If you live in California and have been overwhelmed by all the mailings from vaguely legitimate groups about the upcoming propositions on Tuesday’s ballot, here are a couple you should know about and share with your friends and lists.

YES on Proposition 15, for Clean Elections.

This proposition does two significant things: It starts a pilot program wherein candidates for Secretary of State for California in 2014 and 2018 will have the option of accepting public funds for their race instead of seeking donations. Contrary to what many of these mailers have been repeating, these funds are not from taxpayers. Where does the money come from? Lobbyists. The current state fees for lobbyists to register to be able to collect money to affect elected officials is cheaper than it is to apply to college. This prop will make California lobbyists registration fees closer to (but still not as much as) the cost of auto registration in California.  Read More »

Not that there is much credibility left to Diebold, the ATM banking machine company that did to voting machines what BP did to off-shore drilling–which is to say, brilliantly convince even their most steadfast defenders that they should not even be in this industry, ultimately requiring federal intervention from supremely reluctant politicians that have been taking their money all this time.

With the SEC lawsuit and $25 million settlement with Diebold, as well as its investigation of three top Diebold executives, there are still numerous investigations into the legitimacy of Diebold being able to sell off their voting machines division, Premier Election Solutions, to their only other competitor, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), thereby creating a voting machine maker monopoly.

If Diebold’s top leadership has been found by federal investigators to be guilty of inflating their profits, is it unreasonable to be able to ask if their number-crunching company approach has carried into their administration of numerous elections that have long stood out as dubious? Read More »

The venerable DJ store Fat Beats on Melrose was welcome to L.A.’s first visit by Hip Hop artists Diamond District, an infectious charge of old school rap flavored by the emcees’ region, the “DMV” — the area spanning D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, a merging of affluent areas with impoverished neighborhoods wrapped around the heart of America’s government. The group gets its name from the diamond-shaped layout that is the District of Columbia.

In this video, emcee/producer Oddisee explains Diamond District’s musical goals, and the group performs their album’s opening song, “Streets Won’t Let Me Chill.” Insisting on getting the small gathering hyped, Oddisee leads those present in call and response during the song, rather amusingly.

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Today I appeared on the Interwebs with eGuiders Live from their Los Feliz studio, discussing my film PAY 2 PLAY and my recent coverage of the Ohio primaries.  Host Marc Ostrick was witty and urbane, and he screened a series of clips from the recent political dramas I have been following.

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D.C. Hip Hop came to West Hollywood yesterday as Diamond District gave an in-store performance to celebrate the release of their debut album In the Ruff.  This song is “I Mean Business,” and already seems like a classic.  Fat Beats’ illustrious interior featuring decades of rap greats plastered over every angle makes for an effective setting.

More video to come of Diamond District’s first L.A. appearance.

D.C. hip hop artists Diamond District shone in East LA tonight. Check them Saturday at Fat Beats on Melrose & Curson in West Hollywood at 5:30 pm doing an in-store performance. (And remember, you first heard of them from me!)

In a disturbing precedent, a Federal judge has ordered a filmmaker to surrender over 600 hours of raw footage he filmed about a long-running suit against Chevron

Court Orders Documentary Filmmaker Surrender

In a race that drew national attention in its closing days over allegations of race-baiting and conspiracies, the winner of the Democratic Primary for U.S. Representative in Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District is political newcomer Surya Yalamanchili. Yalamanchili, or “Chili” as he is also known as, is 28 years old and left his job as the youngest brand manager in Proctor & Gamble’s history to run for office full-time on a threadbare campaign out of his condo.

Yalamanchili will now challenge U.S. Representative Jean Schmidt in November for her House seat. While the political establishment has already taken a dim view of his chances, Yalamanchili has already exceeded expectations in winning the party nomination, and has the networking ability you might expect from someone who worked at LinkedIn. Besides, he was on “The Apprentice,” and those people are hard-core.

Here is Surya’s speech Tuesday night upon hearing that his opponent David Krikorian had conceded the election.