This is why Liberals have lost the ear and support of so many Americans:
QUESTIONS FOR MARIO CUOMO
Recall Ballad
NYT: As someone who served three terms as a governor, you must have some thoughts about what's happening in California.MC: It's too much democracy. In San Francisco and in the rest of California, there has been an instinct for a long time to get as close to the plebiscite as you can get, as close to ''We'll decide it for ourselves.'' And I think Californians would tell you that every once in a while they've done something they're proud of this way, but more often than not they've discovered that they punished themselves by a rash judgment
There you have the Liberal coda in a nutshell. Liberals know best, voters cannot make sound judgements. Begs the question as to how voters elect said Liberals...being so inept and unwise... but then let's not split hairs. The Honourable Gentleman from New York has more wisdom to impart from his lofty moral pearch.
NYT: That you could recall an executive is an odd and maybe scary concept.MC: Well, depending on how the executive feels about it when he's banished. The situation in California seems to be so bad that I'm not sure Gray Davis isn't secretly praying for banishment.
"The situation"? You mean the financial disaster created by a Dem legislature and Governor? Since when is a CEO or Executive being summarily fired by the board or shareholders an odd or a scary concept? The NYT recently had just such an event. Maybe the change in management hasn't filtered down to the Sunday Magazine staff yet.
NYT: Is the idea of governor as a serious job, one that requires a lot of experience, changing? We had Jesse Ventura in Minnesota, and now perhaps Arnold Schwarzenegger in California.MC: Well, let's see. Minnesota, maybe, California, not so sure. California is an unusual and electric kind of state -- it's wonderful. All sorts of things happen there. But a little too dazzling for my taste -- when you threaten legislators with large weapons.
Excuse me Guv, but didn't a NYC Pol recently murder another with a large weapon? After a very clever pun dismissing Swarzenegger (not), Cuomo pontificates on the 2004 Presidental race. Read the full article if you have the stomach...I've reached my limit of condecending quasi-intellectual Liberal bullshit and media fawning for the moment. *spit* *spit*
Alan of Beaker's Corner points out Liberal quagmires.
I'm beginning to think the favorite word of the left is officially "quagmire." Liberal pudits everywhere are "concerned" about the Iraq quagmire. Liberals were concerned about the Afghanistan quagmire. Twelve years ago, liberals were concerned about the previous Iraq quagmire.Personally, I'm sick of the liberals having all the fun. So, in an effort to recapture the word for the right, I'd like to point out some quagmires the left doesn't talk about much.
First, there's the education quagmire. I live in California. We spend a tremendous amount of money (25% of the State budget) on public education. The more the big-government liberals try to "fix" education, the worse it gets. Also, as school administrations get bigger, money that should be used in the classroom evaporates. I think it's time to point out the the left has us bogged down in an education quagmire in this country, and the more they flail away, the deeper we sink.
Hmmm.... I hadn't thought of it quite that way. Liberalism has become a quagmire for the Dems.
Hey, this is fun.
While the mainstream media drools over Arnold's irrelevant past, Crus Bustamante's connection to a terrorist group is ignored, or worse covered up.
However, the Blogosphere is on this story:
Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs posts:
The leaders of the Raza Unida Party (RUP), a “political party” created by MEChA, took a meeting with Yasser Arafat in Lebanon in 1980, with a portrait of the Ayatollah Khomeini glowering over the festivities:
(Hat tip: Adam.)
UPDATE: Here is a page with info about the founder of the RUP: Jose Angel Gutierrez.
Here's the pull quote header on the Gutierrez's link
Jose Angel Gutierrez, professor, University of Texas, Arlington; founder of La Raza Unida political party; and beneficiary of American generosity: "We have an aging white America. . . . They are dying. . . . They are ******** in their pants with fear! I love it!" "We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him."
Think that's ancient history or a distortion? Read this October 18, 2000 Star-Telegram interview with Guteirrez.
Stefan Sharkansky of Sharksblog has a must-read piece on MEChA:
IMO Sharkansy's money graf is:
MEChA's El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan lists the group's "Organizational Goals", including:
economic control of our lives and our communities can only come about by driving the exploiter out of our communities, ourpueblos, and our lands and by controlling and developing our own talents, sweat, and resources. Cultural background and values which ignore materialism and embrace humanism will contribute to the act of cooperative buying and the distribution of resources and production to sustain an economic base for healthy growth and development Lands rightfully ours will be fought for and defended. Land and realty ownership will be acquired by the community for the people's welfare. Economic ties of responsibility must be secured by nationalism and the Chicano defense units.
(The "our lands" include, for example, California, Texas and Colorado) It's nationalism! It's socialism! It's national socialism! It's where Cruz Bustamante got his start in politics!
"I think the actuality of what takes place in those organizations is to provide student leadership. For me, and many, many others, we were running for student government. That's how I got here today."
You'll notice the MEChA info is on the University of Michigan server. Yes, our tax dollars are supporting this self=avowed terrorist organization.
