In The Blogs

Arnold Speaks

| Wed Oct. 28, 2009 9:01 AM PDT

In case you're wondering what's up in California these days, here's our current object of obsession: Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto message for AB 1176. Arnold's flack says it's just "a weird coincidence." No doubt.

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Kevin Drum is a political blogger for Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here.

Comments

OK, this is pretty funny.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 9:40 AM PDT.

OK, this is pretty funny.

LOL, and NFW that's an

Submitted by kth on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 9:45 AM PDT.

LOL, and NFW that's an accident.

LOL! Ammiano seems to have

Submitted by Jack (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 9:47 AM PDT.

LOL!

Ammiano seems to have taken it OK.

subliminal political discourse works

Submitted by tpx on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 9:59 AM PDT.

Semi-subliminal political messages work according to plan on the American mass psyche.

Is there someone whose job

Submitted by DonBoy (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 10:12 AM PDT.

Is there someone whose job it is to read down the left-hand column of all gubernatorial statements looking for hidden acrostics? Because I wouldn't have have noticed that in a million years.

Arnold did it

Submitted by lq (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 10:29 AM PDT.

The absolute tell that Arnold did this (and not some staffer) is the inclusion of "I" in the beginning. His way of speaking is 'I fuck you' - he'll blame a staffer, but he did it.

"Overwhelmingly?"

Submitted by MuckrakerAP (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 10:29 AM PDT.

Normally, the way to tell is to see if the language is awkward, as if people were trying to make words fit. To which I ask: how do Californians "overwhelmingly" deserve something? Normally, "overwhelming" is used when there's some sort of quantity involved. I vote: BS.

Sounds like someone tried to

Submitted by alex (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 10:32 AM PDT.

Sounds like someone tried to over-generalize Bible code interpretations.

Color me unimpressed: first column in English is child's play compared to a matrix in Hebrew.

Wouldn't the word placement

Submitted by Chicounsel (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 10:43 AM PDT.

Wouldn't the word placement of the Governor's statement depend on the type and size of the font that was used to print whatever document that happens to be a picture of? If I made the letters the size of an individual piece of paper, I'm sure you could come up with better insults than "Fuck You". Besides Kevin, you missed the "I" at the very beginning, making Arnold's true message to Legislature "I fuck you." At least, that's the "thinking" going at Daily Kos about this "news".

The ability of liberals to seize upon the most microscopic of perceived slights is truly a sight to behold. Equaled only by their ability to perceive all things racial and ability to decipher the "code words" that us Conservatives use all the time. LOL

Oh, and speaking of California, how well are you and the cats surviving the post-apocalyptic hell that resulted from the unprecedented cuts in government spending a few months back? Missing any of it yet?

That's a PDF of the actual

Submitted by Kevin Drum on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 10:55 AM PDT.

That's a PDF of the actual document. It's a piece of paper, not an email, and that's how the lines break. Cats and I are doing fine, thanks for asking.

Link to original PDF from gov.ca.gov

Submitted by Mike-a-mike (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 4:11 PM PDT.

Linky, linky.

Water reform

Submitted by MobiusKlein (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 11:43 AM PDT.

Is he really vetoing bills because of water reform issues?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/07/MNL01A20EQ.DTL

That seems like as much of a 'fuck you' as the literal one in the veto message.

Time for a recall. (and Total Recall puns are not allowed.)

T I Fuck You

Submitted by JeffF (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 11:48 AM PDT.

I think the full message is actually "T I Fuck You", T for Tom. Tom Ammiano. The San Francisco assemblyman. Schwarzenegger seem to be having a petty feud.

More evidence of how seriously Schwarzenegger takes his responsibilities as governor.

heh, forgot the main reason

Submitted by JeffF (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 11:49 AM PDT.

heh, forgot the main reason that is so plausible.

This bill was written by Ammiano.

"Schwarzenegger seem to be

Submitted by JeffF (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 11:51 AM PDT.

"Schwarzenegger seem to be having a petty feud."

Gah, "Schwarzenegger and he..."

Obviously I would fail to get any secret messages into my writing.

That doesn't seem likely to

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 11:54 AM PDT.

That doesn't seem likely to me. "Tom, I fuck you"? That's not even remotely normal phraseology, and despite his heavy accent, Schwarzenegger clearly has a good command of English.

If he were doing that, he would have had the first line start with "A". For example "As I cannot in good conscience sign this bill, I am returning it to you without my signature."

Thus, "T A Fuck You", i.e. "Tom Ammiano, Fuck You".

Glancing at the first line,

Submitted by B on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 12:27 PM PDT.

Glancing at the first line, the unnecessary capital M in "Member" helps you spell Tom directly.

A little homoerotic for my taste.

My first reaction, when I

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 11:49 AM PDT.

My first reaction, when I saw this yesterday, was "What is he, twelve?"

Now that I see he's saying it's just a coincidence, I'll amend that to "What is he, eight?"

...

Submitted by Crissa (not verified) on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 12:58 PM PDT.

And the veto is so pointless. It doesn't affect the majority of the state, merely projects that cross the borders of San Francisco County. You know, the only county in the state that's 100% urban and on a peninsula and therefore connected by a dozen bridges and tunnels to the rest of the state?

Even if the fuck you wasn't in the text, it certainly was in the action.

PR

Submitted by Epiplexed on Wed Oct. 28, 2009 1:31 PM PDT.

Whether the message was intended or not, making any kind of noise about it isn't a good idea. If you act like you didn't even notice it, you don't really lose anything (if the press asks about it, you can just say that you don't think Gov. S. anywhere near that childish; this manages to sound noble while also being insulting if the message was intended). If you act annoyed about it, you risk seeming like the kind of person who's far too easily goaded by sophomoric pranks (see "Chamber of Commerce," "Yes Men").