February 7, 2008 (LPAC)--The California Coastal Commission dealt a major blow to Gov. Schwarzenegger's push for toll roads, with an 8 to 2 vote, following a wild public hearing attended by more than 3,000 people. The vote rejected a plan for a toll road which would extend State Route 241 in Orange and San Diego Counties, a plan backed by the Transportation Corridor Agency. Schwarzenegger wrote a letter, on January 15, 2008, to the chairman of the Coastal Commission, urging endorsement of the toll road.

The major argument of the toll road advocates - and of Schwarzenegger - is that it is needed to relieve highway congestion, at a time when the funds do not exist to build new highways. In his letter, the Governator presented the argument of his controllers, George Shultz and Felix Rohatyn, who are major promoters of a fascist scheme which they present as an approach to "infrastructure." Schwarzenegger wrote that the project should be adopted, as it "does not rely on scarce state and federal transportation funds. It is a public-private partnership (PPP) project that will rely on private capital for funding. This could not be more important as state leaders struggle with closing a budget deficit while protecting funding for vital services such as education and health care."

This argument is based on a big fat lie: his 2008-09 budget DOES NOT protect vital services, as he has proposed major cuts in health care and education, along with all other social programs designed to aid the poor and vulnerable in the state. Economist Lyndon LaRouche has characterized the Shultz-Rohatyn so-called public-private partnership as a corporatist policy, modeled explicitly, and consciously, on the "infrastructure" programs implemented by the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Schwarzenegger's soul-mate in pushing this approach is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been designated by Shultz and Rohatyn to be the next President of the United States. Schwarzenegger and Bloomberg endorsed the Mussolini PPP model at a much-hyped press conference in Los Angeles on January 19.

This is the third major defeat inflicted on Schwarzenegger in the last week. His so-called health insurance plan, which would have been a boondoggle for his big supporters in the insurance industry, was defeated in the State Senate. Voters on Tuesday rejected Proposition 93, the flawed plan to change term limits, which Arnie supported. And last night, one of his model PPP programs, the Foothills South toll road, was scrapped by the Coastal Commission. Perhaps Californians are deciding it is not so "cool" to have a fascist governor, after all.