Yesterday, I put another $20 worth of gas in the old Jeep with the pump price down now to $3.99 a gallon for regular — a dime drop since the last time we visited a gas station.

In a strange setting, gas-pump prices have continued to descend, but are still way-high: Retail gasoline prices fell for the fifth straight week, but they will have to drop off a cliff in the coming days to get below historically high levels for autumn.
The national average was at $3.39 on Tuesday, above the old record for this week at $3.15 a gallon set in 2008, but still nearly 60 cents higher than this time last year.

However, dumb-ass politics and gas don’t mix, unless it’s some kind of bomb.

(Illustration found here).

Oil business is seemingly up this week, though, based on slim possibilities European banks will get their shit together and not take a big dump on the world economy — however…
Barrels are up, but trembling.
According to liveoilprices: In London, Brent crude oil futures for November 2011 delivery was trading at $110.67 a barrel, 08.20 GMT this morning on the ICE Futures Exchange. The contact closed off yesterday’s session at $110.83.
Meanwhile, WTI: US Light crude oil futures for November 2011 delivery was trading at $85.01 a barrel, 08.10 GMT this morning in electronic trading on the NYMEX.
And the saying goes: …analysts doubt the rally will last, saying that the rally is being driven by hot money looking for bargains.

Hot money, honey!

The oil business itself, though, is in high-happy mode.
From BusinessWeek:

Stock values surged for publicly traded oil companies Monday as crude prices rebounded from 12-month lows.
Higher crude prices benefit the entire industry.
They generate more revenue per barrel for Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell and other companies that produce oil.
The benefits are even greater for service companies that cater to oil producers.
As oil prices rise, oil producers plow more cash into drilling projects.
And that raises contract rates and revenues for companies that own drilling equipment and provide services for the industry.

No surprises, there, so let’s move on…

In the continuing strange, whacked GOP run for the White House, the so-called front runners jammed themselves around a table in New Hampshire last night for a debate over who was the most silly and most devoid of reality.
Read a recap dose of the debate from The Daily Dish here — after seeing the previous get-togethers of these clowns, I missed watching the big show except for some isolated clips.
This particular debate was supposed to focus on the economy, but according to all I’ve read (and I mean all), none of these so-called ‘best of the bunch’ have a clue.

Ezra Klein writing in the Washington Post nailed the whole shooting match:

If every idea uttered around moderator Charlie Rose’s table was made into law tomorrow, the financial-regulation bill would be gone, as would health-care reform and the Federal Reserve.
The tax credits that support the housing market would vanish, and so too would Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed housing giants that guarantee the majority of new loans.
There would be a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution, which would require more than $1 trillion in spending cuts if it was to be satisfied in 2013, and China would be branded a currency manipulator.
It is hard to predict the effect all of that would have on the economy.
The housing sector, which is already weak, would probably freeze.
The financial markets, which depend heavily on the central bank’s management of the economy, would be in uncharted territory.
The tax code would be completely different.
Businesses would no longer be able to offer health care to their employees without paying taxes on it, which would kick the struts out from under the employer-based health-care market that provides insurance to more than 150 million Americans.

Well, other than that, things would be just fine.
Oy vey as Jon Stewart might mutter.

And by all means, please check out the most-best political parody yet on the current political scene — this one on Elizabeth Warren’s campaign for Scott Brown’s Senate seat, and she’s running to “f*ck some sh*t up.”
See the thing at Raw Story.
An example:

In announcing her bid for the United States Senate, Elizabeth Warren explained that she is running so Americans will have the opportunity to use their “revenge voucher” to kick anyone from Wall Street “right in the balls.”
The enterprising candidate also suggested that the wealthy should “stop being such dicks about it” and pay their fair share.
“I want to apologize to Senator Scott Brown and I promise to replace the pair of pants he shit when he found out he might have to run against me,” she added.
“Seriously, I do want to congratulate Senator Scott Brown for starting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — oh, wait, that was me.”

Watch the whole thing, then after it’s over, watch it again.
Mega hilarious, though, wish it were real — Warren by way-far is the most-qualified and most-moral of all the candidates running across this crazed country, and, I’ve a sense she’d be right-OK with a ‘revenge voucher.’