Please excuse my ranting

I know what you're all thinking: "3 posts in one day? Holy crap, Rebecca must be bored at work. No wonder she's not considered essential and is going to be furloughed when the government shuts down!"

And that, my friends, is what I'm going to take a few minutes to rant about right now. Sorry in advance for the tons of caps. I'm angry.

1. Just because a position is considered non-essential for this shutdown DOES NOT MEAN THE JOB IS NOT NECESSARY.  The documents that I own are all for federally-mandated programs. My Agency wouldn't know what to do in this shutdown if it wasn't for a couple of the things I'm responsible for writing. All non-essential means is that if I'm not here for a little while, the world will not end and the sky will not fall. IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT MY JOB SHOULD BE CUT.

2. If the government shuts down solely over the conflict about funding for Planned Parenthood, I WILL BE PISSED. Do I like abortion? Not really, but I can only decide that for myself. Do I like all the other services PP provides, like birth control and cancer screenings? Hells yeah I do. And oh, by the way, funding said organization IS NOT A BATTLE WORTH SHUTTING DOWN THE GOVT AND F-ING TONS OF PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR PAYCHECKS.

3. I love how the Tea Partiers want to talk about how the Military is untouchable budget wise, but say go ahead and shut the government down. I wonder if these people realize that their kid in Iraq / Afghanistan / underway / whatever WILL NOT GET A PAYCHECK ON TIME. For all those junior enlisted guys who are barely above the poverty line as it is, that's gonna be a HUGE problem. So Tea Partiers, wanna rethink that?

4. All those sightseers who want to come to DC and see museums and monuments are going to be roaming around our fair city BORED TO DEATH, because all of that stuff is going to be closed. Sucks to be you, especially if you thought the shutdown wouldn't affect you.

5. I apologize to any and all people that I have been straight bitchy to this week. This shutdown thing is affecting my mood because who doesn't prefer their vacation paid? I mean, as much as I miss spring break, at least when I was in school my (itty bitty) paycheck was still the same in the months when I had breaks. This one? Not so much. And since all of the free things to do (see the museums and monuments referenced in #4) will be closed, its not gonna be much of a vacation. Maybe I shouldn't have taken April off from classes after all...

6. There has been SO MUCH rumor and misinformation put out about this whole thing that it makes me sad. I know the individual agencies have been limited in what they're allowed to put out, but at the very least they should be allowed to do some rumor control. Its REALLY bad. Slowly, as we get closer to the actual day of, the info is getting clearer and more accurate, but I heard and saw more BS at the beginning of this week...

7. REALLY??? The Republicans propose another week CR that completely funds the DOD for the rest of the year and WANTS TO INCLUDE A BAN ON FUNDING ABORTION IN DC IN IT??? THIS IS NOT THE F-ING TIME FOR THIS PEOPLE!!!! Of course the President rejected it. But now the Republicans (esp the Tea Partiers who seem to think most Americans care about abortion RIGHT THIS SECOND) are going to say see? The President and the Democrats want a shutdown! NO THEY DON'T - THEY WANT YOU TO STOP BEING STUPID. GRRRR.

OK, that's enough. You get my drift, I'm annoyed and angry and to make it clear, I blame everyone for this. Perhaps the Republicans a little bit more in the moment, but if the Democrat-controlled Congress had just passed a damn budget before the start of the Fiscal Year (WHICH WAS OCTOBER FREAKING 1ST) then we wouldn't be in this position.

But hey, on the plus side, the weather's supposed to be getting warmer, I'm behind on several of my TV shows, and my "to read" list in my Kindle has been building. So at least I've got that...