Tuesday, July 12, 2011

What A Cliffhanger

I was about to go put on my lawnmowing jeans and get busy, but what should appear, but Obama daring the R's to touch the third rail.
That's right, forget that 14th Amendment bullshit, he said our Social Security checks may not be issued next month.
Within hours, McConnell was being quoted as saying something along the lines that the R's will go along with raising the debt ceiling WITHOUT spending cuts. TPM is scrambling to get more as we speak.
From what I've seen of both McConnell's incomplete story and the Boehner quote from this morning, they're falling back on trying to blame Obama for whatever, a pretty weak hand, not even a pair of two's, really.
My take, Mitch is afraid to burn his fingers or, OR, he and his buddies read Ezra Klein's blog from yesterday ( or was it Sunday) and realized Boehner had walked away from a huge deficit reduction that their math whizzes had missed, and that was going to hurt big time next year. Hell, even now, in some of the smaller elections.
Even that mealy-mouth David  Brooks told them they may not be fit to govern.
That New York defeat could have been just the beginning. The first Wisconsin recall election is today. The D vying for Harman's seat in Cali is safe by the latest measure and the R's were hoping they had a chance.
Wait, is that the sound of dominoes falling or is that Obama scooping up everything on the table?
I know, but I can dream can't I?
I want my team to win, and I agree that despite the extension of the Bush tax cuts last fall, he snookered the opposition (minority opinion, I know). I want this to be a gigantic trap that will kill the neocons, the Tea Party and the rest of the schmucks for good.
I want Obama to make history with this.
Stay tuned. Do I dare leave my seat?

Monday, July 11, 2011

Oooh, Spy Stuff!

http://www.metafilter.com/105426/Stux-to-be-you

I've been in love with the whole Stuxnet story ever since news broke (last year?) that some very clever, complicated, etc. computer worm/virus has set Iran's nuclear program back significantly. Oddly enough, the Iranians ultimately acknowledged it.
There are a couple new articles out, one on Wired and one in Vanity Fair, about the whole thing, but I don't read many long pieces anymore.
But there's links to them and a really fun discussion of it all over at MetaFilter if you want.
(See that link at the top? Blogger is fucking with me.)
And just to make things interesting all Day of the Condor, two Iranian nuclear physicists were attacked just recently on their way to work, one killed.

UPDATE: Aw, shit, nevermind that first link. Mefiers so far  hate the new articles and the thread to read is from last November. And fun.

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