agitprop version 2.0

Governor Photo-Op

For those of you unaware, wildfires have burned over 17,000 acres here in Southern California. Mrs. Prop was watching KCAL 9 News (a local news station for the Los Angeles area) when they cut away to an outdoor press conference with Governor Schwarzenegger. She taped the press conference which allowed me to provide you this dispatch.

In classic Arnold photo-op style, he was standing at a podium in front of two firetrucks and was flanked by about 15 to 20 firefighters. He completed his short schpeel about the progress our firefighters were making and then opened the forum up to questions.   

The first reporter asked the Gropenfuhrer why he had vetoed four bills which would have provided firefighters with extra funding, new streamlined procedures, new helicopters and safety equipment. Arnold brushed off the question saying "I don't think we should bring politics into this" and also added that he is a big friend of the firefighters because he actually played a firefighter in one of his lame movies.

The next reporter challenged Arnold's response by noting that the firefighters standing behind the Governor were ordered to do so--thus politics must play a role. The men behind Arnold all looked like props; some of them even smiled and nodded when the Governor spoke. Arnold has a long history of photo-ops--the pothole incident in particular.

Firefighters have been some of the Governor's loudest critics, along with teachers and nurses, ever since he tried to privatize their pension system. I was pleasantly surprised to see bold reporters assault Arnold with some tough questions. If that were Bush in the hot seat he probably would have peed his pants and plummeted into a one-minute long stutter.

(Thanks to Mrs. Prop for recording the news conference)

A Note To My Governor

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

I hear there's a special election coming up in our state. So, I decided to check out your website to see what all the fuss is about. I was disappointed after reading Mike Murphy’s blog entry “Ramblings From Mike Murphy” to learn that his icon is a picture of a well-known Nazi scientist, Dr. Strangelove. I do not think it is proper to adorn your political campaign website with pictures of Nazis, or actors playing Nazis for that matter.

Furthermore, I have been using a picture of Dr. Strangelove (played by Peter Sellers) as my internet icon for far longer than Mike Murphy has.  Mr. Murphy is corrupting my wholesome online image by writing nasty blog posts from his "heavily fortified Truth Tower". I would ask Mike to please change his buddy icon or else face legal action from both the Prop family and the Stanley Kubrick estate.

It is for this reason I cannot support your special election this November. I know that you'd love to turn my fair California Republic into a privatized fascist nightmare. But I'll be making sure that come November 2006, you can return to making crappy action films.

Sincerely,

Agi T. Prop

I Love L.A. (We Love It)

Who has the potential for causing more harm to the great city of Los Angeles? Al Qaeda terrorists or inept utility workers? I'm gonna go with the utility workers:

LOS ANGELES – Utility workers connected the wrong wires and caused a blackout across major portions of Los Angeles on Monday afternoon, trapping people in elevators and snarling traffic at intersections, authorities said. Hundreds of thousands of people were affected by the resulting power surge and outages, which were reported from downtown west to the Pacific Coast and north into the San Fernando Valley. Several workers who were installing an automated transmission system hooked up the wrong wires, according to Ron Deaton, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

I was listening to the John Roberts confirmation hearings on LA's Pacifica station KPFK around 1 PM today. The announcer came on to warn listeners that the station had run out of emergency power and was going to shut down in five minutes. That's what happens when you're not owned by Clear Channel.

Meanwhile, some white guy in a turban from Australia claiming to be from Al Qaeda threatened to attack Los Angeles. Should we take him seriously? Mr. Mayor:

Villariagosa said Los Angeles officials have stressed to federal officials that all information shows the city is one of the top targets of terrorists and why he and Bratton have been seeking more funds to hire police and provide them with the equipment that is needed.

"That was why I went to Washington and Sacramento, to get them to realize the threat that is there and try to get away from this per capita formula of how they spend money and give it based on the threat to cities,'' Villaraigosa said. Also, the mayor said he is also concerned about the psychological impacts of such threats that could result in a further erosion of liberties.

