Last Call For Jack Ryan's Boss

Author Tom Clancy has passed at the age of 66, and whether or not you liked his military thrillers, you can't escape the size of the impact he had on fiction, movies, and increasingly, video games.

Seventeen of his novels were No. 1 New York Times best sellers, including his most recent, “Threat Vector,” which was released in December 2012. More than 100 million copies of his books are in print. 

Sales of his books made him a millionaire. His family moved into a five-bedroom house in Calvert County, Md., and acquired an 80-acre farm on the Chesapeake Bay. He became a part owner of the Baltimore Orioles. He even bought a tank. 

Mr. Clancy was an insurance salesman when he sold his first novel, “The Hunt for Red October,” to the Naval Institute Press for only $5,000. 

That publisher had never released a novel before, but the editors were taken with Mr. Clancy’s manuscript. They were concerned, however, that there were too many technical descriptions, so they asked him to make cuts. Mr. Clancy made revisions and cut at least 100 pages. 

The book took off when President Ronald Reagan, who had received a copy, called it “my kind of yarn” and said that he couldn’t put it down. 

After the book’s publication in 1985, Mr. Clancy was praised for his mastery of technical details about Soviet submarines and weaponry. Even high-ranking members of the military took notice of the book’s apparent inside knowledge. 

In an interview in 1986, Mr. Clancy said, “When I met Navy Secretary John Lehman last year, the first thing he asked me about the book was, ‘Who the hell cleared it?’ “

I remember CNN's interview with Clancy within the first 24 hours after 9/11, the plot of his novel "Debt of Honor" had an airliner smash into the Capitol building during the President's State of the Union speech.   I remember thinking "Jesus, we're living in a Clancy novel, and the bad guys just won."

Clancy's books spawned a number of video game series, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and HAWX, which are still going today.  The latest Splinter Cell title, Blacklist, pits veteran black ops specialist Sam Fisher and his team against a group of US military "patriots" gone rogue, calling themselves The Engineers.  Much like George Lucas's Star Wars empire, Clancy knew how to leverage his work.

And yeah, I did enjoy his earlier books when I was younger, mainly because Jack Ryan and his friends were nerds saving America, and back then I was okay with that.

It was fun, Tom.

Feeling The Heat, Boys?

More and more increasingly vulnerable House Republicans are looking for the lifeboats to escape from the sinking ship that is the S.S. GOP Shutdown, and I'm thinking it's not going to be too much longer before they team up with Democrats to deliver a clean CR back to the Senate, and throw the Tea Party overboard.

Some House Republicans facing perilous paths to reelection in 2014 are beginning to budge on the government shutdown, calling for the party to compromise and move on from its fight over defunding Obamacare. 

“Republicans fought the good fight. The fight continues but is not advanced by a government shutdown that damages our economy and harms our military,” Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell said in a statement. “The time has come to pass a clean CR to reopen the government.” 

And Pennsylvania Rep. Pat Meehan said: “I came to Washington to fix government, not shut it down. At this point, I believe it’s time for the House to vote for a clean, short-term funding bill to bring the Senate to the table and negotiate a responsible compromise.” 

New Jersey Rep. Jon Runyan said: “Enough is enough. Put a clean (continuing resolution) on the floor and let’s gets on with the business we were sent to do.”

Of course these are the same House Republicans who voted for the shutdown in the first place and voted 40+ times to defund and repeal Obamacare.  They want you to feel sorry for them, and they want your forgiveness.  The only thing these opportunists care about is saving their own asses now that it's quite possible that somebody other than those people might be the ones hurt by the GOP.

Don't fall for it, folks.  All the Republicans have to go.  They own this disaster together, and together, they can be voted out in 2014.

Please Proceed, GOP

The shutdown is already hurting the GOP and will continue to do so.

Republicans in Washington insist they have simply been upholding the wishes of the American people throughout their efforts to block the Affordable Care Act, but a poll released Tuesday tells a very different story. 

In fact, the latest survey from Quinnipiac University contains a ton of bad news for the GOP. For starters, 72 percent of Americans said they are opposed to shutting down the government in an effort to block implemntation of the health care law. A poll last week also showed a wide majority opposed to shutting down the government over Obamacare. 

The federal government shut down for the first time since 1996 on Tuesday morning amid Republican-led efforts to include policy concessions on the health care law in must-pass bills to fund the government. 

While Quinnipiac's poll showed that the Affordable Care Act remains polarizing — 45 percent support it while 47 percent are opposed — 58 percent said they are opposed to Congress cutting off funding for the law. Seventy-four percent said they disapprove of congressional Republicans while only 17 percent said they approve — their lowest score ever in Quinnipiac's polling. 

Democrats in Congress came out marginally better in the poll — 32 percent approve while 60 percent disapprove — but the party may enter next year's midterm elections with an upper-hand over the GOP. 

The poll showed that voters gave the nod to a generic Democrat over a generic Republican ahead of the 2014 congressional races, 43 percent to 34 percent. According to Quinnipiac, that's the widest advantage enjoyed by Democrats on that particular question.

Voters will remember in 2014.  But will they actually vote?   A nine point generic ballot lead for the Dems would be a nightmare for the Republicans, and they know it.  Stay tuned.  Sanity may break out very, very quickly.

StupidiNews!

• Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has expelled top US diplomats from the country, claiming that by meeting with opposition groups they are part of a conspiracy against the Maduro government.
• Japanese officials say radioactive water being pumped from the Fukushima Diichi nuclear disaster leaked into the surrounding soil, causing further contamination around the plant site.
• Bond ratings agency Standard & Poor's says for now, a debt ceiling fight is unlikely to do further damage to America's sovereign debt rating unless an October 17th default deadline passes with no action.
• The continued shutdown may cut as much as tenth of a percent from US GDP growth per week according to economist's estimates.
• The FCC is fining five wireless providers nearly $15 billion over allegedly obtaining tens of billions in duplicate payments from the government's Lifeline cell phone program for America's poor.