Mississippi Republican state senator Chris McDaniel, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran in GOP primary made these comment on his radio show The Right Side circa 2005 and 2006.

On Democrats: "The party of sex on demand, the party that supports the homosexual agenda."

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On 7-Eleven and the "idea of libertarianism":

"Any 7-Eleven you can probably get a discount. Maybe if you get a hooker and some crack maybe they'll give you discount on that. That's the idea of libertarianism."

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"It's so interesting to see this woman basically using her boobies to — I shouldn't have said that — using her breasts to run for office. And if that is not the most typical libertarian platform, I have no idea what is. The only thing that could make the campaign more libertarian is a heroin needle in her arm."

(McDaniel was speaking about Loretta Nall, a write-in candidate for governor, who ran a campaign about her cleavage.)

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The winds of change.

AP

While exiting the plane, because it was super windy, the first lady's dress kept flapping in the wind.

Benny Johnson/ BuzzFeed

Obama noticed the Marilyn Monroe moment about to happen....

AP

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Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services, is stepping down following the botched rollout of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 12, 2014.

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File

The Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is resigning from her position, after a five-year tenure, which has been overshadowed by a disastrous rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

President Obama has accepted the resignation, and will appoint Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to the job on Friday, The New York Times reported.

White House Budget Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell reacts during an interview in Washington, Jan. 30, 2014.

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Sebelius was not pressured out of the job, according to reports, but her decision to step down comes as Obama Administration is still trying to convince the public that the Affordable Care Act will have longterm benefits, despite website failures that marred the rollout.

The administration did announce last week that during the opening six-month enrollment period they were able to sign-up more than 7 million people.

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Coloradans Rebecca Brinkman and Margaret Burd have been together for more than 30 years — but can’t marry. They watched Thursday’s oral arguments in the case over Utah’s ban on same-sex couples’ marriages.

Chris Geidner/BuzzFeed

DENVER — As the crowd thinned outside the appeals court Thursday following the arguments over Utah's ban on same-sex couples' marriages, an older couple walked away from the few remaining onlookers to head back to their daily life.

Like so many same-sex couples around the country, Rebecca Brinkman and Margaret Burd are watching the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and other federal courts to find out whether they someday will be able to marry.

The couple, who have been together for more than half of their lives, watched Thursday's arguments about Utah's marriage amendment because the decision could impact their ability to marry — and could lead to a Supreme Court case that could settle the question nationwide.

For now, though, they are waiting.

Unlike most couples around the country, Brinkman and Burd also are plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to order their county clerk — in Adams County, Colorado — to grant them a marriage license. Brinkman and Burd talked with BuzzFeed on Thursday about the appeals court hearing and why they brought their challenge to Colorado's 2006 amendment banning same-sex couples from marrying last October — before any of the spate of rulings in favor of marriage equality that began with Utah in December.

They also talked about having traveled the path of gay rights in Colorado, from working against the 1992 ballot measure — Amendment 2 — that was eventually struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court but had banned the state and local governments from passing measures to protect gay, lesbian, or bisexual people from discrimination to today, when the state's governor backs marriage equality and Brinkman and Burd are working to help make it happen.

BuzzFeed: What was it like hearing three judges talking about your life?

Rebecca Brinkman: Not being an attorney, I'm not being able to hear it for the same way they are and the same technicalities, but, to me what it comes down to, public opinion should not be able to determine my rights. Although I think there are states' rights, I still think this is an issue about the 14th Amendment.

Margaret Burd: Well, I've listened to a lot of court cases in my life, so it wasn't a lot different from what I expected. The interesting part for me was how emotional and — my nerves were all going, too. I don't think that's because we have cases coming up in court; it was just that it's such an important thing to get worked out in this country, and you just really wonder how those judges are going to react. You really get into listening to them, too, listening to people talk about your rights the way the judges were.

It's interesting and made me feel kind of nervous, weird —

BuzzFeed: They're talking about there issues, almost mathematically, and there are same-sex couples sitting in the room.

Burd: Yeah —

Brinkman: I was surprised at the kinds of questions that the judges asked, and I was heartened by the fact that Judge [Carlos] Lucero basically said, "This is kind of like the Dred Scott case all over again," and I really believe that it is. I don't think that this have any grounds to say that it's not.

BuzzFeed: When you brought your case last October, why did you bring it?

Brinkman: Oh, we've been together almost 35 years now, and —

BuzzFeed: Always in Colorado?

Brinkman: No, we grew up in Missouri, met in Missouri, and we've been here for 30 years.

