August 10, 2003

VOT YOU SAY?

Larry Miller on California’s colourful gubernats:

Arianna Huffington is in the race. Can you imagine that? I can't wait for those debates. There's more than a pinch of jaw-dropping irony when you live in a state where millions of illegal aliens have lighter accents than two of the people running for governor.

My friend Michael Chernuchin, who writes "Law & Order," says that if Arnold and Arianna have a debate, the moderators will have to wear those headphones like delegates at the United Nations.

Speaking of Arnie, The Guardian is in flat-out smear mode.

Posted by Tim Blair at August 10, 2003 02:10 AM
Comments

Yeah all those Californians who read the Guardian will be reconsidering their votes.

I love these quotes:

"I love Thanksgiving. It's the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts."

"Having a pump is like having great sex. I train two, sometimes three times a day. Each time I get a pump, it's great. I feel like I'm coming all day."

But why do they keep mentioning the White House? I thought you had to be born there.

Posted by: Gabor at August 10, 2003 at 02:49 AM

Great Guardian headline: "And if he becomes governor of California next month, is the White House next?"
-- Uh, NO actually. The US Constitution requires its President be a US born citizen. And the election is in OCTOBER, not September. Something tells me the Guardian would be all over Arnie of he made a similar boneheaded comments about England's political system.

btw: I still think his candidacy is a joke, but the fact that it's pissing off the Europussies is definitely a silver lining.

Posted by: Sean at August 10, 2003 at 02:49 AM

With Labour MPs who think burning books by Salman Rushdie is the right thing to do, who think that AIDS is a CIA plot to kill blacks in Africa, and at least one (former) Labour MP who was on the payroll of a fascist dictator, you'd think the Guardian would have better things to do with its time regarding the fitness of candidates for office.

Still, if it pisses off Euro-dorks, I'm all for it. I'm voting McBain!

Posted by: KevinV at August 10, 2003 at 03:04 AM

What a scurrulous piece of tripe. No doubt if Arnold's father hadn't been a Nazi, they would have accused him of being unfeeling for not coming to his father's funeral because he was training for Mr Olympia.

But this is the kicker:

But the prospect of "The Governator" taking power in Sacramento says more about the extraordinary willpower of Schwarzenegger himself. Willpower that has propelled him along the winding road from the remote village of Thal amid the poverty and humiliation of a defeated country just two years after the second world war to the brink of political office in the US.

That's my Arnold, the product of the Triumph of the Will. No doubt Leni Riefenstahl is going to come out of retirement to make Arnold's campaign adverts.

Posted by: Andrew at August 10, 2003 at 03:54 AM

Ariana Huffington has at least as many skeletons in her closet as Arnie, but I don't see al-Guardian ragging all over HER. A few of Ariana's little pecadilloes: She plagiarized a book on Picasso, wrote an embarassingly anti-feminist book that would have made Phyllis Schlafly wretch, and is so politically opportunistic that she's switched back and forth between the Dems and the Republicans several times since the 70s. She once dated California Governor Jerry Brown Jr. (a Dem) in the 70s with the hope he would put her in the White House, but he dumped her for Linda Rondstadt, and she was out in the cold. She was on the market for a while and then hooked up with Michael Huffington, a multi-millionaire right-wing Republican oil man -- again, she thought he was her ticket to the White House, but he turned out to be dumb -- and gay. He has stated that she married him knowing full well he was gay -- but I guess his $30 million bank account more than made up for it.

Note to Sean: later on in this "article" al-Guardian does mention that Arnie is constitutionally barred from running for president. However they follow up this fact with the idiotic statement, "all it would take would be a constitutional amendment". . .

Yes, "all it would take!" So simple, really!

Predictably, they seem to have no idea how fucking difficult it is to change the US Constitution. First you have to pass both houses of Congress (a big "if), then you have to pass the state legislatures (both houses) of two-thirds of the American states (a huge "if"). And then you have to get the governors of those states to sign the legislation without vetoing it, another big "if."

Needless to say, we don't change our Constitution very often.

I love it when Eurotwit Leftists wax all-knowing about American political processes they clearly do not understand.

When the US Supreme Court handed down a decision recently which nullified a Texas state law against sodomy as unconstitutional, al-BBC Online ran a "Have Your Say" comments thread asking: "Should the law be changed in all the States?" Al-BBC -- blissfully unaware that that is exactly what the Supreme Court did with its ruling. What a bunch of maroons.

I emailed them and politely pointed out the idiocy of their question, but they ignored it. Can't ever admit they were wrong no matter what.

Posted by: Irene A. at August 10, 2003 at 03:55 AM

Oh, and check out this howler in the Arnie story: The head line reads he's "barely articulate." Later on in the story, Arnie is described as defending something "eloquently."

How do barely articulate people defend something "eloquently"?

