Today’s edition of quick hits:
* With Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) old-school filibuster of John Brennan’s CIA nomination approaching its sixth hour, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has delayed the confirmation vote until tomorrow.
* Gabrille Giffords’ simple, powerful message: “Be bold. Be courageous. Please support background checks.”
* Syria: “Syria’s civil war entangled the United Nations peacekeeping operation in the disputed Golan Heights between Syria and Israel on Wednesday, when 30 armed fighters for the insurgency seized a group of 20 peacekeepers investigating a damaged observation post and threatened to treat them as enemy prisoners if Syrian forces remained in the area.”
* Arkansas: “In the sharpest challenge yet to Roe v. Wade, Arkansas adopted Wednesday what is by far the country’s most restrictive ban on abortion, at 12 weeks of pregnancy, around the time that a fetal heartbeat can be detected by abdominal ultrasound.”
* Be afraid: “The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere underwent one of its biggest single-year jumps ever in 2012, according to researchers at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.”
* A surprising loosening of air-travel restrictions: “TSA Administrator John Pistole announced Tuesday that airline passengers will be able to carry pocketknives with blades less than 2.36 inches long and less than half an inch wide. Souvenir baseball bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment also will be permitted starting next month.”
* Ta-Nehisi Coates turned down a New York Times offer to become a regular columnist. That’s a shame — he’s one of the greatest writers I’ve ever seen and the more influence he has, the better.
* It’s awfully tough to take that new “Republican-friendly sequestration poll” from ABC seriously. * Jon Kyl becoming a lobbyist is one of the least surprising stories I’ve seen in a while. * Remember when Tucker Carlson said senators soliciting prostitutes was “none of our business”? Simon Maloy does. * There are at least two remarkable things about Bill O’Reilly’s on-air conniption last night. One, while he was screaming about “lies,” he was in fact lying. Two, as Jon Chait noted, it “captures the essence of [Fox News] so perfectly that you need never watch anything on it again. It’s all here. At the center, you have an old conservative white guy who is enraged about a fact that exists only in his addled brain. At his side, there’s a blonde sidekick who nods along with him but doesn’t get in the way. And ready to absorb his anger is the network’s Emmanuel Goldstein figure, feebly attempting a rebuttal that quickly devolves into a sniveling plea for civility.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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