Poll: Schwarzenegger gains on Davis

By CBS.MarketWatch.com Sept 28, 2003


When asked if they would vote to recall Davis, 63 percent of 787 registered, probable voters said they would vote yes and 35 percent said they would vote no.

On the second part of the ballot that calls for naming a replacement for Davis, 40 percent of respondents said Schwarzenegger was their No. 1 choice.

Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante garnered 25 percent of voters' support while Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock received 18 percent, according to the poll.

In the single digits were Green Party candidate Peter Camejo, with 5 percent, and syndicated columnist and independent candidate Arianna Huffington with 2 percent.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Separately, when invited to debate each other on CNN's Larry King Live, California Gov. Gray Davis accepted while Republican challenger Arnold Schwarzenegger indicated he will decline, according to published reports.

"Gray Davis is taking a page from the desperate candidates' handbook. He knows he's behind," said Todd Harris, a spokesman for the Schwarzenegger campaign. "He knows he needs to do something to shake up the dynamics of this campaign."

Even as they try to portray themselves as locked in a two-candidate rivalry, it doesn't look like Schwarzenegger will be the last man standing in the Republican column.

As the action-movie hero presses his bid to replace Gov. Davis on Oct. 7, previous GOP candidates have endorsed him. But a holdout, Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, is adamant that he won't quit the race.

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the only Democrat bidding to replace Davis, has lost his edge in several polls taken by the campaigns, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Bustamante's also under assault in court over campaign donations.

Schwarzenegger received a public endorsement Friday from the money man behind the recall.

Rep. Darrell Issa, who financed the election's petition drive, appeared with the actor at a Santa Monica rally. Issa's backing follows a similar move the day before from Bill Simon, who lost to Davis last November.

Both Southern California conservatives had been early entrants among the 135 candidates looking to preside in Sacramento, but they also quit once polls showed them garnering no better than single digit percentages.

McClintock, acknowledged as a master of budget details from his years in the Legislature, has maintained that he's in the race to the end, even though his support added to Schwarzenegger's would virtually guarantee a Republican statewide victory.

Indeed, McClintock announced plans for a closing blitz of TV ads. In addition, an Indian tribe has promised to spend $1.1 million on McClintock advertising.

A key issue has evolved in the campaign over Indian-run casinos, with Schwarzenegger ads criticizing Bustamante for taking more than $3 million from tribes and shifting it into different accounts as a way of avoiding campaign finance laws. A judge in Sacramento has ordered Bustamante to return the money, which the candidate claims has already been spent.

A California Chamber of Commerce poll showed Schwarzenegger ahead of Bustamante, 35 percent to 31 percent, with McClintock at 17 percent. The poll of 807 likely voters on Wednesday and Thursday had a 3.5 percent plus or minus error probability.

That beauty contest only kicks in if Gov. Davis is recalled and polls cited by Fox News suggest Davis is down as much as 14 percentage points on the primary question. That's wider than the most recent statewide numbers from the Field Poll and the Public Policy Institute, which showed Davis narrowing the gap.

In recent days, Davis has challenged Schwarzenegger to a debate -- rejected by the Austrian immigrant -- and launched ads claiming that the burly one has failed to vote in several elections, distorts the state's budget situation and misstates job losses during Davis' administration.

Davis noted in recent ads that this campaign has taken on a circus atmosphere.

Davis's ads warn: "When the laughs are over, Californians will have to live with the outcome."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

.....................

The recent poll numbers are propaganda designed to discourage voter turn out. Whenever turn out is low the right wing wins and they know it.
So vote for your life California.
The recall is a Karl Rove engineered coup attempt to control California.
If the Republicans get the governor’s office in Sacramento they won’t have to cheat in Florida again to win in 2004.
Don’t let the Bush faction win and gain control of California. It’s not about Davis. It’s about who controls the electoral college votes and who counts the votes in 2004. The lesson of Florida 2000 is: he who counts the votes wins the vote.

Vote No Recall.

The recent poll numbers are propaganda designed to discourage voter turn out. Whenever turn out is low the right wing wins and they know it.
So vote for your life California.
The recall is a Karl Rove engineered coup attempt to control California.
If the Republicans get the governor’s office in Sacramento they won’t have to cheat in Florida again to win in 2004.
Don’t let the Bush faction win and gain control of California. It’s not about Davis. It’s about who controls the electoral college votes and who counts the votes in 2004. The lesson of Florida 2000 is: he who counts the votes wins the vote.

Vote No Recall.

Hmm?
arnold eh?
You right wingers just love having hollywood actors in charge of the government (reagan)....

Bushit admirer, please list arnolds resume of political positions held that include governmental experience.

ps
did you know he didnt vote in 19 of the last 24 elections he was eligible for?

pss
you hated "pot smoking " bill clinton, yet love potsmoking arnold.

like i said
typical logic of the right wing conservative idiots

Thats your argument?

Arnold will make a great gov. because
(make sure i get this straight)
(chuckling)

Because he has no experience......?

(trying to hold in laughter)

so thats why you admire Bush so much.

Great logic......
unbelievable

The CNN/USA poll is propaganda, based on only 787 CNN/USA Today respondents. Not exactly the most intelligent or progressive lot.

about this poll is that Bush Admirer posted it.
Monkeyboy has a %100 ratio of false content.
What ever he posts is 180 degrees off.
We can always count on Bush Admirer.

to put all his crap in. Load it all up and get the hell out of that office.


Arnold's movin' in!

1-George Gallup, chairman of the polling organisation is member of BAP (British American Project for the Successor Generation) - an elite transatlantic network supporting right-wing causes.
source>Lobster Magazine http://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk

2-RESEARCH ANALYSlS CORPORATION.
One of the most important areas of cooperation between what think-tanks turn out and what becomes government and public policy are the "pollsters." It is the job of the polling-companies to mold and shape public-opinion in the way that suits the conspirators. Polls are constantly being taken by CBS-NBC-ABC, the New York Times, the Washington Post. Most of these efforts are coordinated at the National-Opinion Research-Center where, as much as it will amaze most of us, a psychological-profile was developed for the entire nation.

Findings are fed into the computers of Gallup Poll and Yankelovich, Skelley and White for comparative-evaluation. Much of what we read in our newspapers or see on television has first been cleared by the polling-companies. WHAT WE SEE IS WHAT THE POLLSTERS THINK WE SHOULD SEE. This is called "public-opinion-making." The whole idea behind this bit of social-conditioning is to find out how responsive the public is to POLICY-DIRECTIVES handed down by the Committee of 300. We are called "targeted population groups" and what is measured by the pollsters is how much resistance is generated to what appears in the "Nightly News." Later, we shall learn exactly how this deceptive practice got started and who is responsible for it.

It is all part of the elaborate opinion-making-process created at, Tavistock. Today our people believe they are well-informed but what they do not realize is that the opinions they believe are their own, were in fact created in the research-institutions and think-tanks of America and that none of us are free to form our own opinions, because of the information we are provided with by the media and the pollsters.

source>from book, CONSPIRATORS' HIERARCHY: THE STORY OF THE COMMITTEE OF 300. by ex MI6 (British Secret Service) Dr. John Coleman.


and that explain a lot about Gallup polls.

You're preaching to your own choir. Those like you who dismiss well established pollesters like Gallup already do it without you reminding them. Don't waste space.

