Ben Carson says he has “several sources” that say China is involved in Syria, though we’re we’re pretty confident those sources are just a cork board in his office with news articles connected by red string and thumbtacks. A new report finds the Bush administration was given ample warning about a possible terrorist attack before 9/11, but despite these warnings, Hillary Clinton did absolutely nothing to stop Benghazi. And immigration has become the wedge issue between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, though there’s no avoiding the truth no matter how much the GOP, the campaign and the media tries to avoid it: Ted Cruz is from Canada. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, November 13th, 2015:
BAD THINGS HAPPENING IN PARIS - Associated Press: "Two police officials said at least 26 people have been killed in shootings and explosions around Paris Friday, in the deadliest violence in France in decades. A police official said 11 people were killed in a Paris restaurant in the 10th arrondissement, and about 15 killed in the Bataclan theater, where a hostage-taking is under way." [AP]
You can hear an explosion in this clip from the broadcast of a Paris soccer game.
SUPREME COURT TO TAKE UP ABORTION CASE - Cristian Farias: "The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could further narrow a woman's right to obtain an abortion. The dispute, which the justices added to their docket on Friday, is the first abortion challenge the court will hear since 2007. But at stake is a far more consequential precedent, established in 1992 -- the last time the court reaffirmed the landmark Roe v. Wade. The case, Whole Woman's Health v. Cole, arises from a lawsuit filed in Texas seeking to block a law that, if fully implemented, would shut down at least nine of the 19 remaining abortion clinics in the state. Among other provisions, the law -- called HB2 -- requires doctors at all abortion clinics to possess admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and for the clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers. The cost of meeting the building and equipment requirements can run from a hundred thousand to several million dollars, which many clinics cannot afford." [HuffPost]
Ben Terris has a moving and sad story on the surgery that made Ben Carson famous.
MARCO RUBIO SUDDENLY SLIGHTLY LESS ANOINTED NOW - Sam Stein and Elise Foley: "The ongoing scuttle between Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) over immigration has evinced a fair amount of panic within establishment Republican circles. While some worry that the conflict will lead to a damaging moment for Rubio, similar to when Mitt Romney infamously called for a policy of self-deportation, others are fretting that the damage was already done when he abandoned comprehensive reform altogether. 'I think it will be a fatal blow in the long run,' Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a fellow presidential candidate, said when asked about Rubio moving away from the so-called gang of eight bill that he helped construct. 'I think that and abortion will be two of the problems -- no exceptions for rape or incest.' Few others are willing to speak so fatally about Rubio's chances. But Graham's prognostications do underscore the strategic fissure currently erupting within Republican circles. Sparked by the sustained popularity of Donald Trump and his build-the-dang-fence campaign, the pressures on other candidates to sharpen their immigration policy are growing more severe." [HuffPost]
Trump-Carson totally beats 9-9-9 and moon bases.
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GEORGE W. BUSH KEPT US SAFE - As you might recall from that time he stood atop a mass of smoldering rubble. Chris Whipple: "'Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.' The CIA’s famous Presidential Daily Brief, presented to George W. Bush on August 6, 2001, has always been Exhibit A in the case that his administration shrugged off warnings of an Al Qaeda attack. But months earlier, starting in the spring of 2001, the CIA repeatedly and urgently began to warn the White House that an attack was coming. By May of 2001, says Cofer Black, then chief of the CIA’s counterterrorism center, 'it was very evident that we were going to be struck, we were gonna be struck hard and lots of Americans were going to die.' 'There were real plots being manifested,' Cofer’s former boss, George Tenet, told me in his first interview in eight years." [Politico]
The U.S. military says it's pretty sure it killed Jihadi John.
