• Arnold Schwarzenegger,  Bear Flag League,  California,  Politics,  Proposition 73,  Proposition 74,  Proposition 75,  Proposition 76,  Proposition 77,  Proposition 78,  Proposition 79,  Proposition 80,  Special Election 2005

    California Special Election Watch: Ballot Measures Crucial for California Reform

    California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger responds to questions during the Special Election Showdown, at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, Calif., Monday Oct. 24, 2005. Schwarzenegger and state Sen. Don Perata and others appeared at the forum to discuss issues in California’s upcoming election.

    The ASSociated Press has Schwarzenegger: Special Election Crucial.

    Defending his November special election before an audience of voters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday the ballot initiatives are crucial to continue changes he launched two years ago.

    He cast the Nov. 8 election as the next step of the 2003 recall election that propelled him to office. Voters, he said, sent him to Sacramento to rebuild the state’s economy and fix a moribund political system.

    “We need reform. We have a broken system. That’s why you sent me to Sacramento — to fix the broken system,” he said. “Please give me the tools.”

    He contended his policies have created 400,000 new jobs and billions in new revenue.

    The 90-minute forum in the east San Francisco Bay area was the first time Schwarzenegger sat for an extended time to field unscripted questions from an audience not chosen by his staff.

    Dan Weintraub of the Sacramento Bee was live-blogging the event.

    Check out his coverage here.

    My take

    We’ll have to see if anybody’s watching this forum or will watch others if they are held. But if the governor is smart, he’ll barnstorm the state and do them in every city. Most voters haven’t seen Schwarzenegger since the campaign, other than in brief snips on the news. They’ve seen and heard him portrayed as an ogre, a bully, an idiot. But his command of the issues is far better than it was two years ago, and he can articulately make his case for his measures, even in the face of tough questions from voters who disagree with him. He relied on his stump speech material at times, but he wasn’t overly scripted. He mixed in humor. He used anecdotes to make his points. He wasn’t perfect. But he was close to it. His opponents weren’t terrible, but they were what they were: defenders of the status quo. If two-thirds of Californians think the state is going in the wrong direction, they’re not likely to be convinced by these folks that everything is just fine.

    Sacramento Bee Columnist Dan Walters and Proposition 77’s Steve Poizner, Photo Courtesy of Dan Weintraub

    The Governor is performing well and although he has already won the special election, he may be initiating a new era in California governance.

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    Cross-posted to the Bear Flag League Special Election Page

  • Criminals,  Liberal Morons,  Politics,  Race

    Stanley “Tookie” Williams Watch: Death Warrant Signed

    Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr., right, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, addresses a crowd of death penalty protesters Monday, Oct. 24, 2005, in Los Angeles. A judge signed a death warrant Monday for convicted killer and Crips co-founder Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams, rejecting his attorneys’ request for a nine-day delay in his execution date.

    The ASSociated Press has Death Warrant Signed for Crips Co-Founder.

    A judge signed a death warrant Monday for Stanley “Tookie” Williams, co-founder of the notorious Crips gang, rejecting his attorneys’ request for a delay in the execution date to give them more time to seek clemency from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

    Williams is scheduled to die Dec. 13 at San Quentin prison. He maintains he is innocent, and supporters cite his renunciation of his past and his efforts to curtail gang violence, including a series of children’s books he co-wrote in prison.

    His lawyers had asked that the execution date be set for Dec. 22, a nine-day delay. The Dec. 13 date means they have only until Nov. 8 to submit a clemency request to the governor. The
    U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider Williams’ case earlier this month.

    “This case has taken over 24 years to get to this point,” Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders said. “That is a long delay in itself and I would hate to add to that delay.”

    24 Years…..

    The California legal system is a disgrace.

    Williams, 53, was sentenced to death in 1981 for fatally shooting Albert Owens, a Whittier convenience store worker, in 1979. He also was convicted of killing two Los Angeles motel owners and their daughter during a robbery that same year.

    The U.S. Supreme Court turned aside his case earlier this month.

    Williams and a high school friend started the Crips street gang in Los Angeles in 1971.

    Supporters have nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel in literature, and a cable TV movie of his life last year starred Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx. Dozens of death penalty opponents demonstrated outside the courtroom. Among them was actor Mike Farrell, who said the proceedings failed to consider “his value, his change, his transformation.”

    If there is going to be a death penalty – which the voters of California have approved – at least administer it fairly and quickly.

    Williams must be brought to justice. He has been convicted of killing four people.

    And who were the MORONS who nominated this convicted murderer for Noble Prizes?

  • Criminals,  Liberal Morons,  Morons,  Politics,  Scum,  Socialists

    George Galloway Watch: May Face Criminal Charges for Givng False Testimony Under Oath to U.S. Senate

    Matt Drudge has UK’S GEORGE GALLOWAY REFUTES NEW OIL SCANDAL CLAIMS.

    George Galloway has strongly refuted new allegations that he pocketed money from Saddam Hussein’s scandal ridden oil-for-food programme and lied about it under oath.

    The US Senate committee investigating the Respect MP’s alleged involvement in the saga claims to have discovered £85,000 (150,000 dollars) in Iraqi oil money in his wife’s bank account.

    Mr Galloway may face criminal charges if found to have given false testimony to the committee when he defended himself against similar claims in a passionate showdown earlier this year.

    The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has accused him of giving “false and misleading testimony” at the May 17 hearing.

