By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings   Advertisement It's shaping up to be a relatively quiet week at the Arizona legislature…emphasis on "relatively". There are still going to be a number of controversial bills, but not the large number that we've seen in recent weeks. Of course, agendas, particularly those for meetings later in … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I have Joe Scarborough to thank for this quote: "Newt Gingrich thinks he is the smartest guy in the room. If Newt Gingrich is the smartest guy in the room, you're in the wrong room." Nailed it!

The big thinker of big ideas, the disgraced former House Speaker and preeminent housing historian, had this to say about U.S. energy policy:

"There is no reason not to believe that we couldn't stabilize with American production by drowning demand in supply the old-fashioned, free market way," he explained. "There's not reason we couldn't have a stable price around $2 or $2.50 [per gallon]."

Well, yes there is "professor." FAUX News Sunday host Chris Wallace tried to explain it to him. Gingrich: 'You Can't Put a Gun Rack on a Volt':

In an interview on Sunday, Fox News host Chris noted that if Gingrich attempted to increase oil production in the U.S., OPEC would decrease production to keep international energy prices high.

"You can't guarantee $2.50 a gallon," Wallace explained.

"You can't guarantee anything," Gingrich agreed. "But you can guarantee that under the Obama plan, there's going to be less American production, higher prices."

Less American production? Does the "professor" not keep up with his homework assignments? CNN Money reported, Gasoline: The next big U.S. export – Dec. 5, 2011:

The United States is awash in gasoline. So much so, in fact, that the country is exporting a record amount of it.

The country exported 430,000 more barrels of gasoline a day than it imported in September, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That is about twice the amount at the start of the year, and experts and industry insiders say the trend is here to stay.

The United States began exporting gas in late 2008. For decades prior, starting in 1960, the country used all the gas it produced here plus had to import gas from places in Europe.

But demand for gas has dropped nearly 10% in recent years. It went from a peak of 9.6 million barrels a day in 2007 to 8.8 million barrels today, according to the EIA.

* * *

To be sure, the United States is still importing plenty of oil to make that gasoline — and is still dependent on foreign countries for well over half the crude it uses.

But now the country's massive refining infrastructure is producing more gasoline, diesel and jet fuel than the United States needs, freeing it up to be exported to places like Brazil, Mexico and Chile where demand is still strong.

[Instead of "drowning demand in supply" and driving down the price of gasoline in the U.S., as well as oil company profits, which would not be "the old-fashioned, free market way."]

The Wall Street Journal, which reported on the export trend last week, said the United States is on track this year to be a net exporter of refined products for the first time in 62 years.

"We've got plenty of excess refining capacity," said Jonathan Cogan, a spokesman for EIA. "It's a reminder that this is a global oil market, and it's reflected by the movements of products to where they will get the highest prices."

Did you catch that last part, "Professor"? Oil is traded on an open global market, and oil will move to where producers can get the highest prices for their product. The United State has only about two percent of the world's oil supplies. Is the "professor" proposing that we nationalize U.S. oil production and pass a law requiring all the oil we produce to be used in the U.S. market to stabilize prices? (On the scale of Richard Nixon's wage and price controls?) Even if we produced the very last drop of U.S. oil, it would never even come close to "drowning demand in supply" as the "professor" dreams. This is utter fantasy.

by David Safier Why would someone like Paul Babeu choose to be gay? Why wouldn't he choose the heterosexual path when it was obvious his sexual orientation could present a roadblock to his conservative political ambitions? It almost makes you thing Babeu's sexual orientation wasn't a choice. Babeu jumped into politics at 17 and was … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Willard "Mittens" Romney made a short but triumphant return to Utah on Saturday for the 10th anniversary celebration of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. On the campaign trail, Mittens regularly regails his audience with tales of how he "saved" the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Romney to Team 2002: ‘You have … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Back in the 1990's the Tucson Weekly used to refer to the "old" Town of Marana as "Dogpatch," when it was ruled by Mayor Ora "Mammy Yokum" Harn. Not much has changed.

The Town of Marana is represented by "consultant" Jonathan "Payday" Paton (Li'l Abner Yokum), who has been advising Dogpatch to steal Tucson's sewage treatment plant and thereby steal its reclaimed water, and no doubt he has advised Rep. Terri Proud (Daisy Mae Yokum) in her nefarious designs to give Tuscon's California refugee retiree bedroom communities — who tend to vote Tea-Publican — a veto power over that liberal blue island of the City of Tucson for Pima County bond projects.

The Yokums thought that neighboring retiree bedroom communities to Tucson would be supportive of the plot by Dogpatch. It turns out, not so much. The Arizona Daily Star reports, Bond-veto bill draws town, city opposition:

Marana is the only jurisdiction that supports the measure.

The mayors of Tucson and South Tucson wrote letters opposing the bill. The Pima County Board of Supervisors is set to approve a resolution opposing it. And the mayors of Sahuarita and Oro Valley have written letters criticizing the bill.

The proposed law – which would apply only to Pima County – would establish a Regional Bond Accountability Committee with one representative from the county and one representative from each city and town.

Ah yes, a replay of our Tea-Publican legislature's tyranny against the Charter City of Tucson in which it subjugated Tucson's residents by seizing control of its Rio Nuevo Board and gave control of Downtown Tucson redevelopment to state of Maricopa politicians to appoint their lackeys to the Board, including Jonathan "Payday" Paton (Li'l Abner Yokum). So far the Tea-Publican legislature's Rio Nuevo Board has only been a cash cow for its favored law firms, incurring millions of dollars in litigation costs, but not producing any of the promised development.

Under Daisy Mae Yokum's bill, "Pima County would not be able to issue or sell general obligation bonds for things like roads, parks, libraries or government buildings without a majority vote from that committee."