Today’s edition of quick hits.<\/p>\n
* Yesterday’s 5-4 Supreme Court ruling<\/a> on discrimination was truly awful: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday made it harder for many workers to sue their employers for discrimination in pay, insisting in a 5-to-4 decision on a tight time frame to file such cases.” (August J. Pollak has a good post<\/a> on the ruling.) Today, House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), in response to the ruling, recommended<\/a> clarifying the Civil Rights Act to extend stronger protections against discrimination.<\/p>\n * Price Floyd, a 17-year veteran of the State Department, wrote a fascinating op-ed<\/a> on Bush’s approach to foreign policy: “We have eroded not only the good will of the post-9-11 days but also any residual appreciation from the countries we supported during the Cold War…. Collectively, these actions have sent an unequivocal message: The U.S. does not want to be a collaborative partner. That is the policy we have been ‘selling’ through our actions, which speak the loudest of all…. We need a president who will enable the U.S. to return to its rightful place as the ‘beacon on a hill’ — a country that others want to emulate, not hate; a country that proves through words and deeds that it is free, not afraid.”<\/p>\n * The scandals at the Justice Department aren’t going away, they’re growing more intense<\/a>: “In a letter today, the Justice Department’s Inspector General and head counsel for the Office of Professional Responsibility notified the Senate Judiciary Committee that their joint probe into the U.S. attorney firings had expanded to include a broad array of allegations ‘regarding improper political or other considerations in hiring decisions within the Department of Justice.'” Goodling’s and others’ hiring decisions are on the table, as are allegations concerning hiring practices in the DoJ Civil Rights Division.<\/p>\n * It’s the second anniversary<\/a> of Dick Cheney declaring that the Iraqi insurgency is in its “last throes,” at which point he also predicted, “[T]he level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline.” Since then, 1,799 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, roughly half of all U.S. fatalities. At least 12,378 U.S. soldiers have been wounded.<\/p>\n * Everyone has seen Joe Lieberman’s Michael-Dukakis-like picture<\/a>, right? * A religious activist in Georgia has been engaged in a court fight in the hopes of banning Harry Potter books from Gwinnett County school libraries. The mother, Laura Mallory, believes the books promote witchcraft. Yesterday, a judge rejected Mallory’s case<\/a>. She’s considering taking the matter to federal court.<\/p>\n * To say that Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) is off to a rough start in his new job is a dramatic understatement<\/a>.<\/p>\n * Amazingly, Glenn Beck’s ratings are lower now<\/a> than when he started a year ago. The more people see him, the less they watch. (Note to CNN: people who want to watch right-wing blowhards already have a network to tune into.)<\/p>\n * The ACLU filed a lawsuit<\/a> today charging that a Boeing subsidiary knowing provided service to the administration’s unlawful “extraordinary rendition” program.<\/p>\n * Speaking of lawsuits, some friends of mine asked a court<\/a> in DC today to release the pre-sentencing letters that were submitted on Scooter Libby’s behalf. That ought to be interesting.<\/p>\n * TNR’s Christopher Orr on my favorite franchise<\/a>: “Serenity (2005): The directorial debut of pop genius Joss Whedon (‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ ‘Angel’), this big-screen adaptation of his ‘Firefly’ series is the best space opera since the first two Star Wars movies and one of the most criminally neglected entertainments of the last decade. Had it been cursed with a gluttonous budget, a raft of ‘stars,’ and the requisite McDonalds tie-ins, it would have made a quarter-billion dollars. Instead, it made about a tenth as much — but is a much better movie for it.”<\/p>\n * The U.S. Marine Corps is threatening to revoke<\/a> the honorable discharge of two anti-war protestors? Can they do that?<\/p>\n
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\n* As for the upcoming Democratic debate co-sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and Fox News, Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson officially announced today that they will not participate<\/a>. Three candidates have agreed to attend: Biden, Kucinich, and Gravel.<\/p>\n