Procedural Votes, Flim flamming the voters

With a government shutdown only 5 hours away, the House is conducting three procedural votes.  This should not be happening.  The only thing a legislature should vote upon is passage of a bill into law.  "Procedural votes" are a way to kill a bill with out seeming to.  The procedural issue is cloaked in bafflegab so we voters and the ignorant media have no idea what such a vote means.  Members can vote to kill or pass something controversial without appearing to do so. 
   If we wanted a functional Congress we should outlaw procedural votes of any kind.  Members get to vote on a published bill, yea or nay, and your vote is counted and reported to your constituents.  No mystery votes allowed.  Truth in government. 

Will the young buy Obamacare insurance?

Probably not.  Most young people have jobs with big companies that already offer health insurance.  Obamacare is selling to the less fortunate who lack employer health insurance, and the self employed. Most of these people lack the money to buy any kind of health insurance.  They will sign up if it is free, but they can't afford  to pay for much.  They just don't have the money. 
   Plus, when you are young and single, and in good health, you don't really need insurance.  If you get sick, probably a single doctor visit and a prescription  will fix you up.  Maybe $400, every couple of years.  Why insure against that?
  Plus, if there is an accident, and the ambulance drops you off at the emergency room, they will bandage you, stop the bleeding, and set the fractures, whether you have insurance or not.  

Obama REALLY wants to negotiate

With Iranians that is.  With House Republicans, not so much. 
I hear TV pundits, even on Fox, claiming that the Iranians are just going for nuclear power.  Yeah right.
Iran wants the bomb, has paid out plenty so far, and isn't going to give up.  So what's to negotiate?

Road Trip to Rutland

Vermont that is.  Long trip, left the house at 8 AM, didn't get back til 5 PM.  Didn't feel like posting last night.  Rutland is way over on the other side of Vermont, the only way there is old US4, 42 miles from White River Junction.  It's scenic, very scenic.  The leaves are on the verge of turning, but not quite there yet.
  US4 is only two or three lanes, curvy, lotta No Passing signs.  Traffic moves along until it piles up behind some leaf peeper doing ten miles under the speed limit.  Since everyone up here drives ten miles above the speed limit, that is really slow.
    A good big engine makes the passing game less white knuckle.  The 4.6 liter V8 in the Mercury is adequate, but could be better low down.  The slushbox doesn't downshift as far as it ought to.  A good four speed manual would help the car, but they haven't made those for 30 years.  The DeVille, with the same size engine had 30 more horsepower and was quicker, much quicker.  Got better gas mileage too.  To its credit, the Mercury handles better than the DeVille.  I could wrap it around mountain curves at 70 mph no sweat.  The DeVille always felt a little twitchy doing the same thing. 
   Oncoming drivers are more uptight these days.  I had one pull over on the shoulder, and another one blow his horn and wave his fists at me.  I guess few people pass anymore.
    Rutland is big for an upcountry town.  Has a branch of UBS and one of Morgan Guarantee, both pretty fancy high finance outfits.  We don't have anything like that in Littleton. I took in the train show at the Howe Center.  Then I checked out the two book stores that showed up on Google maps.  They were both literary stores, shelves full of main stream fiction, poetry and left wing political rants.  Me, I'm looking for light reading, science fiction, adventure, history, or science.  I didn't find anything.  Business was slow for a sunny Saturday afternoon. 
   

Obama is eyeball to eyeball

with the House of Representatives.
When it was Assad of Syria, Obama blinked.   How scary is John Boehner?   Will Obama blink for him?

Not raising the national debt limit is NOT default

Obama has been saying that he will default on the obligations of the United States (treasury bonds) if Congress doesn't raise the federal debt limit. 
   That's scare mongering.  Tax revenue is enough to cover two thirds of the federal spending.  So pay off the bonds with tax revenue, pay the armed services (you're gonna need 'em).  Pay social security 'cause of the political uproar that will result if you don't.  Furlough all the civil servants, except maybe air traffic controllers. Stop buying (or at least paying for) new toys for the armed services.  Stop highway construction, farm subsidies, Congressional pay and benefits.  Close down Agriculture, Health & Human Services, Transportation, Commerce, CIA, NSA, EPA, FDA.  If you run out of money, pay suppliers (including medical suppliers) with IOU's.  We can make it.  We might even find we can save serious money.

First Test Flight for Bombardier CS100

After $3.4 billion and 5 years development, The CS100 airliner made it's first test flight.  CS100 is an ordinary looking twin engine jetliner with 110 seats.   That's small, the bread and butter Boeing 737 seats 150 to 170, but it's big enough to be a real inter city airliner, rather than a puddle jumper.  Bombardier has 177 firm orders for it.  Boeing and Airbus have a competitor.  
   It is the first airliner to use Pratt and Whitney geared turbofan engines which promise extra good fuel efficiency.  P&W has great hopes set on the geared turbofan.
   If this works out, it will promote Canada in to the very select club of nations advanced enough to manufacture airliners.  Right now the club consists of the US, the Russians (barely), France and Germany (Airbus).  That's pretty small.  The Chinese have a project going but not going well.