We also have Gary Coleman (yes, the little guy from Different Strokes--whachoo talkin' bout, Arnold) AND Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine, to choose from. Oh, and a guy who has more money than brains (Issa). Ah-nald is looking somewhat normal. The governor's race may become as entertaining as normal San Francisco city politics (which is actually quite sad).

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

What I like is that moron Davis saying on CNN that he considers Bill and his husband (LOL) Hillary to be "Great Americans" and he has "The highest respect for them and their ideals"...DAMN...he has GOT to be kidding...that man must be smoking some of what Marrion Barry smokes....

I cant wait for Arny to follow the last great President footsteps in California...good old Ronnie!

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

I totally agree. The entertainment value of San Francisco politics, and now the politics of the whole state, is priceless. Unfortunately, I'm sure I'm actually paying quite a bit for my laughs.

As to Aaahnold, he's got some interesting idea, but I think the recall sets a bad precedent. Davis is no different now than when he was elected. Although, I find that there is a beautiful irony in the whole mess. Davis is the consumate politician the molded the last election so that he could face the canidate he could beat. He played the game to the fullest and now it's being played against him. One final thought, we all have access to view the bare butt of the person who is quite possibly the next governor of California!

Actually ... he is.

Governor Gumby lied about our 38 billion dollar deficit before the election and covered up the true numbers. Just three weeks after he was re-elected did the numbers surface. Also, he is set to issue drivers licenses to 2 million illegals and screw the state even more in a last ditch effort to get the Mexican vote. He is a whore and sold out the state to special interest and labor groups. He increased our spending by 40% although our revenue only increased 25%, which is why we have a larger deficit than all other 49 states combined and rank lower than Alabama in our credit rating.

Anyone is better than Joe Davis. I cant wait to see Arnold's plan.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the tri-forum......

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I agree with this ... my a$$ he didn't know before the election. However, none of the other stuff surprises me. I don't like Davis' politics, but I think he's been true to himself all along ... a consumate politician who will do whatever to what he wants.

I think its great! He'll join the list of good actors-turned politicians in California (RWR; Eastwood, et al) and he has the actor-to-governor precedent set by his Predator co-star Jesse Ventura.

His politics - to the right of course, which can only help out our state that has a single deficit larger than 49 states' deficits combined (somethig like that); that has betrayed the interests of our children by basically starving the public school system; and that has squandered one of the biggest state surpluses in history. Hmmm.... I wonder if he wants to get into the USAT elections too.

Hey - Stray Davis - its hasta la vista baby!!!

I think it's fantastic. For no other reason than his announcement has completely destroyed the position the Democrats were taking. Look how today the party line of "Stay behind Davis" has totally crumbled. It's not that I'm a Republican either. They're just as bad as the Dems. But it's nice to see the embarrassingly awful political establishment scared for a change. Is anyone suprised Bill Simon never had the same effect??

Do I want him elected?? That I don't know. But what does he have to gain from this? He can't make a run for Prez so that can't be his motivation. The dimwit Davis actually thought he could could make a run for national office. He's already filthy rich. He's already very famous. Maybe he wants to take a shot at making a difference. I dunno. I think this is great though.

I have to admit I know little about California politics (but this is the internet, so why should that stop me from posting) but I found it interesting to learn that California's deficit is so big. So you Californians have a Democrat as governor who rakes up the biggest deficit in history, and to top that off you have a Republican president creating the biggest federal deficit in history. Yet most Democrats stand behind Davis while calling Bush's financial path irresponsible, while Republicans do the opposite. It appears the ideas really aren't that important, people pick their guy and then pick and choose the arguments as they fit. Probably not a great environment for sensible policy to be made, and tossing in a guy whose main political statement is "Hasta la vista baby" probably won't help much.

Gerard.

Gerard...that is SO true, and SUCH a shame.

Bush gets bad info from CIA...it is "Lies to the country" as accoring to Gore.

Clinton gets bad info from CIA (and bombs a school and asprin factory) - that is just "a mistake"



In the US the Liberals are all over Bush for the war in Iraq...Conserv. is all for it.

In Brittan the Conserv. are all against Blair going into Iraq and the Liberals love it....



As far as actions, and finances I am so Conserv. I make Ruch look like a bleeding hear liberal...in politics I think nothing matters than that because there is no such thing as charicter in politics any longer.

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

Most of California's financial woes are due to energy deregulation and Dubya's pals down in Texas creating an artificial energy crisis that resulted in over $40 billion in overspending on electricity and natural gas. Because Davis was such an ardent supporter of Clinton and Gore, Bush (who doesn't know much, but does know the meaning of "payback") basically told California to bend over and take it, rather than offer to step in and stop the bleeding.

"F-it", he must have figured. Come re-election time in 2004, he still won't win California, it's run by Democrats, so why should he help us out when he can act like he's president of 49 other states?

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No sidewindin bushwackin, hornswaglin, cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter!

Yes, clearly it was Bush and his friends in Texas who put the squeeze on California and not the absence of real leadership with the Governor.

I love how liberals can take anything and bend it back to being directly Bush's fault...it was probably Bush who wrote that email from Guru about Cervelo bikes too...

Isn't it a little too convenient...

Blaming incompetence and mismanagement on someone else?

If your argument were true, wouldn't the competent, rational manager say, "We'd better put the spending brakes on here or we'll soon be bankrupt."

WOW! That is a stretch - blaming the blow-out of a great economic surplus by the #6 ranked-economy in the WORLD on oil companies' in Texas charging high prices during a few summer months? (and yeah - those guys at ENRON are just laughing silly over right now) I think the problem exists far beyond that little world (not that Davis protected the state from the energy crisis and many of those so-called evil energy contracts were signed by Davis' administration).

