It’s incredible what a useless governor Arnie has been. Here was a guy from way outside the political establishment who had the chance to really change politics in California, so what has he done?

1. He ran non-stop adverts all through the recall campaign saying that he would cut the state deficit by having a "full audit" (or in Arnie-speak "Foorl Ordit".  He then increased the deficit by canceling the $4bn increase to the car tax, and when, surprise, surprise, the Foorl Ordit didn’t miraculously find $15bn of waste to get rid of he simply borrowed the money by changing the law and issuing bonds.  Some budget hawk, eh.
2. He ran as an outsider and used at least some of his own money in the campaign. But after  he won he paid his own account back from new political contributions — those are called bribes in less polite society — which came from not "special interests" like the ones from whom that Grey Davis guy used to get his cash from.  Oh no — Arnie’s money came from "powerful interests".  And who might they be?  Well apart from the Spanos real estate family that owns most of central California, it also includes a lot of money from big pharma after Arnie vetoed a bill trying to legalize Canadian imports into California.  No pay-off there
3. And while we’re on the pay-off theme, several of us felt that the most despicable part of the Gray Davis regime was its ownership by the appalling prison guards union.  This is a state where a prison guard earns way, way more than a teacher, and where the CCOA (California Correctional Officers Association) in vehement on insisting that instead of spending money on education now instead of prisons later, we spend on prisons now and prisons later.  So a funny thing happens just before the Nov 2004 election. Arnie takes the prison guards cash, just like Davis did, and then comes out against the modest reform of the worst injustices of the 3-Strikes measure, turning it from a moderate winner to a very close loser — and costing the taxpayer a boatload more in the future.
4. And to confirm his total moral bankruptcy, instead of standing as a decent Republican alternative to the clowns running the nation in DC, he decides to emulate them. While the Bush Administration has been putting out fake news stories and become a laughing stock along the way, now Arnie has decided to copy it.  What does this mean? Yes, you and I the taxpayer are paying for fake news propaganda to oppose the nurse staffing law which was passed with a fair measure of popular support, and was recently reaffirmed by a state judge.  And of course some dumb TV stations have been running the stories, which look like real news (in as much as "real news" is ever seen on local TV station news — I suspect the people who watch that stuff get the "news" they deserve.

There’s more fun stuff from www.Arnoldwatch.org including a fun video of protesters getting thrown out of an Arnie fundraiser.