Tom Friedman: Emanuel Left White House For Chicago Because Of "Unpleasant" Social Media

This is why they pay him the big bucks folks. Thomas Friedman wants the viewers of Face the Nation to believe that Rahm Emanuel decided to leave the White House and run for mayor of Chicago because of some meanies on social media and blogs. I guess all of that went away for him once he was mayor instead of Obama’s chief of staff.

This was during yet another of the countless discussions by our beltway Villagers about how our the Republicans in Congress might have cooperated with President Obama if he’d just learned how to schmooze with them and kiss their butts a little more, like President Johnson did back in the day. Yeah, that would have made all the difference with this crop of Republicans we’ve got in office today. And then we’re treated to this nonsense by Friedman:

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Tom Friedman: Emanuel Left White House For Chicago Because Of "Unpleasant" Social Media

Alabama House passes resolution requesting constitutional convention to ban marriage equality

That the Alabama House passed a resolution calling for a constitutional convention in order to ban same-sex marriage nationwide forever ‘n ever is not all that surprising. More surprising is that apparently most of the representatives involved didn’t know what the hell they were voting for:

According to the resolution, the convention would specifically propose an amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman, and bar legal recognition of any other form of marriage.

Democrats on the Rules Committee wouldn’t have signed off if they’d known what it was, Todd said. The description of the resolution on a summary sheet provided to committee members, she said, only mentioned that the state would call for a convention to make an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It did not specify what the amendment would address. [...]

The resolution passed on a voice vote of the chamber.

Laboratories of democracy, indeed.

Daily Kos

Alabama House passes resolution requesting constitutional convention to ban marriage equality

House Democrats pressuring Republicans for immigration reform vote

House Democrats continue to batter against the brick wall of Speaker John Boehner’s refusal to allow a vote on immigration reform (along with extending emergency unemployment aid, raising the minimum wage, and a host of other popular measures). Democrats are launching a discharge petition pushing for a vote on a bill similar to the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform bill.

Like other discharge petitions Democrats have circulated recently, this one stands little chance of getting the Republican signatures needed. But Greg Sargent points to a way a discharge petition could produce results even without enough signatures:

[T[he more important aim is to give those House Republicans who are generally pro-reform a hook to exert more private pressure on GOP leaders to act, by letting the piecemeal reform proposals that are knocking around among House Republicans get a vote.

I’m told immigration advocacy groups and labor have drawn up a target list of around 30 House Republicans who have previously expressed public support for reform and/or a path to citizenship, to be targeted with pressure back home in their districts.

Among the Republicans on that list: David Valadao, Jeff Denham, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Joe Heck, Daniel Webster, Aaron Schock, and Kevin McCarthy, who is the third ranking GOP leader but represents a lot of Latinos and has expressed support for legal status.

Of course, we hear about a lot of policies a few Republicans support in theory yet mysteriously oppose—it’s a question of voting for an actual bill. But the Republicans on this list could potentially put a lot of pressure on Boehner to allow a vote. And while other House Republicans might not currently face electoral damage for opposing immigration reform, they really should look at demographics and consider their party’s fate in statewide and presidential elections and in the longer term.

Daily Kos

House Democrats pressuring Republicans for immigration reform vote

The Supreme Court Has Just Given The Police Another Way To Search Your House Without A Warrant

The Supreme Court handed down a decision that effectively grants law enforcement and investigative agencies the power to search your home without a warrant.

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The Supreme Court Has Just Given The Police Another Way To Search Your House Without A Warrant

Obama And Biden In White House Workout Video

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Michelle Obama To Star In Parks And Recreation

Updated: 11:49am UK, Friday 28 February 2014

Michelle Obama is to appear alongside the cast of Parks And Recreation in the sitcom’s season six finale.

The First Lady will take a trip to the fictional Indiana town of Pawnee, where she will tell residents how to beat obesity.

Her office said she will feature alongside the show’s star, Amy Poehler, in an episode which will air in the US on April 24.

The show’s Twitter account said: “It’s time to get real about Pawnee’s obesity”, in a reference to the First Lady’s campaign for healthy living.

Poehler plays excitable mid-level bureaucrat Leslie Knope who works in the parks department in Pawnee. The show also stars Rashida Jones, Chris Pratt, Nick Offerman and Rob Lowe.

Poehler lent Mrs Obama’s campaign a hand earlier this week when she appeared at a “Let’s Move” event in Miami, where the First Lady joked that she and Poehler are best friends.

Mrs Obama won’t be the first White House figure to appear on the show. Vice President Joe Biden made a cameo in 2012, while Senators John McCain, Olympia Snowe and Barbara Boxer have also guest starred.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Obama And Biden In White House Workout Video

Midday open thread: the House on Iran, "a little convenient massacre," "Cured" HIV patients relapse

• Today’s comic by Jen Sorensen is Comic: Nation of moochers:
  
  
  
  


• Rep. Sean Maloney will marry his long-time partner:
  

  With their marriage, Maloney will become the second member of Congress to legally wed his same-sex partner while in office. Former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, became the first to do so in 2012.
  

