I Hate Politics, But...

...it involves Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, so I'll link to this Los Angeles Times story about campaign finance, Generous Campaign Donors Showing No Signs of Fatigue:

Netflix Chairman Reed Hastings gave away $730,000 in the special election campaign. Most of it went to the promotion of Proposition 77, which would authorize retired judges — rather than lawmakers— to draw legislative and congressional boundaries.

But he says he will give more.

"Win or lose this cycle, I'll continue to invest both philanthropically and politically," Hastings said via e-mail. "I don't feel any donor fatigue, because improving California" is "a multi-decade effort, not a one-shot fix."

This is getting confusing. Hastings has donated to democratic causes in the past, but "Arnold" is a republican. Can anyone from California shed some light on what's going on in your state?

via Jibber Jabber.

Comments

[Eric]

Yes, redistricting is not popular by democrats in California because they have a majority in both houses. In 2000 after the last census they drew the new districts but some had 1 state senate seat to 1 assembly seat while others had 1 senate seat to 2 or 3 Assembly sets. As Arnold said "it was the politicians choosing the people not the people choosing the politicians"

[Just like Texas]

Reed is a Dem but his track record shows he will give to causes he thinks are worth supporting.

While I agree that the way districts are drawn up here has to change, I did not like the proposed plan. I'm up for other ideas for sure.

Basically put the Democrats are trying to keep a stranglehold on both houses in Sacramento, the Republicans are trying to pry it out of their hands and then there are some people who see the current way as illogical and just want it changed.

Also keep in mind the very rich will often hedge their bets and give to both parties. Not that I think that's appropriate.

[Todd Plants]

The folks above are right, in this particular instance, the redistricting measure would have had the effect of favoring Republicans.

Democrats often support these kinds of measure though because they are roughly "good government." Having a non-partisan disctrict drawing commission is probably theoretically better than politicizing it in the legislature.

Probably shouldn't read to much into Hasting's shifting political allegiances from supporting any single issue-based initiative.

[Hunter McDaniel]

Had Prop 77 passed, the biggest gainers would have been moderate Dems like Hastings, who currently get taken for granted by the far left. It's not hard to understand why he would support it.

[Tony]

Arnold is a very moderate, almost liberal, Republican in many ways.

Prop 77 was opposed by the majority of BOTH parties, because it takes away their cushy redistricting ability that keeps them employed.

This prop would only "favor" Republicans in the short term, because Dems have the majority in the state senate...but in the long run, it would have benefited the people.

Several other Arnold supported props were voted down, after the opposition spent HUGE numbers spreading outright lies and falsehoods about them. The overriding theme was "anti-Arnold"...not against the propositions themselves. It's sad, really.

Here's an excerpt from a Sacramento Bee columnist (Weintraub) about Prop 77:

"A few days ago we received a slick, full-color mailer at our house that would have scared me to death if I hadn't already known the truth.

"Powerful forces are trying to rewrite the constitution for their own political advantage," the piece warned in large type. "Tell the power-hungry politicians to keep their hands off!" The card labeled Proposition 77 a "political power grab" that would "help one party [it didn't say which one] gain an advantage." The new district lines, the piece said, would be drawn "without elections, without any accountability."

Those claims are not just distortions. They are lies. Under Proposition 77, the new lines would be drawn using a strict set of criteria banning the use of incumbents' addresses or partisan voter data, including past election results. And the new lines would be subject to an automatic referendum - exactly the opposite of what the mailer claimed.

The real insult is that the warning about "power-hungry politicians" was paid for by - you guessed it - power-hungry politicians, and mailed by the California Democratic Party. While Proposition 77 has been endorsed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, against the advice of many of his Republican Party colleagues, it is also backed by Common Cause, TheRestOfUs.org and CalPIRG, three very independent, grass-roots groups that have been fighting for years to put the job of redistricting in the hands of an independent commission. Some power grab."

Full article: http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/weintraub/story/13807170p-14648369c.html

[The Punisher]

Well, as others have stated, the "problem" is adhering to the Republican and Democrat stereotypes. Arnold is NOT a Bush Republican. Tony's entry spells it out pretty well.

The defeat of Prop 77 will cause 2005 California voters to be considered the biggest pack of idiots in American history by future historians.

