Free at Last, Free at Last!

At long last, the votes have been counted, and it's all over but the shouting.  The debt limit has been raised, burdened by an attachment that purports to address the debt itself.  I must admit that I was wrong. I was betting the voting wouldn't happen until the very last minute Monday night.  They managed to milk the situation until noon on Tuesday, the sadistic bastards! This has come to be par for the course in Washington. And, as soon as the votes are counted, both sides claim victory and smile and make nice and call each other "friends" and assure the American people that all the angst was necessary and just proves the system works, blah, blah, blah. Actually there was only one losing side - the side of the American people. And, the politicians just don't care.

They don't apologize for their ham-handed political theater. Oh, no.  Instead they promise to put us through the same thing in 2013, when the debt ceiling will need to be raised again.  They are counting on the fact that the American voters have short attention spans and even shorter memories.  They may be very surprised, come the next election.  At least, I hope they are.

And, now, we are to have a "Super Committee" to advise us on reducing spending.  Don't we already have one of those? You know, the one President Obama appointed. The one that came back containing Alan Simpson's dream of destroying Social Security?  Oh, that's right.  That committee had only six members. The new one will have twelve, six from the Senate and six from the House.  An equal number of Republicans and Democrats who are doomed to create a Mexican standoff from the first day.  And, there won't be anyone to break the stalemate. Does anybody think this will end well?

Does anybody else wish Hillary would run again? I'd like to see a re-match. How about you?

Stay tuned.

Bye-Bye 2010, and Good Riddance

Here I am, again, back from my self-imposed exile from blogging. That is not to say that I crawled into a hole and pulled it in after me.  At Thanksgiving, Jay and I and our friend, Judy, made our annual trek to Omaha, to visit my daughter and son-in-law. We have done this for many years. It works out well because my daughter is an excellent cook and a week at her house helps me put off my annual attack of Holiday Depression. I have had some form of depression at Christmas time since I was a teenager. I won't go into it here, but suffice it to say that the Ghost of Christmas Past is no stranger to me. 

Anyhoo, we came home the day after Thanksgiving and I settled down to a long winter's three weeks of watching the Democrats in the Senate regain consciouslness long enough to pas a whole slew of very important bills, that the incoming House and Senate members will try to repeal the minute they return from their Christmas recess, starting with Healthcare.

Be sure to tune in this week to hear someone read the Constitution. It's a Republican idea, bu it could be worse. It may be the first time some, if not most, of the House members have heard or read the document, if they bother to show up for the reading, that is.  The first new house rule to rear its ugly head, as I understand it, will be a bill requiring every new bill to include an explanation of which part of the Constitution it pertains to. This should be worth the price of admission.

In other news, Presidential Hopeful, Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi got loose on Fox news the other day and would like you to know that the White Citizen's Council is not a racist organization.  See their Website. Decide for yourself.

Something tells me things are about to get interesting.

Here's wishing everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Stay tuned.