I'd like to say it's just altruistic, and it's about love, but it's also about the practical considerations that, as we get older, there are things about finances that we need to have some security in — like Social Security and the right to file taxes together, and a whole host of other things that apply to married couples that don't apply to us right now.

So, it's even more important as we age.

BuzzFeed: And how old are you, if I can ask?

Brinkman: I'm still 62.

Burd: And I'm 61.

BuzzFeed: Is a birthday coming up, Becky?

Brinkman: No, I just mean, we've been around the block a few times. We worked really hard on Amendment 2, and we can remember what the atmosphere was like here in Colorado during that time, and it's changed so dramatically. It's really heartening.

BuzzFeed: Living through that — from Amendment 2, to it being struck down, to a governor fighting for civil unions and then coming out for marriage equality, what is that like?

Burd: It's just so different than back in those Amendment 2 days, where people on the street would really say nasty things to you when you were out trying to get them to vote the other way — and felt nothing about it. It's probably like being black in the South, it was that bad here. So, we lived through that.

Brinkman: But, I think the main thing that came from that was that to really have a movement, we had to be out and visible. People had to know us, who we were.

BuzzFeed: Were you out at that point?

Burd: Yeah.

Brinkman: Well, not to society as a whole.

Burd: I was out at work, you were out at work.

Brinkman: Yes, but. We ran a campaign out of our office … from my office, we ran a telephone campaign about Amendment 2, and we got my hairdresser on the phone. We didn't know that she was going to be someone that we called, and her line was, "All those people should be quarantined. They should not be able to live in Colorado." Now, I was not out to her. If I had, would that have made a difference to how she felt? All of her views were informed by her church at that point.

I'm a chiropractor, so most of my patients know now, and are overwhelmingly supportive. They say, "Oh, I saw your name in the news, and I'm so excited," and — and this is the main thing — "I thought you already had that right." Everybody, all the straight people I know, thought we already had marriage rights … they thought civil unions are the same.

BuzzFeed: For a long time, same-sex couples weren't bringing lawsuits like the one you brought. Now, they're everywhere.

Brinkman: I think it took some really — I mean, people say, "You're really courageous to do this." This is not courageous at all, not compared to Edie Windsor in the case that she had, and all the people that came before us.

Burd: Because, this will have no impact on our jobs, or our lives — other than in a positive way when we get that right. So, we don't have a lot of things at risk by bringing this case —

Brinkman: It's all an upside to us. It is.

But, we had to come to this point in our lives. Would we have filed this suit 30 years ago? Probably not.

Burd: No.

Brinkman: Because it would have meant a lot of derogatory things — and a lot of demerits.

BuzzFeed: So, do you think the couples in Thursday's case will win?

Brinkman: I do. … I thought the other attorney [Gene Schaerr, representing Utah officials] really didn't have a leg to stand on, talking about [in relation to parenting] how we might be somehow impinging upon the male, male whatever it is, the male psyche — actually, male privilege.

BuzzFeed: Do you have any kids?

Brinkman: No. You know, if it were 20 years ago and this was going on, I think we would have. But, it was an uphill that we couldn't climb at that point, but I think we would have, now.

Burd: You'd have been a good mom.

Nailed it.

A bunch of former Bush officials were planning a group photo before George W. Bush gave an address in Austin, Texas...

Benny Johnson / BuzzFeed

...when suddenly: Jesse Jackson!

Benny Johnson / BuzzFeed

Karl Rove did not like it.

Benny Johnson / BuzzFeed

And complained loudly.

Benny Johnson / BuzzFeed

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“You shouldn’t need a lobbyist to open a business in L.A.,” he said. Garcetti also said DWP wouldn’t be able to raise rates this year and announced new efforts to prepare the city for earthquakes.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti speaks at the 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show in California November 19, 2013.

Lucy Nicholson / Reuters / Reuters

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Eric Garcetti said the state of Los Angeles was strong, but "in need of fundamental work" Thursday at his state of the city address where he made the case for spurring economic development through a more business friendly city hall.

"City hall has too often been where businesses go to die," he said. "Simply put, you shouldn't need a lobbyist to open a business in L.A."

Garcetti said he would introduce legislation next week to cut the top business tax rate over three years as part of his budget proposal.

"Unfortunately, our city is still home to the highest and most complicated business tax of any of the 88 cities in Los Angeles County," he said. "It's a tax that taxes you even when you lose money. This chases away new businesses away and pushes existing businesses to leave."

