Ask the 'Geek Candidate' for California Governor 1109
No, not Arnold Schwarzenegger. We're talking abut Georgy Russell, who studied computer science at UC Berkeley, often wears ThinkGeek clothing, has a blog, reads Slashdot, and knows how to run Linux. Since this California electoral free-for-all has turned into a worldwide spectator sport as bizarre as any other 'Reality TV' show currently airing, Slashdot might as well get in on the media frenzy and interview a candidate, and Georgy is the obvious choice. We'll email Georgy 10 of the highest-moderated questions, and publish her answers (and, yes, the chosen questions in the same post) as soon as she replies.
Do you think the recall is fair? (Score:5, Insightful)
This whole situation seems like a gross abuse of a recall system that relies on honesty and virtuous politicians. Unfortunately California is no such utopia. By running in the election you have shown your support for it, how do you justify this support given the evident problems.
Re:Do you think the recall is fair? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you think that a vote of no confidence is fair, which happens quite often in the "democratic" world, then you should think the California recall is fair.
That said, I happen to dislike votes of no confidence. I'm all for removing an executive from office should (s)he prove incompetent, but holding an election to replace that person should not occur. That is the purpose of offices such as the U.S. Vice President, or, in California's case, the Lt. Governor. What *should* happen is that, should a recall vote occur and Gov. Davis is removed, the Lt. Governor should take his place and an election should be held for Lt. Governor (which is elected seperately by California law, IIRC). Furthermore, that vote should take place in the legislature, not by popular vote.
However, that's me. Feel free to argue with me about it.
Re:Do you think the recall is fair? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Do you think the recall is fair? (Score:5, Interesting)
I personally also think the 12th Amendment should be repealed.
Re:Do you think the recall is fair? (Score:5, Insightful)
What is unfair about it? It is a constitutional way for the people to re-assert their power in California. There are plenty of reasons why Davis should lose his job, but the single most important reason is that the people don't want him in office anymore- thats why the recall statutes were put on the books in the first place!
I personally love this whole thing. The only people that are upset by this process are people like Davis that think that they are losing power. They can't stand that they have no control over what is happening or what candidates end up on the ballot. As far as I am concerned, the further this gets from the typical choice between two boring candidates slinging mud at each other, the better.
Re:Do you think the recall is fair? (Score:5, Informative)
You are definately in a minority if you believe that.
Much of the deficit is Enron's fault (I seem to recall that taking roughly $30 billion to clean up)
I think the upper estimates of the cost of the energy crisis were around $4 billion. That hurts, but that does not bring the deficit from $12 billion (like Davis was claiming during the campaign) to $35 billion. Davis wasn't responsible for creating the energy crisis mess, but he sure didn't handle the situation well when it came up (and signing those overpriced long term contracts in a panic 2 years ago didnt help either).
No, the problem with Davis is deeper than just the energy crisis. In Davis's first years in office, his budgets increased state spending by double digits each year. This was on unsustainable ".com-boom" tax revenue. During this time he also signed anti-business legislation, like the workers compensation act and the paid family leave act. As a result, businesses started leaving California en-masse. In fact, California has lost more jobs so far this year than the rest of the nation combined. As an icing on the cake, Davis went ahead and tripled the vehicle registration taxes a few months ago. In his mind this was going to increase revenue, but in reality it has just killed new car sales and further hurt the economy.
I think the most telling aspect of Davis has been his reaction to this whole thing. After the recall vote was certified, Davis could have gone out and touted his accomplishments to clear his name. After all, if Davis is right and he shouldn't be recalled, then there should be some reasons to keep him in office, right? But no. The first thing he does is huddle in a room with some lawyers for a week to come up with a ridiculous suit against the recall process itself. When that fails, he flies to Chicago to meet with big labor union bosses to negotiate their "support". And instead of campaigning for himself, all he has done so far is belittle his opponents and the recall process in general.
No, I won't miss Davis at all.
About the deficit problem (Score:3, Interesting)
The states made a big mistake when they started using sales taxes to pad their incomes. This is one of the key problems with a national sales tax to replace the income tax, a system that keeps being promoted.
When spending is high, the ecconomy is good and the sales tax revenues are quite large. The state runs a surplus and the voters demand in
Re:About the deficit problem (Score:5, Insightful)
But they are all related. Consumer spending is down because people are out of work. People are out of work because the economy is bad. The economy is especially bad in California because of the asinine anti-business legislation that is driving businesses [fortune.com] out of the state.
