Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 August 21

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August 21

Where can I read the text of the Michigan 2012 "Protect Our Jobs" initiative ?

See here: [1]. I'd also settle for a neutral summary, but more than just "The initiative would add the right to collective bargaining for public and private sector employees to the state Constitution", which is all that source says. Doesn't anybody do this anymore ? All I get are dishonest ads from both sides.

I'd like to create an article on the proposal, if we don't already have one and we can find neutral sources. StuRat (talk) 22:29, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

How about [2]? --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 22:49, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

When I click that link it says "application unknown" and asks what to open it with. When I tried a text editor, I got gobbledegook. StuRat (talk) 22:53, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

What, don't loke gobbledegook? Try the link here. --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 23:19, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Well, that's the biased union side of the argument, and that's the same link below that promises the full text but instead gives me the same gibberish. StuRat (talk) 23:22, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

I was able to open the PDF Jpgordon linked to just fine. Maybe try it again? --Mr.98 (talk) 00:35, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Now that I know it's a PDF I can open it with a PDF reader. For some reason it seems to lack the .pdf extension. StuRat (talk) 00:48, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Fair enough; the server might not be setting its MIME type correctly. Though I would note that the first few characters of a PDF file, when opened in a text editor, are usually "%PDF" — a nice little hint for the future. ;-) --Mr.98 (talk) 15:32, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

If anyone cares, the server (IIS 6.0) is returning a filename with unencoded spaces in it ("Petition language nicholoff 1 31 12.pdf"). I suspect this is illegal and different browsers will handle it differently. Firefox breaks the name at the first space and saves the file as "Petition". -- BenRG (talk) 19:34, 24 August 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I'm using Firefox, so that explains it. StuRat (talk) 20:48, 24 August 2012 (UTC)

Something else I don't quite understand about the Michigan proposal process is that after a petition is certified as having enough signatures, the "Michigan Board of Canvassers" apparently must approve it for the ballot by majority vote. However, having 2 members of each party, deadlock is virtually assured there, so I'm surprised anything gets approved by them. There then seems to be a process of suing to get it on the ballot anyway. This process all seems bizarre and incomprehensible to me. Can anyone explain it ? StuRat (talk) 23:13, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

You seem to understand it fine already. The central points are:

• the Michigan Board of Canvassers must approve it for the ballot by majority vote,
• deadlock is virtually assured there,
• there's a process of suing to get it on the ballot anyway,
• bizarre and incomprehensible.

203.27.72.5 (talk) 23:52, 21 August 2012 (UTC)