HUFFPOST HILL - Obama Lied, People Bride
Today marks the anniversary of the start of President Obama’s first presidential campaign, an occasion we’re marking by carving a backward “B” on our cheek and punching ourselves in the face. A Missouri lawmaker called on his state’s congressional delegation to repeal Obamacare with "manly firmness," though it should be noted that issues relating to manly firmness are covered by Obamacare. And Jeb Bush accidentally released the Social Security numbers of some of his former constituents. Sadly, it wasn’t the most offensive thing done by a Republican Florida Governor involving the social safety net in recent years. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Tuesday, February 10th, 2015:
WHITE HOUSE TO SEEK WAR AUTHORIZATION - It's just for fun, though. Jen Bendery: "President Barack Obama will ask Congress as soon as Wednesday for new war authority to fight Islamic State terrorists, including the ability to deploy limited U.S. ground troops -- a provision all but certain to draw bipartisan fire. Obama will send his request in the form of a draft Authorization for the Use of Military Force. It's a retroactive request: the U.S. has already been bombing the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, for the past six months. The president maintains he doesn't actually need new congressional authorization to fight the group -- he says a sweeping 2001 AUMF gives him that authority -- but has said he welcomes a new AUMF anyway. Some lawmakers disagree he has current authority.
CONFIRMATION THAT OBAMA ONLY PRETENDED TO 'EVOLVE' ON GAY MARRIAGE - Either that or wild ass-covering after Joe Biden made him look like a fool. From David Axelrod's book: "Gay marriage was a particularly nagging issue. For as long as we had been working together, Obama had felt a tug between his personal views and the politics of gay marriage…. [H]e grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage, which he would term a 'sacred union.' …'I'm just not very good at bullshitting, he said with a sigh after one such awkward exchange." Sam Stein and Amanda Terkel found 16 instances of President Obama effortlessly bullshitting about his love for civil unions.
MCCONNELL HOT POTATOES DHS FUNDING TO BOEHNER - It's very kind of the Senate majority leader to not Bogart our nation's legislative challenges. Elise Foley: "The Senate is 'stuck' on funding for the Department of Homeland Security, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday, and it will be up to the House of Representatives to figure out the next step. 'I think it's clear we can't go forward in the Senate, unless you all have heard something I haven't,' he told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday. 'So the next move obviously is up to the House.' The statement was partially one of fact -- the Senate voted three times on whether to move forward with a House-passed bill to fund DHS and block Obama's immigration programs, and Democrats blocked the move each time. Democrats seem no more likely to support that bill now, and funding for DHS is set to run out on Feb. 27. The message from Senate Republican leaders, essentially, is that they did their best, but just can't get the House's bill through the Senate. But that's unlikely to sit well with Republicans in the House, who said last week that they did their job and it is now up to the Senate. That was still the message after McConnell's remarks on Tuesday, judging by a statement from House Speaker John Boehner's spokesman, Michael Steel. 'The House has passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, and block the President's unilateral executive action on immigration," he said in an email. "Now, the pressure is on Senate Democrats who claim to oppose the President's action, but are filibustering a bill to stop it. Until there is some signal from those Senate Democrats what would break their filibuster, there's little point in additional House action.'" [HuffPost]
THE OL' COFFIN MOVE - Mark Kirk, as quoted by Seung Min Kim: "The Republicans – if there is a successful attack during a DHS shutdown – we should build a number of coffins outside each Democratic office and say, 'You are responsible for these dead Americans.'" [Politico]
OBAMA NOT A HUGE MAUREEN DOWD FAN - Michael Calderone: "President Barack Obama is an avid reader of the New York Times opinion section... But Obama is apparently not a fan of Maureen Dowd... Former top Obama adviser David Axelrod wrote in Believer, his memoir published Tuesday, that 'no one got under Barack’s skin more than Maureen,' and suggested she altered her coverage after a tense meeting with the president, a charge she rejects. Axelrod recalled how Dowd was granted a brief interview during an overseas 2008 campaign trip with then-candidate Obama. When the two were together, he wrote, Obama 'proceeded to blister her for a previous column she had written.' … Dowd said in an email to The Huffington Post that she remembered the exchange with Obama, but denied that she had changed her approach to covering him as a result. 'I write about him according to how he's doing, not how he's treating me,' Dowd wrote. 'The idea that I punished him for giving me his opinion is not true and plays into an unfortunate stereotype of women, the Furies swooping down.'" [HuffPost]
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - The number of unemployed people still exceeds the number of job openings in every industry except health care, yet you still hear stories about workers not being skilled enough for available jobs. The mismatch is especially pronounced in construction, where many jobs don't even require a high school education. [Economic Policy Institute]
Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It's free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill
HOUSE DEMS FURIOUS OVER GOP SUBPOENA RULES - It's like the Republican conference is one big Issa Cream party and all the committee chairs are co-hosts. Jen Bendery: "The top Democrats on 16 House committees sent a letter to all members on Tuesday condemning Republicans' recent push to expand the power of committee chairmen to unilaterally issue subpoenas without any debate or vote...Congressional committees have long had the authority to issue subpoenas to compel witness testimony or to obtain documents. But until recently, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee was the only House panel where a chairman unilaterally issued subpoenas. Issa went on a subpoena-issuing bonanza in his recent role as chairman of that committee. At least seven committee chairmen will have that authority in this Congress, including those on Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, Oversight and Government Reform, Judiciary, Homeland Security, Agriculture, and Science, Space and Technology. Aside from Oversight, all of these chairmen are getting this authority for the first time." [HuffPost]
