Mandela ushered in the world’s first constitution to protect against discrimination based sexual orientation. “Nelson Mandela tore down oppression, united a rainbow nation, and always walked arm-in-arm with his LGBT brothers and sisters—and with all people—toward freedom,” Human Rights Campaign president says.

AFP / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — LGBT leaders in the United States shared their perspective on Nelson Mandela's contributions, not just to racial equality but also to advancement of LGBT rights, following news of the former South African president's death Thursday.

The Constitution that was promulgated by Mandela in December 1996 was the world's first to contain explicit protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

gov.za

As the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Rea Carey said in a statement, "Nelson Mandela was an inspiration to the millions of people who yearn for freedom across the world. With great personal sacrifice, he fought apartheid and state-sanctioned racism. His principled approach, his willingness to reach out to former enemies, led to the introduction of multi-party democracy and real change in South Africa."

The Human Rights Campaign, in its statement, noted that in addition to the constitutional provision, Mandela appointed an out gay judge to South Africa's High Court of Appeal, now-Justice Edwin Cameron — who serves on the country's highest court, the Constitutional Court.

As BuzzFeed's J. Lester Feder reported from South Africa earlier this year, the reality on the ground is far more complex, but the constitution has allowed for a number of legal advances:

In his [December 2005] ruling, Chief Justice Albie Sachs argued that the principles that brought the country out of apartheid demanded equality for same-sex couples. He had powerful credibility when he spoke; he had been an anti-apartheid activist who lost an arm in a 1988 assassination attempt by the government's security forces.

"The acknowledgement and acceptance of difference is particularly important in our country where for centuries group membership based on supposed biological characteristics such as skin colour has been the express basis of advantage and disadvantage," Sachs wrote in the ... decision. "At issue [in this case] is a need to affirm the very character of our society as one based on tolerance and mutual respect."

Of Mandela's legacy, HRC president Chad Griffin said in a statement, "Nelson Mandela tore down oppression, united a rainbow nation, and always walked arm-in-arm with his LGBT brothers and sisters—and with all people—toward freedom. Though every man, woman and child who seeks justice around the world mourns this loss, his vision of an equal future lives on undimmed."

One of the leading legal groups in America for LGBT rights noted the ways in which South Africa could serve as a model to legal protections in the United States.

"As South Africa's first elected black president, he led the people of his country toward reconciliation and forgiveness. Under his leadership, the new constitution of South Africa included explicit prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation — a degree of legal protection that LGBT people still do not have in the United States," Kevin Cathcart, the executive director of Lambda Legal, said.

"Every one of us who continues the fight for equality and civil rights in our own communities labors in the shadows of this man who withstood imprisonment as a consequence of his courageous leadership and grew only stronger, more resolute and more dignified."

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The former South African president, who died Thursday, was a revolutionary and a deep skeptic of American power.

Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

"If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don't care for human beings."

Via cbsnews.com

"Israel should withdraw from all the areas which it won from the Arabs in 1967, and in particular Israel should withdraw completely from the Golan Heights, from south Lebanon and from the West Bank."

Via jweekly.com

"All that (Mr. Bush) wants is Iraqi oil."

Via cbsnews.com

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Startup PolicyMic partnered with the White House to help sell the Affordable Care Act to young people. Grand plans dropped, internal confusion — and a scrapped plan to give away free healthcare as a prize?

A woman poses for photos while holding a placard with her thoughts on healthcare at the White House Youth Summit on the Affordable Care Act in Washington December 4, 2013.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

WASHINGTON — A top official at PolicyMic — an internet startup tapped by the White House to sell Obamacare to young people — told two BuzzFeed staffers at the company's New York headquarters Sept. 20 that the organization was considering "free health care" as a prize in a contest aimed at gathering ideas for how to communicate the benefits of Obamacare to young people.

On Wednesday, the day PolicyMic's role in the effort was announced at the White House, the official, PolicyMic Executive Social Editor Elizabeth Plank, confirmed the plan in a series of text messages with BuzzFeed. She said the plan had been dropped due, in part, to difficulties with HealthCare.gov that have truncated Obamacare recruitment efforts at all levels.

The co-founder of PolicyMic, Chris Altchek, strenuously denied the idea was ever discussed in the course of crafting the contest, denied Plank ever made the comments in the first place, and said Plank was not in any of the initial discussions about how the contest would come together. Plank appeared on MSNBC Wednesday to explain the contest.

