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Debunking Arnold

Arnold and his half-truth talking points

Allen Zaremberg is the head of the California Chamber of Commerce, or as I like to call it, the Chamber of Selfishness. Far more appropriate if I do say so myself. Zaremberg has been a great proponent of the Schwarzenegger administration and its various policies. Zaremberg loves the half-truth. On a call from "California Business Leaders" various "business leaders" extolled the virtues of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Zaremberg used his patented half-truth system (available for $59.95 on HSN or something like that) to give an impression that Arnold is actually good for the state.

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.

After Arnold rakes in Wall Street Cash, he does their bidding

Today, Arnold arrived back in the state after some great fundraising in New York City. He got cash from all sorts of people: rich people, really rich people, fabulously rich people, and of course discustingly rich people. They all are swooning over the Governator. He held court their with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former Dem, current Rep, and possible Independent candidate for president. Whoo, that's a lot of party flip-flopping, kinda like Arnold's record.

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?

Arnold in Rio!

Today, as Arnold is raising cash in New York City, I thought I would post a video of another Arnold vacation.

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.

Groping: More evidence of a lewd Arnold

In the extended, I have posted an image of Arnold Shwarzenegger from Radar Online. The reason that is not on this side, um, well, it's not really appropriate for all audiences. Thus, if you are too young for this sort of thing, go watch one of the YouTube videos.

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.

continues...

Which Arnold? Global Warming

On Wednesday, Arnold signed into law AB 32. There was a whole lot of pomp and circumstance. Lots of politicians, lots of flags, lots of political theater. In fact, Clea Benson of the Sacramento Bee called him out on it:

Schwarzenegger has been milking the governor's power to sign bills and his celebrity to powerful effect in recent days, pulling out all the stops at elaborately produced campaign-style events designed to show he's taking action on issues ranging from the environment to pet safety.

{snip}

Many governors have used the month they have each year to sign bills as an opportunity to take credit for popular legislation, especially in election years. But none has managed to appear with the leader of Great Britain, actor George Clooney and a cuddly golden retriever all in one week, generating nonstop positive news coverage. (SacBee 9/28/06)

You see, that's what being governor is to Arnold Schwarzenegger, one big piece of theater. And with Arnold, he's not even particularly good at the acting part. You can see right through him. He's not really committed to environmental protection. If he was, he wouldn't have a 58% rating from the League of Conservation Voters. That's failing in my book, and in the eyes of the California educational system. He is just a two-bit actor playing a two-bit part. And the sad part is you never know which Arnold you will get at any point. In 2005 we get hard-core right winger Arnold. Now we get "moderate" Arnold. "Green Arnold"

I think not:

Arnold Schwarzenegger: Everybody Contributes, Except Those That Have the Most

Along with our grand opening announcement, we have a new web-exclusive ad focusing on Arnold’s tuition hikes. According to Arnold, California tuition was too low and too many students were attending college. That is blatantly and obviously wrong. Instead of taxing the top 1%, Arnold has gone after the state’s students, raising fees to the point where California students now pay some of the highest fees in the nation.

When Arnold took office, he was facing a problem of his own doing. His no taxes pledge combined with his reversal of the vehicle registration fee (aka “the car tax”) put the state in even worse financial straits than it was facing under the Davis administration. He took a number of steps to temporarily alleviate the pressure on the budget.

1. He borrowed lots of money through bonds. He really seems to enjoy burdening future generations with our expenditures doesn’t he? He’s another of those Bill Our Grandchildren Firsters, just like President Bush.
2. He raided K-12 education. This money has since been paid back, but only under threat of election.
3. He hiked college tuition fees dramatically. This is the one I’m focusing on now.

Arnold hiked college costs as soon as he entered office. Initially, he claimed that he would raise tuition by only 10%. Then it turned out that he meant 10% per year. And finally, it also turns out that he didn’t include graduate education in that 10% proclamation. So all in all the consequences have been pretty bad. How bad? Well, here are some facts with data from 2001-2002 until current:

• The cost of an Associate (2-year) degree has gone up since the 2001-02 school year by nearly $1,000, a 136 percent increase, with more than half of that increase coming from Schwarzenegger.
• The cost of a four-year UC undergraduate degree has gone up by nearly $12,000, a 79 percent increase, with nearly $5,000 coming from Schwarzenegger.
• The cost of a CSU undergraduate degree has gone up by more than $5,000, a 76 percent increase, with nearly $2,000 coming from Schwarzenegger.
• The fee for teacher training at CSU has nearly doubled, from $1,506 to $2,922.

Arnold has been wrong on so many occasions. He has been wrong on tuition, on his special election, on his frat boy antics, and so much more. Arnold is wrong for California.

Videoblogging the Truth About Arnold

Welcome to Tracking Arnold, a video blog born out of a vision that we need a better governor than Arnold Schwarzenegger -- somebody who understands the needs of all Californians, not just the super rich. Someone like Phil Angelides.

We will garner video from around the state, and around the web, and use that to show California voters why we think Arnold Schwarzenegger is a poor governor not worthy of re-election. We will highlight his past failings, and point out the many inconsistencies in his policies that lead us to the conclusion he simply cannot be trusted.

It is our goal to ensure that the public doesn’t forget that Arnold serially groped women – which are punishable crimes -- and talks about women with a complete lack of respect. We want to remind the electorate that he has made a number of racially insensitive comments, supported the Minutemen Project, and continually displays a frat boy cavalier attitude towards our state. It is not good enough that this information is "out there." If the traditional media sources choose to ignore it as "old news" then that's all it is. Our intent is to change that.

But we know that Arnold is more than a set of his personality vices. He is the governor, as much as we reject the method by which he was elected in the first place, and he is having a deleterious effect on the state. He has instituted George W. Bush's reverse Robin Hood policies here, taking from those that have the least and giving it to the corporations. He ignores children that have no access to healthcare and kowtows to anti-immigrant forces in his own party. He is a moderate in self-description only. No matter how many Democratic aides he hires, it does not change the fact that his ultimate goal is to break the back of the unions and organized labor. No matter how many stem cell initiatives he endorses, we still know that he mounted a special election against teaches and nurses and endorsed an anti-choice initiative that put teenagers at risk.

And so we launch this site not with reminders of who Arnold really is, though there will be plenty of those, but rather with a comparison of what Arnold really represents. He raises tuition on students, but will not stand up to his corporate masters. And this is wrong.