The message? Sales taxes are a bad idea.
The message I get is that you shouldn't increase state spending by 30% in three years during a period of unsustainable growth in tax revenue.
And I happen to think that sales taxes are the most fair methods of taxation because they let the individual choose how much taxes they are going to pay.
One idea I like is the circulation fee system.
I hate that idea. Coerced spending- ugh.
THANK YOU CHEEZEDAWG (Score:4, Interesting)
Think about it, why do we tax the rich? Is it about punishing them for being rich, or trying to get whatever out of them they're willing to pay? Because if it's the ladder, California should really reexamine their tax system.
Over taxation leads to less revenue and hindered economies. It's a lose lose situation, unless you just really hate the rich.
Re:Do you think the recall is fair? (Score:3, Informative)
Even though some people are whiners and want to blame everthing on others, this dosen't negate the times that somebody/something else is to blame.
I'm always amused that people blame govenors/presidents for things that are frequently more attributable to their legislative bodies.
Re:Do you think the recall is fair? (Score:5, Informative)
You need to remember, the state's answer to the energy scam was to raise consumer rates to pay the bloated expenses over the next decade or two. This is on top of a nearly 10% state sales tax and over 10% state income tax -- and NOT including the proposed income tax for county and city. How much can a state take away from it's citizins?
This *problem* is more related to the state legislature than Davis alone -- he just SIGNED all the spending bills -- the state house and assembly had to pass them. We need a gov who'll tell them to "get stuffed" -- not someone trying to make EVERYONE happy so he'll have a shot to use california as a spring-board to the whitehouse.
Re:Do you think the recall is fair? (Score:3, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:More importantly, is the recall legal (Score:5, Informative)
Davis apparently ran a fraudulent campaign, specifically as regards the expected budget deficit. From other posts in this story, he spent the campaign claiming that the deficit would be $10-12 billion, and claiming that his opponent's claim of $25 billion was wildly exaggerated. There are plausible allegations that he conspired to keep the reports of the actual deficit (which was announced to be $30 billion and is now estimated at $38 billion) unreleased until after the election. In this case, the logic behind the recall is that, had all the facts been known, Davis would not have won.
Re:More importantly, is the recall legal (Score:3, Insightful)
questions about the campaign. (Score:5, Interesting)
While I believe that as more and more "young" people run for and are elected to office, these items might come to pass, don't you think that it is a little early to be attempting to make these strides?
My other issue is your stance on Health Care. The fine State of CA has many illegal immigrants on its soil, (in fact it depends on those people for many "lowly" jobs IIRC). Are you planning on REAL citizens covering the insurance costs for these illegal immigrants and their children? Don't you see this as a large enough burden on the population as it is?
Re:questions about the campaign. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:questions about the campaign. (Score:4, Interesting)
It is this kind of small minded opinion that always amazes me - especially on
Surely you can see that the whole "blaming the imigrants" thing is nothing but spin - and fundamentally not that different to the anti-semitism happening in Nazi Germany pre WW2.
Immigrants come to rich countries for a reason - a better quality of life. It is surely human nature to better ourselves as individuals and groups - this is how we have achieved so much as a species. We have to accept that we are living in a capitalist world - and as capitalism dictates that money is proportional to quality of life then people in poorer countries will naturally want to migrate to richer ones. This is not because they are evil, lazy or stupid, but simply the human desire to better ones self.
One thing that is never mentioned by any politician in western governments is the cause of dissatisfaction that causes illigal immigration. It is naive to assume that becoming an illegal immigrant is a "easy option", but as long as the richest countries keep exploiting the poorest countries (and hence keep the poor countries poor) there will be individuals who refuse to live the life they are born to.
The craziest thing of all to me is that the western world now insists on beaming its sanitised and idealised version of western life into the poorer countries via television channels - simply highlighting what they haven't got.
</soapbox>
Re:questions about the campaign. (Score:5, Insightful)
Look- I'm a Republican who believes that we need serious imigration reform, our policy is too restrictive (I know, not exactly the party line there). The southwest sees tons of illegals because we as a country won't let them come across in a legit manner. However, all that will change by giving illegals free health care is increasing the number of illegals. Politicians on both sides of the aisle spend way to much time fighting symptoms. Get to the cause- make these aliens legal and then allow them the same health care options the rest of America has.
