weird election, weird weather, it's all going hand in hand in cali.

the recall election has me completely floored. not because we don't need it, but . . . 135 candidates??? what in the world are these people thinking!? i mean, seriously, most of these people had to have at least a clue that they had no chance of being elected, so why enter the election? if it was just to confuse the issue, then they are succeeding admirably!

of these 135 candidates, i only know the names of 3 or 4. now, i won't vote for the top candidate for anger control management, gary coleman. bustamante is only likely to give us more of the same kind of management that got us in this mess in the first place. i know the name of flynt, but not a whole hell of a lot else. that leaves, yes, you guessed it, schwarzenegger. the remaining 130 candidates, who the frick are you? why the hell are you on the ballot when 99% of califnornians are probably in the same boat as me and wondering who you are and why the heck you are running?

fortunately, i happen to agree with schwarzenegger's priorities. now, im not stupid and i'm not expecting miracles from the man. it took 2 governors to get us into this mess, it'll take quite a bit of work to get us out. and he's got to work with the rest of the government up there, who are all probably going to be disagreeable on party lines as usual. after all, the two parties working together to fix what's broken? not likely. they'd much rather take whatever they can and run. and i seriously doubt they'll get the clue that california has nothing left to take at this point. i mean, we are in the hole with a credit rating on the downslide and an education system that's been hacked into so badly people are getting fired from their jobs (and we need 300,000 teachers over the next 10 years - we seem to be going in the wrong direction here).

other than the number of candidates, two other incidents stick out this election. the first is an interview schwarzenegger did TWENTY YEARS ago that has caused an uproar. folks, TWENTY YEARS! we're all stupid kids who do stupid things at one point or other in ours lives - most of which we forget until someone reminds us (and with some of us, remembering is a big question mark, you know, the "i did what!?" response). people grow up and change. if you're lucky, you'll become smarter, maybe even smart enough to realize that making a big deal over an interview from 20 years ago is just plain stupid.

the second incident was a debate that schwarzenegger skipped. one of the candidates said that he was scared. scared? lady, he did you a favor! if he had been at the debate, do you honestly think the press would have paid attention to anyone else? uuuunnnlikely! okay, maybe bustamante, coleman, and flynt, if they were there. but face it, the press isn't any more interested in at least 130 of you than most of the rest of us. 135 candidates collectively is news, but only a half dozen of those candidates are really news as solo acts.

somehow, tornadoes in earthquake country made a whole lot of sense last week.