Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The AP reports on a thwarted terror plot: “The CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden.”
* The French weren’t the only ones who rebelled against austerity over the weekend; voters in Greece took steps in the same direction. The result is a confusing landscape.
* And given the failures of austerity, and the discredited philosophy behind it, blaming European voters for rejecting the misguided experiment is a mistake.
* The White House was asked again today to explain President Obama’s position on marriage equality. A clear answer remains elusive.
* Afghanistan: “NATO airstrikes killed Afghan civilians in two provinces, local officials reported Monday, and the U.S.-led coalition said it plans an apology in one of the incidents.”
* Understanding what happened to Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark: “A soldier who died in Afghanistan while Skype chatting with his wife in America did not have a bullet wound, military officials said today, despite the wife’s claim that he had been shot.”
* After some back and forth judicial moves, Texas’ anti-Planned Parenthood law has been suspended by a three-judge panel on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. * An Export-Import deal: “With an agreement reached late Friday, House leaders will move quickly to the floor this week on legislation to extend the Export Import Bank’s charter through September 2014 and raise its loan exposure cap 40 percent to $140 billion.” * And if Justice Kennedy is looking for a lifeline to do the right thing on the health care law, Jack Balkin and Jonathan Cohn know of an easy one: the “mandate” is pretty clearly a tax, not an instruction from the government. Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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