HUFFPOST HILL - Congress Begins Weeklong Observation Of One-Day Holiday

HUFFPOST HILL - Congress Begins Weeklong Observation Of One-Day Holiday

The House celebrated International Men’s Day by banning international men from America. Congress adjourned for Thanksgiving, its members returning to their districts so their parents can do their laundry. And NBC News’ president told a group of Hispanic lawmakers, "We love the Hispanic community...Yo hablo espanol." Embarrassed by the obvious gesture, she then quickly looked up "blueberry pie" on Google Translate . This is HUFFPOST HILL for Thursday, November 19th, 2015:

HOUSE DIRECTS TSA AGENTS TO PAT DOWN REFUGEES, OR SOMETHING - "See something, say something," but, you know, with people fleeing the horrors of war. Elise Foley: "Forty-seven House Democrats broke with the White House on Thursday to vote for a bill aimed at pausing admittance of Syrian and Iraqi refugees by adding requirements to an already lengthy screening process, and putting pressure on intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security officials to act with caution. The Obama administration threatened a veto on Wednesday evening. But a number of Democrats peeled off anyway, under significant pressure from constituents to act after terrorist attacks in Paris last week. The bill passed 289-137 -- with enough support to override a veto, should there be one. Some Democrats said the legislation simply wasn't as bad as the administration made it out to be, even after a briefing earlier in the day with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson." [HuffPost]

BYE, see you at Cap Lounge. @jbendery In sum: Senate won't pass the House bill and Congress is adjourning today for a week and a half for Thanksgiving. USA!

SYRIAN REFUGEES NOT MENACING AMERICA...YET - Stephanie Condon: "The U.S. is not aware of any credible threat in the U.S. of a Paris-style attack, FBI Director James Comey said to reporters Thursday. Additionally, he said there is "no connection at all" between the Paris attackers and the U.S. 'The threat here focuses primarily on troubled souls in America who are being inspired or enabled online to do something violent for ISIL,' he said." [CBSNews]

CONGRESS MIGHT ACTUALLY PASS 9/11 BILL -Mike McAuliff: "The path to Congress passing a permanent 9/11 health and compensation bill got a little clearer Thursday. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) pledged to pass something before the end of the year. And Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who holds the key to funding a permanent bill as the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he was open to doing so. 'I favor reauthorizing the program,' Ryan told reporters at his weekly Capitol Hill news conference. 'I think this should get this done by the end of the year.' Ryan declined to get into specifics, saying he's asked the relevant committees to work out the details with Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who is a lead sponsor of the bill to create a permanent program. The House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the compensation portion of the bill, has proposed only a five-year measure. The Energy and Commerce Committee, which would handle the health provision of any bill, has not offered legislation, but is considering both short-term and permanent options." [HuffPost]

DELANEY DOWNER - Professional entertainer and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called a heckler "seriously overweight" on Wednesday after the man interrupted his speech in Worcester, Massachusetts. "We have 93 million people out of the labor force, we have 50 million people in poverty, we have 43 million -- and now it's actually going to be probably closer to 50 -- 50 million people on food stamps," Trump said. At that moment, a man in a light-colored jacket started heckling Trump, though what he said isn't audible on C-SPAN's video feed. Security guards escorted the man out of the arena. "I mention food stamps and that guy who's seriously overweight went crazy," Trump said, to applause. "Amazing." [HuffPost]

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IS HUMA ABEDIN A TERRORIST SLEEPER AGENT... - .. who is CHEATING TAXPAYERS?!?!? Amie Parnes and Bob Cusack: "Frustrated with one of his colleagues, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) picked up the phone late last month to express his irritation. The minority leader wanted to know why Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was blocking nearly two dozen State Department nominees over work done by Huma Abedin, a longtime senior aide to Hillary Clinton. For months, Grassley has maintained that questions remain about Abedin’s work as a 'special government employee,' a status that freed her to work simultaneously at the State Department and as an outside consultant. Grassley has also scrutinized Abedin’s time sheets, concerned that she was possibly overpaid by the federal government while she was on maternity leave. The Iowa senator has publicly said he has a “confidential source” helping his investigation of Abedin. Democrats claim they know who that source is and are accusing the State Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) of leaking information to Grassley about Abedin. They say the source is Emilia DiSanto, a former Grassley aide who is now deputy director of the State Department OIG." [The Hill]

