MONDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
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* Afghan insurgent killed six American troops at the entrance of a joint NATO-Afghan base over the weekend. Several suspects have been arrested.
* Afghan President Hamid Karzai reportedly considers the United States one of his “main enemies,” and recently told U.S. officials, “If I had to choose sides today, I’d choose the Taliban.”
* Richard C. Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s top envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, remains in critical condition after lengthy surgery for a torn aorta.
* The latest intelligence out of Afghanistan conclude the war will be unwinnable “unless Pakistan roots out militants on its side of the border.”
* International climate negotiations in Cancun turned out to be far more constructive than appeared likely.
* A suicide bomber in Stockholm killed himself and injured two others over the weekend. The attack would have been far more devastating, but the apparent terrorist botched the plot.
* President Obama signed the overhaul of child nutrition standards into law this morning.
* Arloc Sherman, an expert on poverty at the progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, has concluded that benefits for middle- and lower-income working Americans in the tax deal would “keep more than 2 million Americans above the poverty line and reduce the severity of poverty for 19 million more.”
* George Will reflects on Bush v Gore 10 years later. It doesn’t go well.
* I should probably care about the “No Labels” initiative, but I’m having a hard time figuring out why.
* Right on cue, the incoming House Republican majority opposes stronger regulations of the for-profit college industry.
* In presidential history news, Dwight Eisenhower took his warnings about the “military-industrial complex” very seriously, and Richard Nixon was, in his private moments, an over-the-top bigot, lashing out at Jews, blacks, Italians, and the Irish, among others.
* I love “The Simpsons.” When the show mocks Fox News, I really love “The Simpsons.”
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
