Today’s edition of quick hits.<\/p>\n
* A growing number of U.S. military officials are pressuring the White House to “accelerate a troop drawdown in Iraq and bulk up force levels in Afghanistan<\/a>.” Apparently, conditions in the “other” war are deteriorating quickly, and some administration officials now believe Afghanistan may pose a “greater longer-term challenge than Iraq.”<\/p>\n * Last week, Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee compared waterboarding to going for a swim. In the face of criticism, Bond told C-SPAN<\/a> that his comments were misconstrued, saying he only meant to say “there are different kinds of waterboarding, and different kinds of swimming.” And people wonder why I can’t take Republican lawmakers seriously on policy matters.<\/p>\n * Congrats to New Jersey<\/a>: “Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law Monday a measure that abolishes the death penalty, making New Jersey the first state in more than four decades to reject capital punishment. The bill, approved last week by the state’s Assembly and Senate, replaces the death sentence with life in prison without parole…. The measure spares eight men on the state’s death row. On Sunday, Corzine signed orders commuting the sentences of those eight to life in prison without parole.”<\/p>\n * CREW put together the top 10<\/a> biggest ethics scandals in government from 2007. There are quite a few doozies in there, though I’d like to think last year’s list was slightly worse. (Remember the Republicans’ culture of corruption? It made picking 10 quite a challenge.)<\/p>\n * The controversy surrounding the alleged Halliburton\/KBR rape in Baghdad isn’t going away<\/a>: “Today, the House Judiciary Crime, Homeland Security, and Terrorism Subcommittee announced a hearing on the “Enforcement of Federal Criminal Law to Protect Americans Working for U.S. Contractors in Iraq.” Members will address the recent alleged rape of a former KBR\/Halliburton employee, among other cases. The hearing will take place Wednesday, December 19, at 10:15 a.m. in room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building.”<\/p>\n * It wasn’t enough for Rudy Giuliani to say he was a good U.S. Attorney; he had to say he cleaned up an awful U.S. Attorney’s office that he inherited. Now, his predecessor is hitting back<\/a>, explaining that Giuliani is needlessly lying about this, too. * It’s tragic it even came to this, but the pardon<\/a> is better late than never: “King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia pardoned a teenage girl sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes after being gang raped in a decision swiftly welcomed by Washington on Monday…. The girl, who was 18 at the time she was raped, was attacked at knifepoint by seven men after she was found in a car with a male companion who was not a relative, in breach of strict Saudi law. The king also pardoned the male companion, the justice minister announced.”<\/p>\n * Voting-machine problems haven’t dominated the headlines much lately, but that doesn’t mean<\/a> the problem is a thing of the past: “All five voting systems used in Ohio, a state whose electoral votes narrowly swung two elections toward President Bush, have critical flaws that could undermine the integrity of the 2008 general election, a report commissioned by the state’s top elections official has found. ‘It was worse than I anticipated,’ the official, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, said of the report.”<\/p>\n * In response to reality that shows the ineffectiveness of abstinence-only programs, “at least 14 states have either notified the federal government that they will no longer be requesting the funds<\/a> or are not expected to apply, forgoing more than $15 million of the $50 million available.” Good for them.<\/p>\n * If the writers’ strike isn’t resolved soon, the studios are going to lose a lot of writing talent<\/a> to some online start-ups.<\/p>\n * “While violence is down in Iraq, Americans continue to die and fall badly wounded, and suffer severe stress and trauma caused by 15-month tours of duty. A remarkable article<\/a> on Friday in the Army Times is titled: ‘Not us. We\u2019re not going: Soldiers in 2nd Platoon, Charlie 1-26 stage a \u2018mutiny\u2019 that pulls the unit apart.'”<\/p>\n * Keith Olbermann nearly left MSNBC<\/a> in 2003 over Michael Savage. I can’t say I blame him.<\/p>\n * I feel like we need to get political reporters everywhere to write, “I will not use the word ‘maverick<\/a>‘ anymore.”<\/p>\n * Harry Reid may not be handling the FISA debate well, but at least he has the good sense to prevent Bush recess appointments over the winter holidays<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\n* “Rep. Julia Carson, the first black and first woman to represent Indianapolis in Congress, died<\/a> at home Saturday morning following a battle with lung cancer. She was 69. Carson’s death comes just weeks after she announced the cancer, which she was in remission before, was back with ‘terminal vengeance.'”<\/p>\n