WEDNESDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* A powerful bomb killed at least 60 people today in an eastern Baghdad market.
* Confrontation near the Iranian Parliament: “Hundreds of protesters clashed with waves of riot police and paramilitary militia in Tehran on Wednesday, witnesses said, as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted that the authorities would not yield to pressure from opponents demanding a new election following allegations of electoral fraud.”
* North Korea’s government called the United States “imperialists” today and said the “army and people of Korea will … wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all.”
* An airstrike, likely from an American drone, “killed at least 60 people at a funeral for a Taliban fighter in South Waziristan on Tuesday.”
* After more than four years without one, a U.S. ambassador to Syria is en route to Damascus.
* The Obama administration has “stepped up its efforts yesterday to salvage a four-year-old peace accord for Sudan, convening officials from 32 countries and international organizations amid fears that Africa’s longest-running civil war could resume.”
* Did the White House signal last night that a public option is less important than a bipartisan deal? Not according to one of the senators at the meeting.
* With House Democratic leaders finally in agreement, Waxman-Markey will likely get a vote on Friday.
* If you missed South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s (R) press conference this afternoon, it’s online.
* Proving once again that the network is beyond parody, Fox News labeled Sanford a Democrat during his event today.
* Setting a land-speed record, the Family Research Council dropped Sanford very quickly from its big upcoming religious-right event.
* I don’t think it matters, but technically, adultery is illegal in South Carolina.
* Tesla Motors gets a government loan for its electric sedan project.
* We haven’t seen a good impeachment trial in a long while.
* R.I.P., Dr. Jerri Nielsen.
* The Republican temper tantrum against ABC keeps getting stranger.
* And Dick Cheney finally got the book deal he wanted, when his former aide, Mary Matalin, used her Simon & Schuster imprint to get the former vice president a deal. Matalin also came to Karl Rove’s rescue. Industry insiders don’t expect either book to sell especially well.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