As much as I like democracy in general, Gerrymandering is one of the more vile inventions of Western democratic tradition. It's basically a state legislature locking itself or its party into statehouse seats by carefully drawing the shapes of the districts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering

It's such an obvious conflict of interest there almost has to be something unconstitutional about it, although I am not aware of anyone challenging it on that basis. It's like putting pedophiles in charge of day care. And given the folks in the California state legislature right now, that's an insult to pedophiles. Seriously, we have some of the most useless scumbags ever to hold office here in California. I would not want Arnold's job dealing with that pile of human atrocities. The whole reason we had these propositions was because the Legislature was acting like eternal d*ckheads.

California was handed a rare oppurtunity to take the redistricting process away from the last people in the world who should possess it, and they turned it down. Maybe the approach with the judges is not perfect, but it's BETTER than what they have now.

And I use "they" despite being in California. I feel very alienated from my fellow Californian today. Tuesday was a triumph for the forces of propaganda, lies and ignorance. If I were Arnold, I'd tell California to go collectively f*** itself, resign, and move to Chicago, taking every bit of business I could convince to go with me.

[Seishi]

"The defeat of Prop 77 will cause 2005 California voters to be considered the biggest pack of idiots in American history by future historians."

Hyperbole much?

The very Republican state of Ohio defeated a similar measure on Tuesday. Idiots have no ideology.

[DiversiGuy]

Reed Hastings lost his post on the State Board of Education. This happened because he pissed off Mexicans by opposing Mexican-language instruction in schools. He was already an enemy of conservatives.

Supporting Prop 77 would help throw out a lot of idiot Democrats (and Mexicans) in our state legislature.

Reed mentions a multi-decade effort to 'improve' California.. perhaps getting booted enlightened Reed to the challenge posed by Mexicans and their Democrat enablers.

The defeat of 77 does illustrate that Californians probably shouldn't be allowed to vote any more. Our districts are incredibly static in regard to which party controls them. Perhaps this is our punishment for voting in term limits for the legislature in order to toss out corrupt Black Willie Brown.

[Wolf]

"Mexican-language instruction in schools"
What's this Mexican language you're talking about DiversiGuy? I've never heard of it.

Just look at the reviews on Netflix and you will see political bias. Examples: check the "Fahrenheit 9/11" reviews. The main page is all 1-star reviews, even though the movie's average is 3.6. Meanwhile, "FahrenHYPE 9/11" (widely regarded as crap) shows two 3-star reviews, two 4-star reviews, and two 1-star reviews, with an average rating of 3.4. You can't trust average ratings, unless Netflix members are idiots. IMDB gives "Fahrenheit" a weighted average of 7.8 over 10, whereas "FahrenHYPE" gets a weighted average of 4.8 over 10. There's something fishy there. And you can see this trend on many other movies and documentaries that are political and/or morally offensive. Netflix black-balls any movie that opposes their corporate culture. Just look up Noam Chomsky, a wildly popular radical MIT professor who speaks @ sold out auditorious on a regular basis. It's absurd to think that ordinary working people would oppose his message. Only the elite and their dupes have any legitimate disagreement with Chomsky's devastating critiques of economic oppression and media brain-washing. But if you rely on Netflix to filter your movies, you end up with corporate-friendly tripte which reinforces the status quo.

"What's this Mexican language you're talking about DiversiGuy? I've never heard of it."

The language they speak in Mexico, commonly known as SPANISH. The language of Mexicans, being synonymous with "Mexican language." I bet you're the type of guy who corrects USA citizens who call themselves Americans. BUT CANADIANS AND THOSE SOUTH OF THE BORDER ARE AMERICANS TOO!!! Thank you for your rubbing our noses in your politically correct BS.

[Wolf]

"Thank you for your rubbing our noses in your politically correct BS."
Oh please, I hate politically correctness, I was merely pointing out you are probably are the kind of moron that likes to ask "What part of Mexico is Honduras?" LOL!!!

"Netflix black-balls any movie that opposes their corporate culture"

And you know this how? Oh that's right, you're the paranoic professional victiim. I almost forgot.

