Um, yikes.

Everyone saw this one right? Duh.

instagram.com

But did you see the rest?!? These are all from the House of Cards Instagram.

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Wait, what was that about? Why do I feel weird watching it?

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So... Zoe is a local weather reporter now?

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“You know why I’d vote for her? I would vote for her because of her husband — because they’re the two most ruthless people on the planet.”

Fox Business host Don Imus told Fox News' Bret Baier that he'd probably vote for Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 because he considers the former FLOTUS and her husband Bill to be "the two most ruthless people on the planet."

"They're willing to get even with people," Imus added. "I think they would conduct, for example, a lot tougher foreign policy than we have now."

Baier, clearly not ready to endorse, noted that Imus' analysis was "interesting."

Watch the full clip below.

House Democrats watched John Belushi’s speech from “Animal House” to get pumped up for midterms on Thursday.

Getty Images

CAMBRIDGE, Md. — House Democratic leadership presented members at the caucus retreat Thursday with a tough but optimistic outlook of their chances to take back the majority in November.

Sources in the room during a presentation from Rep. Steve Israel, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said he told members there is still a chance — if they can win the messaging war.

It would be quite a challenge: Most political experts say there's virtually no chance Democrats will take back the House.

"This hasn't been about cheerleading, it hasn't been unrealistic," Rep. Jim Himes told reporters. "I think Steve is a very hard-nosed chairman and he calls it like it is.

Israel showed members polling results that says they are winning on three "key" issues — raising the minimum wage, extending unemployment insurance, and not repealing Obamacare.

"He was not standing up and saying we're absolutely going to retake the House of Representatives. We're in for a tough fight, but it can be done," Himes said.

Democrats enter the retreat in high spirits after their recent win passing a clean debt ceiling and are looking carry that momentum into primary season.

Himes said Israel set the tone when he opened the meeting with a video montage of great fights in history, including John Belushi's famous rally speech from Animal House.

"The American people by big numbers agree with our positions on the issues and disagree with the Republicans on the issues," Rep. Steny Hoyer said a few days ago. "Whether you are talking about UI, minimum wage, immigration, investment in education and infrastructure…and there are fewer self identified Republicans than any time in recent history. That does not mean Democrats are overwhelmingly embraced, I understand that. But it does mean the atmosphere that exists is an atmosphere in which Democrats can do well. "

The DCCC is also still puffing its chest after a strong year in terms of fundraising. They outraised their counterpart, the National Republican Campaign Committee, by $15 million in 2013 with $75.8 million.

Israel also announced President Barack Obama has committed to at least six more fundraising events for the DCCC this year. While the fundraising seems to be going in Democrats' favor, Himes cautioned that outsides groups will still be pouring money into vulnerable districts.

"We're happy about the differential in our fundraising," said Himes, the DCCC's national finance chair. "But also pretty conscious of the fact there will be a war out there that could swamp a lot of what the party is doing."

Yep, this is real.

"Name something in a car two lovers might accidentally turn on while making out."

Via theblaze.com

Watch the clip if you think this didn't actually happen:

More of this.

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Democrats announced Thursday they will try to get enough signatures on a petition to force a vote on raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

Yuri Gripas / Reuters / Reuters

Cambridge, Md. — House Democratic leadership announced Thursday they will petition to try and force a vote on a bill to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

The move could force Republicans who have said they are open to raising the minimum wage into an awkward position if they are forced to give an up or down vote.

Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer said he isn't 100% confident they can get all the signatures they need for the "discharge petition," or even if all House Democrats sign on, but was sure an "overwhelming majority" would support it.

"We believe the minimum wage is absolutely critical to lift people so they can be full participants in this economy," Hoyer said. "Raising the minimum wage will increase demand, raise the growth level in our country, create jobs and be good for everyone."

The petition will require an absolutely majority, 218 signatures, in order to force the vote.

Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi said Democrats are going for a minimum wage raise before other hot button issues like immigration reform or extending unemployment benefits chiefly because it goes along with the Democrat's messaging on combating income inequality, but also because the Harkin-Miller bill is already written and ready to go.

