Boardwalk

Over a week ago, Norway was rocked by twin terror attacks that killed 77 people, most of them youngster attending a Labour Youth Summer camp on an island called Utoya. The BBC has an excellent recap of the events that happened (timeline, photos of victims, in Norsk) that day. A day after the events, the world found out that the suspect was a Christian Norwegian who got his inspiration from the typical right-wing commentators that occupy this very Internet. Obviously, regardless of you religious conviction, an act of terror is still called terrorism.

Yesterday, Obama announced that a debt-deal was made between the two parties (Democrats and Republican): the deal will now be sent back to both Congresses (link to BBC). The deal was a result of (an apparent) 2 weeks hard negotiating between the two parties and president: generally, it looks like the Democrats lost again (Krugman NYT). Obama seems to be the center of the blame, but not jumping into this crisis last year. However, I believe all this cajoling started when the Democrats lost the House of Representatives last year. Obama ultimately deserves blame for not actively engaging himself in the midterm elections of 2010. I don’t think Obama’s presidency is the worst presidency in the world (as others have claimed): however, this appears to be a White House that is running after the facts.

Remember that there’s a civil war ongoing in Libya and that NATO is helping the rebels by bombing, uh, targets? That was how long ago? Seven or so months ago? Well, it looks like the war’s not going well for the rebels (UK’s Independent reports) as it looks like they have been conceding more ground than expected and that Khadafi is not going to be away for a long long time. This smells like an ugly quagmire.