Monday, August 25, 2003

Recallapalooza QUOTE OF THE DAY "A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." - - Edward Abbey http://www.ecotopia.org/ehof/abbey/bio.html KNOW YOUR HISTORY - AUGUST 25th 1948 -- Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors founded in Philadelphia. http://www.objector.org 1968 -- "The Battle of Lincoln Park" outside the '68 Democratic Convention in Chicago: 10,000 or so demonstrators vs. 11,000 Chicago police, 6,000 National Guardsmen, 7,500 U.S. army troops & 1,000 FBI, CIA & army/navy intelligence services agents. The Dems nominate "Dump the Hump", Hubert Humphrey on a platform supporting the Vietnam War and Nixon ends up beating him. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/1553/ 1985 -- The White House confirms that Ronnie Reygun was an FBI informant in Hollywood in the late 1940s while heading the Screen Actors Guild. His area of expertise was Communist influence in post-World War II Hollywood. RHINO HERE: Many who look at the California recall election see a circus. Considering those running include a watermelon smashing stand-up comedian, a self defined smut peddler, a 2nd generation hyper publicized stripper & a pseudo papal representative, it's understandable that those who get a kick out of political theatre may look at the current left coast shenanigans as the best thing to come along since Abbey & Jerry tossed greenbacks onto Wall Street. But, there are many left leaning political activists who aren't laughing. Some believe that like the current Texas scandal over redistricting, the California Recall is a Karl Rove project to insure, among other things, his job through 2008. If a Republican becomes Governor of California, so goes the thinking, come the next presidential election, while the microscope of the tri-letter media is focused on the possibility of election fraud in Florida, Rove and his shrub handlers will have put into a motion a scheme to turn California into a red state no matter how the majority of its voters vote. With California's electoral college votes, shrub wins, & next thing you know, the US will be dropping their new generation nuke bombs when & where the shrub gang deems necessary. Overstatement of the threat you say? Maybe, but see the following before you decide: It really is the pits By Christopher Paine, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Sept/Oct 2003 ...Thirty-three years after that treaty's entry into force, U.S. conventional and nuclear forces vastly outstrip those of any other nation, and there is simply no way to reconcile a 17-year plan to build a 50-year nuclear bomb factory with the obligation to negotiate "in good faith" on the "cessation of the arms race" and "nuclear disarmament." Instead, the Bush team wants such nuclear superiority that, in Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's words, "would-be peer competitors" will realize "the futility of trying to sprint toward parity with us." ... http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2003/so03/so03paine.html Was the White House Behind the California Recall Effort and the Candidacy of Arnold "The Groper" Schwarzenegger? BuzzFlash, August 8, 2003 http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/03/08/08_recall.html You say just cause a Republican becomes Governor, that doesn't mean shrub will get California's electoral college votes? Consider the following from MoveON. org: "Voting reform is now largely in the hands of the states, so we also encourage you to contact your local Secretary of State and check into the status of HAVA (Help America Vote Act) implementation in your state. The states need to hear the concerns of voters." In the hands of WHO in 'the states'? In California, it'll be the people the Governor appoints. And if a Republican is at the helm, you can bet those appointees will be hiring GOP friendly voting machine business contractors. Need Rhino say more?   Okay... this is meant to be a Republican electoral vote grab before anyone knows what voting methods have changed, and how -- posing as a circus. For more on HAVA (Help America Vote Act), what truly is the greatest looming threat to American democracy, see Move On's excellent coverage at: http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/bulletin24.html The Democratic faithful say vote no on the recall, then vote for the Lieutenant Governor, Cruz Bustamonte whose job is to replace the governor should he not be able to serve. Rhino wishes it was only that simple, but unfortunately, it's not. You see, Grey Davis actually does suck. Consequently, many progressives, who are so fed up with Davis & Bustamonte's repeated sell-outs to corporate interests for campaign contributions, say, vote yes on the recall & then vote for Arrianna Huffington  the only candidate to put on the table a fair plan to fix the states financial woes. (see today's BOTTOM LINE, "Five Myths About the Recall", by Marc Cooper) Rhino's still pondering the right course of action. Sure wouldn't want the liberal vote to be so split that it allows the Terminator to be the victor. Following are a few relevant articles. More to come over the next few weeks. Davis's Political Prisoners By Gloria Killian, AlterNet , August 20, 2003 An abused woman who has served 16 years in prison for defending herself has a second chance to go home at last. One year ago, Gov. Davis ignored the suggestions of the sentencing judge, the victim's family, domestic violence experts and various state legislators by reversing his own Board of Prison Terms' (BPT) decision to parole Flozelle Woodmore. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16626 Recallapalooza: Davis Pleads for Sympathy By Marc Cooper, LA Weekly , August 22, 2003 ... the cold facts are that Davis, last year alone, vetoed more than 250 bills coming out of the Democratic legislature. Davis is the real Terminator, having nixed during his tenure: * A simple review of the inhuman and costly three-strikes law * The creation of a state office on homelessness that would cost a mere $500,000 * Expansion of medical services for low-income Californians * A bill to establish a clean-needle distribution program * A bill to research use of industrial hemp * The driver's license bill for the undocumented that he now opportunistically supports * A racial-tracking bill aimed at curbing discrimination in business and unions... ...Then there was last week's golden moment. After Arnold's new economic guru Warren Buffett shockingly blurted out the unspeakable truth - that Prop. 13 resides at the foundation of California's ills - Gray Davis streaked to the microphones to offer an unmediated defense of the 25-year-old law that has left this state a basket case. Thanks, Gray. And now I'm supposed to be biting my nails, freaked out that if Davis gets dumped we'll wind up with a Republican governor? Come on. As Jim Hightower likes to say, I may have been born at night, but not last night. A Republican Governor? We've already got one. POSTED AT: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16641 8:05:55 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Five Myths About the Recall Five Myths About the Recall By Marc Cooper, LA Weekly, August 14, 2003 It's time to tune out the bleating elites and vacant talking heads whose doomsday warnings about these exciting times raise questions about their sanity. They need to spend more time with their de Tocqueville, who could have warned them that here in America nothing is more chaotic than democracy itself. Let's debunk five myths about the recall. Myth No. 1: The recall election is a circus. Myth No. 2: The recall election will throw the state into chaos. Myth No. 3: Organized labor is the force behind progressive politics. Myth No. 4: The Green Party is a viable alternative. Myth No. 5: An independent governor couldn't govern... ...Only Arianna has addressed the 900-pound gorilla of California politics: Proposition 13. Her number-one campaign vow is to start collecting fair - that is, radically increased - taxes on commercial (not residential) property. She says if elected, she would take that proposal, along with measures for public financing of elections, and a guarantee of universal health care and adequate education, to the Legislature. If, as expected, the Legislature balks, Huffington says she would place the whole package before the voters as a set of ballot initiatives and would use her bully pulpit as governor to push for their approval. That's a serious, responsible and plausible outline for deep reform. The only one on that very long ballot. But beware: To be successful, it would require actually trusting the voters. ALL THE DETAILS AT: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16605 "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. 6:50:26 AM    comment

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