An interesting side note: Cruz Bustamante recently completed his undergrad degree at Fresno State. He attended a Hispanic only graduation event.
Founded as the Chicano Commencement Celebration, the event was Olgin’s and Garduque’s joint master’s thesis along with establishing the Chicano Alumni Association. Co-founders were then-La Raza studies professor Ernesto Martinez and student director Frances Pena-Olgin, who is now the director of Fresno State’s University Outreach Services.
Can you imagine the media uproar if a Republican Lt Governor attended such an event?
Vote Yes on Recall and No on Bustamante.
Seems the pollsters aren't having an easy time of nailing down the Recall election. Good.
Recall pollsters on steep learning curve
Compressed schedule, long ballot produce wild fluctuation
It's the year of living dangerously for pollsters who venture into the California recall race.
According to a Los Angeles Times poll last week, Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante led Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger 35 percent to 22 percent in the California gubernatorial recall race.
Over at KABC-TV, an ABC affiliate in Los Angeles, one stat showed actor Schwarzenegger leading Bustamante, 51 percent to 17 percent. And a Field Poll said it was Bustamante vs. Schwarzenegger in a near dead-heat, 25 percent to 22 percent.
Then when it came to deciding on whether to oust Gov. Gray Davis, the Times said 50 percent of the voters would eject the current governor. KABC said, it's more like 65 percent.
What in name of Gallup is going on here?
"Everything is speeded up," said Peyton Craighill, program director of the Pew Research Center, which hasn't conducted a recall poll. "There's so much movement going on."
Translation: We can't cook it. Given their majority the Dems must be very, very nervous. Soon they will have no choice but to roll out their secret weapon the mother of all campaigners, the Dem bunker buster: BIG BUBBA.
It's going to be so much fun as Clinton sucks the air out of the campaign. Davis will be totally eclipsed by Clinton's rock star wattage. Let's hope Senator Ample Arse joins in...Arnold needs all the help he can get to turn out the GOP base.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
This is so wrongheaded that it takes one's breath away.
Schwarzenegger Slammed by Hispanic Group for Supporting English As Official U.S. Language
Before Schwarzenegger arrived in the state's farm belt, the nation's oldest Hispanic civil rights group called on him to step down from the advisory board of U.S. English, a group that seeks to make English the official language of the United States.
The group criticizing Schwarzenegger, the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the Austrian-born actor's advisory board position brings into question his commitment to Hispanics.
It just seems like all the issues that we support he doesn't," said Gabriela Lemus, the league's director of policy and legislation.
Meanwhile, LULAC's Lemus said Schwarzenegger's membership on the board of U.S. English "does not bode well for Hispanics."
"So many of us support bilingualism and bilingual education and maintaining our culture and he's essentially saying it's not valid by being part of this board that has got this whole anti-immigrant, underlying racist mentality," Lemus said.
What are these fucktards thinking? What are they protecting? The right to toil in dead-end menial jobs or to live in substandard housing? The right to continue the cycle of poverty? Notice that the reporter doesn't bother to ennumerate or clarify "all the issues" that Schwarzenegger doesn't support.
Bilingual education was a failed concept that held back non-English speaking students and since mainstreaming became law they are now assimulating quickly where children in the former bilingual system were not fluent after five years of bilingual education.
On the other hand Cruz Bustamante has a dandy idea to insure that California has a gas shortage that will make Davis's power botch look like amateur hour.
"Californians are being gouged, and under current law we are powerless to do anything about it," he said, reminding voters they will be paying the highest gas prices in the nation this weekend.
Where hell was Cruz last summer and last past dozen summers when Bay Area gas prices soared? We've been paying the highest gas prices in the country for a decade or more. Why? because we haven't built more refinery capacity while the population tripled. Good idea...drive away another industry/employer.
Hat tip to Misha
Okay...I'm back and I'm pissed off.
A raunchy interview bedevils Schwarzenegger
1977 chat includes blunt talk on drugs, sex
So the Left is all worked up ...since fuckingwhen has the Left had any problem with drugs and sex?
Oh that's right, when it suits them.
We also hear grumblings from Hollywood stars about Schwarzenegger's movie violence being too over the top...mebbe Hollywood would do well to STF up or are they admitting that they produce and promote violence and sex to sell product?
Tom Hanks tsk-tsks that movie star Schwarzenegger isn't qualified...oh really and just what the fuck qualifies Tom Hanks to offer an opinion? Jeebus.
I haven't heard any condemnation from the left over the marketing of the sleaze fest and unsavory lifestyle at the MTV award show to The Children. I find it amusing that the SF Chron in particular suddenly finds smoking weed, nudity and consenting group sex between adults radical or offensive.
Schwarzenegger obviously had no problem with gays or exploiting the gay community. Those of us who have gay friends or live/work near gay neighborhoods know that nude Schwarzenegger pix have been around for years...now they're shocked?
As a California voter I am concerned about the direction of the state, the flight of business, illegal immigration and serious social problems such as Oakland's skyrocketing murder rate, not Arnold's private behavior thirty years ago.
