"Well Pesky, it's like this. Though the Republicans want to recall Davis because of California's sorry budget, to understand the origins of the state's misery you have to go back a lot further. You see, back in the 70's the people of California got this brilliant idea that if they could just make all the important decisions themselves, using initiatives, they wouldn't have to listen to whiny politicians. So they got this initiative process going, where they could put anything on the ballot if they got enough signatures.
It worked all right at first. An initiative to make the sun come up a little earlier, an initiative to make flatulance less offensive, an initiative to allow shockingly untalented Austrian guys make blockbuster movies. In other words, nothing to worry about.
But then special interest groups got wind of this initiative thing. They discovered that if you got enough signatures to get something on the ballot, Californians will vote for just about anything. So various interest groups started fielding dozens of initiatives, sometimes competing against each other, year after year, ballot after ballot. In a spectacular display of how bizarre the initiative process had become, two years ago the people of California approved for the ballot, by signing petitions, the following two simultaneous initiatives sponsored by two competing groups of junior high school girls:
Proposition 145: Resolved, that from this date forward, Jenny Smith will not diss Annie Lopez in the cafeteria, and that she will refrain from spreading totally bogus lies about Annie's sex life or lack thereof and her relationship with a certain Phil Rubenstein, who is way too cute for her and she should totally know that but she is such a ho.
Proposition 146: Resolved, Annie Lopez is, like, totally such a ho on wheels. She stuffs her bra and she can't get Phil to even look at her 'cause she's such a dorkwad and she's got a face like a horse's butt. She should shut up or Jenny will kick her big fat ass. She is such a wench.
Astoundingly, when faced with the two initiatives, the people of California approved them both, by margins in excess of 90%.
Over the years the initiatives have, among other things, regulated the saltiness of seawater, restricted the number of times a little brown bat can "fake out" a mosquito before putting it out of its misery, and slashed property taxes to limit educational funds and thereby guarantee the gullibility of future generations to suck up and approve even more initiatives. One initiative even authorized the authors of weblogs to write exceptionally long nonsensical drivel without proper punctuation or grammatical structure.
The result of this initiative madness has been threefold:
1. The majority of California's state budget is now constitutionally "locked up" for specific purposes, such as Poodle Olympics and the realignment of the Sierra Nevada mountains to resemble Bob Hope's profile.
2. Term limit initiatives have insured that only the most qualified lobbyists with the biggest promotional budgets are able to serve in the state assembly and senate. For example, three bars of soap were elected to assembly posts after a massive campaign funded by Irish Spring.
3. The average Californian now signs sixteen initative petitions on his way into Wal-Mart, and thirty-seven more on his way out. This seriously cuts into the time he needs to properly watch "America's Next Top Model" on television.
And so, after this twenty-some-odd year initiative orgy, Californians are now taking a cold, hard look at themselves, and not liking what they see. They have essentially run their state by a massive 32 million person committee, and like most committees, drank too much caffeine and and ate far, far too many doughnuts. However unhappy they may be with the hapless Governor Davis, they know they have a bigger problem: themselves.
So a group of self-aware Californians has been circulating a new petition: a petition to recall the People of California. The petition as acquired enough signatures to put the recall on the November ballot. Organizers say that if the recall passes, the People of California will be replaced by ants."
Dr.
Sneakypants
Musk
Ox balancing Weapon of Mass Destruction
Who
is The Rat? 
Lumpy
the Mongoose
Larry
the Spotted Owl