Vote!

Dear voting friends,

November 8th would be a good day to take off work and concentrate on getting out the vote--really! If the turnout for this all-referendum/no personalities election is as low as expected, every vote that does get cast counts double--does that make sense? It's what I've heard anyway: that a big turnout in San Francisco and Alameda counties could shut down the Schwarznegger machine. Other ways to get out the vote:

1) Email all your friends
2) Put a "Vote Nov 8" sign in your window (car or house--I used one of those glow-in-the-dark markers that they sell at Halloween supply stores for drawing spider webs)
3) Phone bank (call around for where to show up: I know the unions like SEIU and CLUW have organized different nights)
4) Pull a couple of neighbors with you when you go to vote
5) Vote absentee so you don't forget to vote yourself.

----Barbara, your vote-out-loud friend

Six NOs and Two YESes (in that order) -- Barbara Selfridge's crib sheet for Tues Nov 8, 2005

73--Kill Pregnant Teens in Dysfunctional Families--NO. Did you know that Right-to-Lifers pack schools' HIV education committees and preach abstinence, born-again virginity, and that saving just one girl from premarital sex is a victory? No to the unwanted births and back alley abortions they would wish on the unsaved.
74--Blame Teachers for Under-Funded Schools--NO. To have good schools, you have to have taxes, but rather than repeal the stupid stupid cap on property taxes, Schwartznegger et al want to make the teaching vocation even less viable.
75--Silence the Labor Movement--NO. Schwartznegger wants to stop the nurses, teachers and firefighters, etc, from insisting he enforce the laws that he'd just as soon break.
76--Less Money for Schools, More Power for Republican Governors--NO. Schwartznegger hates having to negotiate a budget with the majority-Democratic legislature the damn public keeps electing. And he hates having to abide by the school spending demands of that same populace.
77--Republican Power-Grab Through Redistricting--NO. A vote for this is a vote for Tom Delay and the pro-Republican redistricting he financed in Texas.
78--Phony Prescription Drug Reform--NO. This is the pharmaceutical giants insisting that all discounts programs be voluntary, nothing that could be enforced in a court of law. Because they hate "trial lawyers”!! Yeah, right.
79--Actual Prescription Drug Reform--YES. This is the plan that would MANDATE life-saving drug discounts.
80--Use the Public Utilities Commission to Prevent Future Enrons--YES. This is supported by TURN, the great pro-consumer anti-corporate-energy organization, and would undo some of the disastrous deregulation that undid California's energy grid five years ago.