The White House never heard of the free health care idea, and a top official said the notion it was ever under consideration is "dead wrong." Altchek said "development of the contest was entirely internal to PolicyMic."

Plank also denies she ever mentioned the free health care idea at the New York meeting, but a text message conversation with a BuzzFeed reporter this week appeared to confirm that the free health care idea had been considered.

On Wednesday, as the final version program was being announced as part of a White House "Youth Summit," BuzzFeed's Benny Johnson asked about the free health care plan in a text message to Plank.

"Is the prize for the winner still healthcare [sic]?" Johnson asked.

"It's different now, because of website problem," Plank replied. "So now ppl [sic] with the most upvoted proposals get a response from the white house [sic]."

"So the plan was to subsidize the winners [sic] ACA plan but now the winner gets a personalized message from the WH?" Johnson asked.

"Oui!" Plank replied.

"Liz did not play any role in developing the ACA contest," Altchek said. Her current role is as a face of the contest, through, "working with the team to promote the contest on social media and television."

The final version of the contest, announced Wednesday, calls on users of the site to "Share an idea, project, or proposal for what our generation and the White House can do to make health care work for young people and get them educated about the ACA." The top "three most mic'd submissions will receive responses from the White House," the site reads.

The PolicyMic contest runs from Dec. 3 through Dec. 11. Winners will get some kind of response from the White House, PolicyMic says.

As with many outreach efforts originally designed to help launch the Affordable Care Act, the contest was shortened and revised after the stumbling roll out of HealthCare.gov. Altchek described a grander vision for a contest that would actually fund initiatives to educate young people about the Affordable Care Act and urge them to buy insurance.

"Free health care" was never part of those discussions, Altchek said.

"In September, PolicyMic started brainstorming how we might construct a contest that would engage as many millennials as possible in learning more about health care reform. One of the options we considered was providing a grant to the winning participants to implement their outreach plan that would subsidize their efforts," he said. "There has never been any discussion at PolicyMic internally or externally about any other option other than that format or the current one."

Scheduling demands caused by Obamacare website problems led to alterations.

"The contest changed very little from the initial plan. Our initial vision ran into scheduling challenges when the government shutdown occurred and our contest had to be delayed," Altchek said. "Given the winter holiday, we shortened the timeline and focused on promoting a meaningful dialogue with the opportunity to receive a direct response from the White House."

A “giant among us.”

Hillary Clinton with Nelson Mandela in 2012.

Pool / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a paean to the late South African President Nelson Mandela while accepting a human rights award from the Lantos Foundation on Friday.

Clinton lauded the South African human rights hero and former president as a "giant among us" in her remarks to a tightly packed audience in the Cannon Caucus Room on Capitol Hill (where attendees were given chocolates with an image of Clinton's face on them).

"I only hope that as we both mourn and celebrate the passing of this universally recognized and beloved figure that we remember he became that through an enormous amount of hard work on himself," Clinton, who was first lady during Mandela's presidency, said.

Clinton praised Mandela for acts such as inviting three of his prison guards to his presidential inauguration and said he "will be certainly remembered for the way he led, his dignity, his extraordinary understanding not just of how to bring democracy and freedom to his beloved South Africa, but of how important it was that he first brought freedom to himself."

Clinton was on the Hill on Friday to receive the annual Lantos Human Rights Prize, named for the late congressman and Holocaust survivor Tom Lantos, for her work as secretary of state in the areas of internet freedom and women's rights. Past recipients include blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng and Hotel Rwanda inspiration Paul Rusesabagina; both were in the audience on Friday.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright introduced Clinton and praised her for her women's rights work.

"As I have always said, there's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other," Albright said.

The event featured multiple laudatory videos about Clinton from Lantos' daughters and one from Google Vice President Vinton G. Cerf, who credited Clinton with "creating the notion of digital diplomacy."

Guys…

This is Tom DeLay. He was the Republican House majority leader.

Jason Reed / Reuters

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The U.S. mourns the former South African president.

California

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Alaska

webmedia.newseum.org

Kentucky

webmedia.newseum.org

Arizona

webmedia.newseum.org

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And the elephant goes toot.

This is Rep. Virginia Foxx.

She is from North Carolina.

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call

Everyone in Washington has been wondering:

Via wifflegif.com

After exhaustive investigative reporting, BuzzFeed has finally determined what Virginia Foxx says:

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(click play)

Now we know...

AP Photo/Cliff Owen

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“Nelson Mandela did great things for his country and was a brave man but he was not an AMERICAN!!!,” Sheriff Rick Clark wrote on Facebook.

