To the Point

California Dream and the Recall

Is California leading the nation or going off the deep end? In the past ten years, California has seen floods, fires, earthquakes and America-s worst civil disturbance of the 20th Century. This year, it-s the recall election: 135 candidates who want to be Governor - including Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Terminator. California is the state that has been called -a laboratory for testing new political ideas.- Is this what the rest of the country is in for? We hear about how California looks to the rest of the world from a journalist, author and an essayist travel writer. Making News: Last Day Before Recall Election More than two million absentee ballots have already been cast in California-s recall election, and the rest of the voters will finally go to the polls tomorrow. California-s recall election has been portrayed as grass roots democracy in action and as a circus. The 135 candidates ranged from the opportunistic to the bizarre. The growing media crowd is now reporting something much more familiar: another nasty quarrel between the two major parties. Reporter's Notebook: Israel Attacks Syrian Base Israel-s first attack on Syria in 30 years was designed to "send a message." Syria has called on the UN Security Council to condemn Israel-s attack on what the Israelis called a terrorist training camp inside the Syrian border. The air strike came hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 19 people in the Israeli city of Haifa. What are the implications for peace in the Middle East?