Let's hear it for the oft-ignored organs of government! Our schools are churning out kids who can't read the Military Code of Conduct. The FCC voted for lax regulation of wireless content, meaning folks will only be allowed to play Brick Breaker to distract themselves from Verizon's radio waves of tyranny. And Census Bureau findings suggest that Democrats are fleeing their urban ratholes for cushy Republican Sunbelt States in search of central air and Cheesecake Factories aplenty. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Tuesday, December 21st, 2010:
START TREATY FILIBUSTER ENDED, FINAL VOTE LIKELY TOMORROW - The Senate will consider a series of Republican amendments (from Kyl, Risch, Ensign, McCain and Wicker) this evening with a goal of voting on final passage tomorrow. The upper chamber voted on to end debate earlier today as a string of GOP lawmakers came out in support of the nuclear arsenal reducing agreement with Russia, including Lamar Alexander, Lisa Murkowski and Bob Corker. As it stands now, the treaty should receive the 67 votes needed for ratification.
SENATE PASSES CONTINUING RESOLUTION TO FUND GUB'MENT - The Senate this morning passed a continuing resolution to fund the government through March, 79-16. The House is expected to vote on the measure tonight. A continuing resolution isn't that bad, really. All it does is maintain funding at current levels until Congress can hash out a long term one...except absolutely not. The bill in fact leaves out a number of key initiatives that were in the original omnibus (that was iced more than Brett Favre's concussed head) including Wall Street reform provisions and funding for health care reform. With key provisions for the latter set to kick in and help keep your lazy impoverished grandmother alive, such as more thorough Medicare coverage, this won't at all present Democrats with a challenge next year (no sir).
HUFFPOST HILL FACTS OF LIFE - Metabolism is the set of chemical processes occuring in organisms.
COBURN BLOCKING 9-11 RESPONDERS BILL - Tom Coburn was in a familiar place today, the last man standing before a popular bill. Coburn flack John Hart tells HuffPost Hill it's not that simple, though, and that Reid has not asked for unanimous consent to move forward with the bill. "[Y]ou can't hold a bill that hasn't been brought up. Reid hasn't even tried to hotline the bill. This is the same game he's been playing for years going back to the 'Coburn Omnibus' and before," said Hart. "Why did Senator Reid fail to bring this bill to the floor this entire Congress? Supporters say the bill has been around for years yet the Majority Leader has prioritized hundreds of other initiatives ahead of this one. For instance, the Senate invested more energy into passing an omnibus bill with 6,700 earmarks than this bill. We're not responsible for the Majority Leader's failure to manage the Senate schedule." A Reid aide noted that the majority leader hasn't asked for unanimous consent because he doesn't have an agreement yet with Republicans that would allow it. Coburn, late in the day, posted a list of concerns with the 9/11 bill, though Dem aides believe they can be overcome. [WSJ]
@Joy__Hart: Coburn blocking 9/11responders bill cuz it hasn't had hearing. 'cept it did. N June. He didn't attend http://bit.ly/eJs6Jb
The Oklahoma City Firefighters Association, citing the city's Murrah building bombing in 1995, today called on Coburn to end the "tactics of delay" and back the bill: "We lived through the horror in Oklahoma City in April 1995, and many of our members responded to Ground Zero during 9/11. Fire fighters are always there for our country, and we need Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe to be there for our FDNY brothers and sisters! The Oklahoma Fire Fighters urge our two Senators to stand tall with America's first responders. Instead of employing procedural tactics of delay, vote to give the hero's of 9/11 the protection and benefits they have earned."
I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS: HOUSE MAY VOTE ON 9-11 RESPONDER BILL TOMORROW - Steny Hoyer said this evening that if the Senate overcomes the Coburn obstacle the House will take up the 9/11 bill tomorrow, satisfying Jon Stewart.
HUFFPOST HILL FACTS OF LIFE - Reproduction is broadly classified as either being asexual or sexual.