I think Arnie will be the next governer of Cali because of the voting public who listens to slogans instead of what the candidate stands for. What DOES he stand for? Maybe his campaign slogan should be"Vote for me. Policy is for pussies."

"I think Arnie will be the next governer of Cali because of the voting public who listens to slogans instead of what the candidate stands for. What DOES he stand for? Maybe his campaign slogan should be"Vote for me. Policy is for pussies."

Californians are just so stupid they deserve to continue to be forced to wallow in their own high taxes, budget deficits, and "policies" they created for themselves by electing idiots such as Gray Davis.

Screw 'em all. If Arnold don't win let the liberals have that state. All conservatives need to load up the U-haul and get the hell out.

The state would be a slum in three years.

Mickey Mouse would be better than Gray-Out Davis. A rock would be better than Gray-Out Davis. A Taco Bell burrito would be better than Gray-Out Davis.

Find in the Net
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 29, 2002

George W. in the Garden of Gethsemane


An Open Letter to George W. Bush from Michael Moore

Dear George,

When it's all over in a couple months, and you're packing up your pretzels and Spot and heading back to Texas, what will be your biggest regret? Not getting out more often and seeing the sights around Rock Creek Park? Never once visiting the newly-renovated IKEA in Woodbridge, Virginia? Or buying your way to the White House with money from a company that committed the biggest corporate swindle in American history? I got a feeling you didn't miss much by not spending an entire Saturday afternoon assembling a Swedish bookcase -- but you should have known that there was no way you would ever finish your term by hopping into bed with Kenneth Lay.

It's kind of sad when you think about it. Here you were -- the most popular president ever! -- the recipient of so much good will from your fellow Americans after September 11, and then you had to go and blow it. You just couldn't stay away from your old cowpoke friend from Texas, Kenneth Lay.

Kenny has always been there for you. You needed a way to fly around to all the primaries and campaign stops in the 2000 election -- so Kenny gave you his corporate jet. Did you tell the voters when you arrived in each city that the bird you flew in on was from a billionaire who was secretly conspiring to give the bird to all his employees and investors? He flew you around America on the Enron company jet, and for that favor you touched down on tarmac after tarmac to tell your fellow citizens that you were "going to restore dignity to the White House, the people's house." You said this standing in front of an Enron jet!

Man, you loved Lay so much, you not only affectionately referred to him as "Kenny Boy," you interrupted an important campaign trip in April, 2000, to fly back to Houston for the Astros opening day at the new Enron Field -- just so you could watch Kenny Boy Lay throw out the first pitch. How sentimental!

I mean, you loved this man so intensely that, when you were awarded a set of keys the Supreme Court had made for you so you could live in the White House, you invited Kenny Boy to set up shop -- at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue! He interviewed those who would hold high-level Energy Department positions in your administration.

You not only let Kenny Boy decide who would head the regulatory agency that oversaw Enron, you let him hand-pick the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvey Pitt -- a former lawyer for his accountant, Arthur Andersen! Kenny and the boys at Andersen also worked to make sure that accounting firms would be exempt from numerous regulations and would not be held liable for any "funny bookkeeping" (don't you wish you were this forward-thinking?).

The rest of Kenny Boy's time was spent next door with his old buddy, Dick Cheney (Enron and Halliburton, as you'll recall, got the big contracts from your dad to "rebuild" Kuwait after the Gulf War). Lay and Dick formed an "energy task force" (Operation Enduring Graft) which put together the country's new "energy policy." This policy then went on to shut down every light bulb and juicer in the state of California. And guess who made out like bandits while "trading" the energy California was in desperate need of? Kenny Boy and Enron! No wonder Big Dick doesn't want to turn over the files about those special meetings with Lay!

The only thing that surprises me more than all the Enron henchmen who ended up in your cabinet and administration is how our lazy media just rolled over and didn't report it. The list of Enron people on your payroll is impressive.

Lawrence Lindsey, your chief economic advisor? A former advisor at Enron!

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill? Former CEO of Alcoa, whose lobbying firm, Vinson and Elkins, was the #3 contributor to the your campaign!

Who is Vinson and Elkins? The law firm representing Enron!

Who is Alcoa? The top polluter in Texas.

Thomas White, the Secretary of the Army? A former vice-chair of Enron Energy!

Robert Zoellick, your Federal Trade Representative? A former advisor at Enron!

Karl Rove, your main man at the White House? He owned a quarter-million dollars of Enron stock.

Then there's the Enron lawyer you have nominated to be a federal judge in Texas, the Enron lobbyist who is your chair of the Republican Party, the two Enron officials who now work for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and the wife of Texas Senator Phil Gramm who sits on Enron's board. And there's the aforementioned Mr. Pitt, the former Arthur Andersen attorney whose job it is now as SEC head to oversee the stock markets. George, it never stops! My fingers are getting tired typing all this up -- and there's lots more.

Don't get me wrong, George -- I do not think you're an evil man. You don't need any crap from people like me -- heck, you got mother-in-law problems! Now, I have a very good relationship with my mother-in-law, but then, I never told her to put $8,000 of her money into a company my administration knew was going belly-up.

You say you didn't know? Your bag man -- Don Evans, the man who squeezed all that money for you from Enron as your campaign finance chairman (and is now collecting his reward as your Commerce Secretary) -- has admitted that he got calls from Enron begging for help last year because they were going under. Didn't he tell you this?

Then Paul O'Neill, your Treasury Secretary, admitted that Enron and Kenny Boy called him, too, for some special favors to save Enron. Didn't he mention this to you? They claim to have called your chief of staff, Andrew Card, and he said he didn't bother to inform you. What does your mother-in-law think about these boys her daughter's husband consorts with?

I love watching the O'Neill and Evans show. What a couple of cut-ups! They're, like, all proud of themselves for "not doing Enron any favors." Actually, I think it's more like they didn't do your MOTHER-IN-LAW any favors. Enron got LOTS of favors. And why not? Kenny Boy has been your number one financial backer since you ran for governor. No other American or Saudi has given you more money than Kenny Boy and his gang at Enron. O'Neill, Evans, Cheney, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham -- ALL of them gave Lay and Enron special favors from day one. The New York Times last May was so concerned about how Kenny had the run of the place (1600 Pennsylvania Ave.), they referred to Lay as the "shadow advisor to the president."

And what advice! Who was it that wanted you to deregulate the energy industry further? Kenny Boy! Who was it that convinced you to explore the sick idea of PRIVATIZING our water supply and then allow private corporations to "trade" it in the future? Kenny Boy! Who was it that wanted Social Security to be tied to the stock market? Yup, Kenny Boy! (Imagine, if you will, what would have happened to our precious Social Security funds had they been invested in Enron stocks as you, George, suggested be done during your campaign as yuppies everywhere clucked along in agreement over that genius idea.)

O'Neill's and Evans's admission that they "did nothing" when Enron told them of the company's shell game and impending collapse is reason enough for you and yours to hit the Beltway and never return to that sacred trust we call Our American Government. They are proud of "doing nothing?" By doing nothing, millions of Americans have been swindled.

Tens of thousands have lost their jobs. Thousands more have lost their savings and their retirement. Yet your cabinet secretaries gloat over what a "good job" you and they did by "doing nothing."

