutionizing the way we look at property rights, much as Proposition 13 shocked the nation with our controlling of property taxes. In fact, there’s a way of looking at Proposition 98 as a successor to Proposition 13.
So of course, big government and big spending types statewide are strongly against it, led by the girly man himself, Governor Schwarzenegger. Given a chance to take a stand on for freedom, he backs down.
As an aside, let this be a reminder that being pro-abortion does not make one a ‘libertarian’ Republican.
Add enough well-funded elements against a ballot measure with a good chance of passing, such is the case with Proposition 98, and a particular tactic has grown common: Get another, deceptively similar measure on the ballot, muddy the waters, and hope for the best. That’s the plan with Proposition 99. Proposition 99 limits eminent domain only for a “primary residence,” but adds a laundry list of exceptions to even that narrow limitation. It lacks any broad recognition of property rights, a firm definition of just compensation, and for freedom lovers is no substitute for Proposition 98.
So for my vote, I recommend support for Proposition 98, and opposition to Proposition 99. Strike down big government, tell the Supreme Court who’s boss, and make California safe to own property again.
Update: Upon looking up the text of Proposition 98, it has come to my attention that the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is responsible for the amendment. The group is of course best known for Proposition 13, meaning 98 is more of a successor to 13 than I even imagined when I wrote the above!
There’s a pretty nasty primary race going on where I live, between Assemblyman John Benoit and Russ Bogh for the Republican nomination to the State Senate (37th district). This is a Republican district, so the primary is the election that counts. I’ve been pretty much ignoring it, though, waiting to decide until I vote in June.
However, today I got a piece of mail that I think says it all. Bogh put out an attack flyer on Benoit, criticizing him for voting to cut over $1 billion in spending, spending we certainly can’t afford. The Republicans in Sacramento, being vastly outnumbered, have one job: fight for spending and tax cuts during the budget fight, using the leverage given to the minority by the state Constitution.
If Bogh is going to be a spender in Sacramento, I think it’s likely that in June I will be favoring Benoit for State Senate.
They ran back toward Disgaea after the innovative Phantom Brave. Disappointing in a way, really. Speed is gone, returning team turns. Kill-based Mana is back, as are gender pairs of classes.
Summoning is still around though, but perhaps more interestingly, the main characters are no longer combat characters. Summoned monsters are mandatory to fight. That actually removes some tricks; Marona getting to be revived on the next map with 1 HP was something I’d used a few times.
It’ll be a while before I dig into the depth of these buildings, vehicles, and whatever the new random dungeons are, as well as how the items work (it seems like there’s less randomness and variation than in any previous game in this ‘series’). So of course I’m a long way from having any real judgements on the game.
Gizmodo reports that Microsoft has a backdoor put into its OSes, and is giving out USB keys to allow people to break into systems running Microsoft OSes. How long until this backdoor is exploited by unauthorized individuals?
If Apple is installing this kind of backdoor, too, then I may have a problem. Because who’s to say it won’t be exploited remotely?
It’s not Shaq’s fault. The trade was not the right one to make on the fly, in a panic. It wasn’t Shaq’s fault that the Suns tried what wasn’t going to work.