Via Rawhide at PinkDome, it's 169,000 signatures for Kinky Friedman. That should be more than enough to ensure his place on the ballot, and more than enough to nullify any crackpot theories about what kind of signature verification helps or hurts whom.
Karl-T projects a final vote tally based on primary turnout, extended to include petitions as primary proxies. Like him, I think that's an unreliable measure, but what the heck. I'm still not convinced that turnout this year will be unusual for a non-Presidential year - for sure, it ain't gonna be fifty-eight percent - but I will not be surprised if it's a bit elevated. It'll be interesting to sift through all the data afterwards, that's for sure, and I don't envy any pollster the task of determining a likely voter model. My hope is that we get enough polls from different sources to give us as full a picture of what's happening as possible. The rest will be guesswork and wishful thinking.
Posted by Charles Kuffner on May 11, 2006 to Election 2006 | TrackBackKinky's thoughts on border security and other foreign policy issues is RIGHT ON THE MONEY!
Kinky discussed his ideas the illegal Mexican alien problem with the Texarkana Gazette:
"Mexico is not a poor country...all of these politicians are afraid of offending Hispanics. I want the border off the evening news until we get something resolved."
Kinky's right! And he's been saying that Mexico ain't poor for better than a year now. Here's a another story out of the Kilgore News Herald, where Kinky says "Mexico is not a poor country."
Here's some other interesting stuff out of that Kilgore News Herald story:
“I am going to see non-denominational prayer and the Ten Commandments put back in the schools.”
Friedman said the Ten Commandments might have to be called the ten rules or something similar but they need to be back in the schools. “They say this is part of my wussification campaign but, as my spiritual advisor Billy Jo Schafer says, “If you don’t love Jesus, go to hell.”
One of Friedman’s most unusual ideas addresses border security.
He proposes creating what he calls the Five Mexican Generals plan. As he lays it out, the border with Mexico would be divided into five pieces with a Mexican general responsible for each. A $1 million trust fund would be created for each general.
“When I talk about the five Mexican generals, people think I’m joking but I’m dead serious,” said Friedman. “I will divide the border into five jurisdictions, assigning one Mexican general to each and providing a trust fund for that general. Every time a person crosses illegally, we subtract $5,000 from the trust fund.”
Kinky also spoke with Ruminator Magazine about his thoughts on Bush's foreign policy:
Ruminator: So does this idea of the honorable cowboy have anything to do with why you threw your support behind President Bush in this last election? You did, didn’t you?
Kinky: Yes. I did in this last election, but I didn’t vote for him the first time....I was not for Bush that time. Since then, though, we’ve become friends. And that’s what’s changed things.
Ruminator: So it’s your friendship with him that’s changed your mind about having him as president more than his specific political positions?
Kinky: Well, actually, I agree with most of his political positions overseas, his foreign policy....I basically think he played a poor hand well after September 11. What he’s been doing in the Near East and in the Middle East, he’s handling that well, I think.
Kinky is Awesome!
Posted by: Kinky is Awesome on May 16, 2006 11:01 AM