California governership race heats up...

Sparks

Okay, this comes from the Associated Press, Reuters, the BBC, and even the Hindu, so it seems reliable enough.

The October vote will see California's electorate deciding whether to oust current governor Gray Davis and, if he is ejected, who his successor would be.

Mr Schwarzenegger is said to be still undecided, however Larry Flynt, the flamboyant publisher of the pornography magazine Hustler, is one of more than 200 people who have taken nomination forms to apply for the race.

"I don't think they would have a problem having a smut peddler who cares as governor," said publisher, who has been in a wheelchair since a failed attempt on his life several years ago.

"I think I can do a better job of balancing the budget than those pinhead bureaucrats up in Sacramento (the state's capital)."

But it's not just down to Davis v. Schwarzenegger v. Flynt, there are seventy candidates (and that's just those that have already filed paperwork, there's 180 more that have said unoffically that they will run as well) :

Porn film star Mary Carey says part of her platform is a plan to tax breast implants.

"We've had Brown, we've tried Gray. Now it is time for some blonde," she said, referring to the beleaguered Mr Davis and former governor Edmund "Jerry" Brown.

Meanwhile Angelyne, a voluptuous blonde model whose billboards can be seen all over the city of Los Angeles, has adopted the slogan "think rational pink" and says she plans to campaign for honesty in politics.

"Entertainment is a lot harder than politics," Angelyne told Reuters news agency.

"Entertainment is a matter of emotion and ego and politics is a matter of basic rational mathematics."

Now it's not that unusual to see a porn star in government (but then, that was Italy, land of Berlusconi...) but for it to happen in the US ... well, I think this merits the title "interesting"

TomF

Looks like it is getting crazy (crazier?) in California, the land of fruits and nuts. This newspaper story says St. Ralph got hit in the face with a pie. That also happened to Bill Gates some time ago. They say a pie in the face has a wonderfully sobering effect on big egoes. I wonder if any of our B.E.s in Ireland could do with a taste? How about Sir Tony O'Reilly?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51548-2003Aug12?language=printer

JustHalf

Save our State: Vote Terry Tate

bloggs

Arnie for Gov, then Arnie for Prez (Change the law so it can be done)

Sleipnir

OH jesus please don't even joke about Arnie being president.
Can you imagine Conan the Barbarian in charge of the U.S. military? they have nukes for god sake. He'd push that red button if someone stole his sandwich.

bloggs

Funny thing is he appears to be pro-gun control. He is more of a democrate in political matters and more of a republican in economic matters.

TomF

Here's a good (and funny) column on the California clown-carnival.

"It depends what the meaning of the word 'deficit' is
Ann Coulter
August 21, 2003

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/ac20030821.shtml
"Speaking at the University of California in Los Angeles this week, California Gov. Gray Davis admitted he had made some mistakes and called the recall effort a 'right-wing power grab.' I guess Bill Clinton really is advising him. Proving Davis' 'right-wing power grab' theory, the two men who are currently most likely to replace him are a tax-and-spend liberal who supports abortion and a tax-and-spend liberal who supports abortion.

One is Cruz Bustamante, Davis' lieutenant governor, who has displayed the Democrats' renowned tolerance and commitment to civil rights the Bob Byrd way – by using the n-word at a dinner celebrating Black History month. (You'd think the California Democrats could come up with a standard bearer to replace Davis who manages to avoid using racial slurs at a public gathering to celebrate black achievements.)

The other is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who quickly brought billionaire investor Warren Buffett on board as an adviser. Moments later, Buffett announced his enthusiasm for repealing Proposition 13 and raising taxes. In addition to high taxes, Buffett's other passion is abortion, proving once again that no one understands the little guy like a multi-billionaire.

Conservatives were wary of Schwarzenegger even before Tax 'em and Kill 'em Buffett joined the campaign. Schwarzenegger claims to be a fiscal conservative and a liberal on social issues. Historically, that means: 'liberal.' All politicians claim to be tax-cutting, fiscal conservatives when they are running for office. Bill Clinton did, promising a 'middle-class tax cut.' Then he raised taxes. George Herbert Walker Bush did, famously pledging that no matter how many times Congress came to him with a tax hike, he would say, 'Read my lips, no new taxes.' And then he raised taxes. So it's not a good sign when a politician isn't holding ticker-tape parades before the election showcasing his love of tax cuts.

Still, there are many arguments to be made in Schwarzenegger's favor. First of all, he's not Gray Davis. Thanks to Davis' fiscal wizardry, California is fast becoming a Third World country. Taxpayers are leaving the state in droves, sick of paying for government workers' Riviera retirement plans. In California, the fabulously rich support the poor with government jobs, paid for by the middle class – which is now living in Arizona.

