Another person shot a bunch of people today, this time in Oregon, but it's still too early to say whether guns or bullets were a factor in the tragedy. Kevin McCarthy is in hot water for saying something obvious about the Benghazi committee, a good start to his new life as the guy everyone hates and blames for everything. And Twitter has a 136-page handbook for people running for office, presumably with one chapter about not calling people Hitler and another titled "Penis Picture Pitfalls." This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, October 1st, 2015:
ANOTHER HORRIBLE MASS SHOOTING - Andy Campbell: "Thirteen people were killed and as many as 20 were wounded Thursday in a shooting at a small community college in Roseburg, Oregon, according to multiple reports. Sheriff John Handlin said during a press conference Thursday afternoon that officers 'neutralized' the shooter, who was male, during an exchange of gunfire in a campus building. The shooter is now deceased, Handlin said. He declined to specify how many people were killed and wounded. 'Today in southern Oregon is not a good afternoon,' Handlin said. 'It's been a terrible day.'" [HuffPost]
@samsteinhp: This is the 45th shooting at a school in 2015.
SOLEMN, PRAYERFUL TWEETS - With Sam Stein: "To promote the general welfare, members of Congress have the power to craft laws, pass them and send them to the president for his or her signature. In the wake of instances of gun massacres, however, politicians reliably and reflexively reach for the most casual response possible: condolences of 140 characters or less to nobody in particular. Why even bother? The mass shooting at a community college in Oregon gave us this same rote reaction." Check 'em out HERE.
CONGRESS DOES WHAT IT DOES BEST - The House went to a lot of trouble to pass a bill Obama will definitely veto. Get used to that, America. Karoun Demirjian: "The House on Thursday adopted the conference report for the annual defense policy bill on a 270 to 156 vote, which is not enough support to override President Obama’s promised veto of the legislation." [WashPost]
EVERYONE IS MAD ABOUT THE BENGHAZI COMMITTEE ALL OF A SUDDEN - Laura Barron-Lopez: "Outgoing House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) started damage control on Thursday, seeking to quell calls for Republicans to disband the Select Committee on Benghazi. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Boehner's likely successor, had praised the committee -- which was established to investigate the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya -- for hurting 2016 Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's poll numbers. Democrats jumped at the comments, calling for Boehner to immediately disband the committee and accusing Republicans of creating it for the sole purpose of attacking the former secretary of state during her bid for the White House. 'This investigation has never been about former Secretary of State Clinton and never will be,' Boehner said in a statement Thursday. 'Indeed, the Select Committee’s very existence is only the result of the Obama administration’s obstruction of routine congressional investigations and its failure to properly comply with subpoenas and document requests.'" [HuffPost]
Congressional Democrats may finally be fed up with House v. Clinton, too. Nancy Pelosi floated the idea of a boycott, while Harry Reid and other Senate leaders asked Boehner to pull the plug.
LIBERALS? AT AN EVENT HOSTED BY THE ASPEN INSTITUTE? WELL I NEVER! Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) must have been stunned when she got booed. Jen Bendery: "'I do believe that the work that we're doing in the Benghazi committee is very important,' McMorris Rodgers said to boos in the audience. 'We've not yet had important questions answered.' As she kept talking, the boos grew louder and people started hissing. Someone even shouted, 'You're lying!'" [HuffPost]
We honestly didn't even realize McCarthy had gaffed because it has always been so thunderously obvious that the Benghazi committee was a Hillary attack vehicle. House Republicans were fundraising off the sucker before it had even started!
HOW FAST WILL MCCARTHY COOK? - Watch for signs of premature tanning. Scott Wong: "More than half a dozen House Republicans this week told The Hill there are serious concerns that, unless the intraparty warfare subsides, the new Speaker could become the next victim of GOP 'fratricide.' 'The group can’t be led right now and we’ve got to change that,' said Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), a former member of leadership who’s been urging colleagues to take stock of the GOP conference after Boehner’s stunning decision to call it quits at the end of October." [The Hill]
Kevin McCarthy is not very good at talking, in case you hadn't noticed.
Boehner
Even
Never
Gaffed
Half
As
Zanily,
Indeed!