Re:questions about the campaign. (Score:5, Insightful)
but you think the first thing the paramedics should do is "check their papers."
gee, glad i don't live in america any more.
and you're assuming that *all* illegal immigrants came over the border knowing they were illegal. a fair number of illegal immigrants are brought over with promises of legal immigration and legal jobs. a lot of internet add servers do geo-targeting and they know my ip addresses are outside the states so i see ads everyday advertising companies that will bring me over to work in the states legally (or so they say).
and these are american companies exploiting foreign workers. often in high risk jobs with little regard for osha.
and you favour leaving them bleeding in the streets.
nice.
Re:What part of illegal don't you understand? (Score:3, Insightful)
hm. i suppose putting them in garbage bags and dumping them in the landfill would just use up valuable landfill space. maybe they could just be ground up and used for dog chow.
yes, i think that's the way to go.
Re:questions about the campaign. (Score:5, Insightful)
A staggering 43 million Americans have no health coverage whatsoever and another 100 million are considered under-insured.
- Why NOT Privatize [web.net]
It looks like the US could easily afford health care for both "real citizens" as you call them and illegal immigrants.
Besides, I'd rather pay an extra $10 in taxes this year than let some poor kid with a bullet in her stomach die on the street.
Nobody wins unless everyone wins, right?
Re:questions about the campaign. (Score:3, Interesting)
Your point is valid, though. If they were all to be declared "legal" overnight, this issue would not go away.
Re:questions about the campaign. (Score:3, Insightful)
They pay taxes (sales tax and the federal taxes deducted from their paychecks).
Please pardon what may be a stupid question, but since federal tax withholding is done using social security numbers, and since illegal aliens don't have SSNs, how does this work? Wouldn't that be a big red flag for the IRS that someone is employing illegal aliens? I thought, rather, that most illegal aliens worked "under the table," with no taxes being withheld or accounting being performed.
Re:questions about the campaign. (Score:5, Interesting)
The truth is this: California WANTS illegal immagrants there so that they can have farm workers, people to clean up hotels, and (most importantly) a scapegoat for all the problems that exist in the state. It's WAY too easy to "illegally" get into California and work there for it to be a simple mistake. If they wanted to get rid of the "problem", then they'd start throwing employers in jail for hiring illegal workers. But they don't do that, and the fact that they don't is quite telling. The often white, republican farmers, wouldn't want their labor force to be depleted -- and to be fair, most every illegal immagrant would rather be doing that than living in northern Mexico.
I left California in 1995; after being born and raised there. I miss it at times, but not at the moment... Proposition 187 was supposed to "fix" all of this; it was passed right as I left the state, but it looks as though it didn't do much.
Oh, and my current state's budget was balanced this year.
Re:questions about the campaign. (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you have evidence of illegal immigrants getting an actual paycheck with federal taxes withheld? I have lived around various groups of illegal immigrants (crop workers in southern Georgia, construction workers in Atlanta). To the best of my knowledge, all of them were paid in cash, with no taxes being taken from their wages.
Re:questions about the campaign. (Score:3, Insightful)
Uh, no. Well, OK, they pay sales tax, but so does everyone who buys anything. A large majority of them do NOT have taxes deducated from their paychecks, or even have paychecks at all (cash under the table), since if they got a social security number, that wouldn't help them "stay under the radar", and you can't deduct taxes from a paycheck without a social security number.
Re:questions about the campaign. (Score:4, Insightful)
They pay taxes. Federal taxes deducted from their paychecks.
Where exactly is that fscking line item on the envelope full of singles that they get at the end of the day?
They are not a draw on social programs?
The county of Los Angeles ALONE - in 1 year paid out $350 MILLION (one county, one year) last year in medical expendatures to "undocumented workers". How do they know this? If you have a valid SSN, you get MediCAL. If you don't have a valid SSN, they simply bill your (ficticious) residence. The cost last year was $380 million. (LA Times)
If they get arrested they get tossed out?
It costs the state of California 7 times more to incarcerate "undocumented" Californians [ca.gov] than it will cost to run this recall election.
They do not have to pay any insurance costs for their "vehicles" because they do not bother to register them, because, like you said, they avoid the DMV.
