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Today's Top News
Governor Vetoes California Ballot Question on U.S. Policy in Iraq
LOS ANGELES - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have allowed Californians to vote on whether "the president should end the United States occupation of Iraq."
The governor explained his decision by saying that Iraq policy was "not a state issue" and that the symbolic vote would carry no weight.
If Californians want to send Washington a message about Iraq, Mr. Schwarzenegger said, they can do so at the polls without an Iraq advisory question. California, he said, moved its presidential primary up to Feb. 5 from June to allow the state a greater say in selecting presidential candidates.
"All Californians have the right and the means to speak their mind on matters of such national importance," Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said in his veto message. "There is no louder message Californians can send to Washington on the Iraq war than who should lead our nation."
The bill would have added an advisory question to the February ballot asking voters if they favored an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq.
Sixty-five percent of Californians support either withdrawing all (39 percent) or some (26 percent) of the American troops in Iraq, according to the Field Poll, which questioned 1,029 registered voters in California from Aug. 3 to Aug. 12. Participants were asked what the United States should do now about the number of its troops in Iraq.
The margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points.
State Democrats strongly criticized the veto. The president pro tem of the Senate, Don Perata, the Democrat who introduced the Iraq bill, said it was odd for Mr. Schwarzenegger to dismiss Iraq as a federal issue when he - and the state - had taken such a strong stance on global issues like the environment.
The chairman of California's Democratic Party, Art Torres, said the governor's veto "muzzled" voters.
"The self-proclaimed 'people's governor' owed nothing less to the people of California and our troops overseas than to let the voice of the voters be heard on this disastrous war in Iraq," Mr. Torres said. "Instead, even as General Petraeus presents statistics this week that have raised more questions than answers about progress in Iraq, Schwarzenegger has ignored that message and effectively muzzled California voters on this critical issue."
The veto came on the same day that Mr. Schwarzenegger announced the deaths of four marines from Camp Pendleton near San Diego.
Since 2003, more than 400 service members from California have died in Iraq, more than from any other state.
© 2007 The New York Times Company
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15 Comments so far
Show AllDont you think your phony Gov. just might be a Bushie.He is married into an honorable democratic family, yet he chose to be a corrupt nasty repug? Hey, he and Bushie boy do have something in common,they are both deserters.
It's clear public opinion supports a veto-override.
added the Governator: Ah will punch you in the stomach, and reach in and pull out your SPINE!!! AHHHGG!!
Gee governor, uh what happenned to the first amendment, you know the right to free expression? Speaking as the great great grandson of a past California Governor, you are a disgrace you girly man!!!
Thank You Governor,
This will surely hasten your political demise!
If the majority wanted it, why didn't you let them have the vote? I keep forgetting we're a right wing dictatorship now.
I'm looking forward to the day when this fellow is voted office. Democrats in California should make a concerted effort to vote him out of office.
Und der scheissevogle dem vershatten mit vasser den klo.
Send the bill back through. Maybe this time the wannabe gov will actually read what it says himself.
Is it true that austrians can buy their way out of military service?
Arnold Arnold was are you doing ? Here was your chance to step over to the party you really belong to, the Dem. Sure you got a few bucks but still you grew up a working man. Now somebody got to you, and you fell for it. You must being living in fear. The people of Calif will laugh you out of the state now. Next year when every rep will be out of office and you could have switched to the dem party and be somebody as a dem, now you are a scared rep. sorry you got the American nightmare and lost the dream.
Du Schlappschwanz.....Willi der Wiener...
Yes it is true that in Ostreich money will pay for a second to serve the required 18 months. Poor Arnold would not have to serve his vaterland due to his foresight. Yes he might be able to see somethings but not what the state, country and world needs. We all need Bushitler to be in trash can....Also remember Austria was on Hitler's side... Willi der Wiener...
"He is married into an honorable democratic family"
hahahahahahaha.... oh god, whew.. sorry. You mean the one that includes rapists, adulters, and drunks who left their companion to drown so they wouldn't get arrested for driving into a canal while snokered?
Arnold will be governor as long as he wants to be. The right wingers, starstruck centrists & starstruck left wingers will continue to support him no matter what he does.
This just proves how F---- stupid American are. They vote actors o rich drunk frat boys into economic job positions and don't have a clue why it doesn't work!
When the President of USA uses American troops to invade, occupy and attempt to take a county's natural resources by force,it becomes the business of the American people. Send a message to the Gov and Washington. Override his veto.
Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, maybe we'll get Brad Pitt as president soon. Hey, if someone like George Bush can be president, ANYONE can!! Americans don't seem to be very particular anyway.