WEDNESDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* North Korea’s government believes it is no longer bound by the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War. It also threatened “a powerful military strike,” apparently against South Korea, if any of its trade ships are stopped for inspection.
* In Pakistan, “suicide attackers spraying gunfire rammed a carload of explosives into a building housing an ambulance service” today, killing at least 23 and wounding nearly 300.
* A bomb exploded on a western Baghdad street today, killing an American soldier and four Iraqi civilians. The death toll for American troops in Iraq this month (20) is the highest since last September.
* Cyclone Aila in eastern India and Bangladesh has killed at least 191 people.
* Given the ugly nature of the attacks, I wonder if Republican Party leaders realize the kind of damage its base and allies are doing.
* Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said this morning that Judge Sotomayor “has serious problems,” though he was unclear as to what those problems were. He added, however, “I don’t sense a filibuster in the works.”
* Also taking the wind from the right-wing sails, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a member of the Judiciary Committee, told C-SPAN this morning that Sotomayor will be confirmed.
* Two new ads are reaching television sets, one supporting Sotomayor’s nomination, and one opposing.
* The RNC has pulled its shameful “Pussy Galore” parody.
* Competing national polls have offered a variety of results, but the latest Gallup poll shows a majority of Americans opposing marriage equality.
* What’s Ted Olson up to, and what’s his role in trying to overturn California’s Prop. 8?
* It still amuses me to think Bush/Cheney wanted Bernie Kerik, who was indicted yesterday for lying to the White House during his vetting, to be the Secretary of Homeland Security.
* Christopher Nelson, a long-time Asia policy expert and author of the Nelson Report, tackles the five basic questions about what’s going on with North Korea.
* Funny thing about conservative opposition to gay marriage — even far-right lawmakers have a hard time explaining what’s wrong with it.
* And finally, Glenn Beck offers up the mixed-metaphor Quote of the Day: “Right now, it’s the bottom of the ninth and we are down to our last out and our last strike. Will our government take strike three looking? Or, will they wake up and save the day with a heroic three pointer on a penalty shot?”
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
