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See! I could have told you this wouldn’t change anything.

This afternoon I couldn’t wait to get off work and go to my personal computer to read some of the reaction to today’s “big news.” The news, of course, was that President Barack Hussein Obama II finally released his birth certificate — again.

Whenever it was, eons ago, that Obama first released the short form of his certificate of live birth didn’t satisfy those who were absolutely aghast at having a black man in the White House. That is the long and short of it. The national media, mostly the cable networks, loved for the controversy to drag on because it is was more amusing than budget deficits and pages upon pages of health care policy.

But when a man who theoretically could buy his way into the White House threatened Obama’s presidency — I’m talking about Donald “Mr. Bad Hair” Trump whose billions could be overstated — Barack finally relented and released the long form version of his birth certificate. It didn’t change anything and if he had asked me I would have told him that although it isn’t like he would ask me. As this excellent piece from The Christian Science Monitor relates, birthers will still be birthers. And from Politico, the pols spin it to where Obama is the bad guy for engaging in this “distraction” from all those big issues the Republicans don’t really want to discuss.

While I don’t think the White House chose to bring this “freak show,” as it was described by Politico, it certainly wasn’t worth their time and effort. If anything the certificate release will continue the useless hubbub for a few more news cycles to come before the silliness du jour comes around. Barack, you should have asked me. I would have told you what would happen.

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This is intended to be somewhat of a factual post

Some days it is best to just let the links do the talking. That is true, meaning, it is not intended to be a false statement. I suppose that would be the inverse of the answer from a press flak for Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona in response to the senator’s comments on Planned Parenthood during last week’s federal budget debate.

Kyl claimed that abortions were “well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does,” as the womens’ health organization became the whipping boy for Republican opposition to the budget even though it is illegal for Congress to provide funding for abortions in the U.S. Just to leave the (I loathe abortion/I support the right to choose) debate for a minute, Planned Parenthood says abortions are actually only 3 percent of what the organization does. And yes, some debate that number. But Kyl substantiated Planned Parenthood’s claims by default when his flak told reporters that what the senator said “was not intended to be a factual statement.”

Let’s look at that phrase again. It “was not intended,” meaning the senator did not mean to make “a factual statement.” So, it was all said as a lie, big ol’ lie, liar, liar, pants on fire. Well if the statement from the press flak was correct and honest, then perhaps we have a rare example of a politician telling the truth although that is rather doubtful. Kyl and his office, or so it seems, could be just a tad deceitful via their double-speak.

Fly the unfriendly skies

Sen. Inhofe: I think that big X down on the runway means we can land there.

No, this is not about more sleeping air controllers.

This is instead a short mention of Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, yes another Republican, and his problems with landing an airplane.

It seems Inhofe was in South Texas awhile back and as a witness put it, “Scared the crap” out of some folks fixing a runway when the 76-year-old senator hopped over a group of construction workers and six vehicles while landing his Cessna at the Cameron County Airport. The airport had a big “X” on its threshold, which perhaps Inhofe mistook for “land right here.” It could be an Oklahoma thing, or it could be some kind right-wing thing to which those of us who don’t know the handshake are not privy.

The Smoking Gun, which filed a Freedom of Information request for recordings and documents involved in this debacle, lays it all out for the public to see. The FAA made Inhofe take a remedial class and would “expunge” the letter in his file regarding the incident and action in two years provided Inhofe doesn’t’ kill someone first.

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Budget settled for a few months at least.

The budget “showdown” is over for now, thank goodness. With a little luck Congress should have the fiscal year’s budget ready for the president’s signature by Saturday. Then, in less than six months, the fiscal year will end. What a national government!

Having gone through Friday night’s insanity and that of months before between the two parties playing games with people’s lives over the budget, I have a couple of thoughts:

First, if you think that all the so-called “drama” which led up to a budget deal averting a government shutdown only an hour before deadline was pure political drama, think again. What it was was pure government horse pucky.

