Sixty percent of Americans can now legally marry someone of the same sex, prompting conservatives to move up the end of the world from "near" to "nigh." Scott Brown said he supported women's access to contraception "since I was 18" -- right about the time he purchased that Female Body Inspector hat. And Don Young told his opponent that "the last guy who touched me ended up on the ground dead," probably on the advice of his new campaign director, Michael Grimm. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Monday, October 6th, 2014:
SENATE LATEST FROM HUFFPOST'S POLL-EATING MACHINE - Ariel Edwards-Levy: "The GOP's chance of retaking the Senate ticked down on HuffPost Pollster's Senate forecast, which incorporates all publicly available polling. One reason for the change: the newest surveys push Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) up to a 61 percent chance of winning, edging North Carolina out of the tossup camp. Hagan's advantage, though sometimes small, has been consistent over the past month. The 13 most recent polls in the state, including those by partisan pollsters, have all shown her ahead by at least 1 percentage point." [HuffPost]
As of Monday afternoon HuffPost Pollster gives Republicans a 51 percent chance of taking the Senate.
BLACK VOTERS MAY CARRY HAGAN TO VICTORY - From Jen Bendery in Durham: "Chris Johnson is a senior at North Carolina Central University, a historically black university in Durham. In November, he’s planning to vote for Kay Hagan for Senate. Not that he knows who she is. 'I just vote Democratic,' Johnson shrugged. 'Same,' said his friend, John Jones, also a senior at NCCU...It's a razor-thin race between Hagan, a moderate Democrat who has put women's issues and raising the minimum wage at the center of her campaign, and Republican Thom Tillis, the state's House speaker and a driving force behind the legislature's sharp rightward shift. The outcome of the race -- and, perhaps, control of the Senate -- could come down to voters like Johnson, Jones, and Michael H. In a tight election year, Democrats are banking heavily on turning out the same coalition of voters that helped propel them to big victories in 2008 and 2012. In North Carolina, it looks like their investments may be paying off." [HuffPost]
YOU GET GAY MARRIAGE! YOU GET GAY MARRIAGE! EVERYBODY GETS GAY MARRIAGE!!! - AP: "The Supreme Court turned away appeals Monday from five states seeking to prohibit same-sex marriages, paving the way for an immediate expansion of gay and lesbian unions. The justices on Monday did not comment in rejecting appeals from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. No other state cases were currently pending with the high court, but the justices stopped short of resolving for now the question of same-sex marriage nationwide. The court's order immediately ends delays on marriage in those states. Couples in six other states — Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming — should be able to get married in short order. Those states would be bound by the same appellate rulings that were put on hold pending the Supreme Court's review. That would make same-sex marriage legal in 30 states and the District of Columbia." [AP]
America just got a lot gayer: "The total population of those states, based on 2013 estimates from the Census Bureau, is about 190 million. Just over 60 percent of the U.S. population now lives in a state where marriage equality soon will be legal. Prior to Monday, that total was just under 44 percent -- if you discounted states where same-sex marriage was legalized but there were still court challenges. In all, the Supreme Court's decision on Monday set the path for an additional 51,579,771 people to live in states with concrete same-sex marriage rights." [HuffPost's Amanda Terkel and Sam Stein]
Speaking of the gay agenda, it appears it has its claws sunk into John Boehner: "Speaker John Boehner vowed last year that he’d back gay GOP candidates. Now, he’s making good on his word. The Ohio Republican is heading to California this week, where he’ll raise cash for openly gay Republican candidate Carl DeMaio in defiance of several conservative groups. Boehner’s trip to the Golden State marks the second leg of his fall tour to expand House Republicans’ 17-seat majority. The GOP’s efforts to broaden the playing field include races in blue states New York, New England and California, and support for gay candidates DeMaio and Massachusetts’s Richard Tisei." [The Hill]
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - "Online dating has made me feel more alone and rejected than ever," Patrice Bendig blogs. "For the life of me, I cannot get a date." :( [HuffPost]
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THOM TILLIS' TRAILER PARK DRAMA - Christina Wilkie: "As he crisscrosses North Carolina campaigning for U.S. Senate, Thom Tillis likes to remind voters of his modest upbringing. The Republican candidate and former business executive describes a childhood with parents who struggled to make ends meet, and 'when times got really tough, we lived in a trailer park.'...What Tillis fails to mention in the campaign trail rags-to-riches story is that he bought a trailer park in early 2007 -- an investment he hoped would increase in value while providing him rental income. But now, as he presses his run for the Senate, the story of that trailer park may cause voters to question whether Tillis used the trappings of his office as a state legislator for personal gain. That's because in the months after he bought the trailer park, Tillis introduced state legislation and sought political compromises that likely would have increased the value of his property." [HuffPost]
