Cain and Schwarzenegger, according to The Simpsons

By Michael J.W. Stickings

For you Simpsons fans out there -- and if you're not a fan, particularly of the first, oh, 10-12 seasons, what's wrong with you? -- Ranker has a great list of "13 Simpsons jokes that actually came true."

Like, for example, how Lunch Lady Doris puts gym mats in a meat grinder and how we now learn that one of the ingredients used to make gym mats, azodicarbonamide, is actually found in the horrendous McRib. Or how there really is a Scotchtoberfest. And a Flaming Moe. And a Good Morning Burger. And a Land of Chocolate. And a Leftorium, of sorts. And how The Hangover would appear to be a blatant ripoff of the episode "Viva Ned Flanders."

Well, read the whole thing, but allow me to draw your attention to #6, the eerie similarity between Governor Schwarzenegger, as portrayed on The Simpsons, and Herman Cain. At least with respect to the relationship between leading and reading.

Hilarious.

California decriminalizes pot possession

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Well done, Governator:

Citing the need to reduce spending on prosecution and courts, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a measure that makes marijuana possession an infraction, on par with traffic and littering tickets.

The Republican governor's unexpected support for the measure comes one month before voters decide whether to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana in California.

"In this time of drastic budget cuts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement and the courts cannot afford to expend limited resources prosecuting a crime that carries the same punishment as a traffic ticket," wrote Schwarzenegger, who opposes Proposition 19, the marijuana initiative.

The law, which takes effect immediately, reduces possession of up to an ounce of marijuana -- enough for about 30 joints -- from a misdemeanor to an infraction. Already, marijuana possession was the only misdemeanor under California law that didn't allow for jail time.

It's certainly a move in the right direction, though ultimately the answer is to legalize pot, at least in terms of recreational use, as with Prop 19, not just decriminalize it.

There can still be rules around it, of course, just as there are around alcohol use and distribution, but it hardly makes sense to treat possession even as a legal infraction.

Don't get me wrong, I do worry about the extent to which other, harder drugs ought to be decriminalized or legalized, and I constantly go back and forth, drawing the lines at different places, but pot, to me, ought to be treated roughly as alcohol is.

Quote of the Day: Arnold Schwarzenegger on Arizona

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The Governator was in top comedic form in his commencement address at Emory University in Atlanta today:

I was also going to give a graduation speech in Arizona this weekend. But with my accent, I was afraid they would try to deport me. 

Now that, my friends, is funny, a poignant smackdown of Arizona's draconian new anti-immigrant law.

A tale of two governors

By Michael J.W. Stickings

1. Yesterday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a conservative Republican and occasional secessionist, suggested that the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may have been "an act of God" that could not have been prevented." Needless to say, he wants offshore oil drilling to continue.

2. Also yesterday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a moderate Republican with an independent streak and a solid environmental record, reversed his position on offshore oil drilling in the wake of the spill. He is now against it: "You turn on the television and see this enormous disaster, you say to yourself, 'Why would we want to take on that kind of risk?'"

Perry, evidently, is insane, while Schwarzenegger continues to be one of the few voices of reason and responsibility in a party that generally shuns reason and responsibility altogether.

Quote of the Day: Arnold Schwarzenegger on the Tea Party "movement"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The Governator, yesterday on This Week:

[Republicans are] the party of no, and at the same time, I think that there are a lot of people that are disenchanted and dissatisfied and they're angry and this is why you have the Tea Party and all of those things. The Tea Party is not going to go anywhere. I think the Tea Party is all about just an expression of anger and dissatisfaction and I see it in California when people come up to me and says, you know I'm angry that you guys don't get along in Sacramento. I'm angry that they're not getting along in Washington. I'm angry that nothing gets done. I'm angry that I'm unemployed. I'm angry that people are losing homes. I'm angry that businesses are losing their businesses and all of those kind of things. And the economy is down.

But that's only the case in California. That's not only the case in America. That's the case all over the world. If you read six newspapers from different parts of the world, you will see the headlines are pretty much the same. They're all angry at their leaders because the economy is down and the world basically has one-third less wealth right now. And so that makes people angry.

It's not exactly artfully put, but it's right on. There's a lot of anger out there at the moment, both in the U.S. and around the world, and it's anger that to a large extent explains the flourishing anti-incumbent sentiment (including in Massachussets, where Scott Brown rode the wave) and Obama's sagging approval ratings, as well as the popularity and intensity of Tea Party "movement." People are scared and pissed off, and, as we learn from history, when people are scared and pissed off, all sorts of nasty shit can happen, not least when they're being riled up by demagogues, as the teabaggers are by conservative rabble-rousers in the media as well as by some Republicans looking to co-opt the "movement" for their own electoral purposes, or to merge Republicans and teabaggers in an increasingly rightist GOP.

