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Glenn Beck Relaunching The Blaze As Global Libertarian News Network

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Beck takes a shot at Fox as he expands his news network with foreign bureaus and a new show. “I consider myself a libertarian… I'm a lot closer to Penn Jillette than I am to Chuck Hagel.”

Glenn Beck announced plans Tuesday during his online television program to expand the news operation in his media company, The Blaze, and refocus it as a libertarian network, opening three foreign bureaus, debuting a nightly newsmagazine show, and relocating his New York staff to showy new offices.

Beck introduced his ambitious plans by standing in front of a split screen with MSNBC's Chris Matthews on one side and Fox News's Sean Hannity on the other, and bemoaning the fact that cable news has devolved into the "far left [and] far right... yelling at each other."

"We're not gonna play in that crazy space as a network," he said, adding, "I consider myself a libertarian... I'm a lot closer to Penn Jillette than I am to Chuck Hagel."

He said over the next 60 days, The Blaze will open three foreign bureaus in cities that are "important to America." He will also relocate his New York staff from their current midtown offices into a building that will "send a very clear message to everyone in New York... it will piss everyone off."

Beck also showed a teaser for a new nightly 30-minute newsmagazine show called For the Record.

"Our Nightline will be a nightly half hour broadcast to update you on a topic that no one else quite frankly has the balls to do. I will," he said.

The trailer for the show — which he said will be "the most expensive show on the network, including mine" — featured future episodes exposing the NSA for turning America into a "surveillance state," and warning that the UN "want[s] your guns," both big issues in libertarian circles.

After the in-your-face trailer ended, Beck chuckled, "Security is going to be a real issue for the people in our company."

The Blaze also has plans to hire investigative journalists and plans to produce more documentaries, Beck said.

"We are currently looking for our own Woodwards and Bernsteins," he said. "Maybe they don't exist anymore, and if that's the case I don't really care. We'll grow our own!"

Beck launched his online TV network, then called GBTV, in 2011, and has brought all his media properties — including a news and opinion site, a monthly magazine, and an online radio network — under umbrella of The Blaze brand. Last year, the network began airing on a Dish Network channel, and last week, Beck revealed that he tried to buy the channel currently airing Al Gore's Current TV — a sign that he hopes to expand into cable soon.

But Beck's decision to orient the network's programming around libertarian politics — or at least brand it that way — could be a play for younger, conservative viewers, who find the Republican Party, and the network that most closely aligns with its ideals, Fox, distasteful.


Same-Sex Couples Now Can Marry At Washington National Cathedral

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“[B]y saying we're going to bless same-sex marriages, conduct same-sex marriages, we are really trying to take the next step for marriage equality in the nation and in the culture,” the cathedral's dean says.

The interior of the Washington National Cathedral, where same-sex couples now can marry.

Image by Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/MCT

WASHINGTON — Same-sex couples can now wed at the Washington National Cathedral, according to an email sent by the dean of the cathedral and a later report from the Associated Press.

The church will be among the first Episcopal congregations to implement a new rite of marriage for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members, according to the AP.

The AP spoke with the dean, the Very Rev. Gary Hall:

[Hall] said performing same-sex marriages is an opportunity to break down barriers and build a more inclusive community "that reflects the diversity of God's world.

"I read the Bible as seriously as fundamentalists do. And my reading of the Bible leads me to want to do this because I think it's being faithful to the kind of community that Jesus would have us be.

"As a kind of tall-steeple, public church in the nation's capital, by saying we're going to bless same-sex marriages, conduct same-sex marriages, we are really trying to take the next step for marriage equality in the nation and in the culture.

"For us to be able to say we embrace same-sex marriage as a tool for faithful people to live their lives as Christian people, for us to be able to say that at a moment when so many other barriers toward full equality and full inclusion for gay and lesbian people are falling, I think it is an important symbolic moment."

The cathedral has hosted many national religious gatherings, including a recent service following the death of Sen. Daniel Inouye. The cathedral claims its place in history as the location of Martin Luther King Jr.'s final Sunday sermon in 1968 and President George W. Bush's speech at the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance service on September 14, 2001.

How Obama Won The Internet

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Would you rather fight one hundred duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck? In the second exclusive excerpt from Panic 2012: The Sublime and Terrifying Inside Story of Obama's Final Campaign , a behind-the-scenes look at the president's historic Reddit IAmA.

Charlottesville, Virginia

August 29, 2012

Obama spoke before the crowd of college students in Charlottesville. He’d been snubbed by the University of Virginia’s Republican Board of Visitors, who didn’t allow him to speak on campus, claiming it would disrupt the first days of class. Instead, the president’s rally was held at a 10-minute walk from campus, at an open-air arena downtown. It was hot. One army veteran was passed out, hungover, on a press table. Obama kept the waving brief.

He walked off the stage to a holding room in the back of the arena.

Two staff members waited for him. One was 27-year-old Teddy Goff, head of Obama’s digital team; the other was the president’s below-the-radar speechwriter, Cody Keenan. James Kvaal, David Plouffe, Jen Psaki, and Pete Souza also walked in and out. The room had white walls, beige tile, a cheap standing lamp behind a desk and chair, and an Apple computer with a wireless mouse on the desk.

