March, 3, 2002 archives
live simple is an interesting online book. i'm not sure if i agree with aiming as low as some of the tips suggest—there's no way i'd want to live in a studio apartment. and i reject the 'kill your tv' philosophy. it smacks cultural (and intellectual) snobbery. (via markpasc.)
hey look, the service provider for california republican gubernatorial candidate and spammer bill jones is no longer his service provider. looks like they weren't happy with his spamming, either.
there's three county measures on tuesday's ballot for los angeles county. (i can't find the measures online at the official site. you'll have to pull up the sample ballot.)
amendment a would establish term limits for the board of supervisors, the sheriff, and the district attorney. the limit would be three terms. since i'm opposed to term limits, i'll be voting no on this.
amendment b would establish term limits only for the board of supervisors. again, since i'm opposed to term limits, i'll be voting no.
amendment c would increase the sheriff's department by adding one assistant sheriff and four division chiefs. (the additional assistant sheriff and two of the chiefs would be non-sworn and appointed from outside the sheriff's office.) it seems odd that this is on the ballot (don't we elect a board of supervisors for this?), but i'll vote yes.
the la times says to vote yes on amendments s a and b, and hasn't taken a stand on amendment c.
in county elections, i'm already planning to ignore the superior court elections, and zev yaroslavsky is running unopposed for supervisor in my district, so that just leaves assessor and sheriff.
for sheriff, every indication i've seen is that the current sheriff, lee baca, is doing a fine job. so he'll get my vote.
the current assessor (who just served a partial term), rick auerbach, also appears to be doing a bang-up job. he's got my vote, too. (although i admire the tenacity of john lower taxes loew, who legally changed his name to include “lower taxes.”)
la weekly endorsed both baca and auerbach, and recommended voting yes on all three county measures.
it must not be very much fun to be bill gross these days, as 25 new plaintiffs join the idealab suit. i still believe that at its core, idealab is a great idea, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired (especially if the allegations in the suit are true). attending the shareholder's meeting on march 14 could be entertaining.
and i guess it's worth mentioning that my former employer is being acquired by loudcloud—for $12-13 million in stock, but they had $10 million in cash on hand.
finally, the state offices. there's one non-partisan election (superintendent of public schools), and i'm going to be voting in the republican primary so i can cast a vote for riordan.
for superintendent, i'm going to have to go with lynne leach, although i may still change my mind. her website is the least embarrassing. (it isn't great, but compare with those of katherine h. smith and jack o'connell. the fourth candidate, joe taylor, goes right out for listing himself as a political consultant. that's supposed to be appealing?) the la times recommended jack o'connell.
for lieutenant governor, the choices are ellie michaels and bruce mcpherson (no website). downloaded the song, i'll be voting for bruce.
there's three candidates for secretary of state: mike schaefer, barbara jean marr, and keith olberg. i like what keith olberg has to say, so he looks like my guy.
dick ackerman is running unopposed for the republication nomation for attorney general. i'll skip this race.
there's four candidates for the always-exciting position of controller. w. snow hume, dean andal, tom mcclintock, and nancy beecham. andal almost had me until he touted his support for the defense of marriage act. beecham's right out for using frames (and supporting term limits). snow's out for having a silly name (and being a little too anti-things-i'm-not-anti). that leaves mcclintock, who doesn't seem all too objectionable.
there's just two candidates for treasurer, greg conlon and mary a. toman. conlon wins for most obtuse domain name, but i can't discern any real reason to favor one of these two, so i'll take a pass.
finally, there's three candidates for insurance commissioner: stefan “watchdog” stich, gary mendoza, and wes bannister. again, i can't really discern a reason to pick somebody, so i won't.
to summarize:
- prop 40: no
- prop 41: no
- prop 42: no
- prop 43: no
- prop 44: no
- prop 45: yes
- governor: riordan
- lt. governor: mcpherson
- superintendent: leach
- sec. of state: olberg
- controller: mcclintock
- la county measure a: no
- la county measure b: no
- la county measure c: yes
- la county supervisor, 3rd district: yaroslavsky
- la county assessor: auerbach
- la county sheriff: baca
- city of la prop q: no
- city of la prop r: yes
- superior court judges: just skip 'em all
finding good information about the various candidates and issues has been hard. all of the newspaper websites have little-to-no information and it is impossible to find. i wish i'd taken more time to follow the money (not just on the propositions, but all of the races).
i also wish i had discovered jim dimov's website earlier. he has the scientific data to convert garbage into gasoline!