I can understand putting a few Democratic politicians in your campaign to win over Californians, but Democratic ACTORS? Is he trying to win Hollywood or something?

Arnold has this won hands down - I can not believe he got Buffett on his campaign - if ANYONE IN THE WORLD is a financial advisor Buffett is THE man.
I would kill to own ONE SHARE of his company (but Berkshire is at what $72,000 a share??)

I wonder what first drew Rob Lowe to the Kindergarten Cop?

stompin tom

Actually Berkshire holdings A is 75,000 a share...but it was down 300 bucks/share today.

But he has a second stock, Bershire holdings B which is a mere 2,510 a share...

Better to play Powerball for $1.

I can't belive Arnie is polling as high s he is. He dodges policy questions whenever he's asked. The only thing people are basing their (pseudo) vote on is the fact he's famous.

maybe we can get rob lowe sex tape part II

maybe rob lowe is hoping that this little "job" will pay more than his advising to martin sheen...(who occasionally thinks he's the president IRL)....

Didn't Rob Lowe also play the young Number 2 int Austin POwers 2?

thatredheadguy

Yes - he was the young number 2.

Y'know, I think we're on the sixth seal already, not the second.

Anyone keeping score?

business savant doesn't exactly mean he's gonna run the economy well. Look at what Bloomberg has done in New York. Not exactly exemplary.

Rob Lowe got some what he considers to be hot girls to give away flyers and free lolliepops.

Well at least we know who (young) Number 2 works for now. If we can just get Robert Wagner on board as well, then we're all set.

he also played the music exec on wayne's world who keeps getting the finger up his ass at the end....LOL....hmm..considence??

But, I don't know... Arnold looks strong, but I think a governor who's in Porn would be way more fun! We have two candidates who are already!... If they win, California can turn into the Giant Red Light District we all know it can be!

I don't plan to raise kids in California at any rate.

Guilty of statutory rape... adviser to Schwarzenegger... yeah, I trust this guy.

Vote Flynt.

Really, California...how Lowe can you go?

[/requisite]

:: What he doesn't know is that he's being hired for the same thing as what he did on the West Wing...comic relief through zany scenarios.

I heard he was supposed to be the star. But Marty stole the show and Lowe left for that new gig coming to a bland and repetitive prime time slot near you.

Ivan_and_Norma_Sweeney

Guilty of statutory rape... adviser to Schwarzenegger... yeah, I trust this guy.

I don't care about that. He's not a predator. He's someone who got duped. This isn't Michael Jackson where it keeps following him around. It's a one-time thing. And if you're not convinced of that, I hope that you are someday falsely accused of a sex crime where you are guilty until proven innocent, and people treat you like you treat Rob Lowe. He's not a bad guy. Give it up.

Vote Flynt.

You dumbass. Althea Flynt wasn't 18 when they started dating. Flynt is a knowing, wanton paedophile. Rob Lowe is someone who got duped.

You're an idiot. I can't believe you'd post something so uninformed to get shot down like that.

eraser8

I should think that Arnie would listen to Warren Buffet - I can't think of a better person to bring a state/company out of a financial crisis. I think Californians are going to have to realize they will have to pay a price to fix this mess. And really, how much of it is Grey Davis's fault? I read that this is the result of years of mismanagement and that Davis compounded the problem but didn't start it.(Don't know, just asking)

I also think things will have to get worse before they can get better. It almost makes it rough on whomever wins this election...the voters might be impatient and elect someone new in a year (or two) when the gubanatorial elections roll back around again. On the other hand, I respect the poor fool who wants to take on this mess...

i intend to be out of this crazy state before the upcoming hellfire, but for what it's worth, what's wrong with you people (californians)?! the majority of my co-workers admit that they'll vote for arnold, yet they can't even name one single political candidate in the running. congratulations, you get what you deserve.

eraser8 "Warren Buffet noted that property taxes ought to be hiked. What do the other candidates plan to do? Arianna, Cruz, Gary, I'm talking to you."

That's one of the things Huffington is running on. Not "hiking" them so much as closing the loopholes that allow commercial property to pay considerbly less taxes.

ok, what the farks goin on with California? Serious now...what...I mean....is being in movies now a prereq for running?

thats it...everyone grab a shovel and meet me at the California border...we gotta break it off into the ocean before this spreads

Why Chromosome


And really, how much of it is Grey Davis's fault?

All of it. And he lied.

Pete Wilson wasn't great, but the messes he left were not significant. He spearheaded deregulation of electricity, but no one in the legislature voted against it, including Lt. Gov. GrAy Davis.

He should have declared eminent domain over all power transmission in California after the market was gamed. He should have known it would cause economic disaster, which was already underway from the highly irresponsible mid-90's boom. He should have done a lot of things, which were easy, but he spent money like the economy would never end...and any common person knows that with a sharp upward spike comes a sharp downward freefall.

He could have protected a lot of stuff, minimised a lot of loss and improved some things that are still messed up.

He's done nothing but spend, and Californians still have nothing to show for it but incompleted roads, seniors on a fixed income with a $300 a month energy bill, and masses of debt that will take a decade of suffering to repay.

peter_hook

Thanks for the insight...