Let me ask you this: If someone was setting a house on fire, and they called you to help them set it on fire, and you said no you wouldn't help them -- BUT then you also DIDN'T call 911 and inform the police that someone was going to burn down a house, do you think you would have committed a crime?

Of course you would have! You had prior knowledge and then you knowingly and purposefully HID this information from the authorities and the people living in the house! You only admitted that you knew a house was going to be torched when you were confronted by the police. Are you complicit? Yes! Are you an accessory? Yes! Who would even think of going around boasting, "Hey, look what a great guy I am -- a friend of mine told me he was going to commit an act of arson, and then I decided NOT to tell ANYONE about it!! WHOO-HOO!!"

Enron and Kenny Boy bought your silence and the silence of your cabinet members. You yourself didn't have to actually raid the 401(k) accounts of those poor people in Houston (many of whom probably voted for you every time your name was on a ballot). All you had to do was remain silent, change the government regulations that let them get away with it, and install their hand-picked cronies to sit on the "oversight" boards which were supposed to be keeping an eye on them.

While doing all this, you told the American people that these rich friends of yours were not getting any special breaks -- when, in fact, Enron had already scammed their way out of paying NO taxes in four out of the last five years. Your economic "stimulus" bill that you got the House to pass after 9-11 had a section that would give Enron a gift of $250 million of our tax money. You were pushing this bill in November and December, long after your administration knew that Enron was raiding the vault and screwing its workers and investors.

You and your Republican friends are quick to point out that Enron had their claws into the Democrats as well. Yes, they did, and thank you for making the case why we not only need an alternative to the current make-up of the Democratic Party, we need private money removed from our electoral process ASAP.

But, George, let's be real -- the Democrats only got a pittance from Enron compared to the millions you and the Republicans received. Democrats just don't have the killer instinct to do anything right, and they certainly don't know much about making money the old-fashioned way, one off-shore tax shelter at a time. I would expect nothing less from a Party that couldn't even put their candidate in the White House after he had already won the election.

The Democrats are like a Yugo -- you know it won't last long or work well, but it will occasionally get the job done. Fat cats know they can buy the Democrats at discount prices, and so they do. Anyone who tries to deflect this scandal away from you, George, or away from the Republicans, or away from the whole dirty way we elect our leaders, is someone who is desperately trying to cling to what's left of a very crooked system that has to go and go now.

The saddest part of this whole affair was the day the scandal was revealed -- and you denied that you even knew your good friend, Kenneth Lay. "Ken who?" you said. Oh, he's just some businessman from Texas. "Heck, he backed my opponent for governor, Ann Richards!" was your way of trying to deflect the truth that was hitting you like a Mack truck. You knew that he, in fact, endorsed YOU and gave you THREE times the money Ann Richards ever saw from him.

I hardly ever talk to the guy, you said. You were like Peter outside the walls of Herod after they grabbed J.C. from the Garden of Gethsemane. Three times he denied he knew Jesus, and three times the cock crowed. But Peter, unlike you, felt shame and wept, and then ran away.

What shame do you feel tonight, George, for the lies you have told? What shame do you feel using the dead of 9-11 as a cover for your actions, hoping that our sorrow for those lost souls and our fear of being killed by terrorists would distract us from what your boys and Kenny Boy were up to during those horrific weeks in September and October?

It was during those very days, while the rest of us were in shock and sadness, that the executives at Enron were selling off their stock and shifting assets to their 900 phony partnerships overseas. Did they notice the remains of the dead being pulled from the rubble while they were downloading their millions, or were their eyes glued only to the bottom third of the TV screen as the stock ticker with the rigged Enron price crawled across the images of firemen desperate, in tears, to find their fallen brothers?

The country was behind you when you said you were fighting the evildoers who did this. In fact, all the while, the real fight your friends at Enron were conducting was the fight against the clock, to see how fast they could transfer all the loot to their personal accounts and run away. Those were the evildoers, George, and you knew it. And because you, by design or negligence, allowed this to happen, it is time for you to resign. The cock has crowed for the last time.

At the very least, your mother-in-law deserves better.


Yours,
Michael Moore
American
Son-in-Law
Owner of 7th LARGEST COMPANY IN AMERICA! (revised ranking)

mmflint@aol.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com

Imma come back here and laugh at fat assed Michael Moore when Arnold gets instated and GWB gets re-uped for another fo years.

Wake up darling
Wake up honey
Wake up...

I'm wide awake. Next week, after Arnold takes office, I imagine you will be too.

But if that don't do it, I guess another four years of real leadership might.

And BA, fat assed Michael Moore lecturing to GWB is more like Star Jones lecturing to Jenny Craig.

One word for ya Michael Moore:

Treadmill.

"Next week, after Arnold takes office."

I guarantee you that will never happen.

The Governor of California stood up to Enron and said enough with these games of trading and pretty soon the house of cards began coming down and when I say house of cards Enron is just the first card. But what I am really worried about is not even so much about the finances of Enron because I don't cry for the stock holders. They didn't cry when the stock was going through the roof, they weren't moaning then. What I am concerned about is what they did to their customers and their employees. And let me tell you in California they played games, in fact they used to have names for these games, they called them cramming, stacking, false scheduling and they were able to manipulate the power market to cause false shortages. What the experts who had to buy the power into the system grid politely called "Economic and physical with holding". What that meant is that they literally laid siege to the state of California. They literally would hold back power from the power lines, causing panic, causing a false shortage in the market, causing the prices to sky rocket, filling Enron's pockets. Unfortunately when you play that game your greed out strips your devious means to keep up with it and that is how they collapsed in on themselves. What I'm worried about of are the guys who are a step more cautious and don't collapse.

Lloyd Hart: Your looking into Enron at the present, can you discuss that subject a little bit.

Gregory Palast: I was talking to a mutual friend of George W. and Ken Lay. His name is Teal Bivens and he is one of the Texas pioneers that raised $100,000.00 to put G.W. in the White House. Teal Bivens said "look , of course Ken lay has special access, he's raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for George W. Bush." And he said "He's a Texan, you dance with dem dat brung ya." He looked at me as if to say what do mean does money influence your access to the president. Not every one can meet with the president of the United States but if you put up a couple of hundred grand you can meet with the president. Ken Lay was put on George Bush's transition team to make suggestions on who should be appointed to regulate his company. So he was very subtle about it. He'd call up candidates and say here's what Enron would like. He called up the incoming new chairman of the National Electrical Regulatory Commission that he approved of and said I have veto over your appointment. So what's made the Bush administration different from the Clinton administration or even the daddy Bush administration is that before, lobbyists had unbelievably easy access to the White House. Now they don't have access to the White House their in the White House. They don't have to lobby the administration they are the administrations. It's a whole other level.

Lloyd Hart: It's like the NRA (Nation Rifleman's Association) during the campaign bragging that they would have an office in the White House.

Gregory Palast: That they would have a gun in the desk in the Oval Office. Let me get down to some nasty little details. In the month of December of 2000 Clinton's Energy Dept. put out an order that effectively said that Enron could no longer trade in California. It basically put these power pirates out of the game. Because they had California by the balls and they were squeezing. Clinton put a stop to it. At least slowed it down. The day after the inauguration George W took office, was still hung over, still cleaning out the confetti from the Oval office. His Energy dept. reverses Clinton's order and Enron is back in the power game in California squeezing the State. So these are the details and this is what the access was buying. I think it's too simple to say that their money bought the policy. They own George W.'s brain I mean it may not be big, it fits in Ken Lay's pocket and there's room for spare change but they own it. Bush Believes in this stuff so you have to be careful that it's bought but there's no question when it get down to details like that, when you have a direct pipeline into the President of the United States you can say I don't like executive order A, B, C. That's a whole new level lobbying power that we've never seen before and Enron has used and abused it.

