Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(September 2003)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
The California recall debacle.
 For
starters the word "recall" in my opinion is
a complete misnomer when applied to the proposed dismissal
of an elected official and is a word used completely out
of context which only the American public would identify
with when describing the removal from office of the offending
official. For instance, in this particular case they use
the word as being applicable to the proposed ouster of
the elected Governor of California Mr. Gray Davis. The
word "recall" as I know it is normally applied
in the context of a person who has been terminated, laid
off, (made redundant), resigned, retired, who receives
a "re-call" notification requesting him/her
to rejoin the company.
Mr. Gray Davis was elected for a four year term as Governor
of California and in this capacity is charged with making
decisions which include amongst many other things the
maintaining of a budget for the State of California.
Not being privy to decisions made by the Governor I am
not in a position to be critical without knowing the full
picture.
An item on the current agenda is that California is currently
in debt to the tune of $38B dollars, (give or take a few
billion), and this huge anomaly is being laid on the doorstep
of the Governor and he is being charged with incompetence
in the financial dealings of the State Assembly over which
he presides over.
Of course when decisions are made which affect the welfare
of the people of California in a detrimental way someone
has to answer for that incompetence, real or imagined,
and who better than the Governor’s Office to be
taken to task, hence the recall.
 One
item that seriously affected the shortfall in revenues
and the accrual of an enormous burden of debt was the1996
legislation that freed the energy industry from State
supervision. This disastrous mistake was the product of
Pete Wilson the then Governor, (and State Senator Steve
Peace), and was approved by a unanimous vote in both houses
of the State legislature.
A situation arose whereby the California State Electrical
Companies, under the de-regulation of the electric utility
companies, decided to sell off their profitable generating
capability to companies outside the State, (so say to
generate competition between competing electricity providers
which would be good for the general public by lowering
the cost of electricity), the external generating companies
proceeded to do the exact reverse and held the public
to ransom by forcing huge increases in the price of providing
electricity.
Please note that Governor Gray Davis had no part in the
initial legislation to free the energy industry from State
supervision.
Two years later when Gray Davis became the Governor
of California he had the opportunity of saving California
consumers $28B by supporting an initiative to block the
transfer of deregulation costs from the utility companies
to the taxpayers. The utility companies apparently launched
and financed a successful $40M campaign to defeat the
initiative.
In the year 2000 Enron and other companies who backed
the deregulation were accused of manipulating the supply
of electricity to California by using generating plant
outages, (rolling blackouts), to boost wholesale prices.
Governor Davis could have stepped in and stopped the gouging
of the California consumers by seizing control of the
power generating plants but that would have offended the
big money interest, so he capitulated and signed long
term contracts for the supply of electrical power at ridiculously
inflated prices. Pacific Gas and Electric, (PG&E),
and Southern California Edison, (SCE), who were verging
upon bankruptcy, pleaded with Governor Davis to increase
residential utility rates in order to bail them out of
their financial difficulties. In face of a public outcry
the State lawmakers refused to pass the Edison bailout,
but the Public Utilities Commission, (PUC), agreed to
force ratepayers to pay off Edison’s debts, a ruling
that the US Court of Appeals concluded violated the Constitution
and State laws.
Governor Davis could have redeemed himself at that time
by instructing his appointees on the PUC to reverse the
multi-billion bail out of Southern California Edison and
PG & E, and also demand the repeal of the deregulation
of the power companies. This would have reduced the monthly
utility price burden on the California consumers considerably.
The lack of action by Governor Davis, (based upon the
charge of incompetent, negligent and possible corrupt
handling of the California Energy situation), has been
given as a principle reason for the recall process.
 Now
I’ve explained the background history, lets get
to the real story.
The recall petition brought forward an unprecedented,
group of the weirdest bunch of contenders for the position
of a replacement for Governor Davis, that even California
with all its idiosyncrasies was considered to have outdone
itself in this circus of Hollywood type nonsensical theatrics.
All it takes to get on the ballot for the 7th of October
2003 recall re-election, and apply for the position of
Governor of California, is for an applicant to come up
with a $3,500 fee and 60 signatures. Around 250 applications
were received, of which only 135 were considered valid.