  Maloney and [Randy] Florke, who have three adopted children and live in Cold Spring, New York, got engaged on Christmas Day.

  
  

  Their youngest daughter, Essie, wrote a letter to Santa earlier that week, asking if he can “try making my wonderful fathers get married.”

  
  

  
  


• Markos abandons politics for a few moments to write about cyclist “Fast Freddie” Rodriguez.


• Jerkwad NY Post columnist calls Newtown “a little convenient massacre”:
  

  
  

  

  
  

  Fredric Dicker, widely regarded as one of the most influential media voices in New York state politics, made the comment on his radio show Monday. He was speaking about gun control legislation passed by the state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo.
  

  “That was his anti-gun legislation, which he had promised not to do, but then he had a little convenient massacre that went on in Newtown, Conn., and all of a sudden there was an opportunity for him,” Dicker said.

  
  

  
  

  When the backlash struck, Dicker did not apologize or back down. The rival NY Daily News featured Dicker on its front page Tuesday.



• Men supposedly cured of HIV by bone marrow transplant relapse:
  

  These two men were both HIV positive and had lymphoma, a type of cancer. They both received bone marrow transplants. Post-transplant they continued on their antiretroviral medicine (used to combat HIV) while the donor bone marrow cells engrafted. Researchers found that all traces of HIV in the patients vanished.
  

  They were followed and, in time, both patients stopped their antiretrovirals. They remained HIV free—or so everyone thought, since their viral loads were undetectable and no trace of HIV was found in peripheral blood cells.

  
  

  Unfortunately, over time, both relapsed and tests showed HIV was again (still) present.

  
  

  
  


• DEA let tech-savvy drug cartel do what it pleased:
  

  Catapults. “Jalapeños.” Dune buggies. $ 1 million subs. Sophisticated drug tunnels. Firetruck-sized industrial pipeline drills. These are just a few of the ingenious ways that Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, arguably the world’s largest, most powerful and technologically advanced organized crime syndicate, has tried to perfect the fine art of smuggling drugs into America. And to think, the US’s premier drug enforcement arm gave the Sinaloa a pass to do so largely unhindered during the bloodiest stretch of Mexico’s drug war.
  

  That’s the thrust of a landmark investigation by El Universal, which found that authorities with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the broader Department of Justice struck a deal with the Sinaloa, in exchange for intelligence about rival cartels. Citing court documents and extensive interviews with both Mexican and US officials familiar with the matter, El Universal reports that the US-Sinaloa arrangement lasted from 2000 to 2012.

  
  

  
  


• These Daily Kos community posts were the most shared on Facebook Jan. 13:
  
  

  WV: Freedom Industries Has Ties to Koch Brothers, by dharmafarmer
  

  “Like a Book Burning” The Canadian government is closing scientific libraries and destroying docs, by Pakalolo

  
  

  Inhofe Admits He Only Denies Climate Science Because He Doesn’t Like the Solutions, by TheGreenMiles

  
  

  
  


• Picking up seashells down by the seashore is an environmental problem:
  

  It’s a normal part of summer vacation: head to the beach, pick up a few seashells and take them home as keepsakes. But multiply this innocent activity by millions of tourists and we might have a big problem, researchers warn in PLOS ONE. Skyrocketing numbers of beachcombers are pocketing seashells, and the environmental effects could range from increased erosion to fewer building materials for bird nests.

  
  


• House Republicans could rescue Iran diplomacy: In the Senate, a majority supports adding economic sanctions to those already imposed on Iran, something the Obama administration and the Iranian foreign minister say could wreck efforts to come to agreement on international controls on Iran’s nuclear program. Sixteen Democrats, led by Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey have signed onto the sanctions bill introduced in December. Forty-two Senate Republicans have joined. But
  

  Enter House Republicans. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that House GOP leaders are considering bringing the Senate bill to the House floor, a move that could inject a heavy dose of partisanship into what had been a bipartisan affair. If House Republicans take control of the legislation, Democrats may become more anxious about supporting it and less likely to buck the White House.
  

  “I’m hearing Cantor wants to take up the Menendez language,” confirmed one senior House Democratic aide. “Since the House has already passed a sanctions bill, it’s quite clear that this has turned into a completely political matter.”

  
  

  
  


• 
  
  
  

  On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, the Chris Christie and WV stories aren’t dead yet. Greg Dworkin brought us a round-up of the headlines on Christie and the latest on Obamacare, which is still a thing! Plus: new gun outrage out of FL. A retired police captain shoots a fellow movie-goer for texting during the previews. We return to the WV story for more on just what this spilled chemical is, how dangerous we should consider it to be, and whether or not Koch Industries really is connected to the situation. And just how did a relatively small spill end up contaminating the drinking water of nine counties? The answer, at least in part is privatization.

Daily Kos

Midday open thread: the House on Iran, "a little convenient massacre," "Cured" HIV patients relapse

Midday open thread: the House on Iran, "a little convenient massacre," "Cured" HIV patients relapse

• Today’s comic by Jen Sorensen is Comic: Nation of moochers:
  
  
  
  


• Rep. Sean Maloney will marry his long-time partner:
  

  With their marriage, Maloney will become the second member of Congress to legally wed his same-sex partner while in office. Former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, became the first to do so in 2012.
  