In his State of the Union speech last month President Obama made raising the minimum wage one of his top priorities for 2014 and on Wednesday signed an executive order raising the minimum wage for some federal contract workers.

"We think that's not only the right thing to do, it's the right time to do it," said House Democratic Chairman Xavier Becerra.

Writer and executive producer Beau Willimon talks loyalty, power, and how House of Cards’ D.C. compares to the real one. The show returns Friday.

Beau Willimon (center).

Jesse Grant / Getty Images for Netflix

House of Cards creator Beau Willimon chatted with BuzzFeed Thursday on where real-life Washington, D.C., stacks up against the show's fictional D.C. The Emmy-winning Netflix series drops its second season of episodes early Friday morning. The show left off last year with Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) accepting an offer to become vice president. Willimon, who formerly worked for campaigns including Howard Dean's presidential campaign before becoming a playwright, is the executive producer and writer for the series.

You know nothing is going to get done in Congress tomorrow. You have brought the entire federal government to a shutdown.

Beau Willimon: (laughs) They are probably not working because of the snow, or at least we can use that as an excuse.

Via fuckyeah-houseofcards.tumblr.com

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“We have arrived upon another moment in history when We the People becomes more inclusive, and our freedom more perfect,” the judge wrote.

Spencer Geiger and Carl Johanson demonstrate outside Federal Court in Norfolk, Va., on Feb. 4, 2014.

AP

A federal judge declared Virginia's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, the state's attorney general announced late Thursday. The decision was immediately stayed, pending an expected appeal.

U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen said the marriage ban violated the rights guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but the stay meant same-sex couples in the commonwealth would not be able to wed.

"Gay and lesbian individuals share the same capacity as heterosexual individuals to form, preserve and celebrate loving, intimate and lasting relationships," Wright Allen, a President Obama appointee, said in the ruling. "Such relationships are created through the exercise of sacred, personal choices—choices, like the choices made by every other citizen, that must be free from unwarranted government interference."

The decision makes Virginia the first state in the South to have its voter-approved ban overturned and came a day after a judge in Kentucky ruled that the state must recognize out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples.

Last month, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring informed the court that the office opposed the constitutionality of the amendment banning such marriages.

"Yet another court has upheld the fundamental idea that gay and lesbian Americans are entitled to full equality under the law," Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said after the ruling.

"Nearly 50 years ago, another Virginia case struck down bans on interracial marriage across the country, and now this commonwealth brings renewed hope for an end to irrational barriers to marriage for loving and committed couples across the country," he said.

Freedom to Marry's president, Evan Wolfson, also applauded the decision, saying, "There has been a fundamental shift in the legal landscape. America is ready for the freedom to marry and those couples in Virginia, on the eve of Valentine's Day, are ready to marry."

LINK: Read the full court ruling (PDF)

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It was true: A few hundred Republicans had reshuffled their Tuesday morning schedules to take in the spectacle. But as soon as he opened his mouth, it became clear he was aiming his remarks at the reporters in the back of the room, peppering his speech with deliberate tweetbait like, “I wish I would have run [in 2012] because I would have won” and “[Chris Christie] is one email away from disaster.” His rambling style of public speaking, in which he drifts from one subject to another without a thematic anchor, occasionally landed him in choppy rhetorical waters. “Whether or not you liked Saddam Hussein,” he inexplicably told the crowd at one point, “he used to kill terrorists.”

Donald Trump prepares to speak to business and political leaders at a Politics & Eggs forum, January 21, 2014 in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Darren McCollester / Getty Images

Ever since the last presidential election — during which Trump strung along the press for months as he feigned interest in jumping into the GOP primary — many in the media have soured on his political sideshow. Covering Trump's various stunts and inflammatory comments feels increasingly like a chore, akin to donning a network-branded parka during a snowstorm and shouting into the camera about a predictable phenomenon that viewers somehow still find surprising. Trump’s supposed political aspirations, in particular, inflict upon reporters made to cover them a special sort of journalistic indignity; it’s like hyping the “storm of the century” before a single flake has fallen.

