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Looks
Like Arnold is practicing to be a politician on camera and off:
He ought to provide ample distraction
During his promotional visit to Britain this week Arnold Schwarzenegger
groped Denise Van Outen on the Big Breakfast and behaved in a similarly
oversexed and over here fashion with a clearly panicked Melanie Sykes on
ITV's Celebrity.
The Sun in England newspaper reports that Sykes was chatting with Arnold
when, as cameras rolled, he grabbed her around the waist.
She pushed his hand away, saying: "Get your hands off me - I'm scared."
I don't blame her. Any actor who excels at playing barbarians and robots
and has trouble understanding English is not the kind of guy that I want
to have to tell to get his hands off my ass.
Big Screen presenter Anna Richardson also claims that Arnold actually
groped her breast during an interview for the show. She went to shake his
hand, he pulled her on to his knee and said: "I want to know if your
breasts are real." Arnold is a smoothie isn't he?
[Move over Bill Clinton, this guys an entertainer !]
As Governor, Pete Wilson (R) urged deregulation of
power utilities in California
Unethical
Veterans of Quackenbush scandal join Team
Schwarzenegger August
15, 2003
RICO! How California and the Minority in Congress
Can Prosecute the White House for Suspected Criminal Acts
By Katherine Yurica
In recent months many commentators have advised their audiences that
impeachment proceedings against George W. Bush "will never happen." What
then can be done? In this article, Katherine Yurica proposes something
that has never been done in the history of the United States. This is a
must read article with national implications.
10/03/03
The full story on Arnold Schwarzenegger, the
Self-proclaimed Wannabe Dictator--Extremely
High Level of Illuminati Activity in California Recall--
Schwarzenegger's Nazi and New World Order Links Revealed
Oct 3, 2003
ARNOLD UNPLUGGED - IT'S HASTA LA VISTA TO $9 BILLION
IF THE GOVERNATOR IS SELECTED
October 15, 2003
Told'ya So: Arnold Plans to Pay
Back His Buddy Ken Lay by Settling a Pending Lawsuit against Enron for
Defrauding California Energy Users--Greg
Palast
I am deeply unhappy to report on the accuracy of our report on the success
of Ken Lay's plan to have his governor, Mr. Schwarzenegger, sabotage state
lawsuits against the electricity cartel.
The following is just in from journalist Katherine Yurica:
Arnold to Settle Lawsuits for Pennies on the Dollar
The Yurica Report has learned that only three days after Mr.
Schwarzenegger won his victory in California, an aide announced that the
governor-elect intends to settle pending energy fraud lawsuits. This
apparently includes the suit filed by Cruz Bustamante under the California
statute, Civil Code section 17200 ,of the Unfair Practices Act. The
purpose of the act "is to safeguard the public against the creation or
perpetuation of monopolies and to foster and encourage competition" the
Act expressly prohibits, "unfair, dishonest, deceptive, destructive,
fraudulent and discriminatory practices by which fair and honest
competition is destroyed or prevented."
According to news talk show host Bernie Ward of KGO radio, San Francisco,
who reported the story Friday night on his radio show, (October 10th),
Schwarzenegger's aid stated that the governor-elect's administration did
not want to be saddled with someone else's lawsuits. The Unfair Practices
Act, however, has provisions that require businesses who profit from
unfair practices to pay the victims those profits. Although the Act does
not authorize recovery of damages in a representative action, according to
Hiliary N. Rowen, an attorney from the law firm of Thelen Reid & Priest,
"the plaintiff-who need not have been harmed by the challenged conduct-may
seek injunctive and restitutionary relief, including the disgorgement of
profits on behalf of all those injured." (See Hillary Rowen's article)
.This provision would make the power companies, who profited an estimated
$9 billion from the California energy scam, the losers.