Source .> Greg Palast (Award-winning reporter for BBC Television’s Newsnight and The Observer of London, Greg Palast’s extraordinary reports have been front page news in Europe, yet blocked out of America’s main stream media.) http://www.gregpalast.com/aboutme.cfm

Sch WAR zenegger...
Holy shit, right...Has a nice ring.

The Oct. 6, 1996, presidential debate featured this odd exchange between Bob Dole and moderator Jim Lehrer:

Dole: Well, many of the provisions in the Kassebaum bill were provisions that--my provisions, like deductions for long-term care, making certain that self-employed people that are watching tonight can deduct not 30% but 80% of [what] you pay for premiums. You can also deduct long-term care now, so it's a good it's a good start. I think there's enough--we're even looking at our tax cut proposal, our economic package. There may be a way of reaching out to the uninsured, because there are a lot of uninsured people in the country, particularly children, that should be covered. Another way you can do is to expand Medicaid. In America no one will go without healthcare, no one will go without food.

Lehrer: Senator, go ahead and finish your sentence.

Dole: All right. Food.

Lehrer: Food. Back to foreign affairs for a moment . . .

http://www.debates.org/pages/trans96a.html

I thought of this when I read a report from the Sacramento Bee's Daniel Weintraub on Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the fast-fading Democratic backup candidate in next week's election for governor of California. In an interview with KUVS-TV, a Spanish-language station in Sacramento, Bustamante said, according to the station's translation (link in Microsoft Word format): "People who are on the ballot--people like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom McClintock--want Proposition 187 once again. They don't want driver's licenses for immigrants. They are against food." Against food?

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/insider/archives/000736.html

http://www.scabee.com/static/weblogs/insider/archives/cruz.doc

An anonymous blogger called The Condor, however, takes issue with KUVS's translation: "I think it is a very poor translation of what Bustamante said. This involves the difference between literal and idiomatic translations. . . . While I am no expert on Spanish, I do have a working knowledge of the language. . . . It should have said something along the lines of 'they are against good nutrition.' "

http://www.condorblog.blogspot.com/2003_09_01_condorblog_archive.html#106499078498719466

All right. Good nutrition.

In any case, Bustamante's sister is definitely pro-food. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that 39-year-old Nao Bustamante is a "performance artist" whose "more notable performances include . . . strapping on burrito-dildos, upon which white males feast in an absolution ceremony for 500 years of colonial guilt. Vegan burritos only--no meat."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/09/29/BA266249.DTL

You're typing alot, but your not writing anything....

Columnist George Will has lived up to his future-tense name. On Sept. 4, he made this prediction about the California governor's race:

"Ken Khachigian, a veteran Republican strategist, warns that [Arnold] Schwarzenegger should brace himself for what has become the Democrats' trademark tactic. In football it is penalized as a "late hit," but in politics it is often rewarded with success. George W. Bush received such a hit in the final weekend of the 2000 campaign--the revelation of his drunk driving arrest 24 years earlier. That probably contributed to an unusual development: Late-deciding voters, who usually break against the incumbent party, broke for Vice President Gore in 2000.

California Republicans have experienced late hits three times in the past 11 years. In 1992 Bruce Herschensohn narrowly lost a Senate race against Barbara Boxer when it was revealed on the Friday before the election that he and his girlfriend and another couple had visited a strip club. In 1994 Michael Huffington narrowly lost a Senate race against Feinstein when, a few days before the election, it was revealed that he had hired an illegal immigrant as a nanny. In 1998 Darrell Issa--he is now a congressmen; his $1.6 million funding of the recall petition drive produced this recall election--lost a Senate primary when it was revealed that he had embellished his military record.

A late hit by the Davis campaign against Schwarzenegger cannot come so late that there is no time for another such hit, one against Davis's other problem, Bustamante. This could get even uglier."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/articles/A22218-2003Sep3.html

Sure enough, the late hit came in a more than 3,500-word report in today's Los Angeles Times that Schwarzenegger has behaved like Davis supporter Bill Clinton:

"Six women who came into contact with Arnold Schwarzenegger on movie sets, in studio offices and in other settings over the last three decades say he touched them in a sexual manner without their consent."

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/recall/la-me-women2oct02,1,2313555.story

Schwarzenegger's response to the charge, however, was decidedly un-Clintonian: He apologized. The San Jose Mercury News reports:

"Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right which I thought then was playful but now I recognize that I offended people," he said. . . . "Those people that I have offended, I want to say to them I am deeply sorry about that and I apologize because that's not what I'm trying to do."

Of course, George W. Bush was similarly forthright in owning up to the drunk-driving revelation, and, as Will notes, it seems to have hurt him just the same. Then again, Californians may be sufficiently disgusted with the incumbent that the late-hit strategy won't be sufficient to save Gray Davis or Cruz Bustamante.

"Schwarzenegger's response to the charge, however, was decidedly un-Clintonian: He apologized."

This is a lie. These reports have been around for a while and had been CATEGORICALLY DENIED by the Swarztengroper campaign...which means..

...HE LIED...

...a decidedly "Clintonian" thing to do, don't you think?

And. let's not forget, that groping a coworker is an assault, a crime...even when it occurs on a "rowdy" movie set.

So if an apology is all it takes for you soft on crime republicans, let's open those jailhouse doors to all repentant criminals!

Our member of the Angry Left, KPC, speaks. Thank you for your imput. It will promptly be ignored.

That's it....now....roll over...ROLLLLL OVER!!!

Gooood boy! Such a loyal doggie!

Yes, you are a loyal doggie. KPC, my Angry Left poodle.

...the "I know you are but what am I" school of retorts, huh?

Well, it bounces off of me and sticks to you, so knock it off before I tell your mommy....


....fuckin' pathetic.....

The Governor of California stood up to Enron and said enough with these games of trading and pretty soon the house of cards began coming down and when I say house of cards Enron is just the first card. But what I am really worried about is not even so much about the finances of Enron because I don't cry for the stock holders. They didn't cry when the stock was going through the roof, they weren't moaning then. What I am concerned about is what they did to their customers and their employees. And let me tell you in California they played games, in fact they used to have names for these games, they called them cramming, stacking, false scheduling and they were able to manipulate the power market to cause false shortages. What the experts who had to buy the power into the system grid politely called "Economic and physical with holding". What that meant is that they literally laid siege to the state of California. They literally would hold back power from the power lines, causing panic, causing a false shortage in the market, causing the prices to sky rocket, filling Enron's pockets. Unfortunately when you play that game your greed out strips your devious means to keep up with it and that is how they collapsed in on themselves. What I'm worried about of are the guys who are a step more cautious and don't collapse.

Lloyd Hart: Your looking into Enron at the present, can you discuss that subject a little bit.

