HUFFPOST HILL - GOP Proposes Commonsense Legislation To Undo Its Legislation.. Demographically Clueless Lawmakers To Wander Aimlessly Around Land, Searching For Constituents.. Herman Cain: Talk To The Hand
By Eliot Nelson, Ryan Grim & Arthur Delaney
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION REVISITING SUPERCOMMITTEE JOBS STRATEGY - Sam Stein: "In a briefing with reporters, two top officials relayed that the administration would welcome having the congressional supercommittee write elements of the American Jobs Act into its deficit reduction proposal. 'I'm not going to get into the specifics of their proposal,' said one senior administration official, 'but that would be an avenue to do it. It's not the only avenue ... that would be a natural place' 'We have been pretty clear consistently -- publicly and privately -- that that would be an avenue to do it,' the official added. 'At the same time you are making significant strides in deficit reduction, if they were to come to an agreement, that would be a natural place to do some job producing measures.'" [HuffPost]
@McArdleEENews: BREAKING: sources say Energy and Commerce Committee accepted DOE's offer for Secretary Steven Chu to testify on Nov. 17, #Solyndra
GOP TARGETS OWN NON-IMPLEMENTED LAW - House Republicans pivoted to #jobs today, they said, bringing to the floor legislation targeting a three percent withholding. Get rid of that withholding, they said, and you'll create #jobs. (Or job creators will, but you get the picture.) But the withholding was initially passed into law by the Republican majority in 2006, with the GOP supporting it 229 to 2. Democrats subsequently delayed its implementation. It's currently scheduled to go into effect in 2013, so the GOP's onslaught was against a law that exists only in theory and only thanks to them. (Boehner's office says the initial withholding was one part of a bigger bill, so the roll call isn't that meaningful. Our office says: Whatever!)
CENSUS CHIEFS VOICE CONCERN OVER CUTS - Congress may one day put an end to gerrymandering by making it impossible for lawmakers to know who they represent. Six of the previous seven Census Department directors have sent a letter to congressional leaders urging them to reverse cuts to the bureau lest it cannot adequately conduct its Economic Census in 2012. "Going without a 2012 Economic Census in the midst of the worst recession in half a century is akin to turning off the country's economic GPS at the very moment it is critically needed," the group writes. So if the government reports next year that the average American income is "£32,32&4/yr," you now know why. [HuffPost's Mike McAuliff]
SCOOP: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BIRTHDAY WHISTLE BLOWER - It's common knowledge in Washington that every evening, Mike Allen drives to a parking garage in Arlington and meets with various trench coat-clad sources about people's birthdays (whether Allen actually sleeps in the parking garage is unclear). One of his birth sources, Teresa Vilmain, tomorrow will find herself in the awkward position of it being her birthday. Do you think she tells Allen that? Anyway, have a happy happy, Teresa.
TODAY IN 'THOSE SKIRTS ARE SO LAST SEASON' - "ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL BEGINS RESTORATION OF CAPITOL DOME SKIRT"
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - Why has Janet Kelly, a 68-year-old retired social worker, joined the Occupy Wall Street movement in New Hampshire? She said she's haunted by the image of her father, a mechanic and refrigerator repairman, worrying about money. "I can still see his face in my mind saying, 'I have one paycheck left and that's all I have,'" Kelly said. "There was always this fear and this tension and this worry. 'I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough." Kelly said her father had no schooling past eighth grade, and that he thought she shouldn't pursue an advanced degree. "When I was in the eight grade and my father said to me, 'You don't need to go to college, you can just get married and have babies.' And he thought that was in my best interest." Kelly went to college anyway and got a degree in history, partly to rebel against dad. She worked as a teacher and then as a social worker. She protested the war in Vietnam. She got married, had a son, and later a divorce. She moved to New Hampshire for the state's low taxes. She bought her condo in 2005. But now she's afraid her higher education hasn't made her more secure than her father was -- she lost her job last year and can't get a new one. [HuffPost]
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BOEHNER REJECTS DEMOCRATIC SUPERCOMMITTEE PROPOSAL - A fatal flaw of the deficit proposal unveiled this week by Supercommittee Democrats is that it is a deficit proposal unveiled by Democrats. John Boehner is unhappy. "I do think it's time for everybody to get serious about this," he said at a press conference today (right about the time some Democratic Ways and Means lifer curled himself into a ball under his desk). "When I see news reports of some of what was put on the table, Democrats wanting $1.3 trillion worth of tax increases -- this is the same number that was in the president's budget, the same number that I don't know if they've found any Democrats in the House or the Senate to vote for. So, I don't think it's a reasonable number." [WaPo]
