Free Republic

Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would make a great president of the United States in recent comments. “I feel like I would make a great president,” Schwarzenegger said in a recent interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). “But I feel that, at the same time, everything I’ve accomplished was because of America.”

Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised California voters for not recalling Gavin Newsom this week. Speaking with The Los Angeles Times this week, the former Terminator star, who himself became governor of the Golden State through a recall election in 2003, said California “made the right decision” to stick with Newsom, characterizing Larry Elder as a “wacky” candidate. “I think voters made the right decision,” Schwarzenegger said. “It’s better to stay with someone who you know what they’re going to do, rather than someone who comes in wacky and is changing everything around.” Only 36.2 percent of California...

Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger said “you’re a schmuck” if you don’t wear a mask, just days after photos and video showed prominent Democrats — from Barack Obama to Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) — partying indoors maskless. “You cannot go and not put the mask on because when you breathe, you can infect someone else. And you can infect someone that then gets sick and may die,” the Terminator star and former governor of California said during a discussion with CNN’s Bianna Golodryga and Alexander Vindman. “So this is why I think we all have to...

Arnold Schwarzenegger may have shagged the maid — but wife Maria Shriver is no June Cleaver. The Kennedy heiress was sleeping with her husband’s lead campaign strategist well before Schwarzenegger’s old affair with their housekeeper came to light, campaign staffers and other sources told The Post.And after years of playing the betrayed wife, Shriver, 58, recently trotted out her longtime lover, Matthew Dowd, 53, as if he were a new fling, sources said.

The Carnuntum ruins are part of a city of 50,000 people 28 miles (45 kilometers) east of Vienna that flourished about 1,700 years ago, a major military and trade outpost linking the far-flung Roman empire's Asian boundaries to its central and northern European lands. Mapped out by radar, the ruins of the gladiator school remain underground. Yet officials say the find rivals the famous Ludus Magnus - the largest of the gladiatorial training schools in Rome - in its structure. And they say the Austrian site is even more detailed than the well-known Roman ruin, down to the remains of...

"I swear that I am not making this up." Dave Barry

The world may have been shocked by Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent admission that he had fathered a child with a household staff member during his 25-year marriage to Maria Shriver, but actress Jane Seymour says she saw it coming. "I was not even remotely surprised," the actress told CNN during the red carpet premiere of "Love Marriage Wedding" last night. "The moment I heard it, that there was an announcement of their separation—he was obviously jumping the gun before everyone else told the world of the news."

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Oakland, Calif.-based Innovative Bank was closed by regulators Friday, marking the 48th U.S. bank failure of 2010.

Those hoping to ride the state's high-speed train next decade will have to dig much deeper into their wallets than officials originally thought, a harsh reality that will chase away millions of passengers, according to an updated business plan released Monday. The average ticket on the bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles is now estimated to cost about $105, or 83 percent of comparable airfare. Last year, the state said prices would be set at 50 percent of comparable airfare and predicted a ticket from San Francisco to Los Angeles would cost $55. As a result of the...

"Dear Governor: I hope you or someone will take a moment of time to read my letter here about my experiences with EDD. I know you are trying hard to get this economy corrected while also managing the multitude of problems within the state of California: the air we breathe,this flu, the ocean on our coasts, the redwoods, the homelessness, the budget, the prisons. It's a very long list..." (snip) "I turned to EDD for unemployment the first weekend after losing my job. Putting those forms online was brilliant. No waiting in lines, getting everything submitted correctly from the homey...

