If I was a Californian I would be wary about expecting too much from the newly-elected Governor Schwarzenegger. Events may prove me wrong but I rather doubt that he will have much impact on life in California. Or even that much impact on politics in California for that matter.
Some people, however, are expecting the worst. Below is a selection on unedited posts from the forum of the Democratic Underground and I give you my assurance that these are far from being the most lurid:
This nation is jam-packed with starfuckers, let’s face it. No one seems to give a damn about issues that affect their own goddamn wallets, but “it would be soooooooo cool to have a movie star for governor, woo-hoo!!!!!!!!”
There are dozens of reasons why Colly-forn-eeya went for Arnie, but don’t underestimate the power of the starfucker vote. It is very, very closely linked to the booger-eatin’ vote.
But who will speak for the ‘booger-eaters’ if not Arnie?
No way in HELL was that recall legit. NO WAY. I don’t care what anyone says, FIX.
We all know the 2000 Pres. election was a FIX, I’d bet the farm that Jeb being re(s)elected was a fix too (keep in mind this state’s election process is brought to you by…KKKatherine Hairass). And there is NO WAY in hell that such a liberal state like California would vote for a roid freak, sexist, Nazi…unless…IT’S A FIX.
Do you honestly imagine that Arnie would work without a script?
what things would these kind of people do to us?
whenever something like this happens the innocent people always suffer first. it is not just a political enemies thing. hitler did not just go after his rivals, he went after defenseless jews. when bush and rove and that gang finally get the power they need what will happen to normal american citizens?
Ze Democrats vill be deported. California vill be ‘democratrein’. Ze pure-blooded Californian Aryan folk must haf ze lebensraum.
DU is a great place, but it would be too easy to be infiltrated and contaminated here. We need someplace online that is well-encrypted and secure from prying eyes to do our serious planning. We also will want to get in touch with ANSWER and MoveOn, work with them, maybe set up some kind of rebel high command.
And while you’re about it, get in touch with Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. They’ve got a score to settle too.
Oh come on, chaps. Stop trying to put a brave face on things. You’re a bit upset, aren’t you. I can tell. I can always tell.
The thing I find most ironic is that these bed-wetters, who seem to actually believe that the Fourth Reich is about to break out, would like to…ban guns. Which would make it impossible to rebel against the government.
Stupid and cowardly. They’ve got the scarecrow and the lion covered.
Surely the whole site is an elaborate–and very funny–joke by a non-liberal-Democrat at the loony left’s expense? Read the Ask Auntie Pinko section where this seems to me clearest.
I especially liked the posts calling for a test to demonstrate eligibility to vote.
That’s the ticket! Let’s disqualify everyone from voting who thinks differently, them we will be free to pass legislation sending them to ‘re-education’ camps. Or how about work camps. we could put the slogan work makes you free on the front gate.
The media tells us that the fascists are all on the left. Not surprising that they got that one wrong too.
Think you are being too pessimistic here. He’s got Pete Wilson’s old team who have been used to dealing with Cali’s loony legislature and a line item veto. With all the free media attention he will garner, he might be able to go over the heads of the legislature and address the people directly to get some changes. And if the legislature balks too much maybe the California electorate will throw some of those bums out as well, though the state is supposedly heavily gerrymandered. This is a great day if only b/c it sends the DU type people into orbit! Thanks for the chuckle worthy post.
The LA Times is bitter, and it is priceless. (For those who do not want to wrestle with the LAT’s registration system, the headline is “Der Gropenfuhrer Muscles His Way Into Office — So What Now?”).
Have a quick look here and see if the same thing strikes you as odd that does me….
*****
That’s right; the first pie-chart.
The BBC’s graphicator–no doubt still pumped from singing the “The Peoples Flag is…” (etc, ad nauseam) at the party conference–thinks Republicans are blue and Democrats are red.
It’s official. The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is gone. It’s been replaced by a Vast Left Wing Insanity!
..Wow…
That’s all I can muster right now after reading this fine selection of paranoid fantasy.
