9/25/04 5:04 PM: Just when I thought I could no longer be shocked by the sheer corruption of the U.S. political scene, along comes California Proposition 68.

In addition to legislative action, California has an Initiative System, where propositions can be placed on the ballot for a popular vote. The proposition wins, there's a brand spankin' new law. It's supposed to be an end run around partisan politics and put the power back in the hands of the people.

If, by and large, the people weren't as stupid as a sweater vest, that'd be fine. As it is ... well ...

I see an ad for the Yes on 68 campaign, which uses as their taglines, "when did Indian gaming go so wrong?" and "It's time for the people of California to get their fair share." A stink is being made in certain parts of the state about the $8 billion in un-taxed revenues that casinos on Native American land allegedly make. This is seen especially "unfair" by the likes of your Gropenfuhrer Arnold Schwartzenegger (who somehow appears in ads on both sides of the conflict) in the face of the California budget crisis, which threatens schools and law enforcement.

I almost threw something at the screen when I saw this.

Now, on one side of this bit, we're talking about Native American tribes. People who were slaughtered wholesale and shoved on to the crappiest parcels of land that the conquerors could find (fun note: the people who did this to them were not Black, were not Asian, were not even Latino in the end, although the Spaniards started it on this side of the map. Just saying ...). Now, centuries after they lost everything -- land, freedom, and culture -- and are still haunted by a legacy of alcoholism and terror, their trails of tears still apparent in the eyes of their young people turning away from their tradition in droves. They are, in many cases, sovereign peoples living on sovereign lands, allegedly autonomous mini-states surrounded by California. They are citizens of the United States paying both income and sales taxes whenever they mingle amongst the rest of us, despite their falling under the protections of their own tribal governments.

On the other side, there's the state of California, which has a legislature filled with millionaires who still receive six figure paychecks for their "service" to the state, while raking in special interest money under the table. Despite the budget crisis, the Governator and his legislature are not offering to take pay cuts (as if any of them were working check-to-check), there's been no move to liquidate "resources" like the Getty House (where mayors used to live, but now use it as a showy locale for announcements and media opportunities). Schools go without books and teachers buy their own supplies (I dated one, I remember taking her to Sav-on to shop for construction paper to use in class) while Mayor (who I saw personally) rolls around town in a decked out GMC Yukon, which gets, what, six miles per gallon? Imagine the opulence the Governator enjoys by comparison (he comes from a long line of Austrians who take over other states and then ruthlessly oppress people, and campaigned on a platform of shaking down Native Americans for dough, so this must be old hat for him, like scaring Polish children). Nobody offers to slide them into Chevy Aveos. No, let's get the money from those guys the land was stolen from.

So Indian gaming making eight billion a year is suddenly "not fair" and "gone wrong." Ignore the fact that, in many cases, this gaming accounts for the entirety of the budget for their schools, their public services. Pish tosh. Massa demands you pay tribute!

The Native tribes are not stupid -- they know who's got the guns, and know better than to trust the good will of people who don't look like them. They seem to be behind Yes on 70, a competing proposition that would fix a set percentage of the spoils. Making a deal for protection money with the man before he can shake you down. Argh.

What made me most sick is the actors -- including a Black guy and a dreadlocked Black woman -- in the Yes on 68 commercial. Saying, with a straight face, that Native Americans deserved to shoulder a share of a budget crisis they didn't create. It'd be like Dubya calling the Organization for African Unity and saying, "yeah, the Black people over here are a real pill to pay for, so we're gonna need you guys to cut us a check ..." The idea that shame has become so absent from the public conscience that this sort of thing can air on television and there's no widespread outrage only goes farther to show why the Amerikkkan people are the most hated people in the world. As a person of color, I'm glad to pass that particular yoke on.

Even worse is the fact that it doesn't matter about which way you'd vote. The tribes are gonna have to pay up -- I know it, and sadly, they know it too. Massa is pretty hard to deny, when he gets an idea in his pin head (with "massa" being "any politician wielding guns and policy"). If 68 wins, the tribes lose money. If 70 wins, the tribes lose slightly less money. If both fail, somewhere down the line, the tribes will lose the money -- not to mention what they're spending on marketing to try and bandaid the hemorrhage of cash they know must come.

So happy little suburban housewives in Durangos think about making their way to the polls on November 2nd to vote for Proposition 68, while shorts-clad liberals in the city nod solemnly as they gird themselves for a push for Prop. 70, while all the while the tribes consider how soon their children will have to make due with less.