Thomas D. Elias

California voters can be excused if they get a sense of déjà vu when taking their first look at the ballot initiative pamphlets for the fall election..

A combination of computerized tracking and public pressure has joined to make reporting of school dropouts in California the best in America, but those reports are still not good enough.

Much has been made – and rightly so – of the budget-trailer bill passed swiftly and without public hearings this summer that allows virtually complete secrecy to the new semi-governmental corporation that will administer California’s upcoming cap-and-trade program for reducing air pollution and greenhouse gases.

At least the conservative interests behind the latest move to limit or eliminate the influence of labor unions in California politics have heard what their critics said about their earlier efforts.

Dateline St. Petersburg, Russia – Imagine an art museum that actually encourages visitors to photograph its famous paintings. A museum whose collection many regard as the world’s most fabulous, covering four large city blocks inside an opulent historic palace where treasures worth billions of dollars are guarded by modern cameras and babushkas, stocky middle-aged women whose only uniforms are the scarves they wear to keep their heads warm.

It’s not enough anymore to call the trustees of the Cal State University system insensitive or tone-deaf. Recent actions indicate they border on the totally insensate.

As California begins to see the effects of new political districts and new candidate selection rules at many political levels, the state’s Republican Party has one big pipe dream: Cut down the gigantic majorities every Democrat of the last 30 years has won among Latinos except when running against Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Complaints have been coming sporadically from around California ever since state prisons began dumping inmates back to counties last fall in a move designed to save money.

Warnings come from time to time from the far right quarters of American politics that something called the “Trilateral Commission” might be a threat to America’s hard-won independence.

It was difficult for most voters to get excited about the two initiatives on the ballot, one to tweak term limits for state legislators a bit and the other aiming to considerably raise the cigarette tax. Unless you were personally involved as a politician or a smoker, neither aroused much emotion. That will change radically this fall campaign.