by Bob Brigham [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

While the California Republican Party is busy defending tax breaks for yacht owners, Democrats are busy working to decrease barriers to voting and increase participation in democracy. The California Democratic Party Platform even talks about increasing participation:

To promote honest leadership and open government, California Democrats will:

[...]

• Increase voter participation by advocating for extended voting hours and/or days, scheduling elections on weekends, or by declaring Election Day a holiday

While I agree that would be great, the current perspective of the CDP Platform is to seek increases in the percentage of participation among registered voters. Yet there is even greater potential to increase voter participation by reforming barriers to voter registration. This is the premise behind recent national legislation by Democrats in Congress and a bill by Assemblyman Curren Price for California.

These are two pieces of legislation that deserve to be followed closely, which means you'll probably need to follow on the blogs as so far both reforms have been largely ignored by traditional media.

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

I've not been all that coy on the fact that I think California's government, structurally is not built on a solid foundation. We have our messed up tax code that taxes the poor at a higher rate than the rich. (Yup it's true...mad props out to Peter Camejo for pushing this theme. Oh and Warren Buffet who once famously said that his housekeeper paid higher taxes than he did...only to be muzzled by Arnold, whom he was advising at the time) We have issues like the 2/3 rule that hinder true representative democracy. And don't even get me started on the issue of ballot box budgeting.  Ok, actually, maybe just a little bit.

Flip it...