He touted businesses that moved or announced a move to Los Angeles since he took office, including Riot Games and IMAX, and Wilshire Grand, which will be the tallest building west of the Mississippi and is expected to open in 2017. He also announced DirecTV would begin filming two original series in the city, "Navy Street" and "Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight," despite tax subsidy offers from Georgia and New Mexico.

Garcetti's remarks came a day after the Los Angeles 2020 Commission issued a scathing report recommending improvements to the city.

"Los Angeles is barely treading water, while the rest of the world is moving forward," the commission said in an earlier report in December. "We risk falling further behind in adapting to the realities of the 21st century and becoming a city in decline."

But Garcetti was optimistic.

"The challenges we face are not new," he said. "We don't need a new diagnosis."

Garcetti said the Department of Water and Power would not raise rates this year, after botching customer billing. "The department must earn back your trust," he said.

He also called for increased earthquake preparedness, announcing the city would develop a rating system for the seismic safety of buildings, the first in the U.S., and create plans to mandate older buildings to be retrofitted, which he admitted would be expensive.

"Some critics say the cost of those upgrades may be high, but as we saw with Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, the cost of being unprepared is much, much higher."

The three judges hearing the case heard more than an hour of arguments, with two of them leaning toward striking down the state’s ban.

Plaintiffs Derek Kitchen and Moudi Sbeity arrive at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, April 10, 2014.

Chris Geidner/BuzzFeed

DENVER — The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals heard more than an hour of arguments Thursday morning over the question of same-sex couples' marriages — with the three judges hearing the case being split on several key questions needed to be resolved but with the court leaning toward striking the ban.

At precisely 10 a.m., the three judges hearing the case — Judges Paul J. Kelly Jr., Carlos F. Lucero, and Jerome A. Holmes — entered the courtroom, hearing more than an hour of arguments on the issue.

With two of the judges — Lucero and Holmes — focused intently on the discrimination claimed by the plaintiffs and the Supreme Court's history of recognizing marriage as a fundamental right, the hearing ended with the court appearing to lean toward agreeing with the trial court decision that the law is unconstitutional. Holmes, however, had tough questions for both sides — and even suggested near the end of the argument that the court might not have the authority to hear the case.

Gene Schaerr, a D.C. lawyer who left a high-powered law firm to serve as the outside lawyer to the state, took to the podium first, arguing that the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Shelby striking down the ban should be reversed by the appeals court.

Schaerr began his arguments by telling the judges that "[t]he issue before the court is not how the issue [of same-sex couples' marriage rights] … should be decided, the issue is one of authority."

Specifically, Schaerr pointed to the Supreme Court's decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act last June, saying, "In [United States v.] Windsor, the court was clear that the states have virtually complete authority to define marriage."

Lucero, who repeatedly signaled that he believed the same-sex couples' arguments would ultimately succeed, shot back that, although the court, in Justice Anthony Kennedy's opinion for the court in Windsor, talked about federalism, "when it came time for the dispositive language … it disavowed a decision that would be predicated upon federalism and said it was based on equal protection" of the laws.

Holmes, for his part, peppered both attorneys with skeptical questions, sparring with Schaerr about the meaning of the Supreme Court's marriage cases, from Loving v. Virginia, in which the Supreme Court struck down bans on interracial marriage, to another case, of which Holmes said, "Zablocki didn't talk about a fundamental right to marry for deadbeat dads, it talked about a fundamental right to marry."

Peggy Tomsic, who argued for the same-sex couples seeking to end Utah's ban on their marriages, speaks to the media after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals arguments on April 10, 2014.

Chris Geidner/BuzzFeed

That question, about whether the right in question is one to marry or for same-sex couples to marry, was one of the key debates at the court today. The second key question was about whether Amendment 3 is a sex-based classification or a sexual orientation-based classification — and in either event, what level of scrutiny should apply to that classification. That level of scrutiny — for example, race-based classifications receive what is called strict scrutiny, sex-based classifications receive intermediate scrutiny, and general laws receive what is called rational basis scrutiny — Holmes suggested, could control the outcome of the case.

Tomsic, who argued the case before the trial judge, spent her 30 minutes arguing both about what level of scrutiny should be applied by the court — and that, even under the lowest level of scrutiny, her clients should not be denied the right to marry.

Most of the skeptical questions she faced came from Judge Kelly, who told Tomsic at one point, "Under rational review, just because you disagree with the state's reason doesn't make it unconstitutional." Later, he suggested the case overlapped with arguments about polygamy, saying, "[I]t seems to me it all goes together."