After the announcement of former South African President Nelson Mandela's death Thursday, President Barack Obama ordered flags be flown at half-mast until Dec. 9.

Stringer / Reuters

Friday afternoon, Sheriff Rick Clark of Pickens County, S.C., said on Facebook he would refuse to lower his flag for Mandela, who "did great things for his country and was a brave man but he was not an AMERICAN!!!"

The comments below are generally supportive of Clark's position.

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Looks like the president probably took a shot in friendly territory.

During his interview with MSNBC's Chris Mathews, President Obama told the MSNBC host that he believes the media prefers to focus on negative stories because "that's what gets attention."

Obama specifically cited the critical reaction of "some so-called progressives" to accusations that the White House or Democrats had directed Internal Revenue Service to target certain conservative groups.

But let's talk about that pause the president took. Just take a look at how that pause went down and try to guess who on earth Obama could possibly be talking about:

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Sy Hersh’s explosive new claim that Obama misled on Syria. Denials from the administration.

A U.N. chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria.

Stringer / Reuters

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration knew that a Syrian rebel faction had the ability to make chemical weapons but omitted that knowledge when building their case for a strike on Syria, an explosive new report alleges.

Seymour Hersh reports in the London Review of Books on Sunday that President Obama, while pitching the administration's case for war, "failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country's civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack."

The report, the thrust of which the Obama Administration denies, calls into question the narrative that the administration has outlined since an August 21 chemical attack on a Damascus suburb that almost led the United States into an air war with Syria. The march toward war was based on what Obama and his top aides have characterized as conclusive evidence that Bashar al-Assad's Syrian government had carried out the attack.

The Hersh article is based in part on a four-page secret cable given to a top official at the Defense Intelligence Agency on June 20, one of a group of intelligence community documents allegedly stating that jihadi rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra has the ability to make sarin gas. Sarin is the chemical believed to have been used in the Aug 21 chemical attack in Ghouta that crossed Obama's "red line" and prompted the administration to push for a strike on Assad's regime. The story is sourced mainly to intelligence and military officers and consultants.

"When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad," Hersh writes.

"We were clear with the Washington Post and Mr. Hersh that the intelligence gathered about the 21 August chemical weapons attack indicated that the Assad regime and only the Assad regime could have been responsible," said Shawn Turner, spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence. "Any suggestion that there was an effort to suppress intelligence about a nonexistent alternative explanation is simply false."

The story was originally intended to run in the Washington Post, a source said. A spokesperson for the Post did not immediately comment on why it didn't appear there. New Yorker editor David Remnick didn't immediately respond to an inquiry Saturday evening as to why the Syria piece did not appear in the New Yorker, which used one of its covers to depict Assad brewing chemical weapons.

The administration has maintained that there is no question of who carried out the August 21 attack. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Assad's responsibility for it is "undeniable". "We do not believe that, given the delivery systems, using rockets, that the opposition could have carried out these attacks. We have concluded that the Syrian government in fact carried these out," Obama said.

Hersh's article follows a detailed piece earlier report on the attack in the Wall Street Journal last month, which found that the U.S. failed to analyze intelligence indicating that the Syrian army was preparing a chemical weapons attack till after the attack had happened.

Hersh writes that officials allegedly distorted the information to make it look as though intelligence had been collected in real time when it had not. They did this because, the story says, the U.S. did not have access to crucial intelligence about Syria before the attack happened; the National Security Agency could no longer intercept Assad's communications. Further, sensors monitored by the National Reconnaissance Office did not pick up on any warheads being loaded with sarin.

Hersh's conclusion: Obama sought to mislead the nation into war.

"The distortion, [a source] said, reminded him of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, when the Johnson administration reversed the sequence of National Security Agency intercepts to justify one of the early bombings of North Vietnam," Hersh writes.

He also raises a more immediate question: "While the Syrian regime continues the process of eliminating its chemical arsenal, the irony is that, after Assad's stockpile of precursor agents is destroyed, al-Nusra and its Islamist allies could end up as the only faction inside Syria with access to the ingredients that can create sarin, a strategic weapon that would be unlike any other in the war zone."

Spokespeople for the White House and the State Department declined to comment on the broad outlines of the coming story, which was shared in advance and under embargo with BuzzFeed, Saturday. DNI spokesman Turner told Hersh that no American intelligence agency "assesses that the al-Nusra Front has succeeded in developing a capacity to manufacture sarin."

