jon stewart & stephen colbert

Rolling Stone cover story - Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert interviewed by Maureen Dowd. The link is an excerpt of the story.

I really, really wish people interviewing Stewart and Colbert would quit asking that stupid question - "Do you think you'd still be funny if the Republicans weren't in power?" I mean, really, have they watched the shows? Haven't they read or seen the other interviews where Jon Stewart basically says, "Are you fucking insane? I want my government to be run by sane people. I'm a comedian. I make jokes about anything."

absentee voting

Huh - apparently I was supposed to have mailed this out by the 31st of October, even though the actual ballot needs to be received by November 7 and mail only takes one day to arrive at its proper destination in our county. Oh well, at least I can just drop it off at the library on Tuesday.

My votes:

I'm a little irritated at the state candidates, given that the Democratic ones, at least, are all politicians who've been around California state government for years and years and have not friggin moved on. Is there no one new? I went along mostly with SFBG's and some person named Tang's endorsements.

State:
Governor - Phil Angelides
Lieutenant Governor - John Garamendi
Secretary of State - Debra Bowen
Controller - John Chiang
Treasurer - Mehul M. Thakker - He's a Green candidate and I only picked him because I'm sick of Bill Lockyer.
Attorney General - Jerry Brown - Bleh. I sooo didn't want to pick him, but the Republican choice would have been way worse.
Insurance Commissioner - Cruz M. Bustamante
Member, State Board of Equalization Dist 1 - Betty T. Yee
U.S. Senator - Todd Chretien - Green Party, again, because Dianne Feinstein will get elected anyway and I hate her. (Note: Is there a more mockable candidate name than Richard "Dick" Mountjoy? He's a Republican.)
U.S. Representative - 12th Congressional District - Nobody. The Wikipedia article on the Democratic candidate mentions that he heavily pushed for the first Iraq war.
Member of the 21st Assembly District - Ira Ruskin

Judicial: Okay, this part confused the hell out of me. I could barely find any information online on any of them, you're supposed to say "Yes" or "No" for each name, and they don't put out statements. If there is something, it's something benign like "I promise to treat everybody fairly and equally under the law." Ugh.

Judicial:
Joyce L. Kennard - Yes
Carol A. Corrigan - No
James J. Marchiano - Yes
Sandra Margulies - Didn't vote on this one because I couldn't find any information on her.
Paul R. Haerle - Yes
James A. Richman - Yes
William R. McGuiness - Asshole.
Peter Siggins - Asshole.
Ignazio John Ruvolo - Didn't vote on him.
Patricia K. Sepulveda - Yes
Maria P. Rivera - Didn't vote on her.
Barbara Jones - No

School:
County Board of Education Trustee Area 3: Jeffrey Tong - It was close - I went with him because he seemed to have more experience working with immigrants.
County Board of Education Trustee Area 4: Rod Hsiao - This was also close, but I went with Hsiao because the other candidate was endorsed by S.B. Woo, that annoying guy who got every single Asian person's email and spammed them about his 80-20 Initiative. And I couldn't get myself off his list, no matter how hard I tried.

District:
Sequoia Healthcare Dist., Board of Directors - John B. Oblak, Don Horsley, Arthur J. Faro - The odd man out was Jack Hickey, who actually is a Libertarian and wants the government to stop funding the hospital with grants. God, libertarians.

State Measures:
Prop 1A (Transportation) - No - it's too restrictive.
Prop 1B (Transportation) - No - see above, and doesn't address public transportation enough.
Prop 1C Program providing housing assistance to those in need. - Yes
Prop 1D Bond to improve California schools. - Yes
Prop 1E Disaster Preparedness Act - Yes
Prop 83 Increasing penalties for sex offenders, and prohibits them from living near schools or parks. - No. It pretty much guarantees that they couldn't live anywhere except in rural areas, and I am not cruel enough to foist that on people.
Prop 84 Improve water quality, safety and supply & other natural resources. - Yes
Prop 85 Waiting period and parental notification for abortions. - HELL FUCKING NO.
Prop 86 Tax on cigarettes - Yes
Prop 87 Tax on California oil producers - Yes
Prop 88 Education funding. Real property parcel tax initiative. - Yes
Prop 89 Addresses campaign finance issues - Yes
Prop 90 Complicated thing about eminent domain. - No
County of San Mateo Measure A - Raise in county tax to fund upkeep of city parks. - Yes