The Hose

I went to vote today in the primary, more important than deciding who was more charismatic (Kerry vs. Edwards) I felt compelled to weigh in on the California (Kah-LEE-Four-NYA) budget crisis. The governor ( who i think is being incredibly aggressive trying to get things done, for good or bad, its hard to say) has been heavily supporting Prop 57-58 which are inexplicably tied together, the gist being, a bond to bail Kah-LEE-Four-NYA out of its budget crisis in the short term and basicaly refinance it all ( I am oversimplifying yes, so feel free to yell at me, but its late and whatever). I voted yes on these props but almost wanted a little dialogue box where I could suggest some alternatives or complain about my options.

Here's my deal:

I get the point that mortgaging future is not the way to go and how in the long run that does not help anyone. But gosh, why would I vote against this refinancing. If I do vote against it, its not like some politician is going to grow a backbone, make a tough choice and raise taxes. NO, they would never do that, there are re-election campaigns to run. This stuff is going to come out of necessary services which I generally think we don't have enough of.

I run around Lake Merritt sometimes and honestly, its the prettiest part of Oakland. Really nice, about 3 miles in perimeter. Unfortunately, one cannot run around there without being accosted by the some f*cked up homeless guy. My heart breaks for them, because they are clearly slow or demented or sometimes it seems both. I asked someone how all these guys congregate around the lake and what I was told was that some time ago, a mental hospital just kind of closed and let all these people go. Damn! I have no idea how true it is, regardless there is a problem. These people aren't being served, clearly no one is rounding them up and taking them somewhere to get help so clearly there is a service here that should be rendered.

Let's not even touch, schools. That's a whole other issue. Anyway, I don't know what the right answer is, but I felt like I was backed into voting for this thing.