"It is a question, we in a democratic society, have to deal with,'' Villaraigosa said. "We don't want to give up the rights that made this country so great because of this kind of threat.''

Why do liberal cities get either (a) threatened, (b) attacked or (c) left to suffer and die under the Bush administration?

los angeles

Los Angeles County Gets Circumcised

I'm not sure if the following story is a bad case of political correctness or an exhibit of pro-family wingnuttery. But, the folks at the California State Fair in Sacramento have altered a map of Los Angeles County because critics thought it resembled a penis:

Visitors to the California State Fair may notice something peculiar about the map of Los Angeles County on display: It's no longer anatomically correct. Embarrassed by suggestions that the 3-D map resembles male genitalia, county officials this week ordered a small section near Malibu lopped off.

"We didn't want to offend the public," said Judy Hammond, the county's director of public affairs. "I know sex is a good advertising tool, but that's not really what we were going for."

The operation alters the shape of a large wooden box that stands at the entrance of the county's exhibit at the Cal Expo fairgrounds in Sacramento, which opened to the public on Friday. The box, in the shape of the county, is adorned with a heart as part of the county's exhibit theme: "We love L.A. County."

They had to chop off the city of Malibu in order to make it appear less phallic!

County officials said they had never considered the map anything but gender-neutral. But because "it's such a prominent part of our exhibit, we didn't want to detract from the rest of the display," Hammond said.

Now we are worried about the gender of counties? I would expect Governor Gropenfuhrer to celebrate this virile, masculine symbol of phallic power. I guess he was too busy filling his Potemkin potholes.

Try this. Take a look at the California state map. Doesn't the entire state look like a penis that curves to the right? Ooh, and what are those two holes which comprise the San Francisco Bay? Quick, better call James Dobson.

California Über Alles

            

I've just posted a short rant at Operation Yellow Elephant dedicated to the California Young Republicans. Why aren't Arnold's neo-fascist minions rushing to Iraq to go fight terrorists? Perhaps they are girlie men . . .

Suburban Oligarchies

I got home today and learned that my credit card was charged $600 for a hotel in El Salvador last week. Then I found this letter in my mailbox (names and phone numbers have been redacted for confidentiality) :

I went outside to look and my garage was no more dusty than the other ten garages in my cul-de-sac. Yes there was a little dirt caked on the white door I'll admit. But it was nothing over the top, not enough to warrant a citation.

I pay my homeowners' association $129 per month so that they can cut the neighborhood grass and scold me for having a dirty garage door. This is a prime example of how regulation gets out of hand. If they want me to clean my garage door then they can provide me with a 100 foot-long hose. Until then, choke on it suckers.

A Word About Teachers

Both my aunt and uncle are high school teachers. So is my other uncle. My Mom teaches at a junior college. Currently my wife is applying for a teaching credential program and looking for teaching jobs for the fall. Let's just say that Agitprop loves teachers. They are the individuals responsible for educating and socializing our youth to become functioning informed citizens (besides parents obviously). I admit that our nation's school system has major problems (funding, management, leadership, etc.) but without the hard work and dedication of our teachers, society would not be able to reproduce itself successfully. Thus, I am a firm believer in a well-rounded progressive education.

That brings me to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. See, my governor is on a megalomaniac crusade against teachers, nurses and firefighters. He believes that public employees are special interests who are taking "the people's money" and using it to dominate the California legislature and increase the state budget deficit. Arnold's donors, which include financial institutions, real estate developers, mortgage companies and large retail companies, apparently do not fit into the special interest typology. Mind you, his main campaign pledge was that he would not take special interest money because he was already a millionaire. But he has accepted more special interest cash than Gray Davis in only 18 months!