They most often use public transportation - which is by all accounts in every location in California a tax user, not a tax producer - because all state county, and city public transportation systems run at a loss, they do not make the cities/state money.
They do not pay for the cost of their children's education - because they do not pay income tax because they do not, on average, make enough to pay taxes since most of them make less than $22k a year.. below which, you do not pay federal income tax, and they can actually GET money back from the federal govnerment because you get $1000 for each child you have - the child tax credit.. so in the end, they MAKE more money off of the tax system alone than they put in.
They pay sale tax (on good that they buy in stores, but not on goods such as private sale of foodstuffs like what the farmers will sell to them at the end of the day). And they pay property tax (as part of their cost of rent) - but since they live disproportionately more people/dwelling, the revenue generated per captia is far below non-Latino rates.
In short - California is 100 times better than where they came from. Where they cam from they did not get free medical, free childbirth medical, free schooling for their kids, nearly free transportation costs, they don't get extorted by the cops as much as they did back in Mexico, China, Korea or whetever central American country they are from... and they get to be guarded by the best police, fire, and military protection in the world - without paying most of those nasty taxes that go to provide it all.
The employers of these people have an unfair tax advantage - but far far more importantly, they do not have to pay worker's compensation insurance on them - which in the State of California is running around 75% of worker's wages right now/year... it may go to 125% within 5 years. That means if you hire a guy for $40k a year, it will cost you nrealy $100k to hire them - when its all said and done...
This state is on the verge of total colapse - and it is because this state is responsible for the care, feeding (school lunches and breakfasts), and medical of non-trivial portions of other country's populations.
I did not sign up for the recall because I want to see at what point people will "get it" - that you cannot run a state like this, or it will collapse. With the party in power now standing up things like the "end poverty in California committee" [ca.gov] movement in the state legislature - perhapse you remember that from the past.. Stalin and Lennin were both big proponents of the same ideals.
I want Americans to feel first hand what socialism does to a state... i want them to experience total colapse of a state under the weight of open borders and unlimited government programs. Because it is obvious to me that most people still left i
Re:questions about the campaign. (Score:3, Insightful)
A socialist country can tightly control its borders, and choose a specific set of government programs that exist to benefit only citizens.
As far as I know the worker's comp system in California is pretty much busted.
Shiny jails and crumbling schools. That'
Economy (Score:5, Interesting)
* ABC News last night
Obvious question (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Obvious question (Score:4, Funny)
RIAA vs. America (Score:5, Interesting)
Hope to win or shake things up? (Score:5, Interesting)
So... (Score:5, Interesting)
How do you think your involvement in technology can translate to leading California, and indirectly, the rest of the country? I see here [georgyforgov.com] that you have filed for several patents. How do you feel about companies such as PanIP using patents as a basis for lawsuits rather than innovation? Will you make intellectual 'property' a campaign issue?
Tongue-in-cheek... (Score:3, Funny)
Budget (Score:5, Insightful)
Miss Russell, (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Miss Russell, (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, then, why do you -THINK- she's so popular?
(Oh, and she's a twenty-something).
Re:Miss Russell, (Score:5, Funny)
You underestimate the power (Score:5, Insightful)
It brings up another interesting aspect of cultural power in this election; how many people will see Arnold as anything less than a hero? How many people will be influenced by his characters' ability to go against seemingly overwhelming odds to survive and succeed? This is not to say that the big guy isn't a good person - I was quite impressed by his charitable donations and interest in children. But he has gone against aliens, liquid metal assassins, sword weilding tribesmen, evil public servents and some villians too ridiculous to mention and succeeded each time.
How will his opponents (Ms. Russell, this question is for you) fight against this vision in the public's mind so that their issues and faces can take center stage?
myke
Re:Miss Russell, (Score:4, Insightful)
While I feel (see here [slashdot.org])that some of her issues are going to cause detrimental harm to her campaign due to the current status of most of the voting population, I think that people could possibly relate to her (especially 18-29 aged voters, sadly, most of that group doesn't vote).
the most important question (Score:5, Funny)
Re:the most important question (Score:4, Funny)
Re:the most important question (Score:5, Funny)
Remainder of my
Illegal Imigration (Score:4, Interesting)
Likewise, will the funding of benefit programs to imigrants (legal or otherwise) be cut, maintained, or increased?