Utah's ban on same-sex couples' marriage was initially struck down on Dec. 20, 2013, by Judge Shelby. Shelby did not issue a stay, putting his ruling on hold, and more than 1,300 same-sex couples married after both Shelby and the 10th Circuit — in a decision by Judges Holmes and Robert Bacharach — denied the state's request for a stay. The marriages did stop, at least temporarily, when the Supreme Court issued a stay during the appeal on Jan. 6.

Whichever party loses the case at the 10th Circuit is expected to ask the Supreme Court to review the decision.

In the moments before the judges considered the constitutionality of Utah's ban on same-sex couples' marriage, however, the state's attorney general, Sean Reyes — who is defending the law — walked across the aisle and met the same-sex couples arguing that the ban is unconstitutional.

Kneeling down and talking to the plaintiffs as Tomsic introduced Reyes to them, the moment of quiet, smiling conversation was one small sign of the way the once acrimonious battle over "gay marriage" has turned into something different — a move the couples hope is an inevitable march toward marriage equality.

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“Is that somebody throwing something at me? Is that part of Cirque de Soleil?”

A woman threw what she described as a shoe at Hillary Clinton during a speech in Las Vegas on Thursday.

The incident happened not long after the former U.S. secretary of state took to the stage at an Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries meeting at the Mandalay Bay Hotel-Casino.

The 66-year-old managed to duck the object and initially asked if it had been a bat.

After realising something had been thrown as her, Clinton jokingly asked if it was "part of Cirque du Soleil" — the acrobatic show based in Vegas.

Via youtube.com

Security officials later ushered the woman who said she threw the shoe out of the event.

Via youtube.com

She was then arrested, but it remains unclear why she targeted the former first lady.

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Oh, George.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius couldn’t even resign without a hiccup Friday.

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Let’s take a look at the body politic, shall we? Turns out that porn is a highly accurate predictor of presidential politics.

BuzzFeed teamed up with Pornhub to take a look at who watches the most porn, red states or blue states.

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Pornhub's data team split the country into red and blue states—based on the 2012 election—and then took the total number of pages viewed per state and divided that by the population.

They ended up with a pageviews per capita. And democrats came out on top, watching 13% more porn on average.

pornhub.com

The red state of Kansas, interestingly enough, leads the country in porn consumption, but red states on average are consuming less pornography.

pornhub.com

Of the 10 states with the most pageviews per capita, only two of those are red states. On the flip side, only two of the 10 states with the least porn viewed are blue states.

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“When you see these cool hip athletes who love Obama so much, remember they’re doing it for the bucks,” said Republican Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia said on NewsMax TV Friday. “They’re not doing it for the cause and they themselves are not even on Obamacare,” he added.

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“Jeb would be a superb president, but I think Christie would connect better — we desperately need a president to connect to the people.” The billionaire and major GOP donor on Bush baggage, Spitzer, and Cuomo.

Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

TUCSON, Ariz. — Ken Langone, one of the Republican Party's most important donors, said he's not sure the country is ready for another President Bush — and that nothing's changed his long-held support for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

In an interview at a retail industry conference in Tucson, Ariz., the 78-year-old billionaire, who made his fortune through co-founding Home Depot, said he's still "absolutely" behind Christie, who he's been urging to run for president since 2011. The fallout from the George Washington Bridge scandal is a "rough patch" that will pass soon, Langone said, though he did note the governor's "major Achilles Heel" is "the quality of the people around him."

"I told this to the governor and he took it respectfully — I respect loyalty, but if you're moving onto a stage that's far more intense and far more profound, you don't have the luxury of having anything but the very best minds around you," Langone said over a breakfast of egg-white only huevos rancheros and coffee. Better advisers could have helped Christie avoid using the phrase "occupied territories" while speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition about Israel, Langone said.

Since the bridge scandal erupted late last year, some major Republican donors have raised the possibility of a presidential run by former Florida governor Jeb Bush. But Langone maintained Christie's the better candidate, and described the "baggage" of the Bush family name.

"Jeb would be a superb president, but I think Christie would connect better — we desperately need a president to connect to the people," Langone said.

"And you gotta take into account the Bush name. His mother said it: 'We've had enough Bushes' for a while," he continued. "His brother did not leave with the highest level of popularity, and that comes with a burden. I can imagine Hillary running against Jeb, what a field day the media guys would have: 'Ready for another Bush? Ready for another Afghanistan? Ready for another Iraq? Ready for another collapse of the banking system?' That's a lot of baggage."

Langone, who has epically clashed with Eliot Spitzer in the past decade and is a big fan of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, had nothing negative to say about Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, however.

