If you are shopping in most of the larger chain supermarkets in Florida you may notice that certain items have a yellow tag with “WIC” on them. You will see them on the dairy case, the bread shelves, the produce section, but not on processed ‘foods’, snacks, or meat. Those tags identify items that have been approved for Florida’s version of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and are contained in the WIC foods listing [PDF].

This is all real food, with the possible exception of some of the approved cereals, selected by the Department of Health to improve the nutrition of pregnant women, new mothers, and children from birth to age 5. The Wikipedia article notes that the US Department of Agriculture says that the WIC program serves just over half of all infants born in the US.

When the government shuts down, so does this program. They obviously don’t care that they are taking food away from children.

The Senate has tabled [essentially removed] the House Amendments to the Continuing Resolution, which means they will vote later today on the same resolution they have already sent to House.

It is up to the House, as it always has been.

Boehner can either send the Senate version to the floor for a vote, or the government starts shutting down. It is John Boehner’s choice.

[Note: I found out about this on the BBC, and verified via the Congressional Votes link under Sources in my right side bar. The US media has apparently not noticed yet, as they are busy interviewing House Republicans.]

Position: 27.4N 43.8W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: East [090°] near 8 mph [13 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 85 kph].
Wind Gusts: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 60 miles [ 95 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1005 mb ↓.

Currently about 1300 miles [2095 km] East of Bermuda.

While the intensity of the storm seems settled, the steering isn’t certain on the long term.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

The Constitution mandates that spending bills originate in the House of Representatives. The current Congress has had 9 full months to pass the necessary spending bills but they have failed which is why a Continuing Resolution is necessary.

This House only meets three days a week, and has taken recesses that last weeks whenever they feel like it. They have spent less time doing their job than the pre-school students they resemble. Given their lack of productivity taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay them more than minimum wage for the hours they are actually doing the job they were elected to do.

The House hasn’t done its job, and now it wants to extort the Senate and President to take actions they don’t want to take in the same bill that has to be passed to because of the failure by the House.

It is very bad policy to negotiate with extortionists or terrorists.

The entire blame for this mess belongs to the Republicans in the House. They caused the problem, and they are blocking the solution. They want to prove they will shut down the government and they will default on the National Debt unless they get what they want.