Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Crisis in Pakistan: “Police fired tear gas and clubbed thousands of lawyers protesting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s decision to impose emergency rule, as Western allies threatened to review aid to the troubled Muslim nation. Opposition groups put the number of arrests at 3,500, although the government reported half that.”
* The White House is left scrambling: “Even before Saturday’s crackdown, U.S. State Department officials said they had struggled with what to do if Musharraf went through with his threat. They didn’t know then, and they don’t know now. ‘Frankly, it ain’t easy,’ one official said. ‘We are looking at our options, and none of them are good.'”
* Bush is, however, moving to help diffuse a different pending crisis nearby: “President Bush on Monday pledged fresh help to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in fighting Kurdish rebels, declaring them ‘an enemy of Turkey, a free Iraq and the United States.’ In an Oval Office session, Bush offered intelligence sharing to help combat the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Bush also said top military figures from the United States and Turkey would be in more regular contact in an effort to track the movement of the guerrilla fighters.”
* Duke Cunningham went to jail, and now the defense contractor who bribed him is headed to jail, too: “A U.S. District Court jury has convicted Brent Wilkes on all 13 counts in his corruption trial. The Poway defense contractor had been accused by prosecutors of leveraging more than $600,000 in cash bribes and thousands more in gifts to ousted Rep. Randy Duke Cunningham in exchange for Cunningham’s influence in securing more than $80 million in government contracts.” As TPMM added, “Wilkes faces up to 20 years for his conviction here, but keep in mind that this is just the first of two trials that Wilkes will face. The second deals with Wilkes’ alleged bribes of former CIA executive director Dusty Foggo.”
* Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) introduced the Caging Prohibition Act today, which would outlaw a “long-recognized voter suppression tactic which has often been used to target minority voters.” Good for Whitehouse.
* There’s no accounting for taste: “Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, is expected to announce today that it is extending [Glenn] Beck’s contract. Two sources with knowledge of the deal said it was valued at $50 million over five years, through a combination of salary and profit-sharing from syndication. In signing the deal, Mr. Beck, 43, becomes the newest — and youngest — entrant into an exclusive club of highly compensated radio stars.” Beck will now be the third highest-paid talk radio host in the country, behind Limbaugh and Hannity.
* Former Attorney General John Ashcroft had an op-ed today arguing on behalf of telecom immunity. Wouldn’t you know it; Ashcroft also just so happens to be a lobbyist for the telecommunications industry. What a coincidence.
* Kevin Drum is hosting a really fun project: “All-Time Wingnuttiest Blog Post Contest.” There are 14 finalists, featuring “the worst, most embarrassing, most risible wingnut blog posts of all time.” Somehow, the contest is both hilarious and depressing at the same time.
* In last week’s Democratic debate, Dennis Kucinich called for Bush’s impeachment three times. This week, he’ll shift his attention a little with a plan to “force the House to … on whether to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney.”
* Al Gore is almost as good talking about the media’s flaws as he is talking about global warming.
* Down by double digits and certain to lose tomorrow, what does Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) do the day before the election? What else? He unveils a Ten Commandments monument in the state Capitol Rotunda. Shameless.
* Not only has Rudy Giuliani’s bogus cancer claims been thoroughly debunked by independent sources, they’ve now been refused by Giuliani’s original source: “The Boston Globe reports that the Commonwealth Fund, an independent think tank, has disowned Rudy’s use of their numbers to argue that British survival rates for prostate cancer are under 50%.”
* Fascinating column from Garry Wills: “Much of the debate over abortion is based on a misconception — that it is a religious issue, that the pro-life advocates are acting out of religious conviction. It is not a theological matter at all. There is no theological basis for defending or condemning abortion. Even popes have said that the question of abortion is a matter of natural law, to be decided by natural reason. Well, the pope is not the arbiter of natural law. Natural reason is.”
* I’m sure you’ve heard about the writers’ strike in Hollywood. What it’s at all about? This piece from the Writers Guild of America explains.
* And finally, comedian Stephen Colbert officially ended his not-quite-serious presidential campaign today, after the South Carolina Dems rejected his application late last week. “I am shocked and saddened by the South Carolina Democratic Executive Council’s 13-to-3 vote to keep me off their presidential primary ballot,” he said in a statement. “Although I lost by the slimmest margin in presidential election history — only 10 votes — I have chosen not to put the country through another agonizing Supreme Court battle. It is time for this nation to heal.” Colbert said he would stay off the air “until I can talk about this without weeping,” which just so happens to coincide with the writers’ strike that takes his show off the air anyway.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.