It's not like he got liquored up, drove off a bridge and left a young woman to drown...now is it?
Heh. Davis ramps up his charm campaign...rushing to headline-making appearances statewide. Claiming the moral high ground as the "children squabble" over the recall.
Davis' public appearances are part of a strategy to use his official duties as a platform to present himself as the responsible adult amid a playground of squabbling children. Like former President Clinton during his impeachment, Davis has tried to wrap himself in the gravity of his elected position, withdrawing from the political anarchy that surrounds him.
Since Schwarzenegger's entry a week ago today, Davis has appeared with teachers at a union meeting in Anaheim, signed legislation to ban harmful chemicals and announced that he would sign a law requiring teachers to receive training on ``intolerance and hatred prevention.''
Today Davis travels to San Francisco for an unusual event to publicly announce his support for several abortion-rights bills. In his first term, he took vocal stands on pending legislation infrequently and almost never held public events to tout his backing.
That went well:
BUSTAMANTE GAINS CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION BACKING
The state's Democratic congressional delegation and the California Teachers Association threw their considerable clout behind Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante on Thursday, a tacit acknowledgment that Gov. Gray Davis appears unlikely to survive the October recall election.
The endorsements largely end a split among Democrats about how best to fight the recall. Davis had tried to force the party to unite behind him and no one else, but a number of elected Democrats, particularly those in the House, thought it was too risky.
``I think we've all seen the polls and know that currently he has not yet persuaded California that the recall is a bad idea,'' said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, who chairs the 33-member congressional delegation, which unanimously supported the lieutenant governor.
800-pound gorilla
With 335,000 members, the CTA is often referred to as the state's 800-pound gorilla because of its deep pockets and organizational power. The group usually endorses Democratic candidates, who are more willing to spend money on education.
The union chose Bustamante because of his record on education.
``He's been a strong supporter of students and public schools since he's been in elected office,'' said Dean Vogel, the union's secretary-treasurer. ``We believe he will fight and work hard to provide our students, teachers and classrooms with the resources that they need.''
The teachers union endorsed Davis twice but also clashed with him over new testing requirements he imposed, and they have had a bumpy relationship since.
This is hugely bad news for the Davis campaign...his Clinton-style offensive isn't working. Davis has neither Bill's charm or political capital to spend. As this pull quote from a recent appereance demonstrates...it's lifted right from Clinton's 1998 playbook. It's difficult to read this graf without hearing Clinton's distinctive drawl.
"I have an obligation to the 8 million people . . . who went to the polls last November,'' Davis said during the Brentwood stop not far from Schwarzenegger's home. ``They asked me to do a job in California; I'm going to do it every day they allow me to do it.''
Excuse me Guv, but half of those votes were cast against you. Of course the usual suspects weigh in with tepid support and advice.
House Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco called the move to back Bustamante "pragmatic politics." The delegation met by phone Thursday and issued a statement supporting Bustamante's "no on the recall, yes on Bustamante" platform.
"This is about stopping the recall," Pelosi said at a press briefing at San Francisco's Federal Building. "We think his candidacy will draw a large number of Hispanics to the polls."
The strategy, Pelosi said, is about turnout. "The more people who vote, the more Democrats who vote . . . the better the prospect of defeating" the recall.
U-huh...turn out the Hispanic vote? Code for the white guy's toast so we'll turn the election into a racial slugfest. However this story seems to indicate that the GOP may be gaining new voters as Californians express their disgust with the Democrats in Sacramento.
The Oct. 7 recall election is generating not only uncommon interest in California politics, but an uncommon level of participation.
An informal check of several counties throughout California shows that people are signing up to participate in the recall election in unexpected numbers -- and Republicans are claiming the numbers are moving in their favor
Meanwhile there's no joy in Berkeley:
Bruce Cain, a political scientist at the University of California-Berkeley, said the Democrats may have acted in response to Schwarzenegger's media performance Wednesday, when he danced around questions on the budget without letting reporters pin him down, yet managed to appear confident and in control.
``It doesn't look like he's a stumbler,'' Cain said. ``I'm sure that having watched Arnold, there's a sense of urgency that they can't fiddle while Rome burns.''
Panic setting in, Arnold's not self-destructing...it's early days yet...the real sleaze campaign will come in the last two week...that's Davis' style...nasty and too late to rebutt.
Kurds Nab Iraq's Ex-Vice President
MOSUL, Iraq, Aug. 19 -- Kurdish militiamen captured Iraq's feared former vice president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, in a bloodless operation in this northern city today and turned him over to the U.S. military, marking one of the highest-profile arrests since most of ousted president Saddam Hussein's leadership went underground after his government collapsed in April.
Once known as "Saddam's knuckles," Ramadan, 65, was one of a handful of lieutenants in Hussein's inner circle. His relationship with the former Iraqi president dated from the 1960s, when the Baath Party was largely an underground organization. After it assumed power in 1968, he became one of its most recognized, and notorious, officials and remained so until its collapse on April 9.
