Schwarzenegger: People from ‘little towns’ should see worldly things like ‘an airport.’
Schwarzenegger: People from ‘little towns’ should see worldly things like ‘an airport.’
Speaking at “an infrastructure conference” hosted by a billionaire yesterday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said “it’s good for state legislators from ‘little towns’” to see “worldly things”:
“And that’s why I always encourage the legislators in Sacramento, because some of them come from those little towns,” Schwarzenegger said. “You know what I’m saying? They come from those little towns, and they don’t have that vision yet of an airport or of a highway that maybe has 10 lanes. Or of putting a highway on top of a highway. They look at you and say, ‘Well, we don’t have that in my town, what are you talking about?’ So they are kind of shocked when you say certain things.”
Schwarzenegger’s comments, which “drew laughs and applause” from the audience, were called “insulting” by State Sen. Dean Florez, (D), whose “hometown has only about 14,000 residents.”
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HOW ELITIST
May 1st, 2008 at 10:43 amInsulting?
May 1st, 2008 at 10:43 amHow about Fu(king moronic. What smalltown USA has no TV. Is he fu(king kidding me?
Ah, the wit and wisdom of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:44 amThis is what happens when he forgets his lines & starts improvising.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:45 amand to actually think he is a political leader in this country, more of the same just like Bush & Company - they do not give a damn about ordinary America …
May 1st, 2008 at 10:46 amWell, I guess Mr. Straight Talk is going to have to go after Arnie as being elitist and out of touch with America!!!!
May 1st, 2008 at 10:48 amI’m sorry, what were we supposed to be talking about? Oh yeah, Obama.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:51 amArnold must have just been re purchased and re packaged by big oil. Imagine building more highways for gas vehicles when there isn’t any more gas!
stoooopid. but remember, he is a genius compared to reagan. a slug and a meal worm.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:52 amDemocrats in small towns are absolutely positively certainly definitely out of touch.
Only polishing off the talking point. IOKIAR says it.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:56 amI feel like getting rich. Anybody here want to bet this won’t make any major news outlet?
May 1st, 2008 at 10:57 amArnold Schwarzenegger (R) - Bringing on teh stupid.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:57 amHe forgot to mention flush toilets. Those small town hicks need to come to the big city to see flush toilets.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:58 amI wonder if McStain/McCancer is gonna name Ahnuldt as his vp candidate.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:59 amThen, when Murderin’ Johnnie’s gotta retire, on account of health, Ahnuldt sneaks into the WhiteHouse through the back door?
jis’ speculatin’
I’m guessing that can’t happen, but I’m not a constitutional scholar, and I’m not a republican so I’m not going to pretend I know.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:03 amBy gosh, dagnabit, I be one of them small towners and what I don’t gets is why the h-e-double toothpicks we all should be even lissenin to this here furriner who ain’t learnt gooder English. Hey, Misser Swartandnooger, I seen a plenny a them fancy airports and high roads on my teevee. I mean, y’all were supposebly an actor onct and y’all awta knows that they shows them on the teevee show 24 so we all knows they’s real. Youse guys shouldna awta be insultin our intelligences like that. You and MacAin are a coupla elitists. I’s thinkin mebbe I awter vote Democrat.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:03 am“On closer inspection, it appears i’m wearing loafers..”
Simpsons nailed this guy a long time ago.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:04 amI bet even the folks who live in Butcher Holler know what an airport and 10 lane highway look like.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:06 amYeah, I’ll bet they’re all really bitter about those airports and such things!
May 1st, 2008 at 11:12 amUmmm,,,is Arnold suggesting that little towns need their own airports and 10-lane highways?
May 1st, 2008 at 11:14 amThey come from those little towns, and they don’t have that vision yet of an airport or of a highway that maybe has 10 lanes. Or of putting a highway on top of a highway. They look at you and say, ‘Well, we don’t have that in my town
Of course, us little town folks are not infamously known for using power to continuously grope the opposite sex, either.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:15 amPeople from ‘little towns’ should see worldly things like ‘an airport.’
Here they are!