"check the "Fahrenheit 9/11" reviews. The main page is all 1-star reviews, even though the movie's average is 3.6. Meanwhile, "FahrenHYPE 9/11" (widely regarded as crap) shows two 3-star reviews, two 4-star reviews, and two 1-star reviews, with an average rating of 3.4. You can't trust average ratings, unless Netflix members are idiots. IMDB gives "Fahrenheit" a weighted average of 7.8 over 10, whereas "FahrenHYPE" gets a weighted average of 4.8 over 10."

The difference is that in order to rate a movie on Netflix, one must be a PAID subscriber. On IMDB, in order to rate a movie one must be a registered member of IMDB, but that's free of charge. Therefore, those who have paid subscriptions with Netflix are more likely to be people who work for a living whereas some of those who vote on the IMDB are quite likely to be a bunch of left wing freeloaders of society. :-) <---just a hunch

[DiversiGuy]

Mexican-language is primarily a derivative of the language spoken in Spain, with some added vocabulary from the various tribal languages spoken by the undiluted Indian populations of Mexico, and with about 500 years of langage drift. At some establishments, such as Bellagio, you can tell that Mexican-language is spoken because they will denote it with a Mexican flag, rather than Spain's.

Spanish is not Mexican, in the way that Cockney is not American.

[you suck]

"On IMDB, in order to rate a movie one must be a registered member of IMDB, but that's free of charge. Therefore, those who have paid subscriptions with Netflix are more likely to be people who work for a living"

What absolute crap. As if IMDB voters don't work for a living. And as if Netflix doesn't have its share of non-workers posting their opinions (retirees, students, stay-at-home parents).

"whereas some of those who vote on the IMDB are quite likely to be a bunch of left wing freeloaders of society."

There are plenty of right-wing free-loaders, like Rush Limbaugh who lived on unemployment watching Tv and eating junk food, leeching off his ex-wife for several years - a fact he once made the mistake of admitting on his national radio show. As for the rest of your argument, it's crap. The reviews on the main pages are often not representative when the subject is political. Even popular movies do not get representative reviews on the main page. "American Beauty" has two 1-star and one 2-wtar review at the top of the page.

I think this highlights the fact that those who write reviews don't generally represent popular opinion. Not that IMDB members are free-loading liberals or that Netflix fixes the reviews. I would like if Netflix added the option to SORT ratings based on newest, oldest, higest rating, lowest rating, most helpful, least helpful, and perhaps karmic rating based on the reviewer's history. It takes forever to find the bad reviews for, say, "Batman Begins" (an over-rated piece of crap). Whereas "Eyes Wide Shut" is flodded with negative reviews from morons like you.

Being a worker automatically makes someone a Republican. Actually, the opposite tends to be true. Working-class and poor people are overwhelmingly Democrat. The elite and their dupes are Repugnicans.

"The difference is that in order to rate a movie on Netflix, one must be a PAID subscriber. On IMDB, in order to rate a movie one must be a registered member of IMDB, but that's free of charge."

I find the ratings on IMDB far more accurate (except for big budget crowd-pleasers like "Batman Begins"). It's also easy to find the negative reviews, whereas Netflix makes you sift through hundreds of over-rated reviews.

[Freddy P]

The racist and hateful sentiments expressed here are appalling. Is this representative of the greater Netflix community, or just a vocal minority? I wonder if Blockbuster or Greencine has as many haters...

[Freddy P]

The racist and hateful sentiments expressed here are appalling. Is this representative of the greater Netflix community, or just a vocal minority? I wonder if Blockbuster or Greencine has as many haters...

Also, IMDB is international. People from all countries are welcome to share their reviews and opinions. Netflix is a closed system. So it inevitably shows the failings of American education, media brain-washing, and deluded views espoused by our politicans and celebs. You get more accurate coverage of the USA by other countries. And you get more accurate reviews when everyone is allowed to speak. Netflix censors and controls speech both in the critique of movies and their service.

"Spanish is not Mexican, in the way that Cockney is not American."

Indeed. But don't try convincing morons like Wolfe of that fact. To him, Mexicans speak Spanish and there's no such thing as Mexican language. And no, I don't think Honduras is part of Mexico, Wolf. I do think you're an idiot who can't grasp common speech without lots of idiotic non-sequiturs. It would be a surprise if countries thousands of miles apart spoke exactly the same language, even if they were colonized by the same people. Languages morph and evolve, idiot. Mexican spanish is not spoken in Seville. Nor is Seville Spanish spoken in Barcelona. etc.