HERMAN CAIN NOT A FAN OF MINIMUM WAGE - Pizza places are basically giant boxes filled with plastic buckets of shredded mozzarella, outdated arcade games and minimum wage workers clinging to the American dream with their fingernails. Once upon a time, Herman Cain was responsible for a large number of those desperate minimum wage workers. Naturally, he hates them. Dave Jamieson: "In his work as the CEO of Godfather's Pizza and later as president of the National Restaurant Association, Cain worked diligently in Washington and in the media to see that low-wage restaurant workers could legally be paid as little as possible, as In These Times has noted. In fact, Cain's time in the restaurant business was marked by a long and largely successful battle against minimum-wage increases, and even today, some 15 years later, many of the nation's waiters and waitresses have Cain and the restaurant lobby to thank for a federal minimum wage of $2.13 for tipped workers." [HuffPost]
THE DEVIL WEARS
Today in cute: "On Friday, Congressman Earl Blumenauer will announce that he is planning to run his 1996 television commercial entitles [sic] 'Running' in response to Oregon 1st Republican candidate Rob Cornilles' strangely similar ad. 'It's clear that Rob Cornilles is trying to be Earl Blumenauer for Halloween and we're going to take off the mask and remind people of his positions on the issues,' said Willie Smith, Blumenauer campaign manager."
CONNIE MACK ONCE EXPRESSED SYMPATHY FOR IMMIGRANTS ... HE MIGHT BE RUINED - It's an axiomatic truth of the Republican Party that any huddled mass yearning to be free probably contains a couple of gestating anchor babies and at least one dirty bomb-carrying terrorist. It goes without saying that THEY ALL want to steal your job (yes, guy sitting at his desk in the Department of Transportation projecting Q4 outlays,your job). For that reason, Rep. Connie Mack, who just jumped into the Florida Republican Senate primary, might have some questions to answer. "[H]e's been a strident critic of Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigration, even comparing the law to Nazi Gestapo tactics during World War II. If Rick Perry's support sunk in the presidential primary because he considered opponents 'heartless' for opposing in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants, imagine the damage those comments could cause Mack in a Republican primary." [National Journal]
Sometimes, being nice to Hispanic folks actually helps: "Members of the Latin Chamber of Commerce in Las Vegas are upset with U.S. Sen. Dean Heller for canceling a meeting with them this week after he reached out to the Hispanic group." [LVRJ]
Benjamin Franklin once famously said that "in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes and your media grace period being overtaken by a famous celebrity death, unless a cop beats down on some folks in Oakland in which case you might be in the clear for a little while longer." "An analysis of the number of searches done for Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Boston, and Occupy Los Angeles via the metrics provided by Google Trends shows a dramatic decline for searches for information on each movement." [Anthony Amore]
TODAY IN 'GOOD ON YA!' - From Max Rosenthal: "Captain Adam Harmon is now 31 and the intelligence officer for a military police battalion at Fort Riley, Kansas. [His husband, Captain] Pete [Bennett]'s picture sits openly on his desk in the headquarters building. And, for the past two weeks, Adam has worn a wedding ring on his left hand. They were married on Oct. 8, just 19 days after the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell.' Because of privacy laws, the Department of Defense has no data on how many gay and lesbian servicemembers have married since the Sept. 20 change. But Adam and Pete are surely among the first couples to test the limits of the Army's acceptance under the new policy. The pair are familiar with uncomfortable moments, mostly in the form of insults shouted from cars when they hold hands in the street. And when they attempted to register at a Macy's in Columbus, Ga., where Pete was on temporary duty at Fort Benning, a clerk politely but adamantly changed their marriage to a 'commitment' on the couple's paperwork. Macy's apologized to Pete and Adam, and Pete doesn't blame the employee, whom he thought was well-meaning. But still, he said, 'almost on a daily to weekly basis we're reminded how we're still not quite viewed as equal by a good portion of the United States. And this was just a really good example of that.'" If you've lost a little faith recently in humanity, read through the comments section under Pete and Adam's story, and there is, shockingly, an outpouring of support and congratulations for the couple. The Internet won't know how to handle it. [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - "Microwhat" is a blog that posts before-and-after .gifs of things its editor(s) microwaves. [http://huff.to/sfWkDV]
JEREMY'S WEATHER REPORT - Tonight: The rain will clear out, eventually, but the clouds should remain. Tomorrow: There may be some sun in the morning, but don't you fret -- there will be rain at night. Thanks, JB!
