Raw Deal

California action figure/bad actor/maker of cinematic crap/self-styled Goobernator Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken his failed effort to reform the world's fifth-largest economy to Applebee's.

Schwarzenegger announced he is endorsing three initiatives that incorporate changes he says are needed to fix problems in education, state pensions and politics. The initiatives are somewhat similar to legislation he first proposed in January that he characterized Tuesday as going nowhere in the Legislature.

"The legislators have not done their job,'' he complained at a morning news conference that preceded a trip to an Applebee's restaurant. "There is no counterproposal. There is no committees [sic]. There is no negotiation. Absolutely nothing.''

He's being too modest. He hasn't bothered to offer these proposals as something to negotiate. Schwarzenegger has taken a tip from the Bush playbook, where three yards and a cloud of dust means telling the Democrats to suck on it.

But this latest little escapade is standard Arnold, who has revolutionized the concept of governance-by-publicity-stunt. Non-Californians may simply not be aware of this, because most of the media (especially in Sacramento) spends more time tea-bagging him than asking him real questions, but Schwarzenegger has not changed one single thing of note in this state. Nothing that he promised would change has changed. Worker's Compensation is still a bloody expensive mess, prohibitive to small businesses. Taxes are the same, gas is still far more expensive than anywhere else in the US. Most of all, Schwarzenegger has sucked up every special-interest dollar available, despite the fact that he got in bitching about Gray Davis' special interests.

You know what Davis' biggest special interest group was? The prison guards' union. The only difference now is that the prison guards are second or third, supplanted by car dealers and corporate interests, who are somewhat more flush with political donor cash than the prison guards.

Another cornerstone of Schwarzenegger's campaign in the recall of Davis was that he was going to be the "Collectinator" (Jesus H. Christ, I am getting sick of this stupid shit), and hit up the federal government for our fair share of our tax largesse. You see, despite the fact that one in evey nine Americans lives here, and despite the fact California is, again, the fifth-largest economy on the planet, we only get about 79¢ out of every tax dollar. We prop up all those useless, unproductive red states, so that they can sit there and bitch and lecture us about how corrupt and decadent we are. (Support yourselves from now on, Mississippi -- or better yet, fucking secede already. This time, we'd be all too happy to let ya'll go. Take Florida and Alabama with you.)

At any rate, Arnold made his heavily publicized trip to DC, donor cup in hand, and was summarily told to pack sand. Another broken promise that he can't blame on Democrat intransigence.

No, what Schwarzenegger has excelled at "collectinating" is political donations, just like his corrupt, inept predecessor. Just to pimp his pet initiatives, Schwarzenegger plans to net $50 million, so he can then call yet another "special election", which, like the recall, will cost Californians another $60 million.

Are we starting to see a pattern here?

Schwarzenegger has also amassed a personal campaign war chest rumored to be over $30 million already. This in a state where he is supposedly wildly popular (though his numbers have dropped 10% in the last several months). One wonders if he might not really be gearing up to contest Dianne Feinstein for her Senate seat next year. Either way, Arnold has been pretty discreet in his fundraising, flying to exotic California locales such as New York, where friend (and NY Jets owner) Robert "Wood" Johnson has held fundraising dinners for him. Power to the people!

Schwarzenegger's fundraising efforts are finally starting to come under a small amount of scrutiny, but again, the media here is in thrall to him for some reason. One would almost think that he had made a decent movie since Total Recall, the way they softball this guy. Just another thing I don't get; perhaps I should watch Access Hollywood more often, and saturate myself in starfucking googly-eyes. Pathetic bastards.

A complaint filed with the state's Fair Political Practices Commission suggests Schwarzenegger is controlling a group called Citizens to Save California, which was formed last month to support changes that Schwarzenegger is expected to push for in a special election later this year. The committee is run by two Schwarzenegger allies, Chamber of Commerce President Allan Zaremberg and Joel Fox, who worked for the governor during the recall campaign.

New political funding rules cap the amount of money that individuals can contribute to a committee if it is controlled by an elected official. Citizens to Save California says it is not controlled by Schwarzenegger.

