 |
|||||||||||||||||
|
 Ice
Cube 
 "Bush's
lame response to North Korea has made it quite clear that all he
wants is to invade Iraq again. North Korea may be more dangerous
in fact, but there's no oil there, and it simply doesn't figure
in the grand eschatological design of Bush's theocratic circle.
Pyongyang isn't even in the Bible!" "Word
comes that brother Cat Stevens refuses to lend his support to
our virtuous jihad. May this turncoat's Peace Train be laden with
explosives and rammed into the Mountain of Mohammed, peace be
upon him. "
 "'When
it comes to learning from its mistakes, corporate America has
fallen off the rehab wagon more times than Robert Downey, Jr.
A quick glance at last week's papers reveals that it's monkey
business as usual on Wall Street."
 "'People
are more aware of the world that they want to live in, and
now they have to realize that they can actually create that
world and fight for the things that are worth fighting for
and not feel apathetic. We are all going to die. There is
no point in holding anything back. ."
 "The
idea -- if we may use so flattering a term -- was that the
Pentagon would monitor the site and the betting, and thus
get a jump on terrorist acts to come. After all, as the theory
goes (and never mind the whole dot.com fiasco), if people
are willing to put money on something, they must have a pretty
good idea what they're doing."
 "Well,
well, well. President George was in one hell of bind when
it turned that that Saudi Arabia funded Al Qaeda, not Iraq.
Realizing we'd invaded the wrong country, Bush did the honorable
thing: he's come out against gay marriages."
 "Voters
are sick and tired of having their electoral choices severely
limited by a ruling class that has done everything in its
power to maintain the status quo -- including the latest round
of under-the-radar redistricting deals that make it all but
impossible to unseat incumbents."
 "There's
some thing in our psyche, this kind of right or privilege
to resolve our conflicts with violence. There's an arrogance
to that concept. To actually have to sit down and talk, to
listen, to compromise, that's hard work. To go for the gun,
that's the cowardly act."
 "The
music business is run by lawyers and accountants, and they
don't really care about the integrity of art."
 "In
a segment that seems designed to honor yet another one of
rock and roll's seminal yet fallen heroes, MTV just can't
help talking about why it, not Nirvana, mattered so much."
 "I
don't give a fuck about that. I feel comfortable being called
a punk band, because I feel that's what we came out of."
 "That's
an issue I'm dealing with here: what is going to happen with
this next generation of kids? What is their culture but media
culture? What hasn't been sanitized and homogenized?"
 "Even
though Sonic Youth grabbed Cobain by his hypodermic needles
and helped foist him into the spotlight, alterna-fans
du jour didn't return the favor when the New York noisemakers
lobbed this bottom-soaked missile their direction." |
by Ross Levine Quizzical eyes have been on California of late, with the citizens of her sister states wondering why she's holding another election for governor, less than a year after the present governor was put into office by a clear majority of the state's voters. If there had been a juicy scandal at least -- Gray Davis caught in flagrante delicto with the underage daughter of an energy czar, having been promised some nubile nookie in exchange for letting those taxpayer-gouging power contracts stand as they are -- but alas, Davis is true to his given name, wan and colorless, in feature and personality, and has committed no impeachable offense, at least not in the eyes of the liberals and moderates who elected him. But the right -- they're mad that their man Bill Simon, put on the November 2002 ballot by the neocon heirs to the legacies of Reagan and Deukmejian, couldn't win the crown, and that his opponent, the incumbent, didn't help him by telling voters what dismal shape the state budget was in. Yes, Davis is a little too cozy with the corrections industry, and was somewhat slow to act when the power companies were blinking the lights on and off, but this was known before the 2002 race. To try to depose a sitting governor on the basis of an unfortunate decline in the state's (and the nation's) fortunes, well, no wonder the rest of the country, who know California is always on the vanguard of what's to come, are growing nervous, lest a similar coup d'etat -- literally a "blow to the state" -- comes to a capital near them. The blame for this episode lies squarely with the California constitution, amended in 1911 by Governor Hiram Johnson, a Progressive Republican (before such creatures went extinct), who wanted to make sure the people had some weapons in their corner to fight the "octopus" -- AKA the railroad cartel -- the era's equivalent of today's petro-automotive confederacy. Article II, sections 13-20, lays out the mechanical procedures for a recall, with nary a word about its basis -- no justification necessary except the desire of a defined quantity of people (12 percent of the number who last voted for that office) to sign a recall petition. The constitution makes it quite clear that if the voters approve the recall, then whichever replacement candidate receives a plurality of the votes shall be elected, but it also makes it quite clear (in a previous section) that the lieutenant governor succeeds the governor when the latter, for whatever reason, can no longer serve, a blatant contradiction that was recently placed in the hands of the California Supreme Court. It was, however, a potato too hot for their judicial acumen, so they deferred it to the legal junk pile. And here's another quirky conundrum, thanks to the state Elections Code: "No vote cast in the recall election shall be counted for any candidate unless the voter also voted for or against the recall of the officer sought to be recalled." In other words, if you vote "no" to recall, which means, presumably, you want the governor to stay, you should be able to cast your vote for the governor on the second part of the ballot, no? No. The constitution makes it absolutely clear that the recalled officer cannot be on the list of possible successors, another legal minefield the courts have been loath to deactivate. That's why some Democrats wanted one of their own in the line-up, so the party faithful could vote "no" while at the same time hedging their bets (more on that later).
