SAR #13250

Remember the Maine!

Late Innings: Not only have the Brits, the UN and Nato declined Obama's invitation to the dance, President Putin was crude enough to point out that Secretary of State Kerry was “lying and he knows that he is lying” when he assured the US Senate that Al-Qaeda is not a major force in the Syrian rebellion. But Kerry carried the day in the Senate, where the Foreign Relations Committee's bill not only give O'Bomber authority to start a war with Syria, it includes a provision that makes regime change the goal of the exercise. 'Regime change'. Where have I heard that phrase before?

The Band Plays On: According to the Labor Department unemployment increased a tad or decreased a tad or more or less stayed where it's been for a year or so, at a not-yet-upwardly revised 323,000. Wowser.

Going, Going, Gone: JPMorgan Chase says it is getting out of the student loan business before it collapses because it cannot compete with the federal government. Don't know why not, they're getting funds from the Fed for nothing and loaning it out for big bucks. Maybe they've got inefficient paper pushers. Or maybe they smell a bubble bursting soon, as graduates keep discovering that most of America is still depressed and there are no jobs, so paying back their college loans is... difficult.

Marking Time: UN Global Warming researchers have resurrected the old Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Doomsday Clock and set the hands at five minutes to midnight. Optimists.

Sleazy: Georgia's governor and its insurance commissioner, both of whom are doing their evil best to obstruct implementation of the Affordable Care Act in Georgia – and proudly boasting of doing just that – are both on the RealPAC payroll. RealPAC, which hasn't filed its required tax forms or financial disclosure documents for two years, is funded by Aetna, Humana, Blue Cross, and United Health Care.

Getting It Right: Now that the liberal French have embraced austerity, the austerians say they are doing it wrong. Closing a budget gap by increasing taxation is not, repeat not, the way to do it. They're supposed to be cutting the social handouts, the protectors of the true gospel say. In France?

A Fine Mess, Ollie: The mavens who research such things now assure us that “No password is safe from the new breed of cracking software.” So much for using my dog's birthday and my favorite high-school teacher's nickname.

The Parting Shot:

 Leaves of grass.