Free Republic

Cindy Sheehan, Tom Hayden, and the Hate America Left meet with pro-Ba'athist members of the Iraqi parliament to discuss “peace.” TO FIND PEOPLE WHO HATE AMERICA AS MUCH AS THEY DO, the Fifth Column Left had to go halfway around the world to meet with Iraqi political leaders who call terrorism “honorable national resistance” and say foreign jihadists “are guaranteed Paradise” – and at least one of whom has ties to militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr. By the end of the trip, the American leftists would echo these sentiments. Somehow most of the media – occupied with interminable coverage of Hurricane...

As a news junkie, over the years I have seen a lot of political campaigns. Some were brilliant, some pathetic, some nasty as all get out. But I have never seen anything like this: A major party candidate trying to get elected by mostly talking about how much weight he has lost. That's right -- current California Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat, who is running against liberal Republican high-tech billionaire Steve Poizner for the state Insurance Commissioner post, is battling a multimedia blitz portraying him as in the pocket of the insurance industry by talking about his 70-pound weight...

Steve Poizner, the Republican candidate for insurance commissioner, is running an ad in which he accuses the Democratic nominee, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, of taking illegal campaign contributions and accepting money from the insurance industry.The 30-second ad began airing last week in markets around the state, including Sacramento. Following is the text of the ad and an analysis by Aurelio Rojas of The Bee Capitol Bureau.d• NARRATOR: Cruz Bustamante -- caught laundering millions in illegal campaign contributions. He was hit with the largest ethics fine in the law's history. Now Bustamante is running for insurance commissioner. For months he raked...

It has been ridiculed as the empty suit of statewide office. Some call it "Governor Lite." One former keeper of its flickering flame recited the lieutenant governor's job like this: Wake up, check whether the governor's heart still beats, then beeline it back to bed. In 1998, former state Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante vowed to change all that. "I have the potential that perhaps few people have to make that job something really important," he said as he ran for the state's second-highest post. Eight years later, Bustamante can count few glowing achievements to back up that boast as he...

Democratic candidates spend time in church The Democratic candidates for governor went to church on Sunday and prayed for victory, as well they might in a race that is neck and neck heading into Tuesday's primary. Steve Westly, who made his fortune at eBay, and Phil Angelides, a wealthy former developer, have been battering each other with nasty television ads for several weeks. Analysts say voters may respond to the negativity campaign by not voting. Westly, the state controller, appeared with Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, which he joined three...

Villaraigosa Renounces MEChA Past After Bruin Alumni Association Campaign May 12, 2005; Los Angeles, CA – Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa yesterday renounced the militant Chicano college organization MEChA he once led at UCLA, following a campaign by the Bruin Alumni Association to publicize his radical ties. As reported in today’s La Opinion by reporter Jazmin Ortega, Villaraigosa stated “I am not in agreement with most of [MEChA’s] precepts. … Of course I renounce its philosophy.” The comment was in response to a reporter’s question at a press conference and stemmed from four days of sustained demands by the...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California's lieutenant governor paid a record $263,000 fine for violating campaign donation limits in his run against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's political watchdog agency said Tuesday. California's Fair Political Practices Commission charged in a civil lawsuit filed in January that Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and his supporters improperly moved $3.8 million between campaign committees during the recall election in an effort to skirt contribution limits. Although agency officials have said Bustamante faced fines of as much as $9 million, the $263,000 settlement is still the largest ever paid in California by a candidate. The agreement...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,99450,00.html http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030712-104208-8767r.htm One of the greatest lies in American politics today is the idea that pandering to the illegal immigrant agenda, a group of Hispanic advocacy groups and socialist foundations, will get you the Hispanic vote and get you elected. Both Davis and Bustamante had pandered to the illegal immigrant agenda. Davis had signed into law the illegal driver’s license law (SB60) that allowed anyone from around the world to walk into the DMV and get a drivers license. Davis also lead the effort to stop Prop 187, a law that would have stopped handing out state tax money to...

If you lived in California, who would you vote for to be governor?

Unlike other politicians today and the media, who routinely refer to illegal immigrants as simply “immigrants,” California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger — who is favored to win Tuesday's recall election — actually calls them “illegal immigrants.” And unlike so many pols and scribes across the political spectrum, Schwarzenegger clearly declares, “Let me be clear: I do not support an amnesty program.” And unlike Democrat politicians, Schwarzenegger opposes issuing California drivers licenses to illegals. By contrast, on September 5, in a secret ceremony reserved for Hispanics and the Hispanic media, desperate, Democrat California Gov. Gray Davis signed SB60, giving illegals...

