February 18, 2005: Headlines: COS - Malaysia: Writing - Malaysia: Humor: Politics: Election2006 - Friedman: Baltimore Jewish Times: When asked why he's running for Texas governor, Jewish humorist Kinky Friedman calmly responds: "I need the closet space."
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February 18, 2005: Headlines: COS - Malaysia: Writing - Malaysia: Humor: Politics: Election2006 - Friedman: Baltimore Jewish Times: When asked why he's running for Texas governor, Jewish humorist Kinky Friedman calmly responds: "I need the closet space."
When asked why he's running for Texas governor, Jewish humorist Kinky Friedman calmly responds: "I need the closet space."
When asked why he's running for Texas governor, Jewish humorist Kinky Friedman calmly responds: "I need the closet space."
Kinky Friedman For Governor
Joshua Runyan
Special to the Jewish Times
FEBRUARY 18, 2005
Philadelphia
When asked why he's running for Texas governor, Jewish humorist Kinky Friedman calmly responds: "I need the closet space."
When asked what he'd do as the Lone Star State's chief executive, he dryly remarks: "I will make my Palestinian hairdresser, Farouk Shami, the Texas ambassador to Israel."
And yet when Friedman, 60, is questioned if he is even remotely serious about the independent candidacy he announced on Feb. 3, the mystery writer and country music star resoundly proclaims: "Hell, yes!"
"Most people see it as a breath of fresh air," says Friedman, speaking from his office in Austin, Texas. "The governor of Texas is not all that powerful, but a lot can be done, not in the area of heavy-lifting, but in influence."
Friedman identifies education as his No. 1 issue. "Take any subject, education, for instance, the first question here is always how are we going to get more money?" he says. "That's missing the point. The question should be: What are we going to do with the money? Build more gymnasiums? Buy more computers from Dell?
"We need to find all of these people who work in resource-strapped schools, gather them together and listen to them," he continues. "It should be, 'No Teacher Left Behind.' "
On his campaign Web site, Friedman advocates legalizing gambling to fund education, as well as abolishing political correctness, outlawing the declawing of cats, and appointing country-music headliner Willie Nelson as "energy czar."
'All about freedom' Despite Friedman's supposed confidence — the "Kinkster" frequently speaks of himself in the same sentence with such notables as Jesus, Moses, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi — he readily admits he has an uphill battle in a state that last saw an independent gubernatorial candidate in 1859, with the running of Texas revolutionary hero Sam Houston.
According to Texas law, to be listed on the ballot Friedman would need 45,000 signatures from voters not participating in either of the major-party primaries, a situation he describes as "perverse."
"It's impossible to make an independent candidate here," he laments. "But this is not a political campaign. This is a spiritual one. It's spiritual in that it's all about freedom, all about independence, and the only advisor I have is my father Tom, who died two years ago."
Sherry Sylvester, spokesperson for the Republican Party of Texas, which dominates most state offices, sees no threat in Friedman's candidacy, which follows on the heels of such unconventional candidates as former Montana Gov. Jesse Ventura, a pro-wrestler turned Reform Party candidate, and current California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.
Adds Sylvester: "I think that independent candidacies of jokesters like Friedman only work when you've got an uninformed electorate. Texas voters are anything if uninformed."
Friedman, in his characteristic Southern twang, brushes off the criticism. "We've hurdled from a joke to something that people think seriously about," he says of his campaign. "The real joke is Texas is first in executions, but 49th in education."
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
When this story was posted in February 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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| Peace Corps Calendar:Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments. |
| WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service. |
| Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress. |
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Story Source: Baltimore Jewish Times
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Malaysia; Writing - Malaysia; Humor; Politics; Election2006 - Friedman
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