WHITE HOUSE MORE THAN HAPPY TO HAVE EVERYONE PAY ATTENTION TO BEN CARSON FOR A WHILE LONGER - Wonder if the president wishes he were running for reelection this year. Jordan Fabian: "White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Friday described himself as 'speechless' at Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s offer to present intelligence showing Chinese involvement in Syria. 'Maybe it violates my job description as a spokesman to be speechless, but in this case I am,' Earnest told reporters. It was the latest salvo in the war of words between the White House and Carson over the candidate’s claims about the conflict in Syria...Speaking to reporters in South Carolina Friday, Carson was asked if he wanted to take back his comments. 'I have several sources that I've gotten material from,' he replied. 'I'm surprised that my material is better than theirs,' he said challenging the administration's position." [The Hill]
ASTROTURFING UPDATE - Jen Bendery: "David Applegate, a staff member for Rep. Tammy Duckworth's (D-Ill.) Senate campaign, was walking around at the Columbus Day parade in Chicago when he was approached by a woman with a clipboard. She asked him if he wanted to sign a petition. That was odd in itself, since Applegate was wearing a Duckworth campaign shirt, and the woman was wearing a campaign shirt for Sen. Mark Kirk (R), whom Duckworth is trying to unseat. It got weirder when she said the petition was about raising the minimum wage, an issue Kirk doesn't even support...They weren't collecting signatures for a wage campaign; there isn't even an active wage campaign in Illinois right now. They were collecting signatures to put Kirk on the ballot for the March primary election...Kirk campaign spokesman Kevin Artl said he has no idea who the women are and questioned the authenticity of Applegate's story. 'Given the fact that the photo came from the Duckworth campaign and the individuals in the photo are not on our campaign staff, as Duckworth's campaign falsely alleged, we view this entire episode with great suspicion,' Artl said." [HuffPost]
MOAR CHENEYS - Eli Yokely "If Republican Liz Cheney decides to give a second run for office in Wyoming a try, she will have to overcome some hard feelings from her first one two years ago...Rep. Cynthia M. Lummis on Thursday announced she would retire at the end of this term, creating an open race for the at-large seat that represents the state. Cheney was non-committal in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday, writing that she will 'look at running and will be discussing this with my family and others around the state as I make my decision in the coming weeks.' ...Already, another Republican, state House Speaker Pro Tem Tim Stubson, said he will run, joining Republican Jason Senteney, an ex-Marine, who announced his own campaign for the job in May well before Lummis’ announcement that she would not seek a fifth term on Friday...In the wings are a number of other potential candidates, including Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Murray, State Treasurer Mark Gordon, state House Majority Leader Rosie Berger, Taylor Haynes, a Republican doctor who led an unsuccessful challenge to Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead in 2014, and Rita Meyer, the former state auditor and a 2010 candidate for governor." [Roll Call]
That time Ted Cruz, who we could definitely imagine as an irritating theatre kid, reenacted a scene from "Princess Bride."
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a dog walking again.
TRUMP GOES CRAZY - Reuters: "In his autobiography, 'Gifted Hands,' [Ben] Carson describes himself as a troubled youth with a temper that led him to attack several of his friends and even his mother, before he turned his life around. In Iowa on Thursday Trump compared people who are 'pathological' to child molesters. 'If you're pathological there's no cure for that folks. And I did one of the shows today, and I don't to say what I said but I'll tell you anyway. I said that if you're a child molester, a sick puppy, you're a child molester, there's no cure for that. There's only one cure, we don't to talk about that cure. That's the ultimate cure. No there's two, there's death and there's the other thing. But if you're a child molester there's no cure, they can't stop you. Pathological, there's no cure. Now he said he was pathological, okay,' he said." Weird. [HuffPost]
The GOP establishment is a little worried about this Trump-Carson stuff, and the Carson campaign said people should pray for Trump.
COMFORT FOOD
- Astronaut plays bagpipes in space.
- Stickers to place on your godless Starbucks cups.
- A right and proper way to wake up.
TWITTERAMA
@aedwardslevy: Weird: one of the GOP frontrunners is attacking the other by claiming that he didn't really stab someone
Weirder: this is, by now, old news
@delrayser: Trump Brings Gun To Carson's Knife Fight
@elisefoley : Damn guys I didn’t realize the gang of eight bill was going to require everyone to turn in their guns.
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