RTFA: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/200…

A proposal to decriminalize the possession of marijuana has the support of about half of Massachusetts voters as the election nears, according to a new poll.

Fifty-one percent of registered voters supported Question 2 on the ballot, while 32 percent opposed it, and 16 percent were undecided, in a Suffolk University/WHDH-TV (Channel 7) News poll taken earlier this week.

The poll also found strong opposition to Question 1, a proposal to repeal the state income tax, and a nearly equal split among voters on Question 3, a proposal to ban dog racing in the state.

Law enforcement officials have mobilized to oppose the marijuana decriminalization proposal, making significant progress in swaying people to their side, said David Paleologos, director of the Political Research Center at Suffolk University.

In an August poll, 72 percent of those surveyed had supported decriminalization.

“The ‘no’ side has gained momentum over the past two months,” said Paleologos. “The issue is whether the brass and blue will be able to move enough additional voters to their side in 12 days.”

Election season is heating up!

…but this article raises an interesting question: why should law enforcement oppose 3/4 of the popular will on a certain issue, and attempt to influence an election to maintain the criminality of that issue? Does this make sense to anyone? I’ll grant that police officers are citizens, and are therefore entitled to their vote. However, it seems like the police should want to create a law-abiding society, and should not oppose a movement that would make it easier to achieve this end. If that strong of a majority don’t think something should be a crime, then maybe it just shouldn’t be a crime!

Of course, this issue cannot simply come down to a moral question of whether or not it should be legal. Other factors are likely to include funding for certain programs, rates of incarceration, and other entrenched interests.

The bottom line is: bring this issue out of the dark! Decriminalization will prevent money from funding violent crime. Bring this financing into the light, choke out the illegal dealing, and reduce crime in this country!

RTFA: http://glassbooth.org/

Although many Americans already know who they will vote for, it never hurts to check yo’ self before you wreck yo’ self, n’est-ce pas? So, I decided to see how closely my views matched with the 2008 presidential candidates. This sparked a quest to find the best candidate-matching websites/quizzes available for the U.S. 2008 Presidential Election.

First a few notes about my selection criteria and general process. I evaluated websites that asked the visitors for their opinions on at least a few current issues and then attempted to match visitors with a like-minded candidate. I evaluated every website that appeared on the first page of Google search results for the following 3 keyword phrases: “candidate matcher,” “who should I vote for?,” and “choose a candidate” (14 unique websites). I wanted to test the veracity of results provided by each site, so I actually completed the survey at each site THREE TIMES: 1) According to my true views (I tend to span the political spectrum in my stances on specific issues); 2) In line with a prototypical democrat; and, 3) In line with a prototypical republican. As you can imagine, I received much more variance in candidate recommendations when I filled the surveys out according to my personal beliefs, because I almost always got Obama when I went mainline-democrat and McCain when I went mainline-republican, with one notable and downright scandalous exception. Below, I list the best sites as well as those that elicited rage, and elaborate on the features which made or broke each site.

Who Rules

1. GlassBooth Election 2008
   
   • Strengths – GlassBooth had the most novel and interesting model of the sites I evaluated: The first page asked you to weight the issues you cared most about, and the second page only asked you questions regarding those issues. The issues were the most current of any of the other quizzes I tried, including questions about the bailouts of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG. The questions were set up such that you indicated your agreement or disagreement with a particular policy instead of forcing you to choose from a limited set of proposed solutions to a politicized issue. They also allowed you to skip questions that you felt were irrelevant. Your responses were compared with non-major party candidates (so, it went beyond the McCain/Obama binary choice set). The results also showed how much you matched your recommended candidate through percentage agreement on the issues you said you cared about in the first page.
   • Weakness – The only downside to GlassBooth.org is that they only displayed your results for one candidate.

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