And people consider this jerk a "moderate"?
In the law, there is a concept (principally used in malpractice disputes) where you don't need an expert to know that the defendant screwed up. That concept, in Latin, is "res ipsa loquitor" or, in English, "the thing speaks for itself." In street terms, "what you see is what you get."
That's the case with Schwarzenegger: he uses the Red party's thug tactics (a holdover from his daddy's Nazi past?), and he buys in to ALL of the Rethug's desires to shut down the individual power of the little people.
The tactic of shutting off the union's ability to influence political activity -- both elections and legislation/initiatives -- through paycheck checkoff or other means, is one of the Rethug's holy grails. Of course, there will be no corresponding limitations of corporations' use of its funds to influence political activity without explicit shareholder consent. If this tactic wins, then even more power will be transferred to corporate interests, all to the detriment of employees in the micro sense, and America in the macro sense.
I think Californians are smart enough to figure out that the only thing Schwarzenegger wants to terminate is democracy as we know it. A fascist jerk with the fascist past. Why should we be surprised that what we see IS what we get?
Posted by Analytical Liberal at June 14, 2005 05:01 AMHere in Virginia we have today, primaries to select assholes for something. The point is, I ain't ever going to vote again. I refuse to participate in a country that no longer belongs to the people. Anyway, the voting machines in my district are Diebold, so the subject is MOOT.
Also, hooray for Jackson! I feel with all my heart that Karl Rove arranged the whole set up; as a smokescreen for failures of the admin, which wouldn't have been reported anyway. Jackson was crucified because he's crazy, trying to be white and he's effeminate. I just hope the man calms down a bit with his child sleepovers; he needs to restore his credibility. I for one, will support him by buying his next CD or whatever. I feel that his verdict is a triumph over friggin' Bush racists and cable news "experts" who don't know shit about law.
Posted by Art of Noise at June 14, 2005 05:06 AMSorry - I just don't see the Jackson/Bush/Rove connection. The biggest tragedy with the Michael Jackson case is how much news coverage was devoted to it. Do we blame the people who watch and absorb that crap, or the news organizations that spew it? Gosh, that is a huge topic...
So if you are not voting again because you think that this country does not belong to its people, then what are you going to do? Is this where you throw the towel in? (Don't take this as some sort of attack; I am merely curious.)
Posted by Andy at June 14, 2005 06:23 AMCouldna happened to a more deserving guy. Except maybe Gee Dubya and a national address attempting to convince voters of privatizing Social Security. Heh.
I've been on a jury (in a murder + other felonies case) where the defendant was probably guilty of at least a few things, but the prosecution presented such a mismanged bungle of a case that we had no choice but to aquit. I sympathsize with the jury. But I also despair for the public - most of my law office turned up in a confrence room to watch the verdicts live and couldn't belive he was let off. These people are law professionals for Gawd's sake . .
Posted by idiosynchronic at June 14, 2005 06:33 AMBut I also despair for the public - most of my law office turned up in a confrence room to watch the verdicts live and couldn't belive he was let off.
What are you despairng of? What concerns you? That Jackson got off? That you didn't put together a lynch mob earlier and go string him up? That you could not use telepathy and control the outcome? I suggest that you weren't there, didn't see the evidence first hand, and didn't see the parade of testimony from suspect prosecution witnesses. "Law professionals" in Georgia just acted on a man acting aggressively (actually having an epileptic seizure) and taserd him to death after he yelled "Don't kill me!" Is that the justice you're after? Because we got tons of it in the United States.
You have a duty to the public to post your law office name so that people who think they are getting good legal advice and a zealous defender can go to some other legal service.
