Duty to Warn

Forget about the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking on a new role as Governor-elect of California: The Deregulator.  

One of Schwarzenegger's first political moves as the state's chief executive will be an effort to push the state's electricity market closer toward deregulation, a move halted by Gov. Gray Davis two years ago in the wake of California's energy crisis. Schwarzenegger, while on the campaign trail, blamed Davis for his handling of the energy crisis.  

Schwarzennegger drafted a comprehensive energy policy, which can be found at www.joinarnold.com/en/agenda/#C1,

that went unnoticed for much of his campaign during the recall election. He said he wants to eliminate public oversight on future power supply contracts the state signs with energy companies and adopt a design plan for deregulating California's electricity market from other states that restructured its electricity markets, such as Texas, New Jersey and Maryland.  

Dear Mr. Rove:

  I write to ask you to resign from the White House staff. Recent press reports   have indicated that, while you may or may not have been the source of the Robert   Novak column which revealed the status and name of a covert operative, the wife   of Ambassador Joseph Wilson, you were involved in a subsequent effort to push   this classified information to other reporters and give it even wider currency.

  This itself may be a federal crime, but regardless of that fact, your actions   are morally indefensible.

  In my view, it is shameful and unethical that an Administration that promised to   govern with "honor and integrity" and "change the tone" in Washington has now   engaged in an orchestrated campaign to smear and intimidate truth-telling   critics, placing them in possible physical harm and impairing the efforts and   operations of the CIA.

Like Bill Clinton, George Bush seems to have some Teflon -like qualities. It is unlikely that the leaker of the info on Joe Wilson's wife's CIA connection will be identified. But as Bush and his bumbling team of lying incompetents continues to thrash, like Godzilla, through the assets and resources of the USA, knocking them down, destroying them, and creating chaos, the right wing is becoming and will become even more desperate. Here's a list of some desperate acts we can expect the far right and their legislative stooges to take:

-more Texas and Colorado style gerrymandering

-Florida and Georgia style vote and voter roll list corruption

-dirt slinging and accusations (like Paula Jones) just as Gray Davis used on Arnold, who clearly, was guilty.

-distraction tactics, including:

a.. Iran or Syria war
b.. Inflammation of N. Korean situation, probably started by heightened polemic
c.. announcements of arrests of terrorists
d.. orange alerts
e.. Roe Vs. Wade abortion fight
f.. Church vs. State skirmishes like the 10 commandments in the Courthouse

California awoke one morning to find itself governed by a giant cockroach. It's official: we are now living inside a Kafka novel-though even Kafka couldn't have predicted the turn of events that would bring us to this point. To be fair, Schwarzenegger is not a hyper-violent, frozen, misogynist, monosyllabic robot. He just plays one onscreen. In reality, he is-well, by now we all know who he is.

The frightening part is that the people of California knew, too. There is some indication that tracking polls showed his support slipping in the wake of all last week's revelations. Polls are tricky things, of course, but if this is true then the election happened just in time. The republicans have become adept at cherrypicking such opportunities and milking them for all they're worth.

            AUSTIN, Texas -- Not that any of us is in a position to criticize the Great Scriptwriter in the Sky, but don't you think She's been going a little heavy on the irony lately?

            All those folks who had conniption fits over Bill Clinton's affair are now pooh-poohing Arnold Schwarzenegger's sexual misconduct -- and vice versa. The right-wingers who are always griping about Hollywood stars who express political opinions -- "Shut Up and Sing" -- suddenly find an actor perfectly fit for high political office based on his experience as The Terminator.

            Professional patriots who would have been screaming with horror had the Clinton White House ever leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent now struggle to justify or minimize such a thing.

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Much as I hate to interrupt what is apparently a deeply felt triumphalism on the American right, now that it's over, does anyone see any reason for our having invaded Iraq?

            I realize that's what we all kept trying to figure out before the invasion, but don't you think it should at least be visible in hindsight? Good thing we won the war, because the peace sure looks like a quagmire.

            These are early days, certainly, to attempt a full historical evaluation. Could be a case of the forest and the trees. Perhaps we're well along the road to having everything work out magnificently, and I'm just missing it. Still, I can't see anything that's going right.

            Iraq is in chaos, and apparently the only way we'll be able to stop it will be to kill a lot of Iraqis. Just what Saddam used to do. The other day, we announced we were going to shoot looters, and when that produced nightmare scenarios of children dead for stealing bread, we had to cancel that plan.

This article is the original version of an updated piece. Please view the version in the National News section (www.freepress.org/departments.php?strFunc=display&strID=386&strYear=2003&strDept=20).

George W. Bush's grandfather helped finance the Nazi Party. Karl Rove's grandfather allegedly helped run the Nazi Party, and helped build the Birkenau Death Camp. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Austrian father volunteered for the infamous Nazi SA and became a ranking officer.

Together, they have destabilized California and are on the brink of bringing it a new Reich. With the Schwarzenegger candidacy they have laid siege to America's largest state, lining it up for the 2004 election.

George W. Bush’s grandfather helped finance the Nazi Party. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Austrian father volunteered for the infamous Nazi SA and became a ranking officer. And Karl Rove can’t hide his joy at witnessing “a Nazi rally” in support of Bush.

Together, they have destabilized California and are on the brink of bringing it a new Reich. With the Schwarzenegger candidacy they have laid siege to America’s largest state, lining it up for the 2004 presidential election.

The Bush family’s ties to the Nazi party are well known. In their 1994 book Secret War Against the Jews, Mark Aarons and John Loftus use official U.S. documents to establish that George Herbert Walker, George W. Bush’s great-grandfather, was one of Hitler’s most important early backers. He funneled money to the rising young fascist through the Union Banking Corporation.

NEW YORK CITY -- Are you confused yet? Two weeks ago, President Bush said, "There's no question that Saddam Hussein had Al Qaeda ties." In September 2002, he said, "You can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam." But Bush also said two weeks ago, "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the Sept. 11."

            That helpful clarification came after Vice President Dick Cheney was asked on "Meet the Press" why he thought 70 percent of Americans believe Saddam was behind Sept. 11. "It's not surprising that people make that connection," said the veep. Back in 2001, Cheney had said it was "pretty well confirmed" that Iraq and the Sept. 11 hijackers had coordinated. But most recently he said, "I don't know" if Saddam was connected to Sept. 11.

I haven't spoken to a progressive, a liberal,  yet who has not told me that he or she loves Kucinich, that Dennis is hands down the first democratic candidate choice. But then I hear the story-- "he doesn't have a chance.." "there's no hope..."

My reply is: "That's what they all said about Dean six months ago."

I can live with Dean. He's a good guy. But I am not ready to give up on Dennis Kucinich. On issue after issue, Kucinich has the right policies, the right answers and perhaps most important, the right history.

He'll take the US out of the World Trade Organization as soon as he's elected. He'll cancel the tax breaks Bush handed over to the wealthy. He'll cancel NAFTA. He'll start a department of peace.

Now the right wingers laugh at the idea of a department of peace. But then there's Maslow's widely cited saying,

"If you all you have is a hammer, then everything is a nail."