But the committee is co-hosting gatherings around the state featuring Schwarzenegger, and the group TheRestofUs.org argues that Schwarzenegger is so closely affiliated with Citizens to Save California that it constitutes a candidate-controlled committee.

When he's not picking on teachers, Herr Gröpenführer goes after the nurses, who are apparently the second-biggest threat to the well-being of Gullyvornia.

Arnold Schwarzenegger battled robots from the future, South American terrorists and even Satan in his movies. His nemesis these days is Kelly DiGiacomo.

"I'm a 46-year-old, 5-foot-2-inch nurse," said DiGiacomo, who works at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in suburban Sacramento. "I guess I'm a radical now."

Almost everywhere Schwarzenegger goes these days, angry nurses gather to protest. The California Nurses Association, the state's largest nurses union, has emerged as Schwarzenegger's most visible foil as the governor pushes a business-friendly platform designed in part to reduce the clout of groups he has declared special interests, such as unions.

Because the biggest problem with the American health care system isn't wildly over-priced pharmaceuticals and predatory hospital corporations, it's overpaid union nurses. Yes indeedy, step right up and smell it, folks. That's the smell of industrial-grade bullshit. Better put on the hip waders, because it's about to get a little thicker.

If you recall the HHS fake-news proaganda video releases we discussed recently, then this will be no surprise.

Schwarzenegger's Labor and Workforce Development Agency spent $1,200 creating what they call a video news release, which features a voice-over and interviews with managers of three different businesses praising the governor's proposal. The release was made available to television news stations throughout California and was used by at least three Bay Area stations earlier this month.

Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, characterized the video as propaganda intended to manipulate the media and television viewers.

"We all know Gov. Schwarzenegger is good at making movies,'' said Koretz, who is chairman of the Assembly Labor Committee. "It appears that talent has carried over to government work."

....

Schwarzenegger announced in December a plan to modify rules detailing when and how employers are to provide meal and rest breaks for workers. The rules typically apply in workplaces like restaurants, factories or farm work.

Current rules allow a worker an extra hour of pay if employers don't provide them a 30-minute lunch break after five hours of work. Schwarzenegger officials argue that the current rules are confusing and that their changes would provide employers and employees more flexibility in determining when lunch breaks occur.

Companies including Wal-Mart and Home Depot are currently facing class- action lawsuits that include allegations that they did not provide breaks to workers.

Labor officials argue the proposed rules could allow employers to provide written notice to workers that they are entitled to a lunch break but then never actually provide the break. The proposed rules also would place a tighter cap on the amount of money workers could claim in lawsuits if they are not given breaks.

Yes, Arnold's so concerned about the well-being of the peons, that he made a fake newsreel showing how great it would be if they got cheated out of their lunch breaks. For Pete's sake, does this guy have any conscience? Not all of us can be rent-boys until our bodybuilding careers take off; some of us have to produce things, and a goddamned lunch break is not so much to ask for.

But the real offense with Arnold is what it's been from day one, even during his campaign -- that to him, government is merely an endless series of photo-ops and publicity stunts, that he can browbeat his colleagues with played-out lines from his movies and on-camera temper tantrums and name-calling. It is yet another degradation, in an ongoing process of degradation, of how public servants communicate with citizens. It is shameful and pathetic, and solves nothing -- indeed, Arnold's antics have made an already hostile Democratic Legislature even more so. Arnold is reputed to have management skills, but judging by Planet Hollywood and his current role, his management skills end at his front door. He knows how to hang on to his money, but that's about it. It doesn't even occur to him that sometimes he has to play nice with people he doesn't like, because reforming California is an illusory goal, a means to an end.

Arnold's mission is, and always has been, to get to the top of whatever profession he has chosen. In bodybuilding, it was Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia, and he won both many times over. In acting, he was at least realistic enough to know that he couldn't act, and thus would never win an Oscar. So he set his sights on the action hero's metric for success -- paycheck. And he got to the top of that pile too.

It is clear as to where Schwarzenegger's ultimate political sights are set, and that would be fine, if he knew what he was doing. But he doesn't; he has a cadre of advisors who determine what the money-men want, and filter it to him so that he can lay it out there in his inimitable Gonad-the-Bavarian schtick. This is not governance, folks; this is not the empowerment of the people. This is a goddamned circus.