Today’s edition of quick hits:
* How are U.S. lawmakers approaching a possible military intervention in Syria? In a predictably divided way.
* Consultation: “The Obama administration was preparing Thursday to present to Congress its intelligence case on the Syrian government’s alleged use of chemical weapons, as political objections to a U.S.-led military response increased in the United States and Britain.”
* An inexplicable rush: “President Obama is willing to move ahead with a limited military strike on Syria even while allies like Britain are debating whether to join the effort and without an endorsement from the United Nations Security Council, senior administration officials said Thursday.”
* Super-sized labor strikes: “The battle to boost the minimum wage escalated Thursday when thousands of workers at hundreds of fast food restaurants in 50 U.S. cities walked off the job to demand decent pay.”
* The “black budget” gets a price tag: “U.S. spy agencies have built an intelligence-gathering colossus since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but remain unable to provide critical information to the president on a range of national security threats, according to the government’s top secret budget. The $52.6 billion ‘black budget’ for fiscal 2013, obtained by The Washington Post from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, maps a bureaucratic and operational landscape that has never been subject to public scrutiny.”
* District Judge G. Todd Baugh: “A Montana judge has come under fire after handing down a 30-day sentence to a former high school teacher convicted of raping a 14-year-old student and for making statements in court that the victim was ‘older than her chronological age’ and ‘as much in control of the situation’ as her teacher.”
* Guantanamo detention: “The White House announced Thursday that two detainees left the prison at Guantanamo Bay for Algeria, they were the first to be transferred from custody in nearly a year.”
* Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) wants action on the Voting Rights Act, but he also seems to want to keep expectations in check. * A first in seven years: “Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday swore in B. Todd Jones as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Justice Department said in a statement.” * It’s one thing for Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens (R) to try to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, but it’s rather brazen to hear him brag about it. * NFL: “The National Football League has agreed to pay $765 million to settle thousands of player lawsuits over head injuries — a deal that both sides declared a win for retired athletes with debilitating brain damage.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