The president sat down in front of the MacBook Pro.

They snapped a picture of the president, and Goff posted it on the Internet Reddit site.

Verified.

Image by Courtesy of Barack Obama via Twitter

This is President Barack Obama.

Obama was about to take part in a phenomenon called “Ask Me Anything,” a popular interview series on Reddit, a site with 50 million visitors a month. Redditors, as the site’s 2 million in-crowd-y regular users are known, did not take too kindly to frauds or dodges or interviewees who didn’t take Reddit seriously. AMA subjects ran the gamut from celebrities (Woody Harrelson, Seth MacFarlane, PSY) to regular professionals (a male stripper) to basically anything (a woman who was date raped). Community members were also encouraged to submit requests for people they wanted to question.

This was a day of political-campaign and Internet firsts, the sitting president subjecting himself to a free- for-all question-and-answer session with a hardcore community of pot-smoking freedom junkies who hated drones and loved porn and had a keen interest in politics and the future. It was chaotically democratic, and something of a gamble. Reddit had its baggage, issues, controversies, etc.; it wouldn’t generally pass a campaign or White House vetting. There’s some fucked up shit there, creep shots, racist rants, borderline teen porn, for example—and other good shit, too, for the most part, but the kind of material that could become fodder for critics looking to attack Obama.

More pressingly, though: if Obama didn’t get into it, if he didn’t engage, if he came across as a phony . . . Goff and the digital team had been kicking around the idea during a brainstorming session with Cutter, figuring out what the president was going to do during the week of the Republican convention.

“Look, Obama’s gonna do this youth tour. . . . We’ve got two chunks of his time,” Cutter told Goff. One chunk would be for a conference call or a roundtable discussion. “And what do we want to do with the other?”

Goff: Reddit.com/r/IamA.

Cutter said do it.


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DC Sex Workers Prepare for Huge Influx of Inauguration Partiers

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If you require the services of a stripper or dominatrix over inauguration weekend, be prepared to pay extra.

Image by Shutterstock

When Steve Baker talks about the inauguration, he gets a little giddy. For the company he works at, Hire Party Strippers, which does exactly what its name suggests for clients in the Washington DC area, inauguration weekend means a big boost in business.

"Oh my God, it's bananas," says Baker, describing the interest he's had so far. Hire Party Strippers does about double the business on inauguration weekend, during which he can boost rates about 25 percent. This means $650 to $700 for "two girl fantasy shows"; $350 for one girl; and $300 for one male stripper, though demand is never as high for men as women. "It's going to be really, really busy," Baker says. "We have a lot of people coming [to DC] from out of town, and they want to have adult entertainment in their rooms. It's crazy."

Strippers, escorts, dominatrices, and even sugar babies looking for sugar daddies are planning for a jam-packed — and potentially quite lucrative — weekend across the greater DC area. Despite the inauguration party scene shaping up to be much quieter this year than Barack Obama's first in 2009, it doesn't sound like anyone is planning to cut back on erotic recreation — from the tourists looking to party in DC that weekend, to the locals craving sex-themed merriment while their city is overwhelmed by outsiders.

Baker doesn't have a lot of clients on the books yet, but knows he will once the Friday before the inauguration rolls around. "People call me last minute saying, 'hey hey hey, can you send some girls out?'" Hire Party Stripper will ensure entertainers are on-call in anticipation of this "high volume" weekend.

One escort I talked with via email lamented that she wouldn't be in DC around the inauguration, but expected most of the business for escorts to come from areas surrounding the city. "My educated guess would be that it gets busy in the OTHER parts of town so clients don't have to fight the crowds. Like for example, I always schedule work in NYC during the XMas tree lighting at the Rockefeller center, but I go to the SOUTH end of Manhattan because I know the locals or clients won't want to be anywhere near the Rockefeller Center," she explained. "If I were to be here inauguration weekend, I bet Arlington will be hopping — or Tysons."

One dominatrix located in DC who goes by Bella Bliss and also leads workshops for couples who want to learn how to spank each other without feeling pain (among other things) also sees heightened interest in her services around inauguration time, simply because having more people around equates to more business.

"I definitely see more people who I wouldn't normally see," she told me by phone. "More girls will come out of the woodwork sometimes, and be kind of brave and ask about things to do with their girlfriends — play around and learn techniques." She may charge 25 to 50 percent more for a session at her studio, and would double the rates for an "outcall" because she doesn't do those often and people tend to flake.

Bella regularly hosts swingers' parties, and has one planned for the Saturday before the inauguration that she expects to be of a scale on par with major party nights like New Year's and Halloween. These parties — which serve as mixers where people can meet each other, not the giant orgy you're probably picturing — have themes like "Monica Lewinsky" or "Deep Throat" or some other "naughty connotation," Bella says, "so people will come festive, dressed in patriotic things, like naughty Capitol Hill outfits." The parties are for club members only, but members can bring guests. "A lot of our members have friends that come from out of town so they'll bring their friends," Bella explains. "They usually bring like one, three, five couples at a time." She expects anywhere from 100 to 200 people at the pre-inauguration event, which is roughly 50 to 100 percent more than the event's usual headcount.