YAHOO CAPTION: California governor Gray Davis, left and Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante attends a school dedication honoring former president Bill Clinton who spoke at William Jefferson Clinton Elementary School Monday, Sept. 15, 2003, in Compton, Calif. A court decision was made today to postpone the recall election until March.

South Gate: Mexico Comes to California How an all-American town became a barrio. By Roger D. McGrath While we are engaged overseas in a mission to recreate countries in our own image and likeness, many of our own cities are being transformed into the image and likeness of Mexican villages. Nowhere is this more apparent than California. The city of South Gate, a dozen miles southeast of Los Angeles, is a prime example. Until the 1920s the area that is today South Gate was home to dairies—many of them operated by Danish immigrant families —and vegetable and fruit farms. Then...

Mr. Bustamante's cheap shots are disappointing on several levels. For one, he should know how it feels to have cheap shots taken at him. Some critics have attacked him over his membership in the 1970s in the MEChA, the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan. With its motto--"For the race, everything. For those outside the race, nothing"--and its call for the "liberation" of the territories Mexico ceded to the U.S. in 1848--MEChA is hardly a mainstream group. But it's a stretch to liken it to the Ku Klux Klan, as some critics have done. "You won't convince moderate Latinos that MEChA...

Cruz Bustamante is living proof of one of the smartest things Woody Allen ever said: “Ninety percent of life is showing up.” The lieutenant governor has barely figured in the epic conflicts over the energy and budget crises that have roiled the Capitol the last few years, and has managed, by breaking his pledge not to run, to emerge as perhaps the Democrats’ best hope of hanging on to the governorship. Who is Cruz Bustamante, this generally conservative, pro-business Democrat — the most prominent California backer of conservative Democratic presidential candidate Joe Lieberman, longtime chairman of the anti-liberal Democratic Leadership...

So far, the mainstream media has treated Cruz Bustamante with kid gloves. They've refused to turn a critical eye on Bustamante though they don't mind ignoring some of the equally qualified candidates and digging decades old dirt on others. I've assembled some hard-hitting information on Cruz Bustamante and titled it: "Who is Cruz Bustamante?". It has the lowdown on Cruz's membership in the racist MECHhA, his use of a racial slur, and his blaming of California's problems on the California people. Have a read through. Suggest some additions. And please link to the page so it comes up first on...

Barbara Simpson Tweedle Dem ... and Tweedle Dumber The rest of the country – maybe the world – can call it a circus, but for Californians, it's as serious as death. Whatever it's called, it is the recall of a governor who thought he was "Teflon." Wrong. Slippery, maybe. Thin-skinned, yes. Mercenary, yes. Focused and power-hungry, without doubt. All of those describe Gray Davis. But "Teflon"? Sorry, no. The reality of the recall and its momentum are the proof. Californians on both sides of the aisle are sick of the state's dismal financial situation. Under Democrat control, it has only...

This just in: Erstwhile politico Clint Eastwood likes Arnold, likes Peter, voted for Gray and is intrigued by Cruz. Oh, and he's anti-recall, ``that's for sure.'' The actor who made his bones as rogue cop Dirty Harry said Thursday he's neutral -- at least so far. ``I'd like to know more about what's going on,'' he said, ``know more about what people are thinking.'' The soft-spoken, good-humored Eastwood -- a Republican and one-term Carmel mayor -- is in a recall quandary that underscores what a small town the nation's most populous state can be.

Cruz Bustamante. The “Bad Lieutenant” Governor can forget the African-American vote, period. He hasn’t recovered from his 2001 slip about “niggers” (made during an address to black trade unionists!), and one can only imagine what gaffes will occur whenever he tries to pronounce “Schwarzenegger.”

This is still on the Anti-recall Davis sponsored site... "I will not participate in any way other than to urge voters to reject this expensive perversion of the recall process ... I ask that every good woman and man faced with this decision - Republican, Democrat or Terminator - to remember we are all Californians first. The will of many should not be set aside for the ambition of a few." Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante

The following AP story is excerpted from this morning's Washington Post: 'Terminator' in Calif. Recall Race By ERICA WERNER The Associated Press Thursday, August 7, 2003; 7:55 AM LOS ANGELES - With a surprise jump into California's recall race, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger touched off the heaviest tremors in the state's political earthquake to date, saying he wasn't afraid of attacks sure to come from Democrats and conservative Republicans alike. But the aftershock from a day of topsy-turvy developments in the drive to recall Gov. Gray Davis came just hours later, when Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante broke party ranks to...