Schwarzenegger letter to lawmaker spells out "F---- You" in the left margin.

[Liberal_in_LA]

Letter here. Clearly NOT an accident

http://www.latimes.com/media/acrobat/2009-10/50117826.pdf

Innocuous letter or gubernatorial prank?
October 27, 2009 | 5:36 pm

It reads like an innocuous letter from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, explaining why he vetoed a wonky piece of legislation that would have made changes to “infrastructure financing districts.”

But hidden in Schwarzenegger’s text is another message: an obscene phrase apparently directed at the bill’s author, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), who ridiculed the governor earlier this month. The phrase, “F--- You,” is spelled out by the first letter of seven consecutive lines along the left margin.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/10/innocuous-letter-or-gubernatorial-prank.html

[LearnedHand]

1. Un-fucking believable. knr

Edited to add :rofl:

[TwilightGardener]

2. LOL. Very creative.

[slay]

48. Reminds me of what this wife and mistress had put on the husband's tombstone:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/signs/headstone.asp

[glitch]

62. For a 12 year old. nt

[baldguy]

3. Childish & petty

California deserves better.

[elocs]

8. Well, DU can really be chidish and petty as well. n/t

[baldguy]

13. How many DUrs are governing the 7th largest economy in the world?

[thunder rising]

26. If CA would elect a real qualified governor et al (not movie stars) they wouldn't have the problems

they have.

People ultimately get the government they deserve. And, CA is definitely in the the deserved category.

[Liberal_in_LA]

28. If Obama had done something like this...OMG..rightwing radio would focus on it FOREVER

[saracat]

32. Ahem, don't you live in Florida? Awfully self rightous there.

[Towlie]

72. What movies has Charlie Crist been in?

[Throd]

68. That simply isn't true

California's problems are complex, far reaching, and seemingly intractable. I wish it was as easy as having a better governor, but it isn't even close.

[varelse]

79. I don't think any of us deserved 8 years of GWB

but feel free to beat *yourself* up over it - if you insist.

[musette_sf]

21. Especially those who would rec an OP

about a REPUBLICAN governor who pulls a prank like this, to insult someone who stood up to his desire to LOWER the wages of home health care workers to MINIMUM WAGE.

It was a Freep-like joke, and it's NOT FUNNY.

Or shouldn't be to a DUer, anyway.

[StrongBad]

55. I dislike Arnold and thought it was very funny.

Humor transcends ideology.

[shanti]

58. i kind of doubt

that this was the work of the boobengrabber. he's not clever enough. it's most likely the work of one of his douchebag aides.

you see what we're working with here? :eyes:

[JackRiddler]

66. How dare you? Gwpskpcw to you, too!

[Laelth]

4. I don't, for a second, believe that was an accident. Look at the .pdf. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[baldguy]

11. oops

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Wow! What are the odds?

This is in Face-on-Mars territory -- right down to the mysterious alien behind the extraordinary artifact.

--d!
Zeta Reticuli, Austria ... no difference, really.

[elocs]

6. When I was in high school during the late 60s when the Vietnam war was raging,

somebody submitted a poem to the school paper in which the first letter of each line when read downwards said "fuck the war". It wasn't very obvious at first but once you saw it, there it was.

[Mojambo]

7. Okay. That's kinda funny. n/t

[adamuu]

9. My judgment -- Defintely on purpose.

No doubt.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

10. Dick Cheney's "Fuck Yous" had more élan

[Bucky]

57. Sig file quote!

It might lose something out of context, but sir, my hat is off to you.

[scheming daemons]

12. ALMOST makes me respect the governator a little....

Kinda

[musette_sf]

14. Tom Ammiano is twice the man

than the Gropinator will ever be.

Arnie is a putz. Ammiano got in his face because AS tried to get the Cali Dems to agree to lower home health care workers' salaries to minimum fcuking wage.