Meanwhile, SeekingArrangement.com is readying its servers for a big traffic spike the week leading up to the inauguration. The site, which sets up sugar daddies with sugar babies (meaning, yes, there is financial incentive for the babies to get involved), experienced a 34.37 percent increase in visits from people in DC along with a 5.43 percent increase in new members in the week leading up to the 2009 inauguration.

The site tends to see traffic spikes in regions hosting major political events — Tampa area traffic increased 25.9 percent during the Republican National Convention, for instance — while Republican events generate 11 percent more traffic on average than Democratic ones. This may be because more sugar daddies identify as Republican (42.1 percent) than Democratic (34.9 percent). However, this is not true of the site's sugar babies, who skew Democratic. SeekingArrangement CEO Brandon Wade seems to see this as proof of the site's ability to foster bipartisan connections. "It's okay that the two people don't tend to share the same political alignments," he told me. "That seems to work perfectly fine with our memberships."

Sugar daddies tend not to be looking for dates for the big inaugural balls, but rather to dine at fancy restaurants, or meet for drinks at the hotel where the sugar daddy is staying. "Since many of these individuals are important political figures, they generally desire privacy," SeekingArrangement's spokesperson explained. (Also, roughly 40 percent of registered sugar daddies are married, so there's that.) High profile individuals who haven't been careful with their "arrangements" have been exposed in the past. "We had a situation where a very wealthy DuPont heir used the website in a way that I would not recommend and he ended up being blackmailed in a relatively public manner," Wade recalls. (He's referring to Stephen Dent — read about that scandal here.)

While Wade's team works overtime to approve new members as quickly as possible (they have to make sure sure sugar babies' photos don't appear on escort sites, and things like that) Bella is thinking about what to wear to her big swingers' soiree. "I'm not a real red-white-and-blue kind of girl so I'm going to have to piece together an outfit," she says. "I usually do crazy outfits based on what's in my closet. I might do a scarf — use it as a top or a skirt."

Hopefully, this inauguration will be slightly warmer than the last one.

8 Things House Republicans Can Do At Their Fancy Retreat Next Week

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House Republicans will travel next week to Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Va., for a three-day retreat. They'll have plenty of ways to spend their free time.

They could play some golf.

They could play some golf.

The resort boasts three courses designed by Arnold Palmer, Pete Dye, Curtis Strange and Tom Clark.

Source: bownas.net

Segway tours are fun.

Segway tours are fun.

Billed by the resort as an "amazing adventure."

Source: images1.wikia.nocookie.net

So is boating.

So is boating.

"Kayaks, paddleboats, standup paddleboards and Jon boats are available for daily rental at the Marina," according to the resort's website.

Source: thetwist03.files.wordpress.com


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Hagel's "Aggressively Gay" Comment: It Gets Worse

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Hagel said being openly gay for Hormel in his position went “beyond common sense.” He also accused a gay nominee of attending an “anti-Catholic” event.

Source: global.fncstatic.com

Chuck Hagel, President Obama's nominee for Secretary of Defense, has already apologized for what he called "insensitive" comments 14 years ago about James C. Hormel, an ambassadorial nominee who he opposed because he was "openly, aggressively gay."

But there was actually more to Hagel's comment than was previously reported. In a 1998 Omaha World Herald article recently published online, Hagel detailed his objection to Hormel's nomination, saying he was concerned that Hormel had aligned himself with a group he considered "anti-Catholic," and asserted that being gay was "beyond common sense."

In the interview, Hagel referred to a documentary, filmed with money that Hormel donated, that was meant to show teachers how to teach children about homosexuality. Hagel said he had seen another video clip that showed Hormel at an event which Hagel said was "anti-Catholic" in San Francisco, featuring a group of male drag queens called "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence."

"It is very clear on this tape that he's laughing and enjoying the antics of an anti - Catholic gay group in this gay parade," Hagel said. "I think it's wise for the president not to go forward with this nomination."

Hagel said Hormel "very aggressively told the world of his gayness and the funding and all the things he's been involved in. I think you do go beyond common sense there, and reason and a certain amount of decorum."

"If you send an ambassador abroad with a cloud of controversy hanging over him, then I think it's unfair to our country, it's unfair to the host country and it's unfair to the ambassador because the effectiveness of that individual is going to be seriously curtailed. That's just a fact of life. And I believe Hormel's situation is one of those," Hagel said.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

Source: upload.wikimedia.org

A Clue To Rand Paul's Israel Views

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Paul is being represented on his Israel trip by an unlikely conservative firm.

Paul in Jerusalem on Monday.

Image by Aron Heller / AP

Senator Rand Paul has a new ally in his attempt to fit his libertarian foreign policy views into the Republican Party's hawkish pro-Israel stance: The Israeli public relations firm Lone Star Communications, which has also promoted American figures from Glenn Beck to Mike Huckabee, and also works with a leading Israeli opponent of Palestinian statehood.

The firm, run by Texas-born Charley Levine, sent out a press release Wednesday morning about Paul's visits with Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, Mahmoud Abbas, and King Abdullah of Jordan.

