Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver come together for Christmas. As House Speaker, Newt Gingrich was fascinated by Bill Clinton . Out of all his time in Congress, only one bill authored by Ron Paul has been passed. Who sold the most religious books this year? Not Joel Osteen . Arianna Huffington considers a proposal by Rick Perry (all the way at the bottom).
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Midday snacks 12.27.11
Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent separation from his wife, Maria Shriver, came after he revealed to her that he had fathered a child with a longtime household staff member.
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Schwarzenegger Had Child With Employee
She’s moved out. At Los Angeles Times , ” Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver announce separation “: Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, have separated, with Shriver moving out of their Brentwood mansion while the two determine the next step in their 25-year marriage. Shriver has been residing apart from the actor-turned-politician for the last few weeks. The former first couple confirmed the separation in a joint statement released Monday after questions were raised by The Times. More at the link. She’s losing faith: Her transitions video, mentioned at the article, is here .
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Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver to Separate!
This is extraordinary. No other interest group in California politics is getting this kind of deal. See LAT , ” New contra for California prison guards lifts cap on saved vacation “: Deep in the 200-page contract that Gov. Jerry Brown recently approved for state prison guards is a provision that could generate a cash windfall to the officers when they retire. The guards, who are among Brown’s largest political benefactors, would be able to save an unlimited number of vacation days under their new deal. When they leave state service, those days could be exchanged for cash at their final pay rate, which would probably be higher than when they earned the time off. The governor is extending this benefit only to members of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., a union that spent nearly $2 million to help him win election last year. Removing the decades-old limit on accrued vacation — now 80 days for most state employees — would be a “huge liability” for taxpayers, said Nick Schroeder of the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. Schroeder said he had not determined the cost of lifting the cap, but his analysis of the deal showed the average corrections union member has accumulated nearly 19 weeks of leave time to date. All of that time off has “a current cash value of over $600 million,” he said. The deal also would give the members 18 more days off over the life of the two-year contract, according to Schroeder, bringing the typical prison guard’s time off to more than eight weeks in the first year. Also in the proposed contract is a change in a provision that encouraged corrections officers to remain physically fit. In the past, they could get up to $130 extra each month if they met certain fitness standards. In the new contract, they would be eligible for the money if they simply go to the doctor for an annual physical, Schroeder said. Hmm … No exercise recommendations. Prison guards as fat cats, literally. More at the link . California’s going down, and I thought Schwarzenegger was bad. This is ridiculous. People in the private sector just don’t get sweetheart deals like this. Brown campaigned on reform and reinventing government, but this might as well be news from today’s Party Congress in Cuba . Propping up the old guard and delaying any meaningful Perestroika. Trumka-Obama-Moonbeam Democrats. Lord have mercy.
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Jerry Brown’s Sweetheart Deal For Corrections Union Members Could Lead to Massive Payouts, in $100s of Millions, When Prison Guards Retire
**Written by Doug Powers Arnold should look at this from the fiscally optimistic end of things: He didn’t cost himself $200 million, he saved the movie-going public $200 million. From Reuters : Serving as California governor cost Arnold Schwarzenegger at least $200 million, the bodybuilding star turned actor and politician told a newspaper in his native Austria, insisting ‘it was more than worth it.” Counting expenses and lost income from acting in Hollywood films, “in all it is probably more than $200 million,” he told Krone when asked how much his two terms in Sacramento had cost. During his eight years in office, Schwarzenegger and family scraped by on their savings, his governor’s salary, and contributions collected from good samaritans who sent money in return for Arnold’s promise to never make a sequel to Jingle All the Way . Speaking about how much time Schwarzenegger had to spend away from his family and how difficult it was, the environmentally-conscious actor/politician who has expressed an interest in joining Team Obama to help fight climate change said this : “It was heartbreaking every time,” said Schwarzenegger, a Republican who served as governor from 2003 until early this month. “In my second term of office, I did better. I tried to fly home every evening.” Schwarzenegger’s enduring political legacy in California may be his innate ability to talk about his life in a way to which the common man (and Al Gore) can easily relate. **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Schwarzenegger: Governorship Cost Me $200 Million
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would “blow up the boxes” of state government when he became governor of the nation’s most populous state more than six years ago. He didn’t.
