....LMB: "LMB California Re-Call Election Endorsements"....

October 06, 2003

Recall Davis: NO

The entire recall debacle was a strategy by Republicans to gain power by any means necessary. Like the Florida recounts, like the redistricting in Texas, like the Clinton impeachment. This has little to do with Davis' actual performance, it is about exploiting popular anger and disgust with Davis to put a Republican in the governor's mansion. While recalls are, in the abstract, extremely democratic (throwing your leader out of office? Sweet!), in this occassion it's nothing but a power grab. And to me, stopping the power grab is the most important aspect here. If it works here, we'll surely see campaigns in other states to recall Democrats in power. Would Democrats try it to get rid of Republican governors? They might, but they'd probably bungle it somehow.

By all accounts, Davis is as mercenary as politicians get, doing whatever he feels he needs to get campaign money and votes. He's sleazy. But anger towards Davis is mainly about the budget crisis and the economy. And honestly, the economy is largely the fault of the dot-com bubble-bursting, which we can't really blame on Davis. The state budget crisis is also a cause of anger, and Davis is partially to blame for this because he fucked up. The crisis was sparked when the electricity-brokering jackals bled the state dry by continually manufacturing shortages and jacking up the price of power. To stop prices from getting even higher, Davis made a long-term deal with these companies to buy electricity at a constant price, a price that was still too high. He fucked up, and we have to pay for it.

But more than Davis' sleaze and mistakes, I am angered by the Republicans playing games with the tiny bit of democratic process we have here in this state. I wish there was a Proposition 55: "Should everyone in California get a chance to punch Darrell Issa in the head?" I'd vote twice.

I'm voting against the recall because of that. If you're angrier at Davis' corrupt ways than you are and Republican manipulation, then vote for the recall.

Candidate to Succeed Davis: Cruz Bustamante

Bustamante stinks. He's an awful lot like Davis. But again, my main goal in voting this election is to foil the Republicans' scheme. And should the recall voters win, then Stinky Bustamante is the only real chance to defeat the Republicans.

Best Candidate (Actual Good Candidate): Peter Camejo

Honestly, I think Camejo has the best, most far-reaching plan, which is mainly to make rich folks pay more of their taxes by closing up loopholes. My runner-up choice would be Charles "Chuck" Pineda Jr. He's a Democrat who's main platform seems to be to stop building prisons and start building more schools. Seems reasonable to me.

Best Candidate (to Piss Off Jake): Arnold Schwarzenegger

Dude comes in with no plan, figuring that his charisma and fame will sweep him into office. As a person, he seems to be an utterly self-centered asshole who does whatever he thinks he can get away with (which is pretty much anything, because everyone near him is afraid they'll lose their jobs). As a governor, I presume he will smile and wave and spout movie dialogue, while implementing all of the ecnomic policies spouted in secret by his right-wing pals.

Proposition 53: No. I think.

Honestly, I don't know about this one. I've heard people debate it, and they pretty much keep calling each other liars. Since I can't figure out who's right on this one, I'll vote no, just in case.

Proposition 54: No

One of the stupidest plans around. "If we stop collecting data about people's racial or ethnic backgrounds, racism will go away." Brought to you by Ward Connerly, the fellow who brought us Proposition 209-- "if we stop affirmative action, racism will go away." Won't accomplish the alleged goal, and even if it did, we wouldn't have the data to show that it was working.

Posted by Jake at 06:08 PM | TrackBack (0)
Comments

jake are you sure you shouldnt back arnold? didnt you hear his comprehensive plan to rebuild the economic atmosphere in california? it was pure genius..."we should have more businesses and then that would be more jobs and that would be more money for the people..." you see? 1+1=2 my man. arnold makes it nice and easy for us, the dumb-ass populace!

sarcasm abounds. im telling all my lazy friends to vote tomorrow.

me:

recall: NO

replacement: camejo, because that will help give his party the recognition it needs. i feel that i have to support the only person who i felt really presented some new ideas.

54:no
53:no

arnold: i hope none of my friends vote for him because i'll be really upset.

and check this letter out from the camejo site...its regarding arnold and wasting your vote:
http://www.votecamejo.org/why_green.php

ryan

Posted by: ryan a. at October 6, 2003 07:33 PM

Ugh. I don't envy the Californians. Pick the less mediocre candidate out of the bunch. By the way, any chance for John Burton, the socialist candidate, to crack .00000000001% of the vote?

Posted by: Eric at October 7, 2003 11:03 AM

Davis is a moron and a cocksucker , like ALL dumbacrats !!!

Socialism fucked up California.

Posted by: me at October 7, 2003 01:08 PM

That was quite an insightful comment above. I wouldn't be surprised if it was cooked up by the Schwartz himself.

