My Voter Guide

Californians - Here's how I'm voting in the upcoming election. No time to give detailed explanations about why on each one, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask me!

I'm voting Democrat for all elected officials.

Propositions:

Yes on 1A

No on 1B
1B will lead to more sprawl and pollution. More info from Urban Habitat

Yes on 1C
YES to more affordable housing near transit!

Yes on 1D
New school construction to relieve overcrowding

Yes on 1E
Disaster preparedness

NO on 83
Takes the justice system further in the wrong direction -- away from rehabilitation and towards GPS monitoring for life. Similar laws in other states have proved unsuccessful. Here's an editorial about it from the Sac Bee.

Yes on 84
Clean water and coastal protection.

No on 85
No on parental consent for abortion. Seriously, I don't think a no vote needs explaining on this one. No matter what your stance is on abortion, in my mind, this proposition just makes life more difficult for kids who already have bad parents.

Yes on 86
Raises the tobacco tax.

Yes on 87
Supports alternative energy.

No on 88
While most democrats are voting "No" on 88, there are some liberal groups like Working Assets and San Francisco Young Democrats that have endorsed it. I will most likely vote No, but I haven't done a lot of research on this proposition.

Yes on 89
Limits campaign contributions. Just take a look at who is against this prop at the bottom of this page: http://www.cleanmoneyelections.org/ and I think you'll have an idea of who this proposition will hurt.

No on 90
This is one of the most important initiatives on the ballot. If it passes, it will render environmental and community groups useless against harmful development. More at http://www.noprop90.com/

Bioneers Part 1

I went to the Bioneers conference for the first time this past weekend, and it did not disappoint. There about 20 things I want to write about, but I'll start with the issue that is the most pressing: Election Fraud.

I saw clips of the following documentaries and recommend that everyone try to see them.

Hacking Democracy, a film exploring the vulnerability of electronic voting systems and the growing evidence that recent elections have been manipulated. Premiering in November on HBO.

American Blackout, which chronicles the recurring patterns of disenfranchisement witnessed from 2000 to 2004 and exposes the contemporary tactics used to control our democratic process and silence political dissent.

Voting Rights (2006) a sobering look at one man's struggle to ensure that African Americans have their fair share of political power at the ballot box and beyond.

Or at the very least, watch this clip:



If you have a video camera, you might want to consider signing up for Video the Vote.

Halloween Dilema

It's just Halloween right? Carlos Mencia says it might as well be called "Dress Like A Whore Day."

I feel more pressure than ever this year to dress up in a "sexy" Halloween costume. In the past, I seem to have bypassed it fairly well--sure I've looked cute or attractive in some of my costumes, but so far I've avoided the French Maid ensemble. This year, it seems to be a bit more difficult for some reason. Since when were Little Miss Muffet and Alice slutty?!

I remember when I was in middle school, one of the white teachers at school dressed up as a Klansman for Halloween. I'm not sure he ever quite understood the magnitude of his error in judgement.

So maybe being a slutty nurse isn't as bad as the KKK, but it's still sending a message about women and their value in society that I wouldn't support on a day to day basis. I don't shout my praises of the Bush Administration on the 4th of July, so why is it that I, and many of my friends who normally stand against the sexual objectification of women, feel pressure to show up looking "hot" at the Halloween parties we attend?

Sofia Quintero spoke at the Bioneers conference yesterday and she said something along these lines: Women in our culture basically have two choices--to be invisible or be a target. If you walk out of the house dressed in normal clothes, you will be ignored. If you walk out in a tube top and mini skirt, you will get attention, but if you receive unwanted attention or advances, then you were asking for it.

I have a party to go to on Friday night and no costume yet. Any ideas on how I can be neither invisible nor a sellout to womankind?

Ford Anson Theater and Cheese Pastie

I feel like I’m always complaining about the music venues in LA. They’re too far away (Molly Malones), too expensive (Largo) too drafty (Spaceland) not enough seats (Hotel Café) too big for the ticket price (Greek Theater or Staples). Tuesday night, I finally found a place I can't wait to go back to.

Alex won tickets to see Ladytron at the Ford Amphiteater. It was awesome. It’s general admission, so there’s no sitting in those far away $30 seats, wondering if you should have spent $100 to actually see the band. It’s small enough that no seat is bad. They hand out plastic cups for the wine people "sneak" into the show. And the theater itself has that great old Hollywood feel. I just loved it. Ladytron’s songs all sound sort of the same, but they were fun, and I think anyone would be good at the Ford.

One more bonus, we took the park ‘n’ ride from the Universal metro station so we didn’t even have to pay for parking or deal with traffic. Doesn’t get any better than that.

Plus, Universal is near my favorite pub, Fox and Hounds. I had a yummy Cheese and Onion Pastie with salad and a Snakebite, and Alex had the super hot wings and a Boddingtons. Our favorite Tuesday and Saturday night musical entertainer, Bob Cowsill (of the Cowsills), was there, singing the Beatles, the Eagles and more. Couldn’t have been a more perfect night! (Well maybe if we both didn’t have to go to work the next morning.)

Feminism and Porn

I feel like I've had a lot of conversations lately about why I find the rampant spread of internet porn so problematic, and why I don't really find stripping to be an empowering profession for women.

Ariel Levy, author of Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, was on the Colbert Report the other day, and she said this during the interview:

"...strippers, like Porn Stars...those are women whose job it is to fake lust, and so I think that if we're going to have sexual role models, as women, it should be the women who have the most pleasure in sex, not the women who get paid the most to pretend they're engaged with it."