TODAY'S TERKEL TAKEDOWN - Not content to pretend that DADT discharges aren't real, or tell former allies whose families are slated for deportation to get a life, or -- we're guessing -- complain all day about the temperature of his soup and no good kids with their hip-hop music, John McCain is now being a grump about military suicides. Amanda Terkel: "In April, Rep. Rush Holt introduced a bill meant to provide members of the Individual Ready Reserve with resources for suicide prevention. In May, the House incorporated it into the National Defense Authorization Act for 2011, but it was stripped from the final version, and Holt is pointing the finger at McCain, the lead Republican negotiator on the Senate legislation. 'He said having these counselors check in with the Reservists every few months this way overreaching,' said Holt, relaying a phone conversation he had had with the senator. 'I asked him in what sense it was overreaching. Surely he didn't think there wasn't a problem, did he? I must say I don't understand it.' McCain's office responded that the amendment was removed before it ever made its way to the Senate, but Holt's office says the senator is playing a game of semantics, and it was taken out pre-emptively, due to Senate complaints." [HuffPost]
HuffPost's Elise Foley asked Steve King about Chuck Schumer's prediction that immigration reform will pass in the next two years. King laughed.
COMEBACK NARRATIVE WATCH - Jon Ward, in tomorrow morning's Daily Caller, will push against the rock that is the Obama Lazarus narrative: "Washington has rushed to declare President Obama a political Lazarus based on an active and successful lame duck session of Congress that saw tax rates extended for two years, the repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' and will likely on Wednesday add the ratification of a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia. But the accomplishments are likely to be mere foothills compared to the heights that the president and Congress will be forced to scale in the months ahead. The impact of the lame duck on his reelection prospects in 2012 will almost certainly be limited," Ward will write, noting that debt ceiling and budget fights will have much more impact. True. But don't think that'll change the storyline, either.
The House passed the food safety bill today. It's heading to the White House for President Obama's signature. So is the COMPETE Act.
Business Roundtable, the consortium of CEOs, named former Michigan Gov. John Engler its newest president. Engler is currently the head of the National Association of Manufacturers. These are downtrodden people who need all the help they can get. Godspeed, John.
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - When he signed the tax/unemployment bill on Friday, Obama said the unemployed were in luck because "states can move quickly to reinstate their benefits -- and we expect that in almost all states, they'll get them in time for Christmas." Unfortunately, plenty of folks will not get their benefits before Christmas. Rich Hobbie, director of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, told HuffPost that some long-term jobless will not receive missed payments until next year. Most will be paid in the next two weeks. "The bottom line is many states will have payments out by December 25," Hobbie said. "Some states already have payments out. And there are a minority of states whose benefit payments will spill over into January." [HuffPost]
PARANOID SELF-LOATHING GOP LOBBYIST'S NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION FOR RAHM EMANUEL - Welcome to the eighth edition of our favorite Paranoid Self-Loathing GOP Lobbyist's New Year's Resolutions For Other People -- the yearly inventory from everyone's favorite dude who views mistletoe as a CIA invention to spread SARS. On the eighth day of Christmas, PSLGOPLNYRFOP said to me: "Rahm Emanuel should figure out how to get back under the White House executive privilege security blanket before Chairman Issa turns him into Scooter Libby." And a partridge in a pair tree! Happy Socialist Solstice, PSLGOPL!
To the remaining people who didn't know who was behind FamousDC, its authors have been umasked!
@ltdanchoi Reclaiming my West Point ring at 1p in the majority leader's office. I'm grateful for his leadership, service, and safe-keeping.
That tweet is a reference to an exchange Harry Reid and Lt. Dan Choi, a leading Don't Ask, Don't Tell activist, had on stage at this summer's Netroots Nation conference. In gratitude for Reid's work, Choi gave Reid his West Point ring, softening eyes throughout the room. Reid tried to refuse it, saying he hadn't earned it because the bill wasn't law, but Choi eventually persuaded him to hold on to it at least until the bill was pushed through. It was quintessential Reid: awkward, perplexing and surprisingly sincere.
