(no subject)

[timepiececlock]

Wake up this morning and find my governor is corrupt. Whoop dee do.

Arnold, I am oddly disappointed. I figured you were just a normal mildly sleezy politician who couldn't didn't keep your promises. And here I find out you're an extra-sleezy politician who's being paid off.

Oh well. I didn't vote for you anyway.

Comments

[jaina.livejournal.com]

What'd he do this time?

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I heard it on the radio news this morning. Apparently just days (or weeks?) after being sworn into office he accepted a contract as a consultant for some company called Media-something that puts out magazines, including health and fitness magazines that features millions in ad revenue for drug/nutrition supplements, especially those used by athletes. He gets 1 percent of ad revenue, at no less than 1 million a year, and is probably going to make him about 8 million dollars.

While he's in office.

There's two big issues:

1) he's the first governor in California history to have another active "job" while acting governor. he's always going to be making residual income from his acting work and investments of course, but he's the first to have an actual job outside of governorship. Which kind of pisses people off because they want him to be doing the only job they elected him for, no that AND something else.

2) the governor recently vetoed a bill that would place the first regulations on nutrition supplements-- outlawing some that are considered dangerous, providing safety information and restrictions on others. This does go hand in hand with his previous stated views on supporting nutrition supplements, but you can't ignore the fact that he's making millions of dollars off the idustry while being asked to act on legislation that affects that industry. On top of that, there's an interesting trap in that he can't recuse himself from acting on the legislation-- a normal assemblyperson or senator can choose not to vote if there's a conflict of interest like this one, and there's plenty of other legislators to make the call. But he's the governor, so if he doesn't act on the bill it gets turned into legislation anyway, just as if he had signed it.

There's some talk now of making a law that says governors can't hold other outside active jobs while in office, which would prevent this sort of conundrum from happening again. Nevertheless, the whole thing reeks of sleeze. The fact that he took the contract just after he became governor, the fact that the contract was kept secret until the company was legally required to make their financial reports to the Securities & Exchange Commission... reek reek reek.

[mswyrr]

2) the governor recently vetoed a bill that would place the first regulations on nutrition supplements-- outlawing some that are considered dangerous, providing safety information and restrictions on others. This does go hand in hand with his previous stated views on supporting nutrition supplements, but you can't ignore the fact that he's making millions of dollars off the idustry while being asked to act on legislation that affects that industry.

I don't believe that he should hold another job while serving out his term as governor, but as somebody who uses supplements to make my fibro tolerable, this case of impropriety actually benefits me.

Wow. That's never happened before.

Now I know how Big Oil must feel! ;)