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At Length

Not Swayed By Fear

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At Length
Written by James Preston Allen and staff
Thursday, 16 October 2008
This national presidential race seems to be shaping up as a national psychodrama of historic proportions with Senator McCain representing the lost ghost of the Vietnam War and the eerie specter of Alaska’s beauty queen governor Sarah Palin appearing in a white dress spewing fundamentalist hate and fear from her stump speech pulpit. Can I actually believe what I am seeing in the press about the hatred Palin is whipping up with her faithful followers? This truly is a very dark version of Beauty and the Beast, although I am not sure at this point who is which. In the face of all this drumbeat of fear and loathing, Obama and Biden have somehow risen above the petty personal attacks and political slandering common to the last weeks of political races. They have focused on solutions and Obama has actually clearly enunciated his economic plan with his “audacity of hope” theme that is connecting to an ever expanding disenfranchised out-of-work middle class voter, who has lost their home, their credit rating, and their 401k retirement plan–– voters who, increasingly, can’t afford health insurance. This election promises to be one of those “bell weather” events that happen once in a generation, shifting the entire political psychology. It will be what Thomas Jefferson prophesied that every twenty years a democracy needs to have a revolution–preferably without blood shed–ballots not bullets. And if McCain’s continual slide in the polls continues at its current pace and if Obama’s campaign is ever vigilant of voter suppression and ballot cheating, it is quite probable we shall see a twenty percent spread and the election of America’s first person of color as President. This election of Obama then will draw a symbolic closure to the 148-year historic civil rights conflict that started before the election of Abraham Lincoln. It will not end racism in America entirely, as exhibited by Palin’s campaign rhetoric, nor will it change the biased use of force by the Long Beach and Inglewood police departments. It will change the face of the federal agencies, particularly the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice, ending the dramatic shift from the past eight years of injustice in the hands of Bush and his neo-cons. Oh, do we even dare to hope to be rid of the Idiot-in-the-White House and replace him with someone who actually speaks intelligently, in complete sentences and who has a clue about the meaning of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights? This is not the time to be swayed by fear mongering! It is the time that we as Americans rise to the challenge of the crisis at hand and accept change. The following are this newspaper’s considered recommendations on the November 4 ballot propositions and measures. CALIFORNIA STATE PROPOSITIONS Prop 1A: High Speed Rail: YES! Prop 1A, allows the state to purchase $10 billion in bonds for the purpose of creating a high speed rail system, which can be leveraged to get federal dollars as well as attract private investments. We are decades behind Europe and Japan in the development of this technology. Air travel is increasingly recognized as a major global warming hazard. High speed rail is a commonsense alternative we should have implemented long ago. Better late than never. Prop 2: Farm Animal Conditions: Yes This is a simple law that requires farm animals to be able to stand up and turn around in their cages. Big agribusiness opposes it, but support comes from just about everyone else, including small farmers, farmworkers, veterinarians, environmentalists, animal advocates, food advocates (Eric Schlosser of Fast Food Nation, Frances Moore Lappe of Diet for a Small Planet), faith communities and politicians (Boxer, Feinstein, Viallagosa, etc.) Agribusiness routinely claims it lowers food costs if left to its own devices—a questionable claim in itself—but never counts externalized costs like health risks, environmental degradation, reduced food diversity, loss of family farms, etc. This is a modest, sensible measure, and similar laws have been passed in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Oregon, and throughout the European Union’s 27 member countries. Prop 3: Children’s Hospital Bond Act. No Recommendation. Prop 4: Parental Notification: No. This is the third attempt to pass this anti-choice initiative, rejected previously in the special election of 2005 and the general of 2006. Prop 4 requires parental notification—fine if the teen has a functional family, but dangerous in an abusive home. Bypass provisions sound fine on paper, but how many scared, pregnant teens have the wherewithal to pursue them? State coercion is not a family value. Prop 5: Drug Rehab: Yes This sound policy reform is a follow-up to the wildly successful Prop 36 of a few years back, which saved California taxpayers millions of dollars. It would decrease the number of nonviolent offenders in our jails by placing them in