Just look at the benefits of being an Arnold donor:

Top contributors to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have been rewarded with a private telephone number that gives them access to his closest advisers — and even the governor himself. The Los Angeles Times on Sunday said major donors are invited twice a month to participate in conference calls featuring information about the governor's campaign strategy. In turn, donors who dial in can give the governor or his advisers advice.

Arnold has not been able to get his way with the Democratic-controlled state legislature so he is planning to pull his own nuclear option by calling a special November election to have the public vote on his ballot measures. Public employee unions have been the main opponents of the Governor's plans for privatization of the state pension system, mid-decade redistricting, and increasing executive authority over budget matters. Now Arnold is fighting back against the evil public employees.

During one of the Governor's special interest conference calls with top donors, a top Schwarzenegger strategist disclosed plans for creating a "phenomenon of anger" toward public employees in order to rally citizens around Arnold's ballot measures. Was Karl Rove on that conference call?

Calling teachers "special interests" is cruel and disgraceful. Governor Schwarzenegger should be ashamed of himself. Californians thought they were being so cool by recalling Governor Davis and voting in a movie-star Governor. Well, I saw through that smokescreen and did not vote for the recall. All those Arnold voters should be singing "Won't Get Fooled Again" while he slowly turns our state into a Bush-Rove Texas.

Life in the Orange Curtain

Atrios posted a discussion about The O.C. last night. No, not the stupid Fox teen drama, but the county, which happens to be my place of residence. It turns out that the median home price in O.C. is $555,000. Atrios writes:

The O.C. - home to B1 Bob Dornan, the Nixon Library, John Wayne Airport, Kevin Drum, and Fox Teen Dramas - isn't quite what people think it is. I began my blogging career during my mercifully brief tenure there. I lived in Laguna Beach for most of that time, an odd oasis in an odd place. But, despite its history and reputation, the O.C. is not the uniformly rich white county one might think. Large chunks of it are home to immigrant and minority communities (primarily Vietnamese and Hispanic). Quite clearly large chunks of the population are not in the "$550,000 house-buying crowd."

O.C. - Not what you think!
Laguna Beach - property rich/income poor!
Housing bubble? shhhh!!
Prop. 13 - wack!

He's right. Orange County, CA, birthplace and home of conservatives like Richard Nixon, Lou Sheldon, and the John Birch Society, has a real estate market who's bubble is about to burst.  Prices for single family homes have risen 100% in most areas within the past seven years. Orange County is not the fiction you see on Fox's The O.C. Yes, there are people in Newport Beach who have homes like that and own three Jaguars and three Hummers each, but the real O.C. is much more normal.

Radical anarchist Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine grew up in my city of Irvine. We've got the liberal-tarian weekly paper The OC Weekly as well as Indie 103 FM. The old right-wing base is not as strong as it used to be, but Republicans still outnumber Democrats in this county 3 to 2. The OC Weekly ranks the Christian televangelist Trinity Broadcasting Network's headquarters and the Richard Nixon Library as the scariest places in O.C.

Terminating Democracy

Arnold's new slogan is "Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money!" because he can raise all the cash he wants for his special election this year. Full article here.

SACRAMENTO - A Superior Court judge cleared the way for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to raise unlimited cash to promote his agenda to voters, ruling Friday that the state's political watchdog improperly limited donations for ballot measures. The ruling overturned a Fair Political Practices Commission regulation that would have restricted Schwarzenegger's efforts to raise $50 million for a package of constitutional amendments he wants to put before voters in the fall . . . Schwarzenegger and Citizens to Save California are circulating petitions to qualify ballot measures that would increase the time it takes for teachers to earn tenure, privatize public pensions and change the way congressional and legislative districts are drawn. The governor raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the campaign and his re-election at events earlier this month in Washington D.C., New York, Cincinnati, Sacramento and Los Angeles.