And if I may reveal just one more delectable tidbit that should have Californians frothing at their paychecks, not only do they have to foot the bill for this surprise, off-year election -- roughly estimated so far at 66 million dollars -- but their constitution also stipulates that if the recall is unsuccessful, they -- the taxpayers -- must reimburse the recalled official for all the money he spends fighting it. So if the state's citizenry don't already hate Davis enough to dis-elect him, they probably will once he turns in his receipts. Now wait a minute. In school, we're inculcated with the idea that our democracy is the best in the world, and though some of our teachers may point out its flaws, we go blithely into society believing that, in America, every citizen has a vote, and whichever candidate gets the most votes wins. But now it seems that ever since we stepped into this new century, courts, lawyers, resurrected political has-beens, loopholes and/or incompetent voting procedures and equipment are deciding our elections for us. Whether or not California in particular needs to spend time in political rehab is not the issue. Nor can we blame the man directly behind the recall's success, wealthy Republican congressman Darrell Issa of the treacherous Orange-San Diego triangle who, thanks to the fortune he earned in the car alarm trade, was able to tell voters to "Please step away from that elected leader!" He has since tearfully bowed out of the race, leaving many to wonder what (or who) exactly changed his plans and behind what closed door. Issa, who had the resources to bankroll an army of signature gatherers, has had an exceptionally checkered past (stealing cars with his brother, for example), and I suspect that the head capons -- er, capos -- of the Republican Party, not keen on having the public learn more about how Issa turned a life of larceny into one of luxury, met with the congressman and made him a proposition he could scarce eschew. In any case, voters can be grateful that instead of 136 choices on the ballot, they will now only have 135. And we shouldn't blame Issa for the fact that California's recall provision is more an Achilles heel than a safeguard of the popular will -- he was just the messenger -- so whom do we blame for this most recent erosion of our electoral infrastructure? Indeed, the California recall is just another outbreak of the same ballot-box Ebola that decimated our democracy three years ago in Florida. There, too, people cast their votes only to discover that elections could be decided in courthouses and not polling booths. It may have been the expedient thing for the Supreme Court to do, to assert its power over the outcome of the 2000 presidential race, but it did not serve the greater interests of the nation. By not thoroughly recounting the Florida vote, or, if necessary, yes, conducting the election there all over again, the Supremes put in power a leader whose very legitimacy remains in question. Over half the country was still reeling over Bush vs. Gore when the towers of the World Trade Center accordioned into the earth, and for a while, we put aside our concerns about the one man-one vote imperative to help see our semi-elected leader through the first salvos of his war on terrorism. But now, two years hence, our troops are mired in Iraq, Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda are still out there setting off our colorful terror alerts and years of environmental and social progress are being more and more boldly eroded by the Administration's tentacles. Bush has even nominated judges who think Senators, as the U.S. Constitution originally stipulated, should again be appointed by state legislatures, and that it's OK if legislative districts have unequal populations, so that fifty thousand whites can have the same voice as half a million minorities. But alas, it's too late now for us to cry foul -- we should have taken to the streets back in December 2000 in an American equivalent of a (pardon my French) general strike until every butterfly ballot emerged from the court-imposed silence of its cocoon. Unfortunately, Americans, in general, don't possess that degree of political engagement. When you think about it, a huge percentage of us (including, apparently, one Citizen Schwarzenegger) don't even bother to vote.