Against Arnold, why? (Score:5, Interesting)
Pundits would be quick to point out that "obviously, he'd not run if he didn't think he had a chance"...but I doubt that ~130 miscellaneous people really think they have a chance against Arnold, or even Gary Coleman. Gary Coleman even said he doesn't expect to win, and that he supports Arnold.
Technology (Score:5, Interesting)
Hanz and Franz asked me to send this: (Score:4, Funny)
What is stopping ARN-ald from crushing your little girly-man body with his pumped-up biceps? I mean really, listen to me now and hear me later, how do you expect to beat ARN-ald when are a pathetic little girly-man?
Sincerely,
Hanz & Franz
Do you think this election is Real? (Score:5, Insightful)
Won't this whole election fiasco cripple anyone who actually wins?
My questions (Score:4, Interesting)
Media Attention (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously (Score:3, Interesting)
qualifications (Score:5, Interesting)
Did you pay SCO? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Did you pay SCO? (Score:5, Funny)
If not, would you support strategic military action against Utah?
-B
My Question(s). (Score:3, Interesting)
How would you deal with this?
When will the DVD be out? (Score:3, Funny)
Will there be a computer game?
Will I be able to buy candidates' portrait cups at Mc Donald's?
Know any good erotic fan-fiction sites?
The environment (Score:3, Interesting)
Can you make the difference and take a lead on these issues to generate more respect for your country ?
are you just another stupid techno-libertarian? (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you understand.. (Score:5, Funny)
Who's in your staff? (Score:5, Insightful)
Free Software California (Score:5, Interesting)
Energy & Presidents (Score:4, Interesting)
2. Why do you continually attack Bush and supposed administration policies in all of your literature? Wouldn't it make more sense to discuss the intentions of candidates who are actually running for governor of California? If the current governor of California cannot prevent Bush from influencing the state, how would you?
Re:Energy & Presidents (Score:3, Funny)
Really, it was a nice experiment. Other tactics turn up many more promising leads, but this one mostly gets people who are interested in the idea and want to know if it works. I guess nobody wants $100
Okay - after having looked on her site... (Score:4, Funny)
Will you marry me?
(well, every
Mandating Open Source? (Score:3, Insightful)
What I want to know is, do you think that passing a law mandating the use of free software wherever it does the job properly would be proper? While many people here at
Thank You,
Alex Kirk
Firearms laws (Score:3, Insightful)
Geek Jobs (Score:4, Interesting)
That being said, what would you do to help stem the tide of hi tech jobs leaving our country as Governor, and what would you try to do if you were eventually elected to congress?
California's dismal education system (Score:5, Interesting)
As governor, this is one of the areas that you would have a lot of control over. What are your ideas for improving our state's schools?
Debate? (Score:3, Interesting)
Do you support the state using open source/linux (Score:3, Interesting)
Fiscal Dicipline?? (Score:3, Insightful)
For about 80%, the vast majority of Californians, the increased taxes necessary to fund universal health care would be less than their current costs for private health care. A new system would allow for much needed accountability for health coverage, and create competition based on quality of care rather than cost of care.
How can you (on the same web page) talk about your fiscal dicipline and introduce an idea for universal health care?
Additionally, in a single payer system there is *no* competition. Is your universal health care really universal or are you unsure of the meaning of competition??
Clearly you haven't thought a lot of this through. There are typos on your web pages and *worse* there are logical fallacies in your political rhetoric.
On the other hand I love your approach to gay marriage and marijuana. But that's the Libertarian in me... not the liberal.
Why should I vote for you?? (Aside from the fact that you're hella cute and also geeky?)
May I suggest a new sloagan for you??
Georgy for Govenor. The same political hot air... now tempered with good looks!
~foooo
PS. I don't live in Kalifornia, but if I did I'd spend my vote on someone less bleeding heart and opt for a more practical candidate.
Voting behavior (Score:3, Interesting)
Given that it is likely much of Arnold Schwarzenneger's electoral support will come simply from his celebrity status, do you feel it would be okay for people to vote for you simply because you are beautiful ( *and smart!* )?
Thought experiment (Score:5, Interesting)
Can you do a little thought experiment for us? I think it would provide some insight into your understanding of your opponents and the issues.
I want you to play devil's advocate for a moment, and imagine yourself in turn as the candidate for the Democrats, Republicans, and Green Party. What would your issues be, and what tactics would you use to gain the governorship?