In the meantime, Claire Cooper of the Sacramento Bee reported Friday on
another lawsuit in the Federal Court. She reported the judges from the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seemed skeptical of the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission's (FERC) " contention that it acted legally three
years ago, when it relied on competition among energy wholesalers to
determine the cost of California's power supply and did not require them
to file the rates they would charge." California sued FERC, claiming it is
due a refund of $9 billion in gouged profits because the Federal Power Act
didn't authorize FERC to approve a fluctuating market-based rate
structure. The question is, does the governor-elect intend to settle the
federal suit also?
Mr. Schwarzenegger's announcement to settle the lawsuits comes on the
heels of an article written on the eve of the election by investigative
reporter Greg Palast. Palast, whose reports appear on BBC television's
Newsnight, said that the Los Angeles-based Foundation for Taxpayer and
Consumer Rights uncovered Enron internal memos regarding Mr.
Schwarzenegger's secret meeting in May 2001 with the disgraced CEO of
Enron, Kenneth Lay. The intent of the power company, according to Palast,
was to sabotage the Davis-Bustamante plan to win back the $9 billion
dollars in illegal profits earned by power moguls. The plan has worked so
far. Clearly, Mr. Schwarzenegger should be questioned about his actions.
[Maybe a recall is an option.]
http://www.yuricareport
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As far back as 1993, the idea of Arnold Schwarzenegger as US President
has been seeded into the consciousness of American voters. In the sci-fi
thriller, Demolition Man, Sylvester Stallone plays an LA cop gone
overboard, frozen in a cryogenic prison until his unique talents are
needed in 2032. LA, run by a religious hypocrite, is a moralistic, fascist
theocracy with listening devices that fine people for bad language.
Thawed and warming up to his job, he is re-introduced to this strange
unfamiliar environment by a policewoman played by Sandra Bullock. While
driving to her apartment they pass a building that catches Stallone's eye:
The Arnold Schwarzenegger Presidential Library. Surprised, Stallone
bellows, "Stop! He was president?!"
"Yes," says love interest/cop Sandra Bullock, "even though he was not
born in this country, his popularity at the time caused the 61st
Amendment."
 |
| Sylvester
Stallone's 1993 film Demolition Man foretold the future political
ascension of Schwarzenegger. |
Fraud Traced to the White House: How California's
energy scam was inextricably linked to a war-for-oil scheme
Three sentences inserted into the National Energy Policy report reveal: 1)
the White House knew the California crisis was man-made; 2) knew the power
companies were manipulating the market in California; 3) and knew these
facts at the time the people of California were being fleeced by the scam;
4) yet the Bush White House did nothing to stop the fraud.
Still out cruising the boulevards is our president's once
close friend, Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay. A major contributor to Bush family
political campaigns and a former Enron chief executive, Lay invented the
energy trading game. It was made possible by his successful lobbying for
the 1992 Energy Policy Act, signed into law by the elder Bush. That law
allowed a minor Texas company to mushroom into the world's largest energy
titan before it went poof.
[Kenny Boy was creating energy policy with the Energy Task Force lead by
VP Cheney, the Bush Administration has shown that it KNEW about the
RIP-OFF, and the Bush Administration resisted setting price caps to
prevent Kenny's Enron Con-game.]
Fifty Reasons Not to Vote for
Arnold
By Sarah Phelan and Steve Palopoli,
Metro
Santa Cruz
October 2, 2003
Ever since Arnold Schwarzenegger declared he was running
for governor, it feels like being stuck in a "Conan" rerun,
only this time round, it's Arnie the Republican who seems
determined to wear the jeweled crown of California upon his
troubled brow. What's troubling about all this (besides the
fact that we will personally drop-kick the next person who
says, writes or ululates the phrase "The Governator") is
that people from all across the political spectrum seem to
be saying, "What the heck! I'm voting for Arnie!" That kind
of reckless abandon works well when renting Arnie's latest
action flick, but it bodes badly for the well-being of
California - and we can tell you why, in 50 easy reasons!
