Today’s edition of quick hits.<\/p>\n
* The streets are heating up in Burma<\/a>: “The military government banned assemblies of more than five people and imposed curfews in Myanmar’s two largest cities on Tuesday, after thousands of Buddhist monks and sympathizers defied orders to stay out of politics and protested once again.”<\/p>\n * The Senate was poised to vote today on the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, a key legislative building block<\/a> in establishing a case for war with Iran. A couple of hours ago, the measure was pulled<\/a>, reportedly because its language is being “modified.’<\/p>\n * Before lawmakers cast their votes on S-CHIP expansion, opponents of the legislation may want to at least notice the results of the latest Democracy Corps poll<\/a> (.pdf), which shows the public overwhelmingly siding with Dems on the issue. Even voters in “red” districts favor the expansion, 55% to 39%.<\/p>\n * I found it absolutely fascinating that MSNBC’s David Shuster noted on the air that several Republican senators refuse to accept invitations<\/a> to talk about Iraq. Apparently, GOP lawmakers such as Norm Coleman (Minn.) and John Sununu (N.H.), who are up for re-election, and who would ordinarily love the media exposure, don’t want to talk about their unwillingness to break with their party over war policy. “They’ve come out with public statements and press releases, but when it comes down to brass tacks, they have voted to keep the war going indefinitely,” Shuster said.<\/p>\n * Huge case<\/a> to watch at the high court: “The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether voter identification laws unfairly deter the poor and minorities from voting, stepping into a contentious partisan issue in advance of the 2008 elections. The justices will hear arguments early next year in a challenge to an Indiana law that requires voters to present photo ID before casting their ballots. The state has defended the law as a way to combat voter fraud. The state Democratic party and civil rights groups complained that the law unfairly targets poor and minority voters, without any evidence that in-person voter fraud exists in Indiana. The party argued that those voters tend to be Democrats.”<\/p>\n * WaPo<\/a>: “Violent crime in the United States rose more than previously believed in 2006, continuing the most significant increase in more than a decade, according to an FBI report released yesterday.” * Katie Couric apparently kicked off last night’s CBS Evening News broadcast by announcing<\/a>, “President Ahmadinejad of Iran, an enemy of the United States, arrived tonight….”<\/p>\n * Questions continue to hang over the reliability of Gen. David Petraeus’ Iraq data<\/a>. (I’m not sure if I’m still allowed to say that without giving up my right to citizenship, but it’s true; there really are<\/a> key questions about his numbers.)<\/p>\n * The White House was apparently very<\/i> angry when the United Nations posted a marked-up draft of the president’s speech today on its website. The draft apparently included phonetic spellings<\/a> of some names and countries, including some that the president presumably knows how to pronounce, such as “Sarkozy.” Asked why Bush needed the phonetic spellings, Press Secretary Dana Perino described the question as “offensive<\/a>,” and refused to answer it.<\/p>\n * I just don’t know how this loon<\/a> stays on the air: “During the September 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated Fox News Radio show, John Gibson asserted that the demonstrators who gathered last week in Jena, Louisiana, only ‘wanna fight the white devil.’ Gibson aired news coverage of the Jena 6 protests and challenged protestors’ claims that the incidents in Jena are representative of ongoing racism in this country. He said: ‘[W]hat they’re worried about is a mirage of 1950s-style American segregation, racism from the South. They wanna fight the white devil. … [T]here’s no — can’t go fight the black devil. Black devils stalking their streets every night gunning down their own people — can’t go fight that. That would be snitchin’.'”<\/p>\n * On a related note, Bill O’Reilly condemned Columbia University for inviting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad onto campus to talk and answer questions. On the same program, O’Reilly added that he’d<\/i> invited<\/a> Ahmadinejad onto his show as well.<\/p>\n * Speaking of O’Reilly, the Fox News blowhard now characterizes transcripts of his show as “hatchet jobs<\/a>.”<\/p>\n * I didn’t expect the WSJ editorial board to defend<\/a> the NYT over the MoveOn.org flap, but that’s exactly what the conservative paper did.<\/p>\n * What if military recruiting videos featured disclaimers<\/a> like pharmaceutical ads do?<\/p>\n
\n
\n* Good news<\/a>: “The president sent a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee informing it of the decision to withdraw the nomination of John Rizzo to be the CIA’s general counsel. The panel had been expected to consider Rizzo’s nomination at a hearing Tuesday afternoon.”<\/p>\n