Shut it down boys and girls

SHUT DOWN ... it's coming. Much like the pending doom of the Atlanta Braves in the playoffs, the government shutdown is coming.

And the WSJ is actually throwing shots in opinion pieces at POTUS. Yes, you read that correctly, the WSJ is not bowing down to POTUS and actually spreading out the blame.  Yeah, I know, I just had to change my depends as well because I never knew that such opinions were possible. Put on a new diaper, take your blood pressure meds and read below:

"We've criticized GOP Senator Ted Cruz for his strategy to make defunding ObamaCare a requirement of funding the rest of government. He and his allies know that Mr. Obama can never agree to that, and even millions of Americans who oppose ObamaCare don't agree with his shutdown ultimatum. It risks political damage for the House and Senate GOP in 2014 even as Mr. Cruz builds his email list for 2016.

Yet it takes two to tangle, and Mr. Obama is as much to blame for the partisan pileup as Mr. Cruz. This is a President who is eager to negotiate with dubiously elected Iranian mullahs but can't abide compromise with duly elected leaders of Congress. He refuses to negotiate at all over an increase in the federal debt limit, claiming this has never happened. Like so much that Mr. Obama says, he knows this is false. His own staff suggested the spending sequester during the 2011 debt debate, and Democratic Congresses have used the debt limit to extract concessions from Republican Presidents.

Mr. Obama also refuses to bend on any part of ObamaCare—except when he unilaterally announces bending in his own political interest. He decided on his own, and contrary to the plain text of the law, to delay for a year the business mandate to provide insurance for employees. He also unilaterally delayed verifying the income of Americans seeking subsidies. He did this to pile more people into the ObamaCare exchanges, lest they fail, and to limit the harm to job creation before 2014.

Yet now he'd rather see the government shut down than accept the ObamaCare compromises that House Republicans have put in their latest government funding bill. He refuses to delay the law for a year though his own actions reveal it is not ready for prime time. And he won't even accept repeal of the medical-device tax that 79 Senators, including 33 Democrats, are on record as supporting. The tax is already hurting innovation and sending jobs overseas.

Mr. Obama's refusal to negotiate suggests that he wants a shutdown—either over the budget or debt limit. His agenda is dying on Capitol Hill, because of Senate Democrats as well as House Republicans. With his approval rating down and independents leaning toward the GOP, he figures his only chance to salvage a second-term domestic legacy is to restore Nancy Pelosi as Speaker in his final two years. His best opening to make that happen is a shutdown or debt-limit crisis that he will try to blame on Republicans. A shutdown is as much his strategy as it is Mr. Cruz's."


Link to opinion on WSJ

Shut 'em down

I hope Shut Em Down by Public Enemy's playing over the loud speaker through every hall, building and office in Washington D.C.  And yes, I completely see the irony of Public Enemy playing across the halls of Washington as a shutdown is about to occur especially with Chuck's affiliation to Obama.

No, I don't want the government to shutdown but part of me kinda wants it because I'd like for the public to perhaps act on the stupidity that runs (and ruins) this nation. It starts with the worst POTUS of my life time (yeah, yeah, yeah, Bush was bad but he didn't destroy the integrity of the presidency and at least he could answer questions off prompter) and goes all the way down to the intern will to sleep with anything to get a political job. They are all bad ... get rid of all of them.  Vote every last one of them out of office ... liberal, conservative, moderate ... they all have to go. Put people from our top corporations in office ... run the country like a business.  Do something ... anything.

Why can't we find different people to run for office? When I think through the options on my last voting ballot, all the options were basically the same except labeled independent, republican or democrat. I've always written in people not because I"m throwing my vote away, because I'd rather vote for something rather than some ass hat that's grandstanding for a few more minutes on CNN.