Notice that, while we're not above the occasional (OK,
very frequent) sarcastic snipe, we've stuck to issues about
Arnie that really bother us, meaning you'll have to look
elsewhere if you're worried about his controversial support
of medical marijuana or his wild youth (though his attitudes
about women then and now creep us the hell out, as you'll
see below). We've avoided sketchy information such as recent
claims that he supported apartheid, and stuck to the facts
as they were known as of press time.
We all have to face the fact that this recall election is
in full swing, and now is the time to put this ridiculous
candidacy in perspective. The truth is that a vote for
Schwarzenegger is a vote for the Republican party in
general, and a woefully inadequate, unqualified Republican
in particular. But just in case you've been hornswoggled
into believing that a vote for Arnie is a vote for the
people of California, read on.
1. He wouldn't vote for you - or anyone else.
This is how seriously Arnie takes his U.S. citizenship:
By skipping nearly half of the elections since 1992, voting
records show, he has avoided having to exercise his
democratic right to take a stand on such issues as bilingual
education, medical marijuana and tax increases for the
wealthy. To add insult to injury, he skipped these last two
issues (in the 1996 election) because he was promoting
"Jingle All the Way" and "Eraser," two of the worst films of
that or any other year.
2. He's in way over his head.
This can't be stressed enough, so expect us to revisit it
often. There are three basic levels to Arnie's ineptitude:
(1) He has never run so much as a town meeting, and now he
wants us to put him behind the wheel of the sixth largest
economy in the world; (2) he treats his campaign as if
he were promoting a movie, continually falling back on his
experience as an entertainer in an apparent attempt to
compensate for his lack of experience as a statesman; (3) he
loves to talk about all of the problems we're facing in this
state, but his lack of specific ideas for how to fix them is
taking on legendary proportions.
3. He thinks you don't care that he's in way over his
head.
"The public doesn't care about facts and figures," said
Arnie at a press conference. If there is a God, these words
will haunt him throughout the campaign. On Sept. 4, he went
so far as to blame the media for his own hollow, sloppy
campaign: "You always want to have fast answers," he told
journalists in Riverside. "I want to have good answers."
Hey, buddy, pencils down! Next time, figure out the answers
before you tell people you're ready to be governor of
California.
4. He keeps repeating that he's going to "clean
house."
Never trust any politician who says this. What it really
means is: "I know so little about what works and doesn't
work in politics that I'm not even going to try to figure it
out. Instead, I'm just going to throw everything out,
whether it works or not." And what that really means
is: "I'm in way over my head" (see reason No. 2). Anyone
remember the Republican "revolution" of 1994 - that sure
worked out great, didn't it? Little-known fact: the "clean
house" school of cowboy politics has its roots in the racist
"Know-Nothing" movement of the 1850s. The Know-Nothings got
swept into state and legislative offices on a platform of
radical right-wing change, then fell out of favor just as
quickly when voters discovered they knew ... well,
nothing about governing. Now you can do your part to
keep anti-government jackasses out of government!
5. His own house isn't as "clean" as he wants you to
think.
Arnie wants everyone to think that his huge personal
fortune means he can't be bought, but his financial
disclosures reveal that even as a civilian celebrity, he
loves them "gifts." He's received thousands of dollars worth
of free shirts and sweaters from Armani, cigars worth $250
to $500 each, a fancy humidor from Tupperware (what the
hell?) and lots more. Doesn't seem to matter much that he
can already afford all this stuff himself. Don't be fooled:
movie stars are accustomed to taking expensive gifts from
people trying to win their favor - and if Arnie liked the
size of the presents in Hollywood, he's gonna love
Sacramento.
6. He's discovered 'special interests' - and maybe
they're not so bad after all!