rehabilitation facilities instead. It would also reduce sentences based upon successful completion of the rehab program. California’s prisons are badly overcrowded, and cannot compete with rehabilitation programs when it comes to reducing drug crimes. Prop 6: Runner Anti-Gang Initiative: No. Just plain bad policy that won't actually reduce gang violence, and would likely cost about a billon dollars per year. Increases prison sentences for young gang offenders, at a time when the overall crime rate has been dropping, but prison overcrowding has reached crisis proportions, and state finances are so tight that everything else is being slashed. x Prop 7: Renewable Energy Initiative: No. There already is a renewable power standard in California as part of recent anti-global warming legislation. This bill would expand those requirements—which is good—but would exclude all plants smaller than 30 megawatts from even counting toward the standard—including several existing small wind and solar power companies. That appears to cripple innovation, penalize early pioneers and tilt the playing field away from sound renewable power development. Prop 8: Outlawing Gay Marriage: NO. No to bigotry and going backwards on equal rights for all. It’s offensive to even have this on the California ballot, as entire impetus for this came from out-of-state forces trying to move us backwards to refighting battles that have already been resolved. Everywhere that equal human rights have been advanced for gays and lesbians, none of scare-mongering dire predictions have come true. Individual churches still have the right to determine their own marriage policies. Both human rights and separation of church and state are preserved. A “no” vote on Prop 8 is the most American vote you may ever cast in your life. Prop 9: Runner Victims’ Rights. Initiative: No. Another "tough on crime" measure, using the cover of “victims rights” to keep overcrowding our jails by reducing chances for parole, among other things. Extending time between parole hearings isn’t about “victims rights,” it’s about a backwards-looking approach that takes away hope, and undermines the goal motivating criminals to rehabilitate themselves. Plus, as the Orange County Register noted in recommending a “no” vote: “Prop. 9 would place those rights into the state constitution rather than into statutory law, the distinction being that the constitution is much more difficult to change if problems develop. “ There is one good idea in this initiative—an emphasis on restitution. But it’s a good idea poorly implemented, and as the OC Register reminds us, very difficult to even tweak. Prop 10: Natural Gas Giveaway: No. Prop 10 would sell $5 billion worth of bonds to help Californians buy cleaner cars. But “clean” is defined as natural gas, and not hybrids. Huh? Plus, it wouldn't require that the commercial trucks purchased with the overwhelming majority of these funds stay in the state. It’s simply a boondoggle for T. Boone Pickens to get his natural gas company a ton of new purchasers and to get the state to build his natural gas highway. Natural gas is a decent transition technology, but not a long-term answer. Prop 11: Redistricting: NO! Has redistricting been too political in the past? Yes, always. Will Prop 11 change that? No. It is bipartisan—giving equal power to Democrats and Republicans to draw the maps—rather than non-partisan, which is key to removing politics. Since Republicans are a distinct minority in the state, their efforts to combat this unchangable situation would only tend to further distort things, rather than move things in a better direction. It’s opposed by leading minority organizations (MA LDEF, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Asian American Justice Center, etc.), as well as labor and environmental groups, and the Democratic Party. Prop 12:: Veterans’ Bond Act:. Yes. This bond funds a program to help veterans purchase farms and homes. It's a decent program, and the bond has passed something like 20 times over the last 100 years. Only a phony patriot, like a GOP congresscritter, would vote against it. LOS ANGELES COUNTY MEASURE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MEASURE R – Transportation Bond. NO - The half-cent sales tax proposed to help fund new and existing transportation projects may be a good deal for some Angelinos, but not for others, and particularly not for those in the Harbor Area. Among the projects to be funded by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s half-cent sales tax would be the “subway to the sea,” the Exposition Line, and an extension of the Green Line to Los Angeles International Airport. While such projects are indeed urgent and necessary, there is no immediate impact to residents of the Harbor Area, who are still left disconnected from the rest of Southern California. Although the MTA is studying linking the Harbor Area to the rest Los Angeles through the use of the Harbor Subdivision, the emergence of passenger-rail in the Harbor Area remains nonexistent for the indefinite future. Such an omission leaves us to believe that the Press-Telegram was