Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of the great state of California, and commander-in-chief of her formidable army, has denied a request by the Bush Administration for troops to be sent to the U.S.-Mexican border.

Money was an early concern, but Gov. Schwarzenegger took care of that. His people inked a deal with the Pentagon's people ensuring that funding for this immigrant jihad - an estimated $1.4 billion - will come from the national war chest not California's. Thanks Arnold, now my tax dollars are going towards this boondoggle too.

So if it wasn't money, why did the Governor balk? Simply put, he doesn't want to become the next Ray Nagin. Disaster looms large for California, and it's not a threat from the border-crossers who fuel the state's economic engine. It's much more serious than geography and paperwork. The Earth herself wants to drive Californians into the sea. Any combination of earthquakes, fires, drought, and rolling power outages could turn L.A. into Baghdad overnight, without warning. The Governor knows this, and he's not going to allow the Bush Administration to set the stage for the fall of California on his watch.

Schwarzenegger wants his troops trained to deal with Hollywood proportion catastrophe, not walking a fence.

That's all well and good for California, but was it worth snubbing our petulant, lame-duck, billionaire-boys-club president? Will the Governor choose anything else to publicly disagree with the president on? Will there be retribution? Why do I suddenly crave popcorn?

Labels: Arnold Schwarzenegger, George W. Bush, iraq, Ray Nagin