So, how’s the race for California State Governor going?
Surprisingly well. It is August 3 as I write this, and I have to decide whether to file my final papers by August 9 and pay the $3500 fee to be on the printed ballot. The events of this week will make the decision for me. But I’m getting a lot of support for my platform, which is that if elected, I will resign immediately after taking the oath of office. This action will make Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante the governor of California.
Basically, the right-wing extremists who purchased this recall have forced Bustamante and other major Dems into a Hobson’s choice–betray Gray Davis by running on the recall ballot or stand by Davis and risk the “election” of a right-wing Republican (or worse). The right-wing extremists have done a horrible thing to our state and our democracy.
My candidacy is the solution. It’s a way to restore stability to Sacramento–to put in office the person whom a majority of people in California already voted to be the one to replace Davis if he leaves office.
Right now, nobody is appealing to the Democrats who are angry about the recall itself. Nobody is saying, “Vote against the recall and then vote for me.” My platform is the only one that can help these voters to express their anger (not to mention to put in office the most qualified person in the state). And considering that whoever wins the second part of the recall ballot may do so with 10 percent or less of the vote (that’s just how it works with no runoff), I could quite realistically win if I’m the only person trying to appeal to the anger vote.
There’s no better way to say “f**k you” to the right-wing extremists who despise democracy and have cynically exploited the California state constitution than to elect a guy who will immediately resign, thereby restoring the proper constitutional succession. Hell, I’d vote for me just to see the look on Darrell Issa’s face.
Obviously, I’m not running as a politician. But I don’t need to, as I’m not going to serve. All I need to do is let the people who are furious about this right-wing recall know that there is someone they can vote for who will do the right thing by them and by the state. And my simple platform has already worked gangbusters to this effect–major newspapers such as The L.A. Times have mentioned my candidacy, always with my entire platform spelled out, because it can be done in ten words or less.
If anybody reading this wants to be involved, please go to the Brian Flemming for Governor website.
Any other future projects?
Oh, yes. Always. Nothing So Strange is an open-source film, which means we have relaxed the copyright restrictions on the raw footage that makes up the film. You can use the footage, royalty-free, to make your own films, music videos, whatever. To help make that footage available, we have just launched the Open Source Footage Store. Using this great new “micropayment” technology called BitPass, you can buy QuickTime clips for as little as a nickel each (the payments mostly pay for the bandwidth to deliver the clips). I’m working on ways to make the full-quality DV footage available as well. As a pseudo-documentary shot very much like a real documentary, Nothing So Strange has a wealth of footage that is not in my “final” cut. I’m very interested to see what other filmmakers might do with that footage, including their full-length interpretations of the same subject. There’s no reason that my interpretation should be the final word on the very important historical subject that is the Bill Gates assassination.
I’m also trying to wrap up a lot of current loose ends, including the creation of the Nothing So Strange DVD, so I can get started on my own Free Cinema film, which I’ve been intending to launch for quite a while now. We’ll be casting and crewing up in the next few months. If anyone reading this wants to be involved with the first Free Cinema film, they can email me at vagrant@slumdance.com. And I always write about whatever I am up to at my daily weblog.