So to anyone who thinks this is funny or cute - this is what AS did to retaliate against someone who opposed his attempt to further marginalize the people who take care of elderly and disabled people. What a sicko.

[musette_sf]

16. postscript:

And this thread made it to the Greatest page. Sad. Cannot BELIEVE this is getting rec'd up.

[TankLV]

24. This SHOULD be on the Greatest Page - it's PRICELESS

and perfectly illustrates the insipidness and utter juvenile dipshitedness the repuke party is...

(so much for my try at creativity)

[musette_sf]

43. If the OP had made such a point in the original post,

I would agree with you.

However, no such point was made. So I thought it worthwhile to point out the reason WHY A.S. did this to Ammiano. And it does surprise me that something so mean-spirited, done intentionally to deliver a backhanded insult to someone standing up for a living wage for home health care workers, with NO explanation in the OP as to WHY A.S. did this, gets recs on DU.

[Liberal_in_LA]

63. OMG. Yes, I posted it without comment. You are free to point out how bad

Arnie is. sheesh.

[anigbrowl]

25. I just recced it again to annoy you.

You know, maybe people recced it because they thought it was worth reading, rather than because they necessarily agree with the action described. But you've interpreted it in the latter way, so now you're browbeating everyone else for thinking otherwise.Perhaps you should stop torturing yourself by monitoring its position on the GP, which > half of DU never bothers to even look at, according to most polls.

[musette_sf]

40. Way to condescend.

And way to project ("browbeating", "torturing") non-existent actions and emotions, too.

Since the OP made no mention of WHY A.S. would be an @sshole to Ammiano (as in, harassing him for standing up for living wages for home health care workers), it is impossible to assume that "people recced it because they thought it was worth reading".

If "> half of DU never bothers to even look at" recs, then I wonder why you feel it necessary to make a special point of annoying ME, making condescending remarks, and projecting non-existent actions and emotions on me about my comments, since surely you must be in the "> half" you cited.

[anigbrowl]

53. You should talk...after all, you posted twice ciriticizing the fact that it got recced.

I think that's pretty condescending, which was way I made a point of it. Again, your interpretation about the reasons for this (over home healthcare workers) are one possible interpretation, but not necessarily the correct one.

[Ignis]

35. REC =!= "I approve/support/condone this"

It means "I want this post to be more visible, and want more people to read it."

Someone recommending a post about a horrible rape is not condoning rape, they want people to read the article.

[musette_sf]

39. Conflating idiotic behavior with "a horrible rape"

minimizes the crime of rape.

And the OP did not refer to AS's vindictive act in any negative manner.

There was NO context in which to recommend the post in my opinion, except to giggle at a nasty attempt by an @sshole to make a joke at the expense of someone standing up for fair pay.

The OP does not pass the sniff test for reccing for "bad act that needs to be called out".

[Ignis]

42. Your understanding of Rec/Unrec is in the minority.

Look at the first response to the OP: "Unbelievable. K&R." That's not condoning the Gropenfurher's acts, that's saying, "What an ass! More people should see this!"

I'm swear I'm not trying to pick on you here. :) Many people don't find the system of digg/rec/vote/thumbsup'ing a horrible story to be intuitive. But that's how these systems work: It's purely a way to push the story to a greater audience.

In any event, no offense intended. :hi:

[musette_sf]

47. I'm so bitter about what A.S. and the Repukes have done to California

that I found myself in quite a pique over anyone who would find this "funny".

I do get the concept of reccing a horrible story. But this story wasn't presented with the reason why A.S. retaliated against Ammiano. And some of the replies were tending on the side of "ha ha funny".

So, if people are reading my posts and b!tching at me, then at least they found out WHY A.S. did this @sshole thing.

:hi:

[Ignis]

49. I can only imagine that the average AS voter finds this funny.

People on DU, I would hope not so much. He's fiddling while CA burns.

[uppityperson]

56. it'll be off Greatest by tomorrow eve.

[SidDithers]

61. recc'd..

to further poke those complaining about recs / unrecs.