Cruz Bustamante is the one taking the heat for pushing
the legality of campaign finance to the limit, but
Schwarzenegger's doing it just as ferociously - and unlike
Cruz, Arnie comes off looking like a complete hypocrite in
the process. Here's a little taste of what a "reformer"
Arnie is: In order to take advantage of a loophole in
campaign finance laws, he formed a second recall committee,
Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Recall Committee (yes, it
really is called that), which is exempt from normal finance
rules. Of course, this is the man who originally claimed he
didn't need any outside money. Now he's resorted to
hilariously lame antics like returning a $2,500 check from a
law-enforcement union, as if that represents more of a
special interest than the rest of the special-interest money
he's taking. The most bizarre twist of all is that he
appears to have decided that the money he has accepted is
not special-interest money, if he decides not to call it
that. As an analysis in the San Francisco Chronicle put it:
"Apparently the actor thinks that those people giving him
hundreds of thousands of dollars won't want anything in
return."
7. As an actor-turned-wannabe-california-governor,
he's got Ronald Reagan for a role model.
Why don't any actors with good politics ever want
to run? And once - just once - could we get an Academy Award
winner? Hell, even a People's Choice award-winner would be a
start.
8. He wants Ronald Reagan for a role model.
According to a 1988 Playboy interview, Arnie was "in
heaven" when Reagan was governor of California. (He offered
the same endorsement of Richard Nixon's presidency, by the
way. Bonus!) More recently, he said of Reagan, "We have the
same philosophy and approach to things," and that his own
political platform "is exactly what Ronald Reagan stood
for." Wait, Arnie has a political platform? (See reason No.
2.)
9. He's a wimp.
Action hero, like hell! Arnie practically went into
hiding after announcing that he was going to run. His first
"press conferences" were far more notable for all the
ducking and covering he did than for the meaningless
rhetoric his supposedly high-powered campaign team came up
with. In the end, he chose right-wing talk-radio shows to
finally admit what (and how little) he stands for - ensuring
he wouldn't take any heat from actual journalists about his
crappy campaign in the process. But none of this wussiness
can compare to his most cowardly act so far - ducking out of
the Sept. 3 debate to which Gov. Davis and the top six
candidates looking to replace him were invited. His stated
excuse, an unspecified "prior family commitment," leaves us
... well, speechless. Perhaps "was soiling own pants in fear
of informed public political forum" was considered too
wordy.
10. He lies. On Aug. 20, he said of negative
campaigning: "I will never attack. Why would I worry about
someone else? It's not my style." Just five days later, he
said "Bustamante is Gray Davis with a receding hairline and
a mustache. It's the same person. Same philosophy." Is this
a new record time for a candidate to publicly flush his
integrity down the toilet?
11. He drives a Hummer.
Please don't forget how "environmentally conscious" Arnie
is when he's clogging your lungs with exhaust, crushing your
economy car into a compact cube of metal on the highway, and
pushing your gas prices into the stratosphere with several
tons worth of penis-size insecurity. (Yes, we have seen that
picture. We consider it inconclusive at best.)
12. He may consider 'The Crusher' a political
strategy.
Upon introducing Arnie, Maria Shriver reportedly told her
uncle Sen. Ted Kennedy, "Don't think of him as a Republican.
Think of him as the man I love, and if that doesn't work,
think of him as a man who can crush you." Of course, we have
our doubts about his actual toughness (see reason No. 9).
13. He is - no matter what anyone says - a Republican.
Can everyone just stop saying, "Oh, he's not really
a Republican." Um, yeah, he is. By the way, did you know
Bush is a compassionate conservative?
14. He chose one of the most hated ex-governors of
California to run his campaign.
Talk about "lemon law" governors - Pete Wilson wound up
his time in office with his approval rating completely in
the tank. The tide had clearly turned against Wilson's
aggressive anti-immigrant stance, and voters rightly blamed
him for the sleazy campaign that got Proposition 187 passed.
