Arnold Schwarzenegger, the great Austrian Joke is California’s own Hurricane Katrina
Your humble scribe wrote in the July 22, 2004 Sacramento Union:
“If there was any lingering life left to the quaint notion that we reward our elected leaders based on performance, then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has put it to rest once and for all.
Polls show the governor with positive ratings approaching 70 percent, yet his performance is such that even Gray Davis would have to qualify as an adequate chief executive.
My suspicions and warnings about the Austrian Oak were chalked up by many to the cynicism inevitably born of two decades of hosting talk radio programs. In those years I have seen political pied pipers come and go. Invariably, they have flashed across our radar screens, first as champions then as inept failures or even scoundrels, always leaving in their wake a path of broken promises along with disappointed and discouraged voters.
I have known all along, and the governor insists on continually confirming, that what I was responding to was not my cynicism, but rather something else spawned by all those years of dealing with politicians and their spinmeisters and masters and that is my sense of smell.
My nose can sniff out a phony before he even comes across the horizon.
Arnold has had my nose working overtime since well before his announcement on Leno that he was going to run for the office.”
As it turns out and to my own detriment, as well as to the entire state’s misfortune my nose works just fine.
As a Californian, homeowner and taxpayer, not to mention just as a normal, caring human I take no pleasure in the “I told you so” implied, the great Austrian Joke is causing my family the same stomach-wrenching pain that he is causing most Californians.
In November 2002, it appeared that the greatest in-progress disaster facing the state was not the ever-creeping tectonic plates under our feet threatening “The Big One” but that Big One instead seemed to be manifest in human form, as the hopelessly inept and ill-equipped then governor Gray Davis.
Melanie Morgan, Ted Costa and Mark Williams all teamed up (soon to be joined by legions of radio talkers who recognized a bandwagon when they saw one) and sincere citizens to successfully remove Davis. The plan was to clear the road for responsible governance in the person of state Senator Tom McClintock. Unfortunately for California a pot smoking, orgy attending, Kennedy family member named “Arnold” invaded the ensuing recall campaign. Arnold was swept into office via a super slick advertising drive and appeal to the lowest common denominator.
Since then we have been subjected to endless stunts staged for cameras and designed to boost Arnold’s personal appeal. We have been subject to Arnold’s internationalist agenda in his quest to be global warming czar. As a result we have obsessed over imbecilic ideas like outlawing normal light bulbs, fighting against hundreds of new jobs at a water bottling plant in Northern California as well as fighting against exploitation of our own natural resources while legislating as quickly as possible laws and regulations that could not be more effective in chasing taxpayers and businesses out of California even if they were designed specifically for that purpose.
Mind you, the entire nation is deeply into what New York Governor David Paterson says is an economic crisis of 1929 proportions so the whole blame does not lay at Arnold’s feet. On the other hand, as goes California so goes the nation – and Arnold has taken California into a dark and awful place where people are losing their homes and their freedoms. Arnold has burned our seed corn, so to speak, that would have otherwise allowed California to ride out the storm if not abort it.
The former “Austrian Oak’ turned “Austrian Joke” (and a sick joke at that) has now coughed up yet another way to act against our interests…. threatening state workers with minimum wage or job loss. I presume that is an idea he came up with while flying in another special interest private jet from his special interest funded Sacramento hotel suite to another special interest event to line his pockets with special interest money.
We are in trouble; trouble aggravated by a complete lack of leadership and a governor who anybody paying attention stopped taking seriously a long time ago and who is now on an uncontrollable rampage of fiscal and social destruction…. Terminator style.
August 2nd, 2008 at 8:57 am
ahahahahah….the site works again!!!
ANyways, Yup….YOU told us so…and YEP….I voted for him. I voted for him because it SEEMED he’d be unbought, fix the state period, not be blemished with moronic Demo/Repub ‘ business as usual ‘ nonesense the states been in for years….ie, DEMOs in charge, Repubs whinning about being victimed seconds.
Nope…..instead, we have what we have……however, after the first year, I too, begin to call our gov useless…..no, ” I told you So’s ” are very appropriate…especially now.
