The election: Ruiz bites dust

We at Dissent are very pleased that Senator Barack Obama is the President-elect.

In our local board election, unsurprisingly, incumbents prevailed, although Caroline Inmon came within shouting distance of Dave "Quisling" Lang's seat. Meanwhile, the odious Armando Ruiz appears to have lost his seat on the Coast Community College District board:

SOCCCD TRUSTEE RACES:

AREA 1 (Irvine, etc.):

Dave Lang 52.6%
Caroline Inmon 47.4%

AREA 3 (Laguna Beach, etc.):

Bill Jay 62.5%
Arlene Greer 37.5%

AREA 6 (Lake Forest, etc.):

Tom Fuentes 57.1%
Bob Bliss 42.9%

AREA 7

John Williams 60.0%
Carl Christensen 26.8%
Mo Entezampour 13.1%

Coast Community College District:
Area 3:

LORRAINE PRINSKY 43.7%
ARMANDO R. RUIZ 36.7%
DON "COACH DOC" APODACA 19.7%

Proposition 8:

Unfortunately, Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage in California, appears to have passed. On the bright side, however, the Times reports:

Prop. 8: Opposition to gay marriage in L.A. appears to be shrinking, according to Times analysis

Although Proposition 8 won in Los Angeles County, a Times database analysis of voting patterns found some interesting changes since 2000, when voters approved another ballot measure against gay marriage.

In 2000, about 713,000 voters in L.A. County opposed Proposition 22, which banned same-sex marriage. About 1 million voters backed it, but about 6.4% of voters decided not to make a choice on the ballot measure. (2000 was a considered a low-voter-turnout election).

Support for a ban on gay marriage appears to have tightened significantly in L.A. County in the last eight years, according to The Times' database analysis. Proposition 8 won 1.31 million votes, while 1.29 million voters cast "no" votes. As of right now, only 1.8% of those who voted for president decided to leave the Prop. 8 ballot blank.

Presidential race in OC:

JOHN MCCAIN / SARAH PALIN (REP) 50.8%
BARACK OBAMA / JOE BIDEN (DEM) 47.4%

Unhappy Republicans in OC (Irvine Hyatt)

MEANWHILE, Happy Democrats:

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "freedom requires an open mind and hand"

The New York Times printed four poems today.
This is one of them.

Election Day

The older couples had voted just after dawn,
And by noon the exit polls are underway.
Some talking head opines in San Jose.
My poster is mute and silent on the lawn.

“As the wind blows, so the flag will wave,”
Says a cynic who is nevertheless waiting in line.
The woman in front of him has been assigned
The nearest booth where she plans, again, to save

The Republic from itself — the drama played out
In this miniature theater, with its curtain and cast.
Today will be a performance of the past,
Its fortunes and flaws, its certainty and doubt.

The pencil has no eraser. She makes her choice,
Determined but still uncertain how it will end,
As the Founders were as well who thought to lend
So much importance to each small impassioned voice.

But will the cynic’s vote now cancel hers?
She stays behind to watch him enter the booth.
(In our democracy, we think “the truth”
Is what everyone, regardless, secretly prefers.)

She won’t know anything but threats and trends
Until, again in the dark, but midnight’s now,
She can sense what hope the numbers will allow,
And what you get when you smear or overspend.

She will sit and stare at charts on CNN.
(But aren’t we redeemed by what they cannot show?
The struggle in each restless heart to know
The terms on which the nation’s fate depends.)

She will think how, at last, millions have spoken as one,
That freedom requires an open mind and hand,
And the strength to be forgiven and understand,
And that tomorrow morning it has all just begun.

~J.D. McClatchy