The Governator

For the first time in California, and only the second time in the history of the United States, a state governor has been recalled. Gray Davis will be removed from office and will be replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Democrats who supported Davis have tried to paint this recall as a power grab by the Republicans. They claimed that Republicans were exploiting a loophole to undo the will of the people when the elected Davis for his second term. The problem with that is that there is no loophole. The process whereby the governor is recalled is spelled out very clearly and that process was followed correctly. If that's a loophole, it sure is a whopping big one.

There are some very important numbers to go with this. These are from this page on MSNBC, the numbers may change as the night goes on. Individual candidate percentages weren't given so I calculated them based on total reported votes.

• On the question of whether or not to recall Davis, 56% voted yes.


• On who should replace him, 47% voted for Arnold, 29% for Bustamante, and 12% for McClintock.


• This means that 59% voted for the top two Republican candidates.


• A turnout of 60% appears likely. This is a large percentage when talking about elections.

If the vote on whether to recall Davis was reversed, I believe the Democrats would be using words like "landslide" and "mandate from the people" to describe the victory. Similarly so if the recall had passed but Bustamante were elected to replace Davis. They would be right. So will Republicans be if they use the same words.

Do I think that Arnold will make a good governor? I think he'll be no worse than Davis, and probably better. He is actually fairly far to the left for a Republican. This may have been part of why he won so convincingly, he appealed to a broad base, both for his name recognition and for his political views.

In my opinion, the big winner was the Republican party as a whole. The most important number, to me, is the third one in my list. A full 59% of voters voted for the top two Republican candidates. Although only one of them can win, it shows that a convincing majority of voters did not want another Democrat in office. It's huge when you consider that this is in California.

It is also a convincing message that this isn't a right-wing power grab, or a loophole, but the will of the people.

Now and then

Read this: Listen to them now and see what they said then. The quotes on that page came from this page: Weapons of Mass Destruction. I linked to the first page so that people could read the comments, both supportive and not, that others have left.

I note this one in particular:

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members ... It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002

Note the *specific* reference to al Qaeda.

Since it's related to this, I would also like to take this opportunity to refer to a previous post of mine in my LiveJournal in which I linked to a summation of what the administration knew, what it alleged, and what it has found out since. An anonymous commenter left a comment and I responded to it. Since the commenter was anonymous, my response was not sent to him or her in email (unless LiveJournal has a way of doing that). So, in case he or she, or anyone else, missed my response, here it is with the original comment:

Commenter:

No links to Iraq or Saddam Hussein and Sept 11

"No, we’ve had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th," Bush said.

A recent poll indicated that nearly 70 percent of Americans believed Saddam probably was involved. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday, "I’ve not seen any indication that would lead me to believe that I could say that."

Bush said there was no attempt by the administration to try to confuse people about any link between Saddam and Sept. 11.

My response:

Nowhere in that article does it say that Hussein was involved with the September 11 attacks. All it says is that there was a relationship between Hussein and al Qaeda. The only time September 11 is mentioned is in the following:

No fewer than five high-ranking Czech officials have publicly confirmed that Mohammed Atta, the lead September 11 hijacker, met with Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim al-Ani, an Iraqi intelligence officer working at the Iraqi embassy, in Prague five months before the hijacking. Media leaks here and in the Czech Republic have called into question whether Atta was in Prague on the key dates--between April 4 and April 11, 2001. And several high-ranking administration officials are "agnostic" as to whether the meeting took place. Still, the public position of the Czech government to this day is that it did.

That assertion should be seen in the context of Atta's curious stop-off in Prague the previous spring, as he traveled to the United States. Atta flew to Prague from Germany on May 30, 2000, but did not have a valid visa and was denied entry. He returned to Germany, obtained the proper paperwork, and took a bus back to Prague. One day later, he left for the United States.

Despite the Czech government's confirmation of the Atta-al Ani meeting, the Bush administration dropped it as evidence of an al Qaeda-Iraq connection in September 2002. Far from hyping this episode, administration officials refrained from citing it as the debate over the Iraq war heated up in Congress, in the country, and at the U.N.

Just because Hussein wasn't involved in the planning and execution of the September 11 attacks doesn't mean he didn't have contact with and supported al Qaeda. I can be friends with someone, even give them money, and have nothing to do with most of the actions they undertake.

Over there

Front Line Voices has officially launched. It is a website, basically a blog, that will feature letters from those serving in Iraq and other places overseas. From their introduction page:

There is no editing or commentary by those who run this site, and we will print any letter or story submitted by a legitimate source who has served overseas. Our only goal is to offer you the opportunity to read these stories and to find out what the reality is.

I highly recommend you check it out.

Power

Bill Whittle's latest essay, Power, has been posted. A couple of choice paragraphs:

History is crystal clear on one point, and that is that power – the exercise of raw military and political force – is the only effective cure for dictators and fascists, whatever flag they fly. It is not only morally justified to confront such evil; it is immoral not to do so.

...

We played the European game in the Philippines and stole a bit of empire. But we didn’t have the taste for it; more likely, didn’t have the stomach to do what was needed to keep it. We fought side by side with the Filipinos during World War II, and spent blood and lives regaining those islands. Then, on the 4th of July, 1946, we did what we should have done four decades earlier. We handed them back their country, as we have handed back every country and territory we have ever conquered with our globe-spanning power, and done it willingly, not as a parting shot after rebellion and failure. We shall soon enough do it with Iraq, once it awakens from its thirty year nightmare and gets back on its feet. It too, like the Philippines, is a nation we broke a promise to, and also one that we owe its freedom and independence by way of atonement.

Go read it. Now. Then read it again.

What's in a name? Plenty.

Think Bush is Hitler and the Republicans are Nazis? This post at Fraters Libertas, among other things, paints a not unreasonable picture of what the world would be like if that were truly the case.

Oh, and just so you know, the full official name of the Ba'ath party, the one Saddam belonged to, is the Arab National Socialist Party. And how is "National Socialist" usually abbreviated? Yep.