Exchanging the Governator for Governor Moonbeam?

John R. Houk
© August 26, 2010

On a national scale if you have not heard of Jerry Brown it is because you were not before 1960. In 1974 Jerry Brown won the Dem Party nomination for Governor of California and was elected to that Office serving in the years of 1975 – 1983. (I graduated from High School in 1975)

Brown had a political lineage for his father was a Dem Party legend as a California Governor who also served as Senator. The reality on the political legacy turned out to be in name only. Brown had become so quirky that a Chicago Newspaper columnist Mike Royko dubbed him Governor Moonbeam. The “Moonbeam” appellation resonated with Brown’s gubernatorial activities that gained attention in 1976 for a run for President (1976 & 1980 & 1992).

Has the old Governor Moonbeam changed from his era of a national image? I doubt it. The old Left Wing New Age Moonbeam might be a good reason for Californians to choose someone who knows how to operate a business such as Republican Candidate Meg Whitman.

Here are some ideas Governor Moonbeam embraced:

No doubt, the reminiscences make for great fodder. The New York Times recently recounted how Chicago columnist Mike Royko bestowed upon Brown the "Governor Moonbeam" nickname to reflect his nontraditional leadership of a state Royko termed "the world's largest outdoor mental asylum." California Watch recounted last week the infamous 1980 Dead Kennedys song, "California Uber Alles," a silly punk rock ditty that depicted Brown as someone who supposedly wanted to use fascist techniques to implement his liberal agenda ("You will jog for the master race; And always wear the happy face; Your kids will meditate in school; Mellow out or you will pay!; Die on organic poison gas!").

…

… I went back and read the online archives of some of the "We the People" shows he hosted on a Berkeley public radio station in 1996-97 as well as some of the speeches he gave in the mid-1990s. He made some reasonable and provocative points at times (especially on the futility of the "war on drugs" and on the state's prison-industrial complex), but the transcripts are filled with diatribes against free markets and hosannas to unions and government intervention.

Here is Brown on welfare reform:

"The Republican members of the House and Senate indulged in a perverse excitement in sadistically cutting the very life-support systems out of millions and millions of defenseless people."

And here he is on inequality:

"The gap between rich and poor also keeps increasing because of computers, because of the declining power of unions and union membership, because of technology that replaces people in unskilled and semiskilled jobs, because of workers in foreign countries merged into the employment base of American companies, and because of the use of part-time workers putting people at a disadvantage and lowering their benefits. The focus ought to be on making low-income work pay more. And where there aren't those jobs, let the government step in like they did in WPA [Works Progress Administration], community service ... and all the rest of it."

There are many tired clichés about the evils of "industrial capitalism," about the need for a "living wage," about the ravages of the marketplace. …

…

My sense is that, despite all the reinventions and occasional good stuff – his embrace of school choice in Oakland when he was mayor (1998-2006), for instance – Brown remains the same anti-free-marketer revealed in his governorship and his 1990s radio shows. This is not some irrelevant, academic point. It goes to the heart of his governing strategy.

Indeed, the Brown campaign spokesman Sterling Clifford, told me that Brown "has always stood for the same things." He still agrees with the sentiments expressed in those quotations above, Clifford added, although he probably wouldn't use the exact same language today.

Take a look at how he has behaved as state attorney general, where he has used the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act, Assembly Bill 32, to wage a state-led campaign to force developers to build the high-density residential developments environmentalists prefer, so that more land remains open space. Brown has argued that wealthy and elitist Marin County, with its Draconian growth controls, is the development model for the state, and he's doing what he can to promote the types of environmental policies that will make it increasingly tough to start a business and own a home in this state.

I'm not sure how this amounts to governing like a moderate Republican. When he was governor, Brown governed as a slow-growther, whose anti-infrastructure campaign paved the way (or, actually, didn't pave the way) for the state's sometimes-gridlock level of traffic congestion. And it was Brown, don't forget, who legalized public employee unions and played a key role in creating the massive level of debt the state is bearing to pay for gold-plated retirements for public employees. It's no surprise that the state's powerful public-sector union, the Service Employees International Union, has vowed that electing him governor will be its "first priority."

Let's not get too caught up in this reinvention thing. Brown is now what he always has been – an opportunistic leftist who will moderate his views to get elected, but who believes that government has the answers to the state's problems, that unions aren't powerful enough and that the private sector is a hotbed of fraud and abuse and must be carefully controlled. Brown is brilliant and entertaining, but it's fair to ask, especially in these tough economic times and with the state's crushing business climate, whether these are the policies that the state's voters should be entertaining. (Excerpts from Steven Greenhut writing in the Orange County Register 4-2-10 [Updated 4-4-10])

Californians could care less of the opinion of a no-name Slanted Right blogger residing in Oklahoma (Although I was born in San Diego), but I am telling you guys you want to vote for someone that will inspire economic growth rather than blame the very businesses that will employ Californians for California’s current economic crisis.

JRH 8/26/10
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[SlantRight.com Editor: Below is the inspiration for this post from MoveAmericaForward.com]

Jerry Brown Happily took CODE PINK blood money!
WEALTHY JERRY BROWN DONORS HAPPILY “SMILE AND SAY HAMAS” AT THE CODE PINK HOUSE!

