Posted 11:09 AM by Floyd

My therapist has recommended that I post articles unrelated to the Oakland A's. In that spirit:

Arnold Schwarzenegger is governor of California. (No link; if you can't find this news online, you're hopeless and need to buy a Web Browsing for Dummies book). I will link to the Secretary of State's official results. "Do recall" beat "don't recall" 55-45. Schwarzenegger received 48.4% of the vote, compared to 32% for Bustamante, 13.3% for McClintock, and 2.8% for commie Camejo.

Proposition 54 set out to ban collection of racial statistics by state government, with exceptions made for health providers and police. The race lobby knows no shame save that of losing power; the anti-Prop 54 crowd blatantly lied in claiming that health care would be adversely affected. Prop 54 lost 64-36.

I am not overjoyed at seeing Schwarzenegger take power, because it appears that power is all that interests him. The modern cult of celebrity is disgusting, and it was on full display during the campaign as Schwarzenegger was mobbed by thousands of people who wanted only to bask in the glow of his famous presence. (The only thing more pathetic than these people are the libertarians who mouth nonsense like "Schwartzenegger is socially liberal and fiscally conservative." Said libertarians are happy when politicians pander, not to them, but to voters who have something in common with them.)

But the recall was a good thing. Specifically, because it rid the state of the vile pay-to-play Governor Davis. Generally, pour encourager les autres (as Voltaire said approvingly when an admiral was hanged for cowardice.) Here's Mickey Kaus on the subject:

Does the punishment of a humiliating recall fit Davis' crimes? Maybe not. But the issue isn't fairness to Davis. It's the future of the state. If the voters brutally and unfairly punish a state-of-the-art pol who overspends in boom times and puts off tough decisions until after he's reelected, that doesn't seem to me a terrible precedent to set. It seems a useful precedent.