Links and Minifeatures 2008 06 04 Wednesday

Carnival of Real Estate (Thank you for choosing me!)

Cavalcade of Risk

I usually vote in the morning, but I forgot until after I was already at the office. When I voted as I got home, the precinct workers told me I was only about the twentieth voter they'd seen all day.

For all of those who gave me portions of your vote, thank you. I figure my wife and I each ended up with about three votes worth of influence.

On the other hand, it doesn't seem to have helped enough. Prop 99 passed (I voted against, as this was a Trojan Horse to keep real eminent domain reform away. Those who stand to benefit from keeping the status quo spent millions vilifying 98 while offering this reform in name only in its stead) and Prop 98 didn't (I voted for it for many reasons). About 3.3 million statewide voted.

On the local front, A, B, and C all passed. I liked B, but A was purely for the benefit of public employee unions and C basically added to the bureaucracy for no good purpose. Total of about 150,000 voted - in a city with between seven and eight times that many people.

It's not for nothing that elections without a major office on top of the ticket are elections where out of the mainstream activists have the best chance of succeeding at the ballot box, and they know this.

It's not news, it's Scrappleface

The senate has evidently found a not-so-new replacement for petroleum.

How much will the candidates cost you in taxes?

FYI, $60 billion is roughly $200 for each and every resident of the United States. $300 billion is roughly $1000 per head. This includes children and those who are nonproductive, either due to retirement or disability. When you consider that there are only roughly 117 million taxpayers according to Wikipedia, that raises the bill to roughly $500 per taxpayer per year for John McCain's policies, $2500 per taxpayer per year for Barack Obama's. You might want to consider the cost when presidential aspirants are talking about new government programs.