…wow…
–rebel high command? Gee, while their at it, they better get obi wan kenobi too!
this is for all those people who are against Ah-nuld, SUCK ON IT!!! Whatever, some people think hes not qualified, the majority spoke! And who says politicians dont use scripts??? NEWS FLASH, THEY ALL DO!!! Some dont even write their own speeches.
Guy Herbert wrote:
The BBC’s graphicator–no doubt still pumped from singing the “The Peoples Flag is…” (etc, ad nauseam) at the party conference–thinks Republicans are blue and Democrats are red.
Uhhhh that’s correct as far as I can tell. Not that I like the whole left/right thing but traditionally:
Republican = conservative = blue
Democrat = liberal = red
Granted the are all Statist Scum, so it make little difference what color you paint it, it is still a pile of crap.
Hey what color is libertarian? Green goes to the eco-freaks, Yellow to the hardcore socialists, do we get stuck with purple?
Whats that I hear? Why I think its the sound of the Left-Winged Moonbat Idiotarian howling at the moon.
Actually, Pham, in the aftermath of the last Presidential election, the maps of the electoral breakdown used a red/blue split that had the Dems as blue and the Repubs as red. It was a little counterintuitive then, but I am afraid that it has passed into the lexicon that way. “Blue states” is shorthand for Dem-leaning states, etc.
Assigning the blue states to the Dems this way was new, and it followed the basic pro-Dem bias of the media, as blue is traditionally the color used for the “good guys” in US military exercises, and red is assigned to the opposition force.
What color for the libertarians? Hmm. The anarchists have black, the French have white (for their flags, doncha know), the eco-nuts have green, the gay activists have pink. Maybe a nice soothing mauve?
Pham, it used to be that way, but recently the colors were switched, for some reason. Anyway, “red” as a synonym for “communist” seems to have fallen out of fashion. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it used that way.
Pham,
Interesting that you should raise the issue of political colours because I was thinking about this only a short while ago. I settled on mauve for liberty but purely through a process of elimination.
They need a Rebel High Command because a Rebel Sober Command is, well, so uncool.
I went straight for DU when the election results came in.
It’s like rubbernecking at an accident scene. A horrific sight, but you can’t stop looking at it.
Whenever I want a laugh I look at the Indymedia sites as well as democraticunderground. These people feed off each other’s paranoia. I have seen posters try to inject reality. Said poster generally gets pounced on and accused of being a RIGHT WINGER. == The worst thing you can be called on those boards/blogs.
If you add the votes both Republicans received in California, it’s about 60% of the total. If I wanted to see a Democrat elected, I’d start wondering what the party was doing wrong. I wouldn’t start spouting conspiracy theories.
The presidential election will be lots of fun. I can’t wait to read what these idiots will post.
I believe there is still a Jedi Master in seclusion on Dagobah.
But Net access I don’t think he has….
::sigh::
California seems to use gold as the color for Libertarians.
Gold for Libertarians? I like it!
California is called the golden state both for the metal (1848+), but also for the grass-covered hills which are gold 8+ months a year.
Gold umbrellas on Tejon
For a long time I’ve had a theory that the Republicans=Red and Democrats=Blue scheme was the more the result of common word associations than any tradition.
I assume that the association comes from the maps put out by the media indicating how the states or districts have voted in the last election. The mapmakers like to use our national colors because, well, elections are patriotic. So they color all of the regions which vote for one party red and the regions which voted the other way blue, with white left for undecided sections.
I think that the natural tendency is to color Republican areas as red because both words start with an “R”. The Democrat’s first letter, on the other hand, resembles a “B” so it doesn’t seem out of place to make them blue. After a while we’ve become used to the associations.
The colors would work either way; both Red and Blue have been worn by countries and causes which are liked by one or the other party, and the Democrats aren’t as associated with socialism as is the British left (on the whole, I mean).
My guess as a cartographer is that the color scheme was chosen for aesthetics and ease of viewing — one can argue that blue amid a predominant field of red is better than the opposite.
Heh.
