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In the spirit of Joe’s guide, I bring you Brad’s slightly-informed guide to the California ballot.

President/Vice President of the United States
Bob Barr/Wayne A. Root, Libertarian. This should be fairly obvious, but my rationale is that California is a strong Democrat state, so Obama will win (meh) and McCain will lose (good). Given that, I’ll use my vote to give support to the Libertarian Party, as the results help them with future elections, financing, etc. They’re not the best party in the world, but they’re certainly the closest to sane from my perspective.

United States Representative; District 9
James Eyer, Libertarian. This guy sounds like a solid libertarian and we need more of these in the House, to offset the blind party-based voting.

Proposition 1A Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train: YES
Obviously I’m not normally in favor of government-funded projects, but it’ll be a long time before private enterprise gets around to making something this awesome and the bonds to fund it aren’t the same as coerced money from the people. Plus it’s supposed to be a high-speed train. Like, fast! That should be enough for a vote right there.

Proposition 2 Standards for Confining Farm Animals: NO
Now hopefully it’s obvious that I don’t wish harm upon farm animals (or anything else for that matter), but this regulation is poorly structured. It would drive the costs up for raising farm animals and wouldn’t likely be a significant improvement in the end anyway. A better method that has already been catching on is voting with one’s wallet. Instead of buying the commodity meats in the grocery store, look for ones that were humanely raised. As consumer awareness increases around this issue, farmers will be forced to follow the money to more humane treatment of animals and better business practices overall.

Proposition 3 Children’s Hospital Bond Act. Grant Program: NO
This is a difficult one, but the facts I’ve seen so far suggest that this money is largely mismanaged and that there is already a huge chunk of money that hasn’t yet been used up. I quote from someone else who has researched it more:

This initiative would float $980 million in general bonds for improving children’s hospitals. However, a 2004 proposition was already approved to sell $750 million in bonds, and as of this summer only $403 million of those funds had been given out. Given the state of the California budget, unless there has been a drastic change in project cost or needs I advocate that we try spending the first big chunk of money before attempting to cough up the second.

Proposition 4 Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor’s Pregnancy: NO
This should be obvious: not all parents are saints (indeed, some are absolutely terrifying) and they should not have a legal right to intrude against their children’s wishes, period.

Proposition 5 Nonviolent Drug Offenses, Sentencing, Parole and Rehabilitation: YES
While the contents of this proposition are not perfect, the gist is definitely in the right direction. We have no right to be throwing people in jail for victimless “crimes” and the overcrowding of the prison system is embarrassing from a national level, as it only furthers the problems of the communities it claims to clean up. The correction officers’ lobbies are scarily powerful in this state and everywhere in the US and that needs to stop.

Proposition 6 Police and Law Enforcement Funding. Criminal Penalties and Laws: NO
This is the one that puts more people in prison, based on things like hearsay evidence and trying minors as adults in more cases. As I just mentioned, the goal of a society should not be to put more people in prison; that’s absurd.

Proposition 7 Renewable Energy Generation: NO
As much as I admire the spirit behind this one, you can’t legislate something into existence. We will move to cleaner, renewable energy because it has value and can be supported by the market, not because some bureaucrats (or anyone else, for that matter) think it’s a good idea.

Proposition 8 Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry: NO
This shouldn’t need explanation. “Some are more equal than others” and all of that nonsense. Non-equal rights are so blatantly obvious that I can’t believe we’re revisiting this now, more than 40 years after our bigoted ancestors realized that black people weren’t inferior or “separate but equal”. There are lots of scare stories surrounding the outcome of this proposition, but the core of it should be obvious. We have to fight each battle on its own terms, and this is one battle in which no sane citizen should acquiesce.

Proposition 9 Criminal Justice System. Victims’ Rights. Parole: NO
This gives victims the right to participate in criminal trials, which is just silly. If their testimony is relevant then they will be called to testify by the prosecution or the defense. Giving them carte blanche to babble on and turn the trial emotional is a bad idea. This proposition also makes it harder for criminals to get out on parole, which takes us back to the whole overcrowded prisons thing.

Proposition 10 Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy. Bonds: NO
This is just meddling in the market and it favors very specific companies and people. People should buy energy-efficient vehicles because they provide more value, not because they come with a free prize. The market will tend (and is already heading) in the direction of efficiency as people feel the pressure increase on their wallets.

Proposition 11 Redistricting: YES
This sounds like an entirely reasonable idea. Get politics and politicians further away from the processes by which they gain or lose power; “by the people” and all that. Neat.

Proposition 12 Veteran’s Bond Act of 2008: NO
I have nothing against veterans, but there is already an enormous line item in the federal budget for this. If that money isn’t being used properly then we should hold the federal government accountable and make sure the money makes its way to the veterans. Taking more money from citizens at the state level is wasteful and dumb.

So there you have it. I’m open to better facts on a few of these propositions if there are any, but there are others that are non-debatable (or, rather, you could try to debate but you would lose).