Gregory Palast: I was talking to a mutual friend of George W. and Ken Lay. His name is Teal Bivens and he is one of the Texas pioneers that raised $100,000.00 to put G.W. in the White House. Teal Bivens said "look , of course Ken lay has special access, he's raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for George W. Bush." And he said "He's a Texan, you dance with dem dat brung ya." He looked at me as if to say what do mean does money influence your access to the president. Not every one can meet with the president of the United States but if you put up a couple of hundred grand you can meet with the president. Ken Lay was put on George Bush's transition team to make suggestions on who should be appointed to regulate his company. So he was very subtle about it. He'd call up candidates and say here's what Enron would like. He called up the incoming new chairman of the National Electrical Regulatory Commission that he approved of and said I have veto over your appointment. So what's made the Bush administration different from the Clinton administration or even the daddy Bush administration is that before, lobbyists had unbelievably easy access to the White House. Now they don't have access to the White House their in the White House. They don't have to lobby the administration they are the administrations. It's a whole other level.

Lloyd Hart: It's like the NRA (Nation Rifleman's Association) during the campaign bragging that they would have an office in the White House.

Gregory Palast: That they would have a gun in the desk in the Oval Office. Let me get down to some nasty little details. In the month of December of 2000 Clinton's Energy Dept. put out an order that effectively said that Enron could no longer trade in California. It basically put these power pirates out of the game. Because they had California by the balls and they were squeezing. Clinton put a stop to it. At least slowed it down. The day after the inauguration George W took office, was still hung over, still cleaning out the confetti from the Oval office. His Energy dept. reverses Clinton's order and Enron is back in the power game in California squeezing the State. So these are the details and this is what the access was buying. I think it's too simple to say that their money bought the policy. They own George W.'s brain I mean it may not be big, it fits in Ken Lay's pocket and there's room for spare change but they own it. Bush Believes in this stuff so you have to be careful that it's bought but there's no question when it get down to details like that, when you have a direct pipeline into the President of the United States you can say I don't like executive order A, B, C. That's a whole new level lobbying power that we've never seen before and Enron has used and abused it.

Source .> Greg Palast (Award-winning reporter for BBC Television’s Newsnight and The Observer of London, Greg Palast’s extraordinary reports have been front page news in Europe, yet blocked out of America’s main stream media.) http://www.gregpalast.com/aboutme.cfm

The Governor of California stood up to Enron and said enough with these games of trading and pretty soon the house of cards began coming down and when I say house of cards Enron is just the first card. But what I am really worried about is not even so much about the finances of Enron because I don't cry for the stock holders. They didn't cry when the stock was going through the roof, they weren't moaning then. What I am concerned about is what they did to their customers and their employees. And let me tell you in California they played games, in fact they used to have names for these games, they called them cramming, stacking, false scheduling and they were able to manipulate the power market to cause false shortages. What the experts who had to buy the power into the system grid politely called "Economic and physical with holding". What that meant is that they literally laid siege to the state of California. They literally would hold back power from the power lines, causing panic, causing a false shortage in the market, causing the prices to sky rocket, filling Enron's pockets. Unfortunately when you play that game your greed out strips your devious means to keep up with it and that is how they collapsed in on themselves. What I'm worried about of are the guys who are a step more cautious and don't collapse.

Lloyd Hart: Your looking into Enron at the present, can you discuss that subject a little bit.

Gregory Palast: I was talking to a mutual friend of George W. and Ken Lay. His name is Teal Bivens and he is one of the Texas pioneers that raised $100,000.00 to put G.W. in the White House. Teal Bivens said "look , of course Ken lay has special access, he's raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for George W. Bush." And he said "He's a Texan, you dance with dem dat brung ya." He looked at me as if to say what do mean does money influence your access to the president. Not every one can meet with the president of the United States but if you put up a couple of hundred grand you can meet with the president. Ken Lay was put on George Bush's transition team to make suggestions on who should be appointed to regulate his company. So he was very subtle about it. He'd call up candidates and say here's what Enron would like. He called up the incoming new chairman of the National Electrical Regulatory Commission that he approved of and said I have veto over your appointment. So what's made the Bush administration different from the Clinton administration or even the daddy Bush administration is that before, lobbyists had unbelievably easy access to the White House. Now they don't have access to the White House their in the White House. They don't have to lobby the administration they are the administrations. It's a whole other level.

Lloyd Hart: It's like the NRA (Nation Rifleman's Association) during the campaign bragging that they would have an office in the White House.

Gregory Palast: That they would have a gun in the desk in the Oval Office. Let me get down to some nasty little details. In the month of December of 2000 Clinton's Energy Dept. put out an order that effectively said that Enron could no longer trade in California. It basically put these power pirates out of the game. Because they had California by the balls and they were squeezing. Clinton put a stop to it. At least slowed it down. The day after the inauguration George W took office, was still hung over, still cleaning out the confetti from the Oval office. His Energy dept. reverses Clinton's order and Enron is back in the power game in California squeezing the State. So these are the details and this is what the access was buying. I think it's too simple to say that their money bought the policy. They own George W.'s brain I mean it may not be big, it fits in Ken Lay's pocket and there's room for spare change but they own it. Bush Believes in this stuff so you have to be careful that it's bought but there's no question when it get down to details like that, when you have a direct pipeline into the President of the United States you can say I don't like executive order A, B, C. That's a whole new level lobbying power that we've never seen before and Enron has used and abused it.

Source .> Greg Palast (Award-winning reporter for BBC Television’s Newsnight and The Observer of London, Greg Palast’s extraordinary reports have been front page news in Europe, yet blocked out of America’s main stream media.) http://www.gregpalast.com/aboutme.cfm

Find in the Net
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January 29, 2002

George W. in the Garden of Gethsemane


An Open Letter to George W. Bush from Michael Moore

Dear George,

When it's all over in a couple months, and you're packing up your pretzels and Spot and heading back to Texas, what will be your biggest regret? Not getting out more often and seeing the sights around Rock Creek Park? Never once visiting the newly-renovated IKEA in Woodbridge, Virginia? Or buying your way to the White House with money from a company that committed the biggest corporate swindle in American history? I got a feeling you didn't miss much by not spending an entire Saturday afternoon assembling a Swedish bookcase -- but you should have known that there was no way you would ever finish your term by hopping into bed with Kenneth Lay.

It's kind of sad when you think about it. Here you were -- the most popular president ever! -- the recipient of so much good will from your fellow Americans after September 11, and then you had to go and blow it. You just couldn't stay away from your old cowpoke friend from Texas, Kenneth Lay.

Kenny has always been there for you. You needed a way to fly around to all the primaries and campaign stops in the 2000 election -- so Kenny gave you his corporate jet. Did you tell the voters when you arrived in each city that the bird you flew in on was from a billionaire who was secretly conspiring to give the bird to all his employees and investors? He flew you around America on the Enron company jet, and for that favor you touched down on tarmac after tarmac to tell your fellow citizens that you were "going to restore dignity to the White House, the people's house." You said this standing in front of an Enron jet!

Man, you loved Lay so much, you not only affectionately referred to him as "Kenny Boy," you interrupted an important campaign trip in April, 2000, to fly back to Houston for the Astros opening day at the new Enron Field -- just so you could watch Kenny Boy Lay throw out the first pitch. How sentimental!

I mean, you loved this man so intensely that, when you were awarded a set of keys the Supreme Court had made for you so you could live in the White House, you invited Kenny Boy to set up shop -- at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue! He interviewed those who would hold high-level Energy Department positions in your administration.