State workers?? While I feel for you?? What exactly are you whinning about? The threat is empty and hollow anyways. You get paid Fed Min wage…and? They already said, takes nearly a MONTH to program the computer, IF, they even begin to do that. You’re sucking up major loand at WAY below rates us NORMAL folks are allowed…and?
You’re being promised you’ll be able to apply, and probably GET, on the Food Stamp bandwagon, robbing yet MORE of the normal folks the benefits we TRY to get to them….ps?? For Cali?? YOU people being on the Food Stamp program is a good thing, California gets PAID by the Feds for every dollar we hand out in Food Stamps, soooo, good going!!! Whether or not you’re actually ELIGIBLE is another story.
And after all is said and done?? You people get your income back…Again, what have you lost?? From my perspective?? Not a dayum thing.
What you SHOULD be doing, is getting off your collective backsides, and start LOOKING for someone to be in politics, who doesn’t just PAY YOU, while ignoring the rest of the state….oh, but you’re happy, so long as YOU aren’t bothered….till now. NOW, you folks don’t like ahnold….hmmmmmmmmmm…..funny.
We had record breaking Wild Fires hit us…..and ONLY after the number rose to about 1500 active fires, did the Guv THINK of activating the NG…why weren’t prisoners used?
Why weren’t NG used earlier? Why did it take SO LONG to impliment those measures??
We need gas in the state that’s NOT 5.00 a gallon…according to a statement made by pelosi somedays ago, ” California is awash with oil. “….really? Then why is gas so friggin high?? Gas companies making BIG PROFITS….how’s that?? Sounds like there isn’t a future LOSS in oil availability, sounds like someone’s full of stuff, and charing US lock/stock/barrel for gas!!!
People in this state are blissfully happy, untill they’re bothered….helluva way to run a country. Let’s look at San Fransicko now…..there’s another example of California idiocy gon amock ( and YES, I said it…I D I O C Y ) Sanctuary city?? What the hell is that????
That city should be cut off from ALL Government support, UNTIL they reverse and commit to CEASING that garbage…has it been done yet?? Nope. Have the other cities been similarly punished?? Nope…..why?
NOW……to top it all off…..the schwartz is on the way out…and lo and behold, look what’s surging to the surface to lead our ( wonderful ) state??? Newsome. No friends, cause he beds their wives……no morals, cause San Fran is a ‘ safe haven ‘ for most if not all, criminal activity…..but hey?! Why should that stop him from being our next Gov??
He’ll pay state workers full wages PLUS….he’ll honor Gay Marriage, he’ll keep the UNION in cash flow, he’ll UP Taxes as he can where he can so we can have our ‘ rainy day fund ‘…..why not?? Might as well BE him as the next foolio…..given our current Track record.
Speaking of …..what’s the word on mayor heather ” Useless ” fargo??? How many people are going to want to keep HER around too?? Oh…..wait…..the State people like here, cause she makes bicycle lanes….never mind her ‘ tax increase via FEE status ‘…I’m sure, given heathers own words: If you buy something for 500 dollars?? What’s a little increase of 1.25 for an added tax? That’s what I call, an affordable amount to deal with”.
Wonderful….Gang tax…..thug tax…crime tax…more Fees, surcharge increases, squeeze the cars, promote the Bikes…..let’s screw Sacramentians out of every hard dollar we get, for another NON voted on tax, disguised as a FEE or SURCHARGE…..
Take that one, my Fellow State workers!!!!
Good thing I work for the County……0 = )
Oh…wait….we had 35 NON filled posistions we USED to get cash for…recently cut….wow! We spent money, on vacancies that aren’t filled, so we can use the money for rainy days, and emergencies like this…is that governmental extortion? Or outright stealing??? Either way, I’ll always be employed, so long as we have Food Stamps for the State!!!
Making money for California, off the backs of my fellow citizens/State Workers!!!!!
Go ahnold!!!
Leo, formerly the Disgruntled State Worker, now otherwise known as:
Happy County Camper!!