“Historically America has sought stability with very mixed results around the world by arming both sides of conflicts,” Paul is quoted as saying in the release. “I fear that one day our Israeli friends might face American-made F-16s and Abrams tanks that our foreign aid has been providing to some very questionable countries that sit on Israel’s border.”

The identity of Paul's Israeli guides suggests that the Kentucky Senator may be more in agreement on Israel than on other issues with the rest of his party, who are if anything to the right of the Israeli government in their skepticism of Palestinian independence and, in some cases, doctrinal belief that Israel has a right to the land. Lone Star has worked with Danny Danon, a pro-settler Israeli parliamentarian who challenged Benjamin Netanyahu from the right for party leadership, as well as helping out on similar trips by American politicians figures including former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.

The scope of Paul's arrangement with Lone Star is not clear; a spokesperson for Paul didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Levine.

Levine himself became a subject of some controversy when his relationship with former New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner came under attack from Max Blumenthal in Columbia Journalism Review, and was then explored by the Times ombudsman. Levine, the ombudsman wrote, is "a figure of the Israeli right, who counsels prominent Zionists and serves as a reservist in the Israeli Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit." Levine lives in Ma'ale Adumim, a settlement in the West Bank just outside of Jerusalem.

Paul, who has been criticized for calling on the U.S. to cut aid to Israel (and every other country), is visiting the Jewish State until next week. He is a recent appointee to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and meeting with pro-Israel figures in the U.S.

Update 3:28 p.m.: According to Levine, the firm is helping with P.R. during the duration of Paul's trip.

"We reached out to him when I heard he was coming," Levine told BuzzFeed on Wednesday afternoon. "One of the services that my company offers here is helping with media when political leaders from all over the spectrum and all over the world come to visit."

Paul is a "very intelligent, articulate fellow, I’ve discovered over the last couple days."

Levine took issue with this article's characterization of him as conservative, saying that "it wasn't good journalism," and noted that he has done work for Julian Castro, the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention this year.

The White House Wants You To Know Women Sometimes Go Into The Oval Office, Too

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Today's White House photo of the day shows Obama meeting with a team of male AND female advisors, apparently in response to a critical New York Times article.

The New York Times published an article yesterday about Obama's all-male advisor team.

The New York Times published an article yesterday about Obama's all-male advisor team.

Source: The New York Times  /  via: nytimes.com

So today, the White House uploaded this photo of Obama meeting with a more female-friendly group for their "Photo of the Day."

So today, the White House uploaded this photo of Obama meeting with a more female-friendly group for their "Photo of the Day."

Source: White House Photo of the Day  /  via: whitehouse.gov

Before:

Before:

Source: The White House  /  via: whitehouse.gov

After:

After:

Source: The White House  /  via: whitehouse.gov


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The White House Is Actually Responding To All These Crazy Petitions

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As the “We the People” site gets overrun by secessionists, pranksters, and Piers Morgan-haters, an Obama spokesman says they'll honor their pledge to respond to every one with over 25K signatures.

WASHINGTON — Deporting Piers Morgan, funding the construction of a "Death Star, searching for the truth about UFOs — this is just a sample of the issues addressed in petitions that have crossed the 25,000-signature threshold requiring an official White House response in recent months.

And the White House will respond to every single one, if it hasn't already.

The Obama administration’s much-mocked petition program, launched in the fall of 2011, allows anyone to create a petition on the White House website, and despite the recent spate of silly petitions, officials believe it to be a success. More than 2.7 million users have signed more than 45,000 individual petitions in the program’s 16-month lifetime.

Under the site’s terms of service, any petition crossing the 25,000-signature threshold — as long as it meets the White House’s broad criteria — will receive an official response. And while some responses take longer than others, usually because the administration is discussing how to respond, officials say even ones calling on states to secede from the union will eventually get a response.

The secession petitions, posted in the days after President Barack Obama was reelected, kicked off a round of frivolous petitions, including calling on the U.S. to start building a Death Star by 2016. An earlier round of fun included a petition calling on the White House to “formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race.” That petition earned a serious response from the White House in November 2011: "The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet..."

When one calling on the White House to take all the other petitions seriously earned 25,000 signatures, Macon Phillips, the Director of the Office of Digital Strategy, replied at length about their response policy.

“[In] many cases, petitions posted on We the People have helped spur discussions of important policy issues here at the White House and across the Administration, and we've used the We the People platform to announce changes in policy or continue a dialogue with people who have an interest in the issue,” he wrote.

“While some petitions may seem less serious, many have substantively affected policy debates in Washington,” White House spokesman Matt Lehrich told BuzzFeed. “Ultimately We the People has given millions of Americans an opportunity for the Administration to address issues they care about, which is an important part of the democracy Americans deserve.”

On Tuesday night, more than 100,000 signatories on a petition to deport the CNN host received an emailed response from White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

“Let’s not let arguments over the Constitution’s Second Amendment violate the spirit of its First,” Carney wrote, adding for the benefit of gun-rights advocates who may disagree with the Obama’s policies: “President Obama believes that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms.”

The response was also posted on the We The People website.

Officials said they see the petitions, in part, as a way to engage with the president's most vocal critics, and they relish the opportunity to respond to even the most passionate protests.

