HUFFPOST HILL - House Approves Long Weekend Of Government Funding.. Republicans To Tornadoes: Bring It On.. Chris Christie Is The Steve Schmidt Of Middle School Politics
By Eliot Nelson, Ryan Grim & Arthur Delaney
BANK OF AMERICA JUST BEGGING TO GO DOWN - Bank of America today announced that it would begin charging $5 per month for debit card usage, because defrauding homeowners and cashing taxpayer checks was no longer a winning business model. Well, they announced that first part, but they actually blamed Wall Street reform and a cap the Fed will put Saturday on the swipe fees they can charge merchants. Don't believe it: BofA is getting crushed in the market and simply wants your money. HuffPost Hill will eat its overdraft notices if these fees are still around a year from now. In January 2010, TCF Bank, which pioneered free checking in the 1980s, announced it would begin charging a monthly fee in response to Fed rules restricting overdraft charges. The move was regularly cited during the 2010 swipe fee fracas as evidence of the harm that would befall consumers if Dick Durbin didn't back off. This January, TCF brought back free checking after losing customers. But this isn't the worst crisis consumers have faced! One day before the Senate was expected to vote on delaying swipe fee reform, Chase went nuclear: Thanks to the Durbin amendment, thousands of Chase customers were warned, your kid can forget about that trip to Disney World. "Congress recently enacted a new law known as the Durbin Amendment that significantly impacts debit cards," reads the letter. "As a result of this law, we will be changing our debit rewards program. After July 21, 2011 you will no longer earn Disney Dream Reward Dollars when you use your Disney Rewards Debit Card." Which reminds us: Did we ever tell you about the great swipe fee fight?
Odd time for Eric Cantor to be taking Bank of America's side, but what do we know? @BDayspring: This should help Washington's approval..... Dodd-Frank: The End Of Free Checking? http://ht.ly/6IPaf #tcot #gop
Dave Jamieson: "In a sign that unions are looking to make the most of the Citizens United decision, labor groups launched a new 'super PAC' Thursday that plans to pour money toward pro-labor Democrats in key 2012 Congressional elections. The American Worker PAC will focus its attention on some two dozen elections in 11 states, mostly where Latino voters will figure prominently, according to PAC president Chuck Rocha."
HOUSE APPROVES FOUR-DAY GOV'T SPENDING MEASURE - Throw up the decorations! Pump up the music! Break out the champagne (and the good stuff, too! Don't skimp!)! The government won't shut down for another few days, at least! Wooooooo!!! The lower chamber reconvened briefly today to approve, via unanimous consent, the stopgap continuing resolution passed by the Senate. The House will then take up the longer-term CR also passed last week by the Senate. There were concerns that a very conservative Republican would try to block passage of the measure, but it's essentially recess right now and that hypothetical very conservative Republican was probably off in his or her hypothetical district with his or her hypothetical kids seeing them off to their hypothetical Christian day school. [Roll Call]
WaPo, with the scene: "Thanks to an unusual procedural tactic, all that was required was for a handful of legislators to show up -- and then shut up. Their silence would be interpreted as 'unanimous consent,' and the bill would pass...'I ask unanimous consent,' said Rep. John Abney Culberson (R-Tex.) in Thursday's session, to 'concur in the Senate amendments.' Silence. One-one-thousand. Two-one-thousand. Done. 'Without objection, the Senate amendments are concurred in,' said Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who presided over the five-minute, 46-second session. With that, the House approved a bill to get the United States through Tuesday." [WaPo]
Why did Mark Halperin do a live MSNBC hit this morning from an airplane bathroom? And we thought he was suspended or something?
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - Tom Kuzdal of New Britain, Conn. sent DDD a dispatch from his 35th month of unemployment. "Started my morning by applying to every damned shit job that was out there. One of the first took some time, maybe half an hour, since I didn't want to upload my resume," wrote Kuzdal, who is 57. "By the time my search was over, and I'd gone out for some lunch, my rejection email was waiting for me. I count the days until 'retirement' and I don't think I'll make it. As always, I understand that others are in tougher shape." Free advice from Joe Biden: "Hang in there."
DOUBLE DOWNER - "He kept his normal desk, and they simply did not provide him any work activities. They didn't invite him to meetings, even though he had superior knowledge to everyone in the department," Tom Eppenauer said. "It's hard to fathom. Here's a very highly educated man, very knowledgeable in that field, and they just threw him in the trash." [HuffPost]
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REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS FROM AMERICA'S MOST DISASTER-PRONE STATES DON'T WANT MORE FEMA FUNDS - The 11 Republican senators who represent parts of the country that regularly feel the business end of Mother Nature's fist voted to deny FEMA the funds it said it needed to not go bankrupt. "The top two states, Texas and Oklahoma, combined for more than a quarter of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's declared disasters since Jan. 1, 2009. Still, the four Republicans from those states most frequently aided by FEMA opposed legislation to increase the fund without offsets. One of them, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, said to do so would be 'unconscionable.' Along with Texas (75 disasters) and Oklahoma (45), seven other states also had 10 or more disasters declared since the start of 2009, shortly before President Obama took office." To be fair, we're sure the churchgoers who Ron Paul would put charge of poor people's cancer treatments would no doubt set aside their external beam radiation machines that they no doubt have to make room for displaced tornado victims. [iWatch News]
For a meager $4,500, you can be the proud owner of a six-foot Rick Perry Chia head. For much more than that, you can undergo the therapy necessary to undo the trauma of actually seeing the six-foot Rick Perry Chia head
HARASSMENT COMPLAINTS INCREASING ON CAPITOL HILL - Washington D.C. is a magnet for taciturn and/or awkward dudes with Croakies who often channel their lives' various frustrations (romantic bad luck, varsity basketball rejections, being short, being rejected from varsity basketball for being short, etc) into a tool-ish disrespectful attitude toward other people, especially women. So it's no surprise, then, that harassment complaints are on the rise in the nation's capitol. That's the finding of a report by the nonpartisan Office of Compliance, titled "State of the Congressional Workplace." The Capitol, of course, is a bastion of equality, with lines upon lines of discrimination protections included in its bylaws. Or not. As Ed O'Keefe notes, "offices aren't required to keep personnel records, provide mandatory anti-discrimination training or protect whistleblowers despite forcing other government agencies and private employers to do so, according to [the] report." [WaPo]
JON HUNTSMAN MOVING CAMPAIGN HQ TO NEW HAMPSHIRE - The former Utah governor, in a sign that he's really staking it all on the New Hampshire primary, is moving his base of operations from Florida to the Granite State. "This move will ensure that we have the resources necessary to win the first in the nation primary," Huntsman's Campaign Manager Matt David told the Times. "Success in New Hampshire is vital for our campaign to have the momentum we need to succeed in South Carolina, Florida and the states that follow." [NYT]
ATTTAACCKKK WAAAUUUGGGHHHTTCH!!!!
