…but I do. For your edification and amusement, my choices and selected commentary on today’s general election ballot. Governor: Jerry Brown. Lt. Governor: Gavin Newsom. Secretary of State: Debra Bowen, on the strength of her investigation of electronic voting machines. Controller: John Chiang, based on his opposition to Schwarzenegger’s government furloughs. Treasurer: Bill Lockyer. Attorney [...]

…but I do. For your edification and amusement, my choices and selected commentary on today’s general election ballot.

Governor: Jerry Brown.
Lt. Governor: Gavin Newsom.
Secretary of State: Debra Bowen, on the strength of her investigation of electronic voting machines.
Controller: John Chiang, based on his opposition to Schwarzenegger’s government furloughs.
Treasurer: Bill Lockyer.
Attorney General: Kamela Harris.
Insurance Commissioner: Dave Jones.
Member, State Board of Equalization, District 1: Betty Yee, because I liked her candidate statement.
United States Senator: Barbara Boxer.
United States Representative, 14th Congressional District: Anna Eshoo.
Member of the State Assembly, 21st Assembly District: Rich Gordon, mostly because of his opponent’s opposition to the California High Speed Rail project.
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Larry Aceves, because on comparing the candidate statements, his background seems more appropriate to the position.
Judicial retentions: No on every single one of them, partially because they wimped out on 2008′s Prop 8 and also so Governor Brown can get his choice of new judges.
Member, San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, 3rd District: April Vargas.
San Mateo County Treasurer-Tax Collector: Dave Mandelkern, on the strength of candidate statements and endorsements.
Members, City of East Palo Alto City Council: David E. Woods and Ruben Abrica. Both are incumbents, and my longstanding dislike of East Palo Alto city government officials has been moderated somewhat since street repair projects in our area are finally underway.
Members, Board of Commissioners, San Mateo County Harbor District: No vote. There are no candidate statements and I know nothing about the candidates.

Propositions: I have a general bias against initiative constitutional amendments because I don’t agree with the process ( see 2008′s Prop 8 ) of amending the state constitution by simple majority of popular vote. I will often determine my choice by seeing who’s for and against the initiative in question — when wingnuts, tea partiers and out-of-state corporate interests are against it, I’m probably for it.
Prop 19: Yes.
Prop 20: Yes. A citizen commission, presumed to be nonpartisan, seems like a reasonable way to handle district lines. I also like that this initiative consolidates all redistricting (state and congressional) to this commission.
Prop 21: Yes. Overall it appears to be a good idea, though I have concerns about how funds formerly allocated to the state parks will be used. The fact that “Americans For Prosperity” (the tea party corporate backers) are against is all I need to know
Prop 22: No. It looks good in principle, but on closer examination it seems unnecessary given initiatives (both named Prop 1A) passed in 2004 and 2006.
Prop 23: No. There’s just no way this can be a good idea, plus look at who’s supporting it.
Prop 24: Yes. I can’t understand how it made sense to make this change to business tax policy in the first place. Repealing it makes sense.
Prop 25: Yes. You only have to look at how the state legislature stalls, deadlocked, on the budget every single year to know that current structure is insane. A simple majority in the legislature is all that should be needed for almost anything.
Prop 26: No. In addition to its backers being against Prop 25, I see no reason to change the current structure.
Prop 27: No. See Prop 20; this is its opposite.
San Mateo County Measure M: No. This seems like a lazy cash grab. The ballot question includes nine separate proposed uses of the funds, all of which are so nonspecific as to mean almost anything.
San Mateo County Measure U: Yes. It seems to streamline an existing process and saves money.

I based my choices almost entirely on the Official Voter Information Pamphlet and General Election Voter Guide. SmartVoter.org was also quite useful.

(What’s this about baby stoats voting?)

And the winner is: Longs Drugs in the Town & Country shopping center at Embarcadero and El Camino Real in Palo Alto. I popped in to pick up a couple of cold drinks while Jen was using the facilities–diet Coke for me and a Lipton green tea for Jen–and when I got up to the [...]

And the winner is: Longs Drugs in the Town & Country shopping center at Embarcadero and El Camino Real in Palo Alto. I popped in to pick up a couple of cold drinks while Jen was using the facilities–diet Coke for me and a Lipton green tea for Jen–and when I got up to the checkout line there was one (1) lane open and several people in line. Across the aisle at the photo counter, another employee and a manager were chatting with a customer. It didn’t appear to be about where to find maxi-pads or anything like that, just random non-Longs-related conversation. Meanwhile the one (1) checkout line is getting longer and longer, and of course the cashier seems to be the extra slow one.

Finally the people at the photo counter conclude their chat and the other employee came over to open another lane. By this time I had reached the register and would have been next, but the second guy picked up my two bottles and walked over to the other register. He rang up the diet Coke but had trouble with the green tea, saying “uh, this wasn’t supposed to be sold as a single.”

“It was in the cooler case with a lot of others,” I said.

He just stood there for a minute with a blank look, starting talking to the first cashier about something totally unrelated, and then punched in an override or something to ring up the tea, finally allowing me to pay and leave.

In reality the whole episode, from entering the store to paying and leaving, probably took no more than ten minutes. However, it was at least seven minutes more than it should have been.

RJL Software has made available this extremely useful tool which places the famous Clippy back where he belongs, on your Windows desktop.

RJL Software has made available this extremely useful tool which places the famous Clippy back where he belongs, on your Windows desktop.

CNN.com is carrying a Reuters story reporting that Steve Martin will be the new Inspector Clouseau. Martin, who will be starring alongside Beyonce and Oscar-winner Kevin Kline, said he was intimidated at first by the thought of following in actor Peter Sellers’ stumbling footsteps as the hapless Clouseau, but he got over it. “They have [...]

CNN.com is carrying a Reuters story reporting that Steve Martin will be the new Inspector Clouseau.

Martin, who will be starring alongside Beyonce and Oscar-winner Kevin Kline, said he was intimidated at first by the thought of following in actor Peter Sellers’ stumbling footsteps as the hapless Clouseau, but he got over it.

“They have different James Bonds,” he quipped at a news conference on Friday.

Others in the cast of the MGM Pictures film that should reach movie houses by next summer include French actor Jean Reno and Tony Award-winning actress Kristin Chenoweth.

If anyone could pull this off, it’d be Steve Martin. Needless to say I’m looking forward to this movie, due in 2005.

The Chronicle’s Steve Rubenstein reports that ‘SBC’ struck out at yesterday’s exhibition game against the Texas Rangers. During the off-season, the Giants carted off the old signs and put up new ones, at a cost estimated at more than $1 million. Ushers attended training sessions, where they were urged — politely but firmly — to [...]

The Chronicle’s Steve Rubenstein reports that ‘SBC’ struck out at yesterday’s exhibition game against the Texas Rangers.

During the off-season, the Giants carted off the old signs and put up new ones, at a cost estimated at more than $1 million. Ushers attended training sessions, where they were urged — politely but firmly — to call the ballpark by its newly minted name as often as possible.

“It’s another B.S. corporate name,” said longtime fan Rob Shapiro. “Totally meaningless. Just white noise. In today’s era, everything is for sale.”

A poll alongside the article asks readers when they will start calling the stadium SBC Park. As of this posting, the results are 4% “Immediately”, 5% “Eventually”, 81% “Never”, and 11% “Here’s the deal, Giants. You win the World Series…” with 663 votes cast.