...is the country's best governor. Granted he has the advantage of being the governor of California, which is not your normal state, but time and time again he has come through.

"Breaking with the Legislature and his own Republican Party, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday endorsed a ballot proposal to dump political party primaries..." [full link]. You can imagine the amount of pressure on him by both parties, and yet he stayed strong.

Just last month, he signed over 2 dozen pro-environment bills into law, many that weren't so easy to sign because of the powerful interests that supported them. Before these bills were signed, there was some skepticism that he was about to show his true colors and they wouldn't be so green (because he seemed to be getting a lot more input from industry than environmentalists) - but signed, they were. These environmental measures will allow drivers of hybrids getting at least 45 miles per gallon to go solo in highway carpool lanes, require that all cars built since 1976 get emissions checks from now on, establish the Sierra Nevada Conservancy to protect the mountain range, create a cabinet-level Ocean Protection Council, prohibit dumping of so-called "gray water" from sinks and showers by cruise ships, limit bottom trawling along the coast, raise money to replace old buses with cleaner ones, allow regional air districts to raise vehicle registration fees to fight diesel soot, etc.

A few months ago, you may remember that he signed the "Million Solar Homes Initiative", which will require 50% of all new homes in the state to be equipped with solar panels by 2013.

You may also remember that, a few months ago, he initially was looking to cut costs for his budget and ended up cutting funding for animal shelters. After the public outroar, he immediately said it was a mistake and fixed that.

He has also signed a landmark bill to ban foie gras in the state, which is one of the most disgusting practices there is (the practice involves force-feeding ducks or geese enourmous amounts of food, by shoving pipes down their throats and forcing the food into them, until their liver becomes diseased and swells to about 10x its regular size).

And that, my friends, is why I pronounce Schwarzenegger to be the best governor in the country. A politician that actually listens to the people, imagine that.

Well I have to say I'm impressed

I'm sure Maria doesn't put out unless the "Terminator" does as he is told. pfffffttt.

DO NOT READ THIS!!!

I wonder if anyone knows that only 4 cars out of which 3 are hybrids,(according to http://www.fueleconomy.gov ) actually have gas mileage which is higher than 45 miles per gallon. And 1 of these cars, the Toyota Prius is already sold out for 2005.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/FEG2005_GasolineVehicles.pdf

Honda Insight
Toyota Prius
Volkswagon Beetle (some types of the Beetle but isn't a hybrid)
Civic Hybrid

Looks like the solo lane will be looking for drivers.

"I PROMISE TO MAKE MODEST IMPROVEMENTS SO THAT
MY LOYALITY TO THE PEOPLE WILL NOT BE CHALLENGED!"

*LOYALTY

they all make fun of him but yep. arnold proved himself !

now all who make fun of jesse ventura, just wait and see...

JESSE VENTURA FOR PRESIDENT 2008 !!

yeah, i know. I hate it when I fuck up a perfectly good joke.

While I think the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger is the most absurd thing to ever happen in American politics, I actually think President Jesse Ventura would be a great thing, and, though I'd prefer a Green, I wouldn't mind voting for him for President over Kerry or Bush or some other a$$hole.

Ventura called his old friend Arnie "a sell out to the status quo" and a tool of the Republican Party. Read all about it:

http://www.smc.edu/budgetcrisis/10_2003 ... s_but.html

yeah, well, as much as they try to hide it and even make it their gimmick - they are all corrupt in some way or another.. ventura is just trying to claim "im less a politician than arnold is", well whatever.. it's just a gimmick to get people to like him and vote for him, you know. too bad he bad mouthed another 'outsider', he could try this the other way around and use his success to prove his own

I posted something about Schwarzie being the best governor in the country on the last incarnation of this board. It was largely ignored. Probably because a conservative moderate endorsing a conservative moderate is like Scott posting another goddamn chicken-torture thread. But whatev. I totally agree.

