Friday, September 26, 2003
My Responses to the Recall Debate, Which Are Mine *ahem*
aka:
Better Late Then Never . .
First thing to hit me is that the Broadcasters Assn. did a
terrible job of informing the public, not to mention its own members who, I believe, are
the media, that the questions were given to the
Voters ahead of time in order to increase the level of critical appraisal of the candidates' answers.
Either that, or they came up with the idea 10 minutes before air time. . .
I liked the format and the debate was going rather well until about 7 minutes in when Reality was sent out of the room for the crime of inconvenience. The squabbling over look-up-able facts was pitiful. [Hey, Peter! People with incomes in the top 5% in this state pay about 45% of the total amount of taxes. C'mon back to
our planet.]
Let's break this down by candidate:
Arianna "I-have-A-Larger-Vision" Her-Huff-arrived-and-she-left-in-it Huffington: On the up side, she did call the Big B. on his "I'm sure you don't know this but . . ." superiority trip [the trip taken most often by those who genuinely fear that they, themselves, don't know shit.] "It's getting tiresome." -- good line. [Green Acres shots are too easy - yet.. ... ..
so.... ....... tantalizing. .. ..... ... .
*must resist, dahlink*]
She wants to kill Prop 13, 'cept for the "little people," the ones who can't afford to own a house. And she is
terribly fixated on Bush. [I'd seek therapy for that were I obsessed so, dear. Sounds painful.] She calls herself "independent/progressive" and, with her definition, CA would progress rapidly to an unpopulated, third world nation.
She hates corporations, she hates rich folks, and she seems strangely angry about I-couldn't-tell-what. Loves to take pot shots, though. Some would actually have been snarkily funny if they weren't so mean-spirited. I doubt she could lead the CA legislature to a free buffet at a strip club.
With booze.
Oh, and she reminds us that she has "A Larger Vision," which my translators read as, "Run! Run Screaming!!"
Speaking of whom,
Cruz "You-are-all-are-sooo-incredibly-much-dimmer-than-me" BustaMEChA™ is a superior little shit, ain't he? Makes it kinda humorous that he couldn't figger out which camera had the little red light during his two minute summation. Something Gary Coleman wouldn't have had trouble with.
The Big B's crack about we voters being so sheep-like that those ring-dings prepping for an Oct. 8 recall effort would, of course, be successful was slickly stated. But I think most caught it.
And he wants to build
More Houses?!? His idea that that'll send the Real Estate market down has some flaws in it, methinks. In our area, we lost two or three large companies with tens of thousands of jobs and have built thousands of houses in the last couple-three years [without any useful supporting traffic infrastructure, so quality-of-life is progressively suckier] and those houses are
still selling for $350 - $400,000 for a 3/2 w/ great room on a
tiny lot. The real estate market in CA is a whit bit more complex than simple supply-and-demand Econ 101, Cruz.
Ah, and his
best idea? Sin Taxes. Yep, that hoary old hobby horse. Don't
you remember the American Dream; the one where we can all get a little richer and afford to sin a little? Mr Clean-living-born-to-pick-cotton-raised-to-work-hard-now-I'm-wearing-custom-made-suits-cuz-I'm-just-a-little-chubby??
Yeah. Raising the taxes on wine's gonna go over real big in CA...
And my particular peeve? All those new text books are The Bustabastard's fault! Have you
read tried to read a high school text book manufactured in the last five years? I say manufactured because they
can not be read. They have been stripped so clean of "discriminatory meaning" that their semantic content is truly, actually, literally
nil. Drop by your local school or raid your kids' backpacks and see for yourself. Creation of those damthings is nothing to be proud of -- the paper isn't even absorbent.
And speaking of things in which I can find no redeeming value:
Peter "Marx-is-my-mentor;-Castro-my-King" Camejo: I thought it was no longer fashionable to be that pink in public. It really ought not to be. Creepy. [Do you remember, 'lo these many moons ago, a book called The Greening of America? It was about the creeping socialism in the US. Then, I didn't geddit. Youth and all. Today, I don't friggin' believe it. ] [10 million dead? Hey, it's worth another try. . . Ask 10,000 Frenchmen.]