May 1st, 2008 at 11:24 amNothing will come of this. He’s not some uppity Black guy with the gall to think he can run for president. This is a non-issue…although…do you think McCain feels like he does? I mean, Ahnuld has endorsed MCCain after all…nah. Sorry…still a non-issue.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:24 amAnd the other person in the photo is good ol’ John McCain.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:27 amHe doesn’t have a clue either.
Air…port…? What is this thing he speaks of?
Give is a rest Governor Snot-Face. I used to live a town of 3000, and we HAD a f_cking airport.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:28 amDid anyone at the infrastructure conference ask McCain why he wants to impose a gas tax holiday that will take quite a nice chunk of money AWAY from maintaining our infrastructure or was this just another Republican circle jerk party/bbq?
May 1st, 2008 at 11:30 amtokin librul Says:
I wonder if McStain/McCancer is gonna name Ahnuldt as his vp candidate.
Then, when Murderin’ Johnnie’s gotta retire, on account of health, Ahnuldt sneaks into the WhiteHouse through the back door?
jis’ speculatin’
I’m pretty sure even a VP has to be a natural born American citizen.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:31 amPhoto caption:
Achtung, Jahn! Vatch me grab die flughelfenmadchen’s arsch!
May 1st, 2008 at 11:33 amHe has such a way with words, obviously a Bush protege
May 1st, 2008 at 11:37 amAn airport with a tapas bar. Now that is something to see!
May 1st, 2008 at 11:39 amLook’s like they are stretching it way to far to get another thread about mcweird..Some rich guy’s will do anything to get attention, must be lacking in other areas…Just another fluff piece…Happy Beltane….Blessings
May 1st, 2008 at 11:51 amI’d like to visit an airport but I gots to share the only shoes I got with the mule, and paw is out plowing the back 40 this week so’s I cain’t git into no airport without themboots!
May 1st, 2008 at 11:51 amSchwarzenegger’s comments, which “drew laughs and applause” from the audience, were called “insulting” by State Sen. Dean Florez, (D), whose “hometown has only about 14,000 residents.”
It’s not only insulting, it’s also condescending. Now, let’s see how much air play this gets as compared to Obama’s “bitter” remarks.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:58 amtokin librul Says:
I wonder if McStain/McCancer is gonna name Ahnuldt as his vp candidate.
Then, when Murderin’ Johnnie’s gotta retire, on account of health, Ahnuldt sneaks into the WhiteHouse through the back door? jis’ speculatin’
I’m fairly sure that can’t happen. Arnie is not qualified to be President because he was not born in this country. He is a naturalized citizen and they don’t qualify for the presidency. If he can’t be President, I’m fairly sure he can’t be VP either since the VP is one step away from the Presidency.
But, it is an interesting conundrum. Does anyone know how that would work?
May 1st, 2008 at 12:01 pmThe steriods went to both of his heads…
May 1st, 2008 at 12:14 pmTypical re-puke joke, making fun of small town America and laughing all the way to the bank,Arnold you are officially a Reich wing creep.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:23 pmYou’re missing the point. You may not agree with how the message was delivered, but the message was essentially correct.
You can not understand what life is like for a different culture, or a different part of the world, or even a different part of your own state, if you haven’t experienced it for yourself — boots on the ground — not from television, or the movies, or even National Geographic.
Remember Bush and his flyby over New Orleans after Katrina? Do you really think he understood the enormity of the devastation, what the people experienced?
Bill Clinton, on the other hand, came to Southern California after the Northridge earthquake, and not only saw the destruction first hand, he experienced a taste of what it was like during the quake. The aftershock which hit during his news conference was nowhere near the intensity of the initial quake, but it at least gave him an inkling of what it was like.
As a native Californian, I’m used to earthquakes and know what to expect and what to do when one hits. I’ve never been to Kansas, but just because I’ve seen “The Wizard of Oz” a dozen times, doesn’t mean I know what it’s like to experience a tornado.
