Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Alas, no big surprise here: “The Senate rejected legislation Friday that would have ordered most U.S. troops home from Iraq in nine months, culminating a losing week for Democrats who failed to push through any anti-war proposal. The vote, 47-47, fell 13 votes short of the 60 needed to pass.”
* Remember that B-52 mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles that flew from North Dakota to Louisiana last month? “Three weeks after the Air Force began investigating the mistaken arming of a B-52 bomber with nuclear weapons, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked for an outside inquiry led by a retired general who once commanded the strategic bomber fleet, an official said Thursday.”
* CNN: “Mychal Bell, the sole defendant who remains behind bars from the group of teens known as the ‘Jena 6,’ will not be released Friday, a court decided. Bell, 17, has been in jail since his arrest more than nine months ago. It was not immediately clear what happened in court Friday, where Bell’s attorneys had planned to push for his release.”
* That didn’t take long: “American convoys under the protection of Blackwater USA resumed on Friday, four days after the U.S. Embassy suspended all land travel by its diplomats and other civilian officials in response to the alleged killing of civilians by the security firm.”
* On a related note, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is calling for a “full and complete review” of security practices for U.S. diplomats, who are generally protected by Blackwater. “To recap,” Spencer Ackerman wrote, “while the Iraqi prime minister says Blackwater killed Iraqi civilians “in cold blood,” the State Department is promising to “review” its security procedures — with details on the scope of that review to come later — and already has Blackwater back to work. Very diplomatic.”
* National Review’s Cliff May reported, “Senators Lieberman and Kyl are offering an amendment today calling on the US to combat, contain and roll back Iran’s aggression in Iraq. It also designates the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization.” Jonathan Schwarz has more.
* NYT: “Military officials said Thursday that contracts worth $6 billion to provide essential supplies to American troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan — including food, water and shelter — were under review by criminal investigators, double the amount the Pentagon had previously disclosed. In addition, $88 billion in contracts and programs, including those for body armor for American soldiers and materiel for Iraqi and Afghan security forces, are being audited for financial irregularities, the officials said.” (emphasis added)
* After a series of tough questions at yesterday White House press conference, the president sought out a friendly reporter who asked him to respond to the “Betray Us” ad. Was it an orchestrated softball? Given the circumstances, it probably was. (That there are specific conservative ideologues in the press room who can help get Bush out of jams, is, in and of itself, scandalous.)
* Krugman: “Lots of buzz suddenly about the possibility of a sharp fall in the dollar. The Canadian dollar is back at parity with the greenback; there are rumors that the Saudis are planning to diversify into euros, and maybe even that the Chinese might break the dollar peg…. [A]ccording to the story, one of these days there will be a Wile E. Coyote moment for the dollar: the moment when the cartoon character, who has run off a cliff, looks down and realizes that he’s standing on thin air — and plunges. In this case, investors suddenly realize that Stein’s Law applies — ‘If something cannot go on forever, it will stop’ — and they realize they need to get out of dollars, causing the currency to plunge.”
* Michael Kinsley’s best column of the year: “The fuss over this MoveOn.org ad is something else: it is the result of a desperate scavenging for umbrage material. When so many people are clamoring for a chance to swoon that they each have to take a number and when the landscape is so littered with folks lying prostrate and pretending to be dead that it starts to look like the end of a Civil War battle re-enactment, this isn’t spontaneous mass outrage. This is choreography.”
* Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is once again spreading the nonsense that discussing surveillance policies necessarily kills Americans. With each passing week, he sounds more and more like a partisan hack. It’s a shame; before teaming up with Bush, McConnell had a decent reputation.
* While chatting with conservative media personalities at the White House this week, Bush was asked about the qualities he’d like to see in his successor. The president said, “Be comfortable with your family. Work hard to make sure there is love in the White House.” What an odd thing to say.
* I hate to admit it, but intellectual honesty compels me to note that Bush’s comments yesterday about Mandela being “dead,” really were misconstrued.
* I shouldn’t be, but I’m often surprised how truly dumb high-profile Republicans are about healthcare policy: “The smear-and-fear campaign has already started. The Democratic plans all bear a strong resemblance to the health care plan that Mitt Romney signed into law as governor of Massachusetts, differing mainly in offering Americans additional choices. But that didn’t stop Mr. Romney from denouncing the Clinton plan as ‘European-style socialized medicine.’ And Fred Thompson claims that the Clinton plan denies choice — which it actually offers in abundance — and relies on ‘punishment’ instead.” If only there was some kind of system in place — say, a national press corps of some kind — that could provide Americans information about how wrong the GOP is about the issue.
* Glenn Beck thinks Jesse Jackson is a racist. Time to look in the mirror, Glenn.
* CREW released, “Beyond DeLay: The 22 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and two to watch)”
* Left ‘Toon Lane invited me to be a “celebrity judge” this week, giving me the chance to pick the political Cartoon of the Week. There were some gems to choose from, but I went with this one.
* And finally, Bush may have bought his ranch in 1999 as a prop for the 2000 campaign, but the pretend-cowboy has one problem real cowboys don’t — George W. Bush is apparently afraid of horses.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.