Sid

[anigbrowl]

23. I don't agree with your reasoning

You might recall that Schwarznegger showed up at a Democratic party fundraiser a few weeks ago, apparently invited by Willie Brown. Not exactly a smooth political move, at best you'd expect a frosty silence; instead he got yelled at, and Ammiano in particular yelled out 'You lie' as well as (allegedly) 'kiss my gay ass'.

Well, looks like he got his response...and frankly, I think he asked for it. Tom Ammiano was OK as an SF supervisor (he used to be mine, actually) but I have not been very impressed with him in the CA assembly, especially compared to Mark Leno. I wouldn't expect SF Democrats to give Schwarzenegger a warm welcome by any means, but nor am I cool with behaving like a bunch of high schoolers at a football game.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=49163
http://calitics.com/diary/10234/you-lie-the-california-edition < better summary imho

[musette_sf]

51. thanks for the Calitics link

I'd read the Chron story but appreciate the detail in the Calitics story.

Still don't mind A.S. getting a raft of sh!t from Ammiano. Yes, Leno handled the situation with less snark. But as I said to another poster, I'm so resentful of what A.S., aided by scum like Issa and Vampire Cheney and the rest of the RNC, has done to California.

[anigbrowl]

54. This doesn't seem to square with your homecare worker theory, though

Ammiano was within his rights to dis Schwarznegger if he felt like it, but I think it was stupid parochial politics, and just feeds the 'loony left' reputation of SF. this lowers the chances of Newsom showing well inthe 2010 gubernatorial election, even though he's done some important thins like come up with a city-wide healthcare initiative that has been working fairly well so far.

Unlike you, I think Schwarzenegger has not been that bad for CA, but we probably won't agree about that. You might want to reflect on why the state GOP hates him so much - eg his opposition to Prop 8, suing the EPA for higher environmental standards, support for high speed rail, and a number of other things. So he's a Republican and he talks funny, but he's about 10 million times better than Pete Wilson if you ask me.

Of course, a big problem is that a lot of Californians (including Schwarzenegger when he came into office) seem to believe that reform is free: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/18/INS719K3D7.DTL

Incidentally, why do you keep typing things like 'sh!t' and '@sshole'? If you want to swear, swear. If you don't, don't.

[musette_sf]

71. "why do you keep typing things like...."

I'm not on my home computer :-)

Under my own IP I can be freely foulmouthed.

[Canuckistanian]

15. Major points for creativity

Demerits for thinking no one would notice.

[inna]

17. worthless without pictures

[Gold Metal Flake]

18. Link in the OP.

:shrug:

[inna]

73. checked both links in the OP and have NO idea what you are referring to.

:shrug:

[Gold Metal Flake]

78. Really? Because the first like is a PDF of the actual document.

Do you have Adobe Acrobat reader?

[devans00]

19. Slick

That is so slick.

Who has the time to work on that?

[bridgit]

20. I'm hoping it gets better when the Arnold & Maria Show leaves town...

[ThoughtCriminal]

22. Skeptical

Is this just a link to a pdf in a blog? Where's the signature, letterhead, etc.?

[anigbrowl]

37. state website

http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_1151-1200/ab_1176_vt_20091012.html
http://gov.ca.gov/pdf/press/2009bills/AB1176_Ammiano_Veto_Message.pdf

Of course, if you read it carefully, it says 'I fuck you'. Maybe a proposal?

[npk]

27. Actually it reads "Fuck You S A"

It could be worse if the letter was addressed to someone who is Hispanic.

To the Members of the California State Assembly:

I am returning Assembly Bill 1176 without my signature.

For some time now I have lamented the fact that major issues are overlooked while many
unnecessary bills come to me for consideration. Water reform, prison reform, and health
care are major issues my Administration has brought to the table, but the Legislature just
kicks the can down the alley.

