(no subject)
Not to preemptively change his fate or nothin', but I'm really eager to see what happens tomorrow to Mr. Bill Johnson.
I know most of you aren't in L.A. anymore, but this has got to be one of the weirdest elections I've seen in a while.
Since California tried so hard to be even more influential than they otherwise would've been in nominating presidential candidates (and yet, still failed so miserably), tomorrow's California elections won't have the draw that they sometimes do. No gubernatorial recalls, no hot-button issues like property taxes to vote on, basically a calm little election. That means that voter turnout will be at ridiculous lows.
And, because California is one of the most absurd regions of this country that I've ever been to (and I've been to more than my share of 'em), Californians somewhere along the way decided to elect their judges. "Ah hah!", you say, so here's where Mr. Johnson comes into play.
In 1985, a young Bill Johnson in his mid-twenties apparently wrote a book called Amendment To The Constitution: Averting the Decline and Fall of America. Writing under pseudonym "James O. Pace" (I can't blame him for that), he has decided that the thing we really need to fix our nation, the last best chance at truly aggrandizing the American way, is this: to repeal the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and immediately deport all non-white people. His proposed amendment reads as follows:
"No person shall be a citizen of the United States unless he is a non-Hispanic white of the European race, in whom there is no ascertainable trace of Negro blood, nor more than one-eighth Mongolian, Asian, Asia Minor, Middle Eastern, Semitic, Near Eastern, American Indian, Malay or other non-European or non-white blood, provided that Hispanic whites, defined as anyone with an Hispanic ancestor, may be citizens if, in addition to meeting the aforesaid ascertainable trace and percentage tests, they are in appearance indistinguishable from Americans whose ancestral home is in the British Isles or Northwestern Europe. Only citizens shall have the right and privilege to reside permanently in the United States."
Mr. Johnson, a Mormon with an undergraduate degree from B.Y.U. and an alpaca farmer, uses Ron Paul meet-ups to rouse support for his campaign. In his previous runs for public office, he's even used KKK members for his organizing committees. The really interesting part is that his opponent's last name is "ethnic-sounding" (Bianco), and Mr. Johnson has a happy-go-lucky, friendly WASP-sounding name.
Now, this whole story could conceivably be well-planted utter nonsense, so find as big a grain of salt as you think you need to find. Or, who knows, maybe he's reformed a little since then.
But when Ron Paul pulls his support of your campaign because you're too crazy, it says something pretty impressive.
If you have to cast your ballot based on something, and if you don't believe the hype, how about basing it on the fact that the LACBA ranks him as "Unqualified", while his opponent is ranked "Qualified"? Seems easy enough, right?
And yet, Alan Keyes crazification factor, here we come! This is, after all, the land where "the difference between the names “Olson” and “Janavs” can result in a bagel shop proprietor beating a respected veteran judge in a judicial race."
I know most of you aren't in L.A. anymore, but this has got to be one of the weirdest elections I've seen in a while.
Since California tried so hard to be even more influential than they otherwise would've been in nominating presidential candidates (and yet, still failed so miserably), tomorrow's California elections won't have the draw that they sometimes do. No gubernatorial recalls, no hot-button issues like property taxes to vote on, basically a calm little election. That means that voter turnout will be at ridiculous lows.
And, because California is one of the most absurd regions of this country that I've ever been to (and I've been to more than my share of 'em), Californians somewhere along the way decided to elect their judges. "Ah hah!", you say, so here's where Mr. Johnson comes into play.
In 1985, a young Bill Johnson in his mid-twenties apparently wrote a book called Amendment To The Constitution: Averting the Decline and Fall of America. Writing under pseudonym "James O. Pace" (I can't blame him for that), he has decided that the thing we really need to fix our nation, the last best chance at truly aggrandizing the American way, is this: to repeal the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and immediately deport all non-white people. His proposed amendment reads as follows:
"No person shall be a citizen of the United States unless he is a non-Hispanic white of the European race, in whom there is no ascertainable trace of Negro blood, nor more than one-eighth Mongolian, Asian, Asia Minor, Middle Eastern, Semitic, Near Eastern, American Indian, Malay or other non-European or non-white blood, provided that Hispanic whites, defined as anyone with an Hispanic ancestor, may be citizens if, in addition to meeting the aforesaid ascertainable trace and percentage tests, they are in appearance indistinguishable from Americans whose ancestral home is in the British Isles or Northwestern Europe. Only citizens shall have the right and privilege to reside permanently in the United States."
Mr. Johnson, a Mormon with an undergraduate degree from B.Y.U. and an alpaca farmer, uses Ron Paul meet-ups to rouse support for his campaign. In his previous runs for public office, he's even used KKK members for his organizing committees. The really interesting part is that his opponent's last name is "ethnic-sounding" (Bianco), and Mr. Johnson has a happy-go-lucky, friendly WASP-sounding name.
Now, this whole story could conceivably be well-planted utter nonsense, so find as big a grain of salt as you think you need to find. Or, who knows, maybe he's reformed a little since then.
But when Ron Paul pulls his support of your campaign because you're too crazy, it says something pretty impressive.
If you have to cast your ballot based on something, and if you don't believe the hype, how about basing it on the fact that the LACBA ranks him as "Unqualified", while his opponent is ranked "Qualified"? Seems easy enough, right?
And yet, Alan Keyes crazification factor, here we come! This is, after all, the land where "the difference between the names “Olson” and “Janavs” can result in a bagel shop proprietor beating a respected veteran judge in a judicial race."