Don't be bashful: Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill
IT'S REAPPORTIONMENT DAY! - Census surveys have been mailed in. Responses have been tabulated. Demographic shifts have been traced. And Republican operatives in coastal areas are no longer hiding homeless people in bus depot warehouses. It's reapportionment day, people! Hooray!...or not. It depends. Are you a Democrat? Then boo! Boo with the fury of a thousand suns! Because you kinda got screwed! Maybe if you had spent some more time on the minimum wage and tenants' rights, your constituents might not have fled to a $52 McMansion in Tempe. Anyway, the Census Bureau announced which states will gain congressional districts and which ones will bear witness to electoral bloodletting as Democrats are forced to play redistricting musical chairs. The findings? Texas, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, South Carolina, Georgia, Utah and Washington State are all gaining seats. Texas is getting four and Florida gets two shiny new ones. Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey and Louisiana will all lose one seat. New York and Ohio will each lose two. Every other state put in a C effort. When state legislatures -- and 65 or so turned Republican in the last election -- draw up their congressional districts, expect Democrats to bear the brunt.
Good on ya, lad: "DCCC Chairman Steve Israel released the following statement on the release of the U.S. Census for reapportionment today: 'Today's release of U.S. Census data pours cold water on Republicans hype that redistricting is a disaster for Democrats.'"
@HotlineJosh With the reapportionment alone (not factoring in redistricting), looks like Dems need about 35 seats to win the House.
@Redistrict: Under new apportionment, Obama would have won 6 fewer EC votes in '08 - would need to win AR or KS just to make up lost ground
"Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) blamed illegal immigrants for his state's having lost a congressional seat in the Census Bureau's reapportionment.Vitter said that Louisiana had lost a seat because other states were welcoming of illegal immigrants, who were in turn counted in population totals used to determine the number of seats in Congress each state is allowed in the next 10 years." [The Hill]
FCC UNDERMINES NET NEUTRALITY 3-2, SMART PHONE USERS TO CONTINUE LIVING ON KNEES - The FCC today voted to pass the first set of rules related to net neutrality. The new rules prohibit Internet providers from limiting or in anyway impeding users' access to legal web portals. Wireless providers, however, are not subject to such regulations and as such Angry Birds will continue to never breath the invigorating air of liberty. "The rules give broadband providers flexibility to manage data on their systems to deal with problems such as network congestion and unwanted traffic including spam as long as they publicly disclose their network management practices...The rules do, however, leave the door open for broadband providers to experiment with routing traffic from specialized services such as smart grids and home security systems over dedicated networks as long as these services are separate from the public Internet." Yes, public Internet. The web as we know it is vanishing. We're not sure which side of the wall HuffPost Hill will wind up on, but it's not looking good for us. [HuffPost]
Also, Alan Simpson was wrong: America is a cow with 308,745,538 tits.
SENATE DEBATES JUDICIAL NOMINEES, SESSIONS RAILS AGAINST JUDGES WITH 'ACLU DNA' - The Senate considered and confirmed several of President Obama's nominations to the federal bench today. As is usually the case with such matters, the debate was cordial, substantive and teeming with recriminations about the treasonous destruction of the Constitution. Jeff Sessions, as Ryan Reilley reports, was especially...cordial. "I'm sure that less than one percent of the lawyers in America are members of the ACLU," he said. "It seems if you have the ACLU DNA, you get a pretty good leg up to being nominated by this president." Sessions continued: "It's clear that the president, our president, an activist -- a community activist, a liberal progressive as his friends have described him, and former law professor, is attempting to pack the courts who share his views and who will promote his vision of what, as he has said about judges, what America should be." [TPM]
BARBOUR WALKS BACK SEGREGATION COMMENTS - Amanda Terkel: "After facing intense criticism Monday over his comments about civil rights and the White Citizens Council, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) has released a follow-up statement condemning the segregationist group...'My point was my town rejected the Ku Klux Klan, but nobody should construe that to mean I think the town leadership were saints, either. Their vehicle, called the Citizens Council, is totally indefensible, as is segregation. It was a difficult and painful era for Mississippi, the rest of the country, and especially African Americans who were persecuted in that time.'" [HufPost]
FORECLOSED HOMEOWNER LEGAL AID AXED - Zach Carter: "Despite mounting evidence of big banks committing serious fraud in the foreclosure process, the U.S. Senate eliminated $35 million in legal aid to homeowners fighting foreclosure. The fund was wiped out in order to meet government spending caps advocated by Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), but will likely end up costing taxpayers much more in the long-run, as wrongful foreclosures burn through the balance sheets of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The slashing of the foreclosure-assistance fund is just one casualty of Washington's increasing bipartisan push to cut spending across the board." [HuffPost]
Former Republican Judiciary Chair Arlen Specter eating his young in his farewell address: "Ignoring a massive congressional record and reversing recent decisions, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito repudiated their confirmation testimony given under oath and provided the key votes to permit corporations and unions to secretly pay for political advertising - thus effectively undermining the basic Democratic principle of the power of one person, one vote."
