Australia is about to take another weather hit with Tropical Cyclone Rusty slowly coming ashore in the northwest with 200+ kph [125+ mph] winds and the potential to dump 2 feet of rain near the coast. The sucker is really nasty because is just creeping along which means it will take seemingly forever to get by any area.

[The BBC report does all of the conversions for you.]

It’s not the wind, it’s the water, and this thing has both in spades…

In other news from the BBC Chuck Hagel was confirmed by the Senate as the Secretary of Defense, as McCain and Graham claim they weren’t really filibustering him.

Their newest shiny object is the fact that the DHS has released a lot of undocumented people from detention in anticipation of the ‘sequester’. Keeping people in prison is expensive, and the people released were not considered a threat, so DHS is saving money. The Republicans are having a hissy fit because their actions are having consequences they don’t like.

Duncan has been telling them how to fix the problem, simply repeal the law. Congress can’t pass the buck to the President because they have laws on the books requiring the President to spend the money they appropriate. There is also the fact that the Supreme Court has already ruled in the ‘Line Item Veto’ law, that Congress can’t transfer its power to the Executive branch.

Congress is where the amount of money spent is determined, and Congress should get to work. Congress might find if they worked 5 days a week and didn’t take a week off for every Federal holiday, they might get something done. Congress spends more time at ‘recess’ than a kindergarten class.