Saturday, February 28, 2009

My Planned Parenthood Action Fund Joke

I just don't understand this Legislature. The Republicans have two priorities, making Arizona a place where it's easier to drive dangerously but harder to enjoy sex safely. The GOP won't be happy until they get the photo radar cameras off the highways and into your bedroom.

Friday, February 27, 2009


Personal Items

First, a preview of my 2009 Congress to Campus visit to the University of Montana in Missoula.

Also, Desert Classic Duathlon results (22/29 in age group, scroll down to Men 50-54) and photos. It was harder than it looked on paper. Next up on the schedule: El Tour de Phoenix.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.





Tuesday, February 24, 2009

"Cheap Just Does Not Do It"

In Arizona, we've had more than a decade and a half (since 1991) of working under the assumption that if we just made things less costly for business and the better-off -- cutting taxes, reducing regulation, you know the drill -- we'd do well. And what has the result been of all that tax cutting and regulation reducing? According to state Rep. Rick Murphy (R-Glendale), "We have one of the worst business tax climates in the world in Arizona and that has to change." Of course, Rep. Murphy wants to do more of what we've been doing over the past 15 years. Yes, we're in a hole, and according to the Republicans, we must keep digging.

Outside observers are less wedded to their ideology. As the Financial Times reported today, home prices in large US cities dropped at a record rate in 2008, with Phoenix, Las Vegas and Minneapolis dropping the most, and Boston, Denver, and New York showing relatively small declines.

Key quote showing the bankruptcy of the GOP's "less tax = more growth!!!!!" philosophy:

“The mix of a sharply deteriorating labor market, associated weakness in personal income, broader negative wealth effects from other asset classes, a massive overhang of actual and potential supply, and troubled credit availability [is] swamping the record affordability measures,” said Alan Ruskin, strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital. “Cheap just does not do it.”

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Our New Governor Is An Old Joke

So you must know the old joke (claimed by the Ukranians, but also mangled almost beyond recognition by software developers) about the two envelopes that the predecessor leaves for the successor to open in the first crisis, and then the second, worse crisis. The first envelope has a note that says, "Blame me!" The second note says, "Prepare two envelopes!" Too bad our current governor already has used up her first envelope during her first month in office.

Glad we have entered the "responsibility era" and fixed Arizona's unique and unusual governing procedure that allowed Gov. Napolitano, all by herself, to control the state's fiscal policy. Now we have a system that will require the GOP-controlled legislature to pass budgets each year. Oh, wait.