{"article":{"id":87235,"heading":"Crucial That Progressives Recall Gray Davis","author":"Eric Brooks","created":"2003-10-07 18:34:51","modified":"2013-11-11 00:26:36","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:26:36","article":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body><p>The point is not that right wingers started the recall, not who is worse between Davis, Shwarzenegger, and Bustamante, but instead, is simply this:  <br><br> What message will we be sending to future Governors and other politicians if we let Davis get away so easily with being more blatant than any U.S. leader in modern history in taking large amounts of money from huge industries and then doing whatever those donors ask of him?  <br><br> The message would be: You can get away with this too. The public will not hold you accountable.  <br><br> Some facts:  <br><br> 1) Gray Davis, who has indeed taken over one million dollars in contributions from the timber industry, in his first term as Governor, tried to pass California forestry rules that would have given logging companies fewer environmental restrictions than did previous Republican Governor Pete Wilson. He also succeeded in working behind the scenes to kill a bill in the state legislature that would have banned clearcut logging in California. Davis conspired cynically with Pacific Lumber Company, Senator Diane Feinstein, President Clinton, and Vice President Al Gore to craft and pass a deal which pretends to 'save' California's Headwaters Forest while it allows Pacific Lumber to cut 90% of it down. And when that Headwaters logging didn't happen quickly enough for his liking, Gray Davis delivered his chief of staff Susan Kennedy to the State departments of Forestry and Fish &amp; Game to demand that they \"Bend over backwards\" to approve timber harvests for Pacific Lumber in Headwaters Forest.  <br><br> 2) Gray Davis, who has indeed taken more than a million dollars in donations from the prison industry, has been seeking increases in funding to build more prisons and raise prison guards' salaries, while virtually all other budgets are being cut in the state government. He has also declared and carried out his own personal and illegal moratorium on letting anyone convicted of murder out on parole, even when that prisoner is a woman who killed an abusive spouse or partner in self defense. Gray Davis has also stated his support for executing 14 year old children for capital crimes.  <br><br> 3) Gray Davis, who has indeed taken over a million dollars in donations from the power industry, complained mightily about energy corporations ripping off California for tens of billions of dollars and yet somehow has not managed to get one penny of that stolen money returned to the people of California, and he has even allowed California consumers to be forced to pay higher electricity rates in order bail those companies out of their bankruptcies.  <br><br> It is not rocket science to figure this out.  <br><br> Give Gray Davis a million dollars. He gives you what you want.  <br><br> If we recall Gray Davis we will be sending a clear message to all others who follow him that they cannot behave so reprehensibly as public leaders and get away with it.  <br><br> Any other option would validate what he has done, and give them the opposite message, that to get ahead in politics, they should take millions from corporations and ignore the public good.  <br><br> It is time for the public to take our power back.  <br><br> We can do that by voting 'Yes' on the recall,  <br>  <br> and then voting our conscience for a candidate to replace him.  <br><br> Yes, Arnold seeks to be just as bad or worse than Davis. But as a lone, very right wing voice, in a heavily Democratic state, who has just been revealed to be an admirer of Nazis and a sexual predator, he would in fact be an extremely weak governor who would get away with far less damage than Gray Davis himself has done already.  <br><br> And in any case, who is more the Nazi? A macho public action figure who admires Hitler and invites a Nazi to his wedding, or a man who wants to imprison and execute abused women, and children...  <br><br> Vote out of conviction, common sense, and conscience tomorrow.  <br><br> Vote 'Yes' to recall Gray Davis. <br><br> ###<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"We must send the message to all current and future governors\u2026 Behave like Davis and your political career is over. His taking of over a million dollars each from the timber, prison and power industries, and then allowing rampant logging, building more prisons while cutting all other budgets, and only pretending to complain while behind his back allowing energy companies to complete the biggest corporate rip off in California history, means Davis must go. ","numcomment":7,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/10\/87235.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":87247,"heading":"&quot;I'm a liberal, and I'mbeing asked to actually think for once - Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!","article":"HA HA HA !!!\r\n\r\nAnd you liberals and anarchist wonder why we hang out here.  What an utterly confused group of whackos you are.\r\n\r\n&quot;Vote No on the recall.  Arnold is a Nazi groper&quot;\r\n\r\n&quot;Vote Yes on the recall.  Davis is a pro-timber, pro-prison, pro-energy lying scumbag.&quot;\r\n\r\nYou just can't buy this kind of entertainment!!\r\n\r\nThanx, and keep it going.","author":"Yes or No","parent_id":87235,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-07 19:20:23","modified":"2003-10-07 19:20:23","fileurl":""},{"id":87248,"heading":"Really Misguided White Liberal Thinking Above","article":"Obviously Mr. Brooks has no concept of what it means to be a person of color and a woman in the state of California and suffers from liberal white male privilege disease.