See Jerry Run. See Jerry Win. See Jerry Govern. See Jerry Hide His Records. See Jerry Run Again.

California is electing a new governor, this year.  Jerry Brown used to be governor of California.  The records of California governors are sealed for 50 years.  Jerry Brown helped pass and uphold that law.  Jerry Brown is running for governor, again, 25 years later.

Now, we can't get access to records of what Jerry Brown did the last time he was governor, without his written permission.

To put this in perspective, U.S. Presidents can seal parts of their records for at most 12 years after they leave office.

If Brown wins the Democratic nomination, I will likely vote for him and campaign for him, unless by some miracle we adopt instant-runoff voting.



See my head explode.

Public records, you say? (delete) What public records?

San José officials have taken a definite step forward by opening up their personal phones and email accounts to scrutiny. But fear not, my lobbyist friends! They left themselves a tiny loophole just big enough to slip a delete button through.


San José's City Council has moved a step toward adopting regulations that require the mayor, the council members, and their staffs to "make messages about public matters that council members send or receive on such personal devices subject to disclosure, just like other official records." This is a real advance for local government, and local public officials elsewhere may be feeling a bit nervous. Personally, I would like to see regulations like this apply to all government officials.

But there's one big loophole that the City Council left for itself:

It does not require them to retain messages sent via a personal e-mail account or device for any length of time.

So, if you're in San José government, and you get an inconvenient text message from a lobbyist promising you a campaign donation in exchange for a particular vote, you can just hit •delete•, and your problems have disappeared. Legally.

The fact that this reform is novel just shows how dire the conditions are at the local level for the public's right to know.

[Edited for clarity.]

Are Tech Solutions the Best Solutions to Terrorism?

Harry Shearer gets partial credit here. We ought to rationally compare tech solutions like full-body scanners against lower-cost options like bomb-sniffing dogs, regardless of the power of the security-tech lobbies. Another example of tech failure against terrorism is the unencrypted Predator drones, which opposition forces have been able to hack http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predator_drone#Iraq).



My only concern is that we don't dismiss full-body scanning for out-dated privacy reasons. The best response to surveillance is sousveillance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance).
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

[Edited for clarity.]