Two Things

1. In an informal poll, 50% of littleboxes staff members think that social security reform could be a giant distraction. Kind of like, try to steal the most expensive piece art and while everyone is freaking out trying to protect that piece of art you steal other less valuable pieces of art. If you still get the most expensive piece, great! But if you don't, you've still created to opporunity to loot other nice pieces from the museum. Anyway...we watch the Dems really around social security fairly effectively and yet they let artic oil drilling and the bankrupcy law pass. The 50% that disagree with this hypothesis think the Dems do not give a flying FU#$ about bankrupcy or oil drilling and that no distraction has taken place. Hmmm...

2. Media is spinning a suprisingly large attack by insurgents as a sign of success against the insurgency. Strange, but to be expected. We suppose it's possible that staging a large attack signals desperation but it could also signal an increased ability to stage large scale attacks, which is probably not good. Or, and possibly most likely, it could signal absolutely nothing.

The high number of deaths in Sunday's daylight battle south of Baghdad was attributed to the large number of attackers, unusual in a country where most clashes are carried out by small bands of gunmen or suicide bombers.

"I was surprised at the numbers," said Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein, a squad leader for the 617th Military Police Company of Richmond, Ky., and a native of Henryville, Ind., involved in the firefight. "Usually we can usually expect seven to 10."

As the U.S. military reported that and other successes against the insurgency, attackers struck several times Monday, killing seven civilians and three Iraqi soldiers. A roadside bomb in Aziziyah, 35 miles southeast of Baghdad, killed four women and three children, police said.