MONDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Fort Hood developments: “Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who allegedly gunned down dozens of people at Fort Hood last week before being wounded by police, is conscious and talking to medical personnel at a U.S. Army hospital in San Antonio, hospital officials said Monday.”
* Espionage charges in Iran: “Three American hikers who were arrested in Iran this summer after straying across its border with Iraq have been accused of spying, an Iranian state news agency reported on Monday.”
* President Obama made a surprise video appearance at the celebrations in Germany today.
* In case you weren’t annoyed enough, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) expects to see the odious Stupak amendment in the Senate version of the health care reform bill. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.), meanwhile, fully expects to see the Senate kill the provision.
* Scott Roeder has apparently confessed to assassinating Dr. George Tiller in Wichita in May.
* President Obama quietly spent a couple of hours on Friday visiting with wounded soldiers and family members at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and also awarded two Purple Hearts. The media wasn’t invited.
* A huge shake-up at the right-wing, Moonie-owned Washington Times.
* Speaker Pelosi thinks there may be more than one House Republican voting for the post-conference health care reform bill. I’ll believe it when I see it.
* Some right-wing voices are using racist language to criticize Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.) for his vote on the reform bill.
* In difficult times, community college often makes sense.
* Have I mentioned lately how much I like Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.)?
* Moving on: scandal-plagued Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) moves out of the strange townhouse on C Street.
* According to the Pedestrian Danger Index, Florida is the most dangerous state in the country for pedestrians. I could have told you that without a study.
* Everyone caught Markos driving Tom Tancredo from the air on Friday, right?
* Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) reflected on some of the right-wing protestors he encountered late last week: “Some of the people [at the rally] that wanted to engage me in conversation appeared to have been the losers in the ‘Are you smarter than Michele Bachmann contest?’.”
* And on a related note, I enjoyed this Tweet from Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), who noticed that Michele Bachmann inexplicably wore a lei during the debate on health care reform: “I wonder if Michele Bachmann wearing a lei (on the Floor) means she has recognized that Hawaii is a state and President Obama is a citizen?”
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
