Indecision 2008: Gock the Vote!

Well, folks, it's election day and history will be made one way or the other.

The Leeman has voted. The eagle has landed.

I went to my voting establishment with the intent to wait in line, as the media tells me this morning that there's mile-long lines everywhere. I walked in and walked out. The whole process took 20 minutes. I can only attribute it to the lack of any sort of literacy in Polk County. No lines where I vote.

I don't think the Today Show would intentionaly lie to me. I'd like to trust Ann Curry. I'd kinda like to spank her, too. But I digress.

Figure 1-A: Ann Curry, infinitley spankable.

Citizen Frisky and I were talking about this last night, but it bears repeating. It never ceases to amaze me how these State and County Amendments are phrased in such ambiguous and elaborate language on the ballot so as to confuse you as to their meaning. No wonder old people in Florida are confused. No wonder our chads are hanging.

Here's a good example: This is an actual Amendment on the Polk County ballot.

"Requires Legislature to provide a property tax exemption for real property encumbered by perpetual conservation easements or other perpetual conservation protections, defined by general law. Requires Legislature to provide for classification and assessment of land used for conservation purposes, and not perpetually encumbered, solely on the basis of character or use. Subjects assessment benefit to conditions, limitations, and reasonable definitions established by general law. Applies to property taxes beginning in 2010."

WTF? Do you know what this says? "Tax breaks for conservation, yea or nay"? That's it, in simple and direct language.

Why can't they just use simple and direct language? Sometimes, many times, because it doesn't fit their agenda. They try to overuse rhetoric to cloud the issue and make you vote their agenda in without even realizing what you're doing. These are the same people that turned "toilet paper" into "bathroom tissue".

This year I went to the Internet and got the meanings of these wordy, tawdry things in plain, simple language. I'm glad I did, because our local politicos tried to pull a few fast ones, especially our County Comission, who have four (FOUR!) Amendments trying to "fix" our County Charter that's not broken. Dig this gem, straight from the ballot:

County Amendment 3: Requires approval of at least sixty percent (60%) of electors voting in a referendum election to pass initiative proposed Ordinances.

Now, I'm not as intelligent as a City Comissioner. I'm moreso, apparently. Because unlike them, I can do simple math.

Last time I checked, 51% of the vote is the majority. You wanna hike it to 60%? What kind of shit agenda is that? The Leeman voted a big, fat NO to that one, folks.

Normally, I am what politicos fear, the uninformed, drunken voter who wants everyone out. And I still am. But I'm glad I did my research on the Amendments, because these County shysters tried to fix a few things that weren't broken.

I have much more to talk about in regard to things, including your Miami Dolphins being at .500 after smacking The Denver Donkeys in the mouth. (WOO-HOO!) But I'll save that for future posts this week.

Today is all about Voting Day. I voted. I have a neat little widget up top of this here blog. I' m feeling good.

So what are you waiting for? Go out and Gock the vote.

Ya gock.