I grew up reading National Geographic. But I didn’t have a clue what “third world” really meant until I traveled to a third world country and experienced it for myself.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:40 pmArnold should not waste his time talking about small towns vs. the “virtues” of big cities and instead concentrate on permanently ending the USDA threat of spraying poison gas/pesticides/Checkmate over San Francisco Bay Area Cities in an attempt to sexually harass a small brown moth:
Now that the powers that be (a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge and the Schwarzenegger Administration) have agreed to temporally suspend the threatened aerial spraying of pesticide gas over much of the S. F. Bay Area in an attempt to sexually harass a small brown moth, we need to force a complete and final end to this insane plan.
The incompentent Bush Administration has been wrong about almost everything in the last seven years; why does anyone in their right mind possibly think that they would be right about a supposed big threat posed by the presence of the Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana)?
American apple growers originally lobbied the federal United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to classify this small moth as a big threat to their crops as a way of cutting down on competition from New Zealand apple exporters. It worked for awhile, and forced the New Zealand apple growers to undertake unnecessary and toxic sprays of their orchards. This moth has been living in New Zealand for about a century and is considered to be a minor agricultural pest there.
This moth, a native to Australia, has also lived in New Caledonia, Hawai’i and England for many years. These areas are still green and agriculturally productive. The residents and the farmers of Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Hawai’i and England have managed to co-exist with this moth without having to resort to the aerial pesticide spraying of entire cities and towns.
But now that this moth has been discovered in California, other countries can and are demanding that this State take steps to eliminate the presence of the moth. So the discovered presence of the Apple Moth is a threat to the potential export profits of American apple growing corporations, it is not an actual threat to the growing of the apples. Hoisted on their own petard! Just agribusiness corporate greed coming home to roost, so to speak.
A quick search of the Internet will reveal that the supposed presence of agricultural insect pests is the basis of many ongoing trade battles and trade wars between different food-producing countries and food-consuming nations. This Brown Apple Moth brouhaha is just the latest conflict to appear recently in our California news media as a major story. Our apple farmers and our state and federal agricultural experts need to consult with apple growers in New Zealand and Australia and find some low-key biological controls as a remedy for the presence of the moth. The USDA should rejoin the real world and immediately downgrade this bogus threat level posed by the presence of this moth.
Please write letters to your City Council representatives, your County supervisors, your State representatives and your Federal representatives and tell them “no” to any aerial spraying of pesticides or any other poison gases in the Bay Area.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:41 pmWhy did TP flip the picture on this? I liked the smug shot of John Sidney McCain III and the Dumbinator together again.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:42 pmHow do you say ’smug prick’ in Terminatorese?
May 1st, 2008 at 1:02 pmThe qualifications for the vice presidency are the same as those for the presidency. The vice president must be a native-born American of at least 35 years of age who has resided in the United States for at least 14 years.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:04 pmlm945 Says:
You can not understand what life is like for a different culture, or a different part of the world, or even a different part of your own state, if you haven’t experienced it for yourself
I disagree with this. If you have empathy and an open-mind and you listen to others’ stories you can understand. While seeing something with the eyes may be necessary for some, for some of us seeing with our mind’s eye and relating to our own experiences is sufficient. Now that does not mean that directly seeing or experiencing can help that understanding, but it is not necessary for basic understanding.
Schwarzenegger used words like “don’t have that vision”, “what are you talking about?”, and “shocked”. He was denying that rural or small town people have NO understanding of urban life. So, “the message was essentially correct” is a thoroughly incorrect understanding.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:12 pmTwo years ago, while on a golfing trip to Florida, we stoped in for a bite to eat prior to our round. As we were finishing our launch, we asked the waitress for directions to the golf course which was 40miles away. Her reply shocked us…I sorry, I’ve never left the county. This lady was in her 30’s. Your kidding me, I said. “No really, I could never afford to go anywhere”.
When we looked back as we were leaving, I said to my friends, “in a way I see why she hasn’t left her county” and why is that? Well she is living on a waitress salery and lets face it, serving $8 lunches how much tips can she make? And when she recieves her paycheck, she still has to pay for health care, kids, gas , mortgage amoung other bills. She doesn’t have any money left over for herself. How sad.
Why this is sad for me, I’m Canadian. I know what it’s like to have full health care without having to give more of my income for health insurance. Our collage tutition is 75% covered by taxes therefore allowing us to save more money for our own personal use.
