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3
57 Reasons to vote NO on Issue 1 this November
Filed Under Politics | 4 Comments
And what, you might ask, is Issue 1 this November? From today’s press release, distributed by Citizens for Community Standards and Dancers for Democracy:
Citizens for Community Standards and Dancers for Democracy filed on Monday the petitions needed to block Ohio’s so-called stripper law from taking effect Tuesday.
The groups delivered 120 boxes of petitions containing 382,508 signatures along with five boxes of completed new voter registration forms.
If the groups secure 241,366 valid signatures, Ohio voters will have the chance in November to reject or accept some of the most restrictive regulations ever placed on legal businesses.
Earlier this year, lawmakers spent months crafting the new regulations, rather than focusing on education, health care or jobs. They did so at the urging of Citizens for Community Values, a Cincinnati-based group that gathered the signatures of at least 120,000 Ohio voters to put the issue before the General Assembly through a process known as the initiated statute.
At the time, legislative leaders said the number of signatures collected showed “the people have spoken;” they insisted they had no choice but to respond.
During a Monday news conference, Cincinnati Dancer Kimberly Welch said, “Today, the people have spoken even louder. It’s time to stop legislating morality and time to start helping all businesses grow.”
Welch, who is saving money to attend the University of Cincinnati this winter, is a member of Dancers for Democracy. She promised a vigorous and spirited campaign and predicted that CCV will continue its efforts to try and keep the measure off of the ballot.
“I’d like to ask CCV’s leaders: “If this law is such a great idea, why are you so afraid to let the people vote on it,” Welch asked.
Although today is a state holiday, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner temporarily opened her office to accept the petitions because the deadline to file them fell on Labor Day. Brunner’s office will now forward the petitions to county boards of elections to determine whether the signatures are valid. If the total falls short, the groups will have an additional 10 business days to collect more signatures.
The measure is expected to be the only statewide issue this year and will appear on the November ballot as Issue 1.
Issue 1 will ask voters to reject or accept Senate Bill 16, a measure that would require most adult businesses to close at midnight and impose jail sentences if customers touch entertainers or their clothing, even if the touching is as innocent as a pat on the back.
For More Information:
Contact Sandy Theis, 614-940-0131
Spokeswoman, Citizens for Community Standards and Dancers for Democracy
Am I really going to post 57 reasons to VOTE NO on Issue 1?
Sandy – if you or anyone else wants to work with me on establishing the 57, I would be happy to do the countdown.
First thing let’s do: Figure out exactly which day is the 57th day before the November 6 election day.
More on the ballot language for what will become Issue 1 here.
Here’s a pdf of the actual ballot language.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:03 pm September 3rd, 2007 in Politics | 4 Comments
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Sep
3
You can read “Concerning ‘Bush Dogs’” and its comments here.
As someone who has been trying to get her brain wrapped around exactly how the effort fits in with anything I’ve ever felt as a Democrat, I highly recommend it, especially if, after reading some of the screeds that seem intent on intimidating anyone who doesn’t support the effort to commit hari kari, you actually feel like committing hari kari.
I encourage you to read it in its entirety if this effort that began on Open Left interests you. However, here’s the conclusion by the piece’s author, Ed Kilgore:
Regardless of rationales or underyling beliefs about the ideological implications of electoral strategies, the “Bush Dog” campaign is clearly growing. The key questions are whether this will soon become a netroots-wide crusade, and if so, whether it will signal a fundamental transition from partisanship to ideology in netroots discourse.
In that connection, it’s interesting that Markos Moulitsas has yet to personally weigh in, even though Stoller is cross-posting most of his “Bush Dog” stuff at DailyKos, and a variety of other DKos diarists are picking up on it.
That’s significant because Markos has long been a key voice in favor of the pure partisanship approach to netroots organizing and advocacy. In the past, he’s repeatedly suggested that the only true Sin Against the Holy Ghost for Democrats is to join Bush and his allies in reinforcing Republican attack lines on other Democrats. On the ancillary question of when it’s appropriate to sponsor primary challenges to “centrist” Democrats, he’s adopted the “Blue State” exception to intra-party comity: when it’s clear a given state or district would elect a more left-bent candidate, there’s no risk to partisan standing by “primarying” wayward Dems. That was part of the rationale for the Lamont challenge to Lieberman, and also for netroots-adopted challenges to Albert Wynn and Jane Harman (along with the threat to “primary” Ellen Tauscher).
But depending on how fervent it gets, and where it goes in terms of punishing Democratic dissenters, the “Bush Dog” campaign could force a fundamental reassessment of the partisanship approach, and could even, ironically, produce a split in the progressive netroots itself.