BELMONT UNIVERSITY FIRES OPENLY GAY COACH - The non-denominational Christian university in Nashville has been taking heat lately for firing popular women's soccer coach Lisa Howe after she announced that she and her partner were expecting a child. The news comes only weeks after the school announced that students would not be allowed to start a . That irks us quite a bit, so we decided to contact our Anonymous LGBT Belmont Alumnus to get her thoughts on the issue. "Belmont University has forced their lesbian soccer coach to resign after she informed her students that she would be having a baby with her partner of eight years," writes ALGBTBA. "If Belmont truly wanted their students and faculty to live up to these Baptist 'morals and values' perhaps they should dismiss 90% of the musical theater department and 100% of the female folk singers. While they're at it, why not lose that outdated 'dorm room doors must be cracked while members of the opposite sex are visiting.' It's really just encouraging all of those good Christian boys and girls explore their homosexual
urges." Thanks, ALGBTBA!
Gulp: "Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the U.S. Army fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can't answer basic math, science and reading questions, according to a new study released Tuesday." [HuffPost]
DEM APPROPS STAFF CHANGES - Beverly Pheto is leaving as staff director and will be replaced by David Pomerantz, currently the Director of the Surveys and Investigations staff. Lesley Turner will be his deputy.
JEREMY THE INTERN'S WEATHER REPORT - It's slightly ironic that once we officially enter winter, it would be warmer than the weeks proceeding it, no? Tonight: Cloudy and quite chilly; it will dip into the 20s. Tomorrow: Temperatures will be about where they are now; low-40s. However, with clearer skies, it should feel a bit warmer during daylight hours. Thanks, JB!
COMFORT FOOD
- Shaq conducted the Boston Pops. America has collectively seen everything now. [http://bit.ly/gRKe9T]
- Listen to these bored middle schoolers: Never illegally download music. [http://bit.ly/fQKApr]
- In case you aren't in the holiday spirit, here's every utterance of the word "Christmas" from Beverly Hills 90210. [http://bit.ly/hp7Qbt]
- Someone made a Tron Christmas special. Alert us when there's one for Starship Troopers [http://bit.ly/fht1To]
- Santa is bringing back the bacon. And it's GOING TO BE EPIC. [http://bit.ly/dYIdbd]
- IPad games for your cat. Note the very jealous dog who makes a last minute appearance. [http://bit.ly/heucbY]
- Snoop Dogg reading 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. Yeah yeah, we know the "Snoop Dogg is Snoop Dogg in out of place settings" thing is kind of old but...whatever. [http://bit.ly/fslfnC]
TWITTERAMA
@alansulderman: Dc has added 30,000 people in ten years. All of them ride bikes and use twitter.
@TimOBrien: Umm, irony anyone? RT@Poynter Newseum operating costs soared to $92 million in 2009, or $250,000 a day. http://journ.us/gxMkV6
@LATimesrainey: Subscribers graph of year from CJR: "He was unique. There will never be another Kenneth McKellar," said the late singer's son, Kenneth.
ON TAP
TONIGHT
6:00 pm: Bells, dawg! Freaking bells! The Carol Ringers -- one of the country's most acclaimed high school bell choirs -- and the Peace Ringers -- a more grownup version -- perform an array of classical, seasonal and popular tunes with their purty-soundin' clankers [Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, 2700 F Street].
9:00 pm: With all of our tree-hugging references to atheist trees and humanist Hanukkah, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the Winter Solstice gathering at U Street Music Hall featuring all the new age DJing you could ever want (which is a lot, right?) [U Street Music Hall, 1115 U Street NW].
TOMORROW
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