Today’s edition of quick hits:
* If Kofi Annan has a plan for Syrian peace, it’s unclear what it might be.
* George Will and James Inhofe are unimpressed: “[T]he first six months of 2012 accounted for the warmest January-through-June period on record for the contiguous U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday.”
* Hard to imagine this a year ago: “Defying expectations and, in some places, bullets, Libyans across most of the country voted Saturday in the first election after more than four decades of isolation and totalitarianism under Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.”
* Heartbreaking: Outcry over the public execution of an Afghan woman accused of adultery by alleged Taliban assailants reverberated across the Web on Monday, with government officials and netizens taking to social media to express their disgust.
* Plans for high-speed rail, unexpectedly, are advancing in California.
* Real damage: “The earthquake-damaged Washington Monument could remain closed into 2014, the National Park Service said, and its repairs will require the exterior and part of the interior of the 555-foot structure to be shrouded in scaffolding.”
* An interesting investigation into MEK’s lobbying operation.








