Today's edition of quick hits:
* Operation Iraqi Freedom may be over, but the country can still be deadly for U.S. troops: "Two U.S. service members were killed and nine others were wounded when a Kurdish Iraqi soldier sprayed them with gunfire at an Iraqi army commando base north of Baghdad on Tuesday afternoon, Iraqi and U.S. military officials said."
* BP spreads the blame around, and points to a "shared responsibility" for the disaster in the Gulf: "BP released a long-awaited report Wednesday on an internal investigation into the causes of its Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout, blaming multiple failures by BP and other firms but absolving its much-criticized well design."
* An inkling of good news on the job front: "Job openings rose in July after two months of declines, a positive sign that companies could step up hiring in the coming months." The openings are at their highest levels since April.
* The Wall Street Journal would have you believe the Affordable Care Act is causing health insurance companies to raise their premiums. Stephanie Cutter cuts through the nonsense.
* Is the alleged "rift" between the White House and former OMB Director Peter Orszag over tax policy overblown? It sure seems like it.
* Feisal Abdul Rauf intends to "clearly identify all of our financial backers" for Park51. That probably won't help with Fox News.
* Robert Schlesinger urges the Tea Party crowd to stop treating the Constitution like a rough draft.
* Daniel Luzer on "the triumph of student loans."
* High on the list of people I'm not going to feel sorry for: Scooter Libby.
* Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) tends to have a way with words. Today he described the increasingly radicalized Republican Party as "nuts" and "flat-out crazy." He added, "We are going to turn the reins of the Congress over to these people who are more and more dominated by the whacko right?"
#board-2412
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
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