I like the steroids one.

Let's start with Worker's Compensation. Zaremberg raves at Arnold's worker's comp plan, and how he saved the state. Here are his exact words:

Fairest for whom exactly? Not the workers certainly. Speaker Nunez has said repeatedly that the workers are being shortchanged. These are legitimately injured workers. And who benefits? Insurance companies...who are certainly good friends of both Arnold and Zaremberg.

How about taxes? Well, Zaremberg, likes to quote Arnold's $18 Billion number. Trouble is...that number is totally ridiculous. It comes from thin air this number, but here's what Zaremberg says:

Um, sure Allen, but the thing that you aren't saying? Oh right, Angelides hasn't "endorsed" those taxes that you are talking about for this campaign. In fact, it's questionable whether he "endorsed" them at all. See, Phil believes in actually fixing the deficit, and has a real plan. And as for those taxes, well, I'll let George Skelton deliver that smackdown:

"Angelides' $18-billion tax increase would drive California's economy backwards," the mailer reads. And in case you don't get the message, it's repeated twice. "California families can't afford Phil Angelides' $18-billion tax increase…. Phil Angelides would raise taxes on California families by $18 billion."

It parrots what the governor has been saying himself.

And it's all utterly bogus. (My preferred adjective is unprintable.)

Not even close.

Schwarzenegger must know this by now. But whether he does or doesn't, it seems obvious that the governor has little regard for the truth, at least while in political rut.

Once again — and this has been written a zillion times by myself and many others — Angelides is proposing to raise taxes by roughly $5 billion on the rich and big business: hiking the top income tax rate for couples earning over $500,000 a year, and creating a commission to recommend corporate loophole-closings.

In addition, he is proposing $1.4 billion in tax cuts for the middle class, small businesses and seniors, plus $600 million in college tuition rollbacks.(LA Times 10/19)

So, Allen, let's see you giving the whole truth instead of those lies that you specialize in. I won't hold my breath though.

Well, he had previously apologized for that. So, I thought I would go through the various incarnations of Arnold and go through some clips:

1. Arnold 1.0: The fixer of special interests


2. Arnold 2.0: The hard-liner right wing Bush Republican


3. Arnold 3.0: Arnold the Democrat

Let's start with the beginning:

Ooh! Oops, how did that get in there? I mean let's start from the beginning of his "political career". Follow me to the extended.
Follow me into the extended for some

But after he was elected, he said that there was really nothing wrong with special interest:

Then he went to the special election, and so he decided to swing to the right. So he had to make sure he got the right-wing support. And how do you do that better than praising the MinuteMen:

And now he wants us to believe that he's Arnold 3.0? That he's going to be kindler, gentler Arnold. Now, why would he care to do that in the future? In otherwords, who is Arnold 4.0? And will we like him?

You see many of the events that he attended there were events lauding his environmental leadership. Yeah, he signed AB 32, the global warming emissions bill. He worked super hard to dilute those bills to Wall Street's liking. When the Legislature refused to go any further, Arnold reluctantly signed the version they passed. But Arnold isn't one to give up just because he signed a law. No siree! Arnold thinks he can change the rules after the law has been passed. It seems the honeymoon between Fabian Nunez and Arnold Schwarzenegger is over:

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and some environmental groups charged Monday that an executive order Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sign today undermines an agreement the governor struck with Democrats on the state's landmark global warming law. {snip} Núñez said that the executive order gives more power to the executive branch than the law calls for and that the governor's emphasis on a market-based approach to lowering greenhouse gas emissions ignored other aspects of the law. He suggested the governor was reinterpreting the law based on proposals he had suggested to lawmakers during negotiations over the legislation this year but that had been rejected by the Legislature. (SF Chron 10/17/06)

Arnold changes the rules of the game after the buzzer has sounded and the crowd has gone home. He didn't even wait for the ink to dry to start eviscerating AB32. At our Tracking Arnold YouTube Group, you can see some videos about Arnold's dishonesty on his record, including the environment.

Green today...what's up for tomorrow?

This is the man who is our governor? Groping women in Rio? He's a multi-continental groper! It dovetails really well with the photo I posted a few days ago. Arnold simply does not have respect for women. He says of Bonnie Garcia that's she's hot because of her "blood". He fondles women on movie sets. He sexually harasses women at talk shows.

There is a clear pattern here. Arnold sees everybody else as a mere pawn in his power play. Simply put, we cannot trust the man.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has yet to truly resolve the issue of his past "rowdy behavior". He calls it rowdy behavior, I call it sexual harassment. You know, tomato, tahmato. We've brought up in the past the story about Arnold settling his lawsuit. Arnold said that after the election, we would look into any wrongdoing that might have occured.

We're still waiting.

I went to a Republican hate-fest yesterday.  I was there as the California State Assembly Republican Caucus "Task Force" on Illegal Immigration met at Tustin City Hall.  The election-year idea behind this "hearing" was obvious: it gave Republicans running for re-election an opportunity to stir up fear and hate.  They wanted to tell rabid, right-wing voters that the Republican Party hears their calls for a crackdown on immigration.  Arnold Schwarzenegger - the Governor who called out "Close the border!" and offered praise for the Minutemen -- would have been at this meeting if he weren't too busy masquerading as a moderate.  Still, Arnold's true feelings on immigration shine through even when he's got his best moderate mask on, however.  Rather than saying that all cultures and communities are an important part of the diverse American landscape, last week Arnold had this to say: "What I'm saying to the Mexicans is you've got to go and immerse yourself and assimilate into the American culture."

Continued in the extended...