Hersh is a legendary, and controversial, figure on the national security beat: His work in the New Yorker includes some of the most important scoops of the last four decades, including the massacre at My Lai in Vietnam and the torture scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. He has made claims in other venues that have proven more elusive, including recently charging that official narratives of the death of Osama bin Laden are "one big lie."

Welcome to capitalism.

For the first time in history, Washington, D.C., has a Walmart.

After some gigantic regulation battles, the big-box store was finally allowed to build in downtown, urban D.C.

And it is only a mile from the White House.

But this is not your daddy's Walmart.

Here are some things that are different from any Walmart I have ever been to.

It looks like a mix between loft apartments and a Borders.

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What a difference less than a day makes.

Email from CNN PR at 5:26 PM on Friday.

Email from CNN PR at 2:35 PM on Saturday.

UPDATE: CNN host Newt Gingrich appeared during State of the Union's third block to discuss an op-ed in which he compared Mandela to American Revolutionary heroes, and the subsequent backlash Gingrich received for the comments.

When reached for comment, a CNN spokesperson told BuzzFeed the following:

"The Sunday program information distributed for coverage planning generally only has room for the guest plans. Each week though, our Sunday broadcasts include field or studio segments, without guests, covering topics that may not be indicated on these listings."

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With less than two months until the opening ceremony in Sochi, the U.S. has yet to announce who will lead its delegation to the Games.

German President Joachim Gauck

Antoine Antoniol / Getty Images

A record number of world leaders flocked to the London Olympics last summer, but reports Sunday indicating German President Joachim Gauck will not attend the Sochi 2014 Olympics could be the first sign that Russia's human rights record could hurt turnout among dignitaries at the games.

Gauck's move raises questions of whether other heads of state will forgo attending the Winter Olympics in protest of the host nation's human rights policies.

More than four months before the opening ceremony in London, for example, the White House had announced that First Lady Michelle Obama would be leading the U.S. presidential delegation to the games, saying at the time, "It is traditional for a delegation to travel to the Olympic Games to represent the United States."

However, the White House has not yet revealed plans for a U.S. delegation to Sochi — now less than two months away. Asked Sunday about the Obamas' plans for the games, White House spokesman Shin Inouye told BuzzFeed only, "I don't have any scheduling/travel announcements at this time."

Along with the first lady, over 100 other world leaders attended the London Games, including Gauck, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Gauck's decision is seen as a response to the Russian government's violations of human rights and harassment of political operatives among the opposition, but a spokesperson for the president said it was not intended to suggest an outright boycott of the games, German publication DW reports. The German team will still compete at the games.

Russia has faced intense criticism across the globe for its recently enacted anti-LGBT "propaganda" ban, leading LGBT activists and their allies to boycott the games and, in turn, call upon world leaders and major corporate sponsors of the Games to do the same.

President Obama, too, has criticized the anti-LGBT policies, saying, "Nobody's more offended than me," but said a boycott of the Games would not be fair for athletes who have devoted their lives to training. At the time, Obama said gay and lesbian athletes bringing home medals would be a satisfactory rejection of the laws.

Days after Obama's remarks, British Prime Minster David Cameron echoed the sentiment, ruling out a boycott by the United Kingdom, despite pressure from popular comedian Stephen Fry and other LGBT advocates to reject the games.

“Nelson Mandela’s forgiveness, leadership, and class will always inspire me,” Schock says. “I am humbled to be leading so many of my colleagues in tribute to Nelson Mandela.”

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

WASHINGTON — Rep. Aaron Schock will lead the House delegation to former South African President Nelson Mandela's Tuesday memorial service, the Illinois lawmaker's office announced Sunday afternoon.

"I have always had great respect for former president Mandela. The personal sacrifices he made in order to achieve what was right for the people of South Africa is something I carry with me every day. I am humbled to be leading so many of my colleagues in tribute to Nelson Mandela," he said in a statement.

A Democratic aide told BuzzFeed that Schock will be joined by Sen. Ted Cruz and Reps. Marcia Fudge, John Conyers, Charlie Rangel, John Lewis, Jim McDermott, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Maxine Waters, Bobby Scott, Mel Watt, Shelia Jackson Lee, Elijah Cummings, Donna Christensen, Gregory Meeks, Barbara Lee, G.K. Butterfield, Al Green, Gwen Moore, Yvette Clarke, Karen Bass, Terri Sewell, Joyce Beatty and Frederica Wilson. The aide noted that changes to the list are likely.