Second, if you think the government budget battle culminating late Friday evening was strictly about the budget, think again some more. It was all about pure government bull pucky.

Whether it be horse or bull manure, or from a donkey or an elephant for that matter, the so-called dramatic “budget battle” was just a matter of political parties posturing and playing puerile pursuits — for alliteration’s sake. At least the president cleverly had the ability to make it appear he was sitting on the sides acting the grownup’s part. Although as has been the case in several of Obama’s important decisions over the past year I felt his leadership was disappointing.

Nonetheless, Obama came out looking  well to the majority of the public and I think that is good because I don’t see anyone else in the offing in either the Democratic or Republican crop for 2012 who look capable of running the country other than the incumbent.

What? Am I saying Donald Trump wouldn’t make a good president? Exactly, I wouldn’t let Donald Trump run a crawfish race.

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Watch the soap: “As The Government Turns”

The machinery of the federal government is gearing down toward a halt. I know this from personal experience, but I will not go into it just because. No, I could relate some of that familiarity but I see no reason to, it being fairly pedestrian. Besides, we still have more than eight hours to go even though I don’t believe in miracles — at least when the federal government is concerned. By federal government, I include Congress.

Give us your tired, your poor and your idiots, the latter of whom will make our laws.

Military men and women aren’t happy campers, reports Navy Times, for the same reason I am not doing cartwheels. The threat of no pay sometime down the road is on our minds. The American Federation of Government Employees, a mighty fine labor organization I might say, a.k.a. AFGE, is seeking an injunction which would prohibit military and other federal workers who are deemed essential from having to work without pay. The AFGE says they have the Constitution to back them up.

“Hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be required to work during a shutdown, and there’s no guarantee that Congress will keep the administration’s promise to pay those employees once the shutdown is over,” AFGE National President John Gage said.

The suit charges that the Obama administration is violating the Appropriations Clause and Thirteenth Amendment by requiring federal civilian employees to work without pay during a period of lapsed federal appropriations.

Interesting.

Really, there isn’t anything to do but sit back and watch all the foolishness and silliness in this gargantuan soap opera played out by the people who govern the “greatest nation on Earth.”

For a little insanity not directly related to the government shutdown: BP has bought an eastern-facing beach of Cat Island, a barrier island in the Mississippi Sound. The part of the beach is the top of the “T” of the T-shaped island that is about eight miles south of Gulfport, Miss. Parts of the island were long in private hands. So, says a BP press flak,  it would be easier for the company to clean up the beach, due to the massive Deepwater Horizon explosion-caused oil spill which happened one year ago this month, than to have to deal with the regulatory niceties of cleaning up private property. You break it, you buy it, I guess. Candy, I bet. S**t, I reckon.

On that note, I know I am off from my part-time job until at least Tuesday. We shall see if it is longer than that, and if I will be back to begging for donations on the blog if the threatened shutdown materializes.

 

 

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A nice Spring day yet selfishness screws it all up

Here I am at the public library using the computer just like in the bad old days. The computers seem a lot more human-friendly than they did three years ago. Still, I don’t like sitting here under someone else’s deadline to finish. If I was getting paid to write a story, as in my newspaper days, it would be a different story.

It is a warm, humid Spring day in Southeast Texas. It’s my favorite time of the year. I wish I could get out and ride up into the woods, but I can’t right now.

The death watch for the federal government continues. Whether the doors are shuttered due to the unbelievable stupidity of Congress — elected officials who care about abstract concepts which may or may not bear relativity rather than the lives of people — remains to be seen.

What can be seen is that behind all the haughtiness of the Tea Party types and their ideals and concern for deficits more than individuals. One doesn’t even have to see that their drive is derived from simple selfishness. The individual is all that matters is the mantra of the Sarah Palins and Rand Pauls of the world. If you ask me, neither one matters a whole hell of a lot to me. I guess that is just my difference between those folks and this folk.

As I have said before though, at least I know how to live on the street if it comes to that again. I doubt Rand Paul or Sarah Palin could say that. My hope is that it won’t go there.