Probably a tall order, but I think it would really highlight your grasp of the issues and political climate.
Is electrinic voting secure? (Score:3, Interesting)
What is your opinion of the suitability of electronic voting in California elections?
Dot Bomb? (Score:4, Interesting)
The budget (Score:3, Interesting)
I realize that these are specific and uncomfortable questions to ask, but California is in the midst of a major budgetary crisis, and any Governor will have to make specific and unpleasant choices to deal with it. So far, the answer the current Governor has chosen has been to pick and blame political opponents.
protect the state from theft (Score:3, Flamebait)
A similar situation, with less disastrous effect, occurred with Oracle. What are your plans to protect your state and it's cities from such special interests in the future.
Energy Security (Score:5, Interesting)
As governor, will you insist on clean energy at the risk these never get built or are built in an insufficient number, or would you be willing to compromise and build fossil and/or nuclear plants to ensure that the 2001 fiasco which cost CA billions is never repeated?
Transport policy (Score:5, Interesting)
Short-sighted planners still cling to the unbelievably outdated notion that you can reduce traffic congestion by building more roads and making existing ones wider. Are you aware of the phenomenon of 'induced traffic' or will you allow this destructive and self-defeating practice of runaway road-building to continue unopposed? Will you strive to overcome the political wrangling that has hampered efforts to build a European style high-speed rail link from San Francisco to Los Angeles?
Single-use zoning laws have led to the vandalism of California's built environment. It has transformed her 'cites' into a vast, ugly sprawl of strip malls, gas stations and fast food drive-thrus. Building a pedestrian-friendly city is well nigh illegal in most places. Will you speak out against the malling and sprawling of the west and advocate the growing North American movement known as 'new urbanism?'
Thanks.
Election spoiler (Score:4, Interesting)
How do you feel about the possibility that you as a candidate (as well as those that vote for you) could be tarred with the same brush as Nader in 2000, namely, that you 'gave' the recall election to someone distasteful to the accuser, merely by being less distasteful but still participating? What do you think this says about democracy in California and the US when so many individual candidates could be similarly accused?
Participation or Representation? (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, do you feel that the elected governor is assisted or confounded by the slew of ballot initiatives that come through every election cycle? If elected, would you seek to expand this participatory government because it empowers the people, keep it at the same level, or rein it in because it makes effective long-term strategy so difficult?
How does it feel... (Score:4, Interesting)
Where the business? (Score:5, Insightful)
It appears you might be in a segment of the political spectrum where you are duty bound to think of business as the Bad Guys, but I'd ask you to look beyond that. At least look for ways to attract smaller businesses which is where most of the job growth tends to occur anyway.
I'm afraid your statements have too much ideological content. For example, there are reasons OTHER than "special interests" that prevent wide adoption of solar energy. Some of them have a solid scientific and economic basis. And the crack about "Oh, do we want to be like Bush's Texas" was also silly.
A lot of us out here are really, really tired of that blame game nonsense. We don't want to hear California's woes blamed on Bush or 9/11 or El Nino or the flapping of a butterfly's wings in Argentina. What's done is done and now is now. What do you propose to FIX it?
Couple Quetions (Score:3, Funny)
Have you ever been in a turkish prison?
Why bother legalizing marijuana? (Score:3, Insightful)
5,000 votes might be the difference... (Score:3, Interesting)
Cattle (Score:3, Insightful)
Television broadcasters and advertisers are schooled to direct their messages to an average 12 year-old mentality because that, unfortunately, has been proven by far the most effective way to get people to, 'Vote with their Wallets.'
Likewise, success in politics, as has been demonstrated since the dawn of politics, and which is certainly true today, is almost never achieved by appealing to the minds of a "Self-motivated, rational and informed public." Success in politics is nearly always achieve by manipulating and then addressing base emotions through overly-simplified representations of issues. "People would rather believe a Simple Lie than a Complex Truth."
--The simple fact that 'Arnie', whose primary claim to fame is physical size and a movie career where he played big guys with big guns and 'blowed stuff up real good', is actually in a real position to win, is an excellent example.
So, (and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt here by assuming you are *not* yet another deluded and/or self-serving jerk), how do you personally approach the whole problem that success in politics is largely based on manipulating like cattle the very voting public which it is the politician's job to respect and serve?
