The 2009 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy in Seoul has come to a close. At the end, I had the privilege of inviting delegates to the third annual global forum next August in San Francisco.

So save these days: Sunday, Aug. 1 through Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010, in the city of San Francisco. Our theme: "Constitution Making and Direct Democracy." What are the best ways to use direct democracy for the making and remaking of constitutions? And what systems and structures of direct democracy belong in those constitutions?

We'll focus on California's constitution and the efforts to remake it -- offering a global perspective and investigating constitution making in places large and small, from Latin America to Africa to Iceland and the German city/state of Hamburg. This won't be merely an international conference--it'll be a big national conference, and we invite journalists, academics, activists and political professionals involved in direct democracy in American states to join us.

I'll be organizing the event along with Bob Stern of the Center for Governmental Studies. If you'd like to join us, speak, make suggestions or offer financial support, please get in touch. The best way is joe@joemathews.com. Also look soon for news of the forum through the Initiative & Referendum Institute Europe web site. 

Over at Fox & Hounds Daily, Joel Fox examines the election returns and points out that the City by the Bay voted down legalized prostitution and a plan to humiliate President Bush by naming a sewage plant after him.

A local ballot initiative in San Francisco is being sold as protecting prostitutes. But Debra Saunders at the Chronicle argues that it would protect pimps instead.

A San Francisco ballot initiative to name a city sewage plant for President George W. Bush has qualified for the ballot.

Now comes news that an effort to recall the Democratic speaker of the state House in Michigan has gained new momentum. Conservatives there are upset about Speaker Andy Dillon's support for tax increases. It's already a nasty business. As the Detroit News reports, recall supporters are criticizing Democrats for hiring a convicted felon to lead a "blocking campaign" to dissuade voters from signing the recall petition. Dillon's supporters went to court and got an order telling recall backers to stop using out-of-state petition circulators. But Dillon is taking it seriously, sending out mail to every voter in the district.

QUESTION TIME: Last year, San Francisco voted down a ballot initiative that would have required the mayor to submit to "question time" from the board of supervisors, in the same manner that British prime ministers must take questions in the House of Commons. But the board of supes hasn't given up, inviting Mayor Gavin Newsom to show up and take questions. He is declining these invitations. Newsom, who remains popular despite a public confession of adultery with a top aide's wife, has been deflecting requests for information of all kinds as he explores a race for governor in 2010. (Arnold is termed out, so the seat is open).

Now comes news that a second initiative on development in Bayview-Hunters Point has qualified for the city of San Francisco’s June ballot. Check out this story in the Chronicle.

Why should people outside San Francisco care? Because in California and around the country, local ballot measures have become a common instrument of business-on-business warfare. Lennar Corp, a national development company based in Florida, first qualified an initiative that would put in place its Hunters Point development plan, which would include a combination of retail, industrial and residential development along with a new 49ers Stadium. In response, a San Francisco supervisor -- with backing from other developers -- has qualified this second initiative, which would impose a mandate that half of the new homes in the Hunters Point area be sold or rented at below-market rates.

Such battles have come to dominate municipal ballots in California. Look at ballots this June. Wal-Mart takes on local business in Long Beach. A hardware store owner is battling Home Depot in Thousand Oaks. In Anaheim a fight between a developer and Disney produced two ballot measures, though those were recently removed after the developer, facing legal problems and an onslaught from the Mouse, surrendered.