(Hey, did we ever figure out if televised election ads could
be prosecuted as hate crimes?) Yet the man who the president
of the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project
called "the anti-Christ in the Latino community" continued
to defensively and insincerely claim he had worked for the
will of the people while at the same time beating a hasty
retreat with a political semiretirement. Now, he's back, and
has brought on most of his old advisers to ensure that a
Schwarzenegger tenure would basically be a return to the
Wilson years. So, to sum up: not only does Arnie not know
how to govern California, he picked one of the most
revolting politicians in the state to explain to him how
it's done.
15. He voted for Prop. 187.
Speaking of that nasty little pet project of Pete
Wilson's, Arnie himself voted for it - despite his claim of
having a uniquely empathetic understanding of issues facing
immigrants. Welcome to the "I got mine, screw the rest of
you" school of politics.
16. As a gubernatorial candidate, he's an actor.
This is a man who uses movie catchphrases he didn't even
write himself to try to convince voters he's a viable
candidate. And oh yeah, Arnie employed that same "I'm not
gonna run, oh wait, yes I am" tactic in the 1980 Mr. Olympia
contest - which, by the way, he won. If nothing else, the
man is a showman extraordinaire.
17. His own adviser can't think of three good reasons
to elect him.
George Shultz, co-chair of Arnie's Economic Advisory
Team, said at his candidate's first press conference that
there were three things about Schwarzenegger that he
particularly liked. He got through the first two OK - he
likes the way Arnie listens to people when they speak, and
thinks Arnie makes up his own mind about what they say. But
all he could think of for reason number three is that he
personally likes Arnie. Wow! Arnie, thou art officially
damned with faint praise. "Personally liked by George P.
Shultz" - you couldn't even put that on a résumé!
18. He's got women issues.
In a 2001 article, Premiere magazine called him "Arnold
the Barbarian" for various alleged acts of impropriety
toward women. Arnie denies them. More recently, he told
Esquire magazine: "As much as when you see a blonde with
great tits and a great ass, you say to yourself, 'Hey, she
must be stupid or must have nothing else to offer,' which
maybe is the case many times. But then again there is the
one that is as smart as her breasts look, great as her face
looks, beautiful as her whole body looks gorgeous, you know,
so people are shocked." Uh huh. Well, if anyone can figure
out what that's supposed to mean, please drop us a line.
Many women aren't waiting to find out - a group of them
picketed his campaign headquarters Sept. 5, saying past
misogynist behavior and comments on his part made him unfit
for office. Part of what undoubtedly fueled their fire was
the dredging up of a 1977 interview in the now-defunct Oui
magazine, in which he said some, let's face it, totally
off-the-wall stuff about women, in particular his story
about gangbanging a black woman that sounded like nothing so
much as a rape fantasy. Turns out it was a fantasy - on
Sept. 3 he said he lied about it happening. Oh, that makes
us feel better (see reason No. 10).
19. No, really, there's something freaky going on with
his women issues.
Just last month, he described his work in a scene from T3
to Entertainment Weekly thusly: "How many times do you get
away with this - to take a woman, grab her upside down, and
bury her face in a toilet bowl? I wanted to have something
floating in there ... The thing is, you can do it, because
in the end, I didn't do it to a woman - she's a machine! We
could get away with it without being crucified by
who-knows-what group." Charming.
20. He's a threat to working Californians.
When a candidate starts talking about the state's
"anti-business" climate, you can bet that the people he's
really going to get "tough" with are the state's workers. Do
we have any reason to believe he supports mandatory
overtime, a living wage, paid family leave or even the
health care and safety standards by which working
Californians live and die? Besides, recent articles have
revealed Arnie's rhetoric on the subject of jobs to be
faulty at best and outright distortion at worst. One example
(and there are plenty more): though he continually harps
that we're losing jobs to other states because of our
"hostile" business environment, it turns out California's
unemployment rate has increased by only 1.9 percent since
2000, compared to an increase of 2.3 percent nationwide.
