This is exactly what the California GOP needs right now (via the WaMo):
The California Republican Party has been pummeled by some tough body blows in recent years – and results at the ballot box have been just part of the pain.
Now, at a time when the national GOP is trying to find its voice and cultivate new candidates, California GOP activists have begun engaging in a new pastime: issuing “fatwas” to punish state Republican legislators deemed too moderate on tax issues.
This circular firing squad was on display last week at a “Tax Revolt” rally that drew 8,000 people to a Fullerton parking lot. It was organized by popular conservative talk show hosts John and Ken – John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou of radio station KFI in Los Angeles.
The raucous California tea party featured such dramatics as the spearing of a likeness of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s head, and the sledge-hammering of a pile of Schwarzenegger dolls, videos and movie memorabilia – even an action hero lunch box.
The radio hosts’ “fatwas” target a handful of moderate GOP legislators who sided with Democrats to end the state budget impasse. Their calls to recall those lawmakers have reverberated throughout the Republican grassroots.
Could someone tell these clowns in California that Pete Sessions didn’t want the GOP to create an actual Taliban?
DonkeyKong
HULK SMASH!
DonkeyKong
I believe that is a direct quote from Edmund Burke.
Ned R.
Believe me, the entertainment value out here is strong. The state budget problems are of course no joke but this type of foolishness is one hell of a sideshow.
JL
Are those the Real Americans that Sarah was talking about?
Chuck Butcher
No, do not do that. This is way too much fun to watch. Besides something might boil up out of it, like another election disaster for the R brand.
Comrade Kevin
Ayatollahs John and Ken of the Republic of Wingnutistan.
Max
It doesn’t occur to any of those clowns that stoking Republican outrage no longer accomplishes anything useful (assuming it ever did)?
HumboldtBlue
Well, as much as I like to poke fun at my Republican friends, Democrats out this way aint the sharpest fucking tools in the shed either.
Yesterday, Democratic leaders introduced a bill on the floor of the Assembly that should have passed easily, instead 9 Republicans were able to shoot it down. That’s because it dealt with using billions of Fed stimulus dollars to extend unemployment bennies to folks who are going to run out in April.
We have 80 seats in the Assembly, 53 (D) and 27 (R). For any emergency spending bill, which this is, we need a 2/3 majority for it to pass. The vote was 53-9 with all Dems voting aye.
What happened to the other 18?
Well, our Dem leaders failed to give notice that they were bringing the bill to the floor and 18 folks, many of whom who would have voted with the Dems, abstained or cast no vote at all. They hadn’t even seen the bill in question. As my Assemblymember staffer friend put it "the dumbasses (Dems) shot themselves in the foot."
Rosali
Slightly O/T
Prison Restrictions on ‘American Taliban’ John Walker Lindh Loosened.
Comrade Stuck
Sounds like they got a pure strain of wingnut out there on the left-coast. I mean, spearing the likeness of Ahnold in a parking lot. I doubt they do shit like that in Alah fucking Bama.
Speared in effigy, LOL
BDeevDad
Jon and Ken are a bunch of racist morans. They have two issues: taxes and illegal immigration and link them as often as possible.
KG
Oh, I forgot about John and Ken. For those who don’t know about these guys, to call them "conservative" is probably not the right word. They are basically anti-tax crusaders, probably the perfect example of glibertarians out here. They are loud mouths, that tend to scream and yell about everything and don’t really provide any insight – you know, typical talk radio types. They think they had a lot to do with the Davis Recall, so now they think they can get anyone recalled. Which is kind of funny. The Davis Recall, much like the 2000 election was simply a once in a lifetime confluence of events that was well beyond any one person’s control or influence, but that’s neither here nor there.
I’m not really surprised that they are front and center on this. I’m also not all that surprised that they are leading the pitchfork brigade – they’re populist rebel rousers.
All that said, there’s a lot of shit fucked up out here in Cali.
DarrenG
Orange County Repubs are indeed a rare breed. Par for the course.
