Clear and cold this morning along California’s northern coast, this the absolute-last day of 2012, which in relation to previous years, wasn’t all that great, and apparently won’t end graciously, either.

The word, “weather,” will be one of the words used to describe the dying 2012, not only in the meteorological format, but also in the sense we’ve endured shit in the face of adversity and are still here — some of us.

Unfortunately, a lot of today’s ugly will flow well into tomorrow.

(Illustration found here).

As we wait with baited breath for the incompetent US Congress to act on shit they knew they had to act on before their panties seemingly got into a bind, leaving the regular, on-the-street person with the shaft — and do these assholes deserve a freakin’ pay-raise?
Yep! Which is twisted-English for WTF!
From Forbes yesterday:

How much will the Congressional raise cost us?
The bump is .5% which means that the average Congressional official making $174,000 per year will see an extra $900 in their 2013 paycheck.
At 535 members of Congress, that works out to just under $500,000 (with a little cushion room for Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) all of whom get more than the average and thus, will get a bigger raise than $900 for the year).
We won’t miss a half million dollars in a $3 trillion budget, right?
Besides, Congress has been vacationing and recessing pretty hard this year.
Consider this: the seven week break for the elections?
The one that followed Congress’ five week summer break?
At $3,480 per week for seven weeks, taxpayers paid $13,032,600 for just one recess, not including staff and benefits.
The five week summer break tacked on another $9,390,000.
So we paid more than $20,000,000 for Congress not to work for most of the summer and fall, not including federal holidays and the like.
What’s an extra half million?

In my hands, a shitload of f*cking money!

Also yesterday, northern Michigan’s Lake Superior State University released its ‘tongue-in-cheek‘ 38th annual “List of Words to be Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness,” which is based on nominations submitted from the US and all over — one of those is ‘spoiler alert,’ but not to alert anyone to nothing they don’t already know — the worse word of the year, the one getting the most negative nods is ‘fiscal cliff.’
According to Salon: “You can’t turn on the news without hearing this,” said Christopher Loiselle, of Midland, Mich., in his submission. “I’m equally worried about the River of Debt and Mountain of Despair.”
Hear that, bro.

In those “###” negotions, the problem is Congress — they are grossly-induced assholes and there’s not really anything anyone can do about it.
The Washington Post this morning on the main shiver of shit:

Both sides put off any discussion of addressing the country’s looming financial crisis until after the 2012 election, which was cast as the peoples’ chance to let their voices be heard as to what direction they wanted their politicians to head.
President Obama won with 332 electoral votes, Democrats surprisingly kept the Senate and not so surprisingly picked up a handful of seats in the House.
And yet, here we are.

And from here it looks terrible.
From BusinessWeek also early this morning:

Here’s what’s important about everything Democrats would get: it’s temporary; everything expires (presumably) within a year.
Here’s what’s important about what Republicans would get: it’s permanent.
The tax rates won’t expire.
That means Democrats are offering a huge gift to Republicans and getting almost nothing in return because on Jan. 1, if no deal is struck, Democrats will get even more revenue than they’re asking for without conceding a thing.
And if, as polls suggest, voters would blame Republicans for going over the cliff, Democrats are also offering to save Republicans from their worst impulses — which, at least for the time being, since they haven’t yet agreed, is to reject this deal.

What a way to happy the new year — Congress is also a word that should be banned due to its ‘General Uselessness.’