No, not Christmas. It's... election season!

I've largely been avoiding the television, but it's hard to ignore the fact that a phonebook's worth of paper has been dropped on our doorstep or hung on our doorknob.

I hate propositions (if only they gave them letters instead of numbers. Then we could vote on Proposition H). There's a reason we have representative democracy—every citizen doesn't have the time to keep sufficently informed to make budget decisions or decide policy. But since the proposition option is there, all sorts of interests try to make biannual end runs around the legislature. I'd like to consider myself a relatively intelligent and informed cititzen, but I don't have an informed opinion on any of them. How am I voting? I'm bringing in a copy of the San Francisco Guardian's editorial endorsements.

And it's not like I'm voting in any competitive races. My House member is Nancy Pelosi, who will likely be the next House Majority Leader. The Governator (a palatible Republican) seems a shoo-in against his weak and unimpressive Democratic challenger Angelides (don't blame me—I voted for Westly). Even my city supervior race seems pretty sewn up.

At least I've been largely spared from robocalls. Not only are they largely ineffective, they strike me as absurdly insincere (see Soglin's rant, Gleemie's link, or the New York Times).

In my book, they rank right above the fake issue surveys I get in the mail:

Would you prefer a) less jobs, b) same number of jobs, c) more jobs?

You picked c? So did our candidate! Give us money! There's an envelope enclosed!

I wouldn't be so cynical if they wouldn't give me such reason to be.