[Peace-discuss] Arnold Again

[David Green]

This elaborates on the "Women's" conference that AS
spoke at, as referred to in an earlier post re True
Lies. The protestors were clearly audible on C-Span.

Governor Tough Guy, At It Again 

By Robert Weissman
and Russell Mokhiber 

You may have heard the story. 

You probably haven't felt the outrage. 

You should. 

Last week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
garnered another round of media attention by
denigrating a group protesting outside of a conference
at which he was speaking. 

"Pay no attention to those voices," the muscleman
governor told the audience at the conference. "Those
are special interests. They're just angry because I
kick their butts everyday." 

Just more jocularity from the governor who Time
magazine notes stands in sharp contrast to his aptly
named predecessor, Gray Davis? (Says Time, "At a
typical event, he comes crashing onstage, delivers a
macho statement of intent, metaphorically flexes his
muscles, then roars away.") 

The governor uses his rather sophisticated brand of
self-mocking, self-parodying machismo to present the
image of a take-charge, independent-minded,
no-politics-as-usual, principled public servant. 

Unfortunately, the reality is that he is a blustering,
corporations-first, favor-returning servant of Big
Business. 

So, why should you feel outrage? 

First, about those special interests whom the governor
so heroicallyconfronts: They are the California Nurses
Association. 

Not the hospital association. Not the insurers
association. Not the HMOs. The nurses association. 

As it happens, the California Nurses Association
represents exactly what is best in the labor movement.
The union explicitly identifies the interests of the
workers they represent -- nurses -- with the broader
public interest in high-quality patient care. It
fights hard for its members and for the public
interest. 

The governor certainly does know something about real
special interests -- that is, how to coddle them. To
take one example among many, the governor backed the
business-contrived Proposition 64 in the November
election, which gutted the state's unfair competition
law, a vital tool used to stem the activities of
polluting companies, corporations selling dangerous
products, and tobacco companies marketing to kids.
Arnold has taken millions from the same companies that
poured funding into the deceptive Prop 64 campaign. 

Second, even in these sophisticated post-modern times,
we should all be able to generate a little fury over
the governor whose fairytale campaign was almost
derailed by sexual harassment charges saying that he
kicks nurses' butts. 

Even more so because the governor made the comments at
the annual Conference on Women and Families, a
star-studded event that reportedly attracted a crowd
of 10,000, overwhelmingly women. 

"For the Governor to denigrate nurses -- a
historically female profession -- while speaking to an
audience of women is an affront to women everywhere,"
says Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the
California Nurses Association. "We expect more from
the state's top officer than just pre-pubescent
comments and blatant pandering to corporate donors." 

Finally, anger should be boiling at the governor's
action that prompted the nurses' protest. 

In November, Schwarzenegger issued an executive order
delaying implementation of new nurse-to-patient ratio
rules for California. 

California's landmark nurse-to-patient ratio law is
the product of a long-running campaign by the
California Nurses Association. The law was enacted in
1999, and started to go into effect early this year.
The five-year phase-in gave hospitals plenty of time
to accommodate themselves. 

The nurses lobbied the bill through the state
legislature in response to tight-fisted, cost-cutting
hospital practices that were putting extraordinary
burdens on nurses -- and endangering patient care. 

Prior to the act coming into effect this year, DeMoro
told us, "there were higher rates of infection, and
higher rates of re-admission, because patients who
were discharged too early had to come back -- patients
who didn't get the full care they needed in the
hospital, couldn't get the care at home." 

"Since the ratio has been adopted, we've not only seen
more nurses in the hospital, but those nurses who are
in the hospital really have the time to care for their
patients," she says. 

In the rest of the country, DeMoro explains, the
problem remains very severe, with nurses handling as
many as a dozen patients each. 

In California, the nurse-to-patient rules mandate
varying ratios for different kinds of care. The
present requirement in medical/surgical units is a
one-to-six ratio. Under previously existing rules,
hospitals were scheduled to reduce that ratio to
one-to-five starting January 1 of next year. Arnold's
action gives them until 2008. 

The governor took the action at the specific request
of a real special interest, the state's hospital
industry. 

The California Healthcare Association, which
represents the industry, has taken out television ads
praising the governor for his courageous action. 

Siding with big business against patients and nurses.
He's a real tough guy, alright. 

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington,
D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter,
http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com. Robert Weissman
is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational
Monitor, http://www.multinationalmonitor.org. They are
co-authors of On the Rampage: Corporate Predators and
the Destruction of Democracy (Monroe,Maine: Common
Courage Press; http://www.commoncouragepress.com).