Today’s edition of quick hits.
* A fourth brutal day in Southern California: “The devastating wildfires in Southern California have caused at least $1 billion in damage in San Diego County alone, officials said Wednesday, as easing wind gave firefighters hope that they could begin to gain ground against the flames…. The announcement of San Diego’s staggering losses came as President Bush signed a major disaster declaration for California in the wake of the wildfires that have charred about 426,000 acres, or about 665 square miles.”
* On a related note, the right has decided to begin trying to assign blame for the wildfires. Fox News, for example, has decided that al Qaeda might be responsible. No, I’m not kidding.
* CNN’s Glenn Beck, apparently going all out to win the award for dumbest television personality, blamed the fires on the “damn environmentalists” and their “bad environmental policies.” To bolster his “argument” (I use the word loosely), Beck chatted with R.J. Smith of the Exxon-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Chris Horner, author of the Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism. Remember, CNN pays this guy to go on the air every day.
* This should be all manner of fun: “After years of ignoring congressional letters and rejecting requests for testimony, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has finally agreed to subject herself to a grilling before Henry Waxman (D-CA) and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee…. Rice still appears unwilling to speak candidly. According to a State Department official, she will balk at discussing ‘the administration’s use of intelligence before the Iraq war and the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame,’ though she’s ‘more willing to discuss department policies implemented during her tenure as Secretary of State.’ How gracious.”
* The Blackwater scandal has apparently claimed its first administration victim. Richard Griffin, the State Department’s top diplomatic security official, has agreed to resign. A month ago, Griffin was asked by a House committee to explain why State helped Blackwater evacuate a contractor who’d drunkenly killed an Iraqi vice president’s bodyguard. He refused to offer an explanation.
* Remember the “don’t tase me, bro” incident from last month? “State investigation finds University of Florida police were justified in using taser in that much-publicized incident during a John Kerry speech.”
* Ackerman: “The metaphorical statue of L. Paul Bremer III has come crashing down. Today the Iraqi government formally revoked one of the Coalition Provisional Authority’s enduring vestiges — a decree of immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts for U.S. security contractors.”
* A day after Bush talked tough about missile defense, his Pentagon chief went in a very different direction: “Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, seeking to mollify Moscow, gave the clearest sign yet yesterday that the United States might delay the activation of missile defense sites in Eastern Europe – even as President Bush pleaded with Congress to fully finance the plan to fill what he called an urgent need for European missile defense.” A few hours earlier, Bush said the time for a shield in Europe was now.
* Politco: “The first major bill that will reach the president’s desk after the SCHIP veto is most likely going to be … SCHIP. Call it the sequel. Democrats are already working on minor tweaks to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program legislation and plan to consider it again in the House by the end of this week.”
* Juan Cole: “The Bush administration once imagined that its presence in Afghanistan and Iraq would be anchored by friendly neighbors, Turkey to the west and Pakistan to the east. Last week, as the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan continued to deteriorate, the anchors themselves also came loose.”
* Bush has plans for Cuba: “President Bush is planning to issue a stern warning Wednesday that the United States will not accept a political transition in Cuba in which power changes from one Castro brother to another, rather than to the Cuban people…. In effect, the speech will be a call for Cubans to continue to resist, a particularly strong line coming from an American president. He is expected to say to the Cuban military and police, ‘There is a place for you in a new Cuba.'”
* Several media personalities really don’t like it when people talk about Rudy Giuliani’s scandalous personal life. The Clintons’ personal life is, however, fair game. Odd.
* Quote of the Day: “I took a city that was full of pornography and licked it to a large extent” – Rudy Giuliani.
* And finally, in the midst of the disaster in Southern California, former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown issued a press release to news outlets announcing he is “available for interviews” to discuss the wildfire crisis. Brown “can offer advice to residents and businesses on proper relief and recovery efforts and provide suggestions for future disaster preparedness,” the press release states. It’s a shame The Daily Show took this week off, isn’t it?
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.