MONDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections on Saturday featured 309 violent incidents and 11 civilian deaths. Officials expected much worse, and “declared a semi-victory” over how smoothly the process went.
* Iraq: “Six car bombs detonated across Baghdad on Sunday and a suicide bomber blew up a car in nearby Fallujah, killing a total of 37 people and wounding more than 100 in the deadliest day of violence in Iraq since the United States announced the end of combat operations three weeks ago.”
* BP’s Macondo oil well really is dead. Good.
* It seems like a whole lot of apologies are in order (and then some): “The FBI improperly opened and extended investigations of some U.S. activist groups and put members of an environmental advocacy organization on a terrorist watch list, even though they were planning nonviolent civil disobedience, the Justice Department said Monday.”
* Hurricane Karl kills three in Mexico, while a weakening Hurricane Igor bears down on Bermuda.
* Would the House really adjourn this week? It’d be the earliest adjournment in 50 years.
* It’s frightening to see how anxious Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to initiate a military confrontation with Iran.
* If wealthy hedge fund managers are waiting for mainstream sympathy, they’ll be waiting a long time.
* Why for-profit colleges are like a pack of smokes.
* Sign of the times: “Howard Fineman, one of the more recognizable pundits on cable television and a correspondent for Newsweek for 30 years, is leaving the magazine to become a senior editor at The Huffington Post.”
* Who helped break the Senate? “Gingrich Senators” had a lot to do with it: “That is, almost all of the increased polarization in the Senate over the past three decades is due to House members elected since 1978 who have since migrated to the Senate.”
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