I, of course, am part of the problem. I came to Manchester on the promise that I would be able to catch a ride on Trump’s private jet back to New York (where a real-life blizzard, it turns out, is descending on the city), for the purpose of pressing him on why he is so intent on continuing this charade. But what I found was a man startled by his suddenly fading relevance — and consumed by a desperate need to get it back.

In our 15-minute ride to the airport, this anxiety has translated to a frenzied series of orders barked from the passenger seat, and a sort of panicked game of conversational pinball as the yes-men scramble to please “Mr. Trump.”

“Did [Mark] Halperin see it?” Trump demands, referring to the co-author of the 2012 campaign book Double Down, in which he plays a starring role. “Someone ask Halperin, did he see the speech? Tell him it was the biggest crowd they ever had. Tell him to watch.”

One of the yes-men is on it.

Trump turns his attention to the weather in New York, where snow is piling up at LaGuardia. His pilot has called to warn him that it may be difficult to land. Trump wants more information, and two of the aides whip out their phones to get reports from the tarmac.

While he waits on that, Trump wants a status report on the Halperin request he made less than a minute ago.

“How did we do with Halperin?” he asks.

Halperin has not responded yet, but don’t worry, he is assured, Halperin always responds. (Halperin, Trump will learn later, has already retweeted a local reporter declaring the event the largest ever.)

Now, it’s time to talk to a reporter at the conservative political site Breitbart News. There is some confusion about which number to dial, but finally the correct one is punched into a flip phone, which is then passed up to Trump. (He prefers the ancient model because he likes how the shape places the speaker closer to his mouth.) He spends less than five minutes on the interview, and within hours, the site will blast out its all-caps “exclusive”: “TRUMP: SELECT COMMITTEE NEEDED TO INVESTIGATE BENGHAZI SCANDAL.”

As Trump passes the phone back, he asks, “What about BuzzFeed? Did BuzzFeed like the speech?”

“It was interesting,” I reply weakly, still trying to get a handle on the frenetic pace of the conversation, and slightly distracted by my up-close view of Trump’s famous mane — a pale yellow sheet of (god-given) hair folded like origami and held together with strategically placed splotches of product.

Before I can elaborate, though, one of the yes-men has a weather update. LaGuardia is effectively shutting down, and we may have to wait a few hours before they can clear a runway for us. Trump is not interested in waiting. He has an idea: What if we just skip New York altogether and fly to Palm Beach? Trump owns a sprawling beachside mansion there, and he’s due in Orlando the next day anyway.

One of the aides begins talking Trump through his calendar to see if the last-minute Florida jaunt is feasible. There is some sort of business meeting in New York, but it seems likely to be disrupted anyway due to the weather. There is also the fact that tomorrow is his anniversary with his third wife, Melania. Trump doesn’t seem to mind missing it. “It’s fine,” he says, prompting chuckles from the yes-men.

By the time the SUV pulls into the driveway of the airfield where his 757 is parked, Trump has ordered his pilots to reroute to Palm Beach International Airport. He has solved the weather problem. But the question of his vanishing political celebrity must still be weighing on him, because when someone reminds him that I’m still in the car, Trump says, “Bring him to Florida!” The invitation sounds vaguely like an order.

“I just hope he’s OK with the plane,” he adds, grinning.

John Moore / Getty Images

But the real genesis of Trump’s long, storied career in political noisemaking dates back to 1987, when a Republican activist in New Hampshire named Mike Dunbar invited the real estate tycoon to speak at the Portsmouth Rotary Club. At the time, Trump — who had not yet fully embraced self-caricature — was primarily known to the public as a hard-charging scion-cum-billionaire with an impressive collection of tall buildings and glitzy casinos to his name, and a budding career as a how-to guru. (He was a couple weeks away from releasing The Art of the Deal, the first in what would become a series of best-selling business advice books.)

Trump in his helicopter over Manhattan, August 1987.

