Today’s edition of quick hits. <\/p>\n
* Good move<\/a>: “The House on Thursday approved an extra three months of jobless benefits for all unemployed Americans, knowing the plan’s chances are slight in the Senate and almost nonexistent at the White House. After failing to get a veto-proof two-thirds margin by three votes on Wednesday, Democrats got an exact two-thirds margin on Thursday with a 274-137 vote — the amount needed to overcome a threatened presidential veto.” (Here’s the roll call<\/a>.)<\/p>\n * Not a big surprise<\/a>: “New U.S. proposals have failed to overcome Iraqi opposition to a proposed security pact, two lawmakers said Thursday, and a senior government official expressed doubt an agreement could be reached before the U.S. presidential election in November.”<\/p>\n * Republicans are pretty livid<\/a> about this morning’s Supreme Court ruling on habeas, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is talking about overturning it with a constitutional amendment. He’s quite an excitable young man, you know.<\/p>\n * Even by GOP standards, this is quite a mess<\/a>: “A scheme by a former treasurer resulted in a loss of about $725,000 to the House Republicans\u2019 campaign arm, according to an audit released today. Christopher J. Ward, long a trusted financial figure in Republican circles, funneled money belonging to the National Congressional Campaign Committee and covered up his scheme by faking external audit reports between 2002 and 2006.”<\/p>\n * Fox News backpedaled<\/a> on the Michelle Obama\/”baby mama” story, with the Republican network’s Vice President of Programming conceding that the producer “exercised poor judgment.” You don’t say.<\/p>\n * On a related note, Sean Hannity accidentally identified himself on the air last night as a surrogate for the McCain campaign<\/a>. He might as well make it official. * McCain’s flip-flopping on immigration is not without consequence<\/a>.<\/p>\n * Remember when the White House used bogus intelligence from Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi to sell the war in Iraq? At the time, the CIA questioned his “credibility” and “truthfulness.”<\/a> Apparently, that didn’t much matter.<\/p>\n * Apparently, we can keep saber rattling in Iran’s direction, but that doesn’t have the desired effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n * Castro, Hamas, and now Qaddafi have all criticized Obama lately<\/a>. Don’t they realize they’re undermining Republican talking points?<\/p>\n * Brownie may be gone, but FEMA is still screwing up<\/a>, this time giving away about $85 million in household goods meant for Hurricane Katrina victims.<\/p>\n * If you were getting tired of the Olbermann vs. O’Reilly feud, perhaps you’re ready for the Olbermann vs. Couric<\/a> fued?<\/p>\n * Campus Progress has a sharp new blog: Pushback<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\n* And in still more Fox News-related news, Mike Huckabee<\/a> has signed a one-year contract with the network to be an on-air contributor. Because what the network really needed was another conservative Republican voice offering political commentary.<\/p>\n