You not only let Kenny Boy decide who would head the regulatory agency that oversaw Enron, you let him hand-pick the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvey Pitt -- a former lawyer for his accountant, Arthur Andersen! Kenny and the boys at Andersen also worked to make sure that accounting firms would be exempt from numerous regulations and would not be held liable for any "funny bookkeeping" (don't you wish you were this forward-thinking?).

The rest of Kenny Boy's time was spent next door with his old buddy, Dick Cheney (Enron and Halliburton, as you'll recall, got the big contracts from your dad to "rebuild" Kuwait after the Gulf War). Lay and Dick formed an "energy task force" (Operation Enduring Graft) which put together the country's new "energy policy." This policy then went on to shut down every light bulb and juicer in the state of California. And guess who made out like bandits while "trading" the energy California was in desperate need of? Kenny Boy and Enron! No wonder Big Dick doesn't want to turn over the files about those special meetings with Lay!

The only thing that surprises me more than all the Enron henchmen who ended up in your cabinet and administration is how our lazy media just rolled over and didn't report it. The list of Enron people on your payroll is impressive.

Lawrence Lindsey, your chief economic advisor? A former advisor at Enron!

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill? Former CEO of Alcoa, whose lobbying firm, Vinson and Elkins, was the #3 contributor to the your campaign!

Who is Vinson and Elkins? The law firm representing Enron!

Who is Alcoa? The top polluter in Texas.

Thomas White, the Secretary of the Army? A former vice-chair of Enron Energy!

Robert Zoellick, your Federal Trade Representative? A former advisor at Enron!

Karl Rove, your main man at the White House? He owned a quarter-million dollars of Enron stock.

Then there's the Enron lawyer you have nominated to be a federal judge in Texas, the Enron lobbyist who is your chair of the Republican Party, the two Enron officials who now work for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and the wife of Texas Senator Phil Gramm who sits on Enron's board. And there's the aforementioned Mr. Pitt, the former Arthur Andersen attorney whose job it is now as SEC head to oversee the stock markets. George, it never stops! My fingers are getting tired typing all this up -- and there's lots more.

Don't get me wrong, George -- I do not think you're an evil man. You don't need any crap from people like me -- heck, you got mother-in-law problems! Now, I have a very good relationship with my mother-in-law, but then, I never told her to put $8,000 of her money into a company my administration knew was going belly-up.

You say you didn't know? Your bag man -- Don Evans, the man who squeezed all that money for you from Enron as your campaign finance chairman (and is now collecting his reward as your Commerce Secretary) -- has admitted that he got calls from Enron begging for help last year because they were going under. Didn't he tell you this?

Then Paul O'Neill, your Treasury Secretary, admitted that Enron and Kenny Boy called him, too, for some special favors to save Enron. Didn't he mention this to you? They claim to have called your chief of staff, Andrew Card, and he said he didn't bother to inform you. What does your mother-in-law think about these boys her daughter's husband consorts with?

I love watching the O'Neill and Evans show. What a couple of cut-ups! They're, like, all proud of themselves for "not doing Enron any favors." Actually, I think it's more like they didn't do your MOTHER-IN-LAW any favors. Enron got LOTS of favors. And why not? Kenny Boy has been your number one financial backer since you ran for governor. No other American or Saudi has given you more money than Kenny Boy and his gang at Enron. O'Neill, Evans, Cheney, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham -- ALL of them gave Lay and Enron special favors from day one. The New York Times last May was so concerned about how Kenny had the run of the place (1600 Pennsylvania Ave.), they referred to Lay as the "shadow advisor to the president."

And what advice! Who was it that wanted you to deregulate the energy industry further? Kenny Boy! Who was it that convinced you to explore the sick idea of PRIVATIZING our water supply and then allow private corporations to "trade" it in the future? Kenny Boy! Who was it that wanted Social Security to be tied to the stock market? Yup, Kenny Boy! (Imagine, if you will, what would have happened to our precious Social Security funds had they been invested in Enron stocks as you, George, suggested be done during your campaign as yuppies everywhere clucked along in agreement over that genius idea.)

O'Neill's and Evans's admission that they "did nothing" when Enron told them of the company's shell game and impending collapse is reason enough for you and yours to hit the Beltway and never return to that sacred trust we call Our American Government. They are proud of "doing nothing?" By doing nothing, millions of Americans have been swindled.

Tens of thousands have lost their jobs. Thousands more have lost their savings and their retirement. Yet your cabinet secretaries gloat over what a "good job" you and they did by "doing nothing."

Let me ask you this: If someone was setting a house on fire, and they called you to help them set it on fire, and you said no you wouldn't help them -- BUT then you also DIDN'T call 911 and inform the police that someone was going to burn down a house, do you think you would have committed a crime?

Of course you would have! You had prior knowledge and then you knowingly and purposefully HID this information from the authorities and the people living in the house! You only admitted that you knew a house was going to be torched when you were confronted by the police. Are you complicit? Yes! Are you an accessory? Yes! Who would even think of going around boasting, "Hey, look what a great guy I am -- a friend of mine told me he was going to commit an act of arson, and then I decided NOT to tell ANYONE about it!! WHOO-HOO!!"

Enron and Kenny Boy bought your silence and the silence of your cabinet members. You yourself didn't have to actually raid the 401(k) accounts of those poor people in Houston (many of whom probably voted for you every time your name was on a ballot). All you had to do was remain silent, change the government regulations that let them get away with it, and install their hand-picked cronies to sit on the "oversight" boards which were supposed to be keeping an eye on them.

While doing all this, you told the American people that these rich friends of yours were not getting any special breaks -- when, in fact, Enron had already scammed their way out of paying NO taxes in four out of the last five years. Your economic "stimulus" bill that you got the House to pass after 9-11 had a section that would give Enron a gift of $250 million of our tax money. You were pushing this bill in November and December, long after your administration knew that Enron was raiding the vault and screwing its workers and investors.

You and your Republican friends are quick to point out that Enron had their claws into the Democrats as well. Yes, they did, and thank you for making the case why we not only need an alternative to the current make-up of the Democratic Party, we need private money removed from our electoral process ASAP.

But, George, let's be real -- the Democrats only got a pittance from Enron compared to the millions you and the Republicans received. Democrats just don't have the killer instinct to do anything right, and they certainly don't know much about making money the old-fashioned way, one off-shore tax shelter at a time. I would expect nothing less from a Party that couldn't even put their candidate in the White House after he had already won the election.

The Democrats are like a Yugo -- you know it won't last long or work well, but it will occasionally get the job done. Fat cats know they can buy the Democrats at discount prices, and so they do. Anyone who tries to deflect this scandal away from you, George, or away from the Republicans, or away from the whole dirty way we elect our leaders, is someone who is desperately trying to cling to what's left of a very crooked system that has to go and go now.

The saddest part of this whole affair was the day the scandal was revealed -- and you denied that you even knew your good friend, Kenneth Lay. "Ken who?" you said. Oh, he's just some businessman from Texas. "Heck, he backed my opponent for governor, Ann Richards!" was your way of trying to deflect the truth that was hitting you like a Mack truck. You knew that he, in fact, endorsed YOU and gave you THREE times the money Ann Richards ever saw from him.

