Today’s edition of quick hits.
* CNN reports, “The top general at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was fired Thursday, the military announced, following revelations of poor conditions in the building where troops who were wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq are treated. Maj. Gen. George Weightman’s firing was the first major military staff change after reports surfaced last month about substandard conditions in a building that is part of the facility.” Good. I hope he’s not the last.
* AP reports, “Democrats rewarded organized labor Thursday for helping them retake control of Congress, passing a House bill that would make it easier to start unions against companies’ wishes. The legislation, passed 241-185 on a nearly party-line vote, would take away the right of employers to demand secret-ballot elections by workers before unions could be recognized.” The AFL-CIO Blog has been reporting on the debate and the bill all afternoon.
* They just don’t make them like Arthur Schlesinger anymore.
* Considering the administration’s post-Katrina failures in New Orleans, the president wasn’t exactly welcome in the city today.
* Dennis Miller thinks jokes like these are funny: “This is what cracks me up about Al Gore. He is absolutely certain of temperature figures in the year 2057. And yet, when you talk about election figures from the year 2000, they’re still gray and murky, you know.” The right really doesn’t get comedy, does it.
* Dem Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel did a nice job following up on the prosecutor purge story today on the House floor.
* 84% of Philadelphia voters rejected Rick Santorum last year. So, naturally, the Philadelphia Inquirer is poised to hire him as a columnist. (The liberal media strikes again)
* In addition to all of his other problems, CNN’s Glenn Beck can be very creepy.
* Norwegianity: “So here’s the deal. Progress for America raises and spends over $30 million on last year’s elections, flouting every FEC reg on the books, and gets fined only $750,000. That’s not a deterrent, that’s just the cost of doing business.”
* Dave Johnson and James Boyce had some good follow-up on the right’s latest attempts to smear Al Gore.
* Reader D.S. alerted me to a very funny clip about Karl Rove, which spoofs an Eminem video.
* An Army spokesperson denied today that recuperating troops at Walter Reed are forbidden from talking to the media, but added that those who want to exercise their free speech will have to a) get permission from the hospital’s press relations office; or b) leave the premises. What if reporters want to speak to a reporter without getting approval from a PR office? “They can go to Starbucks,” the spokesman said. Asked whether this was a reasonable solution for patients recuperating from physical and mental trauma, he said yes. “It’s just a short trip, and many of them want to get out [of the hospital] anyway.”
* And finally, in a story that will make a lot of politicians awfully nervous, a prominent DC madam, facing federal charges, is reportedly considering selling 13 years’ worth of phone records to help raise money for her legal defense. Her lawyer explained, “The records identify the telephone number of the customer. Since 2000, the customers and the independent contractor escorts of the service almost exclusively used their personal cellphones, their identifying information is readily and publicly available.”
If none of these items are of interest, consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.