And this “rebel high command” is going to fight with what? Its people like me with all the guns, perhaps one day I can stop shooting at cans with my AK and shoot at molotov-wielding idiotarians instead.
These people are so going to get lit up if they try and start some shit.
What makes me laugh is that the same thought patterns of these people are the ones that gave us big government in the first place. Whether Libertarian or Conservative or whatever we have been fighting the expansion of government power for 70years now. These idiots finally realize “wow, hey, someone we don’t, like, like could, you know, seize and use this power, like against us man” Maybe we’re not as far away from a reversal as we thought, if we could just get the message through to these DU people.
The new governor has a weapon that Davis lacked and if he’s smart, he’ll use it. He’s got a significant swath of pi$$ed off voters in his corner, and if he is able to invokes their wrath, say, to write their representatives to support items on his agenda, I’d bet the gridlock that’s characterized business as usual in Sacramento for the last several years loosens up fairly quickly.
In addition, I’m somewhat optimistic on a general trend towards improvement based on the fact that he seems to be somewhat liberal socially, but fiscally conservative. He’s got some basis for communication with both sides. That can’t hurt.
I suspect he will be more effective than people think. Granted, that’s not a very high bar, but I expect he will exceed people’s expectations and perhaps undo a little of the damage that’s been done over the past few years.
Heck, striking a blow against Davis’ machine is a step in the right direction. I’m very cautiously optimistic.
About 12% of American men are red-green colorblind. Blue-yellow colorblindness is more rare, but far from unknown. Anyone with either of those forms of colorblindness will still be able to differentiate between blue and red.
The US military has traditionally used the colors blue and red on maps, such as in some of the books I’ve got, and blue is used for friendly forces, while red is used for enemies. More or less, blue is the good guys and red is the bad guys.
My “West Point Atlas of American Wars” uses this convention, which means that the British are red in the revolutionary war and the war of 1812, and the Confederacy is red in the Civil war, and the Germans and Austrians are red in WWI, and Germany and Italy and Japan are red in WWII. Which means the USSR and China are blue on WWII maps, but red on maps relating to the Korean war.
So blue was used for Democrats and red for Republicans by America’s press. Hmm… blue is the good guys, red is the bad guys?
SDB-cool idea.
Anyone proposing that the recall was illegitimate must accept that they believe the voters’ choice doesn’t matter, or cognitive dissonance will occur.
From time to time, an agenda MUST be defeated by the people, even if just for show…
This recall also makes a great study of reactance, or people responding to events in a way which reinforces their sense of freedom. This is naturally the Left’s enemy, as it “gets in the way” of their transnational-progressive agenda. Therefore they will try to stop me from voicing my anti-Left opinion, even if I didn’t have one. God help you if you try to help them do just that…
About 12% of American men are red-green colorblind.
Such as me. Interesting note: I can determine color in black-and-white photographs. I believe it is because of compensation by my brain that uses greyscale to see “color” because of my color blindness.
A perfect example of this is that I used to play a computer chess game on a black-and-white screen. The only way to tell the pieces apart was by color. Yet I could play, and easily. My father once walked in and could not believe how I could play, because he just could not tell between the pieces.
Also, camouflage does not work on me at all. I believe they used color blind guys in WWII to spot camouflaged vehicles and planes.
Does anyone ever worry about these little snots actually starting to kill people? There’s been several cases of eco-terrorism in the U.S. West – arsons, mainly – and I do wonder, and worry, that some of the loony left may escalate their destruction to German Red Army-type activities.
Granted, this would interfere with their going to Burning Man and Phish concerts,* but some might make the sacrifice.
*(for European readers, Burning Man and Phish are two “be-in” type events, where neo-hippies congregate in great, patchouli-soaked masses.)
Waaaaah! Waaaaaah! It’s not fair! Do-over…
I don’t know who else they expected to win but Arnie. The Democratic party bosses were so intent on protecting Davis’s ass that they threatened to withold furture support from any credible Democrat who tried to enter the race, i.e. Dianne Feinstein. That left a choice between Davis, Casino-controlled Cruz Bustamente, Arnie and Tom McClintock. Davis was unpopular, Cruz was tainted by being Davis’s Lt. Governor, and McClintock was too right-wing for the majority of Californians. That left Arnie by process of elimination alone.