Of Schock's selection, House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement provided by Schock's office, "Nelson Mandela was one of the most consequential and beloved figures of our time, and I am grateful that Rep. Schock is leading our congressional delegation to the memorial service to honor his life."

Mandela's memorial service is slated to take place Tuesday in Johannesburg, South Africa at 95,000-capacity FNB Stadium. President and Mrs. Obama, along with former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter are slated to attend.

"President Mandela's commitment to improve the lives of those around him at the expense of his own freedoms demonstrates the best in mankind. It is impossible to imagine what his time in solitude was like, but to emerge and lead the efforts of reconciliation in his country is truly remarkable. His example of servant leadership — voluntarily leaving office after one term — set an example of democratic change for South Africans and the world over. Nelson Mandela's forgiveness, leadership, and class will always inspire me," Schock added.

“It’s about trying to be fair to people who have a treatable chronic disease rather than being literally criminals armed with a deadly weapon,” Sen. Chris Coons says. Advocates are hopeful.

Sen. Chris Coons

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

WASHINGTON — Activists in the fight against HIV/AIDS are hopeful that a new piece of legislation being introduced Monday will get bipartisan attention in the Senate despite the dysfunction currently slowing down Washington.

The "Repeal HIV Discrimination Act," to be introduced by Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, calls for an inter-agency wide review of state laws and policies targeting people living with HIV and AIDS, and resembles a bill introduced last May in the House by California Rep. Barbara Lee. Thirty-two states currently have laws on the books that use HIV status to criminally convict people.

"There are places in this country where state and local laws make it similar to assault with a deadly weapon for somebody with HIV/AIDS to spit on someone, for example. That's based on an outdated unscientific fear that fed lots of discrimination," Coons said in an interview with BuzzFeed. "There's no scientific proof any people are at risk from that kind of an incident and these are exactly the sort of thing this interagency study should look at to try and bring attention to."

There have been at least 80 such prosecutions "in which HIV-positive people have been arrested and/or prosecuted for consensual sex, biting, and spitting" in the last two years, according to the Center for HIV Law and Policy.

One such case — that of Nick Rhoades — was recently profiled by BuzzFeed and Pro Publica. Rhoades was jailed and then put on probation for having sex without first disclosing his HIV status — despite both using a condom and taking a regiment of antiviral suppressant drugs that made the chance of transmission "likely zero," according to a group of AIDS health officials. He did not transmit the virus to his partner. Rhoades is now registered as an aggravated sex offender.

According to the Center, in another case, an HIV-positive man is currently serving 35 years for spitting at a police officer.

"What I think [the bill] does, is again move towards repealing legal discrimination against those living with HIV/AIDS. It's about trying to be fair to people who have a treatable chronic disease rather than being literally criminals armed with a deadly weapon," Coons said.

Despite the meager legislative output this year, Congress did pass the HOPE Act — a bipartisan bill that allows researchers to study organ donations from one HIV-positive person to another. The law changed a long-standing ban on organ donations from HIV-positive people; previously it was illegal to even research if these kinds of organ donations were effective.

The law's passage by unanimous voice vote in both chambers has given advocates hope that the idea of passing the Coons and Lee legislation isn't too far-fetched.

"The time is good, we have another year to go in this 113th Congress. We have seen that we can move some things forward," said Diego Sanchez, director of policy at PFLAG National. "The recent HOPE Act being signed into law by president Obama with a resounding bipartisan, bicameral show of support for something regarding people living with HIV/AIDS."

The House bill, introduced in the 112th Congress as well, currently has 34 co-sponsors. But this time, Lee managed to find some bipartisan support. Florida Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen joined her as the lead co-sponsor. Coons said he's hoping to have a Republican co-sponsor "very shortly."

"One of the pleasant surprises of a Congress that is as divided and as dysfunctional as this one has been is that HIV/AIDS has been and remains a bipartisan issue," he said. "It is a review, it is a way of raising concern, and if we can't get this bill done it means we cant get anything done on dealing with HIV/AIDS stigma."

The bill requires several agencies, including the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, to review current laws and any federal policies that could be discriminatory against people living with HIV/AIDS. AIDS United political director Bill McColl said the law does not apply to laws concerning people who knowingly intend to spread the virus.

"That's a really different situation," McColl said. "But what we really want are judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys to really get up to date on the state of HIV and we don't want prosecutions that don't make any sense at all."

