AS IF THIS COULDN'T GET WORSE...

...along comes a report in the Los Angeles Daily News (a normally pro-Schwarzenegger, conservative paper) describing the illegal, immoral and corrupt deal he and his office just signed.

According to the paper, and sources inside several California governmental oversight offices, the state signed a contract with GM to begin using ethanol cars. Now, setting aside the Governor's relationship with GM (he's a paid spokesman for them), several other fishy facts come into focus:

1. GM had several meetings with the Governor's staff to set up a no-bid pilot program before making the purchases. They were the only company included in this new flex-fuel program.

2. Other car companies had mixed-fuel cars (the goal of the program was to lower California government pollution through cleaner resources). But only GM got to bid on the pilot program, and a contract was signed before the official bidding for the main purchase of vehicles was supposed to end.

3. California law prohibits any government or public program from using Ethanol because it is not readily available across the state's infrastructure. This law was altered, only days before the GM contract was announced, and without consulting the proper state agencies.

4. Special permits are required to develop and use alternate-fuel vehicles. Additional clearance is required to sell these cars and distribute the alternative fuels. The only car company with all the permits? GM. But oddly enough, their paperwork was in place before the government decided to make it legal to purchase such vehicles for state use... so when the law was changed, only GM had enough vehicles to meet the needs of California's fleet needs.

5. The pilot program was announced, and the final contract signed without the knowledge or permission of the proper state agencies.

Sadly enough, the reason why Schwarzenegger ran for office during the recall (according to him) was to bring open, honest government to our state's capitol. He said he wouldn't be beholden to special, corporate interests, and promised to end corruption and special treatment within the state government.