Six years ago, when this newspaper warned you of the disasters of electing this president and his Neocon cronies most of you listened, and resoundingly defeated him–but only in California. When he was “selected� to rule by the conservative Supreme Court, after the debacle of the corrupt Florida elections, many of you wondered, “just how bad can it be?� Well after one and a half terms of the most scandalous presidency in American history, the creation of an additional $3 trillion debt and the impending doom of the War in Iraq, the vast majority of Americans (and even some evangelical Christians) are now asking, “how much worse can it get�?

Discontent with the Republican party leadership is high on the minds of voters in what the media calls “battleground states� such as Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio and Missouri, where conservative morals have been shocked by the sexual emails of Representative Mark Foley and the indictment of Ohio Congressman Ney have scandalized this midterm season. California is treated like a bystander.

It appears that what the Democrats feared to do as the minority opposition party, the Republicans are now doing to themselves––collapsing their coalition. Drunk with power––those who are now being investigated seclude themselves from the media in alcohol recovery programs. (Does anyone remember Betty Ford?) What is odd about all this is that this is the party that is so big on “taking personal responsibility� and its church is filled to the rafters with politicians using excuses when they get caught. Can you imagine what George’s big excuse will be?

Because of all these scandals AND the overwhelming decline of support for Bush and his War of Errors, Governor Schwarzenegger, in his bid to run for reelection, is standing as far away as possible from the splatter of conservative bug-guts on the wind shield of state politics heading up Highway 101. For the most part, this posing seems to be working as he cozies up to environmentalists one day and black churches on another–– both traditional bastions of Democratic voters.

Here’s the rub, even before the Schwarz was elected in the dubious recall of Gray Davis, California was the target for the Neocon takeover. The plan for energy deregulation which brought us the chaos of the 2001 electric crisis and the state budget implosion––all wrongly laid at the feet of Davis––needs to now be viewed through the lens of the federal indictments of Kenny “boy� Lay and his pal Jeffrey Skilling. This was all part of the global economic plan of Bush and company that is now playing itself out in Iraq and Afghanistan––world domination of energy markets and production. Of course Lay took the easy way out and is now being judged by God, but I doubt he had any remorse for the harm he caused.

This brings us to the discussion of Prop. 87– the Tax on California oil producers and alternative energy production. Here we witness a battle, which is symbolic of the politics at-large. With the oil conglomerates spending some $350 million of their windfall profits to scare the hell out of us as they are lowering prices at the pump before election day–– better fill up now if they loose! On the other side of this key issue is the team of President Clinton and his old sidekick Al “global warming� Gore––for all intents and purposes, this is the rematch of the 2000 election in which Gore didn’t go to the mat to defend his plurality. It is the contest between Big Oil maintaining its control as it has in the past and as Bill Clinton puts it “claiming the future.� It perhaps would be better put, saving us from the future!

It is not only imperative for Californian’s to claim this future, we must also recognize those who we can trust to bring us a future. Prop. 87 is the key issue from which the rest of this election falls with Prop. 89 public financing of elections, close behind it––both must be passed. Schwarzenegger must not be trusted with this future either. Yes, I know Angelides doesn’t look like much compared to Conan the Barbarian, but at least he is consistent, loyal and trustworthy–all the things conservatives claim to be. Arnold is not, as his real politics are about his survival not ours. Does anyone remember the last time we elected a phony B movie actor to a second term as governor? Thank Ronald Regan for all those crazy homeless people we have on skid row and the decline of our California college system.

John Garamendi, the Insurance commissioner running for Lt. Governor and Debra Bowen who is running for Secretary of State are both proven servants of the public trust. They are absolutely necessary to reclaiming the future of this state and guaranteeing that our very elections themselves are safe from software hacking and Diebold voting machines.

What must be understood by voters is that California is the Battle Ground State for stopping the Neocon agenda, even as friendly and smiling as Schwarzenegger appears on TV, it is his silent agenda of vetoing our container fee bill to lower pollution in the Los Angeles harbor region and to build infrastructure that reveals his true loyalties to the California Chamber of Commerce, the oil companies and the Pacific Maritime Association among others. If for no other reason than this, the Schwarz should be terminated and sent back to Hollywood where his mercurial nature can reconstruct as a more benign annoyance of being a fictional character not a real life governor!