election thoughts

-Good election day for me. Ended up drinking a ton of PBR while watching the results roll in on Comedy Central, which included nuggets such as, "this doe's mother was shot by Sarah Palin by bow and arrow while hang gliding. A dick move, but a helluva shot." John Stewart and Steven Colbert were much more entertaining than Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper, not that that'll surprise anyone.


-It's no secret that I voted for Obama, and it was good to see him win by a lot more than I thought he would. He sure as hell has a lot of work ahead of him though. Hopefully W got the message loud and clear and doesn't fuck anything else up during the final months of his term.


-I was appalled that amendment 48 was able to get onto the ballot here in Colorado, and that was before I saw some early polls that showed the vote actually might be close. For the non-Colorado peeps, 48 was just another trick by the religious freaks in this area (and there's a lot of 'em) to criminalize abortion. This would have defined life at the moment of fertilization. Though I am a supporter of mandatory abortion I don't really see why the gov't has any say in it. There was talk that had this passed, it would have led to the outlaw of birth control for women (the main reason I followed this so closely). Anywho, this was resoundly defeated, even right here in El Paso County. Hopefully the Focus on the Family peeps will go back to bashing gays and quit trying to ruin my sex life.


-Good news for gamblers, as you'll soon be able to have a Vegas-like experience just up the road in Cripple Creek (and Blackhawk and Central City, up closer to Denver) as Amendment 50 passed, allowing casinos in those towns to play for much higher stakes. Good news for community college fans, as most of the extra money spent on gambling will find it's way back to those schools. I keep telling myself that someday I'm gonna take a class or two at Pikes Peak Community College, hopefully this'll make it a bit more affordable.

-It's somewhat bittersweet for me that the county 1% sales tax increase failed here in El Paso county. Colorado Springs is the least safe city I've ever lived in (though Killeen, TX would have taken this honor had I ever bothered to hang out there). This tax hike would have funded a few extra police patrols throughout the city and some other law enforcement perks. On the other hand, the huge majority of that money would have been used to build yet another prison, which, despite the arguments of the Sheriff's department, I don't believe we need. Still, next time I'm running down the Sante Fe trail and have to take a dump, and the sign on the outhouse says, "closed due to lack of funding," I'm gonna be cursing the voters.

-Whoever the PR guy for voting is has sure earned his paycheck. Nothing but talk of how important voting is over this entire cycle. Rock the Vote! If you don't vote, you don't count! It's your duty as an American! I just don't see the big deal. Personally, I think my recent binge on using public transportation and riding my bike to work has made a much more positive change for the country than my ballot yesterday. It's good for foreign policy, it's good for the environment, it's good for the healthcare system, I could go on and on. Of course, doing that requires personal sacrifice and physical effort, and you don't see commercials for that anywhere. Now that the election is over, how about "lose ten pounds for America" or "if you don't volunteer for (insert your favorite non-profit here) then the terrorists have won" or something a little more productive than touching a computer screen become a mantra?

-For me personally, the most important vote comes Monday. Read about it here. Hooray for open space!