COMFORT FOOD
- Where do Occupy Wall Street headlines come from? A comedy group hypothesizes. [http://huff.to/uIOErz]
- Apple has posted online the video of its Steve Jobs memorial that was held at its Cupertino, California headquarters. [http://huff.to/svlxi3]
- It's unclear whether Rainn Wilson's public tweets about an endorsement deal were real or staged. Whatever the case, we like him more for it. [http://huff.to/s3G7aY]
- "Tap Dat A$$et" from MC Moneypenny is the Occupy Wall Street anthem that Occupy Wall Street really could do without. [http://huff.to/uvlnKt]
- This snowball crossbow may be the thing that saves Sharper Image from total bankruptcy. [http://bit.ly/veBNfR]
- First-person shooter disease is a growing threat. Learn about it through this video (which is two years old but we've never see it ... so just deal, ok?). [http://huff.to/vm31AP]
- The Gentlemen Cyclists documents two men's journey on bike across Great Britain. [http://huff.to/vcx1bt]
- Steve Buscemi can't stop dying in his movies. Here's a supercut of his dramatic demises. [http://huff.to/tBUeu9]
TWITTERAMA
@ElBloombito: Cuidado @OccupyWallStNYC, esta raining. Necesita to leavo el parko de zuccotti y get inside! Que catch a coldo!
@TheFakeJE: when the revolution pops off, and there's rioting in the streets, ima buy me 3 guns. i call it my 'nine nine nine' plan.
@timothypmurphy: His staff would call him, but they're not allowed to. RT @TheFix: Herman Cain, call your office. ow.ly/7aX9E
ON TAP
TONIGHT
5:00 pm - 7:00 pm: Brad Sherman attends a campaign function where $1,000 makes you a "friend" but $2,500 makes you a "co-sponser." Wouldn't you rather be his friend? Is Brad Sherman a bad friend? IS THIS WHAT YOU'RE TELLING US, SHERMAN FOR CONGRESS? [National Democratic Club Townhouse, 40 Ivy Street SE]
5:30 pm: Franke Wilmer, who is running for Danny Rehberg's at-large Montana House seat, comes into town for, among other things (like a Segway tour), a campaign reception. [The Home of John Weinfurter, 209 C Street NE]
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm: John Barrow is the beneficiary of a "Halloween Birthday Bash." He's from Georgia so expect incessant references to "Devil Went Down To Georgia." [21st Century Townhouse, 434 New Jersey Ave SE]
7:00 pm: Tom Dachle and his wife Linda welcomes the whole gang (Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Jim Clyburn and Steve Israel) for a DCCC fundraiser at their home. Do you think they hide the breakable things when lawmakers come? [Home of Linda and Tom Daschle]
TOMORROW
12:00 pm: Todd Webster, chief-of-staff to Chris Coons, is the man of the hour at a lunch at liberal think tank NDN. We're guess it's Todd and not his boss because the real Chris Coons is too busy dating super models and chilling out with George Clooney in Italy or whatever it is that playboy does. [NDN, 729 15th Street, NW 1st Floor]
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