Joe McNally / Getty Images

“It was literally standing room only,” Dunbar recalled. “All the tables were taken. People were lined up around the room. There were cameras up on a platform in the back. It was a heck of a show.”

The alliance between the two men would not last: Dunbar ultimately quit politics and authored a series of teen adventure novels that feature a rich, conniving rock agent who was inspired by the Donald, and Trump, of course, opted to forgo the 1988 race. But he had discovered a novel way to generate attention. Over the next 27 years, he would return to New Hampshire six times, usually around the time of a presidential election.

Today, Trump is adamant that he had nothing to do with the “Draft Trump” effort in 1987. “It was just a speech for a friend of mine, but because it was in New Hampshire, everybody went crazy,” he says.

In Trump’s version of events, America is constantly pleading with him to descend from his eponymous tower and submit himself to the world of terrestrial politics for the good of the country — all while he does nothing to invite the attention. “People have always wanted me to run,” he says.

But what about that “Trump 2000” campaign button that was prominently displayed in a glass case at Saint Anselm College in Manchester?

“No, no, people made buttons,” he explains. “I didn’t have buttons.”

Trump's most recent political flirtation — with a gubernatorial bid — is instructive. Early in January, rumors of a potential Trump candidacy began to surface in the New York press. The origins of the speculation were murky: Did the notion really spring from the minds of state GOP officials desperate to nominate Trump, or was it seeded by one of Trump’s yes-men? “I didn’t start the governor thing,” he says. “I was approached six weeks ago by the biggest leaders in the Republican Party, and I said let me think about it. And they approached me again and again and again.”

It hardly matters which account is true. Almost immediately, Trump began enthusiastically fanning the flames, telling every reporter who would listen that he was seriously considering a run, that he was prepared to commit tens of millions of dollars to the campaign, that he was “the only Republican who [could] win.”

And yet, even as he has manically built up expectations for his gubernatorial bid, Trump has — as always — carefully erected a trap door that will allow him to escape the unpleasant business of actually running when the time comes. In this case, he has conditioned his entrance into the race on the wildly unrealistic scenario that the entire state party line up behind him and hand him the nomination on a platter at the convention.

The purpose of all this posturing is clear; Trump very badly wants to be taken seriously as a potential political candidate and not be written off as a man-boy who cried wolf. But, at the same time, he plainly has no interest in actually running for office.

Pressed on this, he insists, “The only time I really considered doing it was the last time. And I wish I did it, because you would have had a different result.”

“The last time” refers to the 2012 presidential election, during which he publicly weighed entering the GOP primary, then announced that he wasn’t running, then announced that he was entertaining a third-party bid, then announced that, never mind, he would endorse a Republican, then finally dragged Mitt Romney onstage at his Las Vegas hotel to announce he was backing the man who would ultimately become the nominee. In between the announcements, he spent lots of time talking about President Obama’s birth certificate.

In the end, Trump chose his lucrative reality show, Celebrity Apprentice, over a presidential campaign, a decision he is still worried makes him look silly.

“It sounds trivial,” he says. “It’s like, 'Oh, can you imagine? For The Apprentice he didn’t [run]?' Well, it’s not that trivial. You know, people all over the world, it’s their big dream to someday be on television. Here, I have two hours of primetime every Sunday night and I’m gonna say, ‘To hell with it?’ No matter how rich you are, it pays a fortune. Like, big money. You see the stuff with Jennifer Aniston — they’re all rich people. And I get more than all of them.” (Trump personally pocketed $63 million for the most recent season of the show, according to the New York Post.)

It’s a reasonable point, but it raises a bigger question: If history is any judge, Trump is about as likely to run for president in his lifetime as he is to accept follicular defeat. So why is a man who is worth billions of dollars and is watched by millions of television viewers every week so obsessed with stringing along the unglamorous world of insider politics? For a person who has carefully cultivated an image of cartoonish gravitas, his constant courting of the political press seems grindingly small: picking fights with pasty, underpaid reporters, feeding sound bites to niche right-wing political websites, trekking up to frozen New Hampshire in January on the off chance that his antics will flash across a dayside cable news chyron for a few seconds. Why bother?