JEB BUSH'S DIGITAL GUY JUST A REALLY SWELL DUDE - At least Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't a slut, right, Ethan Czahor? Igor Bobic: "The new chief technology officer of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's recently formed political action committee, who made headlines this week for previously making inflammatory remarks on Twitter, once praised Martin Luther King Jr. for not speaking in '‘jibberish’ or ‘slang’' as well as for not wearing 'pants sagged to his ankles.' Ethan Czahor made the comments in January 2008 while working as the host of the radio program 'The Ethan Show' at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania. The show's website is no longer operational, but the site and Czahor's remarks have been preserved by the Wayback Machine, a service of the Internet Archive. A statement on the original site's 'About Me' section reads 'My name is Ethan Czahor.' Czahor, who is the co-founder of the website Hipster.com, began the blog post with a disclaimer warning 'white liberal' readers to avoid the content if they feel 'guilty for being white.'" [HuffPost]
Also, Jeb clearly has a problem with digital people in general: "Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush released thousands of emails on Tuesday from his days as the Florida executive, and apart from the sheer number of emails shared — some 250,000 — the more startling numbers were the ones found inside. Within the document dump are multiple unredacted Social Security numbers of Florida residents, The Verge first reported." [Politico]
LAWMAKERS TRY TO SQUASH ANTI-VAX MOMENTUM - Now, don't they all know it's chemtrails that cause autism? Dana Liebelson: "[A] bipartisan group of senators sought on Tuesday to squash bunk medical science that has led parents not to vaccinate their children. The conversation around vaccination has risen to national prominence recently as a measles outbreak has spread across more than a dozen states, affecting 121 people as of last week... At the hearing held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said that polio and measles vaccines 'work so well, that the memory of these diseases has faded and the importance of vaccination has become less obvious.' She asked Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to "walk through the science" of vaccines, asking a series of questions on whether there was any scientific evidence that vaccines cause autism; cause "profound mental disorders"; cause a rise in allergies or autoimmune disorders; contain toxic additives or preservatives; or should be spaced further apart -- all beliefs that vaccination opponents cite. Schuchat debunked all of those rumors." [HuffPost]
In case you were wondering why you saw all those smiling Illuminati members today: "On Feb. 10, 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) announced his 2008 White House presidential bid, which ultimately led to him becoming the first African-American president of the United States. While speaking at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, Obama said, 'I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness -- a certain audacity -- to this announcement.' 'I know I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.'" [HuffPost's Amber Ferguson]
LOL, 'MANLY FIRMNESS' - Gives a whole new meaning to the "Show Me State." Ashley Alman: Missouri state Rep. Mike Moon (R-Ash Grove) invoked language from the Declaration of Independence in a state House resolution to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is not having any of it. In a resolution calling on the Missouri congressional delegation -- which includes McCaskill, eight U.S. House members and one other U.S. senator -- to 'endeavor with 'manly firmness' and resolve to totally and completely repeal the Affordable Care Act, settling for no less than a full repeal,' Moon borrowed from the portion of the Declaration of Independence airing grievances against King George III. McCaskill, one of three women in the Missouri congressional delegation, released a statement Tuesday criticizing Moon's use of the phrase and opposing a full repeal of President Barack Obama's signature health care law." [HuffPost]
Impeach Michelle Obama's vegetables: "Despite her daughters' love of macaroni and cheese, first lady Michelle Obama reveals in a new interview that she barred the boxed treat from the White House dinner table by teaching Sasha and Malia that cheese dust is not food. While speaking to Cooking Light magazine about her five-year-old Let’s Move! campaign, Obama recalled an exchange between former White House chef Sam Kass and Malia about processed foods...By eliminating mac and cheese, Obama got rid of former first daughter Chelsea Clinton’s favorite dish. In 2008, former White House executive chef Walter Scheib said Clinton 'had a very narrow idea of what she wanted to eat' while in the White House." [HuffPost's Amber Ferguson]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a dog with bad taste in music.
WEED WINS - The centuries-old union between Berkeley, California and marijuana grows stronger. Carly Schwartz: "A federal judge has signaled support for a medical marijuana dispensary in Berkeley, California, despite numerous attempts by U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag to shut it down. Judge Jon S. Tigar of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order on Friday stating that Berkeley Patients Group, a 15-year-old pot shop that bills itself as California's oldest, can continue to operate while the court considers pending litigation. Haag first moved to shut down BPG in 2011 as part of a larger crackdown on medical marijuana businesses throughout California, arguing that the dispensary was located too close to two schools. Although one of the schools, the Center for Early Intervention on Deafness, came to BPG's defense, the dispensary shuttered its storefront and relocated across the city in late 2012. Haag continued the fight, moving to seize BPG's property in 2013 on the grounds that the product it sells remains illegal on a federal level." [HuffPost]
COMFORT FOOD
- Reminder about this upsetting Kraft Mac & Cheese ad
- The Hubble Telescope spotted a smiley face galaxy cluster.
- Louis C.K. mashed up with "Cathy" comics.
TWITTERAMA
@benjysarlin: There are many things I'm grateful for and Twitter being invented after I graduated college and high school is way up on the list
@KevinWGlass: Coming soon to a tweetdeck near you:
"Western Civilization: Yea or Nay?"
@pourmecoffee: I would watch the hell out of the Vox Hodor interview.
Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill). Sign up here: http://huff.to/an2k2e
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/10/huffpost-hill_n_6656842.html