Month: September 2013

By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings

…well, "Dream" by my standards; probably not so much by the GOP's…

The
Republican fields for the various statewide offices that are up for
election next year are becoming clearer, to the point that in many of
the races, there are favorites. 

As in, candidates who people who are not Republicans hope emerge victorious in the Republican primary.

Under
the theory that many of candidates have weaknesses that are so
overwhelming that they should be easy to defeat in the general election.

…The team "Cap'n" of the Dream Team is, of course, candidate for governor "Atomic" Al Melvin.

Currently a state senator, he's part of the "Bay at the Moon" caucus at the state lege.  In fact he's one of the leaders.

When he isn't trying to turn Arizona into a nuclear waste dump or pushing to expand slave prison labor here, he is spouting off, like with his recent assertion that trees cause drought conditions.

He's
looking to pull off the same play that the notorious Ev Mecham pulled
off more than a quarter century ago.  If he does gain the office, he has
the potential to embarrass and even damage the state even more than
Mecham.  However, his presence at the top of the ticket will serve as an
anchor on the rest of the ticket.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Steve Benen breaks down the August jobs report, U.S. economy created 169k jobs in August, jobless rate dips:

The jobs reports are starting to get a little predictable, by virtue
of the fact that over the last several months, they're effectively the
same.

The new report
from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the U.S. economy added
169,000 jobs in August, which is roughly in line with expectations.
After years of public-sector layoffs serving as a drag on the overall
economy, we're starting to see a slight turnaround — the private sector
added 152,000 jobs last month, while the public sector added 17,000
jobs. That may seem like a fairly modest number, but it's the most in
recent memory.

The overall unemployment rate dropped to 7.3%,
which is the lowest it's been in nearly five years, but it's not
evidence of good news — it ticked down largely because of people
leaving the workforce.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: I have been reviewing the campaign finance report of Tea-Publican Tucson City Council candidate Ben Buehler Garcia, and there are some "irregularities" that I am still working on. But just for fun, here is one from page 20 of BBG’s report that really stands out: If you have trouble reading this, it … Read more