Direct democracy also offers citizens additional and more specific instruments of political control during terms of office, particularly initiative proposals and citizen-demanded referendums to reject new legislation or delete existing laws.
"I am writing regarding the 'Take-a-Bike' cycling initiative proposals forwarded to my policy adviser, Mark Watts, by Denys Robinson, research and support officer to the Liberal Democrat group," it said.
The governor's initiative proposals, already in trouble with the voters, may have suffered a fatal setback.
The California Supreme Court last year upheld a City Council's right to adopt initiative proposals without an extensive environmental review or a public vote.
McLaughlin's initiative also prompted freshman Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) and Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) to file legislation Monday that would raise the filing fee for initiatives from $200 to $8,000 as a way to weed out nonserious initiative proposals.
For this initiative proposals focusing solely on secondary modifiers, including but not limited to smoking, alcohol, infectious agents, or diet, in the absence of primary exposures, will not be considered responsive.
But the confluence of two disparate forces--President Bush's faith-based initiatives proposal and the rise of Latino Protestantism--have pushed Miranda into the national spotlight.
The initiatives, proposals, and international conferences are but a waste of time and sheer futility".
Initiatives, proposals, and international conferences are all a waste of time," the document says.
And some proponents of "personhood" initiatives, proposals being put forward in several states to define fertilized eggs as people, say the initiatives would bar the pills if they work after eggs are fertilized.
