In The Blogs

Arnold Speaks

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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OK, this is pretty funny.

OK, this is pretty funny.

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LOL, and NFW that's an

LOL, and NFW that's an accident.

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LOL! Ammiano seems to have

LOL!

Ammiano seems to have taken it OK.

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subliminal political discourse works

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

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Is there someone whose job

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.

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Arnold did it

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.

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"Overwhelmingly?"

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.

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Sounds like someone tried to

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.

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Wouldn't the word placement

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?

Kevin Drum

That's a PDF of the actual

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.

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Link to original PDF from gov.ca.gov

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Water reform

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.D...

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.)

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T I Fuck You

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.

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heh, forgot the main reason

heh, forgot the main reason that is so plausible.

This bill was written by Ammiano.

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"Schwarzenegger seem to be

"Schwarzenegger seem to be having a petty feud."

Gah, "Schwarzenegger and he..."

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

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That doesn't seem likely to

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".

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Glancing at the first line,

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

A little homoerotic for my taste.

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My first reaction, when I

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?"

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...

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.

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PR

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").

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I would have been more

I would have been more impressed if it spelled out "Kiss My Flabby Heterosexual Ass".

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I'd bet that at least 10

I'd bet that at least 10 times more people have read this statement than would have if it didn't have the the rude acrostic. Crazy like a fox.

Art Eclectic

On the other hand, he

On the other hand, he couldn't have said f**k you to a more deserving group of individuals.

Happy accident or good plan, I raise a glass to you tonight, Guv.

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what about the kerning?

what about the kerning? won't anyone think of the kerning???

MacGruber

He's a wuss. At least

He's a wuss. At least Cheney said it out loud, right in the guy's face.

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You mean

"veerd coeenseedeence."

BureauCat

Karma's a b*tch

The message is neither intentional nor random. It is karma.

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"Overwhelmingly deserve" is the tip off that this was deliberate

And remember, the folks working for Schwarzenegger are politicos that think of these things. If your cube neighbor wrote this, it would undoubtedly be by accident. If the governor's staff writes it --it is undoubtedly *not* by accident.

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Ha, that's awesome. Given

Ha, that's awesome. Given that California's governance is a total shit-show that can't be altered you might as well have a little fun with it.

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