Friday Funday: Autumn, Again!

As the weekend approaches, and we look forward to time away from the keyboards and the drawing board, we noticed a small note on our calendars that gave us some extra reasons to smile today.

Saturday is the official start to the fall season, one of our favorite times of the year.

Our staff generally enjoys autumn, and the many changes that come with it. The weather finally welcomes football season, even as it begins to say goodbye to baseball. A chill has already begun slipping into the air - especially in the evenings - which means we finally can dig out some of our favorite clothes.

The colors change in the trees too - at least outside our Nebraska and Washington, DC offices. There often seem to be autumn surprises too, like the great news late last night that all 33,000 U.S. troops originally sent to Afghanistan for the surge strategy have now left that nation. Hopefully, some of those service members will be welcomed home with a fall harvest feast.

Unfortunately, thanks to one of the most worthless sessions of Congress in history, millions of Americans won't be celebrating with them. They'll be going hungry instead.

The reason they'll still be hungry boils down to Senate Republicans abandoning their duty to the American people by putting off until after the November election the passage of the Farm Bill. As today is Friday, and we traditionally try to keep things positive, we won't delve too deeply into the reasons House Republicans have held up a bill that not only helps farmers but controls the food stamp program, and other food assistance measures for millions of poor and working poor Americans.

Suffice it to say, those members of Congress are headed home to campaign - and we hope some of them get what's coming to them from their constituents.

All things considered, we're glad that it's fall. Political debates have begun in earnest, like the one in Massachusetts last night, where Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren wiped the floor with Republican incumbent Scott Brown. More debates in Nebraska, Virginia, Maryland and Florida between other candidates are coming up too.

For many of the candidates we support, the most recent polling has been looking positive too, headed into fall.

Summer isn't quite done yet though, with Major League Baseball still going strong. There's a distinct chance this year for the Washington Nationals to go to the World Series - the Nats did clinch a plyoff spot last night -  so we may be paying attention to baseball well into the heart of the fall season.

In short, it's autumn again - a great reason for us to look forward, and smile.