Hillary Clinton came out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, declaring trans people should be allowed to partner with whomever they want, in an ocean of their choosing. Mike Huckabee's book is full of fake Founding Fathers quotes, so it turns out George Washington didn't really say all those nasty things about Beyonce. And Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson wants politicians to stop fearmongering, saying they should set their comments to GUARDED, or blue, for a general risk of scariness. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Wednesday, October 7th, 2015:
HILLARY CLINTON AGAINST TPP - It's almost as if Clinton's in a primary contest against much more liberal Democrats. Amanda Terkel and Zach Carter: "Hillary Clinton came out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Wednesday, breaking with President Barack Obama on the 12-nation trade deal that is set to become a key part of his legacy. 'As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it,' Clinton told Judy Woodruff of PBS 'Newshour.' 'I have said from the very beginning that we had to have a trade agreement that would create good American jobs, raise wages and advance our national security. And I still believe that's the high bar we have to meet,' she said." [HuffPost]
@ajjaffe: Gloves off? Sanders says he's "delighted" for Clinton's TPP opposition, but it "would've been more helpful to have her on board months ago"
IF THE BENGHAZI COMMITTEE ISN'T 'POLITICAL,' LITERALLY NOTHING IS - Kevin McCarthy wants a mulligan for saying the Benghazi committee is all about bringing down Hillary Clinton, because he wasn't supposed to say that out loud. Michael McAuliff: "'Benghazi is not political. It was created for one purpose and one purpose only -- to find the truth on behalf of the families of four dead Americans,' McCarthy told reporters when asked if he had inadvertently aided the campaign of Clinton, who released an ad Monday highlighting McCarthy's comments from the week before." [HuffPost]
Trey Gowdy -- the ringleader of this particular circus -- remains displeased McCarthy blew up his spot.
DEMOCRATS CONSIDER MAYBE NOT ABETTING THIS FARCE ANY FURTHER - Maybe if they let Trey Gowdy keep the gavel and give him a punching bag with Hillary Clinton's face on it? Amanda Terkel: "House Democrats forced a vote Wednesday on whether to keep funding the Select Committee on Benghazi, stepping up their offensive strategy after a GOP leader's recent comment that the purpose of the panel is to sink Hillary Clinton's presidential bid." [HuffPost]
The Freedom Caucus has come out against McCarthy for Speaker.
HOSPITAL BOMBING DRAWS PRESIDENTIAL APOLOGY - There are at least 22 people who couldn't hear him, though. Arlette Saenz and Alexander Mallin: "President Obama apologized to Doctors Without Borders for the airstrike that killed at least 22 people last weekend, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest announced today." [ABC News]
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IT'S ALMOST AS THOUGH THIS IS THE OUTCOME RED STATE CONSERVATIVES WANT - Not letting poor people get health insurance is a great way to make sure they stay uninsured, so nice work, Texas, etc.! Jeffrey Young, Nicky Forster, Hilary Fung and Alissa Scheller: "The states that expanded Medicaid already had a lower combined uninsured rate than the states that didn’t, and the gap has widened since then. States that undertook the expansion experienced significantly larger increases in the share of their residents with health coverage, compared to states that rejected the expansion and relied only on federally subsidized private health insurance from the exchange marketplaces to expand coverage." [HuffPost]
Graydon Carter explains why Donald Trump will always be "a short-fingered vulgarian."