I hardly ever talk to the guy, you said. You were like Peter outside the walls of Herod after they grabbed J.C. from the Garden of Gethsemane. Three times he denied he knew Jesus, and three times the cock crowed. But Peter, unlike you, felt shame and wept, and then ran away.

What shame do you feel tonight, George, for the lies you have told? What shame do you feel using the dead of 9-11 as a cover for your actions, hoping that our sorrow for those lost souls and our fear of being killed by terrorists would distract us from what your boys and Kenny Boy were up to during those horrific weeks in September and October?

It was during those very days, while the rest of us were in shock and sadness, that the executives at Enron were selling off their stock and shifting assets to their 900 phony partnerships overseas. Did they notice the remains of the dead being pulled from the rubble while they were downloading their millions, or were their eyes glued only to the bottom third of the TV screen as the stock ticker with the rigged Enron price crawled across the images of firemen desperate, in tears, to find their fallen brothers?

The country was behind you when you said you were fighting the evildoers who did this. In fact, all the while, the real fight your friends at Enron were conducting was the fight against the clock, to see how fast they could transfer all the loot to their personal accounts and run away. Those were the evildoers, George, and you knew it. And because you, by design or negligence, allowed this to happen, it is time for you to resign. The cock has crowed for the last time.

At the very least, your mother-in-law deserves better.


Yours,
Michael Moore
American
Son-in-Law
Owner of 7th LARGEST COMPANY IN AMERICA! (revised ranking)

mmflint@aol.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com

talk about being a clown.

Arnold Unplugged - It's hasta la vista to $9 billion if the Governator is selected
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=283&row=0

Friday, October 3, 2003
It's not what Arnold Schwarzenegger did to the girls a decade back that should raise an eyebrow. According to a series of memoranda our office obtained today, it's his dalliance with the boys in a hotel room just two years ago that's the real scandal.

The wannabe governor has yet to deny that on May 17, 2001, at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles, he had consensual political intercourse with Enron chieftain Kenneth Lay. Also frolicking with Arnold and Ken was convicted stock swindler Mike Milken.

Now, thirty-four pages of internal Enron memoranda have just come through this reporter's fax machine tell all about the tryst between Maria's husband and the corporate con men. It turns out that Schwarzenegger knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter as part of a campaign to sabotage a Davis-Bustamante plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging California pay back the $9 billion in illicit profits they carried off.

Here's the story Arnold doesn't want you to hear. The biggest single threat to Ken Lay and the electricity lords is a private lawsuit filed last year under California's unique Civil Code provision 17200, the "Unfair Business Practices Act." This litigation, heading to trial now in Los Angeles, would make the power companies return the $9 billion they filched from California electricity and gas customers.

It takes real cojones to bring such a suit. Who's the plaintiff taking on the bad guys? Cruz Bustamante, Lieutenant Governor and reluctant leading candidate against Schwarzenegger.

Now follow the action. One month after Cruz brings suit, Enron's Lay calls an emergency secret meeting in L.A. of his political buck-buddies, including Arnold. Their plan, to undercut Davis (according to Enron memos) and "solve" the energy crisis -- that is, make the Bustamante legal threat go away.

How can that be done? Follow the trail with me.

While Bustamante's kicking Enron butt in court, the Davis Administration is simultaneously demanding that George Bush's energy regulators order the $9 billion refund. Don't hold your breath: Bush's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is headed by a guy proposed by … Ken Lay.

But Bush's boys on the commission have a problem. The evidence against the electricity barons is rock solid: fraudulent reporting of sales transactions, megawatt "laundering," fake power delivery scheduling and straight out conspiracy (including meetings in hotel rooms).

So the Bush commissioners cook up a terrific scheme: charge the companies with conspiracy but offer them, behind closed doors, deals in which they have to pay only two cents on each dollar they filched.

Problem: the slap-on-the-wrist refunds won't sail if the Governor of California won't play along. Solution: Re-call the Governor.

New Problem: the guy most likely to replace Davis is not Mr. Musclehead, but Cruz Bustamante, even a bigger threat to the power companies than Davis. Solution: smear Cruz because -- heaven forbid! -- he took donations from Injuns (instead of Ken Lay).

The pay-off? Once Arnold is Governor, he blesses the sweetheart settlements with the power companies. When that happens, Bustamante's court cases are probably lost. There aren't many judges who will let a case go to trial to protect a state if that a governor has already allowed the matter to be "settled" by a regulatory agency.

So think about this. The state of California is in the hole by $8 billion for the coming year. That's chump change next to the $8 TRILLION in deficits and surplus losses planned and incurred by George Bush. Nevertheless, the $8 billion deficit is the hanging rope California's right wing is using to lynch Governor Davis.

Yet only Davis and Bustamante are taking direct against to get back the $9 billion that was vacuumed out of the state by Enron, Reliant, Dynegy, Williams Company and the other Texas bandits who squeezed the state by the bulbs.

But if Arnold is selected, it's 'hasta la vista' to the $9 billion. When the electricity emperors whistle, Arnold comes -- to the Peninsula Hotel or the Governor's mansion. The he-man turns pussycat and curls up in their lap.

I asked Mr. Muscle's PR people to comment on the new Enron memos -- and his strange silence on Bustamante's suit or Davis' petition. But Arnold was too busy shaving off his Hitlerian mustache to respond.

The Enron memos were discovered by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, Los Angeles,
www.ConsumerWatchdog.org

"Two days before the California recall election, Arnold Schwarzenegger remains the clear frontrunner, reports CBS News"

Really?

"the former muscleman "

correction.
the former ex-muscleman
Now, big fat and old men.

"and movie tough guy will be the next governor of the most populous state in the nation. "

Great!!!
wherever.

"Two days before the California recall election, Arnold Schwarzenegger remains the clear frontrunner, reports CBS News"

Really?

"the former muscleman "

correction.
the former ex-muscleman
Now, big fat and old men.

"and movie tough guy will be the next governor of the most populous state in the nation. "

Great!!!
wherever.

"Two days before the California recall election, Arnold Schwarzenegger remains the clear frontrunner, reports CBS News"

Really?

"the former muscleman "

correction.
the former ex-muscleman
Now, big fat and old men.

"and movie tough guy will be the next governor of the most populous state in the nation. "

Great!!!
wherever.

LOL
LOL
LOL
LOL
LOL
I ....LOL.....can't ......LOL......STOP!!
LOL
LOL,LOL,LOL,LOL,

I don't live in Cali, but I clearly can see why this scumbag is getting recalled. All he is about is dirty politics and excuses.

US, End of the credit line?