The applicants include, a film star, a porn star, the
publisher of Hustler magazine, a TV political commentator,
a politician, a former baseball commissioner, and another
125 or so, publicity seeking individuals with little or
no previous political or governing experience  wishing
to get their fifteen minutes in the spotlight. The leading
contenders, to name as few as possible under the circumstances,
for the job of Governor of California, (should the recall
be passed), appear to be the current Lt-Governor Cruz
M. Bustamante, Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and maybe
a long shot dark horse Mr. Peter V. Ueberroth, former
commissioner of Major League Baseball, (who made such
a success of the competent management of the 1984 Olympic
Games held in Los Angeles), who may come up to challenge
the leaders in the final furlong.
Mr. Schwarzenegger’s apparent popularity stems
from his action films and not from his political astuteness,
although it appears that he may have has progressed under
the tuition of his wife, TV journalist Maria Shriver,
(a niece of President Kennedy), whom he married in 1986.
He describes himself as a fiscal conservative with moderate
views on social issues.
When questioned about his position on off-shore oil drilling,
smog, immigration, the States electricity problems, and
the current fiscal crisis, he was somewhat vague and couldn’t
come up with any feasible answers as to how he would attempt
to correct them. He was reported to have said that he
would have to conduct an audit in order to decide which
programs would have to be cut to get the budget back on
track but was unable to name any such programs.
When asked for specifics, which I assume referred to Dollar
figures, he said, "The public doesn’t care
about figures". If that is so why is everyone up
in arms about a $38B deficit figure, surely this recall
was all about figures especially financial ones. The actor
/govenertorial candidate has surrounded himself with 23
people claiming to be financial advisors, (The California
Advisory Council), of which 16 out of the 23 are Republicans.
The two co-chairmen of the panel are,  Administrations
Secretary of State, (under the Reagan Presidency), George
P. Schultz and the legendary investor Warren Buffet who
founded and manages the very pricey Hathaway Berkshire
funds. By the way if you cared to invest in his premium
fund it would cost you around $76,200 per share. Yes,
you got it right, $76,200 per share. Wonder what ulterior
motives Mr. Buffet has in mind in hitching his wagon to
the Schwarzenegger run for Governor of California? Surely
he can’t have aspirations of becoming a future President
of the United States.
By the way the estimated cost of the October re-call
election is anywhere between $30M and $60M depends upon
who is doing the accounting. Enough is enough - if it
was not so ridiculous, this situation could qualify for
an episode in a fictitious sit-com, which could be named,
"Your Government in action" or some such other
absurd title. This is too much even for the California
laid back tinsel town life style to handle with any degree
of decorum. Statistics show that 44 million Americans
are classified as illiterate. I sincerely hope that Californians
will show by their action at the polls in October that
they don’t fall into this category and come up with
a sensible answer to this bizarre situation.
Comment: Apparently Governor Gray Davis is being re-called
due to being rightly or wrongly accused of fiscal irresponsibility
in his handling of the California State budget, (amongst
other things), and California is in the red to the tune
of $38B, give or take a few billion, After careful consideration
I would suggest that the California recall debacle will
end in a Status Quo situation, with either a "No"
vote on the recall which will retain Gray Davis as Governor,
or in the case of a "Yes" vote on the recall
the current Lt-Governor Cruz M. Bustamante will receive
enough votes to promote him to Governor.
Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger will fall by the wayside.
In the interests of sanity - mine - I will cover all my
bets on this one.
In retrospect, if it’s a case of an incompetent
official involved in making decisions, which have escalated
America’s debt, I would suggest that we look no
further than our current President, George W. Bush, the
White House and the Congress. This year alone we have
seen the National Budget deficit exceed $ 400Billion,
and the forecast for next year, (2004), is that the deficit
will probably exceed $480B. The deficit for the next decade
is predicted to be in excess of $1.4Trillion. Now there’s
some "figures" that should worry the people
of this nation. Perhaps we the people should consider
placing President George W. Bush on the recall list.
Please note: When President Clinton finished his term
as President of the United States we had a budget surplus.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these newsletters. Please send all correspondence to
bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
|
