Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Discouraging: “Billionaire Warren Buffett said Monday that the U.S. economy is essentially in a recession even if it hasn’t met the technical definition of one yet. Buffett said in an interview with cable network CNBC the reports he gets from the retail businesses his holding company owns show a significant slowdown in purchases…. ‘I would say, by any commonsense definition, we are in a recession,’ Buffett said on CNBC.” (thanks to reader D.H. for the tip)
* Election results from Russia: “Western criticism and dozens of opposition arrests in Moscow on Monday overshadowed Dmitry Medvedev’s triumph in a presidential election to replace Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Medvedev won 70.2 percent of Sunday’s vote, crushing his nearest rival, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who got 17.8 percent, the central elections commission said. Medvedev, the first deputy prime minister and head of gas monopoly Gazprom, takes over from Putin in May, when Putin will become prime minister.” (Common joke in Moscow: “Putin and Medvedev sit in a restaurant. Putin: ‘I’ll have the steak.’ Waiter: ‘And what about the vegetable?’ Putin: ‘He’ll take the steak too.’ “)
* Keep an eye on this: “The U.N. Security Council approved a third round of sanctions against Iran on Monday with near unanimous support, sending a strong signal to Tehran that its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment is unacceptable and becoming increasingly costly. For the first time, the resolution bans trade with Iran in goods which have both civilian and military uses and authorizes inspections of shipments to and from Iran by sea and air that are suspected of carrying banned items…. Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazee told the council before the vote that the government would not comply with the ‘unlawful action’ against its ‘peaceful nuclear program.'”
* Bush runs the White House the way he ran his companies: “On Capitol Hill and in federal court, a congressional committee and two private groups are pushing for information on how the White House has handled its e-mail for the past six years and whether officials there complied with records-retention laws. The picture emerging from testimony and court filings is one of disregard for fundamental principles that well-run private companies adhere to routinely. By one estimate, over 1,000 days of e-mail are missing from various White House offices. ‘I would call this negligence,’ said Mark Epstein, director of technical services for Cataphora Inc., a California company that specializes in retrieval and analysis of electronic information.”
* Wild story from CNN White House Correspondent Ed Henry: “A Danish journalist came this close to getting shot Saturday by an elderly woman packing a pistol near President Bush’s ranch here in what was easily the strangest incident I’ve ever witnessed covering the White House.”
* You’ll want to read the whole thing: “After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged former and current U.S. officials, David Rose reveals how President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever.”
* Apparently, Fox News is still whining about Barack Obama’s habit of ignoring the partisan network. Note to FNC: get over it.
* For those who think a cold winter is evidence against global warming, Tim F. explains the difference between climate and weather.
* I was afraid of this: “The signs are unmistakably clear that what was always inevitable — full compliance by the House Democratic leadership with Bush’s demands on warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty — is now imminent. House leaders spent the week floating their specific proposals for how they intend to comply in full, and yesterday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes went on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, refused to criticize the President or the Senate FISA bill, and repeatedly and meekly expressed his willingness ‘this week’ to give what he called full ‘blanket immunity’ to telecoms.”
* The Washington Times is getting the Rezko story wrong. Who could have guessed.
* I’m utterly and completely lost trying to figure out what some Obama aide may or may not have said to some Canadian official about NAFTA, but the Canadian government seems to regret playing a role in the Democratic primary.
* Interesting: “The Pundit Accountability Project captures video clips of pundits’ predictions so they can be measured against actual outcomes. And users can track pundits by name, in an easy to use drop-down menu, which includes our first list of 23 pundits — typically the ones who have been most consistently wrong. (Howard Fineman is currently leading the pack — with predictions that Rudy was perfectly positioned for a Florida win, and that Ted Kenney would not be endorsing Obama.)”
* And finally, the number of the day is 452: “Number of days President Bush has spent at his ranch in Crawford, TX. His stay there this past weekend with the Danish prime minister marked Bush’s 70th visit as president. President Ronald Reagan, one of the modern presidency’s most ‘famous vacationer[s], spent just 335 days at his ranch in Santa Barbara, CA.”
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.