86 and 87: Do you feel sorry for the corporations?

I'm lumping 86 and 87 together because they are both measures that the big companies — Big Tobacco and Big Oil — are dropping millions of dollars in the bucket to dissaude you from approving. Because doing so will weaken them just a bit.

Proposition 86 puts a hefty additional tax on cigarettes. It will keep hundreds of thousands of kids from getting started with smoking. The money raised will go into addiction treatment programs, and in the long run, save us billions in health care costs. It's endorsed by just about every health organization there is. Naturally, the tobacco companies have billboards and advertisements proclaiming htis an unfair tax. Unfair on them, of course. Boo Hoo.

Proposition 87 taxes the oil companies and will reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Chief Environmental Executive Al Gore has even made an ad in support of it. And of course Big Oil is in a tizzy about it. Follow the money.

So it's obvious to me that 86 and 87 deserve a big resounding Yes at the polls.