People are used to hearing about the lefty extremists from the Bay Area and L.A.’s Westside, but there’s just as many enclaves of wingnut crazies in the OC, Inland Empire and Central Valley.
Margaret
Real Americans taking justice into their own hands… remind anyone of that nut who killed six libruls in a church last year after being incited to violent action by talk radio?
beltane
God bless the fearless RINO hunters. I wish them every success in driving their party to extinction. But wow, 8,000 people? That’s a lot of wingnut right there.
Brandon T.
And I say this as a pretty unambiguous Democrat: the only thing that makes the Republicans in CA look more ridiculous is the Democrats.
It’s very gradually changing, but the state Democratic party is a wasteland of all the things that kept national Democrats in the minority for so long: craven interest group politics, triangulation and overreliance on political "consultants", etc. No on 8 was a pretty good microcosm of how the state Democratic party works.
MikeJ
I really don’t want to be a pedantic asshole, but I can’t help myself. I mean no personal insult, but I must point out that the cliché is rabble rouser, not rebel. You rouse the rabble to action. The rebels would already be acting.
Margaret
@Comrade Stuck: You’d be surprised.
Zuzu's Petals
@HumboldtBlue: @HumboldtBlue:
If the vote was 53 to 9. they only needed one more vote to pass.
Weird, very weird.
Atanarjuat
@Brandon T.:
That’s rather a good point you’ve raised, Brandon.
For all the gyrations and follies of the California GOP, the Democrats of the Left Coast are no better at representing their constituency or standing up for so-called liberal principles.
The Proposition 8 result is a perfect example of this. When it comes to election time, Democrats appeal to a diverse swath of groups, including gay people. Gay people turn out to help vote in Democrats who promise the moon and the stars. But when it comes down to crunch time, those same loyal gay voters are treated like scabrous lepers.
Shameful, isn’t it?
Even the right hand of Satan, the GOP — as you libs like to think of Republicans — would never be so callous or two-faced.
-A
HumboldtBlue
Yup, and they couldn’t even get that because as one Republican lawmaker said, "I can’t vote on what I haven’t seen, much less read."
Comrade Stuck
I just say "assholes-the GOP". That pretty much says it all.
Steve V
John and Ken are annoying, but I think the big national conservative talkers are worse.
Comrade Stuck
@Margaret:
Grew up in the south and lived in southern Mississippi for a number of years. You’re right, I spoke without thinking, which is not surprising.
demkat620
Um, I have a question, why hasn’t the Financial Services Act of 1999 been repealed yet? Why hasn’t Glass-Steagall been reinstated and AIG and others like this forced to break up?
Or, am I looking at this wrong?
Comrade Stuck
@demkat620:
That’s number 125 on the to-do list for unfucking the country after 30 years of Republican governance/stupidity. I suspect they’re trying to move it up some, let’s hope so.
KG
@17: no offense taken. I’ve always heard it pronounced "rebel rousers" not "rabble rousers". Thanks for the clarification. It’s one of those regardless/irregardless things.
Margaret
@Comrade Stuck: Yikes, southern Mississippi! I grew up and lived in Alabama until a year or so ago.
KG
@25: same reason none of these companies have gotten the Standard Oil Treatment(tm)… incompetence everywhere but the Oval Office.
Andre
I think we’ve safely established that "conservatives" like this believe that if you just starve a particular instituation of enough money for long enough, the Magical Wish Pony will appear and make everything OK.
Rick Taylor
@demkat620:
Good question. As for changing the law back, I’m assuming it’s a matter of timing, though with all the anger over AIG, it seems like this would be a good way to channel some of it. As for breaking up AIG, I think everyone knows the branch of it responsible for bringing down the company is effectively dead, and the people working there now are charged with unwinding it, somehow bringing it to an end at as little cost as possible, and without bringing down the world economy.
TenguPhule
Fixed.
AkaDad
Fatwas are the new Flash Mobs.