\r\n\r\nAhnold has been proven to be just an agent of bush, rove, and the right wing and to give him an opportunity to turn california over to the bush cabal is short of ridiculous.\r\n\r\nyes, davis' policies on prisons and the environment suck, but at least we know the nature of his evils, while ahnold presents an entirely unknown animal altogether.\r\n\r\nAnd do you really think Ahnold will be ineffective as governor with president select as commander in chief, especially if he gets re-elected.  come on,  your white liberal privilege has made you naive and ignorant of reality..\r\nbut how would you know since you don't represent those people\r\nwho do go to prison or who have been sexually harrassed by \r\nthe nazi-loving pig.\r\n\r\nget a clue, or I'm gonna have to assume that you're just an \r\nagent for the other side like that dude's wife...","author":"mediawatcher","parent_id":87235,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-07 19:33:45","modified":"2003-10-07 19:33:45","fileurl":""},{"id":87250,"heading":"A Macho Nazi is Worse","article":"I wouldn't trust the macho nazi who has friends in high places that act very nazi-like (right-wing ideals, pre-emptive war, pro-corporate, drops bombs on innocent civilians) than a moderate who now realizes that he can't \r\nbend over for corporate interests or he's out.","author":"voter","parent_id":87235,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-07 19:40:05","modified":"2003-10-07 19:40:05","fileurl":""},{"id":87277,"heading":"Only One Question","article":"I have  one key question for you.\r\n\r\nHave police murders, unprovoked attacks, and profiling of people of color, increased in frequency and severity in California under Gray Davis?\r\n\r\nIt seems to me they have.\r\n\r\nI'll go for getting rid of a deadly white oppressor that I know is one, rather than a possible danger that may occur in the future any day of the week.  You may recall that one of the last death row inmates who's execution Gray Davis failed to commute, was a man of color , who did not even properly understand what was about to happen to him.\r\n\r\nYou may also recall that Davis vetoed a bill that would have made police officers record the race of -every- person that they stopped in a 'routine' stop.\r\n\r\nDo you know the 'good cop-bad cop' game?\r\n\r\nWell. In the scenario with which we are confront today, Gray Davis is 'Good Cop' and Arnold is 'Bad Cop'. \r\n\r\nYou are being asked to accept a white man who is -already- using his power to kill and imprison people of color, only because you are afraid that &quot;Bad Cop&quot; might be worse.\r\n\r\nFear based decisions are bad decisions.\r\n\r\nLet's get rid of the evil that we know, rather than run from the one we fear in our dreams at night.\r\n\r\nArnold is now unlikely to win, and if he does, we can hold him just as accountable as we did Governor Davis if he steps out of line.\r\n\r\nOne final thought. \r\n\r\nUsing your own skin color as a foile against mine does not make your point stronger. \r\n\r\nAnd I have a feeling that I was doing actions like sit down strikes to end apartheid in South Africa, before you were in diapers. What do you know of my understanding of oppression against people of color never having met me in your life?\r\n\r\nI'll tell you what. If you want to scoff at my views because my skin is white, why don't you go and check out what Van Jones (Ella Baker Center), or Angela Davis, or Cornell West have to say on the matter? \r\n\r\nThey -do- have brown skin, so you might consider their views valid.\r\n\r\nBut then again, Justice Clarence Thomas and Ward Connerly are both of African descent and from humble beginnings. Has their experience as black men in America given -them- a better understanding of oppression on people of color than mine? Clearly not.\r\n\r\nWhy don't you judge me by my ideas, rather than my assumed race. It is the same courtesy that you would ask of me...\r\n\r\nPeace\r\n\r\nEric Brooks","author":"Eric Brooks","parent_id":87235,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-07 21:03:39","modified":"2003-10-07 21:03:39","fileurl":""},{"id":87299,"heading":"You aren't chosing between Gray and a Progressive!","article":"You are chosing between Gray Davis and a real corporate-backed Mussoli-style fascist coup. \r\n\r\n That is the choice history gives you to make.  In these treacherous times, which way it goes will greatly the future we all have to live through.   This &quot;recall&quot; will certainly be a turning point in World History, but will it be the Battle of Stalingrad or the Fall of France?  Will it be a point where we can begin to see the end of the creeping fascist nightmare, or are we about to see it get much, much worse?  With Schwarzenegger in office you'll find out from your own experience what REAL fascism is like.","author":"Dancing Dave","parent_id":87235,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-07 21:59:29","modified":"2003-10-07 21:59:29","fileurl":""},{"id":87300,"heading":"EB","article":"&quot;Why don't you judge me by my ideas, rather than my assumed race.&quot;\r\n\r\nBecause that's what we do.  We claim to see people for what they are, but we really divide people into race and class so we can twist things and try and use them to our advantage.  People have been catching on and it's really starting to hurt.","author":"lib","parent_id":87235,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-07 22:00:13","modified":"2003-10-07 22:00:13","fileurl":""},{"id":87319,"heading":"That's because...","article":"...somebody gets a little overzealous every once in a while and yells &quot;No war but class war!&quot; or some such nonsense.\r\n\r\nThat, and the occasional &quot;All white folk are EEEVIL!&quot; poster.","author":"nonanarchist","parent_id":87235,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-07 22:50:23","modified":"2003-10-07 22:50:23","fileurl":""}]}