Carnival of the Vanities Pre-Seasons Outside the Beltway.
Exciting, but no match for Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium, October 20, 1980. There were 79 points scored – nearly 800 yards in total offense, plus another 258 yards on returns. Five of the ten touchdowns came on plays of 34 yards or longer. Now that was some football.
Suicide Bomber Kills 13 on Israeli Bus
JERUSALEM - A suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday on a packed bus on a main thoroughfare in Jerusalem, killing at least 13 people and wounding 80 more, a rescue service said.
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility, which killed three children.
The blast on the extra long bus, which had two passenger sections that were full, went off shortly after 9 p.m.
Shocked survivors, including several crying children with blood-smeared faces, were carried away from the scene. A paramedic cradled a little girl drenched in blood, and two others escorted an elderly woman.
The militant Islamic Jihad also has said it would avenge the killing of a senior figure by Israeli troops last week.
Palestinian militants suspected.
Suspected? Words fail.
U.N. chief killed in Baghdad explosion
Explosion rips through U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.N. special representative in Iraq died Tuesday in a bomb explosion that ripped through the organization's headquarters in Baghdad, U.N. officials in New York announced.
Sergio Vieira de Mello was among the 17 killed and 100 injured when a truck bomb exploded immediately beneath the window of his office in the Canal Hotel. He was trapped in the rubble.
UPDATE: Hamas accepts responsibility for the Jerusalem bombing as the death tolls climbs to 20.
Is this a cool photo or what?
By the dawn's early light: Pilots of the Patriot (left) and America One balloons briefly lower their baskets into Maine's Androscoggin River for a "splash and dash" just after sunrise during The 11th Annual Great Falls Balloon Fest in Lewiston, Maine.
'Nuff said about the The Big Blackout of '03. Go here for breaking blog coverage or tune in your fav TV/radio station as the news cycle beats the story to death.
I'll carry on with Recall news.
It appears that Clinton's advice isn't working for Davis as voters ignore the charm fest, back pedaling and earnest photo-op flapdoodle Davis has been offering the past week. Bill and Hill quietly pull away as Davis's numbers continue to plummet.
Davis' ratings dip to new depths
Democrats losing faith, Field Poll finds
More and more California voters want Gov. Gray Davis recalled, and even his fellow Democrats are beginning to despair over the governor's chances of holding onto his job, a Field Poll released today shows.
The survey indicates that 58 percent of likely voters favor ousting Davis in the landmark Oct. 7 recall vote, up from 51 percent a month ago. Even among Democrats, 27 percent say they'll vote to recall Davis and nearly a quarter of his fellow party members say the governor should resign.
Seventy percent of California voters disapprove of the job Davis is doing as governor, the lowest level a politician has recorded in the 56-year history of the Field Poll, said Mark DiCamillo, the poll's director. It matches President Richard Nixon's approval rating in August 1974, days before he resigned.
"These findings have to be very troubling for the governor," DiCamillo said.
"They're all trending down from what already were very poor numbers. It's a very serious situation for the governor."
"The news behind the numbers is even worse for the governor. Of the 58 percent who backed the recall, only 3 percent said they might change their minds by election day.
"The numbers are getting worse and worse and the opinions are firmly held," DiCamillo said. "It will be very hard to change people's minds."
Even Davis' backers have bad feelings about the governor's chances. Although 37 percent of the state's voters plan to oppose the recall, only 22 percent believe Davis will stay in office. "
Heh.
Arrrrgggh...while surfing for an appropriate icon for this week's COTV's I came across this from an uber-asshat. Which forces me to wade into the turgid waters of feminism...to brave the Rocks Wandering of Liberal thought.
"the shape is female, which is why the nothingness is taken to have meaning; the meaning is masturbatory"
"In Varga Girl gatefold publshed in the November 1943 Esquire the she-thing has no underarm hair"
Then there's this paragraph describing the Vargas pin-up I selected as the weekly mask icon, which is quaintly modest by today's standards.
"Vargas' notion of sophistication is not benign. In the January 1941 gatefold, breasts are dead center and covered by what appear to be bird wings. This suggests the post-war O who in Story of 0 is led to an orgy dressed as an owl, tethered through her vagina. Zoo drawings-women as quasi-animals-appear to be the single conception Vargas had of adult, as opposed to infantalized, women: sculpted but black eyebrows, dashes of red lipstick, one visible arm holding a green mask covered in a translucent (or not) black glove. The hair on her head is a dark blonde."
Jeebus...I am almost positive that Dad wasn't thinking about the zoo when he whistled at a Vargas or Betty Grable pin-up poster during WWII.
We are constantly scorned and belittled by the illuminati for our lack of European sexual sophiscation...that as a nation we are too up tight about sex. We need to get over it...liberate and celebrate our bodies. To free the sexual Pilgrims that lurk in our genes and the dark recesses of the DOJ. However another message is also sent. That we're too obsessed with sex...that looking at artistic images of either sex, or enjoying the pleasure derived therein oppresses that sex and is therefore a societal evil that must be purged in all it's forms.