Tee Hee... You 'mericans and your little "democracy". Always good for a laugh.

Shadow Fairy:

It's a republic, not a democracy! Get it right! We're not in Canada.

/flame on

Actually California is more of a circus. Ahhnold can't win with 135 people running. Too many asshats who would fark with the e(r)ection process for the fun of it. I should do that . . .

Err I meant canadia. Sorry I can't sp33l 2nite.

looks like a test to see if california voters are smart enough to choose experience over name recognition....


i get the feeling we're gonna fail this test

Hopefuly they're smart enough not to vote for experience either. Politicians got California into the mess it's in. The last thing you need is another politician in office.

Awesome headline.

I'd just like to state for the record that Arnold is most certainly farking NOT a "republican" nor a "conservative." He's only running as a republican because he knows he'll get the "Tired of democrats, but too farking stupid to vote for a real candidate" votes.

And because of that, he'll win.

He won't be worse than Davis, but I won't pretend for a second that I'm eager to get him into office. Just another liberal wearing a (R) badge.

Cliche, but true.. California voters are going to end up getting what they deserve. Voting in this country is just depressing.

Why Chromosome

Thanks for the insight...

Good pic.

Hey, I went a GIS'ing after post. This is a good article:

http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/publications/digest/013/wilson.html

It's Pete Wilson, who is also sort of a moron. He totally mismanaged the Native gaming issue, his ideas on compacts were retarded, and he ended up allowing the Natives to pass a proposition that nullifies them of all social responsibility: Casino workers are not under OSHA, they can't organise, the casinos don't pay taxes, they create extra infrastucture (fire, roads, water, police) around cities, and the locals property taxes go up to fund what their bad neighbours don't take care of. Completely asinine stuff.

Anyway, as you read this article, keep in mind that Pete's a conservative, and what he suggested Gray do was useless. I'm a libertarian, and even *I* know that you needed to do ULTRA LIBERAL things like make the utility public, not private, and declare eminent domain on it.

LA has public electricity. It works. It's not the end of the world. As someone who grew up in California, I have to make you understand that power generation has always been problematic/corrupt. PG&E, SoCal Edison and SDG&E are all insane. They've been fuct for as long as I can remember.

Obviously, if you give them an inch, they take a mile. Learn the lesson: you can't deal with them. Besides, it's not like you can choose who gives you your power. There's one line.

Anywho, someone needed to stand up to them. The long and short of it is that the utilities blackmail the state with "we won't generate power here if you don't capitulate" and "if you mess with us, we'll repair all of the generators at the same time" which was why there was a problem to begin with. The generators were fine. All of the new owners decided to "fix" the plants, taking them offline, making Cali deficient in production compared to consumption...and just in time for summer.

See, if he declared eminent domain, he could have made all power generation state property. The caveat is that it has to be public for NAFTA...it has to be sold at a real market price, not one that's subsidised by the gov't. But it doesn't work.

Before the energy crisis, my parents paid $100 a month. During the height of it, it was $500+ a month. Now they're down to *ONLY* $350 a month. Davis still hasn't fixed it. Everyone has this problem.

California has all of these different fuels...let me add that refining uses a lot of electricity, which does add to the cost of fuel, but to meet federally mandated EPA standards, each region of the state has to have "specially formulated fuel" to keep emissions down. Never mind how much pollution comes from Mexico, ruining San Diego and So. Orange County's pollution index (LA ruins No. Orange's)...gas is outrageous. You can't use gas from Las Vegas in San Diego, and you can't use gas intended for Yuma in San Francisco.

Gray needed to try to force the Fed's hand on a "state of emergency"...which really isn't, but is an "economic emergency" and have gotten the EPA to give California a 2 year exemption on gasoline pollution. They could have standardised, which would have brought costs in line since all of the state would have the same gas, and it would cheap and mass-produced. The other thing is that they could have gotten that goddamned MTBE out of the gas, which KILLS the enviroment/drinking water. They use it to keep pollution low, but it's far worse. Trees and the ocean can eat CO2. MTBE...bad.

No one even talks about this stuff...except me I guess. But these could have been done. California needed decisive action, and he hasn't even CONSIDERED these problems. He's "riding the wave", and that's about it.

Enough said

Hey, peter_hook:

Grow a sense of humor. Or does your peter hook too far to the right to do that? Jeez.

I admit I think CA could do better that to be governed by a bunch of actors with her?

(in Arnold voice)

"I thought I hired Sam Seaborn."

holy hell!
Look how long his tie is in that picture!! Who does costumes for this shiat. That's it, Arnold is sunk!

I'm so embarrassed to be a yank. We really are the laughing stock of the world.

There are severe budget problems in almost every state, according to this chart

Texas and New York's budgtet problems are nearly as bad as California's

Estimated State Budget Deficits for FY 2004
Deficit as Percent of State Budget

Looks like them thar Mississippi folks can count money far better'n most of y'all. Who'd a thunk them rednecks coulda pulled that off?

peter_hook

What exactly do you mean about Rob Lowe being "duped"? I didn't know a thing about this (before today, irrelevant) issue until just now.