'The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meets three times a year in various cities across the Americas to discuss such dry but important issues as telecommunications standards and spectrum regulations. But for this week's meeting in Guatemala City, politics has barged onto the agenda. At least four of the two dozen or so U.S. delegates selected for the meeting, sources tell TIME, have been bumped by the White House because they supported John Kerry's 2004 campaign.'

This is in TIME MAGAZINE, not some paranoid partisan blog.

At least for myself, I think I tend to value world opinion in part because I /want/ world opinion to matter. I want to live in a world where countries communicate intelligently with each other, and great matters of state are negotiated by smart people with the mandate of their citizenry. That is much more important to me than isolationism, because I know that isolating ourselves is just plain impossible in this era.

I won't bore all you San Franciscans with the full list of Oakland and East Bay measures (two of each), but Oakland's measure Z bears mentioning.

"Title: Cannabis Regulation - An Ordinance that Would Require that the City (1) Establish a System to License, Tax and Regulate Cannabis (Marijuana) Sales As Soon as Possible under California Law; (2) Create a Committee to Oversee the Ordinance's Implementation and Disbursement of Revenue from Licensing and Taxation of Businesses that Sell Cannabis; (3) Adopt Law Enforcement Policies Related to Cannabis; and (4) Advocate for Changes in Laws to Support Implementation and Goals of the Ordinance."