I knew that Rove and his Republican gangsters were behind this all along. It just reeks of conspiracy. It started back in 2001 and 2002 when Kenny Boy at Enron decided to toy with California's power grid. The rolling blackouts were blamed on then Governor Gray Davis. Then, Enron collapsed in 2002 and took half of California's economy with it. Davis was blamed for bankrupting California (oooh and he wanted to give illegal aliens driver's permits too!).

In comes Arnold Schwarzenegger (freshly bankrolled by union-buster Walmart, real estate developers and energy companies) as the moderate Republican here to "save California from special interests". Meanwhile, he has taken more special interest money than any governor in history. But he claims that special interests include only labor unions and native American tribes, not large corporations and other business interests that have been his biggest boosters.

Schwarzenegger has been unable to enact his Bushian ownership society agenda through the Democratic-controlled state legislature. So he is raising over $50 million dollars to bankroll a special election and have Californians vote on the measures. All he has to do is confuse the voters with a few enigmatic propositions and he gets his way and bypasses the legislature. This whole thing is a draconian power grab à la Hugo Chavez or Vladimir Putin--the main goal for Schwarzenegger to reduce the legislature's ability to control the state budget and then break the back of the teachers' unions. Schwarzenegger is setting his sights on the White House. All he has to do is embark on a hard right agenda and prove himself as a true Bushie to be accepted by the national Republican party. Here is his program to terminate democracy in Cal-ee-four-nee-ah:

• Privatize the Teachers' Pension System = Similar to Bush privatization plans for Social Security. This will break the backs of teachers' unions. He also wants to promote merit pay for teachers instead of standard salary. The end goal is to completely privatizate education. Sound too extreme? I wouldn't put it past him.
• Executive control of the budget = Bypass the legislature and let the governor make quarterly budget adjustments.
• Redistricting = Tom DeLay has mastered this one. Well Arnold wants to redistrict California in the middle of the decade. Typically you do this right after the Census, not five years after!

We can only expect more political and electoral shenanigans in California this year.

Protesting the Special Interest Governor

My governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the so-called People's Governor, is on a self-appointed crusade to battle what he calls the "special interests" in Sacramento. When someone says special interests I usually think of big political donors like fat cat industry executives and corporate leaders. To Arnold, the special interests destroying Sacramento are teachers, nurses, firefighters and unions. He has turned to an independent committee led by seven of California's most influential and prominent business advocates to drive his efforts for fiscal and political reform. The group, Citizens to Save California, has supplied most of the funding and manpower for Schwarzenegger's statewide push for the 600,000 signatures he needs to qualify each of his proposed constitutional amendments for a November special-election ballot. The four point plan he wishes to enact to reform California consists of the following:

1. Cutting social spending instead of raising taxes
2. Privatizing the state pension system
3. Cutting education spending
4. Re-drawing the Congressional districts

So I happened to be driving home from work today on my normal route past the Hyatt in Irvine, CA when I see a large crowd of people. It turns out that Citizens to Save California was having a fundraiser for Arnold at the hotel. Ticket prices started at $1,000 and the top donation of $100,000 includes dinner for two at Mr. Schwarzenegger's table and three photographs with him. So I parked my car and joined in the fun. About 1,000 people came out in the rain to protest Arnold's appearance at this fat cat soiree. Here are some pictures from the demonstration:

 

Arnold has no problem taking thousands of dollars in special interest payola all in the name of fighting "special interests". And what is this group Citizens to Save California? They are "comprised of neither citizens; nor are they going to save California," said Carmen Balber, spokeswoman for the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "It represents the largest industry interests in California, most of whom are also Gov. Schwarzenegger's largest campaign contributors."

Organized labor is fighting back and has created a campaign committee of its own. Six unions -- including the California Teachers Association and California Professional Firefighters -- formed Seriously, Saving California. This committee, which could publicize its agenda as early as this week, expects to endorse and campaign for ballot measures and encourage voters not to sign the governor's petitions. Well, us Californians can look forward to another strange odd-year.

Oh and would you look at the gas prices!