By Tim Redmond
Wow, even the San Francisco Chronicle is critical of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s elementary-school-level prank. (My ten-year old son saw the letter on my desk yesterday and read it and said: “Is that guy really the governor of California?”)
It’s been fun watching the national news media go gaga over this, in part because nobody wants to use the word “fuck.” Here’s the New York Times:
The message can be seen only by a careful reading of the printed version of the veto statement. By taking the first letter of each line, beginning with the third line, two words emerge: The first is obscene; the second is “you.”
The Times also had trouble with Ammiano telling the guv to “kiss my gay ass.” That came out like this:
Mr. Ammiano, who is gay and was upset over cuts to state-financed AIDS programs, shouted at the governor, calling him a liar. Mr. Ammiano also apparently shouted another — more vulgar — insult.
Most of the news coverage, though, has missed one of the key points — this was a bill that would have helped San Francisco finance port repairs. It was uncontroversial, he no opposition, and would have cost the state nothing. So the Guv not only made an ass of himself; he hurt the city of San Francisco in the process.