TUESDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Reversing Bush, the Obama administration announced today that the U.S will join the U.N. Human Rights Council.
* A first step: “Top U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke had a brief but cordial meeting with Iran’s deputy foreign minister Tuesday at an international conference on Afghanistan, marking another modest step in unlocking 30 years of tense relations.”
* Ugh: “Home prices sank by the sharpest annual rate on record in January, and the pace continues to accelerate, but there were a handful of battered metro areas where price declines slowed, according to data released Tuesday.”
* Bankruptcy is now “more probable” for GM.
* Benjamin Netanyahu said the Obama administration must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, or Israel will attack Iran’s nuclear facilities itself.
* I’d feel a whole lot better about the Geithner Justice Treasury* Department if officials paid more attention to Elizabeth Warren.
* Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi, a Yemeni doctor, will be released from Gitmo. The Bush administration had accused Batarfi of being part of an al Qaeda anthrax program.
* Apparently, waterboarding is torture — when the Khmer Rouge does it.
* Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who also happens to be the chairman of the DNC, is on the wrong side of some culture war issues, both on symbolic and substantive grounds.
* Waxman swings for the fences with his own cap-and-trade proposal.
* Treasury Department unveils FinancialStability.gov
* An interesting shift in emphasis: “Stepping into the political minefield of immigration reform, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano soon will direct federal agents to focus more on arresting and prosecuting American employers than the illegal laborers who sneak into the country to work for them.”
* I don’t know what Doug Feith is so surprised about.
* The Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act is now law.
* It looks like Olbermann repeats will keep the 10 p.m. slot on MSNBC. (Sorry Sam Seder, I’ve been pulling for you.)
* O’Reilly is none too pleased with UPS.
* And finally, Glenn Beck described himself as a “rodeo clown,” adding, “[I]f you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.” I knew if he just talked long enough, Beck would say something I agree with.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
* Entry corrected. Really. –Mod
