Schwarzengger's Water Empire

[Joanne98]

Slashing Salaries, While Pimping for a $9.3 Billion Water Bond
Schwarzengger's Water Empire
By DAN BACHER

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger must live in a parallel universe devoid of logic, rationality, critical thinking and accountability, based on his latest contradictory actions at the State Capitol.

The same Governor who is working relentlessly to pass a budget-busting $9.3 billlion water bond, with absolutely no sense of irony, yesterday issued an executive order slashing the salaries of 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour and immediately laying off 20,000 temporary workers until California passes a budget.

“Today I am exercising my executive authority to avoid a full-blown crisis and keep our state moving forward,” Governor Schwarzenegger said. “This is not an action I take lightly, but we do not have a budget, and as Governor, I have a responsibility to make sure our state has enough money to pay its bills.”

Schwarzenegger, the worst ever Governor for fish and wildlife in California history, is apparently one of the most ruthless in the way he treats the state's workers, including DFG staff. An S.S. officer's son who became a body builder and then a Hollywood "action hero,"

Schwarzenegger apparently wants to run California like a totalitarian state. Agency staff are routinely bullied and those who disagree with his disastrous environmental policies are pressured into resigning.

On Schwarzenegger's watch, Central Valley king salmon have collapsed to the lowest recorded population level, due to the Governor's zeal in increasing water exports to his buddies in corporate agribusiness. The same increase in water exports is also the key factor in the collapse of three pelagic species - the delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass, and threadfin shad - as documented by a team of federal and state scientists.

The same Governor who is slashing state worker salaries last week spoke at a Capitol rally touting the "benefits" of a $9.3 billion "compromise" water bond sponsored by him and Senator Dianne Feinstein. The proposal, opposed by a coalition of fishing groups, Indian Tribes, conservationorganizations and Delta residents, includes two new dams and a peripheral canal. The bond would build the infrastructure to export more even more water out of the Delta, further imperiling collapsing salmon and other fish populations.

I ask Schwarzenegger how he can cut salaries and jobs, due to a budget shortfall of $15.2 billion, while he is campaigning for a proposal that would indebt the state for another $9.3 billion? Is Schwarzenegger out of his mind?

The corporate media, who haven't yet got tired of the novelty of having an "action hero" actor as the Governor, portray Schwarzenegger as the "green governor," since they are deceived by his detestable grandstanding about "global warming" and "ocean protection." Meanwhile, he presides over the destruction of the largest estuary on the West Coast and California and Oregon salmon fisheries.

http://www.counterpunch.org/bacher08022008.html

[tularetom]

1. He has assumed authority he doesn't have

The State Controller (an elected officer) has refused to go along with his pay cutting scheme.

Titzengroper is now less popular than the guy he replaced. I believe he could very easily be recalled and wouldn't be surprised if some state employee groups start a petition.

[eleny]

2. That's good news

I have a friend out there who works for state. Who needs this crap.

[Tikki]

3. I believe that gropenator's stance against off-shore drilling

has little to do with environmental concerns pre se and
more to do with protecting the big, big, big money value of the properties
of his buddies who live large in West Coastal homes with
private beaches and Pacific Ocean views...



Tikki

[Demeter]

4. It's Ronald Reagan Syndrome

Confusing reality with your filmography.

After all, he's typecast as the Terminator...can't do any other role.