Since March 1, 2010, citizens of Oregon have been able to register to vote using an online system based on verifying their identity by using their Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) registration data. Any Oregon resident who is a citizen of the United States and at least 17 years old can use this system, at: https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/vr/register.do?lang=eng, to register to vote in Oregon elections.
According to Andrea Cantu-Schomus, spokesperson for the Office of the Oregon Secretary of State, 84,000 people have availed themselves of this opportunity since the system was activated.
Despite the ability of Internet technology to use a similarly-based system to validate citizen signatures on online petitions, also using their driver’s license data, there has been, according to Ms. Cantu-Schomus, “no record of interest in using this online system to sign initiative petitions.”
The European Union (EU) is in the process of developing a system to collect at least one million signatures in support of proposed pan-EU initiatives, including building an online signature-gathering capability for use in qualifying these initiatives. To hear an Etopia News interview with Bruno Kaufmann, President of the Institute for Initiative and Referendum-Europe, at: http://www.blip.tv/file/4583744.
Residents of Washington State can also use an online system to register to vote, available at: https://wei.secstate.wa.gov/osos/secure/Pages/OnlineVoterRegistration.aspx. Residents of Indiana can register online to vote at: https://indianavoters.in.gov/PublicSite/OVR/EligibilityAndIdentification.aspx.
There have been reports that the State of California is also considering a similar system, allowing resident citizen Californians to register online to vote using their DMV data, but a call to the Secretary of State’s Office in Sacramento seeking information about this had not been returned as this article was being posted.
The State Supreme Court of Utah ruled in September, 2010, that “electronic signatures are as valid as handwritten signatures in qualifying independent candidates who seek to get their names on the general election ballot,” according to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune.
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Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
John Farrell on creating jobs with renewable energy
John Farrell, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Local Self Reliance, talks about its new report, "Maximizing Jobs from Clean Energy: Ontario's 'Buy Local' Policy," recorded from Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 13, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Chuck DeVore says he won't run agains Sen. Feinstein
Chuck DeVore, former California Assemblymember, expresses his views on a multitude of political subjects, and says he won't run against incumbent U.S. Senator from California Dianne Feinstein, recorded on January 5, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Tween Years of the 21st Century will be a wild and crazy waiting period
As the 21st century enters its tween years, it might be useful to consider the time between now and, say, 2014, when we observe the centennial of the start of World War I, as a single unit. This will be a transitional era, demarcated at its end by the stated NATO deadline for the complete Afghanization of the war there. Its mid-point will be the 2012 presidential election in the U.S., between incumbent Democrat Barack Obama and, most likely, Republican challenger Sarah Palin.
This will be a period during which the economy will continue to improve by some measures but the number of jobless will remain more or less constant, and higher than at any time since the Great Depression. Social communication and information dissemination via the Internet, increasingly through smart phones, will continue to intensify and proliferate, creating an infrastructure capable of transmitting and amplifying cultural and political memes at astounding speed and with staggering effect.
With employment stagnant and the Internet surging, waves of change will continue to wash over American society, creating constantly-changing subcultures, divided by class, region, and age, some local, some regional, and others national and even global. Entertainment programming and its ancillary celebrity machine will be super-charged by the rise of more and more powerful platforms for its promulgation.
The celebrity-entertainment-consumption machine has emerged from the economic downturn strengthened and more critical to the economy than ever. Corporations can now spend all they want to elect candidates of their choice and defeat ones inimical to their interests. Under Citizens United, We can expect even more application of advertising and market research to the political process, blurring the distinction between political campaigns and consumer product development, launches, and marketing campaigns.
Meanwhile, the Chinese will continue to widen their lead in the development and deployment of renewable energy, while opportunities for the U.S. to become a leader in this area continue to be lost. Despite increasing numbers and severity of climate perturbations in the U.S. and around the world, belief in climate change and the need to change consumption behavior will remain principally a life-style affectation, with little impact on public policy or the course of global warming.
With Tea Party Republicans in the driver’s seat in the House of Representatives, we can expect wild and crazy debates about a new range of issues. With Democrats still barely in control of the Senate and, of course, the White House, Republicans in the House will be free to indulge themselves in whatever beliefs and pronouncements they care to, without effect, except as advertising for the 2012 campaign and as fodder for news programs.
Downward mobility and growing income disparities mean that overall demand will not be sufficient to re-employ the reserve army of the former middle class. A new television series, based on the travails of an unemployed, foreclosed, and marginally-homeless family may or may not appear on our screens, but they will be, nevertheless, the specter haunting tween America, as we wait for our teen years and even more trouble.
This will be a period during which the economy will continue to improve by some measures but the number of jobless will remain more or less constant, and higher than at any time since the Great Depression. Social communication and information dissemination via the Internet, increasingly through smart phones, will continue to intensify and proliferate, creating an infrastructure capable of transmitting and amplifying cultural and political memes at astounding speed and with staggering effect.
With employment stagnant and the Internet surging, waves of change will continue to wash over American society, creating constantly-changing subcultures, divided by class, region, and age, some local, some regional, and others national and even global. Entertainment programming and its ancillary celebrity machine will be super-charged by the rise of more and more powerful platforms for its promulgation.
The celebrity-entertainment-consumption machine has emerged from the economic downturn strengthened and more critical to the economy than ever. Corporations can now spend all they want to elect candidates of their choice and defeat ones inimical to their interests. Under Citizens United, We can expect even more application of advertising and market research to the political process, blurring the distinction between political campaigns and consumer product development, launches, and marketing campaigns.
Meanwhile, the Chinese will continue to widen their lead in the development and deployment of renewable energy, while opportunities for the U.S. to become a leader in this area continue to be lost. Despite increasing numbers and severity of climate perturbations in the U.S. and around the world, belief in climate change and the need to change consumption behavior will remain principally a life-style affectation, with little impact on public policy or the course of global warming.
With Tea Party Republicans in the driver’s seat in the House of Representatives, we can expect wild and crazy debates about a new range of issues. With Democrats still barely in control of the Senate and, of course, the White House, Republicans in the House will be free to indulge themselves in whatever beliefs and pronouncements they care to, without effect, except as advertising for the 2012 campaign and as fodder for news programs.
Downward mobility and growing income disparities mean that overall demand will not be sufficient to re-employ the reserve army of the former middle class. A new television series, based on the travails of an unemployed, foreclosed, and marginally-homeless family may or may not appear on our screens, but they will be, nevertheless, the specter haunting tween America, as we wait for our teen years and even more trouble.
Bruno Kaufmann talks about the European Citizens' Initiative
Bruno Kaufmann, President of the Institute for Initiative and Referendum-Europe, explains the operation of the newly-approved European Citizens' Initiative, which will allow 1 million Europeans to propose laws for the European Union through the initiative process, recorded from Falun, Sweden, on January 2, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
Terry Cooke comments on Etopia News' coverage
Terry Cooke, Principal at www.terrycooke.com China Seminars and a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, talks about Etopia News and its efforts to inform the public about crucial renewable energy news, recorded from Philadelphia, PA, on December 27, 201
Terry Cooke on renewable energy in the U.S. and China, part 2
Terry Cooke, Principal at www.terrycooke.com China Seminars and a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, talks about renewable energy policy and practice in China and the U.S., recorded from Philadelphia, PA, on December 27, 2010
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