Like to laugh? Like to be informed? Then sign up for TheDC Morning email here.
1.) Is Dennis Rodman a Nobel man? — Could Dennis Rodman be the next Nobel Peace Prize winner? Gabe Finger reports for TheDC:
“Dennis Rodman touted his diplomatic relationship and friendship with North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un and said that his efforts should put him in the running for the Noble Peace Prize, in an interview with Sports Illustrated Tuesday. …’My mission is to break the ice between hostile countries, Why it’s been left to me to smooth things over, I don’t know. Dennis Rodman, of all people,’ he said. ‘Keeping us safe is really not my job; it’s the black guy’s job. But I’ll tell you this: If I don’t finish in the top three for the next Nobel Peace Prize, something’s seriously wrong.'”
Considering the past recipients, it seems like a possibility. President Obama won the prize after accomplishing nothing. Dennis Rodman has also accomplished nothing for peace to date. In fact, Rodman has more qualifications than some other recipients. While he has no accomplishments, at least he didn’t run a terrorist organization like Yasser Arafat, another past recipient, though he has praised a brutal dictator. Evaluating everything, TheDC Morning gives him a 50% chance of taking the prize.
2.) Fake it until you make it — Shane Smith heads the Vice media empire, which produces some of the best foreign video reporting on the Internet and now on TV with its HBO show. He also has a penchant for making things up about himself from time to time, according to reporting for TheDC by Charles Johnson:
“In May 2007, Smith told Patrick Sisson in a Playboy interview that he was a wartime reporter for Reuters in Bosnia. ‘You wrote for Reuters in Bosnia in the 1990s,’ Sisson began in the Playboy interview. ‘Did that experience affect how you viewed the world and the way you look at Vice?’ ‘Definitely,’ Smith replied. ‘I went down to Serbia and Croatia during the war. I covered the ethnic cleansing and did a big thing on [former Yugoslavian dictator Josip Broz] Tito’ he said. …But representatives for both the Budapest Sun and Reuters told TheDC that neither company has a record of Smith ever working for them, let alone a massive story on Tito under his byline, which he would have had to write in his early twenties.”
Johnson has several other examples. But considering how awesome Smith’s product is — his HBO show is one of the best and most informative on television — your DC Morning facilitator is willing to overlook Smith’s Donald Trump-like exaggerations as long as he keeps churning out his great videos.
3.) Organizing for $5 –Organizing for Action is a nonprofit group that advocates for President Obama’s agenda and is known for sending a never-ending stream of emails asking for money. Recently, the emails have become more hostile and demanding. In a satirical scoop, TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein has obtained a recent batch of the organization’s most hostile emails soliciting cash by its executive director:
“I’m working with the president to put together his drone kill list and I noticed that you still haven’t donated to OFA yet. Maybe now’s the time to act? As you know, OFA is on the forefront helping to push the president’s agenda. I would hate for you to be killed by an air robot before you see us change America. More to come soon, but in the meantime, please take a minute out of your busy day to give us $5. Your life is worth $5, right?”
Check out the other faux emails. They’ll make you laugh (hopefully).
4.) Mandate a new date — As America gets ready for July 4, the White House dropped a bomb. They were hoping no one was paying attention. But TheDC’s Alexis Levinson was. She reports:
“Businesses won’t be fined for not providing health insurance to their employees for one more year, the Obama administration said Tuesday evening, announcing that they would delay the implementation of that mandate in the Affordable Care Act until 2015 — after the midterm elections. A blog post by White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett on the White House blog explained that the goal of the postponement is to help “[cut] the red tape” in the “reporting process” for employers, and to give employers “more time to comply.” …By postponing the implementation of the mandate until 2015, the White House potentially spares Democratic candidates in 2014 — including several vulnerable Democratic senators seeking re-election in red states — from attacks surrounding the implementation of the law during the midterm elections. Republicans have already made clear that they will attack Democrats relentlessly on Obamacare and its implementation.”
5.) Tweet of Yesterday — Jonah Goldberg: Hey Egyptian protestors. Start a chant about the Zimmerman trial and all the nets will break away to cover you.
6.) Today in North Korean News — BREAKING: “U.S. Is Arch Criminal Increasing Tensions on Korean Peninsula: Organizations ”
SLIDESHOW: The do’s and don’t’s of getting to the Hamptons this July 4