There's so much wrong with this state's economy, and yet we
don't see Arnie talking about the right numbers or
solutions.
21. If elected, he would be properly called the
'Kaiser' of California in his native Austrian tongue.
We just thought you ought to know.
22. As a gubernatorial candidate, he's a novelty item.
This country's last showbiz-figure-turned governor was
Jesse Ventura, who is in many ways a far better point of
comparison for Arnie than Ronald Reagan. Ventura ran on his
celebrity and a few headline-grabbing positions, and his
political legacy never amounted to much else, either. So
far, Arnie doesn't even have the headline-grabbing
positions.
23. He supports prayer in school.
Apparently, he believes it should be "up to the schools."
Oh, that's fantastic. Maybe we can ship in Ray Moore of "I
need everyone to see my Ten Commandments" fame for his
campaign team and really lose our right to a separation of
church and state.
24. He may not support gay rights as much as everyone
believes.
Despite the fact that it's fashionable to characterize
him as "pro-gay-rights," and he does say he supports
domestic partnerships, the truth is he hasn't taken a stand
on the one pressing gay-rights issue he can actually do
something about. To quote from the letter Assemblyman
John Laird sent to Arnie last month about AB 205, the
proposed legislation which would give domestic partners many
of the same rights as married couples (and which, by the
way, Gray Davis supports): "Most of the leading candidates
for governor have clearly defined their positions of
legislation and issues affecting the LGBT [Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgendered] community. Since you have not, we
are urging you to do so immediately." As of presstime, he
had not.
25. He picked Rob Lowe of 'West Wing' fame to be on
his campaign team.
Are we living some kind of satirical article from The
Onion? Just checking.
26. He's known for 'pumping up' the crowds at GOP
conventions.
Oh, but wait, he's not really a Republican, right?
27. He's got creepy connections to the energy crisis.
Arnie suddenly doesn't want to talk about why he was
meeting with Enron CEO Ken Lay in Beverly Hills in May of
2001 - in fact, he claims he "can't remember" the meeting.
Does he think one single person will believe this? This was,
after all, right about the time California was being
destroyed by Enron's "Death Star" market-manipulation
tactics, and though the scandal of course had yet to break,
you better believe a meeting with Lay at that time was a
huge deal - not the sort of thing that just slips your
mind. We can't help but wonder what kind of chit-chat Arnie
made with California's worst enemy that hazy day. Hmm,
"Death Star," "Terminator" - guess he and Ken Lay really
speak the same language.
28. He's got even creepier connections to the energy
crisis.
Arnie's campaign team includes adviser Marty Wilson, who
during the energy crisis worked as a spin doctor for Reliant
Energy, one of the companies that was later revealed to have
manipulated California's energy market.
29. He chickened out on Proposition 13. So then
Arnie goes and hires Warren Buffett, a Democrat, to be his
"top economic adviser." Well, that was certainly an
interesting twist. Might Arnie actually be interested in
pumping some progressive ideas into his campaign? Nope. When
Buffett dared to actually suggest something intriguing -
that Proposition 13, which capped property assessment
increases in California at 2 percent per year back in 1978,
was partly responsible for the gutting of state services,
Arnie flipped out. His campaign said Arnie was rejecting
Buffett's position, and affirmed that their candidate would
never deem to question the validity of the California GOP's
sacred text.
30. As a gubernatorial candidate, he's a P.E. coach.
Arnie joked that Buffett's punishment if he so much as
mentioned Prop. 13 again would be "500 sit-ups." A vote
against Arnie is a fully satisfying way to get back at your
sadistic high-school gym instructor who thought jokes like
that were funny.
31. Bush thinks he'd make a 'good' governor.
This from a president who thinks a record federal deficit
is good economic policy, the use of nuclear weapons is a
good military strategy and tax cuts are a good way to
relieve unemployment. Did someone say Arnie isn't really
a Republican?
