Egyptians overthrew their whole government today but Congressman Blake Farenthold can't even impeach a single Barack Obama. The Senate immigration bill's border amendment promises fewer undocumented people for the low, low price of $47,500 per American Dream denied. And everybody in Washington is saying they hope they're not in Mark Leibovich's new book. Everybody in Washington is a liar. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Wednesday, July 3rd:
REVOLUTION BRIEFLY INTERRUPTS GEORGE ZIMMERMAN TRIAL COVERAGE - Ben Wedeman, Reza Sayah and Matt Smith: "Egypt's military deposed the country's first democratically elected president Wednesday night, installing the head of the country's highest court as an interim leader, the country's top general announced. Gen. Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi said the military was fulfilling its 'historic responsibility' to protect the country by ousting Mohamed Morsy, the Western-educated Islamist leader elected a year ago. Morsy failed to meet demands to share power with opponents who thronged the streets of Cairo, and those crowds erupted as the announcement was made. Ahead of the statement, troops moved into key positions around the capital and surrounded a demonstration by Morsy's supporters in a Cairo suburb. Citing an unnamed presidential source, the state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported that 'the General Command of the Armed Forces told President Morsy around 7 p.m. (1 p.m. ET) that he is no longer a president for the republic.'" [CNN]
@joshledermanAP: CAIRO (AP) -- #Morsi's aide says #Egyptian leader Morsi has been moved to an undisclosed location
FIX THE DEBT FAIL - In an October PowerPoint presentation the Campaign to Fix the Debt outlined its goals, including this: "Enact a comprehensive debt reduction plan no later than July 4, 2013." Geez. At this rate, Social Security may never get strengthened.
Hilarious video of Fix The Debt Virginia not actually existing.
FARENTHOLD LETS CONSTITUENTS DOWN - Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) told a town hall that sadly, he may be unable to remove President Obama from office. "If we impeached him in the House of Representatives, it would have to go to the Senate for a trial and he wouldn't get convicted," Farenthold explained. "We saw what happened last time that happened, we re-defined the meaning of 'lie' and 'sex.' I would hate to see the re-definition this would bring." [The Gonzales Cannon]
Programming note: No more HuffPost Hill this week. We're gonna be barbecuin' and stuff and you should too.
Rarely is the question asked: Is our financial competitive? Next week the House will answer that question when it considers the "Financial Competitive Act of 2013." Financial Competitive Act might be a strange name for legislation but would be a good name for a band!
BUILD THE DANGED FENCE - The immigration measures senators said were "overkill" and kind of a waste of money would be successful but also a waste of money. "The final version of the Senate immigration bill that passed last week would decrease the undocumented population by about 800,000 more people than it would have without increased border security measures, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office released Wednesday. ... [I]f cost of increased border security spending is compared to the additional reduction of the undocumented population, that means about $47,500 in spending for every additional unauthorized immigrant kept out by the increased border measures. ... The CBO findings give credence ... to an argument by the bill's backers that they could prevent a swell of unauthorized immigration by increasing funding to border security. The CBO estimated that the bill would reduce illegal entries by up to 50 percent, up from the initial projection of 25 percent." [HuffPost]
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - Sara Woods of Knoxville, Tenn., is not ashamed to say she once bought crab legs with food stamps. In December, she and her husband asked their six kids what they wanted for Christmas dinner. Woods said her husband's good in the kitchen, since he works as a cook in one restaurant and as a sous-chef in another. It was one of the only times he didn't have to work on Christmas Day, and he wanted to cook for his family. Their 15-year-old daughter wanted crab legs. "Everybody could pick one thing, and that was the one thing she wanted," Woods said. She didn't get any guff at the store, but she's familiar with register resentment from when she worked as a cashier in 2004 and 2005. It always came from a certain type of person -- a nosy type, she said. "It would be somebody who was really watching every little thing the person was doing, every little thing they're putting in their cart," Woods said. "They were all up in their cart, all up in their business, they were like, 'Look how many kids, too many kids and now we have to support them.'" America. [HuffPost]
Heads up: The Labor Department didn't get the memo about a four-day weekend and is releasing the June jobs report on Friday morning.
