Demo-Tea-Blicans...

There is a donkey's head attached to an elephant's body (with Lipton bags hanging between it's legs) running Washington...

I am relatively astute in my political views. In large I support the ideas of the democratic party. Equality, a woman's right to choose, but at what cost? I am also a firm believer in a balanced (federal) budget. I mean, come on, we all have that responsibility every month... We have income, we have debts, and for the most part we make the ends meet... ta-dah...  Balanced...

Now for some reality...  September 11, 2001 came along and "we" entered an invasion to "support democracy" in Iraq... No complaints from me, "we" all believed that the evil that attacked us that day was based there and supported by their evil dictator...  Anyone object yet?

Now we start the "Cha-Ching" machine...

Wall Street started it's downward spiral on 9/12/2001, with a lot of Social Security and Federal funds invested in the robust market prior to that dreadful day. I look at the history of my own 401k and feel the pain that Washington "hopefully" felt after the market demonstrated the same characteristics of  "Flight 93" in that Pennsylvania field, the day before...

Cha-Ching...

WMD?... I heard that acronym every day (as I suppose must of us did). Our nation's leaders had all agreed that the tyrant in Iraq had them and they made sure that we all experienced and agreed to the need for continued "support" of the (then) civil war "we" started in Iraq...

Cha-Ching...

GW... (another unforgeable 8 year acronym) Continued to involve "us" in what then became considered the "war on terrorism". The men and women of our military do get paid for their service, as do the "contractors" enlisted to do the "dirty work" our service-members took an oath not to do... (and yes, I voted for the GW once)...

Cha-Ching...

Then comes the banking and auto-manufacturers crisis. I'm not saying that "we" created it, but I do believe that the decade's financial whoas were a tsunami of sorts, propagated and "fear instilled" into all of "us" by the administration.

Cha-Ching...

Welcome to 2009 and the Happy, Dreamy, "Changey" afterglow of a new President (with a same-party Senate and House) being elected... What could be better? I don't know... Maybe the unforgiving mid-terms of 2010? I'm just saying "Maybe" we expected too much of our new Administration, too soon...

There are a few "Cha-Ching" moments between then and today, yet now we have a stale-mate between Congress and the Administration based on deficit reduction... After the elections of 2010 the House is now controlled by the "Elephants and their Lipton bags".  Fiscal responsibility is every member's job. Where were they when we were spending 100's of BILLIONS of dollars in the middle east? (Actually most of them were there voting to "go for it")...  Then along came the extreme right "Lipton-ites". Their bags/balls swinging low and hard against the grain... Americans thought that was "cool" after the "Happy, Dreamy, Changey" thing didn't work out in the first year...

Now comes some reality... Many of my friends and acquaintances here in Virginia are military (or civilians employed by the military). If this Washington shut-down happens (based on the politicians "we" elected)'s inability to come to some sort of compromise or agreement, my friends will not be receiving a paycheck on the 15th (as they would normally)...

"Cha-chunk"

Our elected officials in Washington will, however, receive theirs...  Ask them to refuse their check or deposit (yes that includes the President)...  Let's see how quickly they can resolve the impasse...

"Cha-chunk"

And what about this whole Planned Parenthood proposed ban by the right? They would choose to close down the Federal Government for this? Why not take a few billion from defense spending? Or maybe all our political elected officials take a 10% cut in their offices's spending?

Over, "Out" and a bit cranky today, from Portsmouth, VA