HIGH COURT UPHOLDS SOUTH CAROLINA REDISTRICTING - Gonna be that much harder for Democrats to hold on to Frank Underwood's seat. AP: "The justices on Monday rejected without comment an appeal from black South Carolina voters who wanted the justices to take another look at the state's new lines for state house and congressional districts. The high court previously upheld the new lines in a 2012 decision. But opponents asked a lower court to set aside that ruling in light of another recent Supreme Court decision that struck down a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965." [AP]
BOBBY JINDAL WANTS TO KNOW WHY OBAMA KEEPS GIVING VISAS TO EBOLA - The Obama administration is not on board with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's (R) proposal to ban travel from Ebola-stricken countries. "A travel ban is not something that we're currently considering," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a press briefing Monday. "There already is a multi-layered screening protocol in place in our transportation system." Jindal, who is one of many Republicans considering a presidential run, said in apress release Friday that the administration ought to stop flights to the U.S. from West Africa. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed last week that a Dallas hospital patient had caught Ebola after traveling to the U.S. from Liberia. [HuffPost]
WEIRD, SCOTT BROWN, WEIRD - Good lord the things Scott Brown must have written on his hallmates' whiteboards in college. Laura Bassett: "New Hampshire GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown defended his record on reproductive rights in a debate with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) Monday, claiming that he has supported women's access to contraception 'since [he] was 18 years old.' When Brown represented Massachusetts in the Senate, he cosponsored a bill that would allow employers to opt out providing of any kind health coverage, including birth control pills, based on moral objections. Asked about the bill on Monday, Brown said it had nothing to do with his support for contraception access." [HuffPost]
Fat lady has not sung in Kentucky. Still doing vocal cord exercises: "A SurveyUSA Bluegrass Poll, released Monday, gives Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes the advantage over Republican Mitch McConnell in the Kentucky Senate race for the first time since May. Grimes, the Kentucky secretary of state, leads the Senate minority leader by 46 percent to 44 percent. The new poll differs from the handful of other nonpartisan surveys released since September that give McConnell a lead ranging from 4 to 8 points... HuffPost Pollster's Senate model continues to show McConnell as the favorite, with a 4-point edge over Grimes and about a 63 percent chance of winning... " [HuffPost]
ICYMI: DON YOUNG IS SUPER INTENSE - What's the parliamentary procedure when a member points to another member and runs his thumb across his throat? Alaska Dispatch: "So what happened before the debate? "[Young's Democratic opponent Forrest] Dunbar, reached Friday and pressed about the encounter, said the two were walking near each other backstage when Young said angrily, 'You're not from Cordova any more than I’m from Fort Yukon. I had you looked into.'... Dunbar, who now lives in Anchorage, said he was puzzled and in a friendly gesture touched Young on his arm lightly and asked: 'What are you talking about?' 'He freaked out,' said Dunbar. 'There is no other way to describe it. 'He kind of snarled at me and said, ‘Don’t you ever touch me. Don’t ever touch me. The last guy who touched me ended up on the ground dead,’' said Dunbar." [Alaska Dispatch]
CNN chyron today: "Is ebola the ISIS of biological agents?"
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a litter of pugs entertaining a Russian man.
'SIR' MIKE - Times: "On Monday... Queen Elizabeth II named Mr. Bloomberg an honorary knight. The announcement cited Mr. Bloomberg’s 'prodigious entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors, and the many ways in which they have benefited the United Kingdom and the U.K.-U.S. special relationship.' ... Because Mr. Bloomberg is not a British citizen, he cannot be referred to as 'Sir' in the common parlance of knighthood. But he 'may forthwith put ‘K.B.E.’ after his name if he wishes,' the announcement said, signifying his status as a knight of the British Empire." [NYT]
COMFORT FOOD
- How paper clips are made... you know you want to.
- An infographic showing the growing number of Crayola crayon colors.
- A D.C. metro map for food.
- Kangaroo fighting isn't really fighting, it's more like dancing.
TWITTERAMA
@elisefoley: Gardner about Udall, out of context: “I have a picture of him with a cat on his lap.”
e
@greenfootballs: Wow, you really are nuts. RT @DineshDSouza: Which is worse: EBOLA, the disease; or OBOLA, the dream from his father?
@lachlan: The 1st VP admitted this RT @nickconfessore Admitting that the vice presidency is a crap gig is, like, the least gaffey Joe Biden gaffe ever
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