She continued,

"...if we start as women who aren't pros, imitating women whose job it is to fake lust, so we're imitating an imitation, I think we are getting pretty far from any authentic expression of sexual liberation."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

The full interview is on the Colbert Report website as Ariel Levy Pt. 1 and Pt. 2.

I recently checked out Pornified and Net.seXXX from the library, so expect more writings on this topic. :)

Kind of like a union for the unionless

I just learned about Barbara Ehrenreich's new organization United Professionals. Yearly dues are $36.50, so I think I might join...
I also plan to check out her new book, Bait and Switch. Her previous book, Nickel and Dimed is a must read about the working poor in this country. Bait and Switch is about people like me! Organized labor is taking such a beating these days, and I don't have the option to join a union in my current job, so I'm thinking UP may be the next best thing.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched the PBS Point of View episode, Waging a Living. Not only did I have to hold back tears for the entire episode, thinking about all the good, hardworking people who are being screwed by the widening gap between rich and poor, but I also thought about my own situation. According to the Ginnie Mae calculator, I can afford a $128,000 house. Right....a piece of property in Los Angeles for $128,000.
I have a college degree, a job with full benefits, and no real prospect of owning a home. Even if I purchase a house with someone else, the median home price in Los Angeles is $600,000. Apparently, I'd have to go in with three or four other people to afford that two bedroom house we'd all be living in together. That'd be way better than paying rent for the rest of my life.

So I guess I'll give UP a shot. People have the power, right?

Buy Blue, Buy Green, Buy Less

I saw the Inconvenient Truth last night and I was surprised by how much it freaked me out. I've always believed that global warming was happening and I care about the environment, but I guess I didn't fully grasp the magnitude of the damage we are doing. Nicely done Al Gore! For a list of fairly easy things you can do to reduce C02 emmisions, check out the What You Can Do section of the site.

This morning I woke up to the latest from Free Range Films, an expose on PVC plastic. I read about PVC in college and spent a few weeks worrying about it, but just as we Americans seems to be slow to respond to global warming, I've been pretty complacent about making sure not to buy things made from PVC. I try to avoid plastic in general, but I rarely check for PVC alternatives when I do buy something made from plastic. No more! Consider my future purchases 100% PVC-Free. (The opposite of the cool green faux leather jacket that I bought in Oslo that reads 100% PVC. Yikes!)

All in all, I'm trying to be better about making sure I Buy Blue, buy green, buy local and buy less. As I find good alternatives, I'll post them here!

P.S. My friend Andrea just sent me this article, Energy Diet--A great read for people who don't want to change their lifestyles very dramatically, but still want to make a difference.

IMDB here I come!

Ok, not really. But some friends made a promo for their Halloween swing dance and I'm in it a couple of brief moments here and there. :)

Fantasy Congress

I just received this email from a list I'm on b/c of the Udall Scholarship I got in college. I don't know much about Fantasy Football, but for any policy wonks out there, this seems to be a fantasy, fantasy game. :) Read on!


My fellow Udallers,

Some of you know that I have been working diligently for the past summer on creating a website where people can "play politics." In my freshman year, I dreamed of a free website just like fantasy football or fantasy baseball, where you draft and manage a team of members of
Congress and you would play against your friends. The hope was that students in high school and college would be able to get more involved in the legislative process and the on-goings of Congress. Teams would be awarded points based on the progress of legislation. I initially
started with a pen and paper, but found it to be much too difficult to keep track of legislation.

After winning a business grant, I along with my fellows Claremont students during the summer created Fantasy Congress. For those worried about a partisan bias, I (the Democrat from Colorado) worked with my Republican professor (jack pitney) to refine the system. Knowing that we've taken too long and reached the penultimate stages of dorkdom, our beta version is finally up and ready to be played: www.fantasycongress.us.

Since Congress will adjourn next Friday for election recess, we have set the game so that you can draft before Monday, and we will run the game on Monday for the month of September. From then on, the game will update on a daily basis, and will continue past the election recess
when Congress reconvenes for its post-election session. So feel free to join the game and draft Mark or Tom Udall anytime you want. The strategy occurs every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (when Congress doesn't do anything), you can go ahead and redraft your players (and
see if you can get better weekly points).

Additionally, this is the first political science measure that ranks legislators on their performance in the legislative process, so it's a wonderful assessment of the 109th Congress. You can browse the Congress and see who the top performers have been throughout the past two years (it's really interesting!).

Please take a look at the website and send me any comments about the website or questions about sleeper picks. Feel free to start a Udall league or just play for right now in the public league. We're going to expand for the next legislative session with exclusivity, so you cannot draft the same members as the rest of your league, and we will try to include other measures of political science (vote counts, cosponsors, poole-rosenthal, and media).

Please tell any government teachers, high school teachers, family, bloggers, or friends that may be interested and feel free to also start your own league for your schools or clubs (just remember to activate the league before Monday). If people paid attention to the ongoings of our Congress, perhaps we wouldn't have as many problems! I think Mo would have enjoyed the humor and goal of this game, so please try it out and tell us how to improve.

For the love of Mo!- Andrew

P.S. I hope you enjoy the Stephen Colbert-like picture on the About Us page. Apologies in advance for cross-posting to other list-servs.

--
Andrew Lee
Claremont McKenna College '07
742 N. Amherst, Box 709
Claremont, CA 91711
W: 909-621-8159
H: 909-607-3493
C: 509-552-6211
ALee07@gmail.com
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