The House and Senate are getting ready to vote on the deal struck to avoid America defaulting on her debts. Nobody knows exactly the magnitude of what is being cut in detail yet, and the news media seem more interested in the eternal "who's up/who's down" horserace nonsense than in informing the public what exactly has been agreed to in this deal. This should come as no surprise, since it is (as always) ever so much more fun for "journalists" to blather on about "what it all means" seen through the political lens, instead of "what it all means" in terms of... well, what it actually is going to mean for America. Perhaps in a few days, when they get bored with the political aspects, we'll finally find out exactly what the cuts are going to cover.

One thing is for certain, though, and that is there will be a newly-formed joint congressional committee which is going to have a lot of power over the second stage of this grand debate. Currently, the progressive media seems most obsessed with pushing their own cutesy-poo names for this committee (I, for one, refuse to use the term "super Congress" -- since it is not, on many levels -- only the worst of the snappy and "oh-so-clever" names I've heard bandied about). Progressives should wake up and realize that, rather than winning the "media branding battle," they should instead start paying close attention to who exactly is going to sit on this committee. Because that is going to determine the outcome of this fight -- no matter what the committee is called by the inside-the-Beltway types.

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If I were a Hobbit, right about now I would be wondering just how the heck I wound up at the center of this Washington intraparty political fight, personally. What (I would ponder in my metaphorical Hobbit hole) had I done to any of these folks to deserve being dragged into this fracas?

It all started with a Wall Street Journal editorial, believe it or not. That's how far into Fantasyland we've traveled -- the most eminent conservative newspaper in the country had to reach back to J.R.R. Tolkien to explain what is currently going on in Washington:

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As I write this, the House of Representatives has still not voted on Speaker John Boehner's plan to raise the debt ceiling. But no matter how the vote goes, the real question behind this week's action in the Republican caucus in the House may be whether Boehner will still be Speaker when the shouting's over and done. The simmering Tea Party factionalism may be about to explode into public view, in other words.

There are, of course, many possible outcomes to the whole debt ceiling struggle. Boehner could twist enough arms behind the scenes to pass his bill tonight. Or he may fail. Either way, the whole episode is going to leave a bad taste in the Tea Partiers' mouths, one assumes. Whether Boehner strong-arms enough of them to pass his bill or not, the very fact that he's had to postpone the vote several times now speaks to the contentious problem of keeping his caucus in line -- which he's never been all that good at doing.

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There are now only a handful of possible outcomes of the debt ceiling standoff in Washington. We'll get to them all in a minute in more detail. One way or another, it's a pretty safe bet that the issue will (at least temporarily) be resolved by the fifth of August, at the absolute latest. Bank on it. The reason for such certainty is a simple one: if the debate goes on in any way past that date, then it will start to cut into Congress' month-long summer vacation. Which is (as any observer of American politics should know full well) the one unthinkable bridge-too-far in Washington. Because Congress' vacations are sacred... at least, to them.

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We're all sick and tired of the debt ceiling debate, so I'm just going off on a complete tangent today for a little grammar rant. Hope no one minds.

What brought this on was seeing a headline which tried to shoehorn the word "debt" into the term "Armageddon" in a truly cringe-worthy fashion. I believe it was spelled "Armadebton," but I refuse to go look it up to check, so there.

We seem to be in a post-millennial period here, where just about any news story can be fit into either the "Armageddon" mold; or its cousin, the "Apocalypse." Both words have that neat-o keen-o factor, and both refer to Earth-shattering events. So perhaps it is natural that they be overused in this manner. But I have to say, I'm hoping the whole thing is just a fad which will fade quickly.

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There is a grand tradition in Washington -- which is followed by both parties, at various times -- of avoiding big and politically-delicate problems. This tradition used to be called the "blue-ribbon commission," although for some reason the "blue-ribbon" part isn't used much anymore. But whatever you call it, this political dodge is created for one purpose and one purpose alone: to waste time. To the best of my knowledge, no commission (blue-ribbon or otherwise bedecked) has ever come up with a solution to anything which has been thus implemented by the politicians (again, of either party) to solve a big problem (although you could make an argument for the base-closing commission, I guess). But virtually all of these commissions have succeeded wildly on their main objective of wasting as much time as possible.

So it comes as no surprise, really, that John Boehner has decided to punt the hard work of debt reduction to yet another commission. This time, he promises, the committee will have some teeth -- both in the form of triggers hanging over the group's head, and in the fact that Congress will vote on whatever they come up with, without being able to change the plan at all. We're supposed to be impressed by all of this, somehow.

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We'll get to that "WWRRD?" question at the end, I promise. But instead, I'd like to start off way out in space, if you don't mind. Just a little personal rant, to open with today. I invite you all to join me as I "space out" (so to speak).

To begin with, in space news, the fourth moon of Pluto was discovered this week. That's pretty exciting, right?

The bigger space news this week, sadly, was not that exciting. The final space shuttle mission just ended. Although I didn't see it specifically, a newspaper headline-writer with a sense of irony would have set the story under: "The Shuttle Has Landed." Because this week also saw an anniversary of import to the discussion -- 42 years ago this Wednesday, Neil Armstrong radioed back to Houston the immortal phrase: "The Eagle has landed," marking the first safe landing on Earth's natural satellite by the human species.

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Every so often, I like to dig into raw poll numbers rather than merely examining the presidential job approval number on its own, or just looking at the presidential-nomination horserace. Today I'd like to peer into a recent joint poll done by the Washington Post and ABC. To save time, I'm going to avoid talking about either Obama's approval ratings (we do that once a month here, anyway, at ObamaPollWatch.com) or the Republican horserace (which I've done as recently as Monday, if you're interested), and instead focus on all the other questions, most of which are on the debt ceiling debate in Washington.

The full results of the poll -- or, at least, what has been publicly released (some answers have been "held," meaning ABC and the Post are waiting to do a specific story on them, usually) -- can be found on the WashingtonPost.com site, if you'd like to see all the raw data yourselves.

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A battle is currently being fought in Libya over the town of Brega, which could turn out to have strategic importance for the rebel forces. This battle has been underway for days now, and may continue for days to come. The American media has so far been ignoring this development in the Libyan revolution, perhaps due to lack of solid information from the frontlines. But it deserves a bit more attention than it has so far been getting.

Brega is a coastal town, but more importantly it is an oil depot which ships the oil out from central Libyan oil fields. Control of the town during the whole Libyan conflict has switched hands from Libyan government forces to the rebels, and then back to the loyalist forces once again -- but most of this happened in the early lightning push by the rebels, and the forceful response by the government troops, in the first weeks of the fighting. Since then, it has remained in the loyalists' hands as the easternmost city they hold. Which puts Brega on the frontlines of the fight.

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[Program Note: Because I was busy doing my civic (jury) duty today, I am going to write the shortest column I've ever written. Hey, it's better than nothing, right?]

I find it interesting in the media circus surrounding Rupert Murdoch that nobody has yet started making references to the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies -- since the villain in it was nothing short of a thinly-veiled caricature of Murdoch himself.

Make of it what you will.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant