FRIDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* As G20 meetings go, I wouldn’t necessarily characterize the South Korean gathering as a success: “Leaders of the world’s biggest economies agreed on Friday to curb ‘persistently large imbalances’ in saving and spending but deferred until next year tough decisions on how to identify and fix them.”
* Then again, the U.S. still has the influence to set the agenda, and “it could have been far worse.”
* Not a surprise: “Rejecting a request by a Republican gay rights group, the U.S. Supreme Court refused Friday to stop enforcement of the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy while a lower court hears a challenge to the ban.”
* This could be really interesting: “Maryland’s Attorney General filed a complaint in federal court this week alleging that the company and two individuals behind election day robocalls that told mostly Democratic voters to ‘relax’ and not bother voting violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).” New estimates suggest the calls reached more than 100,000 Maryland households — double the previous estimate.
* I have no idea how or whether this will work: “After a brief and interrupted dalliance, Newsweek, the 77-year-old magazine, and The Daily Beast, [Tina] Brown’s two-year-old Web site, have decided to put their cultural differences aside and will join forces.”
* I was going to mock Arthur Laffer’s latest take on the economy, which is truly laughable, but it looks like Jay Bookman beat me to it.
* If the Simpson/Bowles debt reduction plan were adopted, the impact on higher education would be dramatic — and not in a good way.
* When Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is so dumb that even Neil Cavuto feels compelled to correct him, you know Inhofe has pushed the envelope.
* And congratulations to Josh Marshall and the whole TPM team on their 10th anniversary. Many happy returns. (Disclosure: I worked for TPM in 2007.) Josh Green, who was “present at the creation,” has a fascinating item on how TPM got started.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
