It was a super crummy week, but in nine months greater Boston will welcome a slew of lockdown babies into the world. Of the manhunt, Lindsey Graham said it "would be nice to have a drone up there," which is the kind of phrasing you use when fantasizing about turning your attic into a game room. And Chuck Grassley thinks we should rethink immigration reform in the wake of the bombings. Assume Muslim bad. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, April 19th, 2013:
HuffPost Hill turns three today. worst birthday
LINDSEY GRAHAM WANTS TO PUT Y'ALL BACK IN CHAINS - Lindsey Graham WaPo: "[Graham] said of the Boston bombers: 'They were radicalized somewhere, somehow.' Regardless of whether they are international or 'homegrown,' he said, 'This is Exhibit A of why the homeland is the battlefield.' Recalling Sen. Rand Paul's filibuster, Graham noted that he took to the Senate floor specifically to object to Rand's notion that 'America is not the battlefield.' Graham said to me, 'It's a battlefield because the terrorists think it is.' Referring to Boston, he observed, 'Here is what we're up against,' and added, 'It sure would be nice to have a drone up there [to track the suspect.]' He also slammed the president's policy of 'leading from behind and criminalizing war.'" [WaPo]
@grahamblog: If captured, I hope Administration will at least consider holding the Boston suspect as enemy combatant for intelligence gathering purposes... The last thing we may want to do is read Boston suspect Miranda Rights telling him to "remain silent."
REAL LIFE BECOMES 'THE SIEGE,' PETER KING SEIZES THE MOMENT - National Review: "Peter King sees the attacks in Massachusetts this week as a wake-up call to local law-enforcement authorities to increase their surveillance and awareness of potential terrorists. 'Police have to be in the community, they have to build up as many sources as they can, and they have to realize that the threat is coming from the Muslim community and increase surveillance there.' The New York Republican congressman tells National Review. 'We can't be bound by political correctness,' adds King, who chairs the House subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. 'I think we need more police and more surveillance in the communities where the threat is coming from, whether it's the Irish community with the Westies [an Irish-American gang in New York City], or the Italian community with the mafia, or the Muslim community with the Islamic terrorists.'" [National Review]
HuffPost interviewed lots of people who knew the suspects.
@JuddLegum: Things we'll do to keep people safe: Lock down an entire city for hours/Things we won't do: A 5 min background check before you buy a gun
That sucker has 13,775 retweets as of presstime
MEET THE DOCTOR WHO TREATED TAMERLAN TSARNAEV -
This week's Hippocratic Oath player of the week. Sabrina Siddiqui: "Dr. David Schoenfeld was among a crowd of 2,000 people who attended an interfaith service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross Thursday in honor of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. Several hours later, the emergency physician found himself trying to revive Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the suspects behind the terrorist attack...When Tsarnaev arrived, he immediately went into cardiac arrest. CPR was performed until a team of doctors could attempt to resuscitate him, inserting chest tubes to treat potential injuries and gain vascular access to give the patient what Schoenfeld described as 'massive blood transfusions.' Tsarnaev suffered from massive, penetrating injuries and was pronounced dead at 1:35 a.m. His body was turned over to law enforcement so that it can be examined by forensic experts, medical examiners and investigators to determine the source of his injuries." [HuffPost]
Jeff Bauman, who lost both his legs in the bombing and helped identify the perps from his hospital bed, is not insured. ThinkProgress: "Bauman's friends created the page 'Bucks For Bauman!' on the gofundme.com crowdfunding service. The money raised through donations to the site are meant to help Jeff and his family pay the exorbitant costs of his surgeries, ongoing medical care, and physical therapy. Since Tuesday, when the site was launched, Americans from across the country have poured in $158,294 in donations -- over half of the overall $300,000 goal." This is what we call trouble in Mitt Romney's socialist hospital paradise. [ThinkProgress]
White House photo of the president meeting his national security team in the situation room.
