The White House will leave several State of the Union seats empty to honor gun victims, and in a stirring show of bipartisanship, the empty seats will be mixed between Democrats and Republicans. Martin O'Malley might not qualify for the next Democratic debate, meaning his best hope is a Change.org petition calling for a one-person undercard debate. And Paul LePage apologized -- but not really -- for worrying that drug traffickers with names like 'D-Money, Smoothie and Shifty' were impregnating white girls. He insisted that he would work more closely with his civil rights commissioner, a frayed VHS copy of “Mandingo.” This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, January 8th, 2016:
OBAMA VETOES ANTI-OBAMACARE BILL - The ancients used to use these votes to know when to plant crops. Jeff Young: "President Barack Obama notified Congress on Friday that he has vetoed their legislation to repeal huge parts of the Affordable Care Act, because of course he did. Republicans celebrated this week after finally managing to push a repeal bill through the House and Senate for the first time, reveling in their impending failure to actually achieve anything. Obama just officially ended the party...Congress intends to continue beating this dead horse anyway, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) made clear in a press release responding to the president. 'It’s no surprise that someone named Obama vetoed a bill repealing Obamacare,' he said. 'But we will hold a vote to override this veto, taking this process all the way to the end under the Constitution.'" [HuffPost]
WHITE HOUSE NOT SORRY ABOUT SENDING MOMS AND KIDS TO THEIR DOOM - Elise Foley: The White House plans to stay the course on its policies toward undocumented mothers and children fleeing violence in Central America, even as Democrats say its deportation raids are putting families in jeopardy. 'We're of course aware of these concerns, but the enforcement strategy and priorities that the administration has articulated are not going to change,' Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Friday -- a day after administration officials attended a meeting with House Democrats, and the same day activists held a press conference condemning the raids outside the White House. The Department of Homeland Security began raids last weekend targeting families that entered the U.S. after May 1, 2014, and received deportation orders. During the first few days of the raids, the agency picked up 121 people, all of whom had exhausted their legal remedies to stay in the U.S., DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Monday." [HuffPost]
WHITE HOUSE SAVING STATE-OF-THE-UNION SEAT FOR CLINT EASTWOOD - Amanda Terkel: "The White House spends a considerable amount of attention each year on who will receive the honor of sitting with the first lady during the State of the Union address. These are some of the most high-profile spots in the chamber, and the guests usually reflect a message or policy priority that the president will discuss. This year, however, the first lady's box will be most notable for who is not there: The White House will be leaving a seat empty at Tuesday's event to honor people who have died due to gun violence. President Barack Obama made the announcement on a conference call with grassroots supporters Friday, where he discussed the steps he's taking to address gun violence. A White House official said the seat will be left empty to give victims a voice, 'because they need the rest of us to speak for them. To tell their stories. To honor their memory. To support the Americans whose lives have been forever changed by the terrible ripple effect of gun violence -- survivors who've had to learn to live with a disability, or without the love of their life. To remind every single one of our representatives that it’s their responsibility to do something about this.'" [HuffPost]
We hereby declare that this autopen machine drawing a map of the U.S. is Washington’s new mascot.
SPOTTED: Ed Schultz, enduring the wrenching poverty of unemployment, at Cafe Milano.
DELANEY DOWNER - The HuffPost Politics podcast had two people named Murphy today. One is Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). The other is Becky Murphy of Summit Lake, Wisc., who doesn't want to get kicked off food stamps like a million other Americans will this year, so she's doing her homework. "Every week I have to meet with a caseworker, which requires driving about 18 miles to the nearest town, and I have to show him my 'activity report form,'" Murphy said. The activity report form is for Wisconsin food stamp recipients who are able-bodied adults without dependents. Thanks to a federal policy change taking effect across the country, unemployed people who don't have kids in most states will no longer be allowed to have more than three months of nutrition assistance without working at least 20 hours a week. Click HERE to check out the podcast.
