MONDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The twin car bombs in Baghdad yesterday were simply devastating. “Unlike the carnage unleashed by attacks in crowded mosques, restaurants and markets, aimed at igniting sectarian strife, these blasts appeared to rely on a distinctly political logic.”
* As of this afternoon, the bomb blasts had killed as many 155 people, with more than 500 wounded and an unknown number still missing.
* Two helicopter crashes in Afghanistan today killed at least 14 Americans.
* President Obama spoke to a military audience in Jacksonville, Fla., today, defending his Afghanistan timetable. He said he would not “rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way…. I won’t risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary. And if it is necessary, we will back you up to the hilt.”
* Saturday, President Obama declared H1N1 flu a national emergency, which in turn “clears the way for his health chief to give hospitals wider leeway in how they handle a possible surge of new patients.”
* There are too many institutions that are too big to fail. Policymakers are poised to consider solutions to the problem.
* Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), a strong supporter of a public option, is satisfied with the opt-out compromise.
* On a related note, A.L. has an interesting item about the larger political implications of the opt-out approach.
* The newspaper industry is in very, very deep trouble.
* CNN should not be slipping into fourth place in primetime among the cable news networks.
* Forcing women to pay higher health care premiums than men, based on nothing but gender, is crazy.
* First they came for the multibillion-dollar media companies…
* Why, oh why, can’t Dawn Johnsen’s nomination to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel come up for a vote?
* If government-run health care is such a tragic mistake, these 55 Republicans should stop taking advantage of Medicare immediately.
* Before the controversy over Treasury “snubbing” Fox News goes away completely, Fox News is contesting the administration’s version of events, and the White House is pushing back against the pushback.
* Fred Hiatt doesn’t like the public option. Peter Orszag isn’t impressed with Hiatt’s argument. Neither is publius.
* Malkin takes cheap shots at the Axelrod family. Classy.
* Roland Burris should probably brush up on some governmental details before the next Senate hearing.
* Jane Hall, associate professor in the School of Communication at American University, felt compelled to leave Fox News after 11 years as a contributor in part because of Glenn Beck’s insanity.
* Guess how much the Republican National Committee’s silly new website cost. A whopping $1.4 million — five times more the DNC’s redesigned site. I’m afraid the RNC didn’t get its money’s worth.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
