Today we salute you, Mr. California State Governor!
(Mr. California State Governor!)
Only you could blame a Legislature for a budget problem you created.
(Budget problem you created)
Forty billion dollar state deficit? Who cares. You've got the power.
(Lotta power!)
And you're gonna fight to keep the power.
(Fighting for the Lights)
So flip that reading lamp switch, Mr. Bear State Chief,
and raise a toast to your own recall election.
(Mr. California State Gooooooovernorrrrr)
Dud Lite Productions, Vallejo, California
A little lesson on California Recent History:
Gray Davis, the Honorable Governor of Califonria, faces a recall election. It's a special election (the first special election in California history) with some rather ugly political maneuvering guaranteed ahead.
A couple years ago, California faced an energy crisis. The electricity rates Pacific Gas & Electric was charged by the power utilities skyrocketed, and PG&E was forbidden or unable to feasibly pass those rates on to the consumers. PG&E went bankrupt, and Gov. Davis started using state money to buy power for the state, on the electricity "spot market", where prices could go even higher.
Of course, that money wasn't in the state budget...
But not all the blame can be laid at the governor's feet. Before that, the CA State Legislature deregulated the electricity industry, allowing the utilities to fleece CA in the first place and force PG&E into the hole.
Recall Grey Davis? Why not? And while we're at it, let's recall every member of the California State Legislature who voted for the deregulation and is still in office. Oh, and let's thank President George Bush for not lifting a finger in the process.
Recession 2.0? I think so. The first one was taken off the shelves after only nine months...
Spending a couple days up here at the Open Source Convention in Portland, OR. Got some nice freebies, some not-so-nice freebies, and I'm just generally hanging out.
Among the not-so-nice freebies... well, I haven't tried the lunch here. It's being provided by Microsoft (I expect a mixed reception to that idea). Starts at 12:15pm today.
3:50pm Update: Well, the sandwiches were actually pretty good. But just in case, I left for a bit to get an antidote (Cinnabon at Lloyd Center Mall). Passing time waiting for the author's dinner my publisher is throwing tonight.
Thursday: Lovely dinner Pearson Education threw yesterday. Blue cheese steak. Mmmmm.
Today, I dropped in too late for a chat with Wil Wheaton. Gotta catch him at Powell's Books tonight if I can. I also am hosting a Birds-Of-a-Feather (BOF) on mozilla.org products... hoping someone shows up.
4:35pm update: One of the nice perks about being an author for Pearson is I get to pick up lots and lots of freebie books if I want to. Grabbed books on OpenOffice 1.0, mod_perl, Python, SVG, and a handy-dandy XML reference book. Need just about every one of them, too.
9:20pm update: Last report on OSCON. Just finished off the Mozilla BOF (we didn't discuss anything but Mozilla). Lot of chat about bookmarks, Linux distributions without the latest & greatest, compatibility with plugins, a little on Bugzilla usage, just general stuff that I take for granted and don't even think about. Myk Melez made an appearance (thank you), so I at least had someone else savvy about the code to talk there. The holes in my own knowledge about the code were a bit surprising; I distinctly did not like using the words "I don't know".
Never got over to Wil Wheaton. Oh, well. Life is good here in Portland, but tomorrow evening I hop a bus back to Vallejo.