The bill follows up on several pieces of President Obama's 2010 National HIV/AIDS strategy. While an inter-agency review may not seem like a huge deal, McColl said codifying a review into law would mean Congress takes the issue seriously.

"One reason that we are going to Congress is that the HIV/AIDS strategy, while important, is solely at the discretion of the executive and we really want to make sure we've got a bipartisan buy-in," he said.

And Sanchez said the sheer symbolism of a bill like the Coons and Lee legislation passing would go a long way for people living with the disease.

"It's not just about the law," he said. "It expresses the sense of Congress, which to me, when you have a bill that becomes law that expresses the sense of Congress that discrimination is bad, I consider that to be very good."

Creepy Uncle Sam is back and he’s even creepier than before. The anti-Obamacare mascot from Generation Opportunity, which urges people to opt out of Obamacare, is making his way over to Snapchat and is launching a first-of-its-kind campaign to gut the Affordable Care Act. Chat requests may be made to “creepyuncle.sam.”

youtube.com

“A major prick.” —Wolf Blitzer

“Mr. Speaker, make no mistake, Nelson Mandela is no friend to liberty, democracy, or human rights.”

Speaking before Congress in 1998.

Chuck Kennedy / MCT

The life of former South African President Nelson Mandela was met with nearly universal praise from U.S. politicians Thursday, after his death at the age of 95.

"Nelson Mandela's legacy of peaceful reconciliation in the struggle against apartheid lives on to inspire people around the world," Republican California Rep. Darrell Issa said.

"Nelson Mandela's compassion and humility in the face of overwhelming adversity remains an inspiration," said North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr.

"RIP Nelson Mandela," tweeted Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley.

But at the time of Mandela's first visit to the United States in 1990, which came five months after spending 27 years in prison, his legacy was hotly debated among members of Congress with conservative politicians typically cautioning against Mr. Mandela.

Because of his role as a leader in the fight against oppression in South Africa, Nelson Mandela should be welcomed to this country. But the man who hails Fidel Castro, Muammar Qadhafi and South Africa's communist party, and who continues to advocate the use of violence against civilians for political purposes, is no friend of peace or liberty. The global collapse of communism shows that the world is leaving Nelson Mandela's ideas behind. Americans should praise Mandela for his life-long role in opposing apartheid, but they should not think that he alone holds the keys to a democratic South Africa.

Via heritage.org

Nelson Mandela's appearance before this body is a national disgrace. The invitation alone heaps shame on this body. Nelson Mandela is no Martin Luther King. He is more like H. Rap Brown or Willie Horton.

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“She really is funnier than Al Franken.”

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

At, fittingly, a lunch held by Cosmopolitan to honor powerful women Monday, Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar said she once submitted an essay to the magazine, which was rejected. "It did not happen, so then I decided to go to law school."

Cosmo's rejection may have been a mistake: New Hampshire Senator and former Governor Jeanne Shaheen, speaking immediately after, launched into her remarks by talking about Klobuchar's famous sense of humor. "She really is funnier than Al Franken," Shaheen said. Cosmopolitan's editor-in-chief, Joanna Coles, noted that even President Obama had agreed: At the Gridiron Dinner in March, Obama joked about how one of the original writers for SNL had become the least-funny senator from Minnesota.

Klobuchar knew how to get a laugh out of her (all-female) crowd: "I set the all-time Senate record — I raised $17,000 from ex-boyfriends," she said.

Over the past year, Cosmopolitan has made attempts to become more political: In addition to Shaheen and Klobuchar, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard attended the event, as did representatives from Emily's List.

"You have given me a tremendous amount of credibility with my youngest daughter, who is out in Los Angeles starting a clothing company, so she's very impressed that I got to be here today," Shaheen said.

Shaheen also talked about Klobuchar's pioneering work in leading the charge to expand the Senate women's bathroom.

"Amy talked about one of the issues of many that she's working on, but what she didn't tell you is that she, along with Barbara Mikulski, were the committee to build a new expanded ladies' room for the Senate," Shaheen said.

From the audience, someone yelled: "Break the glass ceiling with more stalls!"

"What was so important about this effort is that when the construction manager tried to limit the number of stalls in the ladies' room to three, only one more than we had had before, they insisted that we have four," Shaheen continued. "Because we plan on electing a lot more women."

Asked by Fox News’ Neil Cavuto about some of the finalists for Time ‘s “person of the year,” including Edward Snowden, Hassan Rouhani, Miley Cyrus, and Bashar Assad, Cheney responded he was “speechless.”

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