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November 2012 California Ballot Measure Recommendations
Before diving into the individual propositions, I thought it time to update my “general principles”:
1) In general, ballot measures are a bad idea. They aren't vetted by the normal legislative processes, which allow for compromise and amendment, and they create a "higher level" of statutory law which the Legislature cannot easily amend if changes ( Read more... ) -
June 2012 Ballot Recommendations
Wow, we actually made it through 2011 without a single special election to push more ballot measures. Not only that, but even with 18 months of pent up ballot insanity, we've only got TWO initiatives to vote on! There are a few measures purposefully waiting in the wings until November when they hope the higher turnout of a general election will ( Read more... ) -
Ballot Measure Recommendations - November General Election
OK, I'm going to try not writing this at the last minute this time! Last time I actually heard some compelling arguments that changed my thinking about the propositions on the primary ballot -- AFTER the election, which is not a good time for that.
As always, I'll preface my comments with a repeat of my general principles:
Proposition 19: meh
I'm all ( Read more... ) -
Apparently we need more practice...
I'm always amused when work offers "sexual harassment training". It's actually required annually for supervisors, presumably so they can keep up with all the latest techniques. -
Party affiliation and web trends
Interesting factoid: Political candidates in California follow distinctive party-based behavior patterns when choosing domain names. Green candidates shun .com domains and prefer .org. Peace and Freedom candidates are the same -- when they have their own site. Usually they rely on the communal party site, a .org. Democrats will occasionally choose ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
After spending weeks staring at campaign websites, I'm really beginning to loathe many of the candidates. Not just for their positions, which range from innocuous to silly to offensive. Not just for their badly designed websites full of broken links. Not even because they're making huge amounts of work for me by having those websites. It's because ( Read more... ) -
2010 Primary Ballot Measure Recommendations
I'm way too rushed downloading candidate websites (thank you SO much to all 23 people who think they can be governor, the 14 running for attorney general, and so on) to give the propositions the attention they deserve. But I know how I'm going to vote and will try (during breaks while I wait for the archiving software to chug along) to explain my ( Read more... ) -
Spring Concert on June 19 - tickets available!
My first full concert with the West Coast Singers is coming up soon! The music is really coming together, and in my not-so-humble opinion, sounds pretty damned good.
Early-bird tickets are available now for the reduced price of $20. Please let me know if you'd like me to get some for you (and thus avoid the service fee for online ticket purchases). ( Read more... ) -
The fate of orphaned works
I just spent over an hour trying to figure out who holds the copyright on a campaign poster in our Campaign Literature Archive. The answer boils down to "nobody". The political committee that produced it was dissolved decades ago and did not explicitly pass the copyright on to another organization. (I highly doubt that as they wrapped up their ( Read more... ) -
No melted chocolate!
Looking out at today's beautiful sunny weather, I realized that this is NOT a good thing. I don't want to repeat the fiasco of two years ago when an April heat wave caused all the Easter chocolate to melt. Fortunately weather reports show a cold storm front coming through on Wednesday, and highs in the 60s over the weekend. As long as the long- ( Read more... )