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1.) Don’t bail on Dale — What can one even say? TheDC’s Alex Pappas reports:
“Dale Peterson, the Alabama Republican best known for his viral campaign videos railing against ‘thugs and criminals,’ is calling his second shoplifting arrest in five months ‘so bizarre and so idiotic’ and is suggesting his political enemies are somehow behind his woes. ‘I can tell you right now on a stack of Bibles, Dale Peterson is not a thief,’ he told The Daily Caller in his first interview since being arrested Wednesday in Birmingham. Peterson confirmed to TheDC that he was taken to jail after shopping Wednesday afternoon at a Sam’s Club. Store security accused him of stealing after he ate a handful of cashews from a jar and then returned the nuts to a shelf an hour-and-a-half later after deciding not to purchase them. He maintains that he had simply forgotten he had eaten from the jar.”
TheDC Morning is at a loss for words. One thing’s for sure, though. No matter what Dale is charged with, we’re on #TeamDale. For life. After all, if a man can’t steal himself a few cashews in America anymore, America isn’t America anymore.
2.) Marco joins Team Filibuster — The Senate Republican young guns are ready to fight for guns. TheDC’s Alexis Levinson reports:
“Florida Sen. Marco Rubio signed onto a letter Thursday pledging to filibuster gun control legislation. He joins his colleagues, Sens. Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz, who penned the letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid earlier this week. ‘We, the undersigned, intend to oppose any legislation that would infringe on the American people’s constitutional right to bear arms, or on their ability to exercise this right without being subjected to government surveillance,’ the senators wrote. ‘The Second Amendment to the Constitution protects citizens’ right to self-defense. It speaks to the history’s lesson that government cannot be in all places at all times, and history’s warning about the oppression of a government that tries.’”
3.) Friends with benefits — Saudi Arabia isn’t the first country that comes to mind for this program. TheDC’s Caroline May reports:
“House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and the panel’s subcommittee chairmen are calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to explain why DHS has extended a trusted traveler program to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In a letter to Napolitano released Thursday, the seven GOP lawmakers voiced their concerns about ‘potential risks’ associated with opening the Global Entry trusted traveler program — which ‘allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States’ — to Saudi Arabia. … Only a few other countries are currently a part of the program — Canada, Mexico, South Korea and the Netherlands. Meanwhile American friends of long standing — including France, Great Britain and Germany — have not been included, and an agreement with Israel has yet to be implemented.”
Who’s next? Afghanistan?
4.) Sanford says sorry … again — Mark Sanford addressed his infidelity during South Carolina’s Republican congressional primary debate Thursday night. TheDC’s Alexis Levinson reports:
“‘I failed,’ he said. ‘And I failed very publicly.’ ‘What I would say is the events of 2009 absolutely represent a failure on my part for which there were and always will be at some level consequences. But that does not mean that because you’ve had a failure on your personal life, that you cannot step back into life again,’ Sanford said. He said that when the seat opened up, ‘all of sudden my phone lines light up with a lot of people saying, ‘Mark you need to do this.’ And at first you’re scared to death, you don’t know how you’d be received if you were to step back into the waters. But people kept calling and they kept calling and they said, ‘Mark, you need to do this because here’s a chance for you to learn not only from your experience in congress and the governorship, but more significantly from what you learned on the way up and the way down and apply it to what is arguably one of the great conundrums of our civilization, which is how do we get our fiscal house in order.’ And should I make it, that’s what I intend to do.’ Sanford received raucous applause from the audience for the answer.”
5.) Tweet of Yesterday — David Burge: RT if you think the Today Show should replace Matt Lauer with Ted Nugent
6.) Today in North Korean News — BREAKING: “German VIP Flies Back”