Fatally flawed ballot
measure indicative of group out of touch with their own values
Editorials
|  Democracy
Unlimited of Humboldt County has yet to live up to the
worthy ideals implied by its name and implemented fairly
well by several of its projects. While this statement
alone will send shockwaves through certain segments
of the community, a plain recitation of the facts suffices
to prove the point.
Democracy Unlimited is, in fact, operated in much the
same manner as a private club. Consensus, perhaps, is
part of the picture, but only between five Steering
Committee members who aren’t subject to elections
by DUHC members -- in other words, these leaders are
self-selected. For a group which condemns the admittedly
intricate and intimidating set of interlocking directorates
and corporate ownership structures which play a decisive
influence in the economic life of America, DUHC is itself
a subsidiary of an out-of-town group known as the California
Center for Community Democracy, a rather shadowy outfit
which doesn’t present much in the way of transparency
or accountability to the public in its own right.
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None of this is illegal, or perhaps even immoral when compared
to the behavior of the vast majority of non-profit organizations,
which collectively presents a formidable force, even more
here in Humboldt County, which has a disproportionate share
of its economy devoted to the “Sixth Estate” compared
to the rest of California.
More often than not, non-profits are founded by one person
or a small group of people who get their friends to serve
on the board. There’s nothing inherently wrong with
that, that is, nothing until these organizations themselves
begin to flex their assertion of the ‘rights of persons
under law’ in such a way as to affect the rights enjoyed
by the rest of society, which is exactly what DUHC legitimately
critiques corporations for.
The fact that DUHC has spun off yet another campaign committee
to fight for its ‘Humboldt County Ordinance to Protect
Our Right to Fair Elections and Local Democracy’ ballot
measure does not for a moment absolve them of responsibility
for the drafting and filing of an initiative which was flawed
from the beginning. Even their representatives will admit
that they re-filled the measure once already due to a lack
of protections provided for union campaign spending, not to
mention the little error of requiring for passage the assent
of a majority of eligible voters, an inexplicable mistake
which would have led to the initiative needing more votes
in its favor than there are likely to be voters participating.
The redrafted measure continues to be fundamentally mistaken
in its attempt to criminalize the free speech activity of
giving candidates money for their campaigns. As ugly as the
process of political pandering often is, it is still protected
by the Constitution. That’s why campaign finance law,
regardless of whether you run for Arcata City Council or for
Congress, focuses on the politicians who take excessive amounts
of money from any particular source. It is the campaign committees
who break the law and it is they who face the consequences.
Instead, this measure would criminalize the use by a county-level
campaign of any resources of any incorporated business which
has any significant economic activity beyond the Humboldt
County line. While the authors may have had Pacific Lumber
and its Maxxam parent company in mind, and for good reason
considering their obscenely expensive attempt to recall District
Attorney Paul Gallegos, the provisions of this ordinance do
not discriminate between megacorporations and your local incorporated
merchant who happens to have a sales representative working
part time from the Bay Area.
These facts can be verified by reviewing the text at votelocalcontrol.org/ordinance.htm.
If any employee or any share of stock leaves the county, such
a business would then be subject to lawsuits by literally
anybody in the county, with no safeguards to prevent the frivolous
or harassing filing of junk legal actions by persons who may
be effectively judgment-proof themselves.
The heights of brazenness DUHC surmounts even reaches the
level of promoting further ballot campaigns using public dollars
and their own organ of government, the Arcata Committee on
Democracy and Corporations, which DUHC members have held the
majority of seats on since its inception thanks to a series
of pliant Councilmembers. The ACDC now proposes to host a
public forum in Arcata on the subject of the anti-corporate
county initiative pushed by many of the same faces wearing
different hats.
If this were a sample idea being shopped to the public a
year ago, this wouldn’t be an issue. But the DUHC initiative
is already written, already in circulation, and will likely
be in the process of qualification by the time this town hall
meeting is likely to occur. The very notion of a government-sponsored
electoral debate should raise a red flag in the mind of every
rational observer, not just in terms of the potential for
bias, but in the very conflict of interest implicit in such
a scheme. Does the prohibition against public dollars being
spent in favor of any side in an election still matter? In
the ‘fishbowl’ format typical of forums sponsored
by this group at City expense, will declared opponents of
this measure be given equal time? The very idea is un-American.
