Not much has drawn my attention lately if it contains the name McCain or Obama but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this:

(Due to the format in use by the producer of this video, you may find it faster to view if you click on the link above or the one offered beneath the video)

Satire can sometimes be the best medicine around, even more so when something is as speculative and tension filled as this election cycle has been.

HT:Hot Air

From The Wall Street Journal is a summary of what Congress has found important enough to consider this session. (Subscription may be required.)

WASHINGTON — The 110th Congress, whose term officially ends in January, hasn’t passed any spending bills or attacked high gasoline prices. But it has used its powers to celebrate watermelons and to decree the origins of the word “baseball.”

Barring a burst of legislative activity after Labor Day, this group of 535 men and women will have accomplished a rare feat. In two decades of record keeping, no sitting Congress has passed fewer public laws at this point in the session — 294 so far — than this one. That’s not to say they’ve been idle. On the flip side, no Congress in the same 20 years has been so prolific when it comes to proposing resolutions — more than 1,900, according to a tally by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense.

With the mostly symbolic measures, Congress has saluted such milestones as the Idaho Potato Commission’s 70th anniversary and recognized soil as an “essential natural resource.” As legislation on gasoline prices, tax fixes and predatory lending languish, Congress has designated May 5-9 as National Substitute Teacher Recognition Week, and set July 28 as the Day of the American Cowboy.

Maybe not doing anything else is helpful to the rest of us.

There has been a lot of talk that John McCain knew some of the questions at the Saddleback Forum.

Here is what Pastor Rick Warren has to say about it:

Whatever you do, don’t attempt to do something for the government which might mean a member of Congress won’t get credit or have the ability to funnel money into their home state.

Sadly, members of the DOD are also complicit in this disgraceful behavior.

That is exactly how I felt after reading this:

Retired Glenwood Springs car dealer John Haines’ hope of donating a giant chunk of snow -white marble to the federal government to replace the cracked Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery is stalled again.

Haines’ hoped-for donation, which has sat outside the Yule Quarry near Marble since it was cut for the tomb in 2003, didn’t even rate a mention in a 34-page Department of the Army report to Congress this week on replacement and repair options for the deteriorating tomb.

Haines’ donation creates problems for the federal government because it is free and has not gone through a pricey bidding and specification process. A quarry in Vermont has expressed interest in submitting a bid.

This week’s report — the latest in a string of tomb reports done since Arlington officials decided the marble needed replacing 18 years ago — estimates the cost of replacing the tomb’s marble at $2.2 million — $80,000 of that for seeking bids, $90,000 for buying and transporting the marble and the remainder for sculpting.

Haines made the final payment for his $31,000 piece of marble last week. He also has lined up donated transport for the rock on a flag-decorated flatbed truck. He did all that after receiving a letter from an Army major general five years ago thanking him for his “most kind and generous donation.”

This is absurd. As the Tomb falls further into disrepair, government officials fiddle.

I certainly understand these sentiments as expressed by Mr. Haines:

“I understand how the government works,” Haines said. “But there comes a point when you just say ‘to hell with it.’ ”

What a generous man offering for this remarkable donation for one of our most revered National Monuments. Shame on those who are balking at accepting his kindness.

HT:Blackfive