Californians, Please Remember to Vote

[Amelia G]

Hey there, fellow Californians, I'm not sure about other states, but please remember you have until 8pm tonight to vote on a number of important ballot initiatives. You can find your polling place by going to LAVote.net and entering some address information for where you are registered.

There are a number of initiatives which would amend the California Constitution, including one, #73, which would add the language "unborn child, a child conceived but not yet born" to the state Constitution. There are a number of initiatives which could have a huge impact on education in California, as well as initiatives on alternative forms of energy and unnecessary and expensive redistricting.

You can check out the pros and cons for all the propositions, along with helpful links to partisan websites from both sides of each issue, at CalVoter.com

Please remember to vote. You might feel like a drop in a bucket, but you are an important drop, and voting is a small price to pay for all the benefits of being part of a free society. Maybe it is corny for me to feel that it is everyone's civic responsibility, but voting <i>is</i> everyone's civic responsibility.

[Buster Friendly]

voting is important.

some people killed, and died for our rights to vote, and no matter how pointless I feel it might have become in practical reality I still do as a personal 'FUCK YOU' to all those forces that have tried to mold me into a cynical apathetic useless carbon blob...

besideds who knows how much longer they'll allow us to do it?

to the man!

[Morning Glory]

eh... kind of how john kerry didn't vote for the Scott Peterson Clause, which tries abuse of women and abuse of unborn children under a single crime. because both these things are allready illegal, they are just seperate crimes and it's waste of money to revise all the laws for something that doesn't change anything... and the Campaign For Bush said " John Kerry voted agaisnt protecting pregnant women!"

No, I'm not still upset about the 2004 election, I couldn't really care less which christian white rich pro-war anti-abortion pro-WTO male is in office. the point is politics is stupid. maybe when we really live in a free society where you aren't denied basic needs of survival (food, shelter, medicine, etc.) unless you pay for them (if you have to pay for something, then it's not free) then i'll give a shit about the people that are controlling my life.

[Amelia G]

eh... kind of how john kerry didn't vote for the Scott Peterson Clause, which tries abuse of women and abuse of unborn children under a single crime. because both these things are allready illegal, they are just seperate crimes and it's waste of money to revise all the laws for something that doesn't change anything... and the Campaign For Bush said " John Kerry voted agaisnt protecting pregnant women!"

No, I'm not still upset about the 2004 election, I couldn't really care less which christian white rich pro-war anti-abortion pro-WTO male is in office. the point is politics is stupid. maybe when we really live in a free society where you aren't denied basic needs of survival (food, shelter, medicine, etc.) unless you pay for them (if you have to pay for something, then it's not free) then i'll give a shit about the people that are controlling my life.

I assume you are kidding, but that is a different use of the word free. As in free to choose whether or not to have an abortion, freedom to choose to utilize solar or geothermal power, that sort of thing. Not free as in what can I get for nothing. Even people who are thinking free as in free ride should vote, though, because, although they may still not get their way, they definitely won't get it without voting.

[Tequila Zaire]

You're the second person to tell me this today and for a good reason a that...though it reminds me of a question raised as a result of it.

Am I gonna vote? No. Why? Well I'm not really sure and that's the problem isn't it?

[Amelia G]

You're the second person to tell me this today and for a good reason a that...though it reminds me of a question raised as a result of it.

Am I gonna vote? No. Why? Well I'm not really sure and that's the problem isn't it?

What are you not really sure of?

[Morning Glory]

no, im not joking. that is the defintion of freedom. it means unconditionally, without restrictions. when you have to give something in exchange for freedom, then it's not freedom. when you can't do something because you have an obligation imposed on you agaisnt your will that is beyond your control- what part of that matches with your definition? and you don't really have any of the freedoms that you claimed because any of them can be taken away with a law that's passed. the choice is freedom, yes, but if you don't have the choice then it's not. but you don't get to choose neccesary functions for survival (unless you consider dying to be free choice) so i'd say when these things are not given freely, then it violates all concepts of freedom.

[Morning Glory]

being able to choose between two conditions, especially if you had no choice in deciding what those conditions are, doesn't even hold to your defintion of freedom.

that's like saying that a slave is a "free" person because they get to choose between being a slave and being put to death.

if you don't beleive that.... then I contend: if I refuse to work for a living, litteraly, then I can't have the things that are neccesary for me to live. so what's the difference?

or I can steal to eat and get arrested, go to prison, where I will have no freedom at all. so that's a moot point altogether.

[Morning Glory]

hey amelia, I know that I give you a hard time on this stuff, but I know some folks that were interested in this whacky voting thingy, so thanks for taking the time to post this info.

[evilgrrl]

I'm just glad it's over, and all those damn annoying political ads for everything under the sun are gone.

[karyn]

I'm just glad it's over, and all those damn annoying political ads for everything under the sun are gone.

the point of those ads is to inform you. i hate them but people obviously won't bother to be informed on their own. did you vote?

[evilgrrl]

Yeah, but so many of the ads just make loaded statements with no back up. I've heard more than once on the news that some of the allegations the commercials were making were just false. It's like they can say whatever they want, and if they say it enough times, people will believe it (worked for Bush). Like "John Kerry was meeting with communists during the Viet Nam war," when he was meeting with them as part of a government deal to negotiate a peace. And "Schwartzenegger stole money for school budgets and never paid it back." I don't know if that is true or not, but they didn't explain what they mean or cite their sources, so I'm not just going to take their word for it. California politics just gets too partisan for me.

That said, however, FREE BIRTH CONTROL ON DEMAND! *That* would cut down on the number of abortions. But they don't want to do that either. Bah.

[malcolm]

Voting is important but people have their freedom to choose wether they want to or not. I personally vote cus I dont like the feeling of having someone else make all my decisions for me.....but that's just me.

[malcolm]

That said, however, FREE BIRTH CONTROL ON DEMAND! *That* would cut down on the number of abortions. But they don't want to do that either. Bah.

free condoms can be found a t several adult establishments along with adult themed events and (if one is comfy enough in their sexuality) they hand em out like flyers at gay pride parades. been doing it for years. the only tricky part is getting someone to wear one. I know it's not the safest form of birth control but it a form of birth control.

[cheshire centauri]

I personally vote cus I dont like the feeling of having someone else make all my decisions for me...

wouldn't this be a reason not to vote?