With only a week and a half until the General Election, the political ads on tv are near constant at times. Luckily, since I tape just about every show I skip the commercials so I miss most of the ads. The few ads that I do happen to see leave a bad taste in my mouth. It's just amazing how everyone seems to base their campaign ads on painting themselves as righteous crusaders (which is not that objectionable) and characterizing the opposition as a bunch of barbaric goat-worshippers who are evil incarnate (which I do find disgusting, the fact that they misrepresent the other side, not whether or not the other side likes goats or not).

Comparitively, the Official Voter Information Guide is for the most part free of the gross rhetoric, there is rhetoric but since each side only has one page or two of argument, they don't tend to waste in on personal attacks. I suppose for each some people it's just too much to assume that the other side has a valid argument from their perspective. People have a tendency to imagine the worst motives for anyone who opposes cherished views, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at the political maneuvering during election time.

My other comment for today is that there is a heck of a lot of information to wade through. Not only the main Presidential campaign, but local campaigns, state propositions, local initiatives -- it's a myriad of choices that we're supposed informedly make. I don't see how people can do this without devoting a lot of time that they don't have, or without taking shortcuts like no research and depending on other people to tell you how to vote or voting based on trivial factors (which is how I vote for IEEE elections, I don't at the issues I just vote for Americans and academians). Heck, I don't even who's running for local office in my area, although maybe that's because I haven't gotten anything in the mail yet. I do have my proof of registration though, so I will be able to vote.

Actually I have another comment. The stupid names people come up with for the organizations that support one Proposition or another. Take The National Tax- Limitation Committee which is against Prop 33 (Legislators allowed to use PERS). You would think that this is a state, not national, but the NTLC is based out of Roseville, CA. That sounds suspiciously local to me, since I can't imagine any real national organizations being based out of Roseville. So it looks like these guys made up a big name to make themselves look more important so people would listen to their arguments.

Or how about Taxpayers for Fair Competition (supporting Prop 35, the anti- Caltrans Proposition)? By choosing that name they imply that the other side supports unfair competition. But for the most part these people just want better roads and more of them, so why not call themselves Car-Lovers for More Roads? This brings me to another point. Why do people focus on short-term solutions to a problem? Yes, more roads will help in the short term, but traffic will just increase and clog up our state roads and highways again. How about supporting things that would decrease traffic? Trains, buses, carpooling. We could double the distance of BART for $500 Million, or increase the amount of service in the current service for much less. Considering that highways cost $10 Million a mile, I think another 50 miles of BART would help more than 50 miles of highways.

Which brings me to the reason for the last two paragraphs. Prop 37 has two groups: Californians Against Hidden Taxes for Prop 37 and Taxpayers Against Polluter Protection against. Now, without even looking at what Prop 37 is about, we can see that is protraying this issue as some sort of "fair tax" argument while the other says it's an environmental issue. I bet in a month both of these groups will have been dissolved as they would have served their purposes: either getting Prop 37 approved or rejected.

I guess my point is, in the end for the most part you don't feel good about voting for one side over another. You just feel a bit dirty for listening to the rhetoric and mudslinging. Probably another reason why people don't vote. My solution is that you have to stop paying attention to tv ads and try to concentrate on the facts. And make up your mind a few weeks ago, before the intense advertising started. So next time I'll try to research well before election time.