Schwarzenegger didn't shy away from controversial views. He often got into heated battles with Rick Wayne -- a black bodybuilder from St. Lucia, a Caribbean island -- about one of the most emotional international issues of the 1970s: racial segregation in South Africa. Wayne said Schwarzenegger defended the apartheid system and argued that white South Africans could not turn power over to black South Africans without ruining the nation.``At the time, I just thought he was an out-and-out racist,'' Wayne said in a recent interview. Schwarzenegger also appeared to have no qualms about telling Jewish jokes to his friends. Wayne said he watched Schwarzenegger upset Jewish friend Joe Weider to the point of tears with his crass jokes, which included doing an impression of Hitler. As their friendship evolved, Wayne said he came to understand Schwarzenegger's sense of humor. Wayne once asked his friend how an Austrian immigrant had conquered Hollywood. In a moment of ``pure mischief,'' he said, Schwarzenegger stood up, looked him ``straight in the eye and said, `Because I've got the greatest physique in the world, I'm sharp, I'm super talented.' Then he stood up, walked down the hall, looked over his shoulder and said: `And I'm white.' '' What might have once set Wayne off now leaves him chuckling.``Today I don't necessarily think he's a racist,'' he said. ``How are you a racist and have a black guy as your friend?''...

Rather than focus on the actor's words, Walsh advised, voters should look at his deeds: supporting the Special Olympics in South Africa with former President Nelson Mandela, donating money to Jewish groups, and backing gay adoption.``The actions that Mr. Schwarzenegger has taken in these areas are a mountain compared to rare comments of interactions from decades ago,'' Walsh said.

Put aside, for a moment, the fact that "English only" laws -- the focus of the group's work -- don't serve to encourage immigrants to learn English (ESL classes in most places are packed full), but rather to restrict the government's ability to communicate with and provide services to non-English-speaking residents. Beyond that, U.S. English is hardly a benign organization. Its co-founder, John Tanton, founded or helped fund at least 13 anti-immigration groups, three of which the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as "hate groups," including this charming collection of vigilantes. Tanton's no longer associated with U.S. English, but one of their current spokesmen is James Lubinskas, a contributing editor to the neo-Confederate American Renaissance magazine. When news of John Tanton's racist views came out in 1988, several prominent members, including Walter Cronkite and the certainly far from liberal Linda Chavez resigned, rather than be associated with such views. Chavez accused Tanton of being both anti-Hispanic and anti-Catholic....

Cronkite and Chavez left in disgust, but Schwarzenegger, who joined the board in 1987, chose to stay. That doesn't make him a racist. It may mean he's simply oblivious to what he's signed on to. But at the very least, he ought to be asked about his connection to U.S. English now. If a group like that is uncontroversial, we have a lot of problems.

Want to know why the rightwing Wurlitzer is going after Bustamante as a "racist"? Because they need to throw rhetorical sand in the works to cover up and confuse the real links of their guy Arnie to racist networks.

What is serious is Schwarzenneger's continued association with the anti-immigrant U.S. English, which advertises itself as promoting the english language, but whose co-founder, John Tanton, has made clear its racist purpose. In 1988 he wrote the memo detailed in the linked article:

"In this society, will the present majority peaceably hand over its political power to a group that is simply more fertile. Can homo contraceptives compete with homo progenitivo if our borders aren't controlled. . . .Perhaps this is the first instance in which those with their pants up are going to get caught by those with their pants down. As whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion."

When the memo was made public, Walter Cronkite resigned from the board and prominent Hispanic conservative Linda Chavez resigned as President. Schwarzenegger? He's still on the advisory board.
And its spokesman, James Lubinskas (who apparently resigned this month) was a contributing editor of the August 2003 issue of American Renaissance magazine, which the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists as a hate group. The magazine is published by Jared Taylor, a leader of the white-supremacist group Council of Conservative Citizens, which is also listed by SPLC as a hate group.

So let's see-- you have Bustamante having been a student member of a group that's only relation to racism is a few distorted phrases in a document from 1969 versus Arnie's active role TODAY on the board of a group founded by a leading racist and which hires hate group supporters as its spokesperson. This is the game folks-- real racists are using the smokescreen of charges of "racism" against Bustamante to debase the term and confuse everyone. This is War is Peace, Hate is Love territory.

[Maria Shriver] was a self-assured Democrat with her own career. He was a conservative Republican with traditional views on women. He told interviewers that Shriver wasn't allowed to wear pants when she went out with him and that children should be ruled ``with an iron fist.'' But the relationship has weathered intense challenges. Rumors of on-set affairs filled tabloid headlines for years. More recently, several female reporters came forward in 2000 to accuse Schwarzenegger of fondling them during interviews, and an actress told a London newspaper that she had a seven-year sexual relationship with the actor. The actor has dismissed the allegations and -- in the campaign -- sought to focus on his political views.