Now here’s something we haven’t seen in a few years…a good election night for the Dems! Despite — or perhaps because of — Dubya’s last-minute visit to the region, Democrat Tim Kaine has won the Virginia governorship. And, after a truly ugly race against GOP stooge Doug Forrester, Senator Jon Corzine is now governor of New Jersey. On the GOP ledger and closer to home, Republican Mike Bloomberg was re-elected New York City mayor in a foregone conclusion (he was leading by 30 points in the polls.) Update: No love for Schwarzenegger, either.
Tag: California
Delusions of Grandeur.
“Even among many influential conservatives, there has been a growing consensus that the Bush governing theory, at least on Social Security, has been proved wrong.” 100 days into the second term, the Dubya White House starts to realize they may not have received a mandate after all. Meanwhile, on the Left Coast, the Governator is learning much the same lesson.
Steppin’ in the OC.
A hearty congrats to my sister‘s boyfriend Ethan, who has been hired as the new artistic director of Ballet Pacifica in Orange County, California. (Don’t worry, New York balletomanes…he’ll still be dancing at the Met each spring with ABT.)
University Blues.
Feeling oh-so-oppressed as usual, student conservatives at Berkeley decry the 7-1 Dem-to-GOP ratio among Humanities and Social Science profs nationwide. Tsk, tsk…they say it like it’s such a bad thing. Well, if you’d prefer that we lefties work elsewhere than academia — say, in government — y’all know how to vote next time.
To Steal Votes for Dubya, press 1.
“The system’s key vulnerability is that county election workers or others with access to the machines could type in a two-digit code and create a second set of results that would then be forwarded to the state as the county’s official tally, said Bev Harris, one of the activists who filed the case.” The State of California joins a lawsuit against Diebold Election Systems, the voting machine maker whose chief executive declared in 2003 that he is “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.” Now, doesn’t that seem like a strange Easter Egg to include in your voting machine? Between this and the Omega-DoD fiasco, the GOP endgame is starting to sound shady.
Immigrant Song.
“If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government, then you are a Republican.” If you believe that rich people deserve tax breaks while the middle-class struggle harder and the poor send their kids to war, then you are a Republican. If you believe that cutting First Responder, Homeland Security, and Nunn-Lugar funding, lying bald-faced to our allies before the UN, letting Osama Bin Laden disappear into the caverns of Afghanistan, and contriving a casus belli to start a war in Iraq that has further alienated the moderate Muslim world is sound anti-terror strategy, then you are a Republican. If you believe an extramarital blow job is an impeachable offense, but dissembling to the American people about war is hunky-dory, then you are a Republican. If you believe God loves you, but He hates gays, liberals, and foreigners, then you are a Republican. If you’re an immigrant bodybuilder who made it to the top of his field through hard work, discipline, and the judicious application of enough steroids to kill a small horse, then you are a Republican. And if you’re a serial groper who was befuddled enough to think Nixon was a good idea in 1968 and who somehow earnestly believes that the GOP hasn’t moved much further right since the days of Tricky Dick, then you are Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Time to build a research lab.
In true Civ 3 fashion, USA Today ranks the most and least literate US cities. “Yuppie magnets” Minneapolis, Seattle, and Pittsburgh are at the top of the list, with Texas and California rounding out most of the bottom slots…score one for the South.
Crom laughs at your Democrats.
“Girlie men?” Don’t mind the Governor…it’s the ‘Roids talking.
The Governator.
Lock up your daughters…Arnold wins handily in California. (Gray Davis, contemplate this on the tree of woe.) Y’know, I never figured Predator and The Running Man to be two-Governor pictures, but there you have it. Well, here’s hoping Schwarzenegger can find a way to extricate Cali from its disastrous fiscal quagmire…Somehow I don’t think repealing the car tax is going to help much.
The Forgetful Pachyderm.
The recall madness in California finally comes to an end. I must say, the past week or so has been enormously instructive in shedding light on the depths of hypocrisy within the GOP. Only a few years ago, the Republicans pushed America to constitutional crisis because they claimed to believe that sexual immorality was an impeachable executive offense. This week, the Republicans have shown that, not only do they not care about executive offenses, they don’t even give a whit about sexual immorality. Ridiculous and shameful. And then consider Florida, Texas, California…again and again, the GOP has run roughshod over the principle of fair elections in the name of their own lust for power. At the end of the day, is there no level below which this party will not sink?