@StephLauren: This is officially now one of my favorite @NYTimes corrections EVER https://t.co/z9zFMSsobv


FREEDOM CAUCUS TAKES VICTORY LAP - We forgot to ask Matt Fuller whether Jim Jordan has a pack of Camels on his desk with a knife stuck through it: "House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan thinks there's still plenty for conservatives to celebrate. Sitting in his corner office in the Longworth House Office Building on Wednesday, the representative from Ohio said Republicans should consider where they were just three years ago, right after President Barack Obama was re-elected. 'And we're all thinking, 'Wow, we got four more years of this administration and all the things we think they do wrong,'' Jordan told The Huffington Post. But, he continued, if someone had said there would be a conservative group in Congress 'shaking things up,' that then-vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) would be the speaker of the House, and that Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) would have real chances at being the next president, things might not seem so bad. 'And that's where we find ourselves,' Jordan said." [HuffPost]

O'NO! - It's a real indictment of our campaign finance system when accepting public matching funds is the political version of taking a public defender for your DUI arrest. John Wagner: "With barely 10 weeks before Democrats start picking their presidential nominee, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley’s campaign is perilously close to financial collapse. The Democratic hopeful this week began asking the roughly 30 staffers at his Baltimore headquarters to redeploy to Iowa and elsewhere, a tacit acknowledgment that he will need a surprisingly strong showing in the first caucus state to stay in the race. And the campaign is now planning to seek public matching funds, a move that could help pay bills in the short term but undercut the candidate’s ability to compete once the voting begins. In recent cycles, major candidates have opted out of the antiquated matching system because it imposes state-by-state spending caps now considered impractical." [WaPo]


IT'S ALMOST AS IF DONALD TRUMP WILL SAY ANYTHING - And should we require Muslims to wear yellow hats? "Mr Trump said in an interview with Yahoo Politics that he would consider "drastic measures" for monitoring the community. Asked if that may include registering Muslims in a database or using special ID cards, he did not rule it out...'We're going to have to do things we never did before,' said Mr Trump, a frontrunner in the Republican race for the White House. 'And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling security is going to rule.' He told Yahoo Politics certain things would have to be done 'that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy.'" [BBC]

BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a puppy who loves peanut butter.

HOLA, YO ESTOY YOUR BEST AMIGO - Laura French and Hadas Gold: "Hispanic lawmakers hoped a meeting with top executives from MSNBC and NBC News Wednesday would smooth over hard feelings from Donald Trump’s appearance on 'Saturday Night Live.' Instead, it had the opposite effect. NBC News President Deborah Turness committed a major blunder -- as far as the Hispanic lawmakers were concerned -- when she described undocumented immigrants as 'illegals,' a term that many in the Latino community find highly offensive...It only got worse from there. Turness at one point spoke Spanish in an effort to show she understood and respected how important the issues discussed were to the Hispanic lawmakers…'We love the Hispanic community...Yo hablo espanol,' Turness said, according to lawmakers present. " [Politico]

COMFORT FOOD

- A visual history of Windows at 30.

- A look at the future of architecture.

TWITTERAMA

@mollyesque: What if Obama was a professional organizer instead of a community organizer? “America, there will be a place for all your shoes."

@EvanMcSan: Welp, I'm adding "barred from Donald Trump town hall in Newton Iowa" to the ol list of career accomplishments.

@elisefoley: Why is it always hypothetical racist uncles giving us trouble at Thanksgiving? Let’s not leave out aunts, cousins, grandparents and siblings

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