Harry Reid finally accepted the reality that the Senate Republicans had no intention of acting in good faith on any agreement regarding the filibuster, and changed the rules for nominations for every job except the Supreme Court Justices.

Mitch McConnell wailed about all of the damage that was done by stopping the Republicans from blocking votes on nominees, even nominees who were later approved almost unanimously. The Republicans will continue to stall nominations in committee and use every procedural trick available to keep anything from being done, but one of the roadblocks has been removed.

Maybe it was a bad idea for the Republicans under majority leader Bill Frist to have brought up the ‘nuclear option’, but in life and politics you reap what you sow. Basically the Republicans got the rule change they suggested when they were in charge, so they really shouldn’t complain.

Position: 41.5N 29.0W [ 9PM CST 0300 UTC].
Movement: East-Northeast [070°] near 28 mph [44 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Wind Gusts: 65 mph [100 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 240 miles [390 km].
Minimum central pressure: 983 mb ↑.

Currently about 265 miles [ 425 km] North-Northwest of the Azores.

The storm has transitioned to post-tropical, so this is the last advisory from NHC.

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.]

I can’t believe I have been blogging for 9 years, but that’s what it says in the upper left sidebar. More than a thousand posts a year, and an average of more than 4 comments for every post – some of us need to go for a better quality of life.

I started to vent my anger at the voters who decided to re-elect the Shrubbery. Within 9 months of taking office the Twin Towers collapsed, and within 9 months of the start of his second term New Orleans drowned. The US voters will never win prizes for their choices.

If Zero and company don’t conspire with the whacko GOP to destroy my retirement I’ll probably be around for a while.