Yet another legislative year has come and gone without the major reforms Californians
overwhelmingly deserve. In light of this, and after careful consideration, I believe it is
unnecessary to sign this measure at this time.

Sincerely,



Arnold Schwarzenegger

[Occulus]

29. That cannot possibly be an accident. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

30. I imagine the 'k' word was the hardest to get in

[fujiyama]

44. SA could also mean "state assembly"

[npk]

46. True. I just thought of that. n/t

[slay]

50. I take it to mean:

T(om)

I

F
u
c
k

Y
o
u

S(uck it),
Arnold

:evilgrin:

[mitchum]

31. Who knew that meathead was familiar with acrostics?

[shanti]

59. it wasn't his idea...

believe that!

[Garbo 2004]

33. Typically, CA Governor doesn't write his veto messages. He has staff that handles legislation &

proposed veto language. Gov's office also gets proposed veto messages included with enrolled bill reports from state agencies that oppose bills.

My guess, from the conversational tone not usually adopted by state agencies recommending veto language, is Gov office's staff did it. With or without the Governor's awareness of the "hidden message."

[Throd]

34. An oldie but a goodie.

[earth mom]

36. Can't stand Arnold, but that is fucking hilarious!

:rofl:

[MrMickeysMom]

38. Even more hilarious ...

... would be the additional lines,

A
S
S

H
O
L
E
!

(truly, a terminator's response who is bat shit crazy as Governor of "Cawleefoeneeyah")

[cbdo2007]

41. Ok be honest - who else read that in Arnold's voice from Total Recall when he was Quaid

talking to himself, explaining the situation to himself. Remember that scene?

I couldn't help hearing this letter in that calm, articulate voice. Now "Get your ass to Mars...Get your ass to Mars...Get your ass to Mars..."

ha ha ha

[fujiyama]

45. Childish, petty, and imature

but I have to admit, that's pretty funny...and kind of creative.

But God, it will be good to see that idiot out of office next year. I will never understand how "Cahlifonyans" fell for him!

[Posteritatis]

52. Arnold's a jackass, but I still laughed. (nt)

[DRoseDARs]

60. That being coincidence is as likely as dust in a planetary nebula condensing into a...

Not impossible, mind you, just not fucking likely.

[comrade snarky]

64. Childish and petty, just like Ammiano

Yelling "You lie!" and "Kiss my gay ass!".

The both of them can go to hell. CA and San Francisco don't need this kind of crap.

[dem mba]

65. you guys are such hypocrites

if Grayson did this in a letter to a lobbyist this thread would have 300 recs.

[LeftHander]

67. Really silly...real Republicans shoot people in the face.....nt

[thatsrightimirish]

69. worse things have happened

at least this is comical

[ElboRuum]

70. That has much lulz...

Even though I can't seem to find anything within this letter that seems
as though the person who wrote it was attempting to force this outcome,
there is no way I can believe this was an accident.

So, until someone can prove otherwise, I believe that this prank was
hatched by someone in Arnie's office, possibly by an office staffer, or
initiated by Schwarzenegger himself. There may be malice behind it
that we're not aware of, but it seems pretty harmless to me.

At any rate, I still think it is pretty funny regardless of intent.
No doubt somebody has a sense of humor, which is, in and of itself, good,
despite the way the letter may be taken by the recipient.

Democrats tend to take themselves less seriously than Republicans, so
I believe that this letter will be taken in the best spirit of humor,
even if it was meant as a tricky way to get a serious message across.
.
.
.
.
(Look above, you'll shit bricks when you see it) :evilgrin:

[lightningandsnow]

76. ...

:rofl:

[BrklynLiberal]

77. Pretty clever...

[Liberal_in_LA]

80. ...Just by coincidence you post spells out something naughty. lol

[toocoolforschool]

74. what are the fucking chances lol!

[BrklynLiberal]

75. Well..I cannot imagine that the governator himself is clever enough to have created that...

but he might surround himself with folks that are a lot brighter than he is.