Happy July 1st, Everyone. The year is already half gone. I could say a few things about that but I would rather save the profanity for other matters. The time just goes so fast. I got everything I wanted to do done yesterday in the gardens. Most of it was taking one section of trellis down, along with the containers I had hanging on it, and moving it a bit. I put some of the containers too far down and they were overshadowed by the pepper and eggplant. Now that I have repositioned things, those plants should be happier and the bean vines have a place to wander on. I did pick a couple of tomatoes yesterday and I saw a couple of beans I should pick.

I said a couple of days ago that we would miss Robert Byrd and I was so right. The bill to extend jobless benefits for the long term unemployed failed again. According to this HuffingtonPost story it would have passed had he been there to vote for it. I don't know about anyone else but I think the rules that require a supermajority to avoid a filibuster are crap. Anything that has a 57 to 38 majority SHOULD pass. I don't think it will change after the elections either. I don't think either party will gain such a majority.

And then there is this load of crap I found on MSNBC. Like the Terminator the Katrina trailers keep coming back. And the asshole who says it is 'no big deal' needs to live in one himself, with his wife and kids, for as long as a single worker has to.

Remember the swine flu emergence last winter? Well, here is the finale. As much as 40% of the vaccine produced to meet the expected epidemic will be incinerated as it passes its expiration dates. This is really a 'damned if you and damned if you don't' situation. The waste is incredible but imagine the outrage if the flu had been as deadly and communicable as everyone feared. Neither of us got the shot. We were not in a high risk group and had only minimal contact with people in high risk groups. Mom got the regular flu but by the time the swine flue vaccine was available for her it was evident that the emergency was no longer an emergency.

Has anyone else been getting inserts in your bank statements (if you still get hardcopies in the mail) or e-mails from your bank trying to persuade, cajole or terrify you into getting overdraft protection? Well, today is the deadline for consumer protection law which requires them to allow new account holders to 'opt-in' if they want over-draft protection. This article explains the situation very well. We have been getting these notices regularly but have decided against opting in. We would rather suffer the embarrassment of having a purchase declined that pay the fee. The one thing that worries us is the possibility that our free checking might no longer be free. I established mine when I first moved to this area ten years ago and discovered I qualified for the senior checking account with free checks and no maintenance fees. I closed one account at another bank during a period of unemployment when I no longer qualified for the free checking account because I no longer had an employer who automatically deposited my pay check and couldn't maintain a minimum balance. The fees would have eaten up what little I had in that account.

This piece from firedoglake epitomizes the hypocrisy of our so-called deficit hawks. I would love to see Democrats grow the backbone necessary to apply the 'how are we going to pay for it?' argument to Iraq and Afghanistan.