Today’s edition of quick hits.
* I guess this was only a matter of time: “Crude oil prices soared to $100 a barrel Wednesday for the first time, reaching that milestone amid an unshakeable view that global demand for oil and petroleum products will outstrip supplies. Surging economies in China and India fed by oil and gasoline have sent prices soaring over the past year, while tensions in oil producing nations like Nigeria and Iran have increasingly made investors nervous and invited speculators to drive prices even higher.”
* Horror in Kenya: “International pressure mounted on Kenya’s leaders Wednesday to end postelection violence that has killed more than 300 people, including dozens burned alive as they sought refuge in a church. The killing of up to 50 ethnic Kikuyus as they sheltered in a church in the Rift Valley city of Eldoret fueled fears of deepening tribal conflict in what has been one of Africa’s most stable democracies. The Kikuyu, Kenya’s largest ethnic group, are accused of using their dominance of politics and business to the detriment of others. President Mwai Kibaki, who won a second term in the disputed elections, is a Kikuyu, while his rival Rail Odinga is from the Luo tribe, a smaller but still major tribe that says it has been marginalized.”
* NYT: “An outspoken Saudi blogger is being held for ‘purposes of interrogation,’ the Saudi Interior Ministry confirmed Tuesday.” Fouah al-Farhan, whose blog “discusses social issues,” wrote in a letter to friends before he was arrested that he is being targeted because of his writings on “political prisoners here in Saudi Arabia.”
* This should at least help add credibility to the investigation: “Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Wednesday that he had requested a team of investigators from Britain’s Scotland Yard to assist in the investigation into the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. ‘We decided to request a team from Scotland Yard to come. I sent the request to (British) Prime Minister (Gordon) Brown, and he accepted the request,’ Musharraf said, adding that the British team would assist local investigators. ‘We would like to know what were the reasons that led to the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto. I would also like to look into it,’ Musharraf said in a nationally televised address.”
* TP: “Yesterday, President Bush signed the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act, which makes it easier for “states, local governments and private investors to cut investment ties with Sudan as a way to pressure the Khartoum government into ending violence in the country’s Darfur region.” Both the House and the Senate passed the bill unanimously.” (There was, however, a signing statement.)
* Everyone welcome New Hampshire to the group of states that recognize civil unions of same-sex couples. Somehow, I suspect traditional marriages will survive. Call it a hunch.
* Before the announced criminal investigation, the 9/11 Commission’s Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton had a few choice words for the CIA today: “As a legal matter, it is not up to us to examine the C.I.A.’s failure to disclose the existence of these tapes. That is for others. What we do know is that government officials decided not to inform a lawfully constituted body, created by Congress and the president, to investigate one the greatest tragedies to confront this country. We call that obstruction.”
* The Hill: “House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) announced Wednesday he would not seek reelection because he has been diagnosed with cancer. ‘Routine medical tests have revealed that I have cancer of the esophagus,’ Lantos said in a statement. ‘In view of this development and the treatment it will require, I will not seek reelection.'”
* I’ve heard some talk about Obama advertising on Drudge. Based on the scale I used this morning, this doesn’t even qualify as 1 Lieberman — the campaign has an approved list of websites for official Obama advertising, and Drudge isn’t on it.
* I can appreciate an optimistic outlook as much as the next guy, but Mitt Romney may want to dial it down a notch: “In the next ten years, we’ll see more progress, more change than the world has seen in the last ten centuries.” Um, Mitt? The last millennium saw quite a few changes. The chances of comparable changes by 2018 seem a little remote.
* I was going to take Maureen Dowd to task for her foolish column today, but it looks like my friend Melissa McEwan has already taken care of it.
* California is suing the EPA. Good.
* Hillary Clinton will be on Letterman tonight. Given that the caucuses are tomorrow, it seems like an odd choice, but we’ll see.
* And finally, you haven’t seen the RIAA skewered until you’ve seen the RIAA skewered by Lee Stranahan.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.