Camejo has that odd asymmetry of decrying the fate of the working man overshadowed by demonstrating contempt for the intelligence and capabilities of same. He really, really wants a socialist society [so bad it makes him cry] yet fails to note that in a genuinely socialist society men like him are the first to go. Academics and Thinkers-outside-the-box are not tolerable if a society is to be truly socialist. The line must be toed. Silly, whiney little man.
Renewable energy, an excellent idea and one to which we must commit if we are to save our asses, is only workable as a capitalist idea, friend. Govt. ain't a' doin' it.
He cannot seem to get past his addiction to makin'-up-the-factoids. I
was momentarily surprised to hear his comments about the
illegal aliens ["Can't we stop using that
awful word, illegal? *snivel-whine* It's so disenfranchising." *sob*] being the "sons and daughters of the
indigenous people of this continent." I thought for a sec that Big B was coming out of the
casa closet. But then I remembered -- downtrodden, right? Even the ones making beau coup bux off "gaming." [But aren't they the rich and therefore should be hated??? Oh!
god Stalin! I'm so confused!! *head explodes*]
His campaign slogan? "CA out of Iraq"
Now on to
Tom "I'm-so-upstanding-and-sincere-I-squeak" McClintok First shot he insults the voters. It was a statement so unmistakable and insulting it was emblazoned on my consciousness so, of course, I can't ...er, recall it right now. But it
was a faux pas.
It came early on so I think that his sincere dedication to eliminating the car tax, his solid support of the Second Amendment, and his firm commitment to steady revenue streams for local government will overshadow it in the memories of most.
He strikes me as a tough little fucker, a quality I have come to associate with the name Tom. It's a Good Thing. Usually.
Tom refrained from interrupting, shouting, and acting in that "larger than life" manner associated with public personas, which is also called rampant narcissism. In Tom's case it came off as gentlemanly; unlike Camejo who just came off as a whiney little schlubb.
He had a coupla good lines saved up: "Robbing Piedmont to pay Pasadena." and "If the state is going to mandate local expenditures they
bloody well ought to pay for them." Didn't quite come off as spontaneous. Can't see that ol' Tom is much of a wisenheimer: he looked too proud of his "witticisms."
He is committed to infrastructure, though, and was the first to mention Prop 53, an under-mentioned initiative if there ever was one.
He is against the undermining effect of illegal immigration on legal immigration, not to mention the state budget and the state's security. Very clear.
Y'all who understand the Law and her ramifications please elucidate for me? Tom wants to overhaul the tort system and move punitive damages into the criminal courts. Now, won't that simply clog up the criminal courts instead of the civil courts. Is that a good thing? Or does the change in venue change the requirements? Illumination, please?
And last but largest:
Ahnold "Facile 'R' Me"Sch-war-zen-I've been egg-ed-er: aka The Great Non-Grey Hope. *sigh*
He came on strong and clear and a little nervous at first, which made him seem human. And polished and groomed and what the hell did he say? No, really. I'm sure he said something. Sure of it.
He took up Ueberoth's position on jobs - sorta. We do need to be kinder to business. [
how?] All in all he sounded good. er...
He's clear [and right] about leaving the property tax monies with the local counties instead of spending all the money to take it away from them just to listen to 'em beg for it back. There's a phat savings right there. And he agrees with most points I like but falls just short of enumerating any particular plan[s] of action.
He
was handed a capital-M Moment on a silver platter -- which he took and blew high wide and handsome. Miss Huff [
why is she "Miss" "Huffington" when Huffington is her ex's name??? Mrs Huffington or Miss Whatever-she-was-before I get, but . . . ]
The Moment came when Missy H attacked him personally, the Chair pointed it out, and gave him an opportunity to address it. He
could have said, "I would never want to say anything nasty to Miss Huffington." or "I'm sure she didn't mean anything bad." or shaken his head and maintained a dignified silence or even "I won't dignify that with a response." But, nooooo. He
had to make that low-humor Terminator 4 crack. Made him look childish and "pop culture." Prob'ly will win him votes.
And does anyone know what was up with that "I could drive my Hummer through it" crack?!? Missy H said the NYT leaked it that day???!?? Was that designed to make "us" feel like insiders able to anticipate something that was then delivered? Anyone got any further data on that?? [odd what catches the attention, that]
And that's what I did on my Wednesday evening in September.
Posted by
Claire on 09/26/03 at 10:55 AM
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