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Author Message
25 new of 264 responses total.
jaklumen
response 154 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 21 01:44 UTC 2003

just call me Dr. McCoy, Spock ;)
gull
response 155 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 21 13:38 UTC 2003

It's hard to find moderates who are capable of getting worked up about
it. :>
albaugh
response 156 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 21 16:58 UTC 2003

The Daily Show last night had a spoof about 2 candidates, dressed up in
"mascot" costumes, one a penis, the other a colored-over-red raising kind of
get up.  :-)
jaklumen
response 157 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 22 00:30 UTC 2003

resp:155 shame, isn't it?
richard
response 158 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 22 02:10 UTC 2003

Arnold seems to be tryign to run for Governor without having to take any
stands other than general ones, and without stating at all any specifics
of what he'd do.  The article I read today said he's promising only to
have a sixty day audit of the state's financial records and then, and only
then, say what he'll do, where he stands, what he'll cut and what he won't
cut.

Its risky to vote for a candidate who has never held political
office, has never had to be answerable to any constituency and has never
had to explain what he stands for.  How can you be sure what you are
getting?  A few years back, when Ross Perot was running for President, I
had some friends who thought he was like the ideal candidate.  One friend
was a republican ( yes I do have republican friends) who thought Perot was
going to be this great conservative President.  Another friend thought
Perot was going to be an independent liberal, basically Bill Clinton
without the partisan packaging.  They were probably both wrong, and had
Perot been elected, one or both of them was going to end up very upset
because Perot chose not to define himself or take a great many political
stances.  




And now Arnold, like Perot, also seems to think he doesn't need to.  That he
is above politics as usual, and you should vote for him because he's ARNOLD
and not because of anything he stands for.  Voters IMO deserve to know what
they are getting, they deserve to have candidates who define themselves and
run on understandable platforms.  You know what you get if Arnold is elected
and defines himself after the fact, and upsets people who assumed he was more
liberal or more conservative than he really is?  Yep, a bunch of irate voters
and yet another recall petition.
johnnie
response 159 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 22 12:31 UTC 2003

Yes, well, it's not like the other candidates are rushing forth with 
plans that would eliminate a $38B deficit, either.  It's a matter of 
raising taxes and/or cutting popular programs, and the first person to 
propose that is the first person effectively eliminated from the race.  
Arnold ruled out tax increases and cuts to education, which puts him in 
the position of having to cut every other single bit of state spending 
to balance the budget.  
gull
response 160 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 22 13:36 UTC 2003

There are going to be tax increases in California.  There's no way
around it, and everyone knows it.  Any candidate who claims they'll
balance the budget without raising taxes is a liar.
mvpel
response 161 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 28 00:58 UTC 2003

Dave - over the past five years of the Davis administration and thorough
democrat control of the state, the population has increased some 23%, tax
revenues increased 25% thanks to all the highly productive dot-commers, but...

... spending by the state increased by 40%.

We already pay 9.3% in the top income tax bracket, and an 8.25% sales tax,
plus fairly substantial property taxes (though not as high as Ann Arbor's,
I gather).  Add to that the recent significant increase in corporate workers'
comp taxes to support paid leaves-of-absence out of the state's coffers
(which was undoubtedly one of the factors prompting 3Com to pull up stakes
and relocate their Santa Clara headquarters...)

It's not too hard to see that "low taxes" were not the reason a $10 billion
surplus was transformed into a $38 billion deficit over the past five years.
Did you know that the budget that was finally passed (after the Democrat's
scheming to delay it for maximum political advantage was exposed) spends
more this year than they did last year?

If you're in a hole, isn't the first step to stop digging?  Apparently that
little bit of folk wisdom is lost on the Democrat-controlled legislature of
California.
mcnally
response 162 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 28 04:41 UTC 2003

> If you're in a hole, isn't the first step to stop digging?  Apparently that
> little bit of folk wisdom is lost on the Democrat-controlled legislature of
> California.

  Digs at the Democrats aside, it's not as if they hold a monopoly on that
  particular failing.  The current Republican approach seems to be if you
  find yourself in a hole, hire Haliburton to speed up drilling..
rcurl
response 163 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 28 06:01 UTC 2003

Yes, I noticed the extreme hypocrasy of #161 which applies "in spades" more
to our current nationial administration than to California - who are
transforming a budget surplus to the largest budget deficit in history.
gull
response 164 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 28 12:59 UTC 2003

Re #161: That argument is easy to make if you look at government
spending in isolation, pretending that all that money gets poured into a
hole somewhere and buried.  But the fact is all of it gets spent on
services, all of which benefit *someone*, and cutting those services is
always politically painful.  People hate taxes, but they also love
government services.  Unfortunately both the California government and
the Bush administration seem to be telling people that they can keep the
current level of service without paying more in taxes, and with the
economy in the toilet that's just not true.
tod
response 165 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 28 19:57 UTC 2003

This response has been erased.

gull
response 166 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 28 23:48 UTC 2003

Sometimes I wonder why he thinks he's a Republican. ;>
oval
response 167 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 29 13:07 UTC 2003

i hope he wins.

and later becomes president.

how fitting to have the TERMINATOR as the leader of the USofA.

jiffer
response 168 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 29 14:20 UTC 2003

You would need to change some laws for Arnie to be President of the 
USA... 
albaugh
response 169 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 29 14:20 UTC 2003

Sorry, Arnold can never be *elected* president, since he's not a US citizen
by birth.  I'm not sure if he could even run as vice president, for the same
reason.  The only way he could become president is to hold a high office (e.g.
Sec. of State) and then terminate the others ahead of him in line of
succession.  :-)
tod
response 170 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 29 17:25 UTC 2003

This response has been erased.

remmers
response 171 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 29 17:57 UTC 2003

Or Secretary of State, as a person with a vaguely similar accent
once was.
tod
response 172 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 29 18:05 UTC 2003

This response has been erased.

scott
response 173 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 30 00:02 UTC 2003

Re 172:  The new (as of GW Bush) way to send email to the President involves
several web pages of questions.  And the first question boils down to "friend
or enemy?".   Eep!
dah
response 174 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 30 00:27 UTC 2003

Wash all hands.
i
response 175 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 30 01:06 UTC 2003

My understanding is that certain foreign-born Secretaries of State were
excluded from the "just in case" line to the Oval Office because of their
foreign birth.....yep, the Constitution specifies (II.1.5) that *only*
natural born Citizens are eligible to be President.
dah
response 176 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 30 01:22 UTC 2003

Help.
scg
response 177 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 30 06:55 UTC 2003

Schwarzenegger didn't exactly say he was against gay marriage.  He said he
thinks gay marriage should be between a man and a woman.
pvn
response 178 of 264: Mark Unseen   Aug 30 08:11 UTC 2003

Next thing you know greeks are going to claim the right to marry their
sheep - and texans their heiffers...
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