32. He's not really 'the people's candidate.' He
may, in fact, be the candidate least qualified to
understand the needs of the typical California citizen.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Arnie has a net
worth of more than $100 million. In 2001 alone, he paid
$383,000 for household help. If elected, he'll be the
fattest of the Sacramento fat cats.
33. His father was a Nazi.
Look, we realize Arnie himself is not a Nazi. We realize
Arnie has a reputation as a strong supporter of Jewish
causes. But, man, the fact that his father, Gustav
Schwarzenegger, joined Hitler's notorious storm troopers six
months after they helped launch Kristallnacht creeps us out.
34. He invited accused Nazi war criminal Kurt Waldheim
to his wedding.
Creeped. Out.
35. He's unequipped to deal with the state's $38
billion deficit.
Anger over the deficit was supposedly one of the key
reasons for recalling Davis in the first place. However,
when asked at a press conference if he himself would have to
come up with details about how he would solve the budget
crisis before the election, he said simply, "No." No? Why
not? And don't give us the excuse that the public only has
to know the governor is "tough enough to clean house" - oh
wait, he already did (see reason No. 2 and No. 4). Said
Democratic Party chairman Art Torres of this strategy: "The
lesson Pete Wilson's team has learned is never to give
specifics. The game plan is to shuffle and soft-shoe." But
even the softest of shoes can't hide the fact that electing
a political novice to govern 34 million residents while
trying to fix this budget crisis will likely cause bond
ratings to fall even further.
36. He stumped for Bush Sr. in the 1988 presidential
campaign.
And we bet he can't wait to do it for Bush Jr. in 2004.
Oh, but wait, he'd only do that if he was really a
Republican.
37. His own party doesn't care who he is, as long as
he wins.
Despite the fact that many conservatives are as worried
about putting Schwarzenegger in the governor's mansion (for
different reasons) as the Democrats are, state GOP leaders
have been working behind the scenes since the middle of
August to get the other top Republicans in the race to drop
out. So much for the idea that the backers of this recall
were actually concerned with finding a better governor than
Davis - they're just drooling over the idea of getting
any Republican into office. Too bad for Arnie that GOP
rival Tom McClintock's much-celebrated showing in the Sept.
3 candidate debate gave McClintock the chutzpah to say the
next day on National Public Radio that he would not under
any circumstances bow to pressure to drop out - and how
ironic, considering that Arnie skipped that same debate.
38. If he wins, Bush gets re-elected.
Don't think so? Imagine a replay of the maddeningly close
2000 presidential election - and then picture Bush taking
California. We could see just such a scenario next year.
Bush has been salivating over our state since Day One, and
for a while after the big patriotic push for Gulf War II, it
looked like he might have it in the bag. But a Field Poll
released Aug. 21 shows his support in California eroding,
with only 42 percent of voters here interested in giving him
another four years - down from 46 percent just a month
earlier. (An unspecified Democrat put up against him was
favored by 47 percent of those polled.) But Schwarzenegger
would try to put some real muscle into Bush's campaign here,
and a victory for him in the recall election will be
perceived as a successful first strike in Bush's 2004
presidential election drive.
39. He openly admits to and supports drug use.
Oh, we don't mean his comments about marijuana - we find
those fascinating. No, we're talking about his unapologetic
use of steroids. In 1996, he said: "I used steroids. It was
a risky thing to do, but I have no regrets. It was what I
had to do to compete." This guy was in charge of Bush Sr.'s
President's Council on Physical Fitness? What a great role
model for kids who want to really pump up!
40. He's got a Machiavellian streak. In the
documentary "Pumping Iron," Arnie boasts about the dirty
tricks he played against the competition, revealing blind
ambition and a sobering delight at his own ability to
manipulate his opponents.
41. Did we mention he creeps us out?
In "Pumping Iron," he also says "I was always dreaming
about very powerful people - dictators and things like
that."