Perhaps if we lived in some South American plutocracy for a while, where there's always a tank parked at the door to the presidential palace, we might learn not to take our voting privileges for granted. The problem with actually having something is a tendency not to appreciate it, and we Americans have so much that our level of political apathy exceeds even our penchant for obesity. I doubt if a hundred Floridas could bring our indifferent multitudes to the polls, which is why it's even more essential that those of us who do bother to vote don't start seeing it as a completely wasted gesture. Lately there's been a lot of concern flying about the Internet regarding the integrity of the computerized voting machines soon to end all hanging of chads throughout the territories, and these concerns are depressingly valid. We all know that the U.S. government is far from perfect, but one thing it's had going for it (more or less) has been the orderly transition of power. Anything that interferes with this, be it corruptible voting computers or sloppy or fraudulent election procedures, is perhaps the greatest threat to our nation's survival, beyond even suicidal terrorists or a million homosexuals returning from Canada with wedding rings. Which brings us back to California. The laws are vague and contradictory, the courts are still buzzing, and the lawyers, no matter what, make an enviable hourly rate. Davis is doing what he has to do to save his political gizzard, and his opponents are on a roll, like thieves who just discovered a secret door to the vault. California has always been a dreamer's paradise, and so it's no surprise that so many have signaled their intention to relocate to Sacramento. Larry Flynt certainly has some interesting positions to espouse, and may deserve the job as compensation for outing all those Republican philanderers during the Clinton impeach-quisition. Local LA celebrity Angelyne of the pink Corvette will surely keep us abreast of the issues, as will the similarly top-heavy porn princess Mary Carey. Gary Coleman should at least see himself dropped from all those "Whatever happened to...?" articles, and other, lesser known contenders like the sumo wrestler, the folk dancer and the golfer should at least have an amusing anecdote to tell the grandkids. As for the frontrunners, Republican Schwarzenegger (whose wife, blood to Democratic royalty, has decided to let him run, and reportedly taken a lead role in his campaign) has, should the recall go through, a good chance of winning, perhaps based on the popularity of his action hero persona, a cross between barbarian and robot. Like our current president, English remains for him a distant second language, and his brand of lite Republicanism seems tailor-made for the Left of Center Coast. But as far as we can tell so far, Aahnold is really a Republican in platitude only -- "politicians are not listening to the people," "I will go to Sacramento and clean up the mess" -- he long ago associated Democrats with, in his mind, bankrupt European socialism, and believes, like most of his party, that government is more a money waster than a money distributor. He has nothing against gays or choice, his late father's stint in the Nazi party has made him a crusader for tolerance, and some years back, he worked to cut off benefits to illegal aliens, a stance he now appears to regret. He's resurrected ex-Governor Pete Wilson as his campaign manager, reminiscent of the way Bush put into service the detritus of previous right-wing administrations -- James Baker and Admiral Poindexter, to name two of my favorites. But the real problem with Schwarzenegger is what he considers his main strength, that he's not a politician. When non-politicians hold political office, they tend to have subordinates do the political footwork while they play figure-head leaders, like Reagan or fellow "pectoral college"-graduate Jesse Ventura -- they don't have time to learn the game, don't want to learn it, didn't have to learn it to get where they are, and so others are appointed to play it for them. Leadership, however, is not simply about calling the shots, but setting up the shots to be called. California cannot afford a governor-apprentice when the state is in such difficult financial and sociological turmoil. The prospect of a Governor Schwarzenegger might make us feel that the Terminator would be protecting us from the (political) machine, but then again, for all his Teutonic-toned bytes about "the people," it may turn out he can't relate at all to us lumpens living beyond the cockpit of his Hummer.
And then there's Ms. Huffington, whom I've grown quite fond of, though for years it seemed that her defection from the Dark Side was too good to be true. Still, there's a difference between a gadfly and the runaway bull it sucks blood from, and I hate to see Arianna having to put down her pen and her Prius to field the usual campaign mudballs, like why her campaign manager's a tobacco lobbyist, how the past two years she paid only $771 in federal taxes, and why her kids don't go to public schools. Again, if she had exhibited her political ambitions earlier, and had clawed her way to a ballot via a bruising primary ... but this recall business is just too easy -- $3,500 and 65 signatures -- it's hard not to think that she and the rest see the whole episode more as a publicity stunt than a real beginning to a life of public service. And as for Lieutenant Governor Cruz "Brutus-mante," he, unlike the others, is a career politician, which may explain the magnitude of his personal hubris, to vociferously denounce the recall while putting himself on the ballot, thus delivering a definite no-confidence stab to the Governor's backside. It has nothing do with his own aspirations, he claims, but is for the good of the party. Perhaps he feels it's his constitutional obligation, since, as explained above, in every other case of a premature gubernatorial meltdown, it's his duty to assume the reins. But although it's understandable that the Democrats would not want to lose the nation's most important governorship, it's just as important for them to present a united front against the recall itself. Bustamante has only helped "legitimize" the whole affair by his unfortunate decision, and one supposes that, should he emerge the winner, he'll spend the next three years a very lonely man at the top. In conclusion, I believe that referring to this whole matter as a circus is unfair to that form of entertainment, since circuses take planning and rehearsal, and this affair has so far been strictly improv. Thanks to the ACLU, a federal court still has to decide when exactly the election will take place, October or March, since various counties, including Los Angeles, still haven't quite upgraded their voting procedures (let's pray for October -- March would run it into the 2004 presidential race, and would mean, for Californians anyway, being subjected to an entire year of campaign ads). In the meantime, the majority of California voters, who did not sign the recall petition, must wait and see if they'll soon have a new governor elected by a not-so-vast minority of the people. If that happens, I, too, may become a disinterested member of this demi-democracy, so that once all the new electronic voting machines are up and running, I may just stay home and let those with the most money and power decide how they should work. 18 August 03 Ross M. Levine is an author, Marcel Proust marathoner and manatee-hugger who feels safer on the edge; i.e., in New York or California. He agrees with the King of Brobdingnag that we're "the most pernicious race of odious vermin to crawl the surface of the Earth." He thinks Americans have too much freedom -- fries, that is.
|
||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright 2001-2003, Morphizm.com. All Rights Reserved. |
|||||||||||||||||
