When all else fails, monkey-wrench.
Edward Abbey's neologism for vandalism against environmental destruction is the operative verb for derailing official processes in general. And Stuart Vance, a Sonora software engineer, is just the man to do it. Because he knows about system overload.
Vance pulled his own papers in Tuolumne County to run for governor, and got to thinking, if several hundred people have already done the same, "How many would it take for the system to break down?" and scrub the entire recall election?
The "denial of service" attack works on the same principle as knocking out a Web site by flooding the server with requests. Too many names on a ballot and election officials would knuckle under, "or we can get people to think, 'Oh my God, there are 500 people on the ballot! It's horrible! I'm just going to vote no.
"If we can find 5,000 people to go and pull papers, and if we can find someone to fund them ... then it sends a message." After more than a week of persuading, at parties, barbecues and elsewhere, Vance had managed to talk a handful of fellow citizens into pulling papers.
County to Name Building After Hope
Hope does spring eternal -- Bob Hope, whose recent death at age 100 inspired Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe to propose renaming the county's Patriotic Hall after the comedian.
Patriotic Hall is an island of county territory surrounded by downtown Los Angeles. Bob Hope was already 22 years old when the 10-story building opened as a veterans facility. The building's big moment in the spotlight was in the early months of World War II, when the commander of the Home Guard militia atop the roof opened fire on the horizon with World War I antiaircraft guns, thinking Japanese planes were attacking L.A. (they weren't).
Civic gadfly Peter Baxter objected to Knabe's proposal, declaring that Hope, by entertaining soldiers in Vietnam, had "derided the citizens who were publicly protesting" the war. Better they should name it, Baxter said, after actress and antiwar activist Jane Fonda.
Knabe retorted: "I'm not going to honor that comment."
His fellow supervisor Mike Antonovich couldn't resist: "Bob Hope's life is one of dedication to this country and to the cause of freedom. I'm sure perhaps North Vietnam will one day pay tribute to Jane Fonda." The motion passed unanimously.
No Summer Doldrums for Fund-Raising