42. Oh yeah, and he's got those woman issues.
In his 1988 Playboy interview, he said that "neither my
mother nor Maria is allowed to go out with me in pants."
Wow, his jokes about women just get more and more hilarious!
43. He's going to dumb down politics even further.
We don't mean he's dumb. We mean the coverage of
his campaign makes a Schwarzenegger governorship looks more
like an entertainment story than a news story. And really,
can you blame the media for having showbiz pundits cover the
candidacy of a man running on the fact that he's in showbiz?
Sam Farr put it to us this way: "It's like when Clint
Eastwood became mayor of Carmel, and no one wanted to debate
the merits of that choice, either. People just wanted a
celebrity to call their own."
44. He can't get the Kennedys to back him.
C'mon, Maria Shriver is his wife, and he can't get the
in-laws to put in an official nod? (A $15,000 check from
Maria's mother Eunice Shriver does not count, by the way.)
"I don't support the recall effort" is basically all Sen.
Edward Kennedy will say, even after Maria threatened him
with a crushing (see reason No. 11). Gee, maybe it's because
Arnie's ... a Republican?
45. For the last time, he is a Republican.
"I'm a Republican, and I'm running as a Republican to be
the next Republican governor," said Arnie on a Sacramento
radio show on Aug. 26. Case closed.
46. His knee-jerk attitude towards taxes is
ridiculous.
At least he's said he won't completely rule out tax
increases (though we'd be interested to know what qualifies
as the "dire emergency" that might justify them in his
book), but other than that, his comments on taxes in this
state are so radically right-wing it makes you wonder if he
even realizes the seriousness of the state's budget crisis.
At a news conference, he said of Californians' tax burden:
"They get up in the morning and flush the toilet and they're
taxed ... Tax, tax, tax, tax, tax." Um, does he even
understand what Prop. 13 did?
47. He's a 'family values' Republican.
When
Salon.com
asked him what he considers the most pressing problem in
inner cities, he replied "The parenting problem." Really!
However much of a problem you think single-parent households
are, the fact that Arnie thinks they're a bigger
problem than poverty, joblessness, living-wage issues and a
broken educational system tells you a lot about his
attitudes towards the poor and working-class, who don't have
the benefit of a $20 million-per-movie paycheck to get them
through. Oh yeah, definitely the people's candidate.
48. He'd never survive a regular election.
Providing further evidence that Arnie is a wimp (see reason
No. 9), before the recall he had already been fueling
speculation that he might run in the 2006 gubernatorial
election. But he couldn't have hedged and stammered his way
through a full election cycle nearly as well, and when you
think about how much easier it is to sneak in through the
back door of the recall election, it's no surprise that
Arnie launched a blitzkrieg, last-minute campaign last month
for which he was completely unprepared (see reasons No. 2
and No. 3).
49. He needs a serious ego check.
When his campaign appeared shocked by the late-August Los
Angeles Times poll that showed him significantly trailing
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, Bustamante's campaign manager
Richie Ross pointed out that Arnie is "used to having his
rear end kissed, not kicked." Now we remember why
Californians always seem to reject the high-profile
narcissistic millionaires who occasionally think they can
buy an election.
50. It'll be six months before we can recall him.
Apparently, them's the rules - no new recall effort until
he's been in office for six months. But there'll be two
bright spots - first, the number of signatures needed will
be smaller even than the ridiculously paltry number needed
to get the David recall on the ballot; second, we're sure
Arnie will understand the need to hold him responsible for
his own failures. What's that, champ? Now you think the
recall rules are unfair? Now you think the state needs to be
freed from the burden of a badly written, exorbitantly
expensive and almost impossible to execute law written by a
political opportunist almost a century ago? Too late,
sucker! Coming soon: "Total Recall 2!"
Sarah Phelan and Steve Palopoli are, respectively,
news editor and editor of Metro Santa Cruz.
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