Excuse me, which is it?
UPDATE: As one is often wont to do, I thought about this posting while going about my day. What if Dworkin was right about Vargases motives. I realized I knew little about the man behind the pin-ups, his politics. A Peruvian, who studied in pre-WWI Paris before coming to New York, he could be a socialist embedding a message, a misogynist cashing in on American sexual naivete.
As in most overblown critiques of art by those with agenda, the truth is none of the above...Vargas loved women. As an excerpt from an article, Latin Obsession : The Tragic Tale of a Pin-Up Artist, by Jorge Chino, in Al Andar demonstrates:
"The American women Alberto fell in love with in New York were very different from the ones he had seen in Europe or in Peru. American women of the time were independent and athletic, slender with an unsophisticated beauty. They were the same kind of women that Ayn Rand, the famous author and philosopher, saw upon her arrival from Soviet Union in the 1930s. Rand, author of “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged,” created characters who were strong women with expressions of confidence and determination. "
Stephan Goddard, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas also seems to hold a more benign view of Vargas. An interesting footnote is that Goddard curated the Vargas exhibit critiqued by Dworkin.
Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder.
Copious quanities of coffee were quaffed, cortizone injected and bums numbed...however Maripat slogged on through the dark of night.
Carnival of the Vanities is up at Right We Are
image credit: Alberto Vargas, January 1941
Lair sings The California Recall Alphabet Song...which got me thinking. Looking over the preliminary list of California recall candidates a name leaped off the page.
Donald A. Novello, Democrat, Marin Country.
Now we got fun. Someone please wake up the asshats in the Bay Area news rooms.
UPDATE: Found this video of Father Guido Sarducci's "5 Minute University".
There was a time when the SF Chronicle was a newspaper, not a Dem buttwipe. This story makes one one wonder about the pay scale over at 5th and Mission.
Schwarzenegger's famous friends gave him many costly presents
"I don't need to take any money from anybody," the actor said in his distinctive Austrian accent. "I have plenty of money myself."
But that doesn't mean Schwarzenegger will turn up his nose at expensive cigars, Belgian chocolates, fine clothing and other pricey gifts.
In financial disclosure documents filed Saturday in Los Angeles, the "Total Recall" star reported accepting dozens of expensive goodies last year from friends and associates, ranging from Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani to billionaire Warren Buffett.
Armani gave the actor the biggest-ticket gift on the list: five shirts and sweaters worth $2,500.
$2500!!! OHMYGOD!! Armani has shirts & sweaters that cheap?
Actually is gets sillier...let's scan the detailed list shall we?
Julius Hafner, Hafner Estates Winery, Austria
Bottles of wine, $100
Gerhard Nohrer, journalist, Austria
Bottles of wine, $100
(Bottles? not impressed...even this lowly fool affords better plonk)
Dietrich Mateschitz, Red Bull executive, Austria
Flower arrangement, $150
(tink mebbe it vuz wred & un blak?)
Rick Goings, CEO, Tupperware Corp., Orlando
Tupperware humidor, $100
Cigars, $35
(Rumor has it, Maria loves hosting Tupperware parties)
David Styne, Bryan Lourd, Richard Lovett, Schwarzenegger's agents, Beverly Hills
Leather belt with silver, $400
Box of cigars, $500
($900? Pikers. Wonder how many millions they made from AS last year.)
Barbara and Marvin Davis, Los Angeles, friends. The pair are wealthy Democratic fund-raisers.
Popcorn, $45
Gingerbread carousel, $85
(Ooops!)
Then there is this item...a gift so shocking in it's largess, so corrupting that it clearly disqualifies Arnold from public office, The Gold Box:
Janet and Bert Boeckmann, auto dealership
See's candy, $65
Having failed to shock the electorate with Arnie's greed, Davis's surrogates will no doubt escalate the sleaze war by rolling out the whores. No, not the DNC media flacks... working girls, a bit-on-the-side. Let's hope he has better taste in babes than Bill Clinton.
I hold my nose and shovel through The Nation weekly. Ugh.
Have you read John Nichols For Democrats, Mr. Right is Mr. Wrong?
"As Donna Brazile, the manager of the 2000 Gore-Lieberman campaign, explained to the Washington Post in May, "The bottom line is, he is defined as a conservative US senator."
This a surprise? I would love to see how the question was framed.
"Which Democrat presidential contender do you like least, the nigger or the jew".
Pardon my blunt speech but reverse racism disguised as diversity is just as ugly. Conservative in this context is code for "white Jew." It's becoming ever more obvious that anti-Semitism is the unspoken meme undercutting Lieberman. I knew it would come to this when he was drafted in 2000. The Dem's irrational opposition to Israel at-any-cost has reinforced the anti-Semitism that simmers beneath the surface of the party base. They've destroyed their best moderate candidate in the process.
