Discover GOP Opprobrium

[teapeebubbles]

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Iraq’s most intense fighting in several months: “Amid heavy clashes between government forces and Shiite Muslim militants in Baghdad and the southern port city of Basra, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki issued an ultimatum Wednesday demanding that the militias surrender their weapons within 72 hours. Radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia is a prime target of the government offensive, responded by demanding that Maliki leave Basra. U.S. forces joined Iraqi troops in Baghdad to fight Mahdi Army militants, and police said that at least 20 people had been killed in the Sadr City neighborhood, a stronghold for Sadr’s backers. The city’s fortified Green Zone sustained a third round of intense mortar fire beginning at 5:30 a.m. that seriously injured three U.S. government employees, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy. A mortar round struck near Maliki’s office.”

* Confused about the complicated events in Basra? Paul Kiel’s summary/primer is helpful.

* Bush ratchets up the pressure on China: “President Bush called China’s President Hu Jintao on Wednesday and raised concerns about the crackdown in Tibet, joining a growing chorus of international protests about Beijing’s tough tactics. Bush also told Hu that a ‘mistake had been made’ in the shipment of nuclear missile fuses to Taiwan, the president’s national security adviser said.”

* Not surprisingly, the Senate Finance Committee has started an inquiry into the Bear Stearns bailout.

* How was the New England Journal of Medicine to know that the “Foundation for Lung Cancer: Early Detection, Prevention & Treatment” was apparently a front for the tobacco industry?

* Ouch: “Drudge. Limbaugh. The American Spectator. Richard Mellon Scaife. What exactly is it going to take before Clinton campaign staffers recognize that they are, in essence, now working for the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy?”

* Many senior and midlevel White House and administration officials are anxious to get out of their jobs, and apparently, resumes aren’t exactly flying in to replace them.

* A symbolic step forward in Florida: “The Legislature issued an apology Wednesday morning for the state’s ’shameful’ history in enslaving black people and passing laws that called for savage lashings and even the nailing of their ears to posts for crimes like burglary.” The measures passed both chambers without discussion or recorded votes.

* A Samantha Power comeback? I hope so.

* It sounds Bill Clinton is tired of all the calls for resignations, too.

* Good bloggers doing good: “Yesterday afternoon, FDL’s Jane Hamsher filed a complaint with the FEC charging John McCain with violations of campaign finance law for spending beyond limits imposed by his decision to take public financing. McCain has claimed he is backing off that decision, and justifies it with the fact that he never received any of that public money. However, the law clearly states that he is bound by those limits if he uses the promise of those funds in order to secure campaign loans — something he absolutely did.”

* I’ll have more on McCain’s big foreign policy speech in the morning, but in the meantime, it amuses me that some of it was lifted from a 2001 op-ed on Afghanistan. C’mon, McCain speechwriters, it’s time to give us your A game.

* Provocative imagery: Joe Lieberman, John McCain, and Cindy McCain sharing a bed in the White House.

* Will the new Iraq NIE be kept secret?

* Now O’Reilly thinks Huffington and Kos are “fascists” and “anti-American.” I’m starting to think O’Reilly is more interested in the progressive online community than we are of him — and we’re pretty interested in him.

* One of my new favorite McCain quotes: “We’re succeeding [in Iraq]. I don’t care what anybody says.” Maybe, next, he can stick his fingers in his ears and sing, “La la la.”