None of these "experts" had the numbers on just how many of the millions of immigrant workers who cook meals, clean hotel rooms, design cars, care for children, work the fields, teach college students, build our homes, and otherwise make the American community and economy go - none of the experts could say how many of these people were criminals, terrorists, or pathological voter frauds.  But they didn't need numbers - the crowd of about 50 people there in Tustin (many of whom wore Minutemen t-shirts) believe readily that immigrants are the problem.   The thing is, these elected officials holding a "hearing" should have been there to help calm racist backlash against immigrants.

Look, it's very reasonable that middle-class voters feel squeezed right now.  After 6 years of President Bush's economy, tax breaks have gone to the wealthy, wages for middle class Americans have gone down, and the cost of living has gone up.  Jobs have been outsourced overseas, and our investment in education has stagnated as the cost of war has eaten up the budget.  The first instinct of many of these middle-class voters is to try to find someone to blame.  Immigrants, today as in the past, are often the first people in the line of fire.  Responsible public officials will try to soothe this racialized animosity while crafting effective public policy to ease the stress on the middle class.  Republicans, it seems, choose the more divisive and hateful route - they stoke the flames of hate, refuse to cut taxes for the middle class, and continue down the path of war rather than make investments in America's future.

And just to show that I'm not making this up - here are some quick facts showing how immigrants really don't deserve the stereotypical image that the Republicans paint of them.  The "Task Force" yesterday could have brought in real experts to show that in fact, immigrants (undocumented and documented) have a negligible effect on the wages of native-born citizens.  Immigrants, according to economists everywhere, give a huge boost to the economy by providing much-needed hard work (all while they often accept terribly low wages).  Immigrants (undocumented and documented) pay more in taxes than they need in the form of government services like public education for their children.  On the issue of crime, it's obvious that race plays a part in the scapegoating of Latinos as causing crime.  This is one of the oldest and most durable forms of racism - "they look different so they're dangerous."  In fact, according to many studies including one by John Hagan and Alberto Palloni (1999), "these misperceptions [linking immigration and crime] are perpetuated by government reports of growing numbers of Hispanic immigrants in U.S. prisons.  However, Hispanic immigrants are... more vulnerable to restrictive treatment in the criminal justice system, especially at the pre-trial stage.  When these differences are [taken into account]... it is estimated that the involvement of Hispanic immigrants in crime is less than that of citizens.  These results cast doubt on the hypothesis that immigration causes crime...."  Terrorism - somehow, Republicans have linked September 11 to the issue of immigration, as though every person who has come to America to work and raise their family might belong to a sleeper cell.  Well, the biggest terrorists in American history were either native born (Timothy McVeigh) or here legally (Mohammed Atta).  There's no evidence to support the claim that terrorists are more likely to come across the border than they are to have grown up right here.  And on the silly issue of voter fraud, again, there's no evidence to show that Republicans are losing elections due to the influx of fraudulent, immigrant votes.

The bottom line is that we can all agree, Republicans and the rest of us, that Illegal Immigration isn't good.  But the solution isn't more ineffective and expensive fences or draconian police efforts or discrimination on the job site.  The solution is a realistic and humane immigration policy.  We need a path to citizenship for the people already here without documents, and we need a realistic immigration policy that doesn't criminalize people who come here to work hard for their families.  We need real leaders who respect newcomers to America - not Republicans who rely on knee-jerk racism to scapegoat entire groups of people as criminals and terrorists.

Thanks to the good people over at PowerPAC.org for sending me to cover this event.

During his interview with the San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board, for which his interview was the only one not streamed live on CBS5.com, Arnold got a bit testy.

In an interview with the Chronicle editorial board this morning, Schwarzenegger said he has never pledged to shun money from special interest groups, but rather promised that donors could not buy favors from his office with donations.

"I never said I would not accept money, that special interests are no good and would not be part of the mix," he said.
{snip}
Today, he simply said, "No one gives me money and gets political favors back." (SF Chron 10/12/2006)

Hmm, are you sure about that governor. You've never said that you won't take special interest money? Is your nose growing yet?

These were his "good ideas". Really? If those wretched ideas are the best that he can come up with, the ones that he wants to go to the voters with, where is his heart? Really? Is he really working for the interests of California workers and the middle class? Or does Arnold focus on his contributors, all the big business interests and the rightwing base.

This is our moment of accountability. If not now, when? This is the same man. Hiring a Democrat doesn't change who you are. He is still in the pocket of Big Oil and Big Pharma. He still puts their interests first. Always on their side, I suppose.

Ain't that the truth!

You see Arnold thinks that every immigrant comes to America with the same advantages as him. You know huge muscles, a bottle of anabolic steroids, and pearly white teeth. Arnold says that all you have to do is just assimilate, act like Americans. First of all, does that even mean anything?

But to the deeper question, the question of race, we have to analyze how Arnold got here. Arnold came legally, although there are time periods where his immigration status is in question, and with every advantage in the world. But most importantly, he was a white European. Did you know after Mexico, the country with the most undocumented immigrants in the U.S. is Great Britain. Do you see anybody calling to kick out all the Brits, to lose their annoying accents?

Perhaps the Minutemen, Arnold's good friends, are a bit more troubled when the immigrants aren't white. Arnold never had to deal with the issues of race that a great deal of Mexican immigrants have to deal with on a daily basis. So, it's not just a question of "assimilating" and learning the language. There is a pressure to force Mexicans into the barrio. Was anybody pushing Arnold into the Austrian barrio. Oh, yeah not so much.

This is just another example of Arnold's insensitivity towards Latinos. First, he praised the Minutemen, not once, but twice. Then he thought Bonnie Garcia was just "hot" because of her mix of "black blood and Latino blood". And now this. Arnold, perched in his Beverly Hills Mansion just really doesn't understand the people of this state.