Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The photo-op is off to a good start: “Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed Tuesday to immediately resume long-stalled talks toward a deal by the end of next year that would create an independent Palestinian state, using a U.S.-hosted Mideast peace conference to launch their first negotiations in seven years… ‘We agree to immediately launch good-faith bilateral negotiations in order to conclude a peace treaty resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues without exception, as specified in previous agreements,’ [a joint statement read by President Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] said.”
* We’re running out of time: “Unless the international community agrees to cut carbon emissions by half over the next generation, climate change is likely to cause large-scale human and economic setbacks and irreversible ecological catastrophes, a U.N. report said on Tuesday. The U.N. Human Development Report issued one of the strongest warnings yet of the lasting impact of climate change on living standards and a strong call for urgent collective action. ‘We could be on the verge of seeing human development reverse for the first time in 30 years,’ Kevin Watkins, lead author of the report, told Reuters.”
* The hits just keep on coming: “U.S. home prices fell 4.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the sharpest drop since Standard & Poor’s began its nationwide housing index in 1987 and another sign that the housing slump is far from over, the research group said Tuesday. The index also showed that prices fell 1.7 percent from the previous three-month period, the largest quarter-to-quarter decline in the index’s history.”
* Two steps forward, one step back: “President Gen. Pervez Musharraf bade farewell to the military Tuesday, a day before he steps down as army chief and restores Pakistan to civilian rule in an effort to ease the country’s political crisis. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf ousted in a 1999 coup, said the president’s departure from the army would make ‘a lot of difference,’ but insisted he needed to do much more to defuse tensions. Relinquishing the post of army chief has been a key demand of an increasingly adamant opposition to Musharraf both at home and abroad.”
* Clearing the way for permanent bases: “Yesterday, General Douglas Lute, a top Iraq adviser to President Bush, said that the administration didn’t require Senate ratification for its forthcoming long-term security guarantee to the Iraqis. [Whether that’s true or not], the Iraqi constitution stipulates that Iraq’s parliament has to ratify any such agreement. And the Iraqi parliament is a lot more hostile to the idea of hosting U.S. troops indefinitely than the U.S. Senate is.”
* Could the Veco Oil scandal have contributed to Trent Lott’s abrupt resignation? Maybe.
* And MSNBC wonders why no one’s watching the show: “On the November 26 edition of MSNBC’s Tucker, after stating that he ‘will bet [his] car’ that President Bush, ‘when he leaves office will come out in the next decade or so as a strong advocate on behalf of ending global warming,’ host Tucker Carlson asserted that former Vice President Al Gore ‘would have been a disaster as president.’ Carlson continued: ‘We’d have been living in the Dark Ages. I think he’s fundamentally hostile to human civilization. And a phony.’ After Politico senior political columnist Roger Simon asked Carlson, ‘Would we be fighting a war in Iraq?’ Carlson responded, ‘We would likely be not, not be fighting a war in Iraq. We’d also be living in yurts in the dark, and that would be maybe almost as bad.'”
* Want to see an incredibly progressive party platform on immigration? Read the Republican Party’s platform — from 1972.
* Sweetheart deal for a certain former Attorney General (thanks to Homer for the tip): “The law firm of former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is set to collect more than $52 million to help the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey monitor leading manufacturers of knee and hip replacements, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported Tuesday. Ashcroft is among five private attorneys whom U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie hand-picked to monitor the implant makers, the newspaper reported.”
* I’m a little behind on the latest Joe Klein flap, but apparently he really stepped in it with a recent column criticizing Dems on FISA. Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) does his best to set the legislative record straight, while Glenn and FDL highlight Klein’s errors of fact and judgment.
* Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) officially resigned last night, one minute before midnight. No one seems to care. For the longest-serving Republican Speaker in American history, Hastert didn’t exactly leave his mark on the institution.
* Note to congressional candidates everywhere: do not try to fake your own disappearance in order to get publicity. It’s better to just lose.
* A couple of months ago, we learned that Bush had so much trouble with the names of foreign heads of state and countries, his speechwriters had to give him “phonetic spellings.” At the time, Dana Perino said she found questions about this “offensive.” Today, the matter came roaring back: “While reading a joint agreement on principles established between the Israelis and Palestinians at today’s Annapolis conference, President Bush stumbled in pronouncing the names of the two leaders standing right next to him — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.” Ouch.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.