Ok its funny, but Joi, you invest in California companies and that's basically a political ad that you are running. I sure hope the joke doesn't end up being on you, not to mention all of us that spend time in california...

But yeah this recall is absurd, guess the best way to deal is to laugh ;)

Abe, but I think this really is a joke, not a real ad. "Irreverent Internet Store Cashes In on Candidate’s Cache" from the press release section of the page.

Well its definitely an ad, for a store, but yeah I guess this recall thing has made me a bit cagey. I spend a lot of time in Cali, but I vote in NY, so I'm sort of powerless, and maybe a bit scared... Winner might only need 5 or 10% of the vote, that's got to be the exact opposite of Emergent Democracy.

Abe. Totally agree. Someone I respect greatly told me that this was the worst thing for Democrats to want. It was likely to end up electing some Republican with less than 15% of the vote and it could be worse than Davis. The best thing to do was let Davis finish and run a proper election with a strong Democrat. Some "random" would probably be worse than having Davis.

But again, I'm not a voter, so who am I to talk...

Arnie rules in a totally different way. ;-p

I think you'd have to work pretty hard to find someone worse than Davis. He's an extraordinarily negative campaigner who presided over the state power crisis (and responded by locking in long-term power contracts at peak prices, then trying to get out of them) and then over the worst state budget deficit in US history. How could someone do worse than that?

Moreover, remember the "only Nixon could go to China" rule. The Republicans in the California Assembly have refused to endorse any tax hike, and since they comprise more than one-third of the seats, they can block any budget. Would they be more flexible with a moderate Republican governor? I think it's fairly likely that they would, and that if such a moderate is elected, California would have a new set of moderate tax increases in fairly short order (which, I think, most people see as necessary and with which they're willing to live, at least to get through the current crisis).

Also, imagine Arnie negotiating with Bush for Federal funding for CA - he'd have a lot of media leverage to hold in reserve...

Hey Joi, veering ever so slightly off topic, what's your take on the impact of this recall on emergent democracy/liquid democracy as some have coined it? Of all the recent 'breaks' in representative democracy in the US (Calif propositions against affirmative action, Washing propositions eliminating major sources of government income, etc) they're all taking on a circus-like atmosphere at least in the media.

Joi, There is some interesting information about both the Democratic and Republican Political Parties located at www.codenamegrillfire.com ; it is reading that all Americans should do before they decide who they will vote for in all future elections. Sincerly, Tim