Musings from Kansas

Kansas City, here I come!,
originally uploaded by quepol.

i.e. it's good to be a californian!

actually, i'm in kansas city, missouri; but i'm here with my kansas-based company and a heck of a lot of kansans, so i don't feel like the title is too misleading. plus, kansas has gone and gotten itself in the news again. they actually had the gall to rewrite the definition of "science" so that it�s not explicitly limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena. i repeat, the school board redefined science. and they didn't even have the decency to include other alternatives... have you been touched by His noodly appendage?

meanwhile, back in the land of fruits and nuts^*, californians dealt a swift blow to the governator. in what may be a bellwhether moment for the nation, my blue state soundly defeated arnold's efforts to reshape state government (putting quite a damper on his hopes of a 2nd term). and while it was the closest margin of the evening, voters also rejected the republicans attempt to drag right-wingers to the polls -- a.k.a. Prop 73, an initiative that would have required parents to be notified when minors seek abortions.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the action-movie hero turned governor of California, faced humiliation and an uncertain political future yesterday after a special election he called against most voters' wishes saw the defeat of every ballot initiative he had endorsed.
...
The governor's agenda was straight out of the Republican Party handbook - a big mistake, according to critics from both major parties, because it demolished his claims to be the "people's governor", viscerally opposed to partisan politics.

California delivers a slap in the face to Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Independent (UK)

And by far my favorite headline:   Arnold Terminates Himself - Washington Post

Why did Schwarzenegger think he could prevail with a warmed-over version [of grover norquist's 1998 anti-tax, anti-union prop 226] seven years later? Particularly since California is just about the only state in which union density has actually increased over the past half-decade?

The answer is: the special election. By calling yet another election in election-weary California, Schwarzenegger was counting on engendering so much voter revulsion at the election itself that only a relative handful of disproportionately Republican voters would actually go to the polls.

between this and the right-wing bating with prop 73, that's two strikes against arnold in one fell swoop. the governator seems destined to follow in gray davis's footsteps instead of nixon or the gipper.

"Newsome for Governor"???   anyone?... bueller?

* my father's term of endearment for the "California Republic"