Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Speaker Pelosi flexes her muscles a bit on trade: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Wednesday that she’ll use a rare procedural option to block fast-track consideration of the Colombia free-trade agreement, a draconian step that counters President Bush’s push to get Congress to vote on the controversial deal this year. Pelosi said she’ll present to the House of Representatives floor a rule change suspending the limit of 90 legislative days to pass or reject the Colombia free-trade agreement, just two days after Bush dispatched the text to Congress. ‘The president took his action,’ Pelosi told reporters. ‘I will take mine tomorrow.'”
* Bloodshed in Baghdad: “Violence raged for a fourth straight day in Baghdad’s Sadr City, leaving 20 more Iraqis dead on Wednesday. At least seven people were killed and 38 others wounded in a mortar attack and gunfire, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. Six people died in clashes between U.S. and Iraqi forces and members of the Mehdi Army, the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Five people were killed and 14 others were wounded when attackers fired at a tent of mourners for a person killed in this week’s fighting.”
* Another one: “Yet another woman has come forward saying she was brutally raped in Iraq while working for the U.S. contractor Kellogg Brown Root (KBR). Dawn Leamon, who has two sons on active duty, says she was raped earlier this year by a U.S. soldier and a KBR colleague. She will tell her horrific story to members of Congress today at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Leamon says that following her rape, she spoke with a woman at the KBR Employee Assistance Program. ‘She discouraged me from reporting, saying, ‘You know what will happen if you do,” Leamon said.”
* On a related note: “In an apparent reversal of policy, the Justice Department will send an official to answer questions before Congress on the investigation and prosecution of alleged sex crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
* House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers (D-Mich.) would like a word (or two) with John Yoo.
* The most tenacious lawmaker in Congress: “Today, House oversight committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-CA) issued his third subpoena to the EPA this year…. Waxman says that his staff ‘has found evidence that EPA officials met with the White House’ about the rule, but that ‘EPA has refused to disclose the substance and extent of its communications with the White House.’ Waxman’s subpoena seeks about 100 EPA documents involving the White House.”
* Bilal Hussein is finally free. [Update: Well, actually, it’s more complicated than that. He’s been released by an Iraqi judicial committee, but he remains in U.S. custody.]
* Wal-Mart is going to be really unhappy: “From the tough anti-union talk to the wilder side of men in drag, videos of Wal-Mart corporate meetings are being sold to willing buyers, and the corporate behemoth is not happy about it. The videos, thousands of them spanning three decades, are in the library of a production company in Lenexa, Kan. Flagler Productions Inc. was hired on a handshake deal by Wal-Mart in the 1970s to produce and film corporate sales meetings and other company events.”
* Note to media: Hillary Clinton has released her tax returns, but John McCain hasn’t.
* No, liberals did not cause the sub-prime crisis.
* The right move by TNR: “You may notice that this blog looks a little different. The phrase ‘powered by BP,’ which appeared in the banner when we launched yesterday, led to some (justifiable) confusion about the blog’s relationship with BP. But TNR’s agreement with BP was and is purely an advertising deal, and the company never had any say in our editorial content. Today, the TNR business staff and BP decided to remove their logo placement to make sure that relationship is clear.”
* I don’t care for flying. I really don’t care for flying knowing of Bush’s regulatory policies.
* I’m not an expert on media and business practices, but the WaPo getting rid of its best reporters seems like a very bad idea. Thomas Ricks is poised to leave in the latest round of company buyouts.
* Won’t folks please stop pestering Chelsea Clinton with Lewinsky questions?
* And finally, I may write the occasional typo here at The Carpetbagger Report, but if I were creating ads for a presidential campaign, I’d be careful not to spell my boss’ name, “Johm McCain.” Indeed, if I were running a campaign, I’d probably have someone on staff to proof read ad copy to prevent this. But that’s just me.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.