indeed correct in opposing Measure R. For this reason Random Lengths News urges a NO vote. LOS ANGELES CITY MEASURES A – CITY OF LOS ANGELES SPECIAL GANG AND YOUTH VIOLENCE PREVENTION, AFTER-SCHOOL AND JOB TRAINING PROGRAMS TAX. PROPOSITION A. To address gang violence through prevention and job training programs; preventing students from dropping out of school; funding supervised after-school programs, tutoring/mentoring, vocational/apprenticeship programs, expanded graffiti removal; requiring Controller audits, citizen oversight; funding proven programs; shall the City of Los Angeles levy an annual $36 gang prevention tax, with discounts for low-income seniors, on each real property parcel? Conditional YES– Councilwoman Hahn has proposed this “Gang Tax” for many of the right reasons– to combat the causes of street crime in our communities and to provide alternatives to young people dropping out of school but a parcel tax is another flat tax idea that could just as easily have come from an ardent Republican as it does from a liberal Democrat we support this only if Hahn learns the meaning of what “progressive tax” means in the future. B – UPDATE OF LOW RENT HOUSING AUTHORIZATION. PROPOSITION B. Shall existing voter-approved authorization for low rent housing be revised to remove impediments to federal and state funding and requirements not compatible with current housing needs, and authorize the development, construction or acquisition of low rent housing by public entities in the City of Los Angeles, maintaining the previously authorized voter-approved level of 3,500 units per Council District, subject to availability of funding and all City development requirements? YES, in these times of financial distress in the mortgage/ housing industry there is going to be a major demand to low income rental housing and freeing up the restrictions on the requirements and limitations on this type of housing will in the end pay us back in more than one way. LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT Measure J – LOCAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE CLASSROOM REPAIR, PUBLIC SAFETY, NURSING AND JOB TRAINING MEASURE. To prepare students for jobs by improving classrooms, laboratories, equipment; train nurses, police, firefighters, paramedics; increase apprenticeship training opportunities; repair electrical wiring, plumbing, fire alarms; improve earthquake safety, energy efficiency to reduce costs; acquire/improve real property; shall Los Angeles Community College District issue $3.5 billion in bonds at legal interest rates, requiring public review, oversight , audits, no money for administrators’ salaries and no tax rate increase? NO – The community college district for all of its good intentions has failed in the past to rectify it’s flawed contract bidding and over sight procedures; even though we do need to invest in the future of our community colleges for all of the reasons that they provide above, they need to get their hands on how their contracts are handled to contain future spending. LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT Measure Q – This $7 billion Bond authorizes the LAUSD to issue general obligation bonds which shall be used for the speific pruposes set forth in this measure including the rairing and upgrading of classrooms and restroom and upgrading fire and earthquake safety; reducing asbestos, lead paint, air pollution and water quality hazards. YES – It is way past the time that LAUSD schools had these improvements and upgrades , even though they have had some of the same past over sight problems (like the Belmont Learning Complex) as the Community College district, it appears by the recent bond measures that the school district has paid better attention to their spending of the public’s monies and has implemented more and better over sight. Voting yes rewards LAUSD for improvement even though I wouldn’t give them an A for achievement. LONG BEACH CITY MEASURES Measure G – Telephone Users Tax: Yes. Equalizes phone taxes to apply to cell phones. Measure I – Infrastructure Bond: No. While both candidates for the White House stress that now is not the time to raise taxes, the message appears to have fallen on deaf ears, especially at the local level. In Long Beach, Mayor Bob Foster is proposing a new parcel tax of $120 per residential unit to fund a $571 million bond. The funds are intended to be used to maintain and upgrade local infrastructure, including streets, sidewalks, parks, and other local facilities. While it is true that much of the city’s infrastructure is in dire need of repair, other revenue streams should be made available to fund necessary improvements instead of imposing new taxes on the general public. A recently signed bill allowing more drilling in the Wilmington Oil Field is one example. Random Lengths News urges a NO vote. LONG BEACH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT Measure K - $1.2 Billion School Bond: Yes. Education is the one investment that should not be cut back during tough times. It’s the foundation for all future growth.

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