FOLEY FROWNER - "[Father of two Alex] Timofeev, 35, was taken in handcuffs to the Milwaukee office of ICE, where officials told him he had 'abandoned' his citizenship petition and was going to be deported because of marijuana possession convictions in Dane County dating back to 1996. ... Dane County Circuit Court Judge Ellen Berz issued a written decision on Jan. 24 siding with Timofeev, and he was released from ICE custody after spending more than four months in detention. But the state Department of Justice, at the request of the Dane County District Attorney's Office, appealed the circuit court's decision. So Timofeev is once again facing removal from the country." [Isthmus]
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'THIS TOWN' SPOILERS - Mark Leibovich's book is upon us. Carlos Lozada's review in the Washington Post has some of the good parts: "In 'This Town,' we're told that Chris Matthews and Matt Lauer have both joked that David Gregory would rub out a few colleagues to advance his career. That Bill and Hillary Clinton are convinced Tim Russert disliked them, and that they're not wrong. That Luke Russert won't shake Arianna Huffington's hand. That Richard Holbrooke once reprimanded an aide to Axelrod while they were side by side at White House urinal. That Harry Reid has 'observed privately to colleagues' that John Kerry has no friends." [WashPost]
AND SOME MORE - Leibovich got his hands on a memo of White House talking points about Valerie Jarrett, awesomely titled "The Magic of Valerie." Via Andrew Kaczynski: "The magic of Valerie is her intellect and her heart. She is an incredibly kind, caring and thoughtful person with a unique ability to pinpoint the voiceless and shine a light on them and the issues they and the President care about with the ultimate goal of making a difference in people's lives. ... Valerie is someone here who other people inside the building know they can trust. (need examples.)" [Buzzfeed]
HAPPY HOLIDAY! HERE'S ANOTHER DOWNER - David Wood: "Staff Sgt. Joe Payne, an Army combat engineer, survived Afghanistan. It was coming home seven years ago that shattered his marriage and nearly killed him. 'When he got home safe we thought it was the end of the biggest battle,' Joe's wife Mary, now 31, told The Huffington Post. 'We didn't realize that the biggest battles were still ahead.' ... Troubled marriages are harder to measure among those who have left the military. Studies of Vietnam War vets show married veterans struggling to adjust after their return, having difficulty with parenting and communicating with their spouses, and suffering from greater anxiety over intimacy and sexual dysfunction. Roughly 38 percent of their marriages failed within six months of their return, and the divorce rates for those with PTSD, a common battlefield injury, were twice the rate of those without PTSD. Today's veterans, especially those with PTSD, may be facing the same daunting odds. ... There is some good news for today's generation of veterans, though: a growing recognition that military families need help despite the stoic face they often present to the outside world." [HuffPost]
PEOPLE DISLIKE THING THAT COULD HURT THEM - Ariel Edwards-Levy: "Americans have mixed feelings about the Supreme Court's latest rulings, with a majority disapproving of its opinion on the Voting Rights Act, but in favor of two pro-gay marriage opinions, according to an ABC/Washington Post poll released Wednesday. Just a third said they agree with the court's decision to strike down part of the Voting Rights Act, while 51 percent disagreed. Knowledge about, and disapproval of, the VRA decision was especially high among African Americans, 71 percent of whom expressed disagreement with the ruling. Just 3 percent were undecided, while 16 percent of all adults had no opinion." [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - If this pomeranian were any smaller it wouldn't exist at all.
DOJ: DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE FORCE-FEEDING THING - Jane Sutton: "The U.S. federal court has no jurisdiction and no legal basis to intervene in the force-feeding of prisoners at the Guantanamo naval base, the Obama administration argued in a court document on Wednesday. Additionally, the Justice Department said, the force-feeding will not compromise prisoners' religious rights because it will be done only at night during Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims fast from sunup to sundown. Lawyers for four Guantanamo prisoners have asked the U.S. District Court in Washington to halt the force-feeding of Guantanamo prisoners, most of whom have waged a hunger strike for months to protest their indefinite detention. The lawyers argued that the procedure is painful, humiliating and violates international law." [Reuters]
COMFORT FOOD
Portraits of men in their girlfriends' clothes. [Laughing Squid]
If Shakespeare wrote 'Star Wars.' [The Verge]
Trolls interrupt the George Zimmerman trial using Skype, because the internet is terrible. [Deadspin]
Mr. Rogers told you you're special, making him both evil and wrong. [Upworthy]
Supercharged semi could probably use[Laughing Squid]
The universe is even worse than we thought. [The Onion]
TWITTERAMA
@PeterHambyCNN: wasn't wondering RT @mckaycoppins Also, in case you were wondering, Pawlenty ruled out a 2016 run.
@aburnspolitico: Oh like you've never had a memo written about the magic of you
@brianbeutler: It's not a "coup," it's "motivated relinquishing."
@WalshFreedom: Amazed at how upset those in Tahrir Square are at the ouster of Paula Deen
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