Today's edition of quick hits:
* As far as President Obama is concerned, a fiscal agreement should be done by Christmas. Whether it will be is a separate question.
* Egypt: "The Egyptian judiciary intensified its resistance Wednesday to a move last week by President Mohamed Morsi to greatly enlarge his power, as the country's top courts joined a growing number of striking judges in expressions of dissent."
* Climate crisis: "This year has ranked among the nine warmest since records began more than 160 years ago, continuing a trend for the planet that is increasing the dangers of extreme weather events, according to United Nations meteorologists."
* More on the climate crisis: "Projections for sea level rise in coming decades could be too conservative, experts warned Wednesday, saying they found that the rise over the last two decades is much more than predicted by the U.N. scientific body tracking climate signals."
* The U.N. General Assembly is poised to recognize Palestine as a "non-member observer state" tomorrow.
* Obama will host lunch at the White House tomorrow with Mitt Romney, but the Republican will not be considered for any cabinet posts.
* Whistleblower law: "Federal employees who expose fraud, waste and abuse in government operations now have new protections against retaliation. President Obama signed the protections into law on Tuesday, 13 years after groups representing whistle-blowers began lobbying for such measures."
* Rush Limbaugh is still worried that the economy might continue to improve.
* And is it possible Republican filibusters are the result of Harry Reid being too mean when it comes to amendments? No, actually there's irrefutable proof that this isn't the case.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.