Good morning to you all.  We did get a bit of sun yesterday--enough to tease.  They say rain today but sun for the next three.  Good.  That covers the holiday when we will be driving over to my sister's for dinner.  Hope the weather is good for your holiday.

The news said that the Republicans have another (the 11th they say though it seems they have had 1000 or more) 'debate' tonight.  I am using quotation marks because the candidates don't really disagree on much of anything--except which of them should be the nominee.  I saw a cute cartoon yesterday which showed a pair of Republican voters looking at three little scaly creatures (one labeled Newt).  One comments: 'Great!! We have a choice between a newt, a chameleon, and a horny toad.'  That about sums it up.

I am totally amused by all of the talking heads and Repthuglicans blaming Obama for the failure of the not-so-Supercommittee.  He, they say, should have inserted himself directly in the process and got this thing done.  Point one: that is not the job of the President.  It is the job of the legislative branch of the government to propose and pass legislation, particularly budgetary bills.  The President can propose and can push for his pet projects which Obama has done.  Point two:  even if Obama had taken a more active role there is no guarantee he would have gotten a deal.  The committee was created out of an ongoing stalemate that, in the end, doomed the committee itself.  Remember the debt ceiling debate?  The formation of the committee did absolutely nothing to change that dynamic.

However, this story indicates that the impasse might actually accomplish what the committee was supposed to do and do it better, or at least produce deeper cuts in the deficit sooner.  I noticed the 'Catch-22' in the story, however.  In a recessionary economy where the consumer isn't consuming to the same heroic extent as in the recent past and business is sitting on as much of their cash as possible, government spending is the only factor keeping it from sliding from recession into depression.  The cuts will probably result in a further deterioration of the economy.  Damned if you do; damned if you don't.  But I hope Obama keeps his pledge to veto any measure each party's partisans have been floating to reduce the impact on their pet programs and thereby evading the repercussions of their failure.

I sympathize with you completely on the effect of the do-nothing committee on the blood pressure.  I think that is why I have taken to limiting my exposure to the broadcast media news.  I keep wondering how those talking heads can 'report' on the clowns  and keep a straight face.  And I am not talking about 'ha ha' funny.  It is more of an 'I can't believe that moron really said that.'

My aren't we such a shining example to the world!!!  I can't say more without raising my blood pressure to dangerous levels and with out becoming totally and profanely incoherent.

Good morning to you all.  We have sun!! At least for a while.  We are supposed to get rain later this evening.

I am a bit conflicted about snow, Kay.  I don't like the notion of having to shovel out the patio or driving in the mess but I also would like a nice blanket of snow to further insulate my containers.  Well, ready or not it will come and probably not in a convenient quantity.

I am not surprised about the failure of the Occupy movement to take off where you are.  I haven't seen any here either.  But then the Tea Party never took off in my area.  I saw only one of those demonstrations here.  I noticed a story on this morning's Good Morning, America that covered a 'backlash' anti-Occupy demonstration in the Northwest (sorry, I forgot exactly where).  I was cynically amused by one of the signed which objected to the annoyance of the Occupy demonstration.  So Americans now seem to want dissent so long as they are not in any way inconvenienced.  I was also somewhat amused by the continued criticism that the Occupy movement has no real expressed demands.  They have about as many specific demands as the Tea Party.  What these two movements tell me is that the whole damned system is broken.  In other words, specific demands make sense when a bit of tinkering will remedy problems but when the entire system is broken a bit of tinkering simply won't cure the situation.  And a good many of us will be more than annoyed by that process.

I absolutely love the title on this article.  That (not-so-)Supercommittee was indeed an end-run around democracy.  But then, perhaps, we should get used to this tactic.  After all, we saw the same thing in Greece and Italy where 'technocrat' (non-elected, non-politician economicst) governments were installed because the politicians (who depend on voters' approval) couldn't do what is being demanded of the without committing political suicide.  I also saw a story over the weekend that claims that Angela Merkel was at odds with David Cameron (Germany and England, respectively) over whether a referendum on certain aspects of the EU treaties should be held.  She thought not (as she also did with respect to the proposed referendum on Greek austerity).  I said when the Greek drama was going on that the governments of Europe (and elsewhere) are in favor of democracy in theory but not in fact.

Good morning, everyone.  It was so dismal yesterday.  Cloudy all day and no rain at all to show for it.  Today is starting out the same way.  So far, thankfully, the real cold and snow has stayed north.  I am not really ready for winter.  Thursday and Friday (Thanksgiving and day after) are supposed to be in the high 50s or low 60s and sunny.  Time to give the plants outside a good watering.

I can only hope the fears expressed in this article comes to pass.  I also am very amused to see how differently the these guys view the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street protests.  I don't remember any misgivings expressed when Repthuglicans embraced the Tea Party.

This is a some pile of tires--visible from space they say.  And it is smaller than a pile found in the 1990s.