John Moore / Getty Images

I am joined on the flight by Keith Schiller, a former New York Police Department detective who has worked security for Trump for 15 years, and Sam Nunberg, a young conservative activist turned operative who now works as Trump’s political right hand.

As we ascend, the large flat-screen TV in my section of the plane, which is connected to the one in Trump’s bedroom, flips back and forth between Fox News and MSNBC, apparently in search of coverage of his New Hampshire visit. But the networks’ cameras are all trained on Chris Christie’s inauguration. After about an hour, the channel stops changing. Trump has given up and gone to sleep.

Chad Buchanan / Getty Images

Nailed it.

Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

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Love triumphs over oceans, war and politics.

This is Congressman Sam Johnson from Texas.

Stephen Jaffe / Getty Images

While in ROTC at Southern Methodist University, he married his high school sweetheart. His ROTC class was called up to serve in Korea upon graduation.

Via adclassix.com

Johnson flew 87 combat missions during the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Johnson's F-4 Phantom II was shot down during Vietnam.

Via en.wikipedia.org

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The elections are “three political lifetimes” away, he said.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

CAMBRIDGE, Md. — Vice President Joe Biden gave a pep talk to House Democrats on Friday morning, committing to campaigning and fundraising for candidates across the country.

Tieless and in a blazer with a popped collar, Biden reiterated a message that's been coming from House Democrats over the last several weeks: Stay positive.

"For the first time in my career, on every major issue the American people agree with the Democratic party," Biden said, citing public opinion polling on education, immigration reform, and pay equity.

Even on issues that are politically difficult for Democrats, particularly the Affordable Care Act, Biden said "55% of the people don't want to see it repealed.

The vice president said that the November elections were "three political lifetimes" away, which left Democrats plenty of time to "not just defend but aggressively push our agenda."

Democrats received Biden warmly. When introducing Biden, Rep. James Clyburn called him maybe "the most important vice president in American history." In a not-so-subtle joke about Biden's 2016 presidential ambitions, Clyburn quipped that the vice president was spending so much time in his home state South Carolina he was "vying for favorite son of the state."

Following the speech, Biden held a question-and-answer session with House Democrats where he was asked about the president's plan for a fast-track trans-pacific partnership agreement, something most House Democrats oppose.

"I know it's not coming up now," Biden said, according to a Democratic aide in the room, and also told members the administration would be transparent about its plans.

“I think 10 years from now, five years from now people are going to look back and say this was a monumental achievement that could not have happened had it not been for this caucus,” Obama said.

Larry Downing / Reuters

CAMBRIDGE, Md. — President Barack Obama thanked House Democrats on Friday for continuing to defend his new health care law after its rocky rollout since late last year.

"We are going to keep on pushing on this to make sure that here in America everybody enjoys the kind of financial security and peace of mind that good quality health insurance provides," he said. "And I just want to say thank you to all of you for hanging in there tough."

The president also talked about the recent improvement in Obamacare enrollment numbers, which he credited to the work of House Democrats who have had to vote against defunding the law on numerous occasions.

"I think 10 years from now, five years from now people are going to look back and say this was a monumental achievement that could not have happened had it not been for this caucus," Obama said.

In a question and answer session after the speech, several members thanked the president for praise on the Affordable Care Act from local media back in their districts, according to a Democratic aide inside the room.

Even Ron Barber, a vulnerable Democrat from Arizona complimented the administration on their efforts.

His speech came just hours after Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the same group of a few hundred members, staffers, and family members encouraging them to stay positive heading into the election year.

Obama was introduced by Rep. Joe Crowley, vice chair of the Democratic caucus, who could hardly contain his excitement as he harkened back to his roots.

"As a boy from Woodside, Queens, it don't get much better than this," he said.

Obama touted many of the same ideas he presented in the State of the Union, including calling on Congress to raise the minimum wage. Yesterday, the Democrats announced they will try and force a vote in the House to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

"This caucus has shown time and time again, under the most difficult circumstances, the kind of courage and unity and discipline that has made me very, very proud," Obama said.

