When the Democrats in Olympia caved to Tim Eyman and passed a modified version of I-747 (after a court tossed out Eyman’s measure) during a special session of the legislature, this quote was featured near the top of a P-I article on the subject:
“We have a compact with voters,” said Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia. “When voters legislate, we need to respect their work, too.”
No, no you don’t. Just check out this initiative, which was withdrawn by its sponsor, Ms. Kimberlie Struiksma of Blaine, and won’t be on the ballot this fall:
Ballot Title
Initiative Measure No. 1040 concerns a supreme ruler of the universe.
Wow.
This measure would prohibit state use of public money or lands for anything that denies or attempts to refute the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe, including textbooks, instruction or research.
An initiative only the Taliban could love.
Ballot Measure Summary
This measure would require state government not to use public funds or property for anything that denies or attempts to refute the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe, including but not limited to appropriations for displays, textbooks, scientific endeavors, instruction, and research projects. The measure would provide that no person shall be questioned based on their personal values, beliefs, or opinions regarding the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe.
Respect the voters? Sure. Respect their work? Well, not so much.
I would love to see this on the ballot, just to see what percentage of the population is insane.
I think it’s a great idea.
In other news: I hereby declare myself Supreme Ruler of the Universe. As SROTU, I am more than willing to take time out of my busy day letting my Minions exercise their free will (except for amoebas…damn single cell stains on existence) to stamp my seal of approval on any textbooks I deem fit to be taught.
Does she ever define who the “supreme ruler of the universe” is? Is it He-Man, or anyone He-Man associates with?
I asked Her what she thought about the bill and she said that no work of Man represents Her Will.
What a perfect item this would have been for World Blasphemy Day, a couple weeks ago.
Oh well. Every day is blasphemy day, if you don’t live in the islamic world or the bizarro America where this kind of shit passes. There is no god, and Muhammad was a cumslut! Whee! See how I can say that without being censored, imprisoned, or killed? Isn’t that nice? And in turn, you can call me a soulless infidel and tell me I will burn in hell forever! We all win.
Supreme Ruler of the Universe? How is it this “ruler” picked anything so stupid as religion and it’s delusional followers as the representatives on earth?
you don’t really want to have a debate over insane legislation, do you?
3000 bills are introduced by the legislature every year — allowing dogs in bars, banning body piercing, politicians are more insane than any citizen (and at least a citizen has to pay $5 to file — politicians get to file hundreds each)
The supreme ruler is picked in a reality tv show with call-ins and internet voting.
@7
Where, exactly, do you think legislators get those ideas?
They don’t live in the real world. They live in the gamespace of politics. They don’t care about dogs in bars or body piercings. They respond when constituents, often crazy constituents, call them up and say, “There oughta be a law.”
Uh, I would take this initiative over I-1033 in a second. This initiative wouldn’t restrict health care or public safety funding, causing people to suffer and die. It won’t restrict all education funding, just slightly restrict education topics. I’d donate money to an initiative replacing the text of I-1033 with this initiative.
since it’s well known that ayn rand’s rotting corpse is the supreme ruler of the universe, i’d have thought that tim eyman would be helping ms. struiksma get her initiative on the ballot.
pro bono.
@8:
Actually, The Supreme Ruler is determined in a traditional Mythrakian * ascension ceremony that terrestrial humans would find most closely analogous to a Triple Cage Match, where the only restriction is that contestants are not allowed to inflict damage on their opponent using ontological negation fields generated from outside the cage. And no eye-gouges – assuming of course ones opponent has eyes or similarly functioning sensory organs.
Otherwise, anything goes, including turnbuckle treatment and choke-holds; the challenge of course being to find a decent choke point when your opponent is a disembodied super-consciousness that exists simultaneously in multiple dimensions.
* The Mythrakians, being one of the oldest known species in the multiverse, acquired rights to select The Supreme Being approximately 13.8 billion years ago as the result of winning a bar bet against The Xymhryllia, the previous holders, who in turn had acquired them from a currently unknown species under mysterious – and some say underhanded – means, which rumor has it involved a number of unspeakable acts; unspeakable in the sense that no one to date has successfully defined them in a way that can be conveyed by any known means of communication.
Are we talking Xenu here?
This is a bit disingenuous since the example given here is a ballot which was withdrawn by the initiator. A more proper comparison would be to find an initiative that made the ballot, was passed, but which the State Legislature overturned or otherwise blocked enactment.
yes, laterite, but going with your approach doesn’t belittle the citizens quite as much, so that’s why the author would never do that.
And to identify ‘goofy’ initiatives that were passed by the people would be rare, indeed, compared to the ‘goofy’ laws that are regularly passed by politicians.
voters are much more discerning that politicians.
in the last session, over 570 bills were signed into law (out of 3000 bills introduced). only one citizen initiative is on the ballot. this is hardly ‘out of control direct democracy’.
Thank goodness those wacky framers thought to include this in Article I, Section 11 of our State Constitution:
Oh,and Tim @15, it’s sad that politicians can’t come up with some really obvious reasons to oppose your tax-cutting initiatives. Virtually every shitty developing country has low taxes. That’s what rich elites like. It’s high taxes that make a place nice, cuz they give you nice roads, nice universities and schools, well-paid cops. Go live in a low-tax place like Argentina, where you have to drive a Land Rover and hire private guards, and you’ll see what low taxes get you.
You’re right that public officials shouldn’t just get your initiatives struck down just because they’re poorly drafted and unconstitutional. After I-695 originally passed, every city, library district and mosquito control district should have submitted a 700-page ballot to the voters to approve every increase in copier fees, prices for swim goggles at the public pool and golf tees at the public golf course. They should have taken you at your word and actually implemented the stupid, moronic system you really intended. That would have gotten you laughed out of the state forever. Instead, those hard-working public officials tried to to good by the voters and save them from their own stupidity. Well, maybe that will soon come to an end. It took California about 25 years to destroy its school system–it looks like if I-1033 passes, we’ll be able to manage it in less than 10.
BOOO!! BAD INITIATIVE
What is wrong with our government taking a neutral stance on god and religion? I can’t stand these people