Good morning, everyone.  Not much to say on the garden or needlework.  I noticed some ice in the cedar shavings I have as mulch in the containers.  Another sign that the winter is coming.  We had some flurries early last but not accumulation.

CNN had this story yesterday and I notice the local news decided it was news worthy this morning.  The FBI and Homeland Security are investigating, and the attack came through an internet provider in Russia which means nothing much.

Good morning on this chilly Friday.  We expect high winds and the weather reports carried the 'wind chill' as well as the expected temperatures which will probably stay in the 40s.  I checked the plants outside yesterday and found the edges are beginning to freeze.  I may need to water them later.

CNN had a teaser for a new show that details the problems of drawing voting district lines.  That is a hot topic since the census.  Republicans in normally Democratic states, like Illinois, are up in arms because the redistricting favors the majority Democrats while the Democrats in normally Republican states, like Texas, are howling for the mirror image complaint.  The talking heads discussed the strange boundaries in Chicago where the boundaries were drawn, they claim, to protect Democratic politicians.  Problem: I remember when the first of those boundaries were drawn way back in the early 1970s often by court order to remedy a situation where black votes were diluted because they were split among several white majority districts.  That doesn't even take into account the Asian and Hispanic voters.  I don't know which is fairer.

Another CNN piece annoyed me.  They interviewed a black Republican legislator (I don't know if he was a Senator or Representative because I missed the identifier) who touted the Repthuglican position of massive cuts in spending coupled with restructuring the tax code to lower the rates so the 1% pay less.  He bleated pitifully about the '47% who don't pay Federal taxes.'  Well at least he specified Federal taxes as opposed to local and state taxes of which they pay a larger percentage.  Problem:  many don't pay because they don't earn enough to pay after the deductions are taken off.  So somehow it is more reprehensible for a person who earns say $42k a year to take off the standard deduction for self, spouse, and children plus the mortgage deduction and any others they may be entitled to take and find that their net income is so low that they aren't required to pay than those companies who manage to reduce their tax bite to the point where they pay their CEO more than they return to the treasury???  By the way, the $42k is just about the average yearly income in this country.  The median income?  That is about $25k.  Why do I bring that up.  Well the median is the point at which half of the data points (in this case people and their yearly income) fall below and half below.  Of that 47% who don't pay Federal taxes how many fall below that $25k line??  Also consider the fact that the 2011 poverty line for a family of four was set at just a bit over $22k.

Firedoglake has this assessment of the not-so-Supercommittee and its likely output.  I find it amazing that the ratings agencies and the snews media have been so silent on this matter.

Good morning to you all.  There wasn't much to say yesterday.  Let's see what I find today.

Well, I checked the lemon verbena yesterday.  It has been going down hill rapidly over the last week.  I don't know why but the root system was dying.  The soil was moist so I don't think it was the watering.  My books say it likes moist soil.  I will have to do some research.  Next year I will start with a new plant and try the process again.  Everything else is still doing well.

They had a bit of a story this morning about a Target employee who has started an on-line petition against Target's plans to open at midnight on Black Friday.  I totally agree but I doubt my agreement will do much.  I don't shop on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  In fact, I don't shop the whole weekend.  Nor do I shop on Christmas Eve.  I hate crowds and, having spent way too much time in retail, I seriously question the veracity of the 'sales.' And I absolutely hate how our holidays have degenerated into sales opportunities.

Another story rather irritated me.  Some perky financial reporter gushed about the fact that 2 states posted unemployment rates that matched pre-recession levels and the at the others could expect to reach that mile stone by 2012.  We are supposed to be happy that in five more years we might get back to about a 5% unemployment rate??  That, of course, assumes that Europe doesn't go any further down the sewer and drag us with it.

One of the last of the Munchkins from the 1939 Wizard of Oz has died at the grand old age of 93.

Good morning to you all.  I can hardly believe that it is already half past November.  Mom just pulled out her stock of Christmas cards to see if she has enough to cover this year's list.  She doesn't mail them till after December 1, but that isn't that far away.  We have a bit of a warm spell.  Yesterday was in the mid 60s.  Today and tomorrow are forecast to be near 60.  I did get the leaves swept up into my compost bin before the wind picked up.

The mainstream picked up on this story--briefly.  I don't know why we should be surprised.  After all these guys and gals are just following in footsteps of Boss Tweed 130 or so years ago.  Isn't it nice to be able to exempt yourself from the laws others have to follow?  However, as this story proves, we have to be careful about slinging around accusations.  And, it seem, we can't trust the news media to get the facts straight.  I don't much like Boehner but I don't want to see the man pilloried for something he didn't do.

And while they play the market with what amounts to insider information, we pay them $174K/year for a part-time gig and they produce this cockamamie do nothing notion.  So the less-than-Supercommittee agrees on revenue enhancing 'targets' by the Nov. 23 deadline and then refer the details to the regular congressional committees.  Those committees then have to somehow, magically produce legislation that will pass both the committees and congress with a house controlled by Repthuglican/Tea Partiers.  Like that is going to happen!!!