Kate Nocera contributed to this report.

The past two months have seen nonstop legal movement across the country toward marriage equality. What is happening, why, and when is it going to be resolved?

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Utah, Ohio, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Virginia.

In the past two months, five federal judges appointed by presidents of both major parties struck down constitutional amendments aimed at limiting same-sex couples' marriage rights. In three states, they found marriage bans unconstitutional; in two others, they ruled that states must recognize marriages performed elsewhere.

"We have arrived upon another moment in history when We the People becomes more inclusive, and our freedom more perfect," U.S. District Court Judge Arenda L. Allen Wright wrote in striking down Virginia's ban on Thursday evening.

This sudden rush follows a single action: Justice Anthony Kennedy spoke.

Before the decisions of these past two months, Judge Vaughn Walker's August 2010 decision striking down California's Proposition 8 marriage amendment was the only such decision to come from a federal judge in the nation's history.

In fact, two other trial court judges — one in Nevada and one in Hawaii — found against same-sex couples suing in those states for a right to marry in 2012.

What happened in the interim was both critical to the change and expected by those who have been watching the law develop in this area over the past two decades — and centers on the language of Kennedy's Supreme Court ruling.

In Edith Windsor's challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, she fought, successfully, for the Supreme Court to strike down DOMA's ban on the federal government recognizing same-sex couples' marriages.

Kennedy, writing the opinion for the court's five-member majority, said of DOMA that its differential treatment of same-sex couples "demeans the couple, whose moral and sexual choices the Constitution protects ... and whose relationship the State has sought to dignify. And it humiliates tens of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples."

Further, he wrote, "Under DOMA, same-sex married couples have their lives burdened, by reason of government decree, in visible and public ways. By its great reach, DOMA touches many aspects of married and family life, from the mundane to the profound."

That opinion has led to dozens of marriage cases being filed across the nation and touched off a unanimous view from lower court federal judges since that same-sex couples have a right to marry and/or have their marriages from other jurisdictions recognized — a point made even more broadly by David Cohen and Dahlia Lithwick at Slate on Friday.

Cindy Bednarz (left)and her wife Lisa Bednarz attend a same-sex marriage rally at Utah's State Capitol building in Salt Lake City, Utah, Jan. 28, 2014.

Jim Urquhart / Reuters

When Kennedy wrote that the "moral and sexual choices" of same-sex couples are protected, he was referring to and extending the impact of his own opinion for the Supreme Court striking down sodomy laws as unconstitutional in 2003.

That opinion, Lawrence v. Texas, was his second opinion in a "gay rights" case. His first, in 1996, was in a case in which the Supreme Court struck down Colorado's Amendment 2 banning cities and other political subdivisions in the state from banning discrimination against gay, lesbian, or bisexual people.

In that nearly 18-year-old opinion, Kennedy wrote for the court, "Amendment 2 classifies homosexuals not to further a proper legislative end but to make them unequal to everyone else. This Colorado cannot do. A State cannot so deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws."

That was the first time the Supreme Court had spoken out in favor of equal treatment of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. Kennedy expanded that ruling by striking down sodomy laws in Lawrence, and he left no doubt about the path he is on when he issued the court's opinion in United States v. Windsor this past June.

The court avoided answering the larger question of whether states need to allow same-sex couples to marry, a question that was brought to the court in the Proposition 8 case. The justices, however, tossed out that appeal on technical grounds of standing because none of the government officials responsible for enforcing California law brought the appeal. The move meant the trial court decision striking down California's amendment remained, but it applied only to California.

Additionally, since 1996 and including in Windsor, the Supreme Court has never decided an underlying issue of whether sexual orientation-based laws or government policies should be subjected to the same kind of judicial scrutiny given under Constitution's equal protection clause to laws that classify based on sex or other such attributes.

Such heightened scrutiny would mean that government officials would need to show an important reason for treating gay people differently than straight people — a rule that most experts believe would invalidate all state marriage bans.

