A man told Barack Obama to stay away from his fiancé, as if a guy with the president's dance moves or jeans could ever land a lady. Marco Rubio introduced a bill banning flights from countries with Ebola victims, though there isn't really any cross-border movement he wouldn't oppose at this point. And Denis McDonough is negotiating what will be redacted from the Senate's torture report (sample text: "[||||||||||||||||||||||||||||] Bush [||||||||||||||||||][||||||||||||||||||][||||||||||||||||||] administration [||||||||||||||||||][||||||||||||||||||] [|||||||||||||||||], fault [||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||]"). This is HUFFPOST HILL for Tuesday, October 21st, 2014:
MCDONOUGH NEGOTIATING CIA TORTURE REPORT REDACTIONS - We can't wait for George W. Bush and Barack Obama's post-presidency friendship. They can golf. Ali Watkins and Ryan Grim: "White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough is personally negotiating how much of the Senate's so-called torture report, a probe into the CIA’s post-9/11 detention and interrogation program, will be redacted, according to sources involved in the negotiations. McDonough's leading role in the redaction discussion has raised eyebrows in the Senate, given that his position comes with a broad array of urgent responsibilities and that the Obama White House has a team of qualified national security advisers. Despite the White House’s public reluctance to get involved in the widely aired spat between the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee over the report, McDonough’s role suggests that the Oval Office sees the feud as a high-stakes one." [HuffPost]
MURKY TOM COTTON GROUP IS MURKY - Times: "Representative Tom Cotton, the Arkansas Republican running for the Senate, disbursed over $131,000 to Right Solutions Partners in March for 'fund-raising consulting' and an additional $161,000 to it in August for the same purpose. A smaller third disbursement brought the total to $322,963. But here’s the catch: It’s not clear that such an entity actually exists. It has no presence on the Internet, it appears that no other campaign is paying it this year, and it has no office at the Washington address listed on the articles of organization filed with the city last year. However, the address, 1717 K Street Northwest, is where the Washington office of the law firm Arent Fox is located, and a Republican campaign finance lawyer at the firm signed the organizing papers with the city. When I called that lawyer, Craig Engle, he initially said he did not set up Right Solutions Partners. Then he amended that, saying, “I remember being part of the organizing of it.'" [NYT]
NRSC CHAIR CAMPAIGN BEGINS IN EARNEST - Politico: "Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Dean Heller of Nevada have been working behind the scenes to let allies know they are interested in taking over as the next head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, according to five sources familiar with the discussions. Heller has talked about the plum post with Republican lobbyists, according to a source familiar with the conversations. Several Republican sources said that Wicker has expressed interest in taking the job as well...the next head of the committee will have a daunting task in 2016 when the party could be at risk of falling back into the minority. That’s because Democrats will have to defend just 10 seats compared with 24 for the Republicans, who could be at risk of losing in blue states like Illinois, Wisconsin and New Hampshire and in swing states like Ohio and Florida." [Politico]
Haircuts: Ryan Reilly (h/t Sabrina Siddiqui).
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EBOLA PANIC REACHING SELF-PARODIES LEVELS - Imagine the thunderous media orgasm if people could contract Ebola from SHARK ATTACKS. Dana Liebelson and Sam Stein: "In Maine, an elementary school teacher was recently put on paid leave for up to three weeks after parents complained that the teacher had traveled to Dallas, where there have been a few Ebola cases...In Boca Raton, a delegation from West Africa pulled out of a 'millennium campus conference' meeting over Ebola fears... In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, Ebola is killing business at a local Liberian restaurant. "We have had customers coming in and actually standing in front of us at the counter saying, 'do you have Ebola?'" a restaurant spokesperson told KARE/NBC...At Southwestern College, in Chula Vista, California, a student said she might have Ebola in order to get out of class." [HuffPost]
Sure, let's get everyone into this Ebola thing "The president of the AFL-CIO labor federation sent letters to the White House and Congress on Tuesday demanding that national workplace safety standards be put in place for workers who could be exposed to Ebola. In his letters, Richard Trumka called for 'enforceable' guidelines to help protect health care workers who could come into contact with infected patients. He recommended that those standards be developed jointly by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration." [HuffPost's Dave Jamieson]
Leadership: "Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced on Monday that he plans to introduce legislation that would temporarily ban U.S. visas for nationals from African countries affected by the Ebola outbreak. Rubio said in a statement that he plans to offer the legislation when the Senate returns to work in November. The temporary ban would apply to nationals from Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, and would extend to other countries where the virus has spread. The ban would remain in place until the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determines that the outbreak has been contained." [HuffPost's Sam Levine]
A political fight several years ago over a federal contract likely hindered the production of anti-Ebola drugs. Cool!
Guys: Georgia's Democratic party has a message for voters: Cast your ballot early if you don't want to see a repeat of the fatal shooting of a black, unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo. 'If you want to prevent another Ferguson in their future...vote,' says a mailer distributed by the group which was, first reported in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Accompanying the text is a picture of two young children holding up 'Don't Shoot' signs." [HuffPost]
A mashup of Republicans insisting they're not scientists.
TODAY IN RAPE SHAMING - Laura Bassett: "[T]he American Enterprise Institute posted a video on Monday telling women they should stop worrying so much about date-rape drugs. Caroline Kitchens, a researcher at AEI, explains in the think tank's 'Factual Feminist' video blog that 'our fear of being drugged and sexually assaulted by a predatory stranger in a bar is not grounded in reality...Kitchens acknowledges that date-rape drugs exist, but she says women are overestimating the threat because it's 'more convenient' to guard against than the threat of simply getting too drunk. 'Most commonly, victims of drug-facilitated sexual assault are severely intoxicated, often from their own volition,' Kitchens says.... 'feminists should be concerned that women are modifying their behavior on their girls nights' out in order to protect themselves from some vague, improbable threat. So why are we all so scared of roofies?'" [HuffPost]
Just the thought of an AEI panel beneath a banner titled "WHY ARE WE ALL SO SCARED OF ROOFIES?" makes us smile cry.
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a slow-witted dog.
BARACK OBAMA: LADYKILLER - "Even the President of the United States has to deal with jealous boyfriends. Casting his ballot in Chicago on Monday, Obama stood at a voting booth next to Aia Cooper, whose fiancé, Mike Jones, decided to crack wise with the president. 'Mr. President, don't touch my girlfriend,' Jones quipped as he walked by the two. 'I really wasn't planning on it,' Obama replied, joking that Jones was 'an example of a brother just embarrassing you for no reason.' A clearly embarrassed Cooper apologized for her boyfriend, telling the President she knew her boyfriend was going to 'say something smart,' but she didn't know what." [CNN]
COMFORT FOOD
- "Dachshund Creek" is like "Dawson's Creek," but with dachshunds.
- The best and worst of the internet's "More Americans have died from X than ebola" jokes.
- Vote Chewbacca campaign signs have sprung up in Kiev.
- The "Game of Thrones" theme played by an all-cello orchestra.
- Business cards that aren't cards.
TWITTERAMA
@GrahamDavidA: No, Arne Duncan RT @justinjm1: Mitt Romney for BI editor
@pourmecoffee: Nothing in the rules explicitly forbids Charlie Crist from having Geishas at each side and back constantly fanning him at tonight's debate.
@ElaheIzadi:: you can't eat tweets. you can't pay your bills with tweets.
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