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1.) E.T. phone home Congress — Not every politician retires from Congress to a lucrative career in the private sector. Some retire to head panels looking for aliens. TheDC’s Josh Peterson reports:
“Six former members of Congress began holding a hearing Monday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., about the government’s supposed knowledge of extraterrestrial life. The hearings are expected to last 30 hours over the next five days. ‘The Citizen Hearing on Disclosure will attempt to accomplish what the U.S. Congress has failed to do for forty-five years – seek out the facts surrounding the most important issue of this or any other time,’ said project’s website. The members presiding over the hearing include former Michigan Democratic Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, former Utah Republican Rep. Merrill Cook and former Alaska Democratic Sen. Mike Gravel, who attempted to win the Libertarian Party presidential nomination in 2008.”
Oh, wow: The committee lured Mike Gravel away from his usual schedule of attending idiotic propaganda conferences in Iran and wandering around aimlessly in his back yard drooling on himself. It must be serious then. But were Jim Traficant and Dennis Kucinich not available to round out this Dream Team of incompetent ex-politicos?
2.) In Gohmert’s shadow — TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein spent the day following conservative Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert around. After baseball practice, he got to be a fly on the wall in Gohmert’s car pool back to the Capitol with Sen. Jeff Flake in tow:
“After practice, TheDC tags along with Gohmert back to Capitol Hill. It turns out Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake will be joining us for the ride. TheDC gets in the back of Gohmert’s black Ford Explorer, which provides a nice view of the congressman’s boots. He will later put those babies on. He’s from Texas, remember. Gohmert and Flake, who until January served in the House with Gohmert, catch up. Gohmert laments that Boehner ‘is still speaker so I’m still not chairman’ of a committee. Gohmert and Boehner don’t get along all too well. Instead of voting for Boehner for speaker in January, Gohmert voted for Allen West, who is no longer even a congressman. Flake says he is still trying to get used to the Senate culture. Flake is a member of the Senate ‘Gang of Eight’ that recently unveiled its immigration reform bill. Gohmert has not spoken positively about the bill. Naturally, this seemed like a good topic to bring up.”
Read the full account of a day in the life of Louie Gohmert.
3.) What happened??? — The White House said it wanted to pass a new law that would allow them greater flexibility to question terrorists like the Boston bomber. But if the White House really wanted to do this, it seemed like they had their chance a few years ago. TheDC’s Gregg Re reports:
“If the Boston Marathon bombings had occurred in 2010, top congressional and Homeland Security officials criticizing the ‘rush’ to Mirandize suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev would have had more than a few allies in the White House. In 2010, top White House officials — including senior adviser David Axelrod and President Barack Obama — publicly supported Attorney General Eric Holder’s effort to pass a new law permitting investigators to question terrorism suspects at length without informing them of their Miranda rights. (While legal analysts who aren’t Slate’s Emily Bazelon agree that investigators are never actually required to Mirandize suspects, information gleaned from interviews with suspects who do not know their rights are generally inadmissible in court, unless the government invokes and justifies using the public-safety exception.) Following the failed attempt by Faisal Shahzad to detonate a car bomb in New York’s Times Square, the Obama administration took criticism for allowing federal investigators to read him his Miranda rights less than four hours after his arrest. … Holder reacted by telling ABC News that the White House wasn’t to blame, because it wanted to change the rules. …If Holder wanted to push a bipartisan proposal through Congress to revise Miranda, the political climate was ripe. Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House, and leading Republicans all but endorsed Holder’s suggestion.”
4.) Mitch slap — At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday, President Obama made fun of Mitch McConnell. On Monday, McConnell sought revenge. TheDC’s Alex Pappas reports:
“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pulled a page from the Clint Eastwood playbook on Monday, apparently in response to a joke from President Barack Obama about not wanting to drink with the Kentucky lawmaker. During the traditional White House Correspondents Dinner — where the president typically roasts political and media figures in Washington — Obama joked about his recent outreach to congressional Republicans. ‘Some folks still don’t think I spend enough time with Congress,’ Obama said Saturday night. ‘Why don’t you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?’ they ask. ‘Really? Why don’t you get a drink with Mitch McConnell.’ On Monday, McConnell responded on Twitter with a photo of himself drinking a beer at a bar in Hazard, K.Y. He’s sitting next to an empty chair, where a glass of red wine is positioned on the bar.”
ZING!
5.)Tweet of Yesterday — David Burge: Did you hear Obama’s WHCD joke about how he got high in college? LOL! Bet that one got a big laugh at the federal weed prison TV room.
6.) Today in North Korean News — BREAKING: “Abolition of Part-time Job Demanded in S. Korea”