America could be in for a nasty shock if foreign investors decide to stop bankrolling its massive trade deficit, writes William Keegan

Tuesday September 9, 2003

A hegemonic economy can do what it likes - or can it? The widespread assumption in the financial markets until recently was that the Bush administration can go on piling up record trade deficits and there is not much the rest of the world can do about it.
Indeed, what the rest of the world does, especially the east Asian part of it, is to recycle hundreds of billions of dollars straight back to New York, in the form of purchases of bonds and Treasury bills.
This arrangement, we are told, produces bliss all round. The US consumer carries on consuming more than he or she produces; the US government carries on borrowing as if there were no tomorrow; and countries such as Japan and China do not have to revalue their currencies, thereby retaining the international competitiveness that sustains the remarkable Chinese growth rate and Japan's slow recovery from recession.
Such is the putative convenience of this process that some commentators have even begun to suggest that Treasury secretary John Snow's recent trip to east Asia - when he did not have much success in persuading governments to revalue their currencies - was just a charade to please those in the US heartlands who are worried about losing jobs to the supercompetitive east.
I wonder. It seems to this distant observer - but regular visitor to the US - that the jobless recovery is a big issue over there. However much the consumer benefits from cheap Asian imports, in the end citizens and voters want jobs, and they hold the government responsible. Hence the famous Clinton remark, now an almost unbearable cliché: "It's the economy, stupid." In this context, one of the paradoxes of the phenomenon known as globalisation is the way US multinationals own many of the companies which manufacture in, and export from, mainland China, thereby profiting - literally - from low-cost labour and an extremely competitive exchange rate.
But how long can the willing recycling of trade surpluses continue? The limits of economic hegemony seem to have occurred to the US administration as it contemplates a $4bn (£2.5bn) monthly bill for military operations in Iraq and estimates that rebuilding Iraq next year could cost $75bn. Suddenly, having gone to war against the wishes of continental Europe, Washington wants the "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and others to share the bill.
At the same time the combination of escalating US budget deficits and a falling bond market has aroused fears in financial circles about US dependence on foreign funds. As for the Asian investors themselves, there were suggestions in yesterday's Financial Times that flows may not be so generous in the future.
There are precedents for the denting of assumptions that the hegemonic economic power can go on blissfully borrowing indefinitely. Britain in the heyday of empire, and during its long decline from hegemony, found that its economy could be vulnerable to sudden withdrawals of funds that were deposited in London.
In 1979 the US economy itself was hit by a crisis of confidence, which involved a slowdown and withdrawal of foreign inflows. These are early days, and recent reports may prove to be alarmist. But the Bush administration, whose economic policy is obviously dominated by electoral considerations, could get nasty shock if foreign investors began to demand a significantly higher price for their funds.

US, End of the credit line?

America could be in for a nasty shock if foreign investors decide to stop bankrolling its massive trade deficit, writes William Keegan

Tuesday September 9, 2003

A hegemonic economy can do what it likes - or can it? The widespread assumption in the financial markets until recently was that the Bush administration can go on piling up record trade deficits and there is not much the rest of the world can do about it.
Indeed, what the rest of the world does, especially the east Asian part of it, is to recycle hundreds of billions of dollars straight back to New York, in the form of purchases of bonds and Treasury bills.
This arrangement, we are told, produces bliss all round. The US consumer carries on consuming more than he or she produces; the US government carries on borrowing as if there were no tomorrow; and countries such as Japan and China do not have to revalue their currencies, thereby retaining the international competitiveness that sustains the remarkable Chinese growth rate and Japan's slow recovery from recession.
Such is the putative convenience of this process that some commentators have even begun to suggest that Treasury secretary John Snow's recent trip to east Asia - when he did not have much success in persuading governments to revalue their currencies - was just a charade to please those in the US heartlands who are worried about losing jobs to the supercompetitive east.
I wonder. It seems to this distant observer - but regular visitor to the US - that the jobless recovery is a big issue over there. However much the consumer benefits from cheap Asian imports, in the end citizens and voters want jobs, and they hold the government responsible. Hence the famous Clinton remark, now an almost unbearable cliché: "It's the economy, stupid." In this context, one of the paradoxes of the phenomenon known as globalisation is the way US multinationals own many of the companies which manufacture in, and export from, mainland China, thereby profiting - literally - from low-cost labour and an extremely competitive exchange rate.
But how long can the willing recycling of trade surpluses continue? The limits of economic hegemony seem to have occurred to the US administration as it contemplates a $4bn (£2.5bn) monthly bill for military operations in Iraq and estimates that rebuilding Iraq next year could cost $75bn. Suddenly, having gone to war against the wishes of continental Europe, Washington wants the "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and others to share the bill.
At the same time the combination of escalating US budget deficits and a falling bond market has aroused fears in financial circles about US dependence on foreign funds. As for the Asian investors themselves, there were suggestions in yesterday's Financial Times that flows may not be so generous in the future.
There are precedents for the denting of assumptions that the hegemonic economic power can go on blissfully borrowing indefinitely. Britain in the heyday of empire, and during its long decline from hegemony, found that its economy could be vulnerable to sudden withdrawals of funds that were deposited in London.
In 1979 the US economy itself was hit by a crisis of confidence, which involved a slowdown and withdrawal of foreign inflows. These are early days, and recent reports may prove to be alarmist. But the Bush administration, whose economic policy is obviously dominated by electoral considerations, could get nasty shock if foreign investors began to demand a significantly higher price for their funds.

US, End of the credit line?

America could be in for a nasty shock if foreign investors decide to stop bankrolling its massive trade deficit, writes William Keegan

Tuesday September 9, 2003

A hegemonic economy can do what it likes - or can it? The widespread assumption in the financial markets until recently was that the Bush administration can go on piling up record trade deficits and there is not much the rest of the world can do about it.
Indeed, what the rest of the world does, especially the east Asian part of it, is to recycle hundreds of billions of dollars straight back to New York, in the form of purchases of bonds and Treasury bills.
This arrangement, we are told, produces bliss all round. The US consumer carries on consuming more than he or she produces; the US government carries on borrowing as if there were no tomorrow; and countries such as Japan and China do not have to revalue their currencies, thereby retaining the international competitiveness that sustains the remarkable Chinese growth rate and Japan's slow recovery from recession.
Such is the putative convenience of this process that some commentators have even begun to suggest that Treasury secretary John Snow's recent trip to east Asia - when he did not have much success in persuading governments to revalue their currencies - was just a charade to please those in the US heartlands who are worried about losing jobs to the supercompetitive east.
I wonder. It seems to this distant observer - but regular visitor to the US - that the jobless recovery is a big issue over there. However much the consumer benefits from cheap Asian imports, in the end citizens and voters want jobs, and they hold the government responsible. Hence the famous Clinton remark, now an almost unbearable cliché: "It's the economy, stupid." In this context, one of the paradoxes of the phenomenon known as globalisation is the way US multinationals own many of the companies which manufacture in, and export from, mainland China, thereby profiting - literally - from low-cost labour and an extremely competitive exchange rate.
But how long can the willing recycling of trade surpluses continue? The limits of economic hegemony seem to have occurred to the US administration as it contemplates a $4bn (£2.5bn) monthly bill for military operations in Iraq and estimates that rebuilding Iraq next year could cost $75bn. Suddenly, having gone to war against the wishes of continental Europe, Washington wants the "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and others to share the bill.
At the same time the combination of escalating US budget deficits and a falling bond market has aroused fears in financial circles about US dependence on foreign funds. As for the Asian investors themselves, there were suggestions in yesterday's Financial Times that flows may not be so generous in the future.
There are precedents for the denting of assumptions that the hegemonic economic power can go on blissfully borrowing indefinitely. Britain in the heyday of empire, and during its long decline from hegemony, found that its economy could be vulnerable to sudden withdrawals of funds that were deposited in London.
In 1979 the US economy itself was hit by a crisis of confidence, which involved a slowdown and withdrawal of foreign inflows. These are early days, and recent reports may prove to be alarmist. But the Bush administration, whose economic policy is obviously dominated by electoral considerations, could get nasty shock if foreign investors began to demand a significantly higher price for their funds.