I'm just not sure the "Tea Party" isn't going "anywhere," as Arnold suggested. He may be hopeful that that's the case, but today's Republican Party isn't exactly his Republican Party, or what he wishes the Republican Party would be. In today's Republican Party, moving rightward, with the extremist fringe the mainstream, he appears to be an outcast, a stranger, a heretic. There is certainly a lot of tension between the teabaggers and the Republican establishment, but Republicans on the whole are embracing the far-right populism of the Tea Party "movement," even as they continue to be the party of Wall Street, and, for from going nowhere, these populist teabaggers are coming to play a major role in the GOP whether Arnold likes it or not.

Gunfight at the Oy Vey corral

By Carl

Well, this is stupid:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatening to kill hundreds of bills unless the Legislature delivers one bill on water.

[...]It's ugly. But it's an available political tool that the governor would be derelict not to use when an issue as critical as water is at stake.

The state water system is clogged and rusting. It's a matter of time before the California aqueduct, which funnels Sierra snow runoff from the Sacramento Valley into the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, is shut off. The principal water tank, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, is threatened with potential levee collapses, earthquakes, floods and global warming. And the ecology already is crumbling.

The estuary's fishery is fast disappearing. The endangered delta smelt is a red herring -- a pet target of San Joaquin farmers and the governor who resent federal judges holding back water to save the tiny critter. The real economic tragedy is the decline of the once-abundant king salmon. Their plight has caused a two-year cancellation of commercial fishing for the popular fish, idling boats and shuttering processing plants all along the North Coast.

Nobody argues that the waterworks don't need major repairs and remodeling. But there is a delicate balance that Capitol negotiators have yet to find. It's the balance between investing in a reliable, environmentally friendly water supply and trying to achieve what really must be the state's No. 1 priority: living within its means.

So everyone agrees, this is a worthwhile project. Everyone agrees, the money needs to be spent. Everyone agrees that not to act quickly on this bill can and will endanger the very water supply that allows 2/3 of California's to remain in their homes, and not be forced to evacuate to Oregon and Washington.

The problem? Democrats versus Republicans, and both versus Ahnuld.

Check this out:

Senate Republicans have proposed a $12.4-billion bond issue that would be paid off by all taxpayers. It would include $4 billion for two or three dams. Additionally, users of the newly developed water would kick in at least that much dam-building money.

But Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo disagrees. He would prefer a bond closer to $8 billion.

"We're in the biggest recession of our generation," he says. "We need to spend only what is necessary to solve the problem as quickly as possible . . . without some of the Christmas ornaments and largesse -- a scaled-down package that isn't the ultimate solution for every water problem anyone can imagine, funding every possible stakeholder who has a dog in this hunt."

Democratic leaders basically agree. But they would cut back on dam funding before they would eliminate some of the things Blakeslee would, such as groundwater monitoring and treatment plants. "Much of this bill is a wish list of the far left," the GOP leader asserts. "Frankly, I don't think this is the time for a wish list."

Ironic, isn't it? The Republicans are actually willing to outspend the Democrats by $4 billion, except for the one Republican who actually counts, who wants to match the Democrats funding proposals but eliminate the wrong projects!

And here's Governor Schwarzenegger, basically threatening to shut down significant portions of the state on Sunday if there's no bill by then. Which has pissed the Democrats, who control the legislature, off.

Here's the real cruz of the problem, and it reflects the national positions of both parties: Republicans want to fund the entire $12 (or $8) billion through bond issues to be paid out of general tax revenues. Democrats want to correctly assign at least part of the burden on the people who most benefit from the improved and more secure water supplies, levying a small usage tax on them to help pay for the repairs and upgrades.

Of course, to be perfectly honest, both groups are spending money that they don't have, but the Democrats proposal is clearly more in line with the sentiment of California taxpayers and their mantra of limiting taxes: reducing the cash available to pay for the day-to-day operations of the state is cutting your nose to spite your face, while even the most conservative Glibertarian can wrap their heads around a "pay for play" plan.

And yet, Schwarzenegger, by threatening to veto some 700 bills including a bill that prevents health insurers from dropping their customers at all, unless fraud can be proved, and to retrofit some bridges in earthquake prone regions.

Um. Hm. Talk about cutting one's nose to spite one's face...

