Chicken Loving Homophobes

California voters approve Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriages
Jessica Garrison, Cara Mia DiMassa and Nancy Vogel, LA Times, 10/5/08

Prop 8 passed with a vote of 52.0% in favor and 48.0% opposed.

The bigots won.

I hope there is a massive effort to repeal Prop 8. My question to those who voted yes was and still is, WHY DO YOU CARE?

"I think the voters were thinking, well, if it makes them happy, why shouldn't we let gay couples get married. And I think we made them realize that there are broader implications to society and particularly the children when you make that fundamental change that's at the core of how society is organized, which is marriage," Proposition 8 strategist Jeff Flint said.

What implications? You and your supporters are absolutely insane Mr. Flint. I don't usually stoop to ad hominem, but since your basic premise is riddled with nonsense and hate I feel I can go there.

Elsewhere in the country, two other gay-marriage bans, in Florida and Arizona, also won. In both states, laws already defined marriage as a heterosexual institution. But backers pushed to amend the state constitutions, saying that doing so would protect the institution from legal challenges.

Proposition 8 was the most expensive proposition on any ballot in the nation this year, with more than $74 million spent by both sides.

The measure's most fervent proponents believed that nothing less than the future of traditional families was at stake, while opponents believed that they were fighting for the fundamental right of gay people to be treated equally under the law.

Separate but Equal

"This has been a moral battle," said Ellen Smedley, 34, a member of the Mormon Church and a mother of five who worked on the campaign. "We aren't trying to change anything that homosexual couples believe or want -- it doesn't change anything that they're allowed to do already. It's defining marriage. . . . Marriage is a man and a woman establishing a family unit."

Really, in these economic times you spent millions to define a word?

I wonder what the failure rate is for heterosexual marriages in the United States?

Why they hell do you love the word so much? What are you fighting to protect and save?

What evil will befall the nation if the word marriage included same sex unions?

Cluck Cluck

Farm animal proposition passes; redistricting measure appears headed for victory
Eric Bailey, LA Times, 10/5/08

Proposition 2, which would determine the fate of penned farm animals, won easily.

The high-stakes measure, debated heavily on TV, pitted animal rights activists against farm groups on the question of whether egg-laying hens, veal calves and pregnant sows should be allowed more room in pens and cages.

Dinner in San Francisco anyone?

Proposition 1A, the long-delayed effort to finance a bullet train linking Southern California with the Bay Area, was also approved by voters.

The cultural exchange between to the two cities will be amazing. Someday in the hopefully not too distant future, I will never again have to make the long ardious drive up Route 5 to San Francisco. I only hope the train stops somewhere reasonably close to Santa Cruz county

Turnout

More than 82% vote in L.A. County
Jennifer Oldham and Larry Gordon, LA Times, 10/5/08

Of the county's 4.3 million registered voters, about 3.5 million had cast ballots Tuesday at 8 p.m. To find a higher turnout, officials had to go back to 1968 when 86% of county voters cast their ballots for president. The next highest turnout was in 1976, with 81.08%.

U.S. Census Bureau's, 2006 American Community Survey, estimated the population of LA County at 9,744,896. Of those 9.7 million, 7,267,873 are 18 years old and over. So there are potentially 2.9 million unregistered voters in Los Angeles county. I sure would like to shrink that number by the next election.

News from the Homeland

Massachusetts voted to decriminalize marijuana. Voters approved the measure 65% to 35%. Offenders will be given a $100 fine for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.