The Californians who did vote struck down five of the six ballot measures that were meant to only partially help pull the state out of its budget debacle, and consequently the state is still stuck with a $21 billion deficit. Just thinking about how a budget shortfall gets that big is mind boggling.
Meanwhile American Idol watchers crowned a new star and closed the chapter on another season of a show that’s become a marketing machine, reportedly reaping almost $1 billion for Fox last year in ad revenue alone.
Another vote of note this week
In Washington the Senate was very clear with its vote, defeating President Obama’s request to close Guantanamo Bay prison 90 to 6.
That led to Thursday’s Obama/Cheney showdown, with Obama underscoring his position that Guantanamo and the U.S. approach toward terrorism has made the U.S. less safe and defies American ideals, and Cheney arguing that the prison has made a difference in national security. Read Obama’s speech and Cheney’s speech.
Elections that don’t matter
Burma, also called Myanmar, is to hold its first general election since 1990 next year. The election is already in focus because of the arrest of the pro-Democracy opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, an internationally known peace activist who has been under house arrest since 1988. She’s the Nobel Peace prize winner whose party won the 1990 elections, but the military government refused to acknowledge the win.
With the 2010 elections nearing and Suu Kyi’s house arrest set to end in May, she is on trial again, this time after a man from Missouri (of all places) swam across the lake by her house and spent the night, breaking the terms of her house arrest. Both Suu Kyi and this man are currently on trial in Burma. Civil rights watchers say the arrest is suspicious given the upcoming elections.
Both Suu Kyi’s mother and father were public figures. When her mother died, at the same time the military regime was rising in Burma, Suu Kyi vowed to serve the Burmese people.
The big picture
We realize none of these elections really have anything to do with each other. It’s just interesting to think about political elections held in the United States where people don’t show up and juxtaposing that with places like Burma where any signs of democratic leanings are squashed and election results are simply ignored. In 1990, Suu Kyi’s party won the general election with 82% of the vote. There’s already fear that the next elections will be rigged so that the military junta will win.