Posted by phidipides at June 14, 2005 07:21 AMAndy,buddy, I don't put anything past Rove!! You ought to know that! As long as this government keeps gulags over the world, sadists like BushCo stay in office, yeah! I'll never vote! Throw in the towel? Shits will be in office until way past my lifetime. During WWII, at Terezin concentration camp outside Prague, the Nazis went to great lengths to hide their atrocities from the Red Cross inspectors and world opinion. Nazi bastards dressed up the starving prisoners, put them in village settings, etc. They even filmed all of it too. I have the movie, The Yellow Star. You ought to see it sometime. Amnesty International expresses righteous indignation and disgust, horror, shock at the atrocities at Gitmo and other gulags the US operates all over the world, and Oval Office fiends Bush and Cheney laugh! They don't give a damn! They're not ASHAMED and embarrassed! This government's horrors go unpunished...they are worse than Nazis! So it's a Diebold life in America from now on, but not for me. Or,we'll be FORCED to vote. You can bet on that happening sooner or later!
Posted by Art of Noise at June 14, 2005 07:49 AMPhidip says: That Jackson got off?
Wasn't he found Not Guilty of that?
Bwah.
Arnie has to do something, and at least give the folks in CA the choice to whether or not they like the current system of government; where their candidates are selected for them and guaranteed a win in their district.
What's Democratic about that? Heck, somebody on another thread said that in a "blue state" like California, the Democrats might gain seats with redistricting reform.
As long as the seats are competitive, and candidates have to respond and react to the voters, I don't have a problem with more seats turning blue. If that's what Californians want.
Right now, Californians don't have a choice.
Posted by muckdog at June 14, 2005 07:50 AMWasn't he found Not Guilty of that?
Maybe he got off and then got off on the charge of getting off? But, just to confound things, regardless of what the right says, a person is presumed innocent. When a "not guilty" verdict comes in it actually means innocent as presumed, not "failed to find guilty."
(Let me get an umbrella before the legal eagles crap on my head for this one)
where their candidates are selected for them and guaranteed a win in their district.
I thought the CA Supreme Court was supposed to have leveled the playing field on the gerrymandered districts. Do you think a commission of republi-cons assembled by an old actor with sagging skin will do any better?
Posted by phidipides at June 14, 2005 08:03 AMArnold made a lot of terrible dumb movies. These were watched by enough ignorant working class slobs to make Arnold a very very rich man. Arnold runs for governor and these same ignorant working class slobs, along with the right wing repubs, elected him governor. It must follow that everything Arnold does is against working class slobs and all other working class people. Suckers deserve it.
Posted by ken melvin at June 14, 2005 08:26 AMAck! Phid! It wasn't me, I swear! I'm just reportin' here. :)
I despair for the public in that 1) they're fed this bull as 'news', 2) even the professional classes that supposedly are defending and defining the law are eating this shite up. If even these people have lost track of how the law is supposed to work, we as a nation are f@#^*!.
As to outing my office - sorry, can't do it. All I'll tell you is they're intellectual property lawyers, but the entire staff has had experience with civil and criminal law.
Posted by idiosynchronic at June 14, 2005 09:08 AMArnie is the best thing to happen to CA in a long time. Compared to moron Gray Davis, who left the state with a pensions-giveaway legacy that will cripple us down the road.
Redistricting will open up those locked-in GOP seats, you know. Maybe you'll get enough Democrats in to get that 2/3rds vote you need to raise taxes.
Posted by muckdog at June 14, 2005 09:08 AMRight now, Californians don't have a choice.
It's not just Californians. Both parties have seriously abused the power of redistricting. Look at Texas under the GOP for a red state example.
In general the Democrats are fine with changing how the redistricting happens. The only debate is that Ah-Nuld wants it done immediately, and all of the Democrats want to wait a year. Why? That's how long all of the election officials say they would need to implement the change.
Putting the redistricting to a ballot initiative is stupid. Someone who was willing to negotiate would have settled this with the legislature easily.
Posted by Daniel Maskit at June 14, 2005 09:49 AMArnie is the best thing to happen to CA in a long time. Compared to moron Gray Davis, who left the state with a pensions-giveaway legacy that will cripple us down the road.
Arnold is a wimp. If he were really concerned about the sweetheart deals the unions are getting in California he wouldn't be giving sweetheart deals to the prison guards. If Arnold takes on the prison guards first lots of people would back him in taking on the teachers afterwards. But starting with the teachers, and at the same time giving more to the prison guards, is just pathetic. If he were a real man he would be fighting the prison guards, not sleeping with them.