One average 70% of Canadians take vacations where traveling is part of the vacation. Why are we lucky, it’s our system. The people have the power first, then come Corporations. There are regulations in place to protect the PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY FIST. Thats the difference between our countries.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:54 pm“Well, I guess Mr. Straight Talk is going to have to go after Arnie as being elitist and out of touch with America!!!!”
Don’t be silly. He’s a Republican and therefore immune to those charges.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:58 pmI hear you, NOLIESPLEASE @#42. Unfortunately, what we have in very abundant supply in the good ol’ USof A is ARROGANCE. Since this IS the United States, we can do no wrong. We are the best in everything, and anyone who says otherwise is either unpatriotic or working with the terrorists.
May 1st, 2008 at 2:10 pmThe US dollar is now worth ~0.65 Euros. This is how a country declines, when their money becomes worthless in the world. Take a look at all the Third World countries that have bad economies and you can trace the decline right along with their currency. They borrowed heavily, which in turn devalued their money. The Bush admin is doing it’s damnedest best to turn the US into a 3rd world entity-complete with nukes and all. Why do you think they want to create conflict everywhere? And they are wearing their flag pins and wrapping themselves in Old Glory while they do it. And the sheep just keep on chewing contentedly in the meadow.
This is the best TP has after more “no posts” of what went on in Hillary’s “interview, part 1″ with Billo last night?! Seriously…the Governator certainly doesn’t have a golden tongue, but his second term hasn’t gone train wreck like Hillary’s presidential run. TP needs to show a bit more fairness when it comes to crazy politicians and the family members who enable them to attempt to take a wrecking ball to the Democratic Party for self-serving ideals.
Hillary’s pride = GOP gains
May 1st, 2008 at 2:52 pmGood grief! And people have the nerve to accuse Obama of being an “elitist”?!? This remark by Schwarzenegger has to be one of the most smug, pompous, condescending, and elitist statements I’ve ever heard someone make publicly. While it’s true that at least 50% or more of Americans never live more than 200 miles away from where they were born, this doesn’t automatically mean that all or even most Americans from small towns are the kind of ignorant and isolated hayseeds that Schwarzenegger has painted them to be.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:14 pmNot only is this an insult to us small town folk, but isn’t a little much for the star of Conan and Terminator to be lecturing me on culture ?
May 1st, 2008 at 11:47 pmI believe much of the snarky criticism here about some comments from the governor are gratuitous and miss the point.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:41 pmSome have pointed out that it is possible for broad minded people to be able to acknowledge the point of view of others without having direct experience of the “others” environment. This is undoubtedly true.
Unfortunately, a great many in this country have absolutely no interest whatsoever of discovering what it’s like in areas outside of their direct experience. I’ll confess. This is as true of me as anyone I’m directing this opinion at.
Lately, it seems many people are lying in wait for someone to speak of a “typical ____” (fill in the blank) and then jump on it.
It is my opinion that many people that live in rural areas resent the vast amount of their tax dollars that are devoted to big city infrastructure. They on the other hand can easily see the value of programs that support agriculture and a rural way of life that at a basic level most Americans envision as the ideal (the small town America of the 50’s where everyone knew everone else).
I caught part of a History channel program last night about the Vice Lords gang. This program portrayed a way of life that is apparently quite common for anyone living or growing up in the West side of Chicago. I soon lost interest and changed the channel.
Here was an opportunity for me to discover what it is like living in a neighborhood that is different from mine. I just lacked the will or desire to want to learn more. I saw enough however to be willing to support programs that might address the problems found in that community.
I suspect the governor was trying to make a point that rural CA precints need to support the needs of urban precints and that it’s the long term smart thing to do for all CA precints.
PS The only part of CA I’ve seen is Bakersfield. I’ve lived in both rural and urban areas of MO. There is definitely 2 constituencies in MO and candidates have to find a way to appeal to both without offending either.
It does not accure to some that not everyone wants a community with a ten lane highway.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:07 pmIf all the small towns of California need a ten lane highway we will be weeks away from a world wide famine.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:08 pm