[Hunter McDaniel]

My son started a Spanish immersion program in first grade. When we moved to Colorado and transferred him to a similar program here, his classmates and teachers told him he had a "Cuban accent".

"What absolute crap. As if IMDB voters don't work for a living."

I wasnt generalizing about ALL imdb users.

"And as if Netflix doesn't have its share of non-workers posting their opinions (retirees, students, stay-at-home parents)."

I'm well aware of that fact as well. (And I do prefer the reviews posted in the IMDB instead of the ones posted in Netflx.)

"Being a worker automatically makes someone a Republican. Actually, the opposite tends to be true. Working-class and poor people are overwhelmingly Democrat. The elite and their dupes are Repugnicans."

And there YOU go, generalizing. Don't you know anything beyong simplistic bumper sticker logic? The fact of the matter is that the majority of rich/elite people in this country are registered Democrats. NOT all of them, but a majority of them.

Lets take the Senate for example:

I give you the top ten millionaires in the US Senate and their net worth:

John Kerry, D-Massachusetts: $163,626,399
Herb Kohl, D-Wisconsin: $111,015,016
John Rockefeller, D -West Virginia: $81,648,018
Jon Corzine, D-New Jersey: $71,035,025
Dianne Feinstein, D-California: $26,377,109
Peter Fitzgerald, R-Illinois: $26,132,013
Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey $17,789,018
Bill Frist, R-Tennessee: $15,108,042
John Edwards, D-North Carolina: $12,844,029
Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts: $9,905,009

Can anyone name which party eight out of ten of them belong to?

It's not the 1930s anymore, guy. Time to find a new songbook.

As for working class:

"The redoubtable and unpronounceable Ruy Teixeira, Democratic poll analyst par excellence, has been rooting around in the raw data newly released from the 2004 exit poll and has come up with one morsel that should cause Democrats everywhere to gag. It's not just that John Kerry got clobbered by working-class whites, whom he lost to George W. Bush by a hefty 23 points. It's not just that 66 percent of these voters trusted Bush to handle terrorism, compared with just 39 percent who trusted Kerry. It's that 55 percent of white working-class voters trusted Bush to handle the economy, while only 39 percent trusted Kerry."

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=9240

"The result was a catastrophic desertion of white working class voters from the Democratic Party. The average white working class vote for the Democrats in 1960-64 was 55 percent; in the Nixon elections of 1968-72 and in the Reagan elections of 1980-84 it was 35 percent, a staggering 20 point drop in support from their key constituency."

http://gadflyer.com/articles/?ArticleID=69

"There are plenty of right-wing free-loaders, like Rush Limbaugh who lived on unemployment watching Tv and eating junk food,"

Living on unemployment checks is not freeloading. Its something that belongs to you. Soemthing that you contribute to when you were/are working.

"leeching off his ex-wife for several years - a fact he once made the mistake of admitting on his national radio show"

Liar. He made no such admission. And why? Because it isnt true. You must be mixing him up with someone else.

Don't you know anything beyong

Typo

Don't you know anything beyond

"The racist and hateful sentiments expressed here are appalling. Is this representative of the greater Netflix community, or just a vocal minority? I wonder if Blockbuster or Greencine has as many haters..."

Republicans/Conservatives are always full of hate for Democrats, Liberals, working class, poor people, the environment, women, blacks, gays, hispanics, asians, and non-republicans in general. They have so little respect for the rest of humanity, they rig elections so that appointed presidents can send us to war for fictitious reasons. Why? For the wealth and glory of the elite weapons manufacturers and oil magnates. World domination. Same old dream. You will find repubs rationalizing a status quo where poor people have no health care, affordable housing, quality food, and other basic necessities. Why? Because they are so out-of-touch, like Alan Greenspan, they think "nobody needs social security or other safety nets." Afterall, rich fat cats like them don't need it. Thus, it's "bad for America" in general. Pathetic losers. Anyone who votes Repub ought to be shot to death.