Where's the cloying media coverage Lieberman enjoyed in 2000? Suddenly he can't get arrested. The DNC needs the black base to turn out in 2004, so they toss Joe Lieberman off the party bus. Ironic isn't it?
Does anyone really think that segregation would have been ended or the Voting Rights Act passed without the earnest young Jewish lawyers, JD/WH policy advisors and media watchdogs? Yet, the Democrats tolerate anti-Semites such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. The Liberal media elite now openly support Anti-American terrorist states and sneer with labels such as "Neocon".
I am not a paleo-con, neo-con or a Republi-con. I am however, very disappointed with my former party. Dems have two splendid opportunities to prove that diversity is a reality in America. Cruz Bustamante could be elected with a positive DNC funded campaign, yet the Dems prop up an unpopular, failed Pol, so colorless that even his name screams WASP.
The GOP is headed into the same murky morass of pandering to narrow interest, but they still have the guts to be who they are. The Dems no longer know who they are or what they stand for, clinging to forty year old policy proffered by white males, policy that society has already digested and pronounced sound or not. We've moved on, abortion, racial and economic equality, concepts that have main streamed, to be sure there is still much to be done, but we're working on it.
What happened to the Liberal Best and Brightest?, Howard Dean is neither. Dean couldn't be any whiter or more out of step with the majority. Is the party hoping for a draw?, a repeat of 2000?
9/11 and Iraq changed everything in Fly-over Country, lines have been drawn and crossed. Lines that the Dems and Liberal media don't see or understand.
Lieberman, on the other hand, has the same values as much of the country. To be sure, Joe has waffled a little, but his voting record and basic decency are his best assets. Lieberman's election would also send a signal that would rock the Arab street and put Arab leaders on notice: change or perish.
I predict that Dean will deliver the Dems a defeat of proportions not seen since Mondale and hand Bush the mandate and mantle of legitimacy they deny.
A defeat they deserve.
Billionaire Soros commits $10 million to defeat Bush
WASHINGTON (AP) - Making a major foray into partisan politics, multibillionaire George Soros is committing $10 million to a new Democratic-leaning group aimed at defeating President Bush next year.
Soros, who in the past has donated on a smaller scale to Democratic candidates and the party, pledged the money to a political action committee called America Coming Together, spokesman Michael Vachon said Friday.
The group plans a $75 million effort to defeat Bush and "elect progressive officials at every level in 2004," targeting 17 key states: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
--ACT said it plans a large-scale effort to register voters and mobilize them to go to the polls. It has $30 million in commitments so far and plans a national fund-raising drive starting next month.
The group is headed by Ellen Malcolm, president of EMILY's List, a group dedicated to winning the election of Democratic women candidates who support abortion rights, such as New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
--"The fate of the world depends on the United States, and President Bush is leading us in the wrong direction," Soros said in a written statement. "ACT is an effective way to mobilize civil society, to convince people to go to the polls and vote for candidates who will reassert the values of the greatest open society in the world."
America Coming Together? Oh goodie, another Dem circle jerk.
An amusing Recall tidbit in the Bee today:
Bustamante's decision to set the election for Oct. 7, the latest possible date after the recall was certified, gave candidates more than two weeks to get into the race rather than one day, a period that allowed political maneuvering to further degrade Davis' political standing.
"When Bustamante did not call the election for the most immediate date and created a 16-day filing period, rather than a one-day filing period, he sealed Gray Davis' fate," said Republican strategist Kevin Spillane. "He created a period of time for Gray Davis to twist in the wind and allow Democratic unity to crumble."
Spillane recalled the time Davis removed some parking spaces from Bustamante's control.
"The parking spaces that Gray Davis took away from Bustamante's office in 1999 are going to go down as the most valuable parking spaces in California political history," Spillane said. "Someone should build a monument by those parking spaces: 'On this spot Gray Davis ultimately lost his political career.' "
Calif. Supreme Court Upholds Recall Vote
The announcement came after the justices held hours of closed-door discussions that began Wednesday, and after more than 400 would-be governors from all political persuasions and backgrounds took out nomination papers in advance of the 5 p.m. Saturday deadline to file their candidacy.
The justices, six Republicans and one Democrat, chose not to enter the politically charged recall arena, two weeks after the election was certified. Never before has California's sitting governor been targeted by a voter-driven recall election that qualified for the ballot.
Note the word "targeted" and the clumsy structure of the last sentence. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Kravets pulled a groin muscle wrestling it into the pejorative. The media detests the recall election.
While the media herd swoon and Dem flacks lick their chops over Schwarzenegger 's announcement, the ground shifted under Davis. The real story of the day isn't Ahnold.
Cruz Bustamante becomes first prominent Democrat to announce plans to run for governor
Bustamante, the first Hispanic to hold statewide office in California in more than a century, said in a faxed statement he planned to pick up candidacy papers at 10 a.m. Thursday in Sacramento. As late as Tuesday, he had maintained he would not put his name on the ballot to recall Davis.
Listen! What's that distant sound? The Hispanic vote changing candidates? Dems jumping the Gray ghost ship?
