A few drinkies and I can’t resist even though I know where this will lead.
The terminator is going to be the running man, and I can’t help liking the guy. Nevertheless, he needs some decent opposition. Do we have any forumosans who also happen to be CA residents and can stand against the kindergarten cop?
You may laugh, but the point of democracy is that it’s open to all. I would offer myself, but no one will vote for a naked man.
Back in the days when you could stand for parliament in the UK with
it’s not the filing fee that’s the roadblock, it’s all those damn forms you have to fill out. make a mistake and there are some big fines waiting for you. doesn’t matter if it was an honest mistake. all the big shots have people who fill out all the appropriate forms for them.
btw, the trend in these threads about the cali recall is that it starts to go downhill as soon as someone jumps in to preach about how stupid californians and americans are. if the anti-americans can restrain from their trolling, i can see quite a few interesting discussions that can grow out of this event.
Back to California, there are several serious candidates who aren’t actors running on their movie fame. Last I heard, Bill Simon (who lost against Davis in the last election) was running. Buscamonte is running for the Democrats. I’m sure the LP will field several someones as well.
The publicity chases after the Gary Colemans, Larry Flynts, Mary Careys, and other media whores just because . . . well, that’s how the media is. Those people know it, which is why they filed as candidates – lots of publicity for very little money. I’m sure Mary Carey’s video sales will go up nationwide as a result of her $3500 ad-campaign fee. I doubt any of these people will do particularly well, although I wouldn’t be surprised if Flynt tries to sabotage Ahnold as much as possible.
Same reason Flynt filed to run – to gain publicity for his porn (and now casino) empire.
Ahnold has at least one prurient episode in his past that is right up Flynt’s alley – the gay-porn pictures Ahnold posed for when he was starting out and needed money. (No sex, just naked Ahnold, as far as I ever heard, which wasn’t very far.)
Think that’ll do him in?
I doubt it. Being in the Kennedy family (even by marriage) makes one totally invulnerable to attacks regarding ‘questionable behavior’ (see John, Robert, Ted, etc.).
In fact, being in the Kennedy family helps one retain demigod-like status even when one almost totally f*&%ed up the country before getting assassinated.
I’m from Cali and it doesn’t matter who’ll be governer until Californians wake up and understand that reality does really affect California; you can’t offer free sex changes, free education, welfare and medical services for illegal immigrants, cut services to the countryside, no bookmobile (a mobile library popular when I was a child), kill locally made cafeteria lunches and provide day old crap from the nearest city, strip local schools of their equiptment because ‘the city needs it more’, ship the poor from the city to the country side while making farm kids live in dorms in the city (all in the name of cultural diversity) while openly denying benifits to legal immigrants (particularly from Asia, although this wasn’t, I believe, the intent) while allowing illegals free access to everything and taxing the hell out of corporations and legal residents to maintain this lifestyle. In the last fifteen years so many corporate headquarters have left the state and moved to Texas or the Mid-West that most of my Californian friends I grew up with now live in Colorado, Nevada, Texas, Iowa or Minnesota. The place is a mess and anyone who tries to place blame on a single party is, in my opinion, ignorant. We Californians screwed up our own state because we thought we could have our cake and eat it too. We can’t and I’m living high on the hog in Taiwan because I don’t live in Cali.
BTW, how many other Cali residents are expats because of the crap there?
I’m not from the ‘Left Coast’, but I do know that Cali is amazing. It’s a microcosm of America in itself- creative, diverse, dynamic, and resilient. Harry, chill… give it time, Cali ‘will be back.’
Yes, the best and worst of America in one place. California is the biggest and most diverse state and wherever it goes, so eventually goes the rest of the country. Which in some ways (multiculturalism & tolerance) is good, and in other ways (fat resource-hogging greed at the expense of reality, puke-inducing crass materialism and flakiness) makes me cringe. It’s also a microcosm of America in that half of the people there are originally from somewhere else - “Flyover Country” has always had a brain drain of talent flocking to the East and West Coast. Most of the truly talented Californians have always come from places like Iowa or Kentucky.
And Ahnuld? He’s got a few more problems with sex than just a handful of ancient gay porno shots. He has the Clinton problem - which was why his wife didn’t want him to run for political office, because it would all come out. Rumors of his gross and rampant sexual harassment of women during his career are all over the place in Tinseltown. There was an article “Conan the Barbarian” on this in one of the big entertainment rags just the other week.