And while we are at it, let's take the 24-hour news cycle with them. Any chance we can figure out a way it can be "shut down" with the government?  I'm tired of seeing "breaking news" stories only to tell me that Wolf Blitzer has an interview with some Senator that no one really cares about ... or Sheppard Smith just got breaking news that someone is going to be holding a press conference about something in a few minutes. Why not make "breaking news" about ... wait for it ... actual breaking news? Why not cover news instead of trying to create it?  Ugh, and it's only Monday! Can you tell I worked all weekend? I could go on for hours, but alas, I will not.  I leave you with an angry Chuck D and Shut Em Down.

Time to Awaken The Nation

I'm bleeding out ...

Ok, that's a bit excessive but I'm traveling (shocker) and left my nice, Mach 26 razor at home. The hotel hostess heard me and was nice enough to give me a disposable razor and some shaving cream to use. The yellow and orange, single blade razor was new to me and I figured, how could this be bad? It's only one razor?

After about seven seconds of using the world's worst razor, I'm pretty sure I need stitches. I finally have a gash on my right cheek (I've wanted one for years) but sadly, its from shaving, not a fight with a terrorist.  Note to whomever is reading, never use the disposable razor.  Use a knife instead ... you will have better results.

I'd say this pretty much sums up the last couple of weeks ....

Yup, pretty much my mantra.  I'm blaming it on genetics ...

Everyone must get one of these!

Nothing like getting to second base on national television

Looks like this guy had more on his mind than the Braves game last night.  I'm not sure, but his date doesn't seem too comfortable with the situation.  Damn the torpedoes, this guys' getting to second base no matter what!

We should all listen to Tony Blair

The Honourable Tony Blair was on Piers Morgan last night and gave a fantastic interview (especially for CNN). I've always been a Blair fan (sorry English friends) and I couldn't agree more with some of his quotes / comments last night:

 "The trouble with these people is they're prepared to fight without hesitation, kill without mercy and die without regret. So what that means is in any situation where they're involved, they're going to be tough to beat. Now, in my view, you do have to beat them."

I could share lots of comments about the quote and some of his other comments, but instead, watch the video.  I'm fully on board with his comments and I'm glad to see Piers talk about something else other than Obamacare.

Here's the video link because blogger refuses to let me post a video ... stupid blogger.

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2013/09/24/pmt-tony-blair-on-middle-east.cnn.html

Somebody has a case of the Mondays!

Yeah, I've got a case of the Monday's so there's not much in this Monday morning ramble that will be that great.  At least I warned you ...

• The Emmy's were boring.  I think they should merge the Emmy's and Porn awards ... that would make it much more entertaining. 
• Music Midtown was this past weekend and I chose (wisely) not to go.  I love listening to all my friends / co-workers that braved the monsoon rains to go and this morning basically can't talk or have early versions of the flu.  I'll be super excited when it spreads through out the office 
• College Football this past weekend was terrible. I'm no fan of the NCAA but I'm starting to be less of a fan of the schedule makers.  There were maybe three games that were watchable.  And hats off to Urban Meyer for throwing on a hapless opponent up 60 in the second half. I guess the highlight would be that he didn't throw the ball to Aaron Hernandez. Keep it Klassy Urban! 
• And that's really all I have to say about that.  I sent a co-worker an email this AM stating that "today is going to be amazing" so I'm off to go sprinkle some pixie dust on stuff and make magic happen. 

What's the deal with op-eds?

Last week it was Putin, this week it was McCain ... today, it's the president of Iran (Rouhani). For the record, I miss Balky because I could make comments about Perfect Stranger, but anywhoo ... back to op-eds.

Why the sudden influx of op-eds? Does no one want to throw a video up on YouTube?

After listening to a few people (not co-workers) talk about op-eds, it made me wonder if people actually understood the definition of an op-ed.  To clear it up, an op-ed is not:

• An endorsement by a publication of an idea 
• An endorsement by a country of an idea 
• The thoughts of the people 

An op-ed is a paid vehicle where high profile people / companies go to explain a situation.  In the case of Putin, the op-ed was put in place by a PR firm, Ketchum. No clue about McCain's or Rohani's but I'm going to assume there was some slick, silk suit wearing PR person behind the scenes. The reason for the education is that I've heard so many head-scratching definitions / thoughts behind the op-eds that its made me laugh out loud ... mainly b/c they are a tool I've used (in the past) for work.   