We cannot wait for the qualification of this measure before
making clear to the community its disastrous results, regardless
of the good intentions behind some of its backers. The Humboldt
Sentinel strongly recommends a ‘no’ vote
on the DUHC initiative. We further urge Arcata Councilmembers
to think twice before allowing city funds to be used on behalf
of either side of an election issue.
We hope those behind this initiative will not take this criticism
personally, especially with growing support in the community
for other projects DUHC sponsors such as the Community Currency
and the Skill Share. It would be of great benefit to us all,
as well as to Democracy Unlimited, if they would earnestly
try to re-evaluate their own actualization of the idea of
unlimited democracy, starting with a set of free and fair
elections for their own organization.
Gotterdammerung
for Bush
When even Pat Buchanan asks for Articles of Impeachment to
be drawn up regarding President George W. Bush, then this
movement can no longer be dismissed as leftist fantasy.
The revelations in daily newspapers across the nation today
of the President personally authorizing at least three dozen
violations of the Foreign Intelligence Security Act caps a
five-year record of disregard for open government, the rule
of law and the sanctity of the Constitution. The mission of
the National Security Agency in monitoring communications
traffic overseas has been violated and perverted into a program
of Americans spying on each other.
Atop the authorized use of torture by U.S. forces, the intentional
disregard for human life in New Orleans during and after Hurricane
Katrina and the falsified intelligence used to secure a Congressional
authorization for military action, there has been amassed
the most damning litany of impeachable offenses ever mounted
upon an American leader, save perhaps the disgraced Richard
M. Nixon. At least he spared the country the agony of a trial
by the Senate with his resignation, whereas Bush gives no
indication of budging from his reckless course of militaristic
imperialism abroad and oppression at home.
This oppression has been galvanized by the debate over whether
to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, which jeopardized much
of the protections citizens enjoy under the Bill of Rights.
This debate has not concluded as of press time, but indications
are strong that the 60 votes necessary to break a filibuster,
given these recent revelations, are no longer present.
The Humboldt Sentinel urges California’s delegation
on Capitol Hill in the strongest possible terms to oppose
any attempt to adopt the USA Patriot Act, and instead to introduce
Articles of Impeachment against Bush, Vice President Dick
Cheney and members of their Cabinet for war crimes and crimes
against the people of the United States.
Thompson's
Pro-Occupation Shuffle
The endlessly pandering attitude of other local media towards
our perpetual Federal Representative, Mike Thompson, has reached
new heights in their coverage of his non-binding, non-specific
and non-meaningful statements vaguely in favor of drawing
down U.S. troop levels participating in the continuing occupation
of Iraq, which has supposedly been reinvested with sovereignty
following the ignominious departure of the kleptocratic occupation
regime.
Thompson’s vote against the resolution calling for
immediate, unconditional withdrawal is the latest in a line
of betrayals against the anti-war majority evident in this
region. Thompson has refused to join the Out of Iraq Caucus
and the Progressive Caucus, nor has he signed on to any of
the bold efforts by other reps from California to get a grip
on a situation which continues to exact a painful toll on
masses of civilians as well as the two-a-day average of U.S.
troops.
Issues of war and peace are not the only area where Thompson
fails to even adequately address the views of his constituents.
Even in such an environment as authoritarian China, the opposition
of a global majority to the autocratic-style globalization
imposed by the World Trade Organization makes itself felt
at the very windows of the conference hall where delegates
gather. Such bravery is sorely lacking in our Congressman,
who continues his lock-step support of the WTO and other means
of federal intrusion into the right of states and localities
to protect their social and ecological integrity.
Did you know Mike Thompson also has a problem with unregulated
dancing? The Federal RAVE Act received his enthusiastic support,
despite clauses which criminalize concert promoters based
on the uncontrollable personal behavior of even a single concert-goer.
Our Congressman also voted in favor of the Republican-backed
bankruptcy reform legislation which dooms millions more working-class
citizens into near-perpetual fiscal servitude.
In short, the Humboldt Sentinel is on record regarding
the supposed populism of the 1st District’s four-term
Congressman: We’re not fooled. |