I’m back in Cali after several years in Taipei. To me, this governor race is a heck of a lot more interesting than the initial one. I just hope that the serious candidates (regardless of experience) are motivated to keep the focus on practical issues as opposed to just dogging each other (“we don’t need any inexperienced concerned citizens messing around in professional politics” “those professional politicians don’t give a darn about anyone or anything and have no insight into the real issues at all”). I think it would be great if the media attention could help folks be more interested and feel more involved in politics. Goodness knows when it’s professional politician A vs. professional politician B, trying to win elections on one issue (anti-abortion, less taxes, better schools), it’s just a bore,… most of us a want better use of tax dollars and less personal taxes, right? Traditional Democrat vs. Republican races make you choose one over the other. Such issues are important but there’s so much more going on. Does the average Joe realize how many companies have fled Ca. due to expensive employee benefits? They might have some idea but I hope this campaign might bring some more details out for average Joe. Is it really better to have more “qualified” candidates when such a small proportion of people feel that their vote really means anything? We might have to learn the hard way that we need experienced people, but at least the lesson will be learnt. I hate to see so much money spent on the recall effort but since it’s already in progress, I think there’s a great opportunity to increase the political interest of the average joe. In fact, it’s probably a natural progression from the oh-so-close Florida election. Now that I know my vote DOES count, can I influence who I get to vote for? It’s a slow, cumbersone process this democracy is.
Interesting point coming up about ‘ordinary folks’ getting involved.
If nothing else, Arnie is showing that you don’t have to be born into some supposed american elite to get into politics. Hopefully his example will encourage ordinary people to really believe that they too can make a difference and actually vote. Apathy seems to be the biggest enemy of real democracy, and anything that stirs people up has to be good.
There was a clown withdrew from the French presidential race a few years back because he was in danger - according to the opinion polls - of actually winning.
So, 135 people are running for California governor. What a circus.
You know it is bad when even former wrestler and ex-Minnesota governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura say’s the recall is a “ridiculous” thing. BTW, Jesse said he would not endorse anyone, including Schwarzenegger, his former costar in the movie “Predator.”
However, Arnold may be a policy lightweight but he is no slouch when it comes to lining up some heavyweight advisors. He already has got demi-god investor Warren Buffet as a financial advisor as well as former George Shultz, who was Secretary of State in the Reagan administration.
Shultz is a real Washington insider. He was treasury secretary under president Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974, he headed Pres. Ronald Reagan’s economic policy advisory board from 1981 until he became secretary of state the next year, a position he held until the end of Reagan’s term in January 1989.
But I am really puzzled by news that Arnold’s team wants to get Hollywood actor Rob Lowe as another possible advisor. What is he going to advise them on?
[quote=“Wazai”]So, 135 people are running for California governor. What a circus.
You know it is bad when even former wrestler and ex-Minnesota governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura say’s the recall is a “ridiculous” thing. BTW, Jesse said he would not endorse anyone, including Schwarzenegger, his former costar in the movie “Predator.”
However, Arnold may be a policy lightweight but he is no slouch when it comes to lining up some heavyweight advisors. He already has got demi-god investor Warren Buffet as a financial advisor as well as former George Shultz, who was Secretary of State in the Reagan administration.
Shultz is a real Washington insider. He was treasury secretary under president Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974, he headed Pres. Ronald Reagan’s economic policy advisory board from 1981 until he became secretary of state the next year, a position he held until the end of Reagan’s term in January 1989.
But I am really puzzled by news that Arnold’s team wants to get Hollywood actor Rob Lowe as another possible advisor. What is he going to advise them on?[/quote]
Rob Lowe has experience in the White House while he was with West Wing. duh!
[quote=“Harry Crack”]I’m from Cali and it doesn’t matter who’ll be governer until Californians wake up and understand that reality does really affect California; you can’t offer free sex changes, free education, welfare and medical services for illegal immigrants, cut services to the countryside, no bookmobile (a mobile library popular when I was a child), kill locally made cafeteria lunches and provide day old crap from the nearest city, strip local schools of their equiptment because ‘the city needs it more’, ship the poor from the city to the country side while making farm kids live in dorms in the city (all in the name of cultural diversity) while openly denying benifits to legal immigrants (particularly from Asia, although this wasn’t, I believe, the intent) while allowing illegals free access to everything and taxing the hell out of corporations and legal residents to maintain this lifestyle. In the last fifteen years so many corporate headquarters have left the state and moved to Texas or the Mid-West that most of my Californian friends I grew up with now live in Colorado, Nevada, Texas, Iowa or Minnesota. The place is a mess and anyone who tries to place blame on a single party is, in my opinion, ignorant. We Californians screwed up our own state because we thought we could have our cake and eat it too. We can’t and I’m living high on the hog in Taiwan because I don’t live in Cali.
BTW, how many other Cali residents are expats because of the crap there?[/quote]
i wouldnt blame everything on the illegal immigrants you know. many of them contribute, but get taken advantage of by sweat bosses. I say trim down that prison population. change the drug laws. tax the hell out of drugs. change welfare laws. i have seen many people just sitting on their ass watching tv, doing crap while waiting for the next check.