••can ye pass the acid test?••

ye who enter here be afraid, but do what ye must -- to defeat your fear ye must defy it.

& defeat it ye must, for only then can we begin to realize liberty & justice for all.

time bomb tick tock? nervous tic talk? war on war?

or just a blog crying in the wilderness, trying to make sense of it all, terror-fried by hate radio and FOX, the number of whose name is 666??? (coincidence?)

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

nyt

ONE hundred years ago today, California voters added the ballot initiative to the State Constitution, allowing citizens to use petitions to bring proposed statutes and constitutional amendments for a public vote.

But as California, the nation’s most populous state, marks this anniversary, the accumulated impact of direct democracy has made it virtually ungovernable. [more]

looks to me like ballot initiatives are indeed direct democracy, not the "republican form of government" the US constitution (article iv, section 4) guarantees to every state. trouble is, the courts have refused to rule on the issue, saying that's congress's job, and every 2 years when a new congress seats cali's delegation, it implicitly affirms that cali's form of govt is ok. so we're stuck, right?

maybe. maybe not. last time SCOTUS faced a challenge to statewide initiatives was 99 years ago. perhaps they'd be willing to address the issue for real if some californians brought a lawsuit nowadays.

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