EVER FEEL LIKE SAM BROWNBACK JUST DOESN'T LIKE POOR PEOPLE? If you're too "lazy" to work, you don't deserve to be too "sick" to "see a doctor" so you don't "die," according to the GOP Kansas governor. Jonathan Cohn: "Brownback isn’t the only Republican who talks about the poor this way. Late last month, Jeb Bush, the presidential candidate and former Florida governor, said he opposes the Affordable Care Act because he doesn’t want to be the kind of official who wins over low-income and minority voters by offering them 'free stuff.' That statement, in turn, echoed comments from the 2012 election cycle -- when former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and other leading Republicans had a lot to say about 'makers and takers,' as well as 'the 47 percent' of Americans who depend upon at least one government assistance program." [HuffPost]
REID EYES PAYOUT - The Senate Democratic leader is going after the company that made the exercise equipment he says is responsible to serious injuries he suffered this year. Mike Heuer: "In a lawsuit filed in Clark County circuit court October 6, Reid, 75, says he was using a TheraBand on New Year's Day when it either broke or slipped from his hand, 'causing him to spin around and strike his face on a cabinet.' The device, manufactured by defendants Performance Health and distributors Hygenic and Hygenic Intangible Property Holding, is a latex band used in resistance exercises." [Courthouse News Service]
JEH JOHNSON: WRONG ABOUT FEAR-MONGERING, WRONG FOR AMERICA - Sorry, bub, but scaring people into voting against their interests is a politician's job #1. Elise Foley: "'All of us in public office, those who aspire to public office and who command a microphone, owe the public calm, responsible dialogue and decision-making,' Johnson said at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's annual conference on Wednesday, 'not overheated, oversimplistic rhetoric and proposals of superficial appeal.'" [HuffPost]
LIST OF PEOPLE WHO WON'T READ HILLARY'S BOOK GROWS - Is there anything funnier than wacky campaign pranks? Besides sucking chest wounds, of course. Samantha-Jo Roth: "Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton revealed on Tuesday that she sent most of her Republican rivals a copy of her book Hard Choices so they can learn about her accomplishments as secretary of state. 'I have now sent each of them a copy of my book, Hard Choices,' Clinton said as the audience erupted in laughter. 'You know, there were so many of them that they could have a book club.'" Terrific! [HuffPost]
FASCIST KILLJOY OBUMMER OUTLAWS SENIOR SKIP DAY - Twisted Sister could not be reached for comment. Emma Brown: "An estimated 5 million to 7.5 million children are chronically absent each year, but many school districts and reform strategies have failed to tackle the problem head on. Now the White House wants to help change that with the 'Every Student, Every Day' campaign to help districts identify which children are missing school too often, and figure out what kind of help those children need in order to get to class." [WashPost]
MAYBE LETTING WEIRD RICH GUYS RUN AMERICA FROM BACKSTAGE IS BAD - Thanks, John Roberts! Frances Stead Sellers: "Robert L. Mercer worked on a team that revolutionized the arcane world of machine translation. Then he made his fortune devising algorithms to outwit Wall Street traders. Throughout it all, he has avoided attention….Mercer, 69, co-chief executive of the wildly successful New York hedge fund company Renaissance Technologies, burst into the public eye this year when he poured $11 million into a super PAC supporting Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz." [WashPost]
ARIZONA CONGRESSMAN FEELING THE BERN - In a shocking turn, super-liberal Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) revealed he prefers super-liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to be the Democratic presidential nominee, on account of their mutual interest in being super-liberal. Mark Z. Barabak: "Slowly, relentlessly, Hillary Rodham Clinton has piled up one congressional endorsement after another….By contrast, independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has drawn massive crowds from Phoenix to Seattle to Boston but has won the public support of precisely zero of his colleagues on Capitol Hill." [LA Times]
If you see pretty colors in the sky tonight, it's NASA.
