Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Sen. Diane Feinstein, the soon-to-be Chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, is preparing to introduce legislation requiring paper trails for all electronic voting. As she said in a statement, “We must do everything we can to restore confidence in the outcomes of elections by helping to ensure that every vote cast by an American citizen is recorded accurately and that every eligible voter can, in fact, cast a ballot.”
* If Nick Kristof seriously believes the “Christian Right has largely retreated from the culture wars,” he’s really not following the political movement very closely. As for what would posses him to write such a comment in a print column for the New York Times, I haven’t any idea.
* Good news: the gap between men’s and women’s wages is shrinking. The bad news: it’s shrinking, not because women are making more money, but because men are making less money.
* Justice Stephen Breyer says the Supreme Court must promote the political rights of minorities and look beyond the Constitution’s text when necessary to ensure that “no one gets too powerful.” I know this is the kind of thing that drives conservatives, and Scalia, crazy, but I’m glad Breyer said it anyway.
* Have you taken the “Do you want the terrorists to win” test?
* When it comes to legal recognition of same-sex marriage, gays may not find much progress in the U.S., but many other countries are moving forward with a progressive attitude on the subject. As the LAT noted, “Last month, South Africa joined the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and Spain in opening civil marriage to same-sex couples, allowing them equal economic benefits, legal rights and social status as families.” Moreover, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the government is required to officially register five Israeli lesbian and gay couples who had married in Canada as they would any other foreign marriage.
* Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.) speaking to state business leaders about their concerns over health care costs: “Stop complaining about health care…. There is no solution.”
* Cass Sunstein seemed fairly impressed with the substance of Sen. Barack Obama’s World AIDS Day speech at the Saddleback megachurch, religious right whining notwithstanding.
* Let’s not forget, Jose Padilla is an American citizen who has been convicted of no crime.
* You don’t suppose the Pentagon would want to scramble to get work done at Gitmo because of the Democratic Congress, do you?
* Good background on Defense Secretary nominee Robert Gates.
* On the Chris Matthews Show yesterday, Time magazine senior writer Joe Klein said of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) support for setting a timetable for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq: “That may well be true, but it’s wrong to say it.” Wow.
* The lawsuit stemming from the New Hampshire phone-jamming scandal has reached an out-of-court settlement. The case was expected to go to trial today.
* And, finally, 777 days, 18 hours, 30 minutes, and 21 seconds. Not that we’re counting or anything.
If none of these particular items are of interest, consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.