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Friday's Mini-Report

<p>Today's edition of quick hits:* Lebanon: "A huge car bomb explosion in Beirut on Friday killed a top Lebanese security official

Today's edition of quick hits:

* Lebanon: "A huge car bomb explosion in Beirut on Friday killed a top Lebanese security official whose investigations implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri seven years ago."

* Malala Yousufzai's condition has improved to the point where she's now "able to stand with help and communicate," though she still shows signs of infection.

* The latest in the "Actually..." series comes by way of Sarah Silverman and Lizz Winstead, who address Mitt Romney's belief that corporations are people. (Some of the language in the video should be considered not safe for work.)

* Ezra tackles David Brooks' appalling column on the politics of green energy: "This isn't a story of overreach, misjudgments, and disappointment. It's a story of Republicans putting raw partisanship and a dislike for Al Gore in front of the planet's best interests. It's a story, though Brooks doesn't mention this, of conservatives building an alternative reality in which the science is unsettled, and no one really knows whether the planet is warming and, even if it is, whether humans have anything to do with it."

* Vice President Biden has a new prop on the stump: "Mocking Mitt Romney's 'binders full of women' remark at a campaign rally in Fort Pierce, Florida, Biden held up a black binder in the air as an example of the Republican candidate's solution to gender-based pay discrimination."

* An apology was obviously due: "Arizona Senate candidate Richard Carmona apologized Friday for joking at a debate that the male moderator was 'prettier' than Candy Crowley, the veteran female CNN journalist who moderated the presidential debate earlier this week."

* The folks at Council for a Livable World have a very hard-hitting video out this week, emphasizing Romney's inexplicable opposition to the New START treaty and poor judgment on counter-proliferation.

* It seems a little odd to have Fox News analyst Monica Crowley hit the campaign trail as a speaker at anti-Obama rallies, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.