Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The Land of the Free: “More than one in 100 adult Americans is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year, in addition to more than $5 billion spent by the federal government, according to a report released today. With more than 2.3 million people behind bars at the start of 2008, the United States leads the world in both the number and the percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving even far more populous China a distant second, noted the report by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States.”
* Some encouraging news out of Nairobi: “Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga agreed Thursday to a power-sharing arrangement meant to stabilize a country wracked by political violence since a disputed December election. Brokered by former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan, the deal was signed by the two political rivals at a ceremony here and witnessed by both Annan and Jakaya Kikwete, the current head of the African Union and president of Tanzania.”
* Predominantly Sunni forces in Iraq are so frustrated right now, many are abandoning their posts. Among their chief concerns are low salaries, late payments, and the fact that U.S. troops are accidentally killing many of the Awakening forces. The threat, of course, is that they’ll re-join the insurgency.
* Remember the “virtual fence” along the Mexican border Bush has been so excited about? Well, forget it: “The Bush administration has scaled back plans to quickly build a “virtual fence” along the U.S.-Mexico border, delaying completion of the first phase of the project by at least three years and shifting away from a network of tower-mounted sensors and surveillance gear, federal officials said yesterday…. The announcement marked a major setback for what President Bush in May 2006 called “the most technologically advanced border security initiative in American history.”
* New Abu Ghraib pictures: “If Osama bin Laden had hired a Madison Avenue public relations firm to rally Arabs hearts and minds to his cause, it’s hard to imagine that it could have devised a better propaganda campaign.”
* It took a while, but the Tennessee Republican Party removed the word “Hussein” from its now-notorious press release.
* Great piece from the Center for American Progress’ Brian Katulis: “The easily foreseen consequences of conservatives’ surge “strategy” in Iraq are now coming to pass. The disaffected Sunni groups that turned against Al Qaeda in Iraq are now demanding their due—political power for these “Awakening” groups commensurate with their newfound military clout and their belief that Sunnis should once again be the dominant power in Iraq as they were under Saddam Hussein. But the fractured Shi’a-led government of prime minister Nouri al Maliki has strongly opposed these efforts, and resisted integrating these irregular forces into the Iraqi government. The looming threat is that the different sides in one of Iraq’s key internal conflicts –supported to varying degrees by the United States over the last year—may start turning their weapons on each other.”
* Great inside look at the Pakistani elections.
* The economy is coming to a halt. Guess what GOP lawmakers want to do? “While Senate Democrats continue to argue that the best recession antidote is to pass legislation aimed directly at the housing market’s woes, Republicans are offering an alternative, albeit an unsurprising one: a second dose of stimulus via tax relief for ‘job creators,’ i.e. businesses. The conservative Republican Study Committee is pushing a package, dubbed the ‘Economic Growth Act of 2008,’ of permanent business tax incentives.”
* George Will really slammed John McCain today: “Although his campaign is run by lobbyists; and although his dealings with lobbyists have generated what he, when judging the behavior of others, calls corrupt appearances; and although he has profited from his manipulation of the taxpayer-funding system that is celebrated by reformers — still, he probably is innocent of insincerity. Such is his towering moral vanity, he seems sincerely to consider it theoretically impossible for him to commit the offenses of appearances that he incessantly ascribes to others. Such certitude is, however, not merely an unattractive trait. It is disturbing righteousness in someone grasping for presidential powers.”
* Fox News lies about Obama. Try not to be surprised.
* Bill Clinton complained yesterday, “There’s a one-minute ad on in Texas telling you how terrible things were in the 90s.” The problem? No such ad exists.
* Great piece from Joseph Romm on global warming deniers: “Deniers continue to insist there’s no consensus on global warming. Well, there’s not. There’s well-tested science and real-world observations.”
* And finally, Rep. Jack Kingston (Dimwit-Ga.) argued on MSNBC last night that it’s acceptable to “question” Barack Obama’s patriotism because he doesn’t regularly wear an American flag lapel pin. Kingston claimed that “everybody” in politics “wears them.” At the time he was making the attack, Kingston — you guessed it — was not wearing an American flag lapel pin.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.