Still, the administration hasn't quite figured out how best to respond to the tens of thousands of signatures calling for their states to be allowed to secede from Obama's America.

Chris Christie Doesn't Like His "Time" Cover

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“I’m reporting Time magazine to the anti-Italian defamation league.”

via TIME

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie joked Wednesday with radio host Don Imus that he was reporting Time to the "anti-Italian defamation league" after seeing its latest cover.

"I mean, come on," Christie said. "I can’t wait for that to come home for my kids to see it."

"The Boss" could be a reference to Christie's beloved Springsteen. But Manny Alfano, founder of the Italian-American One Voice Coalition, doesn't think that's the case, according to the Asbury Park Press.

“Why didn’t they just put Al Capone’s picture up there?” he told the paper. "When it comes to having a picture like that and using the words 'The Boss' — you know, what else but mob-affiliated.”

Watch Christie's full interview here.

Chuck Hagel Worked To Lift The Cuba Embargo

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Another point of conflict with Senate Republicans.

Source: humanevents.com

Add the Cuba embargo to the growing list of hot-button issues Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel may have to address during his impending confirmation hearings.

Hagel first wrote to President Clinton in 1999 after Clinton announced he was loosening restrictions on humanitarian aid and travel to Cuba, calling it a "good first step." But Hagel added "he should have done more."

When calling for a bipartisan commission to review the U.S. policy toward Cuba, Hagel called it "outdated and ineffective, and not relevant for the next century."

In 2001, Hagel and former Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd introduced a bill to open the Cuban market for the export of American agricultural and medical products.

"The exports of American food and medicine is not just an economic issue, it is also a humanitarian undertaking. Blocking exports in these commodities harm the health and nutrition of the people of the sanctioned nation. It does nothing to harm governments and the government leaders with which we disagree," said Hagel.

"Passage of this provision, and the one last year, acknowledges what most Nebraska grain and livestock producers have always known – when the United States places unilateral sanctions on other nations, American producers are hurt, not the sanctioned nation," Hagel continued.

In March 2003, Hagel and Senator Max Baucus introduced a bill known as the United States-Cuba Trade Act of 2003 that sought to lift the embargo.

The bill, which died before gaining much traction, said, "the continuation of the embargo on trade between the United States and Cuba that was declared in February of 1962 is counterproductive, adding to the hardships of the Cuban people while making the United States the scapegoat for the failures of the communist system."

In a letter to colleagues on the bill, Hagel wrote "trading with and traveling to Cuba does not represent an endorsement of the Castro regime. To the contrary, it helps ensure that children in Cuba will be afforded more opportunity than their parents to have lives that are more full, free and just by opening Cuban society to democratic ideals."

In October 2003, Hagel succeeded in co-sponsoring an amendment that passed which ensured Americans were not punished for traveling to Cuba to do business or study.

"It does not serve U.S. interest to isolate ourselves from the people of Cuba. The current U.S. policy places our farmers, workers, and companies at an international competitive disadvantage. Nebraska’s agriculture producers should have open access to the Cuban market," Hagel said.

Hagel's work to lift the embargo could rankle some Senate Republicans, who maintain the U.S. should not trade with a country that is under the rule of a Communist regime.

One leading Republican on these issues, however, held his fire when asked by BuzzFeed about Hagel's position.

A spokesman for Florida Senator Marco Rubio commented said, "We have a process for nominations, and Senator Rubio won’t prejudge these nominees. Senator Rubio hopes he will be able to meet with Senator Hagel prior to his confirmation vote. We’ll have questions about some of Senator Hagel’s past positions, including sanctions on Iran and promoting democracy in Latin America, since that’s long been a priority for Senator Rubio."

White House Won't Rule Out $1 Trillion Coin

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A thought experiment on the verge of becoming policy?

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WASHINGTON — White House Press Secretary Jay Carney refused to rule out a radical proposal to mint a $1 trillion platinum coin that would allow the federal government to go around the debt ceiling if Congress refuses to act.

Briefing reporters Wednesday afternoon, Carney said, "There is no plan B, there is no backup plan" to Congress raising the nation's borrowing limit, but repeatedly declined to rule out the proposal to skirt the limit. "There is Congress's responsibility to pay the bills of the United States," he added.

Carney explicitly ruled out any White House staff efforts to negotiate with Congress over raising the debt limit, saying no one of the administration with engage in talks on raising the federal borrowing limit.

Under the proposal, the Treasury Department would mint a $1 trillion platinum coin by using a loophole in U.S. law allowing the department to mint platinum coins in any denomination, and then deposit the coin with the Federal Reserve to allow the Treasury to continue to pay its bills — by retiring debt — even if it can no longer borrow money.

"The option here is for Congress to do its job and pay its bills, bills that have already been racked up," Carney said later, again refusing to rule out the option. The White House has already ruled a proposal to lift the debt ceiling by executive order citing the 14th Amendment saying it believes it doesn't have the authority to do so.

Asked if he was aware of any administration officials examining the $1 trillion coin proposal. He replied with the non-Shermanesque, "Not that I know of."

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Labor Secretary Will Resign

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Hilda Solis leaves after serving since 2009. Sebelius, Shinseki, and Holder to remain.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.

