TUESDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Chile: “As smaller tremors continued to jolt this earthquake-ravaged country, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton flew into Chile’s damaged main airport on Tuesday morning, bearing a handful of satellite phones and promises of more help.”
* As of today, the death toll from Chile’s earthquake stands at 795 people.
* The other shoe falls on Paterson: “Gov. David A. Paterson personally directed two state employees to contact the woman who had accused his close aide of assaulting her, according to two people with direct knowledge of the governor’s actions.”
* Dodd (D-Conn.) and Corker (R-Tenn.) are nearing a deal to house a new consumer-protection regulator inside the Federal Reserve.
* On a related note, the compromise proposal isn’t going over well.
* Toyota’s loss is American auto manufacturers’ gain.
* Liz Cheney’s smear against Justice Department attorneys is literally disgusting, and I’m glad to see the attacks generate some pushback. “Keep America Safe” is beneath contempt.
* Some of you asked the other day for a rebuttal to Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) arguments at the health care summit. Ezra was up to the task, and his response is well worth reading.
* Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) will vote with far-right Republicans against health care reform. Not a big surprise.
* If health care reform fails, the whole country is in deep trouble, but rural communities will be hit especially hard.
* Given the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s dangerous approach to climate change, I’m glad to see Microsoft show some leadership on this.
* Wait, you mean O’Keefe and Breitbart didn’t really have the goods? “Brooklyn prosecutors on Monday cleared ACORN of criminal wrongdoing after a four-month probe that began when undercover conservative activists filmed workers giving what appeared to be illegal advice on how to hide money.” A law enforcement official said, “They edited the tape to meet their agenda.” Imagine that.
* The Department of Education and the politics of failure.
* This worries me: “The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors right-wing extremist activity, finds ‘that an astonishing 363 new Patriot groups appeared in 2009, with the totals going from 149 groups (including 42 militias) to 512 (127 of them militias) — a 244% jump’ from 2008.
* FDR’s congressional majorities were much bigger than Obama’s.
* Health care reform’s success would be a boon to entrepreneurs. Christina Davidson isn’t sure how to quantify “how significantly that fear of being uninsured suppresses individual initiative,” but we have the answer.
* And in case there’s any lingering doubt, real live literal filibusters still aren’t a realistic option, no matter how appealing they may seem.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
