Robert Scheer - It's Who You Know

[realFedUp]

(a great one about Ah-nold...)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer30sep30,1,270532.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

It's Who You Know
We're all familiar with Arnold the actor, but who writes the script if he wins?
Robert Scheer

September 30, 2003

If Gray Davis is replaced as governor by Arnold Schwarzenegger, chalk it up as a Hollywood victory of illusion over substance. It's an illusion exploited by the state's right-wing Republican leadership, which has rejected one of its own, Tom McClintock, for an actor whose political program, beyond the one-liners, is virtually unknown.

snip

What script will he read from now, who will do the writing, and will he again freely lie to advance his career? He has pledged firm allegiance to the Bush White House, never mentioning the 3 million jobs lost nationally and $500 billion in red ink run up under this administration. Nor has he uttered a word of criticism of Bush's Texas cronies who so ruinously gamed the California energy market

Schwarzenegger's campaign is run largely by veterans of former Gov. Pete Wilson's administration, and if he wins, he is expected to turn to Wilson for advice on filling the top state jobs and on future judicial appointments. Aside from having raised taxes and unemployment dramatically, the Wilson years are best remembered for the divisive campaigns against undocumented immigrants and welfare mothers. Does Schwarzenegger, who claims to be so interested in the welfare of kids, realize that millions of them who are poor were hurt by Wilson's policies?

Schwarzenegger's political scriptwriters are pro-big business and fervently anti-labor. This is a candidate who takes campaign money from powerful corporate players but blasts unionized workers, including those in law enforcement and fire departments, as reprehensible special interests. In a recent interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, he attacked Davis for reinstating the eight-hour workday and provisions for overtime pay, as well as signing the family leave law.

Schwarzenegger admits that he does not plan to even begin a study of the budget until after he is elected, but he insists that the budget can be trimmed not by cutting needed programs but by cutting only waste. That is nonsense.
continued

[jafap]

1. It is the government of the celebrity, by the celebrity

and for the celebrity. If Arnold is elected, it will be another low point in this experiment called democracy.
I think the link below does not require a registration.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031013&s=scheer0930