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - From the department of It Bears Repeating: "The nation's economy is coming back and many employers are cautiously staffing up, but they're not often hiring people who have been out of work for a long time, according to a headhunter firm. 'The longer one is out of work, the more difficult it becomes to achieve job search success. And, unfortunately, this is a situation that has not reversed, despite steady improvement in the overall job market,' said John A. Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The Chicago firm finds workers for employers." Looks like it found a lump of coal for workers. [LATimes]
Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It's free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill
CHUCK GRASSLEY IS WORRIED ABOUT THE DERP DERP DERPING THE DERP - Elise Foley: "Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), speaking at the first Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration reform Friday, tied the issue to bombings this week in Boston that were allegedly perpetrated by immigrants who had reportedly lived in the United States for years. 'Given the events of this week, it's important for us to understand the gaps and loopholes in our immigration system,' he said. 'While we don't yet know the immigration status of the people who have terrorized the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out, it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system.' 'How can individuals evade authorities and plan such attacks on our soil?' he continued. 'How can we beef up security checks on people who wish to enter the U.S.? How do we ensure that people who wish to do us harm are not eligible for benefits under the immigration laws, including this new bill before us?'" [HuffPost]
PRO-GUN GROUPS DERPED: VOW TO DERP DERP DERP AND DERPINGLY BRING THE DERP TO DERP - BuzzFeed: "As authorities chased down the suspected Boston Marathon bomber Friday, Second Amendment advocates said they were already bracing for political opponents to use the incident against them in the ongoing debate in Washington over gun control...Just days after celebrating the defeat in the Senate of a bipartisan bill that would have expanded background checks for gun purchasers, pro-gun groups said that the gunfight development in Boston could precipitate a renewed push from the left for firearm legislation. '"Never let a crisis go to waste' is their mantra," said Dudley Brown, executive vice president of the National Association for Gun Rights, when asked about how the Boston shootout might affect the gun control debate in Washington... [Michael Hammond, legislative council for Gun Owners of America] Hammond went even further, saddling the blame for the marathon attack in part on Mayor Tom Menino for championing gun control through his group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which he co-chairs with New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg." [BuzzFeed]
Those Mitch McConnell gun memes really gave the right the giggles: "Arkansas State Rep. Nate Bell (R) sent out an insensitive tweet Friday morning amid breaking news surrounding the Boston bomber manhunt. Bell brought the topic of gun control into the mix when he tweeted: 'I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine? #2A'" [HuffPost's Lisa Miller]
PROMINENT NRA MEMBER RESIGNS AFTER SENATE'S FAIL-O-RAMA - 1999 called, it wants its sanity back. Christina Wilkie: "Adolphus Busch IV, heir to the Busch family brewing fortune, resigned his lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association on Thursday, writing in a letter to NRA President David Keene, 'I fail to see how the NRA can disregard the overwhelming will of its members who see background checks as reasonable.'The resignation, first reported by KSDK, came a day after the Senate rejected a series of amendments to a gun control bill, including a bipartisan deal to expand background checks for gun sales. The NRA had vigorously opposed all those measures. 'The NRA I see today has undermined the values upon which it was established,' wrote Busch. 'Your current strategic focus clearly places priority on the needs of gun and ammunition manufacturers while disregarding the opinions of your 4 million individual members.'" [HuffPost]
