Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The offensive continues in Georgia: “Russian forces continued airstrikes against targets in this central Georgian city Monday as Moscow’s troops moved deeper into Georgian territory around the western town of Senaki. The airstrikes and ground movements came despite an announcement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Monday that military operations in Georgia are almost complete.”
* Slicing Georgia in half: “Russian forces seized several towns and a military base deep in western Georgia on Monday, opening a second front in the fighting. Georgia’s president said his country had been effectively cut in half with the capture of the main east-west highway near Gori. Fighting also raged Monday around Tskhinvali, the capital of the separatist province of South Ossetia. Russian warplanes launched new air raids across Georgia, with at least one sending screaming civilians running for cover.”
* John McCain spent much of the day talking about events in Georgia; Bush was scheduled to address the subject about 15 minutes ago; and Obama is expected to have a public statement any minute now.
* McCain is impressed with himself for working the phones with Georgia, but he’s not actually doing anything.
* The latest in Iraq: “The Iraqi government on Monday suspended a massive military operation in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, offering a limited amnesty to insurgents who surrender by the end of the week…. An hour after the announcement, a woman wearing a suicide vest blew herself up near a police station in the provincial capital of Baqouba, injuring 13 policemen and killing one. Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb killed five women who’d been on their way into the city to buy vegetables.”
* House Republicans are still engaged in a sit-in of sorts, which only they and the tourists can see.
* A withdrawal date from Iraq might help improve matters on the ground. Quick, someone tell John McCain.
* Enjoy the Endangered Species List now; the Bush administration may soon try to make it extinct.
* Headline of the Day: “11,000 couples later, gay marriage largely a nonevent in Mass.” Wait, you mean the sky didn’t fall? Civilization remains intact? The religious right was wrong? Ya don’t say.
* The Justice Department wrongfully obtained the phone records of reporters at the New York Times and Washington Post Indonesia bureaus, but the FBI is really sorry about it now.
* David Axelrod is starting to getting a little slyer with his rhetoric: “Obviously, his strategists met on the portico of the McCain estate in Sedona — or maybe in one of his six other houses — and decided what line of attack they were going to use.”
* I wonder if the DC media establishment might be willing to take a few notes from Bob Costas.
* The WaPo really screwed up the story about Obama’s budget plan.
* Hmm: “Scientists are stepping up among those most skeptical of the FBI’s evidence implicating military microbiologist Bruce Ivins in the 2001 Anthrax attacks.”
* The flap over Boehner’s “hanging” comment is not yet resolved
, and an apology has not yet been forthcoming.
* I actually like Rolling Stone, and I’m not sure how I feel about it shrinking.
* And finally, I found James Joyner’s take on his “distaste” for the Pledge of Allegiance absolutely fascinating: “My reasons aren’t libertarian, however, but quite conservative. It’s not so much that I find taking oaths distasteful or contrary to our Republican spirit but, rather, that I take my oaths seriously.” Take a look at his post.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.