Radio Free JoJo

Denise Robinson. You have to go back well over a decade to remember the last time a Republican held elective office in the City of Erie. Mrs. Robinson, the wife of the original Erie County Executive, won the post to City Council in the 1980’s before she became an advocate for the elderly in the Ridge Administration in Harrisburg.

They say that the city electorate is split 75-25 Democrat to Republican. It’s funny that Republicans can often do well in county offices, but never in the city. Sue Weber can coast to reelection for County Controller, but Tim Butler was the latest GOP hopeful to run into the buzz saw of Democrat-dominated city politics.

Dig a little into the numbers and you can see why. Countywide, one seventh of the voters threw the straight party switch for the Dems; that mindless loyalty to the ticket ensures the status quo of stagnancy and decline for the region. There seems to be no consideration that fresh ideas and fiscal responsibility might come from the other line on the ballot.

That’s not to say that every Republican deserves to win, but the smart and capable Tim Butler certainly deserved a chance to serve this community and let Mr. Cappabianca enjoy his retirement.  I think that this sorry state of the Democrat lock down takes out would-be Republican candidates who’d rather not enter such a quixotic endeavor.  What kind of fiscal and social conservative could capture the imagination of a city electorate hungry for change and crisp new vision?

Get out and vote, don’t let the weather stop you!

And if you live in the City of Erie, please vote for Tim Butler for City Council.  We Republicans have been living with “taxation without representation” long enough.

The lead story tonight on Fox 66 is that crude oil reached another record high this weekend. Answer this question for me: is the price of a 55-gallon drum of sweet crude oil really worth 50% more than it did just a few months ago? Or is it worth five times as much as it did five to six years ago? Call me naïve, but my intuitive common sense says, “uh, no.”

I understand that the arcane alchemy that is the international commodity trading of oil is quite complex. But when I hear explanations on news reports that traders are “fearful” of tight supplies, or rumors of Middle East conflict which might affect production, as reasons of bidding the prices higher makes me wonder if there is way too much emotion and not enough fundamental justification for the high price.

According to the oil minister of Ecuador, “High prices are due to market speculation. Oil producers have no relation with that speculative process.” This sounds like we are in the middle of an oil price bubble that for all of our sakes, really needs to burst.

That’s why I’d like to know what it would take to talk down the price of oil. I mean really, what if these traders have really paid too much for oil? Shouldn’t they be thinking of selling? A selling panic might also be bad for the economy, so perhaps a soft landing is in order.

In any case, if these oil investors are so neurotic that they get spooked by every little bite of bad news, let’s give them some good news: we have NEVER run out of oil, there are decades worth of reserves, so what are they worried about? In fact, we know something that they need to understand: they paid way too much for those oil futures, and its time to sell, sell, sell!!!

Sorry if I sound too emotional.