MONDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Afghanistan: “An airstrike launched Sunday by United States Special Forces helicopters against what international troops believed to be a group of insurgents ended up killing as many as 27 civilians in the worst such case since at least September, Afghan officials said Monday.”
* Senate vote on jobs bill still set for later today, though whether Republicans will allow senators to vote on the stripped-down bill remains unclear.
* For those keeping score, there are now 21 Democratic senators who support using reconciliation to vote on a public option.
* New consumer protections on credit cards go into effect today.
* The next step on education policy: “President Obama will seek to raise academic standards across the country by requiring states to certify that their benchmarks for reading and mathematics put students on track for college or a career, administration officials said Sunday.”
* I can only hope that Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) does not support terrorist acts against the government of the United States.
* Oklahoma’s outrageous anti-abortion law has been deemed unconstitutional. Good.
* Foreign militaries that have made the transition to allowing openly gay service members have not endured disruptions. Unless the right thinks the American military is weaker than those foreign militaries, our transition shouldn’t be a problem, either.
* The “Volcker rule” picks up endorsements from five former Treasury secretaries.
* Powerful piece from Adam Serwer: “Whereas al-Zawahiri and bin Laden turned to al-Sharif for a method to circumvent the plain language of the Koran, Bush and Cheney went to Yoo and Jay Bybee to circumvent the plain language of the law.”
* I still find it hard to believe that the Washington Post hired Marc Thiessen as a columnist.
* ACORN undergoing some pretty significant institutional changes.
* Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) seems to be getting more and more confused.
* Clarence Thomas hasn’t said a word on the court in four years.
* Fact checking the Sunday shows.
* Bruce Bartlett makes Glenn Reynolds look pretty foolish.
* Even tenure isn’t enough to shield professors from layoffs.
* Fox News hatchet-man Griff Jenkins loves being the ambusher, not the ambushee.
* Alexander Haig dies at age 85.
* Leonard Pitts Jr.: “To listen to talk radio, to watch TV pundits, to read a newspaper’s online message board, is to realize that increasingly, we are a people estranged from critical thinking, divorced from logic, alienated from even objective truth…. [O]bjective reality does not change because you refuse to accept it. The fact that you refuse to acknowledge a wall does not change the fact that it’s a wall. And you shouldn’t have to hit it to find that out.”
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
