Online headline: "George Will Joins Fox News, Leaves ABC After 3 Decades" -- Guess he's tired of the "tree in the woods" syndrome... making noise but wondering if anyone heard it.

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Instant repeat - "George Will Joins Fox News, Leaves ABC After 3 Decades" -- Hmmm, guess that means the L-E will drop him from its editorial page.

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The greatest generation... You betcha! An "Honor Flight" of WWII vets were met with barriers at the Washington, D.C. WWII Memorial. As though they were landing on Omaha Beach, they bulled over the barriers and reached their destination. Judas 00- bama was still behind the line in the sand.

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Our WWII vets proved that they didn't need a government escort to tour the WWII Memorial. They just exercised their rights to access to public property on their own terms. Why even rehire the park doormen when the shutdown ends?

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Something I learned at high school last night: " Any student named the Valedictorian or Salutatorian of his or her eligible high school is also eligible for the "Zell Miller Scholarship". You know, we had 3 high schools here in Columbus who had no student qualify for the "S.T.A.R." program, yet those schools' 2 students named valedictorian and Salutatorian get the same Zell Miller level scholarship as other schools Valedictorians and Salutatorians. Hardly seems "fair".

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Citizens can't tour parks or the White House, but the Post Office will try to pawn off Muslim stamps on us. Ain't AmeriKa grand?

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Online headline: "AOL USERS BLAME DEMOCRATS BY SMALL MARGIN FOR GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN" -- Wow! Imagine what it would have been if Obamaphones were excluded!

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How did McClatchy get info to pass along to al Qaida? I thought NSA had a "lockbox" for all those calls & emails.

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L-E story: "John Van Doorn, chairman of the Muscogee County Democratic Party, said his reaction was characterized by four different emotions -- disbelief, empathy for affected federal workers, resolve in the face of "a far-right ideology," and sorrow. * "These people lost the election, lost the votes," he said. "There's no legitimate way they can do this." -- "These people lost the election"? Excuse me, but the House far better represents the vote and the "feelings" of "these" and every other "people". House representatives are the only ones elected to go to Washington that actually reflect every citizen's vote. Each state gets two Senators, so Rhode Island, Vermont and other small states gets as big a voice as we Georgians, or Texans do. At last count, the House Republicans represent the voice of voters in 234 out of 435 equal (+/-) sized districts, and the Republican voice should be considered louder and more representative of mine AND Van Doorn's voice.

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Richard Hyatt, L-E columnist, is a good read today. It reminds me that in 1990, when I ran for Mayor, one of the ideas I threw out was to tear down the aging (at that time, I had attended baseball games at Golden Park in 5 different decades) Golden Park as it was the perfect location to erect a new Civic Center that would anchor Broadway to the downtown area, and promote other hospitality ventures along the southern side of the river. In lieu, build a new outdoor baseball/concert facility in the northern side (specifically, I suggested the area now occupied by Carl Gregory off Veterans and near the J.R. Allen bypass). Having such a new facility at that location would expand the draw and appeal for events and consumers, and such a facility would be an attractive site for the 1996 Olympic baseball games which were going to NEED places to play outside of Atlanta. Council was already entertaining a $1.8 million dollar "lipstick on a pig" Golden Park Renovation, and a new facility could have been brought in for $6-to-$7 million. Council got excited about this idea, but eventually opted to spend $1.8 million on the Golden Park project versus $7 million on a new one. Then, before any work got started.. softball was brought up, and the frenzy got Council wrapped up in spending nearly $7 million on Golden Park to accommodate that. As it turned out, the Olympic softball was a tourism "bust", and all we have now is a further decaying 7 decade old eyesore that benefits very few in Columbus. Time, it does tell.

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It's baffling to me why the L-E chose not to run the names/scores of the Cougar Invitational Golf Tournament (too much space or just easier to omit), yet will run the names of every MLB umpire in each games box scores all season long.

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Online story: " The federal investigation into the crash of an unmanned Chicago commuter train is continuing, but the government shutdown has meant there's nobody around to talk about it. * the agency's investigators are on a scene they are considered "essential" and would not be furloughed as part of the government shutdown that began at midnight. * But callers to the NTSB public affairs office Tuesday were told by a recording that "due to lapse in funding" the office is closed. * Investigators are trying to determine how the out-of-service train rolled about a half mile before crashing into an occupied train." -- Is this not the "poster child" of the "ObamaCare trainwreck" personified?

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Online headline: "Republicans Split On Whether To Give Back Pay To Workers Furloughed In Government Shutdown" -- What for...? Name me one government employee who's going to vote for a Republican regardless? Hold out until Judas 00-bama directs the Senate to negotiate. Make it a condition of consideration if the Obamarats delay further implementation of ObamaCare. Don't give up the main negotiating tool they have!

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Online story: "On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the nonprofit arm of the caucus in Congress, told The Huffington Post that Obama had canceled a planned speech at the group's annual gala on Wednesday. "Due to the government shutdown, the President and the First Lady will not be attending the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Annual Awards Dinner tomorrow night," the spokesman emailed. * Obama has delivered the keynote address at four out of the past five CHCI annual galas, so the cancellation was a setback for the group, which uses the dinner to raise money for leadership programs that serve Latino youth." -- Guess Judas 00-bama figures he can get more mileage out of this by blaming Republicans while not having to cater to Hispanics. Shoot, he might even get a round of golf in. Wanna bet the golf course at Andrews will not be shutdown for 'him'.

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Online story: "A British multinational being paid $1.2 billion to implement Obamacare’s federal insurance exchanges is under investigation after allegedly overcharging the British government by tens of millions of dollars. * Reuters reports that Britain’s Serious Fraud Office is now looking into Serco, a massive service and security firm employing 120,000 worldwide, after the company reportedly overbilled its government client as much as $80 million for criminal electronic monitoring devices. * Around one in six of the criminals listed were already in prison, had left the country, were not required to wear a device, or were even dead." -- You know, could this be as simple as a "clerical" error that Judas 00-bama thought he was giving the contract to SEIU (Service Employees International Union) instead of SERCO? Hah, SERCO must be where ACORN employees got hired.