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Schwarzenegger speaks out on Proposition 8

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Much to his credit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was against California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that, in passing last Tuesday, banned same-sex marriage in the state. Schwarzenegger has been somewhat erratic on the issue of same-sex marriage over the years, but he seems now to be, at the very least, not against it. And he's come out swinging:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday expressed hope that the California Supreme Court would overturn Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage. He also predicted that the 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who have already wed would not see their marriages nullified by the initiative.

"It's unfortunate, obviously, but it's not the end," Schwarzenegger said in an interview Sunday on CNN. "I think that we will again maybe undo that, if the court is willing to do that, and then move forward from there and again lead in that area."

So he was against Prop. 8, he's against nullifying existing same-sex marriages, he's for the courts overturning Prop. 8 (and presumably reinstating the legality of same-sex marriage), and he's urging the same-sex marriage proponents to keep fighting despite this latest setback:

On Sunday, he urged backers of gay marriage to follow the lesson he learned as a bodybuilder trying to lift weights that were too heavy for him at first. "I learned that you should never ever give up... They should never give up. They should be on it and on it until they get it done."

I would urge the governor to fight alongside them. Along with his work on the environment and global warming, this could be one of the key components of his legacy. Not to mention it's the right thing to do.

"My mission is to protect you."

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Uh-oh. More trouble for the Hugh Hewitts of the world, the purificationist ideologues of the conservative movement. They hate McCain and are pitching Romney as the saviour of "the Reagan Coalition," but McCain is now the frontrunner, Huckabee's still in the race, draining much-needed christianist support from Romney, who has his own impurity problems, and Giuliani and other insufficiently conservative Republicans are enthusiastically lining up behind McCain, who, by the way, is stridently conservative, whatever the maverick myth, don't let them fool you.

And one of the next big additions to the McCain fold could be one of the superstars of the GOP, the insufficiently conservative Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, CNN is reporting, is in talks with the McCain campaign regarding a formal endorsement -- which, if the governator is to be believed, may not come before Super Tuesday, which includes California's primary, but which would, I think, be a major boost for McCain. I'm hardly an admirer of Arnie the Politician (except on global warming), but it's probably worthwhile to have him on your side.

And just imagine how much more enraged McCain's conservative enemies would be.

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Update: MSNBC is reporting that Schwarzenegger will endorse McCain today. Yes, a huge boost for McCain. Romney will look awfully small next to the McCain-Schwarzenegger combo. As will the Hugh Hewitts of the world.

See here for a wrap-up of Wednesday's GOP debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.

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The title of this post is taken from what may be Schwarzenegger's best movie, Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

As for the photo below, maybe they're talking about Skynet. You never know.

All for a good cause

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Hey, every little thing helps: "Women in the Philippines vie for a place in Miss Earth -- an international beauty pageant aiming to raise awareness of environmental issues."

Which of course brings us to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has said that environmentalism needs to be "hip and sexy" (and a Filipino beauty pageant is surely sexy, if not necessarily hip). "Environmentalists were no fun, they were like prohibitionists at a fraternity party." "Successful movements aren't built on guilt, they are built on passion."

Right on, Governor.

McCain criticizes Bush on Iraq, global warming

By Michael J.W. Stickings

He may shamelessly pander to the GOP base, the religious right, on a regular basis, and he may have spent much of the past six years cozying up to Bush, but John McCain at least occasionally has the good sense to get the hell off the ship before it sinks any further. Consider:

Republican front-runner Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., took several sharply worded shots at the Bush administration this week, distancing himself from an unpopular president and an unpopular war while wooing the right Republicans who put the president in power and once before denied McCain the White House.

McCain's latest anti-Bush tirade came during a joint appearance Wednesday in California with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.

The two leaders met to discuss energy and the environment, but the subject turned to Iraq.

Though McCain is a staunch supporter of the president's plan to add troops in Iraq, the 2000 Bush foe and 2008 contender called Bush's initial pursuit of the Iraq War "a train wreck" and labeled the administration's record on global warming as "terrible."

What is clear, though, is that McCain wants to have it both ways. He wants to be the loyal party man (and base-wooing social conservative) in order to win over both the establishment and the base, but he also wants to retain his reputation as a maverick who is willing to address key issues such as the environment from the lofty perch of independence.

It won't work.

This is the McCain I prefer, the McCain who appears with Schwarzenegger and takes tough stands against Bush on Iraq and global warming, but the McCain who wants to win the White House is the McCain who takes extreme positions on abortion, same-sex marriage, and other key cultural wedge issues.

I suspect that the more genuine McCain is the one who appeared with Schwarzenegger. And perhaps that is the McCain who would occupy the White House should he make it that far.

To make it that far, though, he'll need to keep pandering to the base. And he won't make it that far if it's as obvious as it is that he's trying to have it both ways.