Nicaragua NOOO!
But... but... I liked it in this country.
Seriously, the closest thing we had to secession was elections for half the State School Board. The rigidly doctrinaire Darwinist anti-God faction picked up a seat, expanding our majority to 7-3(!). This was tremendous good news, as there had been substantial concern that we would lose two seats and reintroduce the Bible to science classrooms statewide.
Also locally:
Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, who shocked the political world two years ago by unseating crazy man Jim Ryun, was soundly defeated by moderate Republican Lynn Jenkins, CPA. This was in some sense the Republicans' best Congressional result nationally, as they only picked up four seats, and the others were held by sex offenders or asterisks. Boyda had been something of a disappointment, and Lynn Jenkins, CPA is such an improvement over Ryun, that I'm not really that upset about this one.
I am saddened, however, that Lynn Jenkins, CPA's closing ad (which tied Boyda's policies to Obama and featured a Palin wink from Lynn Jenkins, CPA during her "I approved this message" line) seems to have been a success.
The local airwaves were saturated with (painfully produced) attack ads in races for the state Senate and House. The incumbents all won.
There were two ballot measures raising the sales tax to maintain and expand the local bus system. They passed overwhelmingly, but... I voted for a *sales tax*! Boo!
Also, many judges were up for reelectiontention. Whose idea was that?
Nobody knows anything about the judges, so the state created a bipartisan commission to rate them for us. Naturally, this is useless, as it just says to retain everybody. Digging a little deeper, there was an organized recall effort against one judge. I found their case poorly sourced but vaguely plausible until I noticed that the organizer was the aggrieved party in one of his own favorite cases. Unlike Sarah Palin, I don't think personal revenge is a good reason to fire someone. Apparently most of Lawrence agrees with me: an independent judiciary swept the retention ballots.
Nationally: ZOMG Jesse Helms lost to an atheist!
Is it just me, or is the abortion issue suddenly as dead as the gun issue? If so, it's a Good Thing, and we can thank Teh Gays for it.
The gay marriage issue continues to make me really uncomfortable - not because it isn't a complete no-brainer - but because, like a good liberal, I'm always willing to make the perfect the enemy of the good, and I really think the government should be out of the marriage business entirely. I mean, as a Single-American, I think I should be able to share my health benefits[1] and stuff with anyone I want, without having to sleep with them first.
Oh, and I am just unspeakably relieved by the presidential outcome.
[1]That is, if I had health benefits. Open letter to Nancy, Harry, Barack: Any chance you could get that health care reform passed before my COBRA expires? Yes you can? No? Crap.
Seriously, the closest thing we had to secession was elections for half the State School Board. The rigidly doctrinaire Darwinist anti-God faction picked up a seat, expanding our majority to 7-3(!). This was tremendous good news, as there had been substantial concern that we would lose two seats and reintroduce the Bible to science classrooms statewide.
Also locally:
Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, who shocked the political world two years ago by unseating crazy man Jim Ryun, was soundly defeated by moderate Republican Lynn Jenkins, CPA. This was in some sense the Republicans' best Congressional result nationally, as they only picked up four seats, and the others were held by sex offenders or asterisks. Boyda had been something of a disappointment, and Lynn Jenkins, CPA is such an improvement over Ryun, that I'm not really that upset about this one.
I am saddened, however, that Lynn Jenkins, CPA's closing ad (which tied Boyda's policies to Obama and featured a Palin wink from Lynn Jenkins, CPA during her "I approved this message" line) seems to have been a success.
The local airwaves were saturated with (painfully produced) attack ads in races for the state Senate and House. The incumbents all won.
There were two ballot measures raising the sales tax to maintain and expand the local bus system. They passed overwhelmingly, but... I voted for a *sales tax*! Boo!
Also, many judges were up for reelectiontention. Whose idea was that?
Nobody knows anything about the judges, so the state created a bipartisan commission to rate them for us. Naturally, this is useless, as it just says to retain everybody. Digging a little deeper, there was an organized recall effort against one judge. I found their case poorly sourced but vaguely plausible until I noticed that the organizer was the aggrieved party in one of his own favorite cases. Unlike Sarah Palin, I don't think personal revenge is a good reason to fire someone. Apparently most of Lawrence agrees with me: an independent judiciary swept the retention ballots.
Nationally: ZOMG Jesse Helms lost to an atheist!
Is it just me, or is the abortion issue suddenly as dead as the gun issue? If so, it's a Good Thing, and we can thank Teh Gays for it.
The gay marriage issue continues to make me really uncomfortable - not because it isn't a complete no-brainer - but because, like a good liberal, I'm always willing to make the perfect the enemy of the good, and I really think the government should be out of the marriage business entirely. I mean, as a Single-American, I think I should be able to share my health benefits[1] and stuff with anyone I want, without having to sleep with them first.
Oh, and I am just unspeakably relieved by the presidential outcome.
[1]That is, if I had health benefits. Open letter to Nancy, Harry, Barack: Any chance you could get that health care reform passed before my COBRA expires? Yes you can? No? Crap.