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Tuesday's Mini-Report

Today's edition of quick hits:

* President Obama made a reasoned case this afternoon for responsible policymaking in Washington. His appeals for common sense were not well received by congressional Republicans.

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* House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said a spending bill to reopen the government with no strings attached would represent "unconditional surrender." Let's note, for those who still care at all about reality, that a spending bill to fund the government with no strings attached was John Boehner's own proposal literally a month ago. (I think he's hoping we all have short memories and no access to search engines.)

Syria: "One hundred specialists drawn from the United Nations and the organization that polices the global ban on chemical weapons will be sent to Syria over the next eight months to help dismantle and destroy its roughly 1,000-ton arsenal, an extremely hazardous task that has never been tried and that could fail without Syria's cooperation, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday."

Pakistan: "The Taliban does not regret the murder attempt on 16-year-old education activist Malala Yousafzai last year and will make 'all out' efforts to kill her in retaliation for her relationship with the West, a spokesman for the organization in Pakistan told NBC News on Tuesday."

* Kim Jung Un wants attention again: "South Korea's main intelligence agency confirmed on Tuesday that North Korea has restarted a Soviet-era nuclear reactor that has been used to obtain plutonium for bombs, according to South Korean legislators."

* A wildly important case: "A sharply divided Supreme Court clashed Tuesday over campaign finance law, as the court's conservatives pressed aggressively to lift certain restrictions."

* A welcome reversal: "Days after her administration said thousands of Arizona's poorest families would not get welfare checks because of the federal shutdown, Gov. Jan Brewer late Monday ordered the state's safety-net agency to make this month's payments."

Seven Senate Republicans are open to supporting a clean debt-ceiling bill, which should be enough to ensure passage.

Immigration: "Eight Democratic lawmakers, including civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, were arrested outside the Capitol building Tuesday as part of an immigration reform demonstration."

* Laura Ingraham told her audience she's "beginning to enjoy" the government shutdown.

* Adam Serwer has a great piece today explaining that Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) has lost "his long war against sodomy."

* And Carl Hiaasen reflects on "a day in the life of the emptiest suit in Washington," John Boehner.

Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.