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Valentine’s Day offers a look at Obamacare allies’ efforts to woo young men to health insurance through the women in their lives.

WASHINGTON — On Valentine's Day, the White House and its health care allies amped up their efforts to get uninsured men to sign up for Obamacare through reaching out to the women in their lives with an aggressive social media campaign meant to work with this weekend's National Youth Enrollment Day effort.

Open enrollment ends March 31, and a White House official said Valentine's Day is being used as a kickoff for a 45-day push that will see the Obama administration engage celebrities and work with allied groups to try and get health insurance into conversations between women and the people in their lives they influence.

"Research shows that moms can wield the most influence in helping their family members, especially their adult children, make health care decisions – and this Valentine's Day campaign is another creative way we are hoping moms can help us with the enrollment push," the official said.

Using the hashtag #ACAValentines, the White House kicked things off with tweets from its official account and an Affordable Care Act-themed Valentine's picture from Vice President Biden.

Celebrities and other allies joined the effort.

A look at some of the social media efforts being used to turn Valentine's Day into "Health Insurance Conversation Day."

instagram.com

instagram.com

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The widow who successfully took her case challenging the Defense of Marriage Act to the Supreme Court last year met with President Obama in the Oval Office this week. Later that night, she attended the White House’s state dinner for French President Francois Hollande.

White House/Pete Souza

Of the Feb. 12 meeting, Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett wrote at the White House blog Friday:

When the Court handed down its decision last June, President Obama called Edie from Air Force One to congratulate her on her victory. And earlier this week, the President invited Edie to the France State Dinner and the Oval Office to thank her in person.

The soonest voters could decide on the matter is 2016.

Marriage equality opponents outside the Indiana Statehouse Feb. 13.

AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Charlie Nye

The Indiana Senate gave final approval Monday to the amended version of a proposed statewide constitutional ban on marriage for same-sex couples, restarting the years-long process that ultimately puts off a voter referendum on the matter until at least 2016.

Even though the measure passed, LGBT advocates at the Freedom Indiana coalition celebrated Monday's vote as a victory, saying proponents' plan to put the question before voters this year was thwarted.

"We can finally breathe a collective sigh of relief that lawmakers are finished with the amendment this session, and it will not appear on the ballot this November," said Megan Robertson, campaign manager at Freedom Indiana.

Lawmakers in the GOP-controlled chamber voted 32-17 on House Joint Resolution 3, which the body advanced to a final reading last week even though it was stripped of language banning civil unions and other similar arrangements by the state's House — disqualifying the ban from appearing on this November's ballot.

"We are grateful that the deeply flawed second sentence was removed by the House and kept out by the Senate, and we encourage Hoosiers to thank those lawmakers who showed the courage this session to make sure Indiana didn't wind up on the wrong side of history," Robertson said.

The bill's language differs from the version the General Assembly overwhelmingly passed in 2011, which included the civil unions ban. The Indiana Constitution requires that proposed amendments to the state's constitution must pass with identical language in both houses of two consecutive elected legislatures before voters can weigh in at the ballot box.

Opponents of the ban considered themselves as "underdogs" in the fight against the GOP-dominated legislature to keep the ban from appearing on the ballot this November.

"When this measure was first voted on in 2011, it sailed through both chambers and would have banned both marriage and any legal relationship recognition for gay couples in Indiana," said Evan Wolfson, president and founder at Freedom to Marry. "This year, despite an all-out push by the governor and House speaker, the harmful language was scaled back, ensuring that Indiana's families will not be subjected to a harsh campaign that would add cruel and unconstitutional language to Indiana's state constitution this November."

Now, the amended HJR-3 must pass again in 2015 or 2016 by both chambers of the General Assembly before it can appear — at the earliest — on the state's 2016 ballot, according to Freedom Indiana. If approved by the next legislature and then later by Indiana voters, a single line would be added to the Indiana Constitution defining marriage as only between one man and one woman.

Freedom Indiana and Freedom to Marry plan to keep fighting against the ban in the restarted process.

God help us all.