Remember when Arnold ran insisting that he would do some audits and find billions of dollars in fraud and waste in state government. What ever happened to that? My ugess is he found out that it wasn't actually fraud or waste, just popular programs.
Posted by Daniel Maskit at June 14, 2005 09:53 AMUp until ronnie, CA lead the nation in about every way. His ascendences was due that of the Texas-Oklahoma constituency of the greater LA - San Diego areas (there are more Oklahomans in southern CA than in OK and that s'not counting the central valley). Though displaced lo these many years, these asses are more southern than Alabamians or Mississippians. Leader that he was, ronnie paved the way for Deukmajian and Wilson. They did the real damage. Arnie's just Wilson in drag. Today, CA is past it's prime. No longer progressive nor leading, it is one of the more regressive retrograde states. Much more like the south than the more progressive southern states. Arnold's (Wilson's) down with labor schtick is out of the 1920s.
Posted by ken melvin at June 14, 2005 09:57 AMAck! Phid! It wasn't me, I swear! I'm just reportin' here. :)
Oops, I read the wrong things into your post. You're cool with me! Sometimes my general rants can be taken at a personal level, when indeed they are not directly aimed at any person. I also never make ad hominem attacks since I personally have nothing against hominey except that I don't like it.
Posted by phidipides at June 14, 2005 10:14 AMnot guilty does not equal innocent.
Our courts are not in the business of determining innocence. Just determining guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. You can acquit someone of a charge and still have a suspicion that they are guilty. You do not need to believe the defendant innocent to acquit.
Posted by at June 14, 2005 10:27 AMSomeone who was willing to negotiate
Hard to negotiate with a government with guaranteed seats for their party members. Nobody is accountable. Redistricting means that both Republicans and Democrats will have to do their jobs. This will lead the way to negotiations in future budget battles.
And this is a blue state. Most democrats I know are frothing over this redistricting initiative. They think it'll really tilt the government in their direction. In the short run, I think they're right. Arnold is probably shooting himself in the foot. But I think it's the best thing for the state.
Posted by muckdog at June 14, 2005 11:12 AMAndy, I voted but on the ballot I wrote in Howard Dean! First time since 1987 we've had a split primary here for Republican and Democratic candidates. It as 2 pm when I voted and the polls opened at 6am. I looked on the Diebold machine and I was number 29!!! Apparently, everybody else feels the same way I do. Or...it's too bloody hot to get out. Twenty-nine votes!!!!
Posted by Art of Noise at June 14, 2005 12:45 PMArnie is the best thing to happen to CA in a long time. Compared to moron Gray Davis, ...
Redistricting will open up those locked-in GOP seats, you know. ... Posted by muckdog
By now, it should be clear to any sentient being that Arnold is far worse that Davis. He has sold out to special interest more than anyone else. Most of his initiatives are designed to favor business interest over the people's. Anyone making a claim that mid-term redistricting by Republicans is a matter of fairness is blowing smoke out his arse.
This will lead the way to negotiations in future budget battles. And this is a blue state. Most democrats I know are frothing over this redistricting initiative. They think it'll really tilt the government in their direction. In the short run, I think they're right. Arnold is probably shooting himself in the foot. But I think it's the best thing for the state. Posted by muckdog
Actually the best thing for the state would be the removal of Der Gropenfuhrer and his big money supporters, who, along with the Pete Wilson wing of the party, are once again playing racist wedge issue politics and attempting to screw over Californians with energy company giveaways.
Compared to the moron Arnold, Gray Davis is now regarded as the more honest politician.
Arnie is the best thing to happen to CA in a long time. Compared to moron Gray Davis, who left the state with a pensions-giveaway legacy that will cripple us down the road.
I feel for your Kool-Aid. All of a sudden the people who worked for California for decades for low wages and non-existent bonuses should be screwed out of their pensions, too?
Grey Davis was too devoted to his corporate funders. But he was a piker compared to the Big Grope. He hates unions and working people, and he never met a corporate CEO he didn't like.