Daily Archives: June 15, 2006

Arnold Schwarzenegger

CA-GOV: Some Humorous Victory Strategies for Angelides

Capitol Weekly has a hilarious article outlining a few ways for Phil Angelides to win.  My favorite quote:

Accordingly, the Angelides campaign should plant rumors in the tabloids that he has been carrying on with Angelina Jolie, leaving Brad Pitt in tears. There is a perfect word for this love triangle: BRANGELIDES!

As with the first strategy, this approach has its risks. Plastic surgery can backfire. (Just think of Michael Jackson’s nose or Nancy Pelosi’s eyes.) If the implants shift downward, Angelides could end up with very large ankles. And the campaign must take care to get Pitt and Jolie to go along with the Brangelides rumor. It might lose some credibility if it causes them to burst out laughing. (Capitol Weekly 6/15/06)

Uncategorized

AD-43: Looking for answers in “Terrorist mailer” against Paul Krekorian

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Just before the primary election last week, the California Latino Leadership Fund, which is at least partially funded by the Latino caucus, sent a mailer to residents of AD-43 linking Paul Krekorian to terrorist wannabe Mourad Topalian. 

The mailer sent by the Oakland-based Leadership Fund targeted Krekorian and the Armenian National Committee of America, an advocacy group that endorsed him.

The mailer accused the ANC of giving an award to “suspected terrorist” Mourad Topalian in 2000, and faulted Krekorian for accepting the ANC’s endorsement in the Assembly race.

Topalian, a former Armenian National Committee leader, was sentenced in 2001 to 37 months in prison for storing stolen explosives and owning two machine guns. The ANC says it cut its ties with Topalian after his conviction.

In fact, Quintero himself had been endorsed by the ANC when he ran for City Council in 2001. (LA Daily News 6/9/06)

Well, now the Latino caucus is under fire for this rather vile hit piece.  In another piece, a mailer went out against Mike Eng in AD-49 suggesting to white and latino voters that Eng “is not like us.”  Yikes!  That’s really a not so subtle racist remark, isn’t it? The actual caucus members plead ignorance of the deal, but they are looking for answers on what happened to allow these attacks:

Political mailers bankrolled by the Latino Caucus, which linked Democratic Assembly candidate Paul Krekorian to a terrorist and played the race card against Democratic contender Mike Eng, are being denounced by community leaders and Caucus members who say they want to know who approved the attacks.

Capitol sources said that the job of the vice chairman of the Latino Caucus, Assemblyman Joe Coto, D-San Jose, may be on the line.

Several Caucus members met Tuesday across the street from the Capitol at private offices in the 11th and L Building to discuss the mailers, which were funded with independent-expenditure (IE) money. They are trying to figure out how to limit political fallout from some of the nastiest hit pieces in this year’s primary campaign.

“It’s an affront to us, especially because we for so long have been the victims of this kind of crap,” said Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-Southgate. He and Assemblyman Albert Torrico, D-Newark, have launched an investigation into the flyers. (Capitol Weekly 6/15/06)

These kind of nasty, bordering on racist, ads have no place in politics at all.  While they shouldn’t be used on politicians of any party, to see them used in Dem on Dem attacks is particularly disconcerting.  The incestuousness of the relationships portrayed in the Capitol Weekly article is rather discusting.  Check it out.

Budget

Fabian: Budget deal not going to happen tomorrow

John Myers is reporting that Fabian Nunez doesn’t expect a budget deal tomorrow:

Nunez now says, barring a late breaking deal with Republicans, he will not bring the new state budget up on the Assembly floor. That would result in the 20th straight year of no new budget by the state constitutional deadline of June 15.

In a briefing with reporters, Speaker Nunez essentially accused Republicans of trying to find something they don’t like in the conference committee’s $101 billion dollar spending plan for 2006-07. “No one can say this is not a responsible budget,” he said.

Republicans, meantime, say they still think the proposal doesn’t use enough of the state’s unexpected revenues to pay down debt. But while they maintain that’s the key sticking point, they are also balking at Democratic plans to expand health care coverage for children… coverage that would also include children who are in California without legal status.(Capital Notes 6/14/06)

Damn those kids for getting sick!  Who do they think they are thinking that they are worthy of medical care!  I’ve never quite understood this.  Can it really be that they are so cruel as to want to block children from receiving medical care?  It just boggles my mind.  But I appreciate the work that the Leadership (the Dem leadership that is) to get this deal done. 

The Dems have bent over backwards to get a budget that is best for the majority of Californians.  That’s what you have to do with a budget.  But because of the god-awful 2/3 rule we have to beg and plead for a few GOP votes.  And they know how to use that veto.  They wield it as a club with more skill than Captain Caveman (and that’s hard to do!).  And so we go on, compromising what the people of California really want.  But, that’s the system we’ve got, so hopefully Fabian and the gang can get something before June 30 and avoid the anticipation notes.  Boy would that be nice.