I was dismayed but not wholly surprised to learn in The Almanac's Short
Takes of August 23rd that a supporter of the current Menlo Park city
council majority, one Sue Kayton, willfully and preemptively registered
the advertised domain name of city council candidate Richard Cline.

Ms. Kayton was quoted as stating that Mr. Cline is "incompetent" for not
having registered the domain name before advertising it in his ballot
statement, but Ms. Kayton's own competence (to say nothing of her sense
of ethics) might be called into question when one considers Sections
18320-18323 of the California Elections Code, known as the "California
Political Cyberfraud Abatement Act." The Act includes, in part:

(1) "Political cyberfraud" means a knowing and willful act concerning a
political Web site that is committed with the intent to deny a person
access to a political Web site, deny a person the opportunity to
register a domain name for a political Web site ... Political cyberfraud
includes, but is not limited to, any of the following acts:

(D) Intentionally preventing the use of a domain name for a political
Web site by registering and holding the domain name or by reselling it
to another with the intent of preventing its use, or both.

There are many reasons why Ms. Kayton might engage in cybersquatting --
none of them good -- but to then use the attention afforded her silly
gesture to air so nasty a comment about Richard Cline, whom she may not
even know, is simply inexcusable. If Ms. Kayton is typical of the
current council majority's supporters -- and I tend to believe she is --
then it is with all the more relish that I will cast my votes in
November, hoping to unseat Ms. Winkler, Ms. Duboc, and their cabal.

The Menlo Park City Council race is shaping up as Quality of Life vs.
Quantity of Development, and I know with certainty where Winkler and
Duboc stand on both issues.

Mark Drury
Willow Road
Menlo Park
Received on Fri Aug 25 00:58:25 2006