<p>A federal appeals court on Friday ordered a judge to reconsider her refusal to block portions of a clean-truck program at the nation's busiest port complex.</p> <p>In an opinion that dismayed environmentalists and labor leaders, the three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco ruled that U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder should grant all or part of the American Trucking Assn.'s request for an injunction halting the implementation of new rules that apply to truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.</p>

Arnold campaigning for McCain in Ohio. He did a great job!! I did do a search. If it's a duplicate, please delete. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o81VuUcwnEk)

Moments in the Sun By HOWARD FINE - 4/14/2008 Los Angeles Business Journal Staff Bonnie Reiss has always relished the idea of getting caught up in a cause larger than herself, whether it’s getting a political mentor elected or talking up the environment. She launched her political career by volunteering in Ted Kennedy’s 1980 presidential campaign. Then, after building an entertainment law practice in Los Angeles, she pioneered the use of celebrity endorsements for environmental causes. Nonetheless, the Queens, N.Y., native was stunned in early November 2003 to find herself inside the governor’s suite in Sacramento, grappling with one of...

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has refused to be drawn into Paris Hilton's jail appeal, insisting he has more pressing matters to deal with. The desperate socialite, who was sentenced to serve 45 days in jail earlier this month after violating terms of her 2006 drunk-driving arrest, has teamed up with a pal to pioneer an online petition begging the politician for a pardon. The appeal, which is addressed to Schwarzenegger, claims "the American public who support Paris are shocked, dismayed and appalled by how Paris has been the person to be used as an example that drunk driving is wrong."...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made nice with Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday, calling in to his radio program a day after dismissing the conservative host as "irrelevant." Limbaugh, who a day earlier had accused the governor of abandoning the conservative cause, treated Schwarzenegger cordially. But he pressed him on recent political moves that have angered conservatives, such as his $12 billion universal health care proposal. The two had a back-and-forth discussion over extending health care to illegal immigrants and whether the money to pay for the governor's health plan amounted to new taxes or fees. Limbaugh said the compromises...

IT IS NOTHING less than a scandal that 90% of the seats in Congress and the California Legislature are not competitive. It is also why Democrats, who have long championed a level playing field in elections as an important progressive goal, should be leading the call for an end to the "incumbent protection racket." Democrats strongly supported the concept of "one person, one vote" established in 1962 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Baker vs. Carr, a ruling that also required equal representation in all legislative bodies in order to reflect the interests and wishes of the people in a...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Wednesday that he will veto a bill seeking to allow gay marriages in California. Schwarzenegger said the legislation, given final approval Tuesday by lawmakers, would conflict with the intent of voters when they approved Proposition 22. That measure was put on the ballot in 2000 to prevent California from recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. "We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote," the governor's press secretary, Margita Thompson, said in a statement. "Out of respect for the will of the people, the governor will veto (the bill)."...

California Democrats lashed out at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during their annual convention Saturday, vowing to block his administration's agenda in an extraordinary reversal of good will toward the celebrity governor. Schwarzenegger, whose push for controversial government reforms has enraged labor unions and other traditionally Democratic constituencies, came under withering attack as speaker after speaker chastised his leadership abilities. "The governor has declared war on the state of California," Assemblywoman Judy Chu said. "He declared war on us and I declare war on him." Some in the convention hall held signs reading "Stop Arnold's Arrogance!" while others carried bobblehead dolls depicting...

Blogger angst NBC's Tom Brokaw signs off the air tonight after 21 years as anchorman, and will be replaced tomorrow by correspondent Brian Williams. Both have opinions about Internet bloggers — whose dogged pursuit of CBS' Dan Rather helped expose his use of forged documents in a "60 Minutes" story that questioned President Bush's National Guard service. Mr. Brokaw is not threatened by bloggers. --snip-- Mr. Williams — who called himself a "big NASCAR freak, a 'gear-head,' " in an NBC interview yesterday — is even less receptive. Bloggers are "on an equal footing with someone in a bathroom with...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Two days after the Democrats took at drubbing at the polls across the country, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger referred to leaders of the state's majority party as "losers." At a Thursday news conference, the Republican governor who branded Democrats "girlie men" during a budget fight last year was asked whether he would listen to tax-increase proposals from Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata or other Democratic leaders. "Why would I listen to losers?" Schwarzenegger asked. "Let's be honest." As soon as he made that remark, however, he tried to suggest he was referring not to Democrats themselves,...