THURSDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Domestic terrorism in Austin? “A software engineer upset with the Internal Revenue Service set fire to his home Thursday and then flew his plane into a multistory office building that houses federal tax employees, authorities said. The pilot was presumed to have died in the crash, federal law enforcement officials said. At least two people were injured and a third person who worked in the building was unaccounted for, fire officials said.”
* Pakistan: “A bomb blast at a mosque in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt killed 29 people including some militants Thursday, underscoring the relentless security threat here even as Pakistani-U.S. cooperation against extremism appears on the upswing.”
* Bernanke better know what he’s doing: “The Federal Reserve, taking its first step to normalize lending after more than two years of extraordinary actions to prop up the economy, on Thursday raised the interest rate it charges banks on emergency loans.”
* IAEA: “The United Nation’s nuclear inspectors declared for the first time on Thursday that extensive information it has collected raised concerns of the Iran military’s ‘past or current undisclosed activities’ to develop a nuclear weapon. The report was an unusually strongly-worded conclusion that seems certain to accelerate Iran’s confrontation with much of the rest of the world.”
* China won’t care for this: “President Barack Obama welcomed the Dalai Lama for closely-watched White House talks Thursday, risking fallout in China over the get-together and Obama’s statement supporting preservation of Tibet’s identity and human rights.”
* Heckuva job, Rudy: “Bernard B. Kerik, a former New York police commissioner who rose to national prominence, was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to eight felony charges, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials.”
* The health insurance industry doesn’t want to get blamed for the steep premium increases being imposed by the health insurance industry on its customers. The White House is unimpressed.
* College, without high school.
* It sure must have been nice to be filthy rich during the Bush/Cheney era, knowing that Republican policymakers were looking out for you.
* Karl Rove, still not very bright.
* I’m always looking for sophisticated political analysis of video games. Adam Serwer picks up the slack.
* And finally, I know the big political story of the day is the start of the CPAC event in D.C., but I just didn’t have the stomach for it today. I’ll look forward to reading the coverage of those who were on hand for the gathering, but in the meantime Media Matters and the Media Matters Action Network offer some of the highlights (or lowlights, as the case may be).
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
