Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year

Technically the U.S. government went over the cliff at midnight, but at the last minute the White House and Republicans worked out a compromise deal on taxes and sequestration.  The Senate whooped it through 89-8, and the House will vote on it later today, which means it could still blow up and we’ll be back where we started.

Hillary Clinton is still recovering in at hospital in New York from a blood clot near her brain.  This development is not necessarily life-threatening, and doctors say she should make a full recovery.  But it does make the right-wingers who said she was faking her illness to get out of testifying before Congress about the incident in Benghazi look like churlish asshats.  But then again, they already were, so no news there.  Two years from today I expect us to be chattering about her standing in the Iowa polls, a year out from the Iowa caucuses.

Marriage equality comes to Maryland today.  It was one of three states that voted by public referendum to legalize the unions over the objections of such ironically-named hate groups like Focus on the Family, the National Organization for Marriage, and One Million Moms.  They had claimed that judges and legislatures had no business overturning the will of the people and no state would allow same-sex marriage if the the people got to vote on it.  Maryland and two other states, Maine and Washington, made that point moot, and now those groups are trying to figure out a way to overturn the elections.  Best wishes to the happy couples.

The last two Cuban day workers at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base have retired, but there’s no legal way for the U.S. to pay their hard-earned Defense Department pension without violating the embargo.  It’s long past time the embargo itself was retired, and without a pension.

Today marks Marty’s thirteenth birthday.  She’s been my friend Brian’s faithful companion since she was a pup, and she’s still going strong.  Best wishes.

And today marks a milestone for my 1988 Pontiac 6000 LE Safari station wagon, which I have also had since it was a pup.  It is now officially 25 years old, thus making it an antique car.

That’s what it looked like when it was twenty years old.  I’ll have more pictures of it later this week when it comes back from the body shop where it’s getting some nips and tucks done to make it ready for its first national AACA show in February.

Happy new year, everyone, and may this one be better than the last one.

8 barks and woofs on “Happy New Year

  1. Happy New Year everybody! Now come on spring!
    My dad had a stationwagon like that only in maroon.
    The Right has always been really mean to women,(remember all that nonsense during the election?) and Hillary is a good target. I hope she recovers soon.

  2. One of the eight “no” votes was cast by Florida’s very own Senator Marco Rubio. This was a very safe vote for him since he wouldn’t stop the bill from passing while preserving his tea party bona fides.

  3. Happy New Year to everyone! And Happy Birthday to Marty, a fine-looking dog. The Pontiac looks great too.

    My big wish for 2013 is no more killings, especially massacres. Please, can’t we just coexist peacefully?

  4. I’d forgotten Marty’s history and the Pontiac’s are inextricably linked. The day I adopted her, we drove her back to my house in the Pontiac. May they both have many, many miles left in them.

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