The Arnold Schwarzenegger heady Terminator as state reformer-rescuer was a classic case of "California dreamin'" trumping reality.

Shortly after Schwarzenegger announced as the candidate for change, following the myth pattern of Ronald Reagan as citizen politician, the Los Angeles Times referred to a discussion at a California Department of Employment office in Indio, a Southern California dessert town just east of Palm Springs.

A discussion had developed in a line concerning the upcoming recall election involving Governor Gray Davis.  A truck driver chortled that he could hardly wait to see the Terminator as governor "kick ass" the first time the California Legislature gave him trouble.

The subject of great concern at the time to so many citizens, and what drove such high octane rage against Governor Davis, was a car tax for which he was being blamed.  In reality, Davis had not been responsible for the car tax legislation's passage.  

Is this the kind of democracy the U.S.A. wants to export to the Middle East?  After the "shock and awe" Iraq War had toppled Saddam Hussein and his regime, the big business representatives for the U.S.A. descended on Iraq like locusts.  A couple of beheadings and they got the point that the much heralded "welcome mat" prior to the Iraq invasion was Administration propaganda and they fled back to the safety of their corporate sponsors in the U.S.A.

Perhaps they understood for the very first time that Iraqis might have welcomed seeing Saddam ousted from power, but the last thing they wanted for the U.S.A. to linger on and dictate how the Iraqi government should be run.  Rest assured, they recognized the magnetic pull of Iraqi oil.  U.S. oil barons with their staggering current gas prices have shown what a greedy lot they are while profits skyrocket.  The Bush Administration, of course, does nothing about it.  After all, oil companies were fabulous Republican campaign contributors.

Enron's notorious Kenneth Lay still walks around as a free man after all the Enron corruption debacle.  Lay and his Enron cronies nearly bankrupted the "Golden State" with their ruthless rape of California's economy.  Instead of calling Kenneth Lay Inflation Enemy Number 1, Bush socialized with him and enjoyed box seats at baseball games together.  He called him "Kenny Boy" and treated him as a close friend.  

California's catastrophe victims called this tycoon something else.  Friends in high places haven't hurt Kenneth Lay, that's for sure!