THURSDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The U.S. is looking for some partners: “Telling the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday that his efforts to engage friends and adversaries were beginning to bear fruit, President Obama called on Arab states to support fragile Middle East peace talks and warned Iran that it would face sustained international pressure if it did not negotiate seriously over its nuclear program.”
* Soon after, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the General Assembly that most of the world believes the U.S. government was responsible for executing the Sept. 11 attacks. The remarks prompted U.S. and European delegations to walk out.
* There were some hopes that the number of first-time filers of unemployment benefits would drop this week. That didn’t happen: “Initial claims for jobless aid rose by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 465,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.” The uptick reversed a five-week trend.
* Housing market: “Sales of previously occupied homes rose last month, but not enough to keep August from being the second-worst month for sales in more than a decade.”
* The author of the House Republicans’ “Pledge for America” is a House GOP staffer “who, up till April 2010, served as a lobbyist for some of the nation’s most powerful oil, pharmaceutical, and insurance companies.”
* Good news out of Florida: “A 30-year-old Florida law that prohibits adoption by gay men and lesbians is unconstitutional, a state appeals court ruled on Wednesday, and the state’s governor said the law would not be enforced pending a decision on whether to appeal.” Gov. Charlie Crist (I) applauded the decision and said the ban would stop being enforced immediately.
* As if conservative Republicans weren’t enough, conservative Democrats can screw up our system of government, too: “President Obama’s pick to serve as head of the Office of Management and Budget looked headed for an easy Senate confirmation, until this afternoon, when Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) announced she will place a hold on the nomination until the Obama administration lifts a moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.”
* It’s a problem that’s getting worse: “At a time of growing tensions involving Muslims in the United States, a record number of Muslim workers are complaining of employment discrimination, from co-workers calling them ‘terrorist’ or ‘Osama’ to employers barring them from wearing head scarves or taking prayer breaks.”
* New allies for for-profit colleges?
* Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) knows someone in his office was responsible for publishing “all f*ggots must die” online, but he doesn’t know who.
* The House GOP leadership probably should have scheduled their “Pledge” event a little better — it coincided with President Obama’s remarks at the United Nations, and the news networks covered the president instead of John Boehner.
* President Obama, talking to Democratic supporters last night: “The single biggest threat to our success is not the other party. It’s us. It’s complacency. It’s apathy. It’s indifference. It’s people feeling like, well, we only got 80 percent of what we want, we didn’t get the other 20, so we’re just going to sit on our hands.”
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