Posted by: Irene A. at August 10, 2003 at 03:59 AM

Irene- Actually it's three-quarters of states that have to ratify and 2/3 or more of the US Congress before an amendment to the Constitution can be made.

And to think these are the same kinds of people who sneer at Americans as being too provincial to understand Europe.

Posted by: Julia at August 10, 2003 at 04:07 AM

And just to be clear by "these people" I meant the Guardian snobs.

Posted by: Julia at August 10, 2003 at 04:11 AM

Julie, thanks for the correction. The rules for changing the Constitution are even more stringent than I thought.

Moronoic Guardian fuckwits.

Posted by: Susan at August 10, 2003 at 04:12 AM


Arnold is "no Adolf Hitler" because, for one thing, he supports gun control and abortion rights.

Just Like Adolf Hitler

Posted by: Andrew at August 10, 2003 at 04:42 AM

Christ, they can't even get the movie quotes right. "I'll be back" was first used in T1, in the police station, and that quote became huge then. They threw it into T2 for the advertising.

Posted by: Jerry at August 10, 2003 at 05:10 AM

Not only do you have to be born in the US you have to live in the US continuously for 7 years, or something of that timespan. So even being a US citizen born in the US is not enough.

Posted by: D2D at August 10, 2003 at 08:46 AM

You know if I lived in California I just might vote for Arianna Huffington if she gives out free handjobs; and I get one. Bwaaahahahahahahahaha!!

Posted by: D2D at August 10, 2003 at 08:48 AM

Irene A: A minor point, and it's never been tested in court, but the best US legal minds think state governors CAN'T veto their state's ratification of a const amendment. The Constn says "the legislature" ratifies. There have been lawsuits striking down States putting federal constl amdts to referendum, for the same reason ...

Posted by: Uncle Milk at August 10, 2003 at 10:41 AM

You could only enjoy that article if you went in with the intention of sneering. Strip away the innuendo and inference and he comes out looking pretty good.

Gotta love this Left-bait:

"Money doesn't make you happy. I now have $50m, but I was just as happy when I had $48m."

Posted by: The at August 10, 2003 at 11:24 AM

"The",

Arnie's got a great sense of humor. Which is more than you can say for most of the Guardianocracy.

Posted by: Irene A, at August 10, 2003 at 11:53 AM

Oh dear, we seem to have pushed the "rant & spittle" button on "the" Brit commie rag. What a hoot.

Funny, I don't remember asking...

Posted by: mojo at August 10, 2003 at 04:54 PM

The Perfect Campaign Poster:
(via the Rottie)
http://alankhenderson.blogspot.com/2003_08_01_alankhenderson_archive.html#106029907021514074

Posted by: mojo at August 10, 2003 at 05:11 PM

Thanks for the plug.

Posted by: Alan K. Henderson at August 10, 2003 at 05:51 PM

pravda, oops, i mean the new york times, has also come out firing at arnie. yee-hee, i knew i liked him!

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at August 10, 2003 at 11:56 PM

Sorry to get in so late, but there are actually FOUR ways to amend the US Constitution. (I teach this stuff for a living.) One of them has never been used. Basically, either the Congress or the states can suggest an amendment by a super-majority (2/3 or 3/4, depending) and the other ratifies by a super-majority (2//3 or 3/4, depending) OR Congress can recommend an amendment and ratifying conventions can be called in each state for the sole purpose of that particular amendment. This works out in practice to a 2 X 2 matrix, or 4 ways to amend. ALL of them are very difficult. In practice, it is almost always that Congress (probably reading the will of the people) passes a proposed amendment and the states are given a limited time to decide to ratify it. (What was origially proposed as the 11th amendment to the Constitution [along with the Bill of Rights] was proposed in 1790 and not ratified for around 200 years. It had no time limit, and when enough states passed it, it came in.) The proposed Equal Rights Amendment failed even with an extension of time that was of doubtful legality.

One of the more interesting Amendment procedures was when Prohibition was repealed. It went to state conventions so it could restore legal sales of alcohol without damaging any elected politician's chances of re-election. ;->=

Anyway, amendments are hard. Around 10,000 proposed, around 220 sent to the states, 27 passed, and 11 of them from the first 2 years of use.

Posted by: JorgXMcKie at August 11, 2003 at 04:48 AM

Call me naive, but isn't Mexifornia one of those places where mocking someone's accent likely to get you lynched?

Posted by: Craig Ranapia (Other Pundit) at August 11, 2003 at 11:04 PM

Jerry:

Quote-
Christ, they can't even get the movie quotes right. "I'll be back" was first used in T1, in the police station, and that quote became huge then. They threw it into T2 for the advertising.

Posted by: Jerry at August 10, 2003 05:10 AM
UnQuote-

Actually, it's from "The Running Man" (1987).

From Arnold's character to Richard Dawson's character as Arnie was dropped into the gauntlet by Richard.

Arnie has used it in every (I think?) movie since.

Posted by: David at August 12, 2003 at 06:26 AM