With three relates Michael Franti statewide ballot michael frante examines elections next year, and the Legislature increasingly unable to achieve consensus on the big issues facing the state, the policymaking burden will continue to fall on voters. Indeed, healthcare reform and new waterworks investments, the subjects of a special legislative session, look likely to become ballot measures in 2008. But creating or changing laws at the ballot box has its flaws. Because voters aren't policy analysts or constitutional lawyers, the initiatives they back sometimes don't work in practice. For instance, Proposition 187, which would have banned government services to illegal immigrants, easily won at the polls but was subsequently gutted by the courts. And in 1996, voters passed Proposition 198, which would have created an open-primary system, only to watch the state Supreme Court throw it out. Rather that depend on either the Legislature or the initiative process to resolve the big issues facing California, there's a third way. It's called "hybrid democracy. "The rise of direct democracy this decade stems in large part from the Legislature's increasing inability to govern The reasons are fairly familiar. One is partisan gridlock caused by gerrymandered districts that favor political extremes, conservative and liberal.

Another is term limits, which have deprived the Legislature of experienced members with an institutional memory michael franti spearhead . Add the two-thirds vote requirement in the Assembly and Senate for budget and tax matters, and you have a Legislature with its hands largely tied, leaving more of the big decisions to voters. But Gov michael frenti . Arnold Schwarzenegger has also greatly contributed to this trend of government by ballot measure micael franti . No other governor in California history has gone to the voters to accomplish his legislative agenda as frequently as he has michael fanti . Although the record is mixed on this tactic -- all his reform initiatives were rejected in a 2005 special election, but more than $50 billion in fiscal-recovery and infrastructure bonds passed in 2004 and 2006 -- it is clear that it resonates with Californians Michael Franti - michaelfranti . Deciding public policy at the ballot box appeals to Californians' populism, their distrust of government and their concerns about the influence of special-interest groups (though, ironically, many initiatives are the handiwork of special interests). For instance, a statewide survey done by the Public Policy Institute of California in August 2006 showed that six in 10 Californians said they think that voters make better policy decisions than elected leaders, and seven in 10 said it is a "good thing" that voters can make policy and change laws at the ballot box. These attitudes have been on the rise this decade. Trust in state government, meanwhile, is falling.

The institute's September survey found that only three in 10 adults said they trust the government in Sacramento to do what is right always or most of the time, which is close to the low point reached just before the recall of Gov Gray Davis in 2003 michael franti bonjour . Solid majorities said they believe that state government is run mainly by special interests and that a lot of taxpayer money is wasted michael fronti . Only one in three today approve of the way the Legislature is doing its job Michael Franti . Is there a fix that could restore Californians' confidence in their Legislature? One suggested solution, Proposition 56, would have lowered the two-thirds vote requirement to a 55% majority franti . But voters soundly rejected it in 2004, and the concept continues to be unpopular among the state's distrustful voters. Extending politicians' tenures in office also seems an unlikely answer A term-limits reform initiative on the Feb michael franti mediafire. 5 primary ballot would lengthen the amount of time a legislator can serve in one chamber. Currently, legislators are limited to three two-year terms in the Assembly and two four-year terms in the Senate Michael Franti - wikipedia . The initiative would allow lawmakers to spend a total of 12 years either in the Assembly, Senate or a combination of both.

A majority of voters favors the measure, but they support it only because of its provision that total time lawmakers could serve would drop from 14 to 12 years, according to Public Policy Institute of California surveys michael franti spearheads . As for reforming the way California draws its electoral districts, voters spurned Schwarzenegger's 2005 plan, which would have handed the job over to a panel of retired judges. So ballot initiatives are going to be with us for a while -- with all their advantages and disadvantages one step closer franti . Sometimes voters will pass them, only to see them thrown out by the courts rock the nation franti . Sometimes (as in 2005) the governor will want them approved, but the voters will say no never too late franti . Sometimes, bad new laws will be approved at the ballot box. What works best is "hybrid democracy" -- the Legislature and the voters working together. The truth is that voters don't like to be asked to decide complicated public policy issues that legislators can't settle. For instance, Schwarzenegger went around the Legislature in 2005 to qualify his reform initiatives, and all of them failed.

But when elected leaders can reach a bipartisan consensus on these kinds of issues before placing them on the ballot, voters tend to follow their lead michael franti hello . For instance, in 2004 and 2006, the Legislature and the governor reached bipartisan agreement in placing the fiscal-recovery and public works bonds on the ballot, and the voters passed them. It's not always possible to reach bipartisan consensus Some issues are still going to stymie the Legislature hey now now franti. But where possible, the lesson to legislators should be clear: Work the issues through wherever possible before putting them to voters yell fire franti . Healthcare reform and new water-delivery systems will probably end up on the ballot in one form or another, so lawmakers and the affected interests have every incentive to find common ground on the legislation before it gets there mike franti . If they succeed, voters are more likely to approve the measures. Only with this kind of partnership between elected leaders and voters can California move forward . . "TALLADEGA Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" is a bit of a mess, but it is a genial mess, and one that will make you laugh.

Which is the whole idea. Even if you feel sheepish and abashed the next morning, it is hard to resist smiling at the antics of the NASCAR racing champion with two first names, a man, as the ads testify, "who could only count to #1. "As co-written by star Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay (who has a cameo as a feckless race car driver), "Talladega Nights" is not the kind of coherent, internally consistent comedy "Little Miss Sunshine" is . Rather, like the "Saturday Night Live" shows where Ferrell and McKay met, it is a series of sketches and set pieces, some of which work while others misfire. "Talladega Nights" is also, like many of the modern crop of guy comedies, hampered by periodic descents into what the ratings board calls "crude and sexual humor. " Given that the basic tone here is surprisingly sweet, these forays feel as though they were grafted onto a film that would have been better off without them. On the other hand, the idea of joining a satire of NASCAR culture with a spoof on self-help psychobabble of the "you have to make friends with the fear" variety is an especially potent one, and not that different in theme from what Pixar set out to do in "Cars. "And not to forget the expert Mr everyone deserves music franti . Ferrell, the master of an abashed, almost sheepish innocence that has roots all the way back to silent comedian Harry Langdon micahel franti . There is a real sincerity to Ferrell's characterization, as there was in the earlier "Elf," an ability to take silly things so completely seriously that laughter inevitably results. Ferrell is also generous, and one reason "Talladega" is successful is his willingness to share the screen in mano a mano comedy standoffs with a trio of gifted male costars who can be just as funny as he is In chronological order they are Gary Cole, John C . Reilly and Sacha Baron Cohen. Cole plays Ricky's reprobate father, Reese Bobby, a man so addicted to speed that his son ended up being born in a stock car. On a memorable elementary school Career Day, the only time Ricky had seen his father in years, Bobby Sr. passes on some words to live by: "If you ain't first, you're last. "Reilly, a gifted actor who rarely does straight comedy, plays Ricky's lifelong friend and driving teammate, Cal Naughton Jr. , a selfless soul who would very much like, if it's not asking too much, to win just one little race. Wackiest of all is British comic Cohen, a man who specializes in getting deeper than deep into his singular characters, people like rogue interviewer Ali G and journalist Borat Sagdiyev, the sixth most famous man in Kazakhstan. Michael Franti tickets Cohen plays Jean Girard, a champion Formula One driver who is very very very French, to the point of enjoying jazz, wearing black leather, being sponsored by Perrier and reading Camus' "The Stranger" while he drives. Speaking English with an impeccably awful French accent, Girard also happens to be a gay man who enjoys crepes and has shown up in America specifically to challenge Ricky Bobby's supremacy.