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
GOP SENATORS MULLING FILIBUSTER REFORM - If you put your ear to the ground, you can hear a gang of eight forming and the ensuring Washington Post editorials praising them for their forward thinking leadership. Burgess Everett: "Senate Republicans will make one last effort to reform the Senate's arcane rulebook this month, in hopes of putting the chamber on course to pass all 12 appropriations bills this year. On Wednesday, shortly before heading to Baltimore for a joint retreat with House Republicans, the Senate GOP will huddle over strategies to speed the passage of spending legislation, according to a notice given to chiefs of staff obtained by POLITICO. The discussion, led by Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, will focus on a proposal to potentially eliminate an individual senator's power to filibuster a spending bill before it's even debated on the Senate floor." [Politico]
@MEPFuller: Rep. Rodney Davis, ready for the weekend, goes to House votes carrying a plastic shopping bag of Bud Light.
O'NO - Zeke Miller: "Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley faces a polling test in the next week in order to make the next Democratic primary debate on Jan. 17, under qualifications announced Friday by NBC, the hosting network. NBCf is requiring candidates to average at least 5% nationally, or in one of the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, in order to participate in the debate. O’Malley, who has participated in the first Democratic debates, is currently polling at 6.3% in the RealClearPolitics average of polls in Iowa. He doesn’t yet meet that threshold in New Hampshire, where he is polling at about 2.3%, South Carolina, where he sits at 2.5%, or nationally, where he averages about 3.5%." [Time]
PAUL LEPAGE IS ONE JIVE ASS TURKEY - Somewhere, we suspect, there is a giant cache of Paul LePage-penned blaxploitation spec scripts, and we will do anything in our power to find it. Amanda Terkel: "Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) held a press conference Friday to stop some of the damage from his recent comments about heroin dealers, insisting he was not being racist when he said that men with names like 'D-Money' come to the state and 'impregnate a young white girl before they leave.' 'I apologize again,' LePage told reporters, saying he 'slipped up.' 'My brain was slower than my mouth.' During a town hall meeting Wednesday, LePage told constituents that Maine needs to beef up enforcement in order to address the state's heroin crisis. He said there were traffickers coming from Connecticut and New York with names like 'D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty' who 'come up here, they sell their heroin and they go back home… LePage, however, said Friday that his remarks had nothing to do with race. 'I tried to explain that Maine is essentially all white,' he said. 'I should have said 'Maine women.'" [HuffPost]
TEXAS STILL BEING ITSELF - Sam Levine: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Friday proposed a series of amendments to the U.S. constitution that would permit states to override the Supreme Court and ignore federal laws. One of the proposed measures would allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override federal regulations, while another sets the same threshold for overturning decisions by the Supreme Court. The governor also wants to change the Constitution to block Congress from 'regulating activity that occurs wholly within one state,' and to require a supermajority of seven Supreme Court votes before a 'democratically enacted law' can be overturned." [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a jedi cat.
AMERICA DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THOSE MILITIA GOOFBALLS - Ariel Edwards-Levy: "The anti-government militants in Oregon may have occupied a federal building, but they're not really occupying most Americans' attention, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll shows. Nearly a week into the occupation of Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife refuge, which the group seized to protest the federal sentencing of two ranchers, just 18 percent of Americans say they've heard a lot about the situation. Nearly a third haven't heard anything about it at all. Only 17 percent of Americans believe the group was justified in taking over a building in protest, while 43 percent say the move was unjustified, with the rest unsure. Just 6 percent of Americans feel that the Oregon protesters represent people like them." [HuffPost]
COMFORT FOOD
- This isn't any old deer. This is a deer ... in a puddle.
- A cafe run by cats.
- Never forget:
TWITTERAMA
@dbernstein: Hey.... if they caught El Chapo, then who have I been hiding in my cellar???
@LOLGOP: Martin O'Malley should definitely be in the next debate if he can discover the secret time and location.
@nickmullen: it goes Black Guy President => White Woman President => Chinese Overlords
Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill). Sign up here: http://huff.to/an2k2e