FEWER PHONE CALLS WILL INTERRUPT YOUR DINNER: REPORT - You won't have Gallup to push around this election cycle. Steven Shephard: "Gallup has been the country's gold standard for horse-race election polling ever since its legendary founder, George Gallup, predicted Franklin Roosevelt's landslide reelection in 1936. But after a bruising 2012 cycle, in which its polls were farther off than most of its competitors, Gallup told POLITICO it isn't planning any polls for the presidential primary horse race this cycle." [Politico]
MIKE HUCKABEE'S BOOK IS MADE OF FAKE FACEBOOK MEMES - But your angriest uncle insisted Patrick Henry really said that thing about Obama's birth certificate and anyway, Snopes is part of the conspiracy. Andrew Kaczynski and Mark Arce: "Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s 1998 book Kids Who Kill is full of spurious quotations from leading American political figures, mostly the country’s founding fathers. A number of the quotations, such as those from Washington and Jefferson, have been routinely debunked by libraries of the past presidents but still regularly find their way into books from conservative figures. Other quotes, debunked by prominent historians, seem to be used for the first time in the book." [Buzzfeed]
OBAMA SENDING 6,000 WILLIE HORTONS DIRECTLY TO YOUR HOUSE - The Justice Department is letting a whole lot of federal prisoners out of prison early, an action which in now way will be featured the next email forward you get from your cousin about Obama being the literal antichrist. Sari Horwitz: "The early release follows action by the U.S. Sentencing Commission -- an independent agency that sets sentencing policies for federal crimes -- that reduced the potential punishment for future drug offenders last year and then made that change retroactive." [WashPost]
MORE BAD(?) NEWS ABOUT HILLARY'S EMAILS - At least we assume so. It's hard to keep track of this story, or to care about anything at all, for that matter. Rachael Bade: "An employee at the tech company that maintained Hillary Clinton’s homemade email server was concerned that instructions from Clinton's representatives would have the tech firm 'covering up some shaddy [sic] shit,' according to emails obtained by Senate investigators." Shaddy indeed! [Politico]
LIKE LOLLAPALOOZA FOR THE INSANE - Alex Jones and Matt Drudge had a conversation, and it's a damn miracle a black hole didn't swallow the universe as a result. Sam Levine: "Drudge also accused the Obama administration of devising the nickname "ISIS" for the Islamic State because it sounds like the last name of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the former chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. 'They came up with the name ISIS to be confused with Darrell Issa. I’m really being honest with you,' he said." [HuffPost]
BECAUSE BOEHNER TOTALLY WOULD'VE VOTED FOR GUN CONTROL IN 2009 - Obama's first two years in office were defined by John Boehner's House GOP conference collaborating with the White House on important issues like gun violence and health care, as we all clearly remember. Michael McAuliff: "'In '09 and '10, we had Democrat majorities in the House and Senate. We had a Democrat president. And this clearly was not a priority for them. The president can rail all he wants,' Boehner said, referring to President Barack Obama's angry denunciation last week of Congress' failure to address the issue. Indeed, the gun legislation that Congress considered in 2009 and 2010 tended to expand gun rights. However, there have been numerous proposals since then, starting after the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) and the horrific slaughter of children in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. Bills to restrict ammo clips and assault weapons have gone nowhere. Even popular bipartisan measures to strengthen background checks have failed." [HuffPost]
AMERICANS WITH STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT AMY SCHUMER'S CLOTHES CALLED ON TO SOLVE GUN VIOLENCE - People magazine goes big on gun control and makes it easy for its readers to pressure Congress. Kim Bellware: "The magazine has told personal stories about each of the gunman's nine victims, and the latest issue, which will be out on newsstands Friday, includes a letter from editorial director Jess Cagle, who uses the platform as a call to action. He asks readers to press their representatives for better solutions to mass shootings. 'We need to know that our representatives in Washington, D.C., are looking for solutions and not giving up, and they need to know if we agree or disagree with their strategies,' Cagle wrote." [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Should you be eating banana peels? Obviously not, but the Today Show investigates anyway.
WHO AMONG US HASN'T WISHED WE COULD BE GERRY CONNOLLY, THOUGH, EVEN IF JUST FOR ONE DAY? Those Chinese hackers just wanted it more. Lisa Rein: "Now a Virginia congressman says his information is being used in more than one attempt to steal his identity. 'In the last three weeks, I’ve had people use my data from that breach to apply for credit cards in three different banks all over the country, and God only know what else will happen,' Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said Tuesday at a Capitol Hill gathering on cloud computing. [WashPost]
COMFORT FOOD
- NASA just released thousands of snapshots taken by Apollo astronauts ON THE MOON! The moon! Are there selfies? Click here to find out!
- A cheetah cub and a puppy in a Virginia zoo are super-cuddly buds -- yes, this is real! -- and there's video.
- Watch this video compilation of 19 times FOX News put some crazy shit on TV.
TWITTERAMA
@morninggloria: Hard to fathom that a year from now we will be a month from election day and all of us will have been driven insane.
@toddzwillich: "House Conservatives Back Webster for Speaker" does not have the same impact it would have in heyday of 80's sitcoms.
@thisismaz: My email client just autocorrected my misspelling of listicle. What a time to be alive!
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