(Former EPA Administrator on furlough. Photo EPA)

This has been an interesting morning for a variety of reasons that I can’t go into for reasons of client confidentiality. So, we will have to do something else.

I don’t want to beat a dead-horse, but all I can think about are the antics surrounding semi- and highly selective- Government shut down. I think the Commissary is open, again, and thank goodness the Ft Myer Liquor Store never closed.

So I am OK until the VA and pension checks don’t come in a few weeks. That will be a major personal watershed, since it appears possible that we could stumble into the debt ceiling and still manage to pay the interest on the National Debt before we start starving Grandma and the Vets.

But that shows how subjective this is. A lot of people do not have much to do with the Feds on a daily basis, and a lot of other people do. The less interaction you have, the less it seems to matter. I imagine it is sort of like getting a partial haircut.

I don’t know. That seems like strolling to the brink of the Abyss just to see what the view might be. I expect it is pretty spectacular, but I would prefer not to find out.

It certainly matters to some of us. One pal is really hot at the GOP because his son is not getting paid, regardless of the fact that the House passed a bill to cover retroactive compensation for the Feds. For his part, Mr. Reid in the Senate is holding firm that he will not do business piecemeal, and only one, big, clean bill will do to fund everything.

Everyone is confused, or pissed. A pal from one of the three-letter agencies wrote to say this:

It looks like our paychecks will be deferred until this whole budget mess gets resolved. Kind of off-putting to think that there are feds at, oh, hell, I dunno, Agriculture who are going to get paid when this is all over but they get to spend their time at home, playing with their kids, pursuing their hobbies. I will get paid when this is all over yet I’m here…

My rebellion is that I am not wearing suits and ties. My excuse is “Those nice work clothes require dry cleaning. I’m not getting paid and if it is between going grocery shopping or paying for dry cleaning I’m gonna’ eat. And so are my wife and kids…”

I understand a lot of people are growing Furlough Beards. Not being particularly hirsute I couldn’t go that route. Logically enough, I decided to get a Mohawk last week not expecting that we would be back so soon. I figured “Hey, I’m 46, I’ve always wanted a Mohawk and when else will I get the chance?” And then I got called back to work. Kept the Mohawk. Good thing I didn’t dye it red…”

We have been through this 17 times in living memory, and about half the time the Continuing Resolutions are “clean,” and about half the times they are not. It seems to me that an omnibus CR that has all sorts of provisions to cover back pay and stuff rapidly ceases to be anything like “clean,” but what do I know?

My kids are still drawing a check, so I am not as personally involved, and won’t be until the Feds short me at the bank.

For the moment, anyway, the Park Service continues to get the “bully” epithet that has been pinned on it for the in-your-face conduct of its employees across the country. Armed Rangers versus senior citizens at Yellowstone, cops-and-robbers chases at the Gettysburg National Military Park, closing the Grand Canyon.

My pals sent me snippets from around the country about armed Rangers getting into it with the citizens who theoretically own the land from which they are being ejected: Scenic Rivers, historic Inns, etc., etc.

It is all quite remarkable, and clearly directed from what some wags are calling the Spite House.

This is, of course, about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and there is enough that is really wrong with it from a technical basis to merit some additional time to think it through. Couldn’t we compromise on that?

The administration could spin it as a victory of reason, just as they said that delaying the Employer Mandate was. But no one wants to blink, or give the other side anything that looks like a win.

The PP-ACA website is a symptom of the train wreck. The Administration has pronounced it a success, with the problem just being “high volume” traffic due to intense support for the Act, and whatever problems exist will be quickly fixed.

Maybe. But doesn’t it tell you that this thing is half-baked? Shouldn’t someone have anticipated the volume like the designers of the Bush-era Medicare Part D website did? Just for the record, I opposed that, too, because it did not look like we could afford it. But that apparently isn’t something that either the Stupid Party or the Corrupt Party seem to care about.

Wait, isn’t that why we are where we are?

Looking at the IT side of the thing, experts who have looked at the code behind the web portal say it is built to fail. For example, when a user attempts to get an insurance quote by clicking into the options, that act triggers 92 scripts – the equivalent of a self-inflicted Distributed Denial of Service attack.

Then there’s the problem of the incompatibility of state and federal software, and the fact that the majority of those who think they’ve signed up for insurance actually haven’t.

The website, as every hacker and scam artist now knows, is also a personal data privacy disaster area- and whether we participate or not, all of our crap is in the databases of HHS and the IRS, and accessible to the minimum-wage Navigators and anyone with a modicum of hacking skills.

You would think we might have a little bi-partisan time-out to take a breath, get the Government open again and fix this disaster in the interest of everyone concerned- which we are now starting to realize is all of us.

None of the arguments from either side seem to make much sense outside the context of the 2014 elections, and trying to demonize the other side to cement a triumph at the ballot box that will close out the Obama Administration with either continued stalemate or the opportunity to pass some more signature legislation.

Based on how we are doing with that so far, I would not hold my breath in anticipation of anything good.

Jeeze, I am thinking about growing my own Mohawk and a beard.

(Mr. T may be the only one who has this whole thing right. He pities the fools.)

Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303