“The Australian government on Tuesday announced plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs across the country.” Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull predicted the new restrictions “could reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons by 2012 and cut household power bills by up to 66 percent.”

In today’s press briefing, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Tony Snow about the Washington Post’s two-part series over the weekend, highlighting the Walter Reed hospital’s dilapidated conditions. Snow stated that “the president certainly has been aware of the conditions in the wards where he has visited, and visited regularly.” Snow also affirmed that the administration was aware of Walter Reed’s conditions “before the articles appeared in the paper.” Watch it:

The Army began repairs on the facilities yesterday, only after the media reports and intense public criticism. Apparently, Bush is fine with U.S. troops living in squalid conditions — as long as no one else knows about it.

(The Progress Report has more on the state of veterans under the Bush administration. Read it and sign up to receive the newsletter HERE.)

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U.S. News reports: “The White House is still holding out hope that it will have a chance to name a third justice to the Supreme Court and cement its conservative tilt for generations to come. ‘We need one more on the Supreme Court,’” said a Bush insider. The source added, “That will be the battle royal.”

Top House conservatives have teamed up with right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt and other bloggers to launch a campaign attacking Rep. John Murtha’s (D-PA) new Iraq plan, which would attach measures to a defense spending bill requiring that all U.S. forces sent to Iraq are well-trained and well-equipped.

Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) is “leading the effort” to force a House vote on a “binding measure to prevent cutting or restricting money for the war.” During last week’s Iraq debate, Johnson attacked Iraq war critics relentlessly:

Debating non-binding resolutions aimed at earning political points only destroys morale, stymies success, and emboldens the enemy.

The grim reality is that this House measure is the first step to cutting funding of the troops…Just ask John Murtha about his “slow-bleed” plan that hamstrings our troops in harm’s way.

But as Digby first noted, Johnson had a much different view of the “power of the purse” when President Clinton sent U.S. forces to Bosnia in 1995. Here’s Johnson on the House floor on 12/13/95:

I wholeheartedly support withholding funds… Although it is a drastic step and ties the President’s hands, I do not feel like we have any other choice. The President has tied our hands, gone against the wishes of the American people, and this is the last best way I know how to show my respect for our American servicemen and women. They are helpless, following orders. But we, we are in a position to stop this terrible mistake before it happens.

“Hundreds of gay couples were granted the same legal rights, if not the title, as married couples Monday as New Jersey became the third state to offer civil unions.” Steven Goldstein and Daniel Gross, partners for 15 years, were the first couple to be joined in civil union. Watch it:

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 today that civilian courts no longer have the authority to consider whether the military is illegally holding foreigners. The court refused arguments that the court-stripping provision of the Military Commissions Act was unconstitutional. “The ruling is all but certain to be appealed to the Supreme Court.”

UPDATE: A copy of the court’s opinion can be found here.