Muzzle the fat lady
Sure, the 10 percent support he rated in a recent KXTV poll is still a long way from the governor’s office, but three weeks is a long time in California politics, particularly with the talent for screwing things up that Gray Davis and Bill Simon seem to share.
The odds of an actual victory for Camejo probably have gotten even longer than they appeared to be on October 7. Then, Camejo speculated that Davis could be destroyed by evidence that his pay-to-play approach to fund-raising amounted to bribery and that Simon’s ongoing business woes could drag him down.
“This isn’t over,” Camejo told SN&R. “This man Davis could go to jail. I don’t know which one’s going to go to jail first. I’ve said I want a three-way debate even if we have to do it in San Quentin.”
Yet that was the day before Simon’s bungled presentation of photographic “evidence” that Davis illegally accepted a campaign donation in his office, a shot that turned out to prove that Simon is an idiot more than it proved Davis is corrupt—although both are probably true.
Camejo and a team of lawyers also released their own “evidence” this week to show that Davis is guilty of bribery, although their call for an Attorney General’s Office investigation isn’t likely to have legs.
Still, being a big believer in chaos theory, Bites isn’t willing to call this race just yet. If more people are exposed to Camejo’s passionate intelligence (read “Mr. Camejo, the floor is yours,” SN&R, October 10, to see what Bites means), and if Davis and Simon continue committing political hara-kiri, a stunning upset by Camejo is not out of the realm of possibility.
After all, very few thought Simon could beat Richard Riordan in the primary either. Strange things happen.
Kill the psychos: Speaking of unreal things, Bites has a warning for parents out there: Don’t take the kids to Marine World for its Fright Fest happenings between now and Halloween. The young folks will have nightmares, and you might, too.
When exactly was it that Halloween went from being about monsters, black magic and other supernaturally scary things to being about murderers, violence and other real-world scary things? Bites doesn’t mean to play Grinch here, but why do we celebrate a national holiday honoring murder?
In addition to Halloween exhibits featuring executions and killer clowns, the entirety of Marine World is filled with actors playing knife-wielding psychopaths once the sun goes down, which leaves visitors no sanctuary from the theme park’s grisly take on Halloween traditions.
Maybe the change can be attributed to slasher films like the Halloween series, the regularity of wars and schoolyard shootings, or just American culture’s strange and growing obsession with violence. Bites longs for a return to more wholesome Halloween themes, like sex, drugs and Satanism. More cleavage and fewer cleavers, please.
Take that!: Widespread media coverage on Proposition 51 has exposed how its sponsor, the Planning and Conservation League, has laden the transportation measure with pork-barrel projects included only to get campaign donations from some special interests.
As a result of the raid on state coffers, many legislators have blasted the measure, but none as colorfully as Senate President John Burton, who wrote to the PCL board. He said it had become “a whore for the self-aggrandizement of [Executive Director] Jerry Meral” and closed with this shot: “Given that PCL has demonstrated a complete disregard for the people of California and the Legislature’s work of balancing state priorities, you should not be surprised that you are not welcome in my office, and PCL’s position on legislation is of no interest to me.”
Once again, the environmental movement has hurt itself by climbing in bed with the wrong people.