So now that the education is over ... the op-eds are kinda entertaining.  I love how everyone is getting excited, angry and frustrated over them.  They are a speech placed into words in a paper. I also find it more amusing that said politicians don't put up a YouTube, FB or Instagram video. Clearly, they didn't want their voice heard or else they would have gone to social media instead of a dying medium that has a paid subscription base online. 

So that's my political / education rant for the month. I'm going back to bad political commentary and sports comments. 

Yup, I'm injured again ...

While trying to get in shape for a half marathon, Jed decided to head out for a nice job.  Around the two mile mark, Jed found some concrete and a tree and decided to run into it, fall to the ground and injure his foot.  After a week of limping around, Jed headed to the medic to find out that he's got a nice lil fracture and a sprained foot. The good news - not much you can do about it except chew on advil.  The bad news - no half marathon for Jed.  Pretty sure Jed's going to move into a bubble soon if things don't get better.

Oregon Ducks!

This past weekend, I headed to the left coast for some work ... and some Oregon Football.  I've always wanted to see the Ducks play and I was finally allowed to see Oregon v. Tennessee.

Eugene is a very interesting place.  Its very relaxed and I think that has a lot to do with the giant hash cloud that is surrounding the city.  Here are some other things I noticed:

• Amazing athletic facilities .... best I've seen. You can tell that when Nike puts their money against something, the results are incredible
• Puddles the Duck is an amazing mascot ... best in College sports. Yes, better than Uga. 
• They don't tailgate out west. Very odd but they really don't sit around or have the tech set ups you see across the SEC
• The fans are incredibly nice 
• Oregon's entrance is awesome.  It's more College Football theater than X and O's and full on hitting.  I'm not taking anything away from the Ducks, but there is a tremendous difference between how they warm up than any SEC team I've seen
• The team is small and incredibly fast.  Fastest I've ever seen.  
• Autzen isn't very large, but its incredibly loud.  
• We never got to see Puddles in person, but I'm pretty sure when he was on the field he was looking for me ... I'll share pictures. 

Overall, I'd tell anyone and everyone to goto Autzen to see the Ducks play.  It's an awesome experience and glad and can tick that one off the bucket list.  

Never Forget, Never Surrender

I was just at the 9/11 Memorial site and it is truly a moving experience. I remember 9/11 as if it was yesterday and I'll never forget watching it in my office lobby while talking to Jeff Mullins about what was unfolding.  I'll also never forget standing out side with WWJCD and panicking a bit when fire trucks flew down the road and military helicopters scream across the sky.

And I remember sitting with my family listening to President Bush. And I remember watching Bush yell on a megaphone to the crews at the site. And I remember holding a candle outside of Highland Tap singing God Bless America the days following. And I remember all the soldiers I've known that have fought for us and come home injured, haunted or gave the greatest sacrifice for us all and didn't come home at all.

I will never forget ... and we as a nation (the people not politicians) will never surrender. We may have politicians now and in the future that apologize for this nation, but we as a nation are people that will never apologize and will never forget who we are and what we stand for.  We must remember what Aristotle said, "Those who cannot bravely face danger are the slaves of their attackers" and continue to stay frosty!

Welcome!

Welcome to Jed Like's To Ramble. Previously, Jed created a blog called No Where Near Berlin that followed his travels around the World. Then, Jed got married and created a blog called Journey To Camelot (which is still live). But since JTC focuses on experiences with his wife, it really doesn't allow him to let loose the crazy ... so we give you Jed Like's To Ramble.

And Jed's going to ramble about a lot of things ... at all times.

So comment, like, hate ... Jed doesn't care.  And remember, careful of your comments because Jed's fought off Russians, Cubans and North Koreans so he is a pretty testy individual.

God Bless America!