Dissident Voice

August 9, 2003

One of Hollywood’s biggest hams is making a mockery of the California Governor’s race. Arnold Schwarzenegger has tossed his hat into the ring—and he did it in the true Hollywood fashion, by announcing it on Jay Leno’s talk show.

But in all honestly, between the indicted criminals in the Republican Party who are running, Darrell Issa and Bill Simon, and now this oaf of an actor, the whole situation has become a farce. The Democrats in the meantime, are not sure if they want to put forth on Davis, but even then, some commentators are saying his name cannot be on the ballot. So, some Democrats are urging Senator Feinstein to put her name on the ballot, while many Latinos are asking Cruz Bustamente to put his name on the ballot. The whole thing is a God-awful mess. Before I forget, let me add that Larry Flynt, of Hustler fame, is also in the running; he says about himself that he’ll win because he has the biggest name recognition of any of the candidates!

Ah, the games have begun—but now listen for this next zinger; the judicial wits of California gave a test of the recall to one of the more ignorant judges in the state; he came up with a dandy of a decision. He said that a person on this special ballot can become governor, in place of Davis, even if the recall vote fails! Yes, you heard me correctly; I’m not sure where this judge came from, but something doesn’t compute in his decision.

As they told us in the first week at the U. of Chicago Law School, “We want you to be judges because 40% are ignorant, the other 40% are corrupt, which leaves only 20% we can trust, so we want you to be judges to even things out for the sake of justice.” Every day, it becomes clearer, they were right.

Another problem is that there were only a small number of people necessary to sign the petitions in order to have this recall take place, not even 5% of the people of California.

If this isn’t cockeyed, I don’t know what is. Add to this that a person can become governor through this ballot and vote, even if the recall fails. Won’t that be a ridiculous sight. Davis is saying, “But the recall didn’t pass.” The other person who wins the ballot says, “That doesn’t matter, the judge says I am the new governor.” Yes, that’s the true situation in California at this time, and there is no time to mount an objection to the recent judicial ruling that let that absurd situation exist, where a person may become governor even if the recall loses in the state vote!

California was cruising along under Davis until Allen Greenspan raised the interest rates 6 times in one year and helped kill off the dot.coms. Then, FERC and one of the state’s more ignorant senators helped to pass a bill allowing non-regulation; Enron, Sempra, Dynergy and others suddenly took advantage of this and began making paper trades where they inflated the costs of utilities, at other times shut off part of the utility flows in order to create false shortages, and zoom, the economy of California was upside down.

In stepped Issa, criminal record and all, and started spending some of his millions to achieve a recall ballot for a state vote; secretly hoping he could become governor through the back door.

So there you have it. It may look like a circus to the rest of you out there, but in California, most of us are hopping mad at Issa and this idiotic judge who makes no sense at all. Now we are also upset that Arnold is not only big, but he’s a bigger fool. Most of us, who did not sign the petitions feel Davis was fairly elected as governor, and should serve out his term, because it wasn’t his fault the dot.coms failed, nor that FERC allowed Enron and others to rape the state of California.

Keep your ears tuned, it’s a long way from over, and may end up as being more surprising than some of the lame situation comedies Hollywood is trying to foist on you out there in TV land.

Sam Hamod is a resident of California; he frequently writes on world affairs, but this situation in California has tickled his fancy. He may be reached at shamod@cox.net.

Dissident Voice

August 9, 2003

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