Pelosi’s August recess memo takes the cake
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) made sure Democrats left for their home districts armed with a recess brief full of suggested talking points to bolster her party’s national prospects.
So far, so normal.
But her recess packet also includes detailed instructions on how to throw a local party—a 38th birthday bash for Medicare.
The minute instructions have raised concerns among Democratic aides and lobbyists that Pelosi is developing a didactic style that can be too patronizing to be helpful.
The cake instruction was for the Monday of the week of July 28.
The orders go on: “Buy additional party supplies. Be creative. Buy a ‘Happy Birthday’ tablecloth for the center table. Purchase disposable plates and utensils if the facility will not provide them. You may also wish to purchase additional party favors — horns and whistles can be very useful to ‘boo’ the Republican agenda,” suggests the document.
For Tuesday, lawmakers are reminded to “review supply check list. Confirm cake/food orders and make sure supply checklist is complete. Provide writing utensils and paper for seniors to complete letters to the editor.”
On the day of the meeting, lawmakers are told to “arrive early” and then: “Set up tables. Spread a ‘Happy Birthday’ tablecloth on the center table, where cake will be placed. All other tables should have pens/pencils, writing paper, and copies of the sample letter to the editor.”
In bold bullet-points the document commands lawmakers: “Know where the restrooms and telephones are located.”
There you have it, the Congressional Democrat's playbook. Find the restrooms.
A mostly harmless Carnival of the Vanities opens Across The Atlantic. Best totter by and partake of the blogosphere's best before all Hell breaks loose, as the good Captain demonstrates his sandwich making skills, whilst Shellie goes about gainsaying the Strateej-O-Mat.
Click, hum.
At least, almost everything
Click, click, hum.
Charles Austin, of Sine Qua Non, delivers Vol. XCI of The Scourge of Richard Cohen, delightful that it is... his excellent fisking of Tom Freidman's latest apologia is not-to-be-missed.
"Tom Friedman's off the wagon again drinking the Kool-aid with The War Over the War:"
Excuse me Gov, but shouldn't you be kissing union arse in California?
Davis flew to Chicago on Monday to address the AFL-CIO executive council to get its support to fight the recall. No other groups are as important to Davis as labor unions, because they have deep enough pockets to quickly finance the expected $20 million, two-month campaign.
Speaking by telephone from Chicago, Davis said he would spend most of his time over the next two months working on gubernatorial business, such as passing financial privacy legislation and propping up the failing workers' compensation system.
Failing? The Costco story seems to belie that statement. State Dems are becoming concerned as Davis makes all the wrong moves and private polling shows Davis will lose and the filing deadline approaches on Saturday.
While Davis courted labor unions in Chicago and attempted to delay the recall in the courts, leading Democrats eyed a fresh batch of private polls showing the recall supported by as much as 55 percent, with a tiny number of undecided voters leaning toward either staying home or ousting Davis.
17 STATE SENATORS MEET
With that in mind, 17 Democratic state senators met privately Monday to discuss whether they should endorse a Democratic replacement candidate on the two-part ballot or stay firmly with Davis.
There was no agreement, senators said, except that the recall should be opposed and voters need to be better informed about how a Republican governor might undermine abortion rights, labor laws and the environment.
Jeebus, the California Dems are dragging out the Shibboliths of the Left™ in the face of a massive economic meltdown and 55% disapproval among their own voters?
What next...let me guess...Granny's wheelchair pushed down the GOP Stairs of Misery™ with The Children of Color holding a baby dolphin on her lap?
Costco crumbles after profit warning
Costco shares plunged $5.01 to $31.95.
Hobbled by higher healthcare costs and worker's compensation coupled with lower margins, the Issaquah, Wash.-based retailer slashed its fourth fiscal-quarter earnings outlook to a range of 46 cents to 48 cents a share, down from a previously expected 54 cents to 56 cents a share.
Costco noted in March that high worker's compensation costs - particularly in California - was at the heart of weaker-than-expected results. The company has said that while only one-third of its workforce is in the West Coast state, those employees absorb more than two-thirds of annual workers' compensation costs even though injury rates are in line.
This is exactly why Californians are concerned and displeased with Davis and his party's mishandling of our economy. Will Costco leave California? Probably not, sales are strong, but everyone will pay a bit more to offset the costs...and that my friend is why our fiscal mess impacts you in unseen ways...from a few cents increase on a head of lettuce to less growth in your pension/401k plan.
Alcoa may be a buy today.
Bad Feng Shui Blamed for German MPs Lacking Ideas
BERLIN (Reuters) - If German politicians lack ideas for reforming the country's struggling healthcare and pensions systems, they can now blame an adverse flow of energy in their workplace.
The German parliament's glass dome, a Berlin landmark, makes for bad feng shui, according to an expert in the Chinese art of positioning objects, buildings and furniture.
"The energy is downright sucked out of MPs' heads by the glass dome," feng shui adviser Wilhelm Wuschko told the mass-circulation daily Bild on Saturday.