Davis inherited deregulation. Bill AB 1890 was authored by three Republicans.

Similarly, Bush inherited the failing economy that resulted from the Dot Com Bust.

But a report issued last month by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found that widespread manipulation in the California market contributed to the ridiculously high electric prices. And the companies manipulating the prices were (with RARE exceptions) major supporters of President Bush's campaign.

I'm not a liberal, but let's look at both sides of the issue here, just like bashing the French, it's been positively re rigeur to blame Davis for all of California's ills. Listen to enough Republicans and you'd think he's also responsible for our eathquake problem.

Davis isn't the best Governor we've ever had, and may indeed be one of the worst. But the problems the state is having couldn't possibly be lumped entirely on his shoulders. This recall is a hijacking of Democracy, like Davis or not.

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No sidewindin bushwackin, hornswaglin, cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter!

I'm not an expert on how the state budgetary machine is supposed to work, but if the governor is handed a budget that incoming state revenues cannot support isn't it his responsibility to send it back until he's presented something that state revenues can support?

Isn't that the bottom line? Any airhead should have been able to recognize the problem before it became a $38 billion problem.

Just a quick point of clarification and a pet peeve. Please do not refer to what happened to the California power market as "Deregulation". The CA power market was far from deregulation. <Oversimplification alert!!> On one side of the equation, there were basically no restrictions on how much power could be traded for, but on the other there was still heavy regulation on how much consumers could be charged for the power they used. It was boneheaded for sure, but let's not say that it was deregulation.

As for Davis getting the credit for it. I'm not sure I mind that. He also took credit for the construction of new power plants that had begun before his term in office. He doesn't get to have it both ways.

My favorite move of his was when he overruled the FBI and CIA recommendations and issued a terror alert for California bridges. He was in front of every TV camera he could find warning of a credible threat to major CA bridges, while the CIA, FBI, and Ridge we're like "we never said that, don't know where he's getting his info." (Not that the FBI/CIA... have exactly been on the ball. But that's another off topic thread altogether)

I have to admit a certain kinship with him since we both had the same heart surgery, same surgeon, and even stayed in the same hospital room (at different times, of course), but I support him based on his record. This guy came from Austria with nothing and has been successful in everything he's tried. Entertainment, business, politics - he's excelled at everything. Politically, he's fiscally conservative, but breaks ranks with the republican party by being just to the left of center on social issues. Right where I want my politicians to be. He also has major national level connections on both sides of the aisle which doesn't hurt.

I believe his intentions are good. He really has little to gain, and will likely come away from this a "poorer" man than when he started. Things can't get any worse here - I'm willing to give him a shot.

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

 Should Davis had just said "the hell with it? We're not going to buy any electricity because I don't want to go over budget."?

California was over a barrel (no pun intended). Did he respond well? I don't know. Was it better than having no electricity? Definitely.



According to several non profit watchdog groups including the Public Policy Institute of California, the "oil companies' in Texas charging high prices during a few summer months" cost the state anywhere between $45 and $71 billion.

We're $38 billion in the hole.

And just to prove that this was an intentional ploy by Enron and others, here are links to the "smoking gun" memos.

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/enron_memo2.pdf

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/enron_memo1.pdf

Know what I love about conservatives? It's that they can get so fired up about a blow job and turn a blind eye to greed and corruption on an insidiously grand scale.

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No sidewindin bushwackin, hornswaglin, cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter!

What cuts were made to offset the cost of the electricity?

The contract given to the prison guards union?

The basic fact is the gouging (and you will note I never said that the energy companies didn't gouge) happened on Davis' watch. I am a California native and I do not recall the state being in worse fiscal health. I am a parent of a 5 year old son and I am appalled at the state of our educational system. David is the governor - he takes the heat and he should take the fall. I can guarantee you, if we were doing great - he'd take the credit and use it as justification for re-election.

As for a recall being undemocaratic - it was done by a collection of signatures from the population....also known as a democratic process. Hell, even your own party is jumping into the arena now...even those who swore they'd support Davis till the bitter end - now they want to replace him.

As for ignoring greed while rasing a stink over oral sex....I could care less about the oral sex. that was between Slick Willy and his husband...I mean wife. He lied under oath about it and got caught. By the way....did you come to Coingressman Condit's defense the way you come to Willy's? Afterall, "wasn't it just sex"? Not like greed or something.

As for conservatives being blind to greed....I don't believe in today's political arena greed recognizes party lines.

Alan

I also like the fact that you tie these energy companies to supporters of Bush' election (as if somehow that would help them gouge California)....but fail to mention that Gray Davis' top 5 consultants in dealing with these companies were also investors in and holders of large stock portfolios in these companies. Davis didn't do anything about this until the conservatives you hate brought it to the public eye. Yeah....you are so right, only conservatives are greedy.

OK, I know I'll get slammed for this but here goes. It is absolutely ridiculous for Californians to blame their budget deficit on Davis. It is even more silly to blame oil companies. The citizens have no one to blame but themselves.

Although we are a representative republic rather than a pure democracy, in the long run the people will get what they want. Californians insisted on regulations that made it impractical to produce their own electricity. Californians insisted on spending huge amounts of money for ____________ (fill in the blank with large budget items). Californians want the government to provide more services than they are willing to pay for through taxes. It's really a simple equation and even the Terminator can't do anything about it until attitudes change.

The same logic goes for the historically large deficits faced by my own state and the federal government. Someone famous (deToqueville, maybe?) predicted this when the Consitution was being written and warned that the people would vote themselves into bankruptcy.