Bharara made headlines this week for questioning Cuomo's decision to dissolve an anti-corruption panel in March, putting unusual scrutiny on the governor.

"He's an aggressive prosecutor — hey look, that's his job," Langone said, dismissing any comparison between Bharara and Spitzer. "You only have to worry about going to jail if you break the law. That's pretty simple."

He added, "Why do we have U.S. attorneys? Because we need a mechanism to make sure people obey the laws that we pass, for societal reasons. Some people would argue he's too aggressive. Nobody's more aggressive than Spitzer. He had a problem."

Langone, a devout Catholic, called Spitzer "one of the worst human beings God ever created," noting that, "a central part of my faith is forgiveness and I have a struggle because of the lives he ruined."

While the veteran Wall Street investor has built a reputation as an anti-Obama Republican mega-donor who can easily rally big money towards candidates he favors, he says he doesn't consider himself particularly involved in politics or "wildly conservative." He tends to support politicians based on a single issue, he says — Cuomo, for example, because they agree on charter schools and Sen. Charles Schumer for aiding NYU's Langone Medical Center after Hurricane Sandy. Both men are Democrats. He also departs from the GOP on issues like same-sex marriage, noting "If two boys, two girls want to get married, it doesn't bother me…it's none of my business."

"I don't want politicians to have a hook in me," he said, referencing the character of Raymond Tusk from Netflix's House of Cards, a billionaire entrepreneur whose financial interests are locked up in government affairs. "There's a lot of truth in that story."

If it turns out that Christie did have a hand in the George Washington Bridge lane closures, Langone might not be so supportive of the 2016 presidential hopeful.

"If Christie had the slightest connection, I wouldn't be off him because he had a connection to it, I'd be off him because he engaged in something utterly stupid, and if he's that stupid, he can't be president of the United States," Langone said. "That'd be horrible if he inconvenienced all those people, but I'd take a step back and say, 'Wait a minute, is this a guy I want walking around, with a suitcase with a nuclear bomb button?'"

Of course, Langone doesn't believe that to be the case. He blames the media, Democrats, and even other Republican presidential hopefuls for adding to Christie's current woes.

"People are frightened, not just the Democrats, but all the other Republicans who want to run for president themselves, they're his enemy as much as the Democratic party," Langone said. "These guys don't have philosophical beliefs, they're ambitious to the point of a fault and they'll stop at nothing. That guy Santorum, he lost his Senate seat by 18 points. He couldn't get elected dogcatcher in the state of Pennsylvania. Why is he out there campaigning? For a very simple reason: whatever little speaking fees he gets. It helps him. He's current. He has a presence."

As soon as Christie runs for something, Langone says he'll be out there raising money for him. "He can be a great president," he said.

The Missouri State professor who invited Frazier Glenn Miller says the white supremacist’s visit was intended to show students what real extremism looks like.

The scene outside the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kan., following a shooting on Sunday, April 13.

John Sleezer/Kansas City Star / MCT

WASHINGTON — The suspect in the shootings at two Kansas City area Jewish facilities lectured a class at Missouri State University in 2012, an experience that the professor who invited him says was intended to illustrate the hatefulness of white supremacy to his students.

Frazier Glenn Miller, 73, has been named as the suspect in the shooting attack on a Jewish community center and retirement home on Sunday in Overland Park, Kan., that killed three people. Miller is a former "grand dragon" of a branch of the Ku Klux Klan who has remained an active white supremacist on the internet, where he has posted thousands of times in a forum called Vanguard News Network that uses the slogan "No Jews. Just Right."

One of Miller's posts, from Jan. 10, 2012, describes his visit to a religious studies class at Missouri State. It names the professor, David Embree, and uses multiple slurs to refer to the students in the class. "No holds barred, no quarter given to the 2 kikess' present, and though I was allotted only 45 minute to speak, plus a 15 minute Q&A period, the 16 students and I ran our mouths, nonstop almost for 2 full hours and 5 minutes. Time flew," Miller wrote.

Reached by phone on Sunday evening, Embree confirmed that Miller had spoken to an intersession class he teaches during the winter period between fall and spring semesters. Embree teaches a class called New Religious Movements, and during the intersession period he often teaches a weeklong class about a particular subgroup — he has done these before on Scientology and the Church of Latter-day Saints, he said.

"One of the groups that students were pretty fascinated by and wanted more on was white supremacists," Embree said. "One of the things I've found with many of these groups is that if I tell the story myself [the students] don't believe me, they just think I'm trying to make them look bad." So Embree invited three white supremacists — Miller, Kingdom Identity Ministries leader Mike Hallimore, and Dan Gayman, the Missouri-based leader of the Church of Israel — to come speak.