The Democrats blew this race by their own incompetence. Blaiming it on the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is absurd. However, the more they wallow in this kind of stuff, the more big races they will lose.
Interesting post SDB, so Cruz joining the race despite the DNC’s desire to have no name Democrats in the election perhaps could be considered a blue-on-blue event, or a friendly fire that cost them the election.
Regarding the blue/red thing: As I recall, the media switches the colors from election year to election year. In 1996, the Democrats were red, the Republicans were blue. In 2000, vice versa.
DU is pretty sad. The fact that Arnold got 100,000 more votes than Davis did in 2002 is a pretty harsh rebuke.
Surely the whole site is an elaborate–and very funny–joke by a non-liberal-Democrat at the loony left’s expense? Read the Ask Auntie Pinko section where this seems to me clearest.
Regrettably, Guy, I know for a fact that they’re serious. My brother-in-law owns the ISP they’re hosted on (my site was there for a while, as well; that always amused me) and my sister knows the site’s owner. Hard though it is to believe, they mean every word, I assure you.
Does anyone ever worry about these little snots actually starting to kill people?
With what? They are terrified of guns, and everyone knows that explosives are full of chemicals that are bad for baby harp seals and Mother Gaia.
They have neither the means nor the stones.
I think Gold is definately the color for Libertarians. Think Galt’s Gulch from Atlas Shrugged
Regarding California, I’m just sad it’s over. What great entertainment.
They have neither the means nor the stones.
They do have fire, though, and they have shown that they love to use it.
Democrats against Democracy. Quite ironic…
These morons call for testing voters? Knowing damn well if a right-winger proposed it they’d be called “fascist nazi scum”.
DemocraticUnderground is a prime example of why the Democratic Party is swirling in the crapper.
One or two folk on this thread have wondered whether the creeps who write for DU would ever resort to violence in the future, given their obvious hatred for 99 pct of their fellow citizens, and their growing slide into paranoia. I honestly don’t know. Most of them will just continue to keep us all amused with their deranged ravings. But it makes you wonder if some of them may go over a cliff, metaphorically speaking.
Of course, I have no doubt the FBI/CIA etc have these jerks in their radar. Or at least they should have.
Just one single stuff.
Was Mr Schwarzenegger “elected” with ***48*** % of the votes only?
Yes Kodiak, that’s the way the constitution of CA has it’s recall replacement setup, it’s a strict most-votes-wins, not a first past the post plurality, no runoff or Condorcet ranking either.
And Clinton got less than 50% both times, so leave that non-starter straw man at home.
I’m shocked that no one has mentioned that the first impluse one wild-eyed DU droid had was to hook up with that gang of unreconstructed Stalinists at ANSWER. Has anyone ever heard, even in jest, a mossback growl how the solution to one’s electoral woes lies in hopping into bed with neo-Nazis, Ku Kluxers or the Birchers?
LATimes userid “deathtoregistration”, password likewise.
David Mercer: strange country you’re living in…
A travesty of democracy, at best.
A postmodern form of nepotist, populist Caesarism, more probably.
The point of that part of the CA constitution is so that the people always have the ability to remove the governor if they are not happy, for whatever (or no) reason.
But I suppose consent of the governed doesn’t mean much to you.
As far as the ‘not being able to be removed until their term is over, unless they commit crimes’ argument is concern, yes, that gives an elected official the ability to make hard decisions. But Gray Davis’ main failing was the utter inability to make ANY hard decision based on ANY principal, good, bad ugly or otherwise.
If the People no longer consent to their Govt., they have the right to remove it. CA let’s that happen at any time with no shots fired.
It’s The Peoples “Reset Button”, and is, IMHO, one of the better (and few good) ideas of the late 19th Century Progressives in the US.
Of course the EU is moving in the opposite direction from this, which is why the left finds the entire thing so abhorant.