(Cross-posted everywhere)The California Special Election slated for November 2005 is the most audacious, gargantuan display of corporate wealth deployed to win an “election” the state has ever seen; it is arguably the worst behemoth of greed and glut that any state has ever seen. The shameless spending by corporations that will benefit from the public’s approval of their ballot measures makes Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger look like Jabba the Hut.
Californians, whose votes are supposed to legitimize Big Drug’s takeover of the treasury of the state, and Big GOP’s takeover of the treasury of the state, appear by now to recognize the con game being presented. It’s a copy of the playbook in which outfits like Halliburton and MBNA supported Bush’s candidacy, and in return got the keys to the US Treasury in lucrative Iraq contracts and a bankruptcy bill designed to tilt the law further toward MBNA and away from citizens. Much more below the fold…
In California, the corporations contributing to the Governor’s campaign have not appeared to recognize any limits on attempts to peddle influence. The definition of corruption involves a quid pro quo of money for political favors. Asking the voters to help you turn the state into a marketocracy is to whip off, like a stripper’s G string, the last pretense of honesty.
Some of the companies that are spending big on this campaign are Albertson’s, Blue Cross of California, Cingular Wireless, Citigroup, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Enterprise rent-A-Car, Long’s Drug Stores, Outback Steakhouse, Safeway, Sears, Sun, Toyota, Verizon, Walgreens, and Williams Sonoma Corporation.
We’ve taken a lot of time to analyze each of the propositions, list the supporters and opposition and the donations each side has thrown into the effort.
We feel that we have the best information on the web about these propositions and we wanted to share it as broadly as possible. For many google search terms we come out as the #1 result ahead of every newspaper in the country and the official sites. For other searches we are in the top 5.
I don’t want to re-post everything verbatim but I would like to provide links and a quick summary of each.
Proposition 73 – TERMINATION OF MINOR’S PREGNANCY: This constitutional amendment probably violates minor women’s right to privacy, as the courts have ruled on past measures. A 1987 state law required minors to have their parents’ consent before getting an abortion, but in 1997, the state Supreme Court tossed the law out, as it violated a minor’s right to privacy.
Groups such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union have vowed to fight Prop 73. And in fact, lawsuits have been filed.
Proposition 74 – PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS. WAITING PERIOD FOR PERMANENT STATUS; DISMISSAL, INITIATIVE LAWSUIT: The Prop 74 logic of blaming teachers for the failure of California students is like a corporate officer reducing the sales division’s budget and then threatening to fire the salespeople for not making enough sales. It doesn’t address the central issue, which is that California public education needs vastly more funding.
Proposition 75 – PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNION DUES. REQUIRED EMPLOYEE CONSENT FOR POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS: Proposition 75 is aimed at weakening the political clout of public employee unions. In a now familiar ploy, the measure’s right-wing financial backers did their best to remain unknown to the public during the signature gathering campaign to qualify for the ballot. The dirtiness in this game is twofold: 1) the outfits backing Prop 75 are run by Governor Schwarzenegger’s political advisors and paid political consultants. And 2) businesses that will profit from gutting the political power of public employees are using the initiative process to get their measure before the public. But the initiative process is intended to allow the voters, not industry shills, to put measures before the public, without having to rely on a potentially captured legislature.
Proposition 76 – State Spending and School Funding Limits: In this measure we see the elementary argument about which path our society should take: the conservative direction that government should provide services only minimally, if at all; or the progressive direction, that our society understands the necessity of public funding of societal values, such as world-class public education.
Proposition 77 – REDISTRICTING: If you think Governor Schwarzenegger wants to redistrict California out of a nonpartisan sense of good public policy then stand right here while someone goes to buy your dope for you. While you’re waiting for the man to come back with your grass, think about this simple arithmetic problem.
The point of Prop 77 is to give Congress a veto-proof Republican majority. Any more words about it would just be blowing smoke.
Detailed Comparison of Propositions 78 & 79 – DISCOUNTS ON PRESCRIPTION DRUGS: These two competing propositions are compound, complex, and messy. We have a table which shows the major differences and similarities between the two measures.
We’ll have information on proposition 80 coming soon. Check it out and please comment here or there, this election is extremely important for Californians.