Embree said that Miller was "over the top" and boasted about crimes he'd committed and his activities in the Klan, as well as calling the students names. "His big thing was the Jews — 'the Jews did this, the Jews did that,'" Embree said.

A Jewish girl in the class spoke up to Miller and criticized him, saying "you're talking about my people," Embree said.

"He called her a kike," Embree said.

His impressions of Miller were that he was an "angry hateful person" obsessed with his past.

"When he came to my class the first thing he did was show a video of himself at a Klan rally 20 or 25 years ago," Embree said. "Those were the best days of his life."

Embree said it was a "galvanizing" experience for his students to see real extremists up close.

"They came out of there convinced that white supremacy is a real thing and a dangerous thing," Embree said. "They thought, Now we know, now we get why these guys have to be watched out for. These guys are for real."

"I asked the class, I said, 'What did you think about bringing these people in?' And they said, 'You're absolutely right, if we had not heard these people we wouldn't believe such hateful people exist,'" Embree said.

Embree said he told the dean of his college and the head of his department ahead of time of his plans to host Miller and the other white supremacists, and received no pushback from the administration.

"It's within the academic process certainly to hear the different sides of the issues," Embree said.

Miller posted Embree's cell phone number in his post on Vanguard News Network. After the post, Embree received calls from other white supremacist groups telling him that "if I wanted some real white supremacists to come to class I should invite them," he said.

"They were grousing about him and how he's not the real deal," Embree said.

He also received a call after Miller's visit from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that researches and publishes information about hate groups.

"They were going to out me as a white supremacist teacher," Embree said. "I said 'I'm not a white supremacist.'"

Embree was unaware that Miller was the suspect until reached by BuzzFeed. Asked if the new knowledge changed his view on the decision to invite Miller to campus, he said, "I"m still trying to process it even as I'm talking to you."

LINK: Three Killed In Shootings At Kansas City Jewish Centers

“Ohio’s marriage recognition bans are facially unconstitutional and unenforceable under any circumstances,” U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Black rules.

WASHINGTON — U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Black on Monday ruled that Ohio's ban on recognizing the out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples is unconstitutional — a move he announced in court earlier this month that he would be taking.

"The record before the Court ... is staggeringly devoid of any legitimate justification for the State's ongoing arbitrary discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and, therefore, Ohio's marriage recognition bans are facially unconstitutional and unenforceable under any circumstances," the judge wrote.

Black earlier, in another case that Ohio officials appealed to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled that the marriage recognition laws in the state were unconstitutional — but the case was limited to the treatment of death certificates.

This ruling, which related directly to treatment of birth certificates, applies to all purposes for which same-sex couples married out of state might seek recognition in Ohio.

The case does not affect the portion of Ohio's 2004 amendment prohibiting same-sex couples in the state from marrying.

The ruling is stayed, or put on hold, with Black inclined to issue a stay pending appeal as to the full recognition ruling. Black wrote, though, that he is inclined not to issue a stay "as to the as-applied claims of the four couples who are Plaintiffs because they have demonstrated that a stay will harm them individually due to the imminent births of their children and other time-sensitive concerns," but he announced in his ruling that he will be taking views from both the couples and the state on the question over the next day before deciding whether to issue a stay as to the four couples.

Read the ruling:

It would be prudent.

It was the 25th Anniversary of George H.W. Bush's presidency this weekend.

His library in College Station Texas threw a reunion weekend for him. Here is what we learned.

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Mississippi Republican state senator Chris McDaniel, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran in GOP primary made these comment in a promo for his radio show The Right Side in 2005 and another program he co-hosted Right Talk .

In recent weeks, audio of McDaniel talking about the word "Mamacita," hip-hop, guns, drugs, and libertarians emerged online.

BuzzFeed found much more audio of McDaniel talking on his radio show about a whole host of topics.

Jonathan Bachman / Reuters

On Al Jazeera being "the mouthpiece of al Qaeda" and interviewing "a woman wearing a burqa, probably speaking in tongues or something."

"Why is it that Al Jazeera, the mouthpiece of al Qaeda, is about to launch an English channel right here in the United States of America? They're going to use satellite. It's going to be on globe-cast world TV. I think if you're lucky enough to have DirecTV, you may even get a shot to watch it there. It will be an English channel but it's broadcasting propaganda for Al-Qaeda."