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Schwarzenegger Exits, Legacy Vague
Retiring celebrity governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California was bad for the GOP in so many ways, I’ve stopped counting them . So, how did Schwarzenegger leave office? By committing one last shameful act of back-scratching politics as usual and granting a commutation to the son of a Democrat political crony, former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (his longtime collaborator on job-killing environmental regulations) . Nunez’s privileged son, Esteban, was serving 16 years (already a reduced sentence resulting from a plea bargain ) for his role in the vengeful stabbing/manslaughter of a college student, Luis Santos. Nunez and other defendants were involved in a conspiracy to cover up the crime , according to another member of their gang. Before he pleaded guilty , Nunez had his lawyers trying to blame the victim for his death. Oh, and there’s this damning piece of responsibility-evading crap from Nunez that was admitted as evidence before Nunez ducked trial: “Gangsta rap made us do it.” Schwarzenegger the movie tough guy didn’t have the balls to notify the murder victim’s family of the partial commutation, according to the L.A. Times. For shame: In his final night before leaving office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger commuted the prison sentence of the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez who had pleaded guilty to taking part in the slaying of a college student. Schwarzenegger announced the move in a batch of eleventh-hour press releases e-mailed to reporters… …Fabian Nuñez, a Democrat, grew close to the governor while speaker. The two worked together to pass the state’s landmark global warming law, which was a signature achievement of Schwarzenegger’s time in office. Fabian Nuñez is a business partner of the governor’s chief political advisor at the consulting firm Mercury Public Affairs. “We are totally outraged,” said Fred Santos, the father of Luis Santos. “For the governor to wait until the last day in hopes it would fly under the radar is an absolute injustice.” Santos, a software engineer in Concord in Northern California, said Esteban Nuñez “had already gotten lucky once” when prosecutors accepted a plea bargain that allowed him to avoid standing trial on murder charges, which could have led to a life sentence. He said the family was not warned about the impending commutation and learned about it Sunday from reporters. Arnie didn’t have time to pay the Santos family the courtesy of a heads-up. But he did have time to chum it up with Nunez at a high-powered global warming shindig in October and yuk it up together at his retirement roast last month: This is bipartisan political cronyism at its worst. DLTDHYOTWO, Governator.
**Written by Doug Powers Admittedly, it would be a perfect fit: Who’s more qualified to peddle the most expensive myth in history than a guy who made a fortune in fiction ? Is Arnold Schwarzenegger angling for a job in the Obama administration? In an interview with editors at the Los Angeles Times, the outgoing California governor said he was in “no rush” to find a new job when his term ends next month. But asked specifically whether he’d consider a post working for President Obama, he said yes and began to “riff on his credentials,” according to the Times’ David Lauter. Schwarzenegger, who counts legislation combating global warming as one of his signature achievements in office, suggested he might be interested in a post dealing with energy or the environment. It’s not a far-fetched idea. Obama has often mentioned Schwarzenegger as someone he’s like to have in the Cabinet, citing his work on climate change. For months, there have been rumors in Washington that the former action star might join the administration as a climate change czar or as an adviser on energy and the environment. Schwarzenegger would no doubt commute to this new hypothetical “get people to cut carbon emissions” job in his private Gulfstream jet , which, oddly enough, is the kind of thing Arnold says gives him credibility on environmental issues : Schwarzenegger said he has credibility on that issue, and “people are very receptive when I talk about these things because I’m a Hummer driver … not a tree hugger.” True, he’s not a tree hugger. Hypocrite , yes… but tree hugger, no. Last year, Schwarzenegger, above, demonstrated to Californians how global warming will somehow cause a giant hand to cover San Francisco’s Treasure Island unless more taxpayer money is given to Al Gore and labor unions ***** (h/t Moonbattery ) **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Arnold Schwarzenegger For Climate Change Czar?