Names I recognize (and if I do, no doubt most WLST political blog reader-readers will too) on TDS’s advisory board include Chris Bowers, one of the Open Left founders and promoters of the Bush Dog initiative, and these:
Jerome Armstrong
Sidney Blumenthal
Celinda Lake
Joe Lockhart
Mark Mellman
Guy Molyneux
Jonathan Nagler
Paul Waldman
By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:42 pm September 3rd, 2007 in Politics | 2 Comments
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Sep
3
Are we happy? OneCommunity gets $250K from county
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This news about Cuyahoga County giving money to OneCommunity to link systems sounds good.
Is it, Bill? How does it dovetail with other efforts, like ONE Ohio and Governor Ted Strickland’s plans, or expressions of plans? Who wins? Anyone who loses?
Here’s an interesting thread from 12/05 on RealNEO about OneCommunity efforts.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:27 pm September 3rd, 2007 in Politics | Comments Off
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Sep
3
Remains of the Day, 9-2-07
Filed Under Politics | 2 Comments
1. Have you ever seen a blog that looked like this before? I want to know what he really did to do this last November.
2. Journalism’s Essential Blog Posts is a fantastic collection of must-read pieces.
3. I don’t even know how to use this blog to the best of its abilities, but I spent about 30 minutes on it today just looking. I’d like to figure out how to use it to identify new colors for my blog switch.
The remaining items deserve their own posts.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:24 am September 3rd, 2007 in Politics | 2 Comments
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Sep
3
I saw this entry on a California Progressive blog about this book by Scott Gant, We’re All Journalists Now. Too bad for John Caniglia it wasn’t out earlier this year.
Miscellaneous about Gant: He’s a partner with David Boies’ firm in D.C. which has this release about his book.
Adding it to the list of what I need to read in preparation for this.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:09 am September 3rd, 2007 in Politics | 1 Comment
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Sep
3
Is "Receipt Please?" too much to ask?
Filed Under Politics | 9 Comments
Some people say yes. Some people, like me at BJs (the warehouse place a la Costco and Sam’s Club) say, not necessarily.
Jeff Hess at Have Coffee Will Write posts a description of a situation in Cleveland during which a customer at Circuit City responded in the negative when asked to show his receipt. He reports that he challenged the Circuit City manager to identify which law allowed the manager to look through the customer’s bags to see the receipt, and then departed.
Jeff is one among several people I’ve met, who’ve let me get to know them, and who have such varied backgrounds – varied in that they’ve done a lot of different things, and varied in that they’ve had so many experiences that I’ve never had. I’m sure my naivete and ignorance blinds them at times, but they always humor me, answer my questions and teach me.
That’s all to say, I respect Jeff enormously, so when he says that this issue – of not being compelled to show a receipt after you’ve purchased something – is violative of constitutional rights, I take his opinion very, very seriously. We even discussed it at dinner tonight.
What do people think? Please read Jeff’s post and leave a comment there, here or at both blogs.
As Jeff phrases it, the question is, “What indignity would you draw the line at?”
My opinion in this particular situation is that I don’t feel an indignity at being asked to show my receipt. But obviously others do.
How about you? Seriously. What do we think about this?
Update: here are some posts from a very quick google search:
Do I have to let stores check my receipt?
Incident with a store called TigerDirect
From the first-person account by the individual with whom the situation at Circuit City evolved:
“Allowing stores to inspect our bags at will might seem like a trivial matter, but it creates an atmosphere of obedience which is a dangerous thing. Allowing police officers to see our papers at will might seem like a trivial matter, but it creates a fear-of-authority atmosphere which can be all too easily abused.”
Sigh. Well – this could also be, for me, one of those I can’t judge what I would have done unless I was there. But even then, I’m not feeling the request to see the receipt – which was what started the incident – as creating an atmosphere of obedience such that I feel endangered that there will be abuses of authority. Again – I mentioned at Jeff’s blog, would you say this about having to stop at a stop sign? Or having to wear a seatbelt?
As a parent, I have the responsibility of teaching my kids about when to be obedient and when to question authority, and not fear it or fear speaking up. I have a hard time imagining teaching them to challenge security personnel at retail stores every time they’re asked to show a receipt.
Although, I will say, that so long as the law doesn’t require us to have to show our receipt at any entity other than a membership-style club, such as BJs, which may put the receipt showing requirement in its club membership agreement, then the security personnel should be trained to allow people who they do not suspect of shoplifting to in fact refuse to show the receipt. The security folks should be trained to handle that possibility, and that training needs to include the fact that people, unless under suspicion of shoplifting, cannot be forced to show the receipt.
Looking forward to know what others think.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:04 am September 3rd, 2007 in Politics | 9 Comments
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