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BY NOT RUNNING, BIDEN IS RUNNING FOR SURE - Or something. Whatever. Jeff Zeleny: "He is not preparing for the first Democratic debate on October 13 in Las Vegas and is not expected to participate, people close to him say, because he feels no pressure to reach a decision by then. He is likely to reveal his plans in the second half of October." [CNN]
BIBI CALMLY DISCUSSES THE SITUATION IN MIDDLE EAST AT U.N. - He didn't bust out a child's drawing of a bomb this time. Oren Dorell: "Netanyahu criticized world leaders, many of whom celebrated the nuclear deal in speeches from the same podium this week, for remaining silent about Iran's ruling mullahs and generals who've spoken openly of Israel's destruction." [USA Today]
LIVE FROM NEW YORK...IT'S HILLARY CLINTON'S FORCED SMILE - Lorne Michaels knows funny. Lorne Michaels also knows Hillary Clinton. Those two things aren't necessarily related. Amy Chozik: "In a top-secret appearance that her campaign would not confirm, Mrs. Clinton will meet her comedic counterpart, Kate McKinnon, who has portrayed the former first lady to effusive praise as the latest 'S.N.L.' member to don a blonde wig and attempt to bring to life the character of Mrs. Clinton." Haha terrific!" [NYT]
BERNIE AND HILLARY EACH RAISED A SH*T TON OF MONEY - Sam Stein: "Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign raised more than that of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during the third quarter of 2015. But not by much. And with Sanders building a massive pool of grassroots donors, it seems entirely possible that he could end up surpassing her in quarters to come." [HuffPost]
Onion Headline True Again
BERNIE'S GOING BIG-TIME - Will his hipster supporters object to Sanders going mainstream? Patrick Healy: "Mr. Sanders, who has drawn support by electrifying crowds with his demands for single-payer health care, free tuition at public colleges and higher taxes on the rich, has tested the idea that a modern presidential candidate cannot win without relying on attack ads or internal polling. But he and his advisers, armed with more money than they expected, are now forming a battle plan beyond their immediate goals of winning Iowa and New Hampshire." [NYT]
ARSON AT CALIFORNIA PLANNED PARENTHOOD - Second arson in a month! Veronica Rocha: "A fire Wednesday night at a Planned Parenthood facility in Thousand Oaks was determined to be arson, authorities said. Ventura County sheriff’s Capt. John Reilly said someone likely used a rock to shatter a window at the Planned Parenthood facility in the 1200 block of West Hillcrest Drive, then threw gasoline inside the office and ignited it. The attack comes more than six weeks after the office was vandalized, he said. Details about the vandalism were not immediately available, but Reilly said it was minor." [LATimes]
THERE ARE SOME ADDITIONAL BROWN PEOPLE DONALD TRUMP WOULD LIKE TO ROUND UP - Donald Trump may be incapable of human sympathy or empathy, kind of like Dexter Morgan, only louder. Jill Colvin: "'I'm putting the people on notice that are coming here from Syria as part of this mass migration,' Trump said during an evening rally in Keene, New Hampshire. 'If I win, they're going back.'" It was important to give these folks something else to be upset about [AP]
Of course, this was another Trump flip flop.
Anyway, Trump is definitely not a racist, he told Don Lemon, because he "loves people."
LOOKS LIKE HILLARY DIDN'T BRING ENOUGH APPLES TO SCHOOL - Clinton has close ties to the National Education Association leadership, but teachers and some local affiliates within the union reportedly aren't so crazy about her. Evan Halper: "The disaffection is a major political problem for Clinton. Teachers have long been some of the most valuable boots on the ground for the Democratic Party, knocking on doors, making phone calls, getting out the vote. Democratic support for charter schools, harsh teacher evaluation models and funding schemes that reward districts for cracking down when test scores falter has shrunk this volunteer army." [LA Times]
Don't mansplain reproduction to Nancy Pelosi.
@CHUCKGRASSLEY MAYBE SHOULD CHECK THIS OUT - Twitter is an idiot-proof website to use, but that doesn't mean it's politician-proof. Sam Sanders: "Well, elected officials, fear not! Twitter itself is here to help. NPR recently discovered that the social media giant has a very special handbook just for people running for elected office. And it's 136 pages long." [NPR]
MURDER CONVICTIONS IN 'FAST AND FURIOUS' CASE - An Arizona jury convicted two men of killing Border Patrol agent Brian Terry five years ago, beginning a chain reaction that exposed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives' "Fast and Furious" gun selling and tracking program. Associated Press: "The killing led to intense political rhetoric as Republicans sought to hold the Obama administration accountable over the Fast and Furious operation. They conducted a series of inquiries into how the Justice Department allowed guns to end up in the hands of criminals." [AP]
THE EX-IM BANK IS BAC-- ZZZZZZZZZZZ - That thing Republicans fight amongst themselves about that nobody else understands or cares about is in the news again. Jake Sherman and Lauren French: "Supporters of the Export-Import Bank have secured enough Republican support to bring an extension of the agency's charter to the House floor later this month, according to sources involved in the whipping." [Politico]
GOOD COUGH COUGH JOB COUGH EPA COUGH COUGH - Kate Sheppard: "The EPA's final rule for ground-level ozone pollution, better known as smog, sets the standard at 70 parts per billion, lowered from the current standard of 75, according to sources briefed on the matter. Environmental and public health groups had been anticipating this figure for some time, though it is at the high end of what they wanted. Industry groups like the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute had asked the EPA not to lower the limit at all." [HuffPost]
CRIMINAL JUSTICE NOT REFORMED: REPORT - Sure, a bipartisan group of senators worked out a deal on prison sentencing, but still. Ryan Grim and Dana Liebelson: "Because it will not eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, as some advocates had hoped, the reform will likely do little to dent mass incarceration in the United States, though advocates are hailing it as a major step in the right direction." [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Happy birthday to former President Jimmy Carter, who is 91 years old now.
COMFORT FOOD
- Here is a photoshopped picture of Donald Trump with a man bun that you can look at if you want to.
- Cam Newton is better at dodging questions than he is at dodging pass rushers.
- Woman yells at bear. "Stop that, bear!"
TWITTERAMA
@jmhattem: McCarthy never learned that the first rule of Benghazi politicization fight club is never to talk about Benghazi politicization fight club
@amydieg: Planned Parenthood carries out legal medical procedures: SHUT IT DOWN
45 school shootings this year: LETS NOT OVER REACT
@brianbeutler: Initially assumed liberals who felt betrayed by Francis for meeting Kim Davis existed mostly in conservatives' imagination. Boy was I wrong!
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