  Maloney and [Randy] Florke, who have three adopted children and live in Cold Spring, New York, got engaged on Christmas Day.

  
  

  Their youngest daughter, Essie, wrote a letter to Santa earlier that week, asking if he can “try making my wonderful fathers get married.”

  
  

  
  


• Markos abandons politics for a few moments to write about cyclist “Fast Freddie” Rodriguez.


• Jerkwad NY Post columnist calls Newtown “a little convenient massacre”:
  

  
  

  

  
  

  Fredric Dicker, widely regarded as one of the most influential media voices in New York state politics, made the comment on his radio show Monday. He was speaking about gun control legislation passed by the state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo.
  

  “That was his anti-gun legislation, which he had promised not to do, but then he had a little convenient massacre that went on in Newtown, Conn., and all of a sudden there was an opportunity for him,” Dicker said.

  
  

  
  

  When the backlash struck, Dicker did not apologize or back down. The rival NY Daily News featured Dicker on its front page Tuesday.



• Men supposedly cured of HIV by bone marrow transplant relapse:
  

  These two men were both HIV positive and had lymphoma, a type of cancer. They both received bone marrow transplants. Post-transplant they continued on their antiretroviral medicine (used to combat HIV) while the donor bone marrow cells engrafted. Researchers found that all traces of HIV in the patients vanished.
  

  They were followed and, in time, both patients stopped their antiretrovirals. They remained HIV free—or so everyone thought, since their viral loads were undetectable and no trace of HIV was found in peripheral blood cells.

  
  

  Unfortunately, over time, both relapsed and tests showed HIV was again (still) present.

  
  

  
  


• DEA let tech-savvy drug cartel do what it pleased:
  

  Catapults. “Jalapeños.” Dune buggies. $ 1 million subs. Sophisticated drug tunnels. Firetruck-sized industrial pipeline drills. These are just a few of the ingenious ways that Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, arguably the world’s largest, most powerful and technologically advanced organized crime syndicate, has tried to perfect the fine art of smuggling drugs into America. And to think, the US’s premier drug enforcement arm gave the Sinaloa a pass to do so largely unhindered during the bloodiest stretch of Mexico’s drug war.
  

  That’s the thrust of a landmark investigation by El Universal, which found that authorities with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the broader Department of Justice struck a deal with the Sinaloa, in exchange for intelligence about rival cartels. Citing court documents and extensive interviews with both Mexican and US officials familiar with the matter, El Universal reports that the US-Sinaloa arrangement lasted from 2000 to 2012.

  
  

  
  


• These Daily Kos community posts were the most shared on Facebook Jan. 13:
  
  

  WV: Freedom Industries Has Ties to Koch Brothers, by dharmafarmer
  

  “Like a Book Burning” The Canadian government is closing scientific libraries and destroying docs, by Pakalolo

  
  

  Inhofe Admits He Only Denies Climate Science Because He Doesn’t Like the Solutions, by TheGreenMiles

  
  

  
  


• Picking up seashells down by the seashore is an environmental problem:
  

  It’s a normal part of summer vacation: head to the beach, pick up a few seashells and take them home as keepsakes. But multiply this innocent activity by millions of tourists and we might have a big problem, researchers warn in PLOS ONE. Skyrocketing numbers of beachcombers are pocketing seashells, and the environmental effects could range from increased erosion to fewer building materials for bird nests.

  
  


• House Republicans could rescue Iran diplomacy: In the Senate, a majority supports adding economic sanctions to those already imposed on Iran, something the Obama administration and the Iranian foreign minister say could wreck efforts to come to agreement on international controls on Iran’s nuclear program. Sixteen Democrats, led by Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey have signed onto the sanctions bill introduced in December. Forty-two Senate Republicans have joined. But
  

  Enter House Republicans. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that House GOP leaders are considering bringing the Senate bill to the House floor, a move that could inject a heavy dose of partisanship into what had been a bipartisan affair. If House Republicans take control of the legislation, Democrats may become more anxious about supporting it and less likely to buck the White House.
  

  “I’m hearing Cantor wants to take up the Menendez language,” confirmed one senior House Democratic aide. “Since the House has already passed a sanctions bill, it’s quite clear that this has turned into a completely political matter.”

  
  

  
  


• 
  
  
  

  On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, the Chris Christie and WV stories aren’t dead yet. Greg Dworkin brought us a round-up of the headlines on Christie and the latest on Obamacare, which is still a thing! Plus: new gun outrage out of FL. A retired police captain shoots a fellow movie-goer for texting during the previews. We return to the WV story for more on just what this spilled chemical is, how dangerous we should consider it to be, and whether or not Koch Industries really is connected to the situation. And just how did a relatively small spill end up contaminating the drinking water of nine counties? The answer, at least in part is privatization.

Daily Kos

Midday open thread: the House on Iran, "a little convenient massacre," "Cured" HIV patients relapse