Image by Richard Vogel / AP

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis resigned Wednesday afternoon, three sources told BuzzFeed.

Her departure means one fewer woman in a cabinet that is already facing criticism for including too many men. As recently as Wednesday, White House Press Secretary was defending the gender diversity of the administration.

"Women are well represented in the senior staff here," Carney told reporters, striking a defensive tone barely an hour before news of Solis's resignation broke.

Solis was one of the least-visible members of President Barack Obama's cabinet, rarely appearing on national television or with the president.

"She was involved a lot in labor specific stuff but you didn't see her out there a lot on, or being listened to, giving the side of what working families would think about taxes, health care, etc," said one Labor official.

Obama praised Solis in a statement announcing her resignation.

Over her long career in public service – as an advocate for environmental justice in California, state legislator, member of Congress and Secretary of Labor - Hilda Solis has been a tireless champion for working families. Over the last four years, Secretary Solis has been a critical member of my economic team as we have worked to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and strengthen the economy for the middle class. Her efforts have helped train workers for the jobs of the future, protect workers’ health and safety and put millions of Americans back to work. I am grateful to Secretary Solis for her steadfast commitment and service not only to the Administration, but on behalf of the American people. I wish her all the best in her future endeavors.


A White House official confirmed to BuzzFeed that Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and Attorney General Eric Holder will remain in their current posts into Obama's second term.

In a letter to department employees Solis explained her decision to leave, saying it came from a period of reflection over the holidays.

"Over the Christmas and New Year holidays with my family in California, I enjoyed my first opportunity in years to reflect on the past and my future, with an open mind and an open heart," she said. "After much discussion with family and close friends, I have decided to begin a new future, and return to the people and places I love and that have inspired and shaped my life."

A White House official confirmed that her resignation did not come as a surprise to President Obama.

One labor official said Solicitor of Labor Patricia Smith is under consideration to replace Solis. Previously she was the New York State Commissioner of Labor.

Solis, a former member of Congress from California, has served as Secretary of Labor since 2009. A spokesman for the Department of Labor said Solis' final day in office is "to be determined."

White House Press Secretary Grilled On Administration Diversity

White House Mum On Inaugural Benediction Speaker's Past Comments On Gays

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Atlanta's Rev. Louie Giglio criticized the “aggressive agenda” of many gays and lesbians in the 1990s. A White House guest in 2012, Giglio also spoke in November at Liberty University: “I started crying like women cry.”

Rev. Louie Giglio speaking at Liberty University in November 2012.

WASHINGTON — The White House on Wednesday was refusing to address comments critical of gay and lesbian people made by Rev. Louie Giglio, who was tapped by President Barack Obama to deliver the benediction prayer at the Jan. 21 inaugural ceremony.

Think Progress reported that Giglio, an Atlanta pastor, made comments in a mid-1990s sermon criticizing "the aggressive agenda of not all, but of many in the homosexual community."

The inaugural invitation is not Giglio's first interaction with Obama. He also was one of the president's guests at the White House's 2012 Easter prayer breakfast, according to the White House pool report from the April 4, 2012 event.

This past November, Giglio served as the convocation speaker at the Jerry Falwell-founded Liberty University. Although he did not address homosexuality in the speech, he did strongly urge visiting high-school students to attend the college known for its strict policies against homosexual behavior and spoke about the positive influence Falwell has had on his life.

While Giglio did not talk about gay issues directly, he did reference gender roles in a striking way, speaking of a time he started crying very hard. He explained, "I started bawling, I mean, sobbing. Not crying like men cry. I started crying like women cry." Continuing, he explained what he called the unwritten rules for men who cry, telling the students, "A man never looks at another man that's crying. That's the rule."

The questions about Giglio come as the administration is still fending off criticism about comments former Sen. Chuck Hagel — now Obama's nominee for defense secretary — made that Clinton administration nominee James Hormel was too "aggressively gay" to serve as ambassador to Luxembourg.

Giglio is the pastor at Atlanta's Passion City Church and the founder of the Passion Conferences, Passion 2013 brought 60,000 young people to Atlanta's Georgia Dome this past week.

Both the White House and committee organized to run Obama's inauguration ceremonies later this month refused to comment Wednesday on the remarks reported by Think Progress, in which Giglio said: "That movement is not a benevolent movement, it is a movement to seize by any means necessary the feeling and the mood of the day, to the point where the homosexual lifestyle becomes accepted as a norm in our society and is given full standing as any other lifestyle, as it relates to family."

This is not the first time questions have been raised about those giving public prayers at Obama's big events. Before Obama even took office, his choice of Rick Warren to give his inaugural invocation created what Huffington Post's Sam Stein called Obama's "first real rift with progressives" at the time.

Additionally, the benediction at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte in 2012 was Cardinal James Dolan, a choice that drew some criticism from the left due to his strong opposition to Obama's positions on abortion and gay rights.

Giglio's 2012 Liberty University Speech

Source: youtube.com


Obama Will Keep His "Heat Shield"

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Eric Holder is the Obama Administration's indispensable man.