    Mr Galloway, who used the headline-grabbing appearance as the basis for a new book, denied being an oil trader, soliciting oil allocations or instructing anyone to do so on his behalf.

    But Republican Senator Norm Coleman, who chairs the committee, claims to have obtained new evidence proving that Saddam’s regime granted oil allocations to the Bethnal Green and Bow MP and his Mariam Appeal fund.

    The committee’s new report accuses Mr Galloway of personally soliciting and being granted eight oil allocations totalling 23 million barrels from the Hussein government between 1999 and 2003.

    It claims that his estranged wife, Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad, received approximately £85,000 (150,000 dollars) in connection with one allocation of oil.

    Developing…

    Arrest this socialist scum, CROOK and LIAR.

    The American Spectator has a good piece, Curious, George! and a link to a transcript of George Galloway’s Senate Testimony.

    Flap and Armed Liberal attended a lecture by this moron in Los Angeles, September 22, 2005. He called President Bush UNCHRISTIAN.

    Galloway is just SCUM.

  • General,  Iraq War,  Liberal Morons,  Politics

    Cindy Sheehan Watch: Will Tie Herself to White House Fence

    Cindy Sheehan (C) joins the Grandmothers Against the War vigil in New York City October 19, 2005. Sheehan, the military mother who made her son’s death in Iraq a rallying point for the anti-war movement, plans to tie herself to the White House fence to protest the milestone of 2,000 U.S. military deaths in Iraq.

    ABC News and Reuters has Iraq war foes ready for 2,000th military death.

    Cindy Sheehan, the military mother who made her son’s death in Iraq a rallying point for the anti-war movement, plans to tie herself to the White House fence to protest the milestone of 2,000 U.S. military deaths in Iraq.

    “I’m going to go to Washington, D.C. and I’m going to give a speech at the White House, and after I do, I’m going to tie myself to the fence and refuse to leave until they agree to bring our troops home,” Sheehan said in a telephone interview last week as the milestone approached.

    And, yes, Martyr Cindy Sheehan will be arrested, booked and released – only to try again later for more martyrdom.

    How about leftie morons like Cindy showing some support for the President and the FREE people of Iraq in establishing liberty and democracy in Iraq?

    No?

    Asking too much, Flap supposes.

    Michelle Malkin has her take, CINDY SHEEHAN CAN’T WAIT.

    Bear Flag Member Daily Pundit has Huh? Who She? A Canadian or Something?

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  • Harriet Miers,  Politics,  Supreme Court

    Harriet Miers Watch: President Remains Confident for Confirmation

    White House Counsel Harriet Miers reacts while speaking with Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N .Y., during a meeting to discuss her nomination to the Suprme Court Capitol Hill Monday, Oct. 17, 2005. Schumer is member of the Judiciary Committee, which will hold hearings and take the first vote on the nomination.

    The ASSociated Press has Bush Confident Miers Will Be Confirmed.

    The White House said Monday that President Bush is confident Harriet Miers will be confirmed to the Supreme Court, even though a Democrat on the Senate panel that will hold hearings on her nomination said she doesn’t have the votes.

    Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush is committed to sticking with Miers until the Senate vote.

    “He’s confident that she will be confirmed because as senators come to know her like the president knows her, we’re confident that they will recognize she will make an outstanding Supreme Court justice,” McClellan said.


    Flap handicaps that she does not have the votes and will not have the votes.


    The President and Harriet Miers should rethink their positions.

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  • Arnold Schwarzenegger,  California,  Election 2006,  Media Bias,  Special Election 2005

    Arnold Schwarzenegger Watch: Governor Criticized for China Trade Mission

    California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, left, speaks to guests at a house party held in the Del Cerro area of San Diego, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2005. Schwarzenegger is holding a series of parties to promote his reform agenda for California.

    The Los Angeles Times has Businesses Asked to Fund Governor’s Trip to China.

  • Administration says the effort will save taxpayers money, but experts have concerns over conflicts.
  • To pay for a coming trade mission to China, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political allies are raising tens of thousands of dollars from businesses whose names are largely being concealed.

    The L.A. Times Hatchet Writers are after California Governor Schwarzenegger again.

    Notice the lead and the headline….. all BIASED.

    The real story is that the Governor is going to China for a trade mission and is attempting to raise funds privagtely so that taxpayers will not have to foot the bill for the trip.

    In addition, at least two of the three public relations firms playing a role in the visit have political ties to Schwarzenegger. One has a West Coast affiliate co-owned by the governor’s chief fundraiser.

    The first three paragraphs of the are about concealment of donors names, the Governor’s PR cronies are playing a role in the visit and that the trip is scheduled after the special election.

    Only later does the Times inform the reader about the nature of the trip and its sponsorship by the California Chamber of Commerce and Chevron.

    The piece is laced with innuendo that Schwarzenegger is doing some sneaky, improper and illegal.

    HE is NOT!

    The amount of money we are talking about here is in the hundred thousand dollar range. If special interests want access to the Governor they can contribute to his election campaign here in California. There is nothing special about this trip and the fundraising – and certainly nothing inapprpriate.

    Since the Governor has already donated millions of his own money for special election reform initiatives and is making an effort to save the taxpayers travel funds you would think the Los Angeles Times would at least print these facts without the spin.

    And the editors at the L.A. Times wonder why they continue to lose circulation………

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    Cross-posted to the Bear Flag League Special Election Page