TUESDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Remember the European debt crisis? It’s not over: “Ireland’s Prime Minister acknowledged Tuesday that the country has been all but shut out from further borrowing on world bond markets as European leaders continued crisis talks over a possible rescue for the heavily indebted nation.”
* Continental concerns are growing: “European officials, increasingly concerned that the Continent’s debt crisis will spread, are warning that any new rescue plans may need to cover Portugal as well as Ireland to contain the problem they tried to resolve six months ago.”
* Rangel’s guilty: “A House panel on Tuesday found Representative Charles B. Rangel guilty of 11 counts of ethical violations, ruling that his failure to pay taxes, improper solicitation of fund-raising donations and failure to accurately report his personal income had brought dishonor on the House.”
* Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) appears to be the first Dem in the Senate to endorse a tax plan that would only extend cuts for the middle class.
* A well-deserved, hard-earned honor for an American hero, Salvatore Giunta: “An Army staff sergeant who stepped into the line of fire to help a pair of comrades on the Afghan battlefield has been given a Medal of Honor, the nation’s top military award.” Giunta is the first living service member from the Iraq or Afghanistan wars to be so honored.
* Defense Secretary Robert Gates thinks the neocon line on Iran is crazy. He’s right.
* I don’t expect much in the way of decency from right-wing provocateur James O’Keefe, but his smearing of a special-ed schoolteacher in New Jersey is truly loathsome, even by his bottom-of-the-barrel standards.
* Rep. Louie Gohmert’s (R) role in the firing of a college art galleries director in Texas wasn’t much better.
* I find it pretty easy to believe that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), in the midst of health care reform negotiations, could get everything he wanted from the White House, and still refuse to support the proposal. The whole debate was about the GOP not taking “yes” for an answer.
* Everything you need to know about Gov.-elect Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) judgment: “Scott has announced that his team of economic advisers will include former Reagan advisor Art Laffer.”
* Teacher training programs clearly still need some work.
* Ted Koppel raised some eyebrows the other day with a lengthy diatribe on modern media, but I found Keith Olbermann’s response last night pretty compelling.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
