Thursday, November 9, 2000

by the Wunderland Toast Society

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• GinohnNews: Ginohn Votes Twice
• New cube sculpture: Halloween
• 2 downloadable signs for Chrononauts Demo Rabbits
• 2 new tombstoners

So here we are, in the middle of the most exciting election ever, and like everyone else, I've been glued to the News for the last two days. What a situation! Gore has the popular vote by a hair, while Bush has the lead by an even smaller hair, in a tie-breaker state where victory would mean an Electoral College upset. Even now, an automatic recount is underway, amidst claims some voters may have accidentally voted for the wrong guy. Wow. If it were fiction, people would call it totally unbelievable. How's it Going to End? (This is one of those times when I kind of regret not having a regular job... I miss being able to hang out at the water cooler, goofing off and gabbing with my co-workers about the amazing newstory currently unfolding.)

The prospect of a Bush victory now seems all too real, at least for those of us who stayed up late watching the election returns, and particularly for anyone who went to bed after hearing that Bush had won, only to wake up the next morning with the question back up in the air. (In a thrilling remake of the classic "Dewey Wins" election, some newspapers even enshrined this hopefully-wrong conclusion: "Bush Wins!") But for those of us watching it live, it was like the story of Green Bean that I posted last year. For a short time, we lived in a world where George W Bush had actually won the election. During this time, I decided in my early stages of anger, denial, and acceptance to turn the wunderland.com banner black this week, and even created the file. But then, like a death-row inmate receiving a last minute stay of execution from a governor with a kinder heart than Bush, we suddenly went into limbo. And while we may yet escape a second Bush administration, I'm still bummed that Ralph didn't get his 5%, so the black banner still seems appropriate.

But although the presidential race still has us on the edges of our collective seats, we finally know how this year's ballot initiatives have gone. The good news is, most all of the drug war reform proposals passed this year, some by wide margins. The bad news is, Prop 5 failed in Alaska, but considering how far-reaching that proposal was, I guess it's not too surprising. (They were asking for too much... it went beyond mere amnesty for marijuana offenders, and even provided for restitution for those imprisoned under marijuana prohibition.) But you can bet your stash they'll be back next time, with a more tightly crafted referendum, and having gotten over 40% on this one, the next one will probably succeed.

While losing Prop 5 is a setback, winning Proposition 36 in California in a major victory. Having won by a large margin in a huge state, it shows clearly that voters are tired of punishing drug addicts rather than trying to help them. Prop 36 will have a huge impact on the criminal justice system out there, and on the drug war overall. (For the Feds who think Prop 215 was a problem, their small headache just turned into a throbbing migraine.) Ending prison time for drug possession in California is the beginning of the end of the failed War on Drugs.

PPS: Similarly, I've decided to suspend my Nanofiction eBook again, at least for awhile. I've used up everything in my reserve except the failures, and instead of publishing junk, I'm going to stop and let my batteries recharge. I hope you've enjoyed what I've published thus far.