Tsulagi
A Cavuto: Girlie Men come back to haunt Ahnold?
demkat620
@Rick Taylor: Thanks. :)
DougJ
I have nothing to add except to say that this really makes me laugh too.
Unabogie
A bit of radio history. Back in 1992, Tom Leykis had that radio slot on KFI, and his show was totally different from his current show which is three hours of mullet heads badmouthing their girlfriends. He was very political back then (he called himself a "left leaning libertarian") and railed against Republicans and the religious right. But as the election drew near he got axed and was replaced with LAPD Chief Daryl fucking Gates. Shortly after that, John and Ken took over, with John as the "conservative", and Ken as the "liberal". And their show was pretty innocuous. Somehow, they morphed into the freaks you see today, starting with their Gray Davis jihad and their smearing of Cruz Bustamante as Cruz "Bustmeccha" (a reference to MECCHA, which they demagogued into some sort of ACORN like boogeyman). Hell, KFI managed to turn Phil Hendrie into a screaming loon, so something is in the contract there which forces these guys to go batshit.
What some radio whores will do for money, I swear.
Just Some Fuckhead
At some point we gotta start wondering if the Republican party is being trolled by spoofs.
JL
@Just Some Fuckhead: The Republicans have become a party of spoofs.
Tim F.
Obama redeemed the Democrats for a decade of getting goatfucked by the Republicans. It’s hard to think of a better strategy right now than encouraging basetards to rally around the extremists and marginalize moderates. All either America or California needs is for one of those Salman Rushdies to flip.
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
When I used to listen, and a couple of times call into, the Mike Gallagher Program, it was a small, 3-4 city talker that came on before Rush. Mike was sane, able to hear and articulate both viewpoints, and a oasis of sanity before the head-first dive into early-Clinton-era Rush.
He’s changed a bit, over the decade. And I’m well informed said change started well before 9/11.
I blame the money, making him "stupid."
Montysano
You’re more certain of that than I am.
Martin
John and Ken are pretty typical radio retards. Back when we had the twin news stories of the Metrolink train crash and the state budget crisis, they would rant and rave as is common with conservative talk radio about how horrible Arnold was by proposing tax increases rather than just cutting spending, and then, without even a pause, would pivot and say how outrageous it was that Metrolink didn’t have the worlds greatest traffic control systems installed, without even a hint that such a system would, you know, cost money that the state didn’t have and would require, you know, raising taxes.
Fucktards the whole lot of them.
And yes, the GOP has always wanted an actual Taliban. That what Focus on the Family/Operation Rescue were created to build – even here in Cali.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Fxd.
Do you think the Daring Douchenozzles know what a fatwa actually is?
Yeah, neither do I.
bayville
Here in New Jersey we remember John & Ken. These two clowns were top radio talkers around here in the mid-90s. When their popularity peaked, the state GOP – in its ifinite wisdom – began taking their marching orders from those two screamers, much like is going on in California now.
It’s really worked out well for Jersey Republicans since. Dems have been in the majority in the statehouse for more than a decade. This despite a rash of well-known Dems heading to jail on various corruption charges in that span.
A gay governor (McGreevey) involved in a sex and multiple ethics scandals didn’t prevent a charismatically-challenged Jon Corzine from winning the governorship in a landslide four years ago.
Not to mention our two U.S. Senators – Frank Lautenberg, 105, and Robert "Don’t Call Me Torricelli" Menendez, who thinks Newark is a part of South Jersey.
Yep, good luck with that "fatwa" guys.
Dennis-SGMM
@bayville:
Heartening words to be sure. Nothing moves masses of people more than seeing a bunch of ostensible grownups destroying merchandise. I’ll never forget the way the Beatles drifted into obscurity after the fundies destroyed piles of their albums.
Batocchio
Umm, are you sure about that? For the GOP, it sounds more like some rare truth in advertising…
Indylib
@DarrenG:
San Diego County can compete with teh stupid pretty damned well.
We lived in San Diego for 3 years and I could not believe how wingy the wingnuts were.