To keep the energy inside, the dome should be coated with a protective foil, he said.
Ever helpful to a staunch friend and ally such as Germany. Here's the perfect solution... repleat with illustrated instructions, a short dissertation on Aluminum Foil Thickness, Use of the Shiny Side and tips which may be of interest to Marduk:
However much to my disappointment "Beer can hats", though made out of aluminum cans, are not as effective as an AFDB.
The California gubernatorial recall election foreplay is heating up.
Hustler's Larry Flynt wants to replace Davis
Larry C. Flynt, the publisher of Hustler magazine, says he wants to be the Democratic Party's standard bearer -- or maybe "barer" -- in the coming California recall election, and he's running for governor.
Heh....but wait! There's more good news for the Dems.
With uncertainty over who will challenge him, Davis is entering the most precarious week of his political life, made even more difficult because of a warning by Democratic Attorney General Bill Lockyer this week that Davis would face consequences if he ran a "puke campaign" trashing his opponents.During a breakfast meeting Thursday with the Sacramento Bee, Lockyer ridiculed Davis for helping sabotage former Los Angeles Mayor Dick Riordan's campaign last year with attack ads that questioned his flip-flopping on the issue of abortion rights.
"It was a puke campaign and I didn't like it," Lockyer told the newspaper. "I think it's a disservice to voters and the profession. I'm just tired of that stuff."
...While Boxer hedges her bets.
Democratic unity behind a decision to keep top-tier Democrats off the recall ballot showed further signs of fraying. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said Friday she is leaving her options open for encouraging a Democratic candidate to run as a potential replacement."We have to see where we are when the filing deadline approaches," Boxer told the Associated Press. "I'm against the recall, but I think we have to look at who's on the ballot, we have to keep our options open as to who's on the ballot," she said.
Schwarzenegger will discuss governor intentions on 'Tonight Show'
California's gubernatorial recall campaign could get a touch of Hollywood glitz next week when Arnold Schwarzenegger goes on late-night TV to discuss whether he'll run to replace Gov. Gray Davis.The Republican will announce his decision Wednesday, then elaborate on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," Schwarzenegger campaign consultant Sean Walsh said Friday. That would come three days before the Aug. 9 deadline for candidates to declare plans to run
Okay...so far we have a possible slate of Davis, Boxer, Huffington, Sanchez, Feinstein, Flynt, Riordan, Schwarzenegger, Pratt, Wozniak and Russell.
Whoa! Back up the truck Ethel. I know someone running for Governor?
FuggingFarOut.
Longshots are coming out of the woodwork
So while the pundits and political operatives held their breath Friday waiting for Arnold and Arianna to decide, Michael Wozniak took action. The San Leandro resident was the first person to ask for signature papers from the Alameda County registrar.While riding his motorcycle home, he stopped to ask his mail carrier to sign his petition. Then, not wanting to burn out on campaigning on the first day, he mowed his lawn and swept his front porch.
"There may be a lot of people coming by later," said Wozniak, a retired Oakland police officer who answers his phone with the authoritative, "Campaign headquarters."
Experience? Well, he's the treasurer of a motorcycle riding club, overseeing a budget that's "almost" $5,000. But that's not why he's running.
For the 52-year-old Wozniak, "This may be the only chance in my lifetime for a reasonable person to express himself, to have some say in the political process."
And while he's got his feelings about the budget and education, and a motto -- "No crybabies" -- like most politicians, Wozniak has an issue that's especially close to his heart: the legalization of the domestic ferret. "I guess you could call that my 'pet issue.' "
And bringing up the rear...BEAUTY, BRAINS, THONG.
Georgy Russell, a 26-year-old high-tech programmer from Mountain View. Or, as her campaign manager described her in an e-mail: "A cute girl looking to fill the Democratic void in this election." The campaign motto: Beauty, brains, leadership. It's a strategic tack that may explain the Georgy for Governor thong underwear ($14), one of 18 Georgy items for sale on her Web site.
BUWHAHAHAHAHA! This gonna be one helluva campaign.
[Pet issue...good one, Mike, you just might have my vote.]
UPDATE: Kiril of Sneakeasy's Joint dryly quipped:
"Only Arnold Swartzenegger, who may or may not run, will be able to lift the ballot info book we will be getting in the mail."
Thieves pillage family's remote vacation spot .
After eight months of scouring Northern California for a slice of tranquility to purchase as his family's vacation property, Berkeley resident B. J. Miller found 40 acres deep in the El Dorado County wilderness. With the closest neighbor a quarter-mile away, Miller began settling into his corner of the wild.
The troubles of the world, however, caught up with him. Sometime in the past two months, somebody stole everything inside Miller's house -- and then stole the house.
Investigators and neighbors say it could have taken a day or more for thieves to deconstruct his 10-by-20-foot prefabricated home south of Placerville, yank a well pump from 625 feet below ground, rip off his 600- pound generator and haul away his 2,600-gallon water tank.
Guess all the looters ain't in Iraq.