[Co-host speaks]

"But here's the thing: There are millions of Muslims living in this country. I heard a lady today in the Middle East, she was talking about this, they found some woman wearing a burqa, probably speaking in tongues or something, over in the Middle East and they asked her about it and she said, 'Well, this is a great idea because now our brothers and sisters in America will have their eyes opened.' And you know what she's talking about. She's talking about the terrible demon that is the United States of America. And furthermore, she's talking about the Zionist conspiracy that is Israel. She's wanting the brainwashing to occur and the sad thing is it will work in this country because there are that many Muslims just looking for an excuse to hate this country even more than they already do."

"She's wanting the brainwashing to occur, and the sad thing is it will work in this country because there are that many Muslims just looking for an excuse to hate this country even more than they already do."

McDaniel: "My imagination is running. What about the Al Jazeera home shopping network? What do you buy there, like, swords?"

Co-Host: "Burqa."

McDaniel: "Burqas, swords, sandals."

Co-Host: "Pink, black, white. Which one do you like the best?"

McDaniel: "I like it. It sounds fabulous. Maybe some non-pork products."

Co-Host: "Non-pork and also there's burqas. Numerous sizes, colors, fabrics. Silk burqas. Burlap burqa. Linen burqa."

McDaniel: "And the fabulous Muslim music. The Ramadan calendars."

Co-Host: "Yes, let's say you live in a cold area. Let's say you're in Dearborn, Mich. It's a little cold, maybe you want a wool burqa. You can get it on Al Jazeera Home Shopping Network."

McDaniel: "Sports Illustrated Ramadan bikini."

Co-Host: "Can you imagine the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition on Al Jazeera Home Shopping Network?"

McDaniel: "That's hot. That is so hot. Don't talk about that."

Co-Host: "Who's the cover model? Nice eyes. Nice, big eyes. "

McDaniel: "Absolutely. She's fine."

Co-Host: "Unlimited parody. Very, very disturbing."

McDaniel: "Look at her wrist. That's a beautiful wrist."

Co-Host: "Nice ankle. Oh wait, is ankle grounds for slaughter?"

Mcdaniel: "Yes. She'll die for that."

Co-Host: "Wrist, OK? Ankle, no?"

McDaniel: "Wrist is ok. Ankle, she'll die."

Co-Host: "She'll die for that. There's a price for beauty—it's death."

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“The Ukrainians need more help,” Mike Rogers said. The White House and State Department confirmed the CIA director’s trip on Monday.

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan.

Yuri Gripas / Reuters / Reuters

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said on Monday that CIA director John Brennan's visit to Kiev over the weekend could help U.S. improve its intelligence sharing efforts with Ukraine.

"Hopefully Mr. Brennan's trip will lead to more intelligence sharing on Russian activities threatening Ukraine," House Intelligence chairman Mike Rogers said in a statement to BuzzFeed. The U.S. has neglected to share key intelligence with the Ukrainians during the political crisis that has resulted in the Russian annexation of Crimea. The Daily Beast reported last week that senior U.S. military officers had been told not to give details to their Ukrainian counterparts about Russian troop movements along the border with Ukraine.

Rogers also called for more non-lethal aid to the Ukrainians.

"My recent visit with Ukrainian leaders and intelligence officials made clear that the Ukrainians need more help," Rogers said. "Just as in Crimea, Russia has sent teams of intelligence agents and packs of thugs to provinces in Eastern Ukraine to provoke conflict."

"The Russian military may very well use these incidents as the predicate for invading Ukraine to 'protect Russian speakers,' just as it did in Crimea," Rogers said. "The United States should supplement the sanctions imposed on Russia by providing additional non-lethal support that will help the Ukrainians mount a more robust defense against the Russians. We can and should provide support, short of boots on the ground, that helps the Ukrainians defend their country against Russian aggression."

Thomas Shannon, an adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry and a senior diplomat, said on Monday that arming Ukrainian forces could be an option. National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden downplayed Shannon's comments on Monday, saying, "There's no change in our position and I wouldn't read anything into the timing of his comments. With regard to any potential military assistance to Ukraine, we don't have any announcements to make today. Again, our main focus continues to be on supporting economic and diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the situation. And as the President said, we do not see a military solution to crisis."

The State Department and the White House on Monday confirmed Brennan's visit to Kiev, which took place over the weekend. Former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the country in February, claimed that Brennan was responsible for the new Ukrainian leaders' decision to send security forces to the restive east — allegations that officials denied on Monday. The administration's unusual confirmation of Brennan's travel could provide a boost for Russia's narrative about the Ukraine conflict.

