Jury Duty Sign-up Sheet

I voted today.  I did it via absentee ballot.  I know that by voting, I have just been added to the list for jury duty, but that's the price I pay for voting.

How did it go?  Well, thanks for asking.

In a nutshell, if you are in office now, I voted you out.  I know that some of those in office are doing a great job.  I consider them unfortunate casualties.  All elected officials need to know that if they can't do their jobs, they are gone.  I may have fired a good person.  I am certain that there are more good ones waiting in the wings.  I don't subscribe to the Wall Street philosophy that those working for them now are irreplaceable.

There are two things on the ballot I think worthy of a closer look.  Now, some of these are local so forgive me if I depart from my typical rambling of generalities.

Proposition 16: The sole sponsor for this proposition is Pacific Gas and Electric, the biggest power supplier in California.  They think it is a shame that some counties are looking into alternative sources of power.  These would be green sources as well as sources that can provide the power more cheaply.  Across the country, places are doing this with a great deal of success.  The only loser is the company that had the monopoly in the first place - in this case, PG&E. This giant power company claims what they really want is voter approval before the county spends any money looking into alternative power.  To make sure the county has approval, they set the bar at 2/3 vote.  PG&E is positioning themselves as the savior of taxpayer dollars instead of the greedy company trying to maintain their monopoly.

Proposition 17: The advertisements say, "We get a savings if we keep our car continuously insured but we can only use that savings by staying with the same car company. Proposition 17 will allow us to take that savings to any car company."  The first thing that strikes me about this is how trivial it is.  Do I really need to vote on this?  The second thing is that it is supported by Mercury auto insurance. Apparently, they have used this tactic in several states.  Their payback is in the small print.  That is where it says if you let your insurance lapse for any length of time, the insurance company can jack up your rates.  This is a way to get around state regulated insurance rate.  In many instances, Mercury has jacked up rates over 200%.  Right now, Mercury has a major advertising blitz going on so you will think of them first when their proposition passes.

PG&E and Mercury auto insurance, two companies I throw in the bin with Wall Street bankers.

Side note:  more cooking tips coming your way later this week.

http://www.worldgratitudelist.com

j