To the writers and proponents of CO Amendment 46: DIE IN A FIRE!!!

[backscatter712]

On first look, Amendment 46 looked like a nifty amendment to promote civil rights in Colorado by prohibiting discrimination against people or groups, or granting of special privileges ("special privileges?" DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER!!!) to people or groups based on race, sex, ethnicity, etc.

Sounds good, except, why was my inner robot flailing his arms?

Oh, yeah, that special privileges thing.

In other words, after reading through Amendment 46 again and doing some research, this is not an amendment designed to promote civil rights. It's an amendment designed to torpedo affirmative action, while being written in such a way as to deceive people into voting for it by looking like a civil rights amendment.

So, to the writers of Amendment 46, DIE IN A FIRE!!! Same thing to the proponents of Amendments 47, 49 and 54 (those anti-union amendments.)

[Joe the Liberal]

1. I cant decide whether to vote yes or no...

There are good arguments for and against all those amendments.

[backscatter712]

3. I'm finally getting on top of most of them.

Here's what I've got so far, based on the amount of work, I may put together a little voter's guide, so others won't have to work as much

Amendment 46: NO. Anti-affirmative-action amendment - don't be fooled.

Amendment 47: NO. Anti-union "Right-to-work" measure. More accurately, right-to-work-for-less.

Amendment 48: NO. Anti-abortion measure that defines life and personhood as beginning at conception. Tell the fundies from Focus On The Family in Co. Springs to DIAF.

Amendment 49: NO. Anti-union. Prohibits unions from deducting dues from members' paychecks.

Amendment 50: No. Increases gambling stakes in Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek from max bet of $5 to max bet of $100, legalizes some new games like roulette and craps. I admit I'm pretty close to the fence on this one. I'll admit that I do enjoy gambling from time to time, but it helps to play chess instead of checkers and think a few political moves ahead. At first, the amendment will perform as promised and give more money to the local colleges & schools. But what typically happens is that after the schools flush with new cash for a year or two, the legislature will respond by cutting their budget in the general funds, making the schools more reliant on gambling tax funds. And gambling (and lottery money) tends to be unreliable - raking in lots of cash one year, hardly making anything the next year. That means that when the gambling money doesn't perform in a few more years, those same schools will be bleeding money, and have to make deep cuts. For that reason, I'm voting no.

Amendment 51: Yes. Sales tax increase to fund services for individuals with developmental disabilities. Yes, it's a tax increase. Yes, it's worth it. These folks need the money - putting kids with autism on five-year waiting lists to get treatment is Bad. Vote yes.

Amendment 52: Don't know yet - it's an amendment to mandate that severance tax revenues be spent on highways. Might vote no on this one because I think funding decisions like this should be made in the legislature rather than graven in stone in constitutional amendments.

Amendment 53: Yes. Criminal liability for CEOs and business owners when the break the law - no corporate veil for you!

Amendment 54: NO. Restriction on campaign contributions from government contractors - ANTI-LABOR.

Amendment 55: Yes. Turns Colorado from an At-Will state to a Just-Cause state. In other words, before an employer can fire an employee, he must have a good reason - you can't just fire someone for no reason, you have to show incompetence, poor performance, violation of employer policies, gross insubordination or misconduct, conviction of a crime of moral turpitude, employer bankruptcy, or documented adverse economic circumstances that directly affect the employer. PRO-LABOR!

Amendment 56: Yes: Requires employers with more than 20 employees to provide health insurance. YES!!! FUCK YES!!!

Amendment 57: Yes: Additional remedies to injured employees - lets employees hurt on the job seek benefits above and beyond worker's comp to help them, and mandates employers provide safe working environment to employees.

Amendment 58: YES! Increased severance taxes on oil and gas industry. You know that when Big Oil is spending millions to oppose this, it must be a good thing. Even after the tax increase, Colorado will still have severance taxes for energy industries in line with other states, and will have a decent source of new revenue.

Amendment 59: Yes. Debrucing educational spending limits. In other words, eliminate the TABOR limits on educational spending and create a savings account for education.

[backscatter712]

4. Quick addendum.

Too late to edit my previous post, but I just looked and found that Amendments 53, 55, 56 and 57 are officially withdrawn from the ballot - votes on these will not be counted. Damn. Those were all the cool pro-labor amendments. :(

[Hand]

6. Thanks for the info, backscatter712!

I still vote absentee in Colorado--moved from there to Canada in 1990--and this helps decipher the sometimes confusing lingo on the ballot.

I haven't received the state ballot yet, but did get the federal one--yep, I've already voted for Obama/Biden/Udall and, um... the congressional guy in Boulder County. :hi:

[backscatter712]

2. Amendment 46 is a DECEPTIVE amendment.

It couches itself in the shiny, happy language of civil rights and anti-discrimination laws, but like I said, it's designed to kill affirmative action. People have fought and died in this country so people of all races, genders, ethnicities, etc. can have a fair shake in a system that's all too frequently rigged to screw them. Why the hell would we throw that away?

And why the fuck should we reward these assholes for deceiving us with these amendments? If they want to get rid of affirmative action, they should try submitting the Anti-Affirmative-Action amendment instead of this shit.

[Democrats_win]

5. I thought there was a law against deceptive language in ballots.

Maybe that will be used to get the amendment thrown out after the election.

[ColoradoMagician]

7. Could you explain how 46 is anti-affirmative and 54 anti-labor?

I had to go through the mail-in ballot and write on a seperate paper all of the amendments, what I thought they meant and then my vote.

I have to say Backscatter, we matched on every amendment.

My 46 and 54 are still blank, because I don't understand what they are. You did a good job explaining the other amendments. Could you give your thoughts on 46 and 54?

Thanks.

Edit: Actually, you kind of already talked about 46.

[Joe the Liberal]

8. Thanks for explaining the amendments on the ballot

You've certainly cleared some things up, as a first time voter myself I was a little unsure about some of them. Its good to get some input from fellow Coloradans/democrats so thanks. :patriot:

[The Brethren]

9. I have been torn on Amend. 46 as well

and for the same reasons. It appears on the surface to a positive thing, but the inclusion of "special privileges" does not sit well with me. It's too vague as to what those privileges are, how they can be used and just as important - why are they included in the same Amendment as civil rights.

The wording of the Amendment does not feel right. One reason is because the wording of privileges can ironically be used as an excuse to limit or prohibit rights of some, or all, such as granting rights to one group of people while others are not privileged to be part of it.

Maybe that is not how it was intended or not, but it's vague.

I'm also 100% against Amendment 48 - which would define the word "person" to legally be given to all unborn at the moment of conception with full rights and protections that have been given to those born, but would start at the moment of conception.

[paulk]

10. I almost always vote "no" on constitutional amendments

even if it's something I fundamentally agree with.

we have a legislature and governor to make law. It's their job - not ours. Too many of these amendments are worded to trick people, are out of context, and benefit one special interest group over another. These are all debates that should be taking place between the people we elect to make law, not on a ballot.

That said, I voted in favor of two amendments - amendments which changed previously passed amendments to our constitution. The first was the change in TABOR - which really needs to be taken off the books completely, and the 2nd was for taking away the severance tax break for oil companies.

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um - "die in a fire" is kind of over the top...