Brachiator
Sorry John, and other posters, once again the media and the blogosphere is out of touch on this one. John and Ken are anti-tax zealots, but they are neither Republicans nor conservatives. The media totally misread the frustration with Sacramento that resulted in the Governator unseating Gray Davis (and the LA Times had pre-election polls predicting Arnold’s defeat even as Times columnists patiently explained why the little people were wasting their time trying to mount a recall against Davis).
The plain fact is that California is looking at an $8 billion budget shortfall even after the last budget agreement. Part of the reason? The middle class is dying and Sacramento (Republicans and Democrats) have decided that preserving their own political domains is more important than dealing with a rapidly collapsing economy.
theo
John and Ken are anti-tax zealots, but they are neither Republicans nor conservatives.
How does that work exactly? The California tax revolt has always been dominated by, and found its audience, among Orange County Republicans.
Which is why it was such sweet justice when OC went bankrupt because they balanced their budget with financial speculation instead of taxes.
The recall happened mostly because Gray Davis got blamed for the energy crisis, which turned out to be an Enron scam. The usual OC antitax nutcases were upset about some car fee, but that issue didn’t have statewide resonance. Once the recall was on, in a shortened publicity driven election, of course Arnie won.
Gorio
I haven’t seen dumbshits like this on parade in a long, long time. Must all be relatives of Pelosi the blunder bitch.
bayville Says:It’s really worked out well for Jersey Republicans since. Dems have been in the majority in the statehouse for more than a decade.
This despite a rash of well-known Dems heading to jail on various corruption chargesin that span.
*Do you realize how fu**ing foolish this statement truly is?
Martin Says:Fucktards the whole lot of them.
And yes, the GOP has always wanted an actual Taliban. That what Focus on the Family/Operation Rescue were created to build – even here in Cali.
*Well aren’t you the poster child of brainless brilliance!
Brandon T. Says:And I say this as a pretty unambiguous Democrat: the only thing that makes the Republicans in CA look more ridiculous is the Democrats.
It’s very gradually changing, but
the state Democratic party is a wasteland of all the things that kept national Democrats in the minority for so long: craven interest group politics, triangulation and overreliance on political "consultants", etc. No on 8 was a pretty good microcosm of how the state Democratic party works.
* By jove you have hit the nail almost on the head, unfortunately your thumb was in the way
BDeevDad Says: Jon and Ken are a bunch of racist morans. They have two issues: taxes and illegal immigration and link them as often as possible.*So the connection here is this, the "link" between higher taxes and illegal aliens is the direct result of not enforcing the law, but, oh, that is right, without illegal aliens idiots like you would have to change your own sheets or clean your own pool or mow your own lawn.
HumboldtBlue Says: Well, as much as I like to poke fun at my Republican friends, Democrats out this way aint the sharpest fucking tools in the shed either.
Yesterday, Democratic leaders introduced a bill on the floor of the Assembly that should have passed easily, instead 9 Republicans were able to shoot it down. That’s because it dealt with using billions of Fed stimulus dollars to extend unemployment bennies to folks who are going to run out in April.We have 80 seats in the Assembly, 53 (D) and 27®. For any emergency spending bill, which this is, we need a 2/3 majority for it to pass. The vote was 53-9 with all Dems voting aye.*They couldn’t remember what they were voting on probably
What happened to the other 18?*Still at Starbucks undoubtedly
Well, our Dem leaders failed to give notice that they were bringing the bill to the floor and 18 folks, many of whom who would have voted with the Dems, abstained or cast no vote at all. They hadn’t even seen the bill in question. As my Assemblymember staffer friend put it "the dumbasses (Dems) shot themselves in the foot."*This is typical behavior, has alot to do with getting out of bed in the morning and doing the work of the people who pay their salaries by TAXATION.
F**CKING LIBS, when they protest against some scumbag getting the needle for killing innocent people they are all over themselves with self righteousness, but let some on of a different opinion protest theirs and they go on the offensive to the umpteenth degree of idiocy. Waste of flesh I say, waste of flesh.