It is puzzling why anyone would want to assume control of this fiasco. It's like vying to become Roseanne Barr's next husband. Sure you'd get your name in the paper, but look at the mess you'd be getting yourself into. And yet there are hundreds of Californians lining up to replace Gray Davis. There are even a few serious candidates like Tom McClintock and Bill Simon who do have plans that actually would save the Golden State.

At this stage, Schwarzenegger's main selling point is that he seems to have excellent name recognition with an electorate that already knowingly elected Gray Davis and Cruz Bustamante. Former child actor Gary Coleman would be a major improvement over Gray Davis. Indeed, among the nut candidates, probably only Arianna Huffington could drive the middle class from California faster than Gray Davis has, with this latter-day Norma Desmond gleefully spray-painting their SUVs on the way out.

Within days of his announcement, the media leapt on Schwarzenegger, demanding that he produce a detailed outline of his plan to save California from sinking into the ocean. Davis has been governor for five years and the watchdog media have yet to ask him what his plan is. In deciding to run, Arnold has already proven himself to be more decisive than Davis. In announcing that he didn't need anyone's money but his own, Arnold has proven himself to be of a different species than Gray Davis.

This leads to another positive about Schwarzenegger, which is that he's not Gray Davis. Literally millions of low-income immigrants are pouring into California without job skills or even language skills. If we were able to trick Mexico into taking California back, Los Angeles would have the second largest population of Mexicans in Mexico – only Mexico City would have more. While illegal immigrants generally work, they don't contribute to the income or property tax base. Their birth rates are far higher than other groups, so they consume a large portion of the state's health-care and welfare systems. As the tax base floods out legally, the taxpayer-dependents flood in illegally.

Davis responded to this crisis by virtually dismantling immigration enforcement in California. Law enforcement officials are prohibited from even asking people about their national origin. Davis fought Propositions 187 and 209 after the voters overwhelmingly approved them. Meanwhile, Arnold is the Republicans' kind of immigrant: legal. But the press is crucifying Arnold for voting 'yes' on Proposition 187 back in 1994 – along with 60 percent of his fellow Californians. Apparently, this makes him "out of the mainstream."

In addition, it's important to note that Schwarzenegger is not Gray Davis. We're all reading tea leaves, but it must mean something that Schwarzenegger goes around calling himself a Republican. Jesse Ventura never called himself a Republican. Michael Bloomberg was a lifelong Democrat who became a Republican only to run for mayor of New York. Northeastern liberal Republicans like John Lindsay called themselves Republicans because they associated the Democrats with the dirty working class.

Schwarzenegger is part of the Hollywood elite and is married to a Kennedy, and yet he calls himself a Republican. (In his defense, Schwarzenegger has no connection to Justice Anthony Kennedy.) You don't go around calling yourself a Republican in Hollywood to win admiring glances from studio executives. To take a page from the gays' handbook: 'Who would choose this lifestyle? Who would choose to be persecuted, censored and ostracized?'

Schwarzenegger was the moving force behind Proposition 49 last year, a taxpayer-funded after-school program for students. Admittedly, that doesn't sound like the mark of a Milton Friedman conservative. But, curiously, Proposition 49 was opposed by all the right people, including the California Federation of Teachers, the League of Women Voters of California and the American Association of University Women. Supporting the proposition were the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Business Roundtable and various taxpayer groups.

It turns out that Schwarzenegger's after-school programs would be paid for out of the state's general fund – unless the fund dried up. The Parasite Lobby opposed the after-school programs on the grounds that it would reduce flexibility in government spending and divert money away from other needed programs – such as even bigger pensions for the parasites. Schwarzenegger's initiative basically required that some taxpayer money be spent on taxpayers. It's not as good as a tax cut, but at least Schwarzenegger is not Gray Davis."

bonkey

I'm kinda getting the impression, having read that, that Arnie is not Gray Davis.

I dunno why...

Interesting read.

jc

The Beer Baron

Dunno- I'm still pissing myself laughing at this

Well He's Governor of California now, which as a state alone is the fifth biggest Economy in the world and the most populous of the United States.

I hope this is a protest Vote against what appears to be a bad performer Gray Davis and not a thumbs up for GWB:eek:

Undoubtedly Bush will see it this way.
I already heard, a Republican commentator on BBC news 24 this morning praising Arnies Business skills and that he would be the one to turn California's economy and defecit around...
I don't know anything about his business skills , except was he involved in planet Hollywood???
Wheres that now exactly?
mm

daveirl

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Hobbes

Arnie has been linked with Enron. Do a google, the PDF docs from enron are on the net. (too lazy to do it myself)

daveirl

This post has been deleted.