Thoughts from Kansas

For President: Barack Obama. 'Nuff said.

House: Barbara Lee.

In Kansas, Boyda, Betts, and Moore.

Senate: No race in California, Jim Slattery in Kansas. The Wichita Eagle, the KC Star, and just about every other serious observer of Kansas politics likes Slattery, and thinks Pat Roberts has lost touch with Kansas. It's time for a change.

Local offices: Rebecca Kaplan is really the only interesting endorsement.

Propositions:

1A: Yes. Supertrain! Kevin Drum is against it, but he's wrong. Wrong on the cost (which will be recovered through ticket sales, and given that that money would be spent on highways and airport expansion anyway, to great environmental and social cost) and wrong on the speed and usability of the train. Consider the comparison to a similar high-speed line run from Madrid to Barcelona. The train is so popular that they've started running fewer flights between those cities. Distance and terrain are comparable, as are existing number of plane and car commuters between those cities and LA-SF.

2: Meh. I voted against it because I don't like propositions and I share the SF Chronicle's concerns about its effects on small farmers. But I agree with it in principle and wouldn't feel at all bad about seeing it pass.

3: No. Let private hospitals raise private funds. If the state is paying for the hospitals, the state should own them.

4: No. Anti-woman and anti-abortion.

5: Yes. Prisons are too big and too expensive.

6: No. Punitive.

7: No. Poorly drafted. Good idea, badly implemented.

8: No. Hateful, anti-gay, anti-family.

9: No. Pointless, offensive, and an abrogation of centuries of legal tradition, all so a tycoon can get some sort of petty revenge.

10: No. T. Boone Pickens is rich enough.

11: No. This isn't the way to reform redistricting.

12: Yes. These bonds pay for themselves, and they help veterans.

Local props:

N: Yes. Schools rock.

NN: I think I voted for this, but I was torn. It relies on our city government being competent, which depends mightily on the outcome of this election.

OO: No. It sounds nice, but starves the city government of operating revenue, and deprives elected officials any way to balance the budget without slashing essential services.

VV: Yes. Public transit rocks.

WW: Yes. Parks and open spaces rock.

Finally, let me say again that propositions suck. Why don't we let the legislature do its job, rather than tying our elected officials hands? I understand that they tend to screw it up, but part of the reason that they screw it up is that these propositions make it impossible to consider a wide range of good options.