Joe Mathews supports “participatory, deliberative processes” as a source of worthy ideas for initiatives, regardless of signature method

Declaring that “changing the method of signatures is a distraction,” Connecting California columnist and Zocalo Public Square editor Joe Mathews offered a thoughtful riposte to an inquiry regarding the refusal of the ACLU of California to support the campaign of the Coalition for an E-Initiative (https://www.facebook.com/CoalitionForAnEInitiative) to win California voters the right to sign official initiative petitions online on the grounds that online signature-gathering “could be used to more easily qualify initiatives that seek to limit fundamental rights.”

Bringing a bit of realism to the discussion, the journalist tells Etopia News:

“I think you and the ACLU are both wrong. There's no real reason to worry that e-signature gathering would make it easier to qualify measures for the ballot, in and of itself. It still will remain very difficult, and costly, to get the hundreds of thousands of signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot. Initiative sponsors will have to spend millions to get the attention of signers and to employ people to approach people to sign on-line (probably on iPads and tablets) that are carried around. Changing the method of signatures is a distraction. We need less costly, alternative paths to the ballot that allow initiatives to qualify because the ideas in the initiatives are found to be worthy after participatory, deliberative processes.”

California ACLU doesn't support Smart Initiatives, says they’d be used to “limit fundamental rights”

The ACLU of California has come up with a new reason for opposing the right of Californians to sign official initiative petitions online.  According to their spokesperson:

            We are concerned that e-signature gathering could be used to more easily qualify initiatives that seek to limit fundamental rights, so we do not support the use of e-signature gathering to qualify initiatives at this time. 

            “Of course, we’re disappointed,” said Marc Strassman, Executive Director of the Coaliton for an E-Initiative (https://www.facebook.com/CoalitionForAnEInitiative).  “I have the utmost respect for the ACLU of California as the premier guardian of our civil and political rights, and as a progressive and forward-looking organization, but I don’t quite see how enabling Californians to sign initiative petitions in the comfort and convenience of their homes and offices or on their tablets or smartphones from wherever they are is likely to lead to initiatives ’that seek to limit fundamental rights.”

            (full disclosure:  Marc Strassman is also the reporter who wrote this article.  In addition to his work for the Coalition for an E-Initiative, he also serves as Host/Publisher of Etopia News.)

Amanda Reiman at DPA on California cannabis legalization efforts

Amanda Reiman, Policy Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance in California, talks about the history of efforts to legalize cannabis in the Golden State and discusses possible further attempts to create and pass the Control, Regulate and Tax Marijuana Act in 2014 or 2016, recorded on December 9, 2013.

 

Michael Thornton previews the December 10th anti-fracking rally7 in Oakland

Mike Thornton, organizer for the Sierra Club’s California Coast Campaign, talks about the group’s plans to join a demonstration at 5:30 pm PST on Tuesday, December 10^th, at the Oakland Convention Center in support of a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) as an option in the Environmental Impact Report being prepared by the California Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR), which will be holding one of a series of hearings on fracking at the Oakland Convention Center at that time, recorded from Sacramento, California, on December 4, 2013.