Day: October 19, 2005

Union Ads Question Schwarzenegger’s Credibility

Jon Ponder

Untrustworthy: Governor Schwarzenegger’s special election is just weeks away, and the airwaves here in California are rapidly approaching complete saturation with ads for and against the eight propositions on the ballot.

“I do not have to bow to any special interests. I have plenty of money. No one can pay me off. Trust me.”
— Gov. Schwarzenegger, prior to taking millions from special interests.

There are a lot of issues on the table, but the special election is mainly a school yard fight called by Gov. Schwarzenegger against the state’s public service unions. While it is abundantly clear that going after public servants like nurses, teachers, firemen and cops took huge cajones on the Governor’s part, what is less certain is whether spending millions of dollars to demonize such sympathetic figures was very smart.

Over the past couple of months, ads released by the unions have all featured “real” California teachers, firemen, cops and the rest, speakign into the camera, reminding us about the many promises Schwarzenegger has broken in his short tenure as governor. The gleaming example of this is his campaign pledge never to cut education funding – a promise he broke almost immediately after the election when he “borrowed” millions from state education budgets that he never had any intention of paying back.

Most voters are just now starting to read and analyze the content of the propositions, so the unions’ ad campaign is shifting focus onto the Governor’s personal credibility:

The [union-sponsored] spot opens with Schwarzenegger speaking on Leno’s show in August 2003. “I do not have to bow to any special interests,” Schwarzenegger says in the ad. “I have plenty of money. No one can pay me off. Trust me.” A firefighter interjects: “But now he’s taking millions from developers and big business.” “And pushing their agenda with his special election,” adds a police officer in front of a squad car.

The “real” people in the union ads cut across California’s wide demographic spectrum. Whether anglo, Latino, black, Asian, young and/or old, the people in the ads share one characteristic: They come off as seriously pissed off at Arnold.

Their “realness” also reminds us that, like us, they have jobs to do and bills to pay – unlike the Governor, who is a spoiled movie star who has no stake in the iniatives beyond their passing or failure will have on his political career.

Intelligent Designer Not Necessarily God; Could Be Chanel, But Definitely Not Hilfiger

Buck Banks

Snopes redux: A Lehigh University science professor whose own colleagues have publicly distanced themselves from his unscientific views is trying to convince a Pennsylvania judge that “intelligent design” is not creationism.

”Intelligent design … does not rely on any religious text,” Michael Behe said Tuesday in a federal trial over the teaching of evolution in public schools. ”It relies exclusively on physical information about nature and logical inferences.”

Behe maintains that while creationism is a religious concept, intelligent design — the belief that humankind’s development is too complex to have evolved without an intelligent designer — is a scientific idea. Creationism is a biblical explanation of the origin of life the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled cannot be included in public school science education.

Eight families are suing the Dover Area School District, which requires biology teachers to make a statement in class that there are alternate explanations, including intelligent design, to Darwin’s theory of evolution. The families believe the mandatory statement blends religion and science.

According to the Allentown Morning Call:

Behe testified Tuesday that intelligent design, unlike creationism, does not make references to religion or religious text. Although he said he believes that the intelligent designer is God, he said the intelligent design movement does not identify the designer and that there could be other causes….

But during the cross-examination of Behe, ACLU attorney Eric Rothschild reminded the court that the National Academy of Scientists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and even the biology department at Lehigh University, have denounced the idea of intelligent design.

”So you have not been able to convince your colleagues,” Rothschild said to Behe after reading a statement from Behe’s peers.

The statement, posted on Lehigh’s Web site, reads in part:

”While we respect Prof. Behe’s right to express his views, they are his alone and are in no way endorsed by the department. It is our collective position that intelligent design has no basis in science, has not been tested experimentally, and should not be regarded as scientific.”

Scientists Confirm Bird Flu Following Migratory Routes

Buck Banks

From Reuters: The discovery of bird flu in Romania and Turkey supports the theory the virus is being spread by migrating wildfowl, scientists said on Tuesday Oct. 18. Since the discovery in July 2005 that H5N1 bird flu had spread to birds in Siberia, experts have feared that migratory wildfowl would bring the virus westward.

“These latest cases in Romania and Turkey have reinforced that theory,” Alex Thiermann, president of the International Animal Health Code at the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in Paris, told Reuters.

H5N1 is particularly deadly for chickens, but wild waterfowl such as ducks and geese can carry the virus without showing symptoms or becoming ill.

“The existence of known migration flyways of several birds species connecting Southeast Asia, Siberia and Europe shows a possibility of the introduction of the H5N1 virus to both eastern and western Europe,” the OIE said this week in a report on the outbreak in Russia.

OIE said surveillance should be increased in the Caspian Sea region, which was recognized as “a significant wintering area for water birds of various origins (Europe and western Asia) and can be considered a so-called biological ‘hub.’ ”
[…]

Heavy Is the Crown: Bill O’Reilly Laments His Fame

Jon Ponder

“I don’t need to do the show anymore [and] I’m as famous as I need to be. I don’t like being famous. … I can’t take my family and stay in a hotel, so what good is it?

“You have to worry about who’s looking at you – are they taking your picture? Did you curse at this guy? If you nudge somebody’s bumper, are they going to sue you for $80million?

“I never felt sorry for people like Lindsay Lohan in my life. I thought they were dopey little movie stars. Now I feel sorry for those people. That poor little girl is 19 and can’t leave the house without some idiot doing something.”

— Bill O’Reilly

Rove’s Replacement Being Discussed

Jon Ponder

Too bad Goebbels is dead: There is word today that CIA Leak prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has no plans to write up his findings similar to the pornographic “Starr Report” that was released by Clinton persecutor Ken Starr. Buried in the article is the news that the White House is floating names to replace Propaganda Minister Karl Rove, if he is indicted for betraying state secrets:

Given the political ramifications attached to Mr. Fitzgerald’s decisions, officials at the White House have begun discussing what would happen if Mr. Rove was indicted.

Among the names being discussed to take some of Mr. Rove’s responsibilities should he have to step aside, an outside adviser to the White House said, are Dan Bartlett, currently Mr. Bush’s counselor; Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee; and Robert M. Kimmitt, the deputy Treasury secretary.