He declined to mention that on the show.

Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake appeared on the NPR show Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! and said, "If an NFL player can come out as gay, a Republican senator can come out as an NPR listener."

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Flake, however, voted "aye" on HR 1076 in 2011 to "prohibit federal funding of National Public Radio and the use of federal funds to acquire radio content."

Via clerk.house.gov

Peres, who still meets regularly with the top Palestinian leadership, says that making peace is “the only business” he cares about.

Photograph by Gali Tibbon

JERUSALEM — When the topic of peace comes up, even Israeli President Shimon Peres fumbles for answers.

As the man who has made seeking an Israeli-Palestinian peace his life's work prepares to leave office this summer, ending a 66-year political career, he finds himself increasingly struggling to answer the question of what comes next for the Jewish state.

At the prodding of Secretary of State John Kerry, the Israelis and Palestinians are once again embroiled in peace talks — or, to be more precise, talks about peace talks. Six months in, the two sides have failed to agree on even a basic outline of what the talks would entail. By many accounts, it has devolved into Kerry ferrying messages back and forth between leaders who haven't met in the same room since 2010.

Peres says he would do things differently.

"I do believe I enjoy their trust. I really try to negotiate with Abu Mazen," Peres told BuzzFeed during an interview at his Jerusalem residence, using the popular nickname for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced repeated criticism over the willingness of the Palestinians to make concessions for peace, Peres meets with its top leadership regularly — according to an aide, Palestinian leaders visit his residence almost monthly for informal dinners.

The aide also said that before Kerry announced the launch of potential talks in July, Peres had met with the Palestinian leadership and drew up precisely the draft agreement both sides are working toward now.

"Netanyahu asked him to do it," the aide said. A spokesman for Netanyahu declined to comment.

"He met with the Palestinians in Italy twice and in London, and here [in Jerusalem]," the aide to Peres said. "They met many times and came to agreements." When asked why, then, Kerry was currently struggling to get both sides to agree to the same basic set of principles Peres had already established, the aide answered: "I have no idea why they are doing this, that was already done."

Photograph by Gali Tibbon

Peres' personal office is a testament to how close he once came to peace. A Nobel Prize awarded in 1994 sits behind his desk, and an entire bookshelf is dedicated to accounts of his role in the Oslo Accords, the 1993 agreement that set the benchmark on what a two-state solution would look like. But in the 20 years since, historic handshakes have fallen out of style, and hope is running low.

"There is a serious process, but there is no serious outcome," Husam Zomlot, a prominent member of the Fatah party, said during an interview at his office in Ramallah, in the West Bank. "This is our story for the last 20 years — sustaining the process, achieving a lasting peace process. And we have never achieved peace itself."

Neither side doubts Kerry's commitment to the process. "He is really a man of action and unbelievable energy," Peres told BuzzFeed.

But, according to Zomlot, the urgency that once drove both sides to negotiate is missing. "Kerry is really, really convinced, he is absolutely convinced that he can do it. There are personal legacy issues that I understand." What's more, he said, the Israeli-Palestinian stand-off now seems solvable in comparison to broader turmoil in the region.

"The U.S. really wants to see Israel and Palestine as a source of stability rather than a source of instability, given what is happening in Afghanistan, Syria, all these countries," he said. "All of a sudden, our issue has become resolvable. All of a sudden we have become the most stable case in comparison to the countries around us — it's very freaky."

"The only place that they have piles of files and ideas and proposals and initiatives is us. So they said, 'OK, let's start with the place we know,'" he said.

Despite the "piles of papers," serious disparities remain between what the Palestinian and Israeli leaderships see as a fair peace treaty, and with each year, the differences grow. Palestinians see the spread of settlements as eating away at land they believe has been earmarked for their future state. Israelis see the lack of reconciliation between the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas parties as an indication that the ruling Fatah leadership in Ramallah has no real mandate to make peace on behalf of all Palestinians. Neither side has come close to agreeing on the status of millions of Palestinian refugees or Jerusalem, a city both sides want to claim as their capital.

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