"We know that the CIA does not normally comment on the director's travel," State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said at Monday's press briefing. "Given the extraordinary circumstances in this case and the false claims being leveled by the Russians at the CIA, however, we can confirm the director was in Kiev this weekend as part of a trip to Europe."

Psaki said that the purpose of the trip was "fostering a mutually beneficial security cooperation" and that "there were some claims that Director Brennan encouraged Ukrainian authorities to conduct tactical operations inside Ukraine. Those are completely false."

Carlo Munoz contributed reporting.

Mississippi Sen. Chris McDaniel is challenging incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran in the GOP primary.

Jonathan Bachman / Reuters

A leading Republican candidate for Senate in Mississippi wrote blog posts criticizing poor people affected by Hurricane Katrina and mocking a Muslim man's name.

Mississippi Senator Chris McDaniel hosted two radio shows in the mid-2000s, The Right Side and Right Talk, and wrote blog posts for the sites associated with the shows as well. The majority of commentary and blog posts were either signed by McDaniel at the bottom of the post or were unsigned.

McDaniel is challenging and generally viewed as a serious threat to Republican incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran.

The blog posts argue that the Supreme Court's 1955 rulings helped "de-Christianize" America and that if "Mexicans" continued entering the country "our culture" would be lost and could "never be regained."

In recent weeks, audio of McDaniel's old radio broadcasts has emerged, including inflammatory comments about women, reparations, hip-hop, and libertarians.

On Monday, BuzzFeed uncovered even more audio, including McDaniel's commentary on Al-Jazeera, Hurricane Katrina, and a lesbian Brokeback Mountain featuring Janet Reno and Rosie O'Donnell.

Via web.archive.org

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The Census just changed the way it measures the number of Americans who have health insurance. Observers have wanted the changes for years.

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The White House said Tuesday that changes to the U.S. Census will make it "easier" to see the before-and-after effects of the Affordable Care Act.

The New York Times reported earlier in the day that the Census will make changes to the annual Current Population Survey, designed to measure the number of Americans who go without health insurance in a given year. Questions have been tweaked in the survey to correct what administration officials say were long-standing flaws in the survey. The net result of the changed questionnaire could reduce the official number of uninsured Americans listed by the Census.

Administration officials said Tuesday the changes will be implemented for the year of 2013, before the exchanges launched.

"The main point here is that these changes will actually make it easier to measure the impact of the ACA, since we will have an improved baseline for 2013, which we can use to see changes from 2013 to 2014," an administration official said Tuesday.

Many analysts said Tuesday that the changes are so fundamental to the survey that comparing data before the change to after is difficult.

Vox's Sarah Kliff reported a top administration official told the site, "What's being missed here is that the Obama administration will use the new survey questions to collect data for 2013, the year prior to Obamacare's health insurance expansion."

The Times reported that when both questionnaires were used last year, the number of Americans without insurance came in around 2% lower under the new questions.

Observers have long described flaws in the survey's methodology. Administration officials pointed to a 2003 Congressional Budget Office report criticized the questionnaire even after it was tweaked in 2000 to improve data.

"First, it has a relatively long reference period for measuring insurance status. That long reference period may partly explain how the CPS estimate overstates the number of people who are uninsured all year," read the CBO report. "Second, although the CPS estimate appears to closely approximate the number of people who are uninsured at a point in time, the survey provides no information on what fraction of the year people do have coverage."

The new changes to the questionnaire were announced in September 2013 and submitted for public comment.

"Health insurance questions have measurement error due to both the reference period and timing of data collection," the Census Bureau wrote in its announcement of the changes on the Federal Register. "Qualitative research has shown that some respondents do not focus on the calendar year reference period, but rather report on their current insurance status."

The new questions, the Census wrote, "integrate questions on both current and past calendar year status" when it comes to insurance, ask questions designed to track coverage in exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act and ask recipients whether or not their employer provides health insurance.

The Census and the Department of Commerce, which oversees the Census, did not respond to a request for comment on why the changes were being made to the insurance survey now, rather than years ago when concerns were first raised.

On Twitter, Kaiser Family Foundation vice president Larry Leavitt praised the new survey and said it won't stand in the way of determining whether Obamacare is working when it comes to the uninsured.

"The new census questions on the uninsured will be able to measure the change from 2013 to 2014," he tweeted. "We just have to be patient."

The administration says the survey changes have been in the works for years before Obamacare was even under discussion.

"Census's annual report on insurance coverage has had language about the shortcomings of the CPS for measuring insurance coverage (shortcomings that these revisions aim to address) every year back to President George W. Bush's first term," an administration official said in an email.