Ohio Republicans aren't pleased one of their senators was eaten alive by the gay agenda. Ariel Edwards-Levy: "Republican disapproval of Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has jumped 13 points since he announced his support for gay marriage, according to polling released Friday by Quinnipiac University. Twenty-one percent of Republicans now disapprove of Portman's performance, up from just 8 percent in a February poll. His numbers among independent voters also fell somewhat, while his perception among Democratic voters improved slightly. Portman's overall approval rating is now at 40 percent, with 31 percent disapproving." [HuffPost]
------------ADVERTISEMENT------------
MoveOn.org's 8 million members are mobilizing to stop Democrats from cutting Social Security and harming seniors. www.MoveOn.org
------------ADVERTISEMENT------------
THE TIME A LAWMAKER PASSED A RESOLUTION HONORING HIMSELF - WSMV: "A Tennessee legislator is catching heat for passing a resolution to honor himself... Resolutions are basically congratulatory notes for an achievement, an occasion or a job well-done, and so far this year, lawmakers have passed 476 resolutions -- each one typically costing taxpayers about $300. Sen. Ophelia Ford has passed one to honor her intern, Sens. Matthew and Timothy Hill have honored their late grandmother but Sen. Jon Lundberg just passed a resolution to honor himself. 'I think it's important for us as a state to say, "Hey, great job on creating jobs and moving the ball forward,"' said Lundberg, R-Bristol. Lundberg's resolution, written by his own staff, honors his public relations firm, The Corporate Image, and says things like 'the owners and employees of The Corporate Image are many such noteworthy persons' and 'the company has continued to set the standard for the highest quality professional services.'" [WSMV]
George W. Bush has voiced his support for his brother Jeb's potential presidential candidacy, dooming it forever. "That's for Jeb to figure out, you know what I mean?" Bush told Parade in an interview. "I would hope that people would judge [him], if Jeb were to run, on his merits and his track record... So I hope he will run." [Parade]
TOM COBURN FALLS INTO FOUNTAIN - "Sen. Tom Coburn took an accidental dip in a fountain at Wednesday night's 31st March of Dimes Gourmet Gala. Two sources confirm that the Oklahoma Republican tumbled into the fountain at the National Building Museum where the gala was being held. This wasn't some quick toe-in-toe-out of a shallow fountain. The senator took a serious dive. When he emerged, he was soaked to his neck, his suit was sopping and 'water had to be poured from his cowboy boots.'" [Roll Call]
BOY SCOUTS REVERSE BAN ON GAY SCOUTS - But gay scoutmasters are still banned, which is odd if you use the Scouts' logic. Apparently it's better that the depraved kids do the evil queerifying and not their supervisors? AP: "Under pressure over its long-standing ban on gays, the Boy Scouts of America is proposing to lift the ban for youth members but continue to exclude gays as adult leaders. The Scouts announced Friday that the proposal would be submitted to the roughly 1,400 voting members of its National Council at a meeting in Texas the week of May 20. Gay-rights groups have demanded a complete lifting of the ban, while some churches and conservative groups want it maintained in its entirety, raising the likelihood that the new proposal will draw continued criticism from both sides. Indeed, the BSA, in making its announcement, estimated that easing the ban on gay adults could cause widespread defections that cost the organization 100,000 to 350,000 members." [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Baby hedgehog is angry at t-shirt.
COMFORT FOOD
- Why do we cry, aside from pretty much everything that happened this week? A biological explanation. [http://bit.ly/11Jz1Jd]
- "Ryan Lochte's Stupidity Made A News Anchor Cry With Laughter" [http://deadsp.in/117BQlX]
- Filtering out water from a bottle of Coke. [http://bit.ly/15mWJio]
- From Ray, a reader, what happens when you wring out a washcloth in space. [http://bit.ly/YAcMSS]
- Like their feline cousins, tigers like playing with boxes, also. [http://huff.to/ZCoFYA]
- App simulates an accordion by emitting different sounds depending on how your browser is sized. [http://bit.ly/178np4R]
- The trailer for "Big Lebowski" reconfigured as a tearjerker. [http://bit.ly/GYvjh]
- We salute you, guy who sniffed Jack Nicholson's hair at a Lakers game. [http://bit.ly/Z6AqKk]
TWITTERAMA
@EvanMcSan DC metro station closed after police find suspiciously functional escalator
@dceiver: I picked the wrong day to do a shot every time Megyn Kelly portentiously says "9-11."
@mckaycoppins: How far is Chechnya from Uzbeki-beki-beki-stan-stan?
Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com), Ryan Grim (ryan@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill). Sign up here: http://huff.to/an2k2e