Image by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Eric Holder may be the least popular member of the Obama cabinet. He is at the center of many of the Administration's ugliest fights with left and right, over everything from drones to race. He has a special way of looking pained in nearly every photograph. But as President Obama's second-term cabinet takes shape, the biggest news may be that Holder, the single most politically important member of the cabinet, will stay for a second term.

Holder, whose position is formally less political than any other in the cabinet, is a vital political figure in the Obama Administration for three reasons. First, he has, without major exceptions, backed the president's views on executive power. Second, he has owned and absorbed the flack for many of the Administration's most politically challenging battles, from racially-charged fights over voting rights to the battle over so called "gunwalking" on the Mexican border. The third reason is simple: He has not led any politically damaging investigations into the Obama Administration.

In choosing Holder, a well-respected but low-profile Washington lawyer and former Deputy Attorney General who joined his presidential campaign early, Obama chose trust over symbolism. The Attorney General wields immense and independent power. A high-profile political figure chosen, like most Cabinet secretaries, for traditional reasons of politics, may act independently and do the president real harm. Some presidents have responded to that concern by appointing loyalists — in John F. Kennedy's case, his brother. Others, like the Bush Administration, have at times actively meddled in the Justice Department. The Holder model appears to be different. He carries no brief for Obama's staff, and has clashed with the likes of David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel. But he is extremely close to the president.

"Holder is not a lackey in the mold of Bush '43 A.G. Alberto Gonzales," said Lloyd Green, a New York lawyer who was an aide to President George H.W. Bush. "But, Holder lacks the independence of Bush A.G. John Ashcroft and the professionalism of Holder's immediate predecessor, former federal judge Michael Mukasey. Holder is and remains very much about politics."

Holder has been with the White House on key questions, regardless of the ideological underpinnings: He has supported the legality of drone strikes and the raid on Osama bin Laden. He has also been the face of the high-profile fights over voting rights and Arizona's immigration law, both of which were key to mobilizing minority voters in the 2012 election. He did break with the White House once, ignoring Rahm Emanuel's eagerness to move forward and investigate torture under the previous administration.

"One thing that people never understood about Holder’s importance in this administration is how he has absorbed so many attacks that could otherwise land in the White House," said one former administration official who admires the Attorney General, and noted that the Justice Department dealt with such politically unpalatable questions as the Guantanamo Bay detention center and detainee trials. "Think of the three issues he's taken the most heat on: terrorism (KSM), race (Black Panther controversy, voting rights), and guns (Fast and Furious). Those are some of the most polarizing issues in politics, and he’s been a heat shield on all of them."

"He’s got the scars to show for it, but it’s better to have a Cabinet official take those hits than have them land on the president. After all, the Attorney General’s not on the ballot," the former official said.

All this means that conservatives who have tangled with the Obama Administration on legal issues carry a special grudge against Holder.

“President Obama probably could not have found a more pliant attorney general," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, who accused Holder of looking the other way on Administration scandals.

Holder's return for the second term means that, in the eyes of the White House, he's done his job; even that he's indispensable. He's endured Congressional demands for his head. He also reportedly considered resigning in 2010, but Valerie Jarrett, another Obama intimate, reportedly told him that “this will not be good for you and it will not be good for your friend, the president.

What he has not yet endured, though, is an Administration scandal so clear, so extended, and so close to the top that it will set his loyalty and his responsibility directly at odds.

But he may yet face get that chance. They say all the good scandals come in the second term.

The First Time Chuck Hagel Was Accused Of Being Insensitive To Jews

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His first campaign.

Former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel

Image by Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT

It was June 1996 and Chuck Hagel was running the first political campaign of his career. The Nebraska investment banker was new to politics, and in his bid for Senate was taking on popular Governor Ben Nelson. It was the first time Chuck Hagel would be accused of being insensitive to Jews.

Hagel was appearing before 125 people at the Lincoln Independent Business Association luncheon to outline his economic plans. The future Senator said he would reduce funding for all federal regulatory agencies by 25 percent, singling out the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

"This is a Gestapo," Hagel said of the EPA. "We have taken regulatory agencies way, way too far."

Nelson said the reference by Hagel to federal regulators was "insensitive," "particularly to Jews." Nelson added that he butted heads with federal regulations often, but did not resort to name-calling.

The Omaha Regional director of the Anti-Defamation League called it an "inappropriate word."

"Not only is it inappropriate for a Senate candidate to compare our public servants to coldblooded killers, but it is deeply offensive to hear Hagel speak about one of the darkest periods in history so flippantly," said one Nebraska resident in a letter to the editor published by the Omaha World Herald.

"This type of invective has no place in any constructive effort to improve government," said the head of the Nebraska AFL-CIO Gordon McDonald.

Hagel "did not waste any time showing his true colors," said Leon Tatum, the President of Nebraska Postal.

When a member of Hagel's campaign steering committee (who later was disavowed from the campaign) said "who needs the Jews or the Arabs" in response to question about perceived insensitivity in local Republican Party platform, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee commented "there seems to be a rather severe insensitivity in the Hagel campaign."

The Omaha World Herald defended Nelson's comments in an editorial.

