Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Prosecutors wanted 30-to-life; they got 66 months: “A military jury sentenced Osama bin Laden’s former driver to 5 1/2 years in prison for aiding terrorism, making him eligible for release in six months. Salim Hamdan was acquitted of conspiracy in the first Guantanamo war crimes trial. The sentence was delivered by the same six jurors who convicted Hamdan on Wednesday in the war crimes tribunal authorized by the Bush administration to try non-U.S. captives on terrorism charges outside the regular civilian and military courts.”
* Remember, it’s a horizon, not a timeline: “The U.S. and Iraq are close to a deal under which all American combat troops would leave by October 2010 with remaining U.S. forces gone about three years later, two Iraqi officials said Thursday…. A timetable is part of a security agreement being negotiated by U.S. and Iraqi officials. Both sides stress the deal is not final and could fall apart over the issue of legal immunity for American troops.”
* On a related note, Iraqi political progress remains elusive: “After weeks of late-night negotiations and under intense U.S. pressure, Iraqi lawmakers failed to pass a much-debated provincial elections law Wednesday before adjourning for the month. The failure to pass the law, which would govern elections in provinces across the country, may push the elections into next year. If elections don’t happen by the end of this year, it could be July before the balloting could be carried out, U.N. spokesman Said Arikat said… The latest move by parliament underscores the great divide between security and political progress in Iraq.”
* There was no way this was going to be easy: “The Justice Department, on behalf of Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolten, filed its request for appeal today in the July 31 ruling in House Judiciary Committee v. Miers et al. While the appeal is resolved, however, the DOJ also requested that the judge grant a stay on the subpoenas, allowing Miers and Bolten to continue to evade the House Judiciary Committee.”
* Barack Obama weighed in this afternoon on the disgusting attacks in the Democratic primary in Tennessee’s 9th congressional district: “These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee. It’s time to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country.”
* Chinese officials have been battling smog in advance of the Olympics. It’s a fight they’ve lost.
* Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R-Alaska) new defense is that the criminal charges against him aren’t particularly important: “This is an indictment for failure to disclose gifts that are controversial in terms of whether they were or were not gifts. It’s not bribery; it’s not some corruption; it’s not some extreme felony.”
* Musharraf’s political future is in doubt: “Pakistan’s ruling coalition parties agreed Thursday to impeach President Pervez Musharraf, setting up a major showdown between the former military chief and the newly elected civilian government. Leaders of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N faction called for a no-confidence vote in Parliament against Musharraf and said they could begin official impeachment proceedings in the next few days.”
* Kilpatrick’s political future looks even worse: “A judge Thursday ordered Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick jailed after determining he violated terms of his bond by taking an unauthorized trip to Canada last month. Kilpatrick, who is facing felony charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct of office, has been free on $75,000 bond.”
* When it comes to McCain, New York Times political writer and CNBC chief Washington correspondent John Harwood seems to have some kind of “maverick” Tourette’s.
* The Energy Information Administration says whatever Karl Rove says it says, even when it says the exact opposite.
* That Bob Casey myth from ’92 has been debunked repeatedly, but reporters still repeat it as if it were true.
* I get the sense David Gergen, a Republican, doesn’t think highly of the McCain campaign’s character assassination of Obama.
* The Politico asked Condoleezza Rice about her “Hollywood crush,” to which she replied, “Oh, I’ve got lots of them. I mean, doesn’t everybody love Denzel Washington?” Here’s my question: would the Politico have asked this of Defense Secretary Robert Gates? Or Attorney General Michael Mukasey? Or Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson? If not, then the Politico shouldn’t have asked it of Rice.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.