Posted by: nobody at October 7, 2003 10:09 PM

Socialism...Yeah...corporate socialism. Davis is a stooge of Big Business like Arnie is. The idea that Davis is a socialist is laughable.

Posted by: Eric at October 8, 2003 01:57 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?






Lying Media Bastards is both a radio show and website. The show airs Mondays 2-4pm PST on KillRadio.org, and couples excellent music with angry news commentary. And the website, well, you're looking at it.

Both projects focus on our media-marinated world, political lies, corporate tyranny, and the folks fighting the good fight against these monsters.

All brought to you by Jake Sexton, The Most Beloved Man in America ®.


contact: jake+at+lyingmediabastards.com

Media News

November 16, 2004

Tales of Media Woe

Senate May Ram Copyright Bill- one of the most depressing stories of the day that didn't involve death or bombs. It's the music and movie industries' wet dream. It criminalizes peer-to-peer software makers, allows the government to file civil lawsuits on behalf of these media industries, and eliminates fair use. Fair use is the idea that I can use a snippet of a copyrighted work for educational, political, or satirical purposes, without getting permission from the copyright-holder first.

And most tellingly, the bill legalizes technology that would automatically skip over "obejctionable content" (i.e. sex and violence) in a DVD, but bans devices that would automatically skip over commericals. This is a blatant, blatant, blatant gift to the movie industry. Fuck the movie industry, fuck the music industry, fuck the Senate.

Music industry aims to send in radio cops- the recording industry says that you're not allowed to record songs off the radio, be it real radio or internet radio. And now they're working on preventing you from recording songs off internet radio through a mixture of law and technological repression (although I imagine their techno-fixes will get hacked pretty quickly).

The shocking truth about the FCC: Censorship by the tyranny of the few- blogger Jeff Jarvis discovers that the recent $1.2 million FCC fine against a sex scene in Fox's "Married By America" TV show was not levied because hundreds of people wrote the FCC and complained. It was not because 159 people wrote in and complained (which is the FCC's current rationale). No, thanks to Jarvis' FOIA request, we find that only 23 people (of the show's several million viewers) wrote in and complained. On top of that, he finds that 21 of those letters were just copy-and-paste email jobs that some people attached their names to. Jarvis then spins this a bit by saying that "only 3" people actually wrote letters to the FCC, which is misleading but technically true. So somewhere between 3 and 23 angry people can determine what you can't see on television. Good to know.

Reuters Union Considers Striking Over Layoffs- will a strike by such a major newswire service impact the rest of the world's media?

Pentagon Starts Work On War Internet- the US military is talking about the creation of a global, wireless, satellite-aided computer network for use in battle. I think I saw a movie about this once...

Conservative host returns to the air after week suspension for using racial slur- Houston radio talk show host (and somtime Rush Limbaugh substitute) Mark Belling referred to Mexican-Americans as "wetbacks" on his show. He was suspended for a couple of weeks, and then submitted a written apology for the racial slur to a local newspaper. But he seems to be using the slur and its surrounding controversy to boost his conservative cred with his listeners.

Stay Tuned for Nudes- Cleveland TV news anchor Sharon Reed aired a story about artist Spencer Tunick, who uses large numbers of naked volunteers in his installations and photographs. The news report will be unique in that it will not blur or black-out the usual naughty bits. The story will air late at night, when it's allegedly okay with the FCC if you broadcast "indecent" material. The author of this article doesn't seem to notice that Reed first claims that this report is a publicity stunt, but then claims it's a protest against FCC repression. I'd like to think it's the latter, but I'm not that much of a sucker.

Posted by Jake at 04:02 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
More Media News

Jake Jake Jake

 

Fake "Ha-Ha" News

News

 

Quotes

"8:45? And here I am yapping away like it's 8:35!"
-Ned Flanders

More Quotes

Media News

 

Obligatory Blog Links

 

Snapshots

Mission: Mongolia

Jake's first attempt at homemade Mongolican barbecue:

Failure.

What went right: correctly guessing several key seasonings- lemon, ginger, soy, garlic, chili.

What went wrong: still missing some ingredients, and possibly had one wrong, rice vinegar. Way too much lemon and chili.

Result: not entirely edible.

Plan for future: try to get people at Great Khan's restaurant to tell me what's in the damn sauce.

More Snapshots

Columnists Of Note

 

References

Sonic Resistance

 

Dead Trees

 

Heavy Rotation

Archives

 

Squiggles of Insight

SubvertWare

Credits

Design and Layout by Mark McLaughlin and Quang Tang
LMB Logo by Quang Tang

Alt "One Hell of a Leader" logo largely stolen from Obey Giant.
All other material by Jake Sexton (unless otherwise cited)

hosted by nice dream