Governor Nelson has chosen to lecture Chuck Hagel, his opponent for a U.S. Senate seat, about politically correct speech. Nelson should find something of more substance to talk about.

Hagel said the other day that the federal government could save money by eliminating four Cabinet agencies. He added that funding ought to be reduced for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Hagel said OSHA "is a gestapo.
We have taken regulatory agencies way, way too far." The "gestapo" analogy may have been hyperbolic. Then again, maybe it wasn't. In some states more than others, federal OSHA inspectors have seemed heavy-handed, to say the least, in the eyes of factory managers.

But Nelson didn't merely challenge Hagel's accuracy. Instead, Nelson said the next day that the reference to "gestapo" was insensitive, particularly to Jews. The governor said it amounted to name-calling, and he said that is not constructive.

The Random House dictionary defines "gestapo," without the capital letter "g," as resembling the Nazi Gestapo, especially in the brutal suppression of opposition. Random House, ever sensitive to words that cause pain, does not identify "gestapo" as offensive.

French Anti-Gay Marriage Movement Is The Toast Of American Culture Warriors

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National Organization for Marriage forced to look farther afield after a losing election year.

The National Organization for Marriage has found the perfect spokespeople for its cause: gay people who oppose gay marriage. The only catch: They're French.

NOM has posted a couple videos on its website from a French group called Homovox which features gay men who are against a proposed marriage equality and adoption law introduced by President François Hollande. Other groups include "Plus Gay Sans Mariage" (Gayer Without Marriage), run by a young activist named Xavier Bongibault who also appears in one of Homovox's videos. The videos feature gay men talking about why they oppose gay marriage.

NOM doesn't identify where the videos came from on its blog, and they've been uploaded into NOM's YouTube account. Homovox didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

On its blog, NOM — which suffered a rough election year, with gay marriage measures being adopted in a number of states — has been following the fight over gay marriage in France closely, with multiple posts on the subject per week. Unlike in the United States, where opposition to gay marriage has been based on the conservative Christian right, in France some of those opposed are secularists who view the institution as overly traditional or religious. Marriage overall is on the decline in France, and civil unions are on the rise among both heterosexual and same-sex couples.

In the U.S., LGBT opposition to gay marriage is much less visible; marriage has been a key cause of the gay rights movement since the early 1990s.

France is the unlikely battleground where some American social conservatives are looking to the next marriage fight. NOM and Robert Oscar Lopez, an "ex-gay" writer who has written negatively of his experiences being raised by two mothers, have written laudatory stories about the gay anti-gay marriage movement in France. So has Maggie Gallagher, one of the marquee anti-gay marriage figures in the U.S.

Lopez wrote on January 6 that France's "gays are better than ours" and that "What's great about the arguments from Jean-Marc, Jean-Pier, Philippe Arino, and Xavier is their ability to think outside the stilted identity politics that plagues American sexual discourse."

In November, Lopez praised France for its "frankness" in the gay marriage debate: "It seems to me that if Americans debated gay marriage with the same frankness about the true core issue – children – then traditionalists would be getting more traction."

Gallagher wrote on Thursday that "In France, a popular rebellion against the socialist party’s attempt to impose gay marriage is emerging. Culturally and intellectually speaking, one of the most extraordinary developments is the emergence of gay voices against gay marriage."

Though the marriage bill has been controversial in France — recent polls show that opposition to it has grown in the last two months — it's expected to pass.

h/t Joe My God

NRA "Disappointed" Joe Biden Wanted To Talk About Gun Control

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“We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen.”

NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre pauses as he makes a statement during a news conference in response to the Connecticut school shooting on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 in Washington. The NRA called for armed police officers to be posted in every American school.

Image by  Evan Vucci / AP

WASHINGTON — The National Rifle Association expressed disappointment that Vice President Joe Biden wanted to talk about gun control in a meeting at the White House Thursday to discuss responses to the Sandy Hook school shooting last month.

A statement released by the organization said they were prepared to discuss just about anything — that is anything other than gun control.

"We attended today's White House meeting to discuss how to keep our children safe and were prepared to have a meaningful conversation about school safety, mental health issues, the marketing of violence to our kids and the collapse of federal prosecutions of violent criminals," the group said.

The NRA said they will oppose efforts to tighten gun laws following the shooting. "We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen."

Vice President Joe Biden signalled earlier Thursday that he will recommend that Obama fight to restrict high capacity magazines and make background checks universal.

The group's full statement is below:

Fairfax, Va. – The National Rifle Association of America is made up of over 4 million moms and dads, daughters and sons, who are involved in the national conversation about how to prevent a tragedy like Newtown from ever happening again. We attended today's White House meeting to discuss how to keep our children safe and were prepared to have a meaningful conversation about school safety, mental health issues, the marketing of violence to our kids and the collapse of federal prosecutions of violent criminals.

We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment. While claiming that no policy proposals would be “prejudged,” this Task Force spent most of its time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners - honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans. It is unfortunate that this Administration continues to insist on pushing failed solutions to our nation's most pressing problems. We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen. Instead, we will now take our commitment and meaningful contributions to members of congress of both parties who are interested in having an honest conversation about what works - and what does not.

CNN's Snarky Take On Obama's Lew Nomination

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