However... You realize we didn't have primaries up until the 17th amendment was ratified, so it's not really a new idea. Why you'd want to dump the primaries all depends... anyway, he's not "dumping" the primaries. Prop 62 makes the primaries open. You can have closed primaries, open-closed primaries, and open primaries. All it amounts to is an influx in participation by party affiliates, which, IMO is great; an open primary is very important in a democracy. However, Schwarzennagemdfhdsfajh is doing it because statistically, Republicans do better in open primaries. California is a huge chunk of the electorate. Don't think for a second Jeb's staff wasn't praying for this, because if it works out, in 2008 a Republican will take California in the presidential election.

Now, as far as the environment is concerned, everyone knew Arnold was going to be the Republican Environmentalist. Jeb Bush and Arnold Schwarzennaeger have done more for their states' environments than any other state executive in history. Yet the party they affiliate themselves is run into the ground because of leniancy to corporate polluters. Where the democrats fail in monopolizing the environment's protection, they subsidize public opinion by punishing companies.

What bothers me, Scott, is that 80% of your post concerns the environment and animals. This is the litmus test for a great leader? Or is it your personal qualifications of a good man? It reads as though you're producing a manifesto of things you might find votable; I wonder, then, if Arnold ran for president one day with a strong, very strong foreign policy initiative, like preemption or proliferation, but maintained his environmental stances, would you vote for him?

That one caught my eye, I'll have to read up on that.

Heh.. it must've been during my RM break, I never saw it. I definitely would've posted.



The article states very clearly that Republicans were against this measure too, so I don't know what to say. Could you explain this? The article says, "In endorsing the measure, Schwarzenegger lined up against the state Republican and Democratic parties, which are seeking to defeat it."



Heh.. no, it's definitely not the whole litmus test but the environment is certainly the most important issue to me. I also read up a lot on environmental/animal rights issues so that's pretty much the extent to which i know his policy. And his name keeps coming up again and again with respect to these areas.

I was actually hoping that people would disagree with me and post reasons (outside of these areas) that he's not a good governor I find it very rare that Republicans are good on these issues, so I try to give those that are their due respect.

From what I've read, there are 75,000 vehicles in California that qualify for the lane. And who knows how many more people will give hybrids more thought. Toyota has also doubled their capacity to make Pruis' this year, maybe this will cause them to increase capacity even more.

Don't get me wrong, I think this is a great idea. BUT as of 2003 there are 35.5 million people in California. If 1/2 of the people have a car, that would be 17.8 million cars. But only 75,000 vehicles will be added to the HOV lane which equals approx. only 0.42% of the total number of vehicles in Cali. Personally, I don't think its much of an incentive. Its a start.

A better incentive to purchase a hybrid vehicle would be to add a tax credit when purchasing a hybrid vehicle. This might be more of a realistic solution to adding more hybrid vehicles to the road especially because of the higher price of hybrids.

The Toyota Prius gets better gas mileage in the city than highway, so maybe it would be more beneficial for the Prius to be in traffic than in the HOV lane.

According to both the Honda and Toyota site for their hybrid cars, there are federal tax deductions available.

When I was shopping for a vehicle earlier this year I thought I read somewhere the federal tax credit phased out at the end of June 2004. But I guess it was extended.

Consumers purchasing a new Honda Insight, Honda Civic Hybrid, or Toyota Prius by the end of 2005 are eligible for a "Clean-Fuel" vehicle tax deduction of up to $2,000. Ford believes its new Escape Hybrid will also be eligible under these guidelines. The incentive will be reduced to $500 in 2006. Vehicles purchased after 2006 will not be eligible for a deduction under current legislation.

Note: The clean-fuel vehicle tax deduction was originally scheduled to phase out starting in 2004. Vehicles bought in 2004 were eligible for a maxiumum deduction of $1,500, and those bought in 2005 were eligible for a $1,000 deduction. However, the "Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004" has extended the $2,000 deduction through 2005.


http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/tax_hybrid.shtml