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Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Stories to Watch: 10/1/13

Government shuts down and the press' false equivalency narrative begins almost immediately. Damn, but our media really sucks.


How Democrats could force the standoff to end -- a "discharge petition" that would force a vote on a clean funding bill. They'd need 218 signatures and they have more than 200 right now.  The petition could only be put forward after 30 legislative days of non-action, but that's pretty much a formality. If the votes are there, there would be no reason to string it out. Boehner -- who's gutlessness as a leader has brought us to this sorry state of affairs -- would fold like an accordion, bring the clean CR to the floor, where it would pass easily with mostly Democratic votes. And he'd probably breathe a big sigh of relief as Democrats once again pulled his ass out of the fire.


In any case, a discharge petition is a better plan than the idiocy House Republicans have in mind.


Also in Boehner news: hypocrisy. Why am I not surprised?


You know who's really happy about the shutdown? Cancer.


Ted Cruz apologizes to Filipino vets for comparing his fauxlibuster to the Bataan Death march. He'd earlier had to apologize for comparing moderate Republicans to Nazi appeasers. What is it about Republicans that makes them so enamored with offensively inapt historical references?


Fukushima Daiichi continues to be an environmental nightmare.


The insurance exchange website is a victim of its own success. The servers are stressed by millions of people rushing to sign up. As a result, glitches abound.


However, that story takes an interesting turn as the State of New York investigates whether anti-Obamacare hackers attacked their exchange with a DDOS attack. Guess it's a lot easier to predict a "trainwreck" when you're sabotaging the train.


Finally, the US Army is going green, because strategery.


[cartoon via Truthdig]

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