-FL
1/2 the responses refer to you as male (Score:4, Interesting)
You are being positioned, at least in this community, as the "geek candidate". (I'll omit the quotes from now on, and hope you're not offended by the word geek.)
It seems to me that a female geek holds the best hope for getting a technologically-competent politician into an important office, because female geeks escape from many of the negative stereotypes that plague male geeks in the public perception.
How do you think being a female geek vs a male geek affects your chance to win the election? (Better? Worse? Non-issue?) Along the same lines, do you believe being female in general will make the election easier or more difficult for you?
The reason I asked this question is this -- over half of the replies to this interview post have referred to you as "he", "him", or otherwise as a male, when even the short article blurb clearly indicated you were a "she".
Affirmative Action (Score:5, Interesting)
As a college student in the UC system, but a politically rightist town (LA), I hear a lot of different views on the subject. I am also, however, a white guy that grew up in an upper-middle class neighborhood. Now, I'm all for diversity, but do you think affirmative action is really the right way to get diversity into schools? If so, why? If not, what do you propose? Would you try to do anything to solve racial diversity issues at a lower level than that of the university?
Age (Score:5, Interesting)
The constituency aside, should you get voted governor, do you believe the older California lawmakers will take you seriously? How do you intend to gain their respect?
Will more government really fix health care? (Score:5, Interesting)
Content vs. Tech (Score:5, Interesting)
If so how?
I realize that this is mostly a federal matter as far as the law and politics go but there are many that believe that California kind of sets the standard for the rest of the nation to follow(at least economically and politically) so I am intersted in your ideas on this matter.
Great leaders have great advisors... (Score:5, Interesting)
Given your presumed lack of experience and ability to hold the office you are seeking, who will you be appointing as your advisors upon becoming governor and what are their qualifications?
What we really want to know. (Score:4, Interesting)
- The Oracle fiasco cost the state millions of dollars.
- Davis said in his "State of the State" address that if he found that the electric companies were ripping us off by shutting down power stations to artificially raise prices then he'd take over the stations via emminent domain. Sure enough, the electric companies were found to be manipulating the prices. Rather than fullfilling his promise he formed a 5 year plan to buy electricity at a high rate and to pay for it from the general fund thereby bankrupting the state. That plan cost us billions of dollars.
- On top of all that he increased spending by (depending which source you cite) 30% to 48%. Government spending increased roughly twice the rate of the population increase. And now he tells us the only way we can get out of this mess is to cut police, fire, and school budgets.
- Because of all this our bonds have been downgraded to one level above "junk".
So we know why he's a bad governor. What we want to know, what we need to know, is how do you propose to fix this mess? Don't tell me how other people have failed, don't give me some generic line about how "special interest is running this state". Give me specific points of your plan to fix our financial problems.Qualifications? (Score:5, Insightful)
<PERSONAL OPINION>
Like William F. Buckley, I'd rather be ruled or governed by the Everyman than I would by an increasing number of deep pocketed haves. That said, I'm not giving anybody a free pass, because they play the part of the geek or legit geeks. I want candidates to put forward a comprehensive platform. Programs they will execute. Priorities for their budgets. Don't placate me by "feeling my pain" or reciting the terms of the GPL.
<SUBOPINION ON CALIFORNIA>
If the marijuana legalization and gay marriage are the acid tests for your gubernatorial candidates, then you have a serious problem. These are journalistic issues, issues that sell papers and give the cable news talking heads something to babble about. In reality, these issues (in addition to file sharing, the RIAA, and IP infringement) affect minor assortments of people. They do not belong in the realm of public policy making where budget crises, transportation gridlock, and energy shortages will determine California's future. These affect homosexuals and heterosexuals, virgin lungs and potheads, and Windows neophytes and Linux zealots with no prejudice.
</SUBOPINION ON CALIFORNIA>
</POLITICAL OPINION>
How to balance the budget (Score:4, Interesting)
Tax the rich even more is your answer? (Score:5, Interesting)
Currently, the wealthies people pay the highest percentage of their income in taxes. Yet your solution to the budget crisis seems to be to tax these people even more? Why do you feel it is ethical to unfairly tax the most productive members of Califoria society, to solve California's budget problems, but are unwilling to make the average person take some responsibility for providing tax revenue for service rendered by California govt. for all Californians? As a practical matter, do you think this solution will drive these people away from California, and create an even greater budget problem, rather than solving it?
Re:question (Score:3)