Sent from: Move America Forward
Sent by: MAF Blogger Danny
MAF Blog
MAF Daily Blog
Sent: August 25, 2010 12:53:13 PM

FROM ONE PATRIOT WHO WAS THERE . . .

Saturday afternoon I made my way to Venice, a place I seldom venture out to, in order to protest the CODE PINK fundraiser for Jerry Brown, hosted at the residence owned by none other than Jodie Evans, who is one of the group’s wealthy co-founders.


Jodie Evans has plenty of money to spread around as she married well to the now deceased computer pioneer, Max Palevsky. The fundraiser was organized to support Jerry’s gubernatorial campaign, and you would think he would be more sensitive about where his campaign dollars come from.


Move America Forward wondered if Governor Moonbeam knew what is old friend Jodie and her pals had been up to all these years; sending money to terrorists, visiting with Hugo Chavez, supporting Hamas, Hezbollah and Ahmadinejad, and not so quietly either. It seemed improbable that Jerry wouldn’t know that his old pal Jodie was keeping the company of terrorist organizations and Communistic dictators, so we decided to pay a visit and let them know that wasn’t OK with the patriotic troops and their families we represent.

Our group was led by our Chief Strategist Sal Russo, former MAF Chairman Melanie Morgan and blogger Andrew Breitbart, who improved upon our protesting tactics by implementing a new innovation – in-line skates! We crowded around the expensive house where the CODE PINKERS had invited their crazy liberal pals, holding our signs and flags high as we shouted our indictments of CODE PINK so that the attendees could know what horrible things they perpetrate and stand for. Top ticket price for the event was $25,000 a person – so it was a Hollywood type crowd that showed up.

We have always opposed CODE PINK because they just openly support terrorists and attack our U.S. military men and women.


We refuse to allow someone who could be California’s next governor accept blood money in exchange for turning a blind eye to CODE PINK’S support of terrorists and dictators!

Help us keep the pressure on Jerry Brown to give the money back!

Melanie, and then I, laid ourselves down on the sidewalk right in front of the gate, forcing them to step over us, just the way CODE PINK impeded the work of military recruiters in Berkeley. It was certainly a satisfying feeling to make CODE PINK feel the sting of their own tactics and know what it’s like for the troops they’ve hurt with their similar attacks. They were very upset that we were in their way and tried to lecture me and Melanie about ‘having respect’, something they know very little about.

“You have the right to protest, and express your views,” they lectured, “but we really want to ask if you cannot block the exit because we have people…”


“CODE PINK GOES INTO PEOPLE’S HOMES! Into people’s office buildings! You’re going to lecture us about proper protesting?” interrupted Andrew Breitbart, who found it incredulous that Code Pink people were trying to tell us how we could and couldn’t protest them! “Dissent on sidewalks is patriotic!” he mocked the common anti-war epithet.

As people walked up to the house we gave them with information, literally forcing them to confront the ugly truth then and there. “Did you know CODE PINK supports and has met with Hamas, Hezbollah, and the dictator Hugo Chavez?”


“CODE PINK gave money to the terrorists! $600,000 for the insurgents in Fallujah in Iraq, 2005!”


“Did you know that Jodie Evans and CODE PINK helped organize the Gaza Flotilla!?”


“If you support our troops you won’t go in that house!”


Many of the attendees were ignorantly denying that CODE PINK or Jodie Evans had done wrong, while others seemed to admit it, but were somehow happy and proud of the facts. When I told one attendee that CODE PINK had met and was talking with leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah he said to me, “Good! Somebody should be!” and smiled and walked past. Other attendees stepped on us, or kicked us as they walked over us. Always fun to visit with the “tolerant Left,” right?


One guy, mustering as much bravado as possible despite his pink outfit yelled, “you’re full of [expletive]” right to my face. I have to admit; I returned it back to him and said “you’re full of [expletive] if you support CODE PINK!” Probably not my best moment, but it was a heated exchange!

I overheard one organizer who was helping run the event try to justify Jodie Evans and her activities to one of the attendees. She said “Jodie has been to so many places, umm… like Iraq and other places, to support the people, not doing anything other than just hearing what it’s like for them.” Which is a total lie, CODE PINK was not meeting with the people; they were there getting cozy with the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, and brutal dictactors (sic) like Hugo Chavez who all have one thing in common – a hatred America, our freedom, and the formidable strength of our military.


Despite our warning, Jerry Brown happily took their money.
CODE PINK money, bathed in blood.
The blood of American troops.

MAF IS WORKING TO EXPOSE THIS OUTRAGE. AN AMERICAN POLITICIAN SHOULD NEVER ASSOCIATE WITH A DESPICABLE GROUP LIKE CODE PINK! MAKE A DONATION TO EXPOSE THE CODE PINK BLOOD MONEY!
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Exchanging the Governator for Governor Moonbeam?
John R. Houk
© August 26, 2010
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Jerry Brown Happily took CODE PINK blood money!
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