In just a few short weeks the governor might be out of a job, you wouldn’t know it by looking at him. The guy is the real thing when it comes to political combat. The Davis campaign is morphing before our very eyes the ROBOT GOVERNOR into dare I say, an acceptable re-re-electable media ready candidate. The uninspiring pre-recall delivery style has been ramped up to hard-hitting, real person speeches that take on a populist tone. Gray Davis has no problem crediting many of the states fiscal shortfalls on the policies of the Bush Administration.

Davis described by many, as a vulnerable target appears to be slowing down the rising negative voter sentiment as he hits his stride. Wrapping his arms around organized labor, progressive legislation and a whole bunch of Democrats the state’s centrist governor is seeking shelter from the recall on the left side of the political dial. Republicans could rue the day they set this chain of events in motion.

Davis audio
http://www.la.indymedia.org./news/2003/08/80229.php

No, thanks. I like the John Burton Socialist Equality candidacy. See more at wsws.org for platform, interviews, and tv/radio schedule.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission stiffs California see oped piece.

September 2, 2003 ------- New York Times ------ By PAUL KRUGMAN

Another Friday Outrage
By PAUL KRUGMAN



When the E.P.A. makes our air dirtier, or the Interior Department opens a wilderness to mining companies, or the Labor Department strips workers of some more rights, the announcement always comes late on Friday — when the news is most likely to be ignored on TV and nearly ignored by major newspapers.
Last Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, known as FERC, announced settlements with energy companies accused of manipulating markets during the California energy crisis. Why on Friday? Because the settlements were a joke: the companies got away with only token payments. It was yet another demonstration of how electricity deregulation has gone wrong.
Most independent experts now believe that during 2000-2001, price manipulation by energy companies, mainly taking the form of "economic withholding" — keeping capacity offline to drive up prices — added billions of dollars to California's electricity bills. A March FERC report concluded that there had been extensive manipulation of prices in both the natural gas and electricity markets.
Using methods widely accepted among economists, the California Independent System Operator — which operates the power grid — estimated that withholding by electricity companies had cost the state $8.9 billion. This estimate doesn't include the continuing cost of long-term contracts the state signed, at inflated prices, to keep the lights on during the crisis.
Yet the charges energy companies agreed to added up to only a bit more than $1 million. That is, the average Californian was bilked of more than $250, but the state will receive compensation of about 3 cents.
Was the fix in? Given the Bush administration's record of catering to energy companies, FERC isn't entitled to any presumption of innocence. Still, the main problem seems to be with the commission's approach: even in the aftermath of large-scale price manipulation, it demands givebacks of excess profits only when it can prove that those profits arose from a specific prohibited action.
This leads to very low settlements, for two reasons. First, while an industrywide pattern is easy to identify, intentional withholding by an individual producer is much harder to prove. Though investigators have found a few smoking guns — control room tapes, e-mail, memos — a power shutdown designed to increase prices is usually indistinguishable from a shutdown for genuine technical reasons.
Second, since withholding drove up prices across the board, each company profited from other companies' price manipulation. So even if FERC forced each company to give back the profits from its own bad behavior, it would leave most of the industry's excess profits untouched.
State officials wanted refunds based on estimates of the overall overcharging that resulted from price manipulation. But my expert contacts tell me that the antiquated language in the Federal Power Act, the basis of FERC's authority, probably doesn't give it the power to enforce such refunds.
On the other hand, FERC clearly does have the power to abrogate long-term contracts signed during the crisis. Indeed, the commission's March report contained a strong hint: "Staff recommends using the analysis in the report to inform ongoing long-term contract proceedings and other complaints that long-term contracts are not J & R [just and reasonable]." But in June, on a 2-to-1 vote (yes, two Republicans against one Democrat), the commission upheld those contracts. So California, the victim of one of the worst abuses of market power since the robber baron era, will get no redress.
So what does this say about electricity deregulation?
There is a theoretical case for a deregulated electricity market. But making such a market work, it's now clear, requires at least three preconditions. First, it requires a robust transmission system, yet the recent blackout made it clear that we have now created a system in which nobody has clear responsibility for the transmission network. Second, it needs a watchdog agency with adequate powers to prevent and punish price manipulation; FERC doesn't have those powers. Third, that watchdog must not be an agent of the very companies it's supposed to be policing. Enough said.
I admire the virtues of free markets as much as anyone. But given what we've seen so far, any state government that lets the federal government prod it into deregulation is just plain crazy.

Now sign the petition ---http://www.bushrecall.org/petition/

Hey, Jim. Why don't you just sign your name Jim Casey? It's not like we don't know it's you.

I wouldn't call Paul Krugman someone who is objective, but it's what we've got to work with.

Deregulation didn't work the way it should in CA because the same dunce liberal Democrats who've been running your state from the legislature (let's not fool ourselves, the gov in CA doesn't have much power) do what liberals always do, which is take a potentially good thing and screw it up. When they had the chance to buy up energy for the long term at low prices, they didn't.

Your state has not built a single powerplant in years, yet the population is booming. Environmentalist nuts have kept Californians from doing anything to produce their own energy. Your state should be producing enough energy to care for its own and sell some to other states. You should never be buying energy.

Gray Davis needs to go, and soon. Not because he could have done anything about it, but because he knowingly lied about the budget deficit. He knew it was going to be $X, and he told us it would be half that much. Populists are not generally the brightest people I created, but when they enacted this recall law, they at least did one good thing.

BTW, this desire of yours for anarchy, I gave you your chance in Spain, 1936. You goofed. You don't get another chance.

Settle down, have a link or two and slam me in the morning.

http://www.energyfoundation.org/california/

http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/backgrounder.html

I don't take orders. I give them. Creators priviledge.

As for the tricks of Shaitan against you they are seven.

1. He obstructs you from doing acts of obedience . Repel him, if Allah protects you, by realizing that you are in need of these acts of obedience in order to gather provision from this life for the next life which will have no ending.

2. He commands you to procrastinate in acts of obedience . Repel him , if Allah protects you, by realizing that your appointed time is not in your hands and that you could die at any moment.

3. He commands you to rush in acts of obedience by suggesting to you , " Hurry! In order that you can do so-and-so!" Repel him, if Allah protects you, that realizing that few acts of obedience done with perfection is better than many done incompletely.

4. He commands you to perfect your worship in order to be seen of men. Repel him, if Allah protects you, by realizing that the sight of Allah is enough for you over the sight of men.

5. He whispers arrogance and pride in your heart by saying, " Who is greater and more precise than your obedience?" Repel him, if Allah protects you, , by realizing that your acts of obedience to Allah is a blessing from Allah, not from yourself. If it were not for the bounty of Allah, you would not be able to establish any act of obedience , which are nothing next to the blessing of Allah Ta`ala.

6. This is the greatest of his tricks, he says to you, " Make strenuous effort in keeping your obedience of Allah secret. Soon He will make your acts manifest before the world!" Repel him, if Allah protects you, that you are a slave of Allah and that He alone is your Master. If He wills , He will manifest you and is He wills He will keep you concealed. If He wills, He will make you important and if He wills He will make you insignificant. That is for Him to decide, and you should not care whether He manifest your good deeds to people or not, because there is nothing in thier hands worth seeking after.

7. He suggest in your heart, " There is no need for you to perform acts of obedience to Allah. Truly, if you were created and destined to be among the people of bliss, then there is no danger in you neglecting the acts of worship. And if you were created and destined to be among the people of wretchednedd, then there is no benefit in doing them. Repel him , if Allah protects you, that realizing that you are a slave . And that it the duty of a slave to obey the commands as is the rights to slaveness (`ubuudiyya).