* I always forget to plan these things for the blog, but I’m going to be on vacation until Tuesday next week. I guess those days I’m gone you’ll have to go somewhere else to find out what’s happening in the world… or just assume nothing interesting is going on. Probably more arguments about the debt ceiling. Just wait until I get back to find out what happened.

* By the way, still no debt limit deal. I’m kind getting tired of this story. I wish we could talk about something else in politics. But don’t worry, as Obama has found a way to solve this issue: Give yet another speech! Yes, he spoke during prime time last night; I’m not sure what was said, though. I wasn’t going to watch it, so I thought I’d just read the commentary of some pundit who did watch it, but I can’t find anyone who did. I looked, and there is no evidence anyone watched it. I don’t think even the most faithful Obama supporters can pretend there’s anything to gain from listening to him talk; in fact, they probably find it easier to delude themselves that Obama’s competent if they don’t ever listen to him speak.

* Don’t worry, though: Harry Reid has a budget plan to save the day. It’s $2.7 trillion in cuts — though $1 trillion of that is from the military winding down in the Middle East, which was already planned anyway. Plus, he included nothing on entitlement reform, so 50% of the budget is untouched. So basically it’s another one of those things where he pretends something is getting done while preserving the status quo. Still, it has no tax hikes in it, so Republicans at least got that concession not to further destroy the economy.

How much, though, do we really expect to solve the debt crisis while a Democrat is still in the presidency? I mean, his sine qua non is spending other people’s money. This isn’t like pushing Bill Clinton into welfare reform; if Republicans get Obama to really hunker down and cut the budget, they will have destroyed everything he loves and his whole purpose of being. If it actually happened, Obama would probably just stay in his bathrobe all day and smoke cigarettes and watch Captain Kangaroo until his presidency was over. Wow, I almost described a utopia.

* While Obama is struggling to avoid making any significant cuts, the American people have their own idea to reduce spending: Repeal Obamacare. Recent Rasmussen poll has 57% in favor of repealing the law. Why is it so unpopular? I guess after it was passed, people found out what was in it.

* People are acting like it’s shocking that Obama said he’d like to “bypass Congress and change the laws on my own.” Don’t all liberals mainly find democracy to be an inconvenience? That’s why they’re always trying to find ways around it, such as getting things changed through activist judges. They just can’t understand why people would think they actually have to convince middle America and those crazy right wingers their ideas are good instead of just imposing them on everyone since they think themselves so gosh darn smart (but, of course, not smart enough to convince anyone their ideas aren’t moronic). In a way, they’re like Saddam Hussein, who would have his sham election — feeling the need to at least pretend democracy is a good idea — and then just go ahead and do whatever he wanted.

Okay; I went a little too far there. It’s not like liberals would idolize someone named “Hussein”.

* The wealth gap between whites and minorities is at its highest level in a quarter century. The average white household net worth is twenty times that of the average black household. This whole thing of having Obama as the first black president was supposed to be a big boon for minorities, but in practical terms, not so much. And it has to be psychologically a problem too. I mean, what if when they had the first black baseball player in the major leagues, instead of Jackie Robinson, they had someone who really sucked at the game? How would that help race relations? Well, hopefully no one blames Obama’s horribleness on his race and instead on his desire to emulate useless white liberals.

* Democrat Representative David Wu, best known for being pictured dressed in a weird tiger suit, has been accused of an unwanted sexual encounter with the teenage daughter of a donor. Pelosi has already asked for an ethics investigation, and combined with Weiner being pushed into resigning, the Democrats are getting a better record on this sort of thing. I mean, you shouldn’t need to praise people for what would usually be considered holding standards of basic decency, but remember that these people are all sociopaths. So baby steps.

* People seem pretty certain Rick Perry is going to enter the presidential race. Even though he hasn’t announced yet, Intrade already has him as the front runner. And it’s hard to see why he wouldn’t get the nomination. He’s the type of conservative the base loves, he’s governor of a state that’s actually creating jobs in this economy, and he’s not Romney. I mean, I could get behind Romney if I needed to, but like so many other Republicans, I really really don’t want to. Oh, and another plus for Perry is he really defuses Obama’s “I inherited this mess from Bush” argument. Perry is in the same economy and inherited the state of Texas directly from Bush, yet he’s not sucking it up. I know there has to be some problem with him, but I don’t know of any offhand. He likes cutting spending, right?

* As I found out from one of those interminable birther e-mails I got, there is now going to be a birther summit. Yay, a big gathering of people all saying stuff like:

“Wow! Obama’s birth certificate sure is faked!”

“Not only that, but there is evidence it is EXTRA DOUBLE FAKED!”

“I did a PDF analysis of the birth certificate, and determined it was a PDF, WHICH CAN BE FAKED!”

Can you even comprehend the stunning innovations that will come out of this meeting of the minds?

In a way, though, I envy these people. Think of living in a world where your concerns weren’t the economy tanking and the country drowning debt, but instead the biggest threat facing the nation were what artifacts you could find in a PDF image. What a calmer, simpler world.

* Community is my favorite comedy on the air right now, and I was quite amused by this photo from their first day of shooting for season three.