California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is ticked off.
He’s tired of signing bills that don’t address the pet causes he deems important. So when another unworthy bill crossed his desk recently for signing — addressing funding issues for the Port of San Francisco — the guv vetoed it and sent lawmakers a little note saying why. Only the note said a little more than lawmakers were expecting.
Buried in the text was a hidden message directed at State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, author of the bill, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
Ammiano had strongly criticized the governor in early October and reportedly told Schwarzenegger at the time to “kiss my gay ass.” Schwarzenegger’s veto letter, issued a couple of days later, reads:
Missed the hidden code? The Bay Guardian has helpfully picked it out:
When asked by the Guardian if the message was intentional, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman said only, “what a strange coincidence.” The paper noted that he was “clearly being sarcastic.”
A spokesman for the governor told Threat Level that he’d been receiving a number of calls about the letter and hadn’t yet decided whether they were going to release a statement about it.
UPDATE 6:15 PST: The governor’s office decided it would make a statement, of sorts, after all. Spokesman Aaron McLear told Threat Level the hidden message was just “a strange coincidence,” repeating the response given to the Bay Guardian. He added that the governor’s office had written other letters that also had hidden words spelled out in them. When asked for examples of what was spelled out in those letters, he replied “soap,” “poet,” “ear.”
“When you do so many veto messages that’s bound to happen,” he said.
He promised to send examples of those other letters.
DigNitty on May 12nd, 2017 at 15:13 UTC »
I don't agree with all his politics but he has a great attitude. There's a couple videos out there of him being egged and he just wipes it off and says "this is what makes this country great. Protesting!
I_are_facepalm on May 12nd, 2017 at 13:18 UTC »
"I have detailed files on human sarcasm"
king_olaf_the_hairy on May 12nd, 2017 at 12:58 UTC »
This is what's known as an acrostic.
Fleet Street journalist Stephen Pollard cost himself a job in 2001 with almost identical message. In his final column for the Daily Express he wrote "Fuck you, Desmond" to the owner of Express Newspapers and his soon-to-be-former boss, Richard Desmond. When his new employers at The Times found out, they revoked their job offer.
Also, Top Gear and Grand Tour presenter James May was fired from an old sub-editing job in 1992 for a similar trick, albeit with a less profane hidden message.