Damn Congress to Hell

And Congress fails again.

Of immediate interest regarding the shutdown of the government is what effect it will have on renewing my passport.  According to their announcement, passport processing will continue but 'there may be delays.'  What that will mean exactly is impossible to determine.

As with every other failure of government brought about by the posturing and grandstanding by the drama queens in Congress, the people will pay the price for it.  The shutdown won't affect the military or other such components deemed mandatory so instead they will shutdown the national parks and furlough governmental office workers thus bringing to a stop processing for Social Security claims, etc.  They say Social Security will not be affected and that's likely true in terms of existing accounts as they're all computerised.  However, they make no statement regarding pending claims from people who have earned and need government support the most ... and it won't there.  Does anyone seriously think the Congressional payroll will be affected by the shutdown.  Of course it won't.

The hallmark of Congressional performance for decades has been failure rather than success.  They have 'debated' issues regarding abortion for about fifty years with no significant shift from the original ruling.  They have 'debated' issues regarding the Affordable Care Act (i.e. Obamacare) with no shift at all from the original legislation.  And, everyone's favorite, the debt spiral continues growing, the result of which is the tedious drama in shutting down the government.

You probably don't remember the Congressional debate over the billions that were spent and continue to be spent on the NSA data center in Utah.  Of course you don't.  There wasn't any.  You probably also don't know how much is being spent on CIA activity in general.  Of course you don't.  It's classified and isn't even included in the Federal budget released to the public.  Another thing you probably don't remember is the last time the TSA busted a shipment in excess of a ton of heroin.  And of course you don't remember that either as it never happens.

Eight hundred and twenty tons of heroin are being exported annually from Afghanistan and this constitutes ninety percent of the world's supply.  This bears out my previous computation that the U.S. junkies require about a ton of heroin a day thus about three hundred and sixty tons go to the U.S. annually with almost five hundred tons going to Russia and the Eurozone each year.

I have no interest in being a pundit as my purpose is to bring you life rather than the living death of American politics.  However, the current situation affects me directly as what I've been trying to accomplish is to get back to the U.S. in time for my birthday so I have thirty-one days to do it.  I thought that was a realistic goal ... until today.  I'm not feeling sorry for myself ... I'm pissed.  If I had been as incompetent in my job as Congress is at theirs, I wouldn't have lasted thirty minutes much less thirty years.