MITT ROMNEY DEFENDS IN CONSERVATIVE BONA FIDES BY CITING KEYNES - During an appearance in New Hampshire yesterday, Mitt Romney tried to defuse criticisms that he is a flip-flopper by quoting Winston Churchill. "In the private sector, if you don't change your view when the facts change, well you'll get fired for being stubborn and stupid." he said in response to a question. "Winston Churchill said, 'When the facts change, I change too, Madam.'" The thing is, Winston Churchill didn't say that. The father of interventionist economics, John Maynard Keynes, did (the actual quote was slightly different). We can't wait for the former Massachusetts governor to roll out his next campaign slogan, Mitt Romney 2012: Religion Is The Opium Of The People. [NBC News]
Newt Gingrich has unveiled a working version of his new "Contract With America." Though the stunt itself dredges up a '90s phenomenon, we're disappointed that the proposal itself isn't littered with played-out 90s references ("The Democrat plan to wrest control of Americans' right to their own health care choices is unforgivable. To that I say 'No soup for you!'" etc.). It actually just rehashes a lot of well-worn GOP policy ideas (repealing health care reform, veto of any tax increase, etc). It also focuses a lot on neurology, for some reason. "The section on brain science ... will be extraordinary as it is flushed out over the next few months," Gingrich told The Daily Caller on Tuesday. Brain-based recovery! [Daily Caller]
THE DAILY CALLER'S FEVER DREAM - Not even the National Review is backing the Daily Caller's insane story that the EPA will hire, like, a billion meter readers (or something). Will the Caller correct or retract? We doubt it. [The Corner]
A reporter today asked Newt Gingrich about his fundraising. "See, I knew you couldn't resist. I'm not going to answer you," the former House speaker replied. "You should really go home and think about why you would even ask that today." So we guess that means "not well." [LA Times]
We wholeheartedly endorse FamousDC's "Capitol Hill Bingo."
CHRIS CHRISTIE TORPEDOES KID'S MIDDLE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN - During a town hall gathering last month in Union Township, New Jersey, 11-year-old Zack Martini (is there a more 11-year-old-ish name?) asked Governor Chris Christie for political advice. Zack, you see, was running for a spot on his school's student council. Christie replied that the young politico should make colorful signs, campaign often, recruit friends to assist him and not to make promises he couldn't keep. Yeah, Zack lost. "Unfortunately, the results from the election didn't go our way," Zack's dad, Ed Martini, said. "Zack is disappointed he didn't win but he wishes the new president, Zoe Frie, the best of luck." [Yahoo News]
"Sam Brownback is trying to Rick-Roll Kansas." That's the first line of an email being circulated by the Kansas Democratic Party [Editor's Note: What's a "Kansas Democratic Party"?]. The gist of the emails is that the Kansas governor, who endorsed Rick Perry last week, is springing Perry's conservative policies on the state. As much as we want to make fun of the email for its outdated reference, the line "Sam Brownback will Rick-Roll our state if we do nothing to stop him" is just too good.
Gentlemen, we can rebuild Chris Christie presidential speculation. We have the technology. The New York Post has the capability to build this hot piece of breaking news about the New Jersey governor: "After months of hedging, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is giving serious thought to jumping into the ring for a GOP presidential run -- and could make his decision next week, The Post has learned." Now you know. [NY Post]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Puppy versus step.
JEREMY'S WEATHER REPORT - Tonight Cold but relatively clear. We fall to the 60s (and will keep falling for a while, remember). Tomorrow: Mid 70s, with partly-cloudy skies. It's going to be freezing at night, though. Thanks, JB!
COMFORT FOOD
- This is a strange cat. [http://huff.to/rjEDej]
- Time-lapse video of the construction of a life-sized car made out of LEGOs. [http://huff.to/rbdgz8]
- A 1959 explanatory stop-motion video about how computers work. Narrated by a guy with a heavy accent, for extra charm. [http://huff.to/pzynPB]
- Everything Is Terrible put together a supercut of people in 90s movies exclaiming "It's the 90s!" and other enthusiastic statements about the 90s. [http://huff.to/oYBJ1g]
- A guy programmed two floppy disk drives to play the Imperial March from Star Wars. This is, if we may say so, the single greatest thing ever. [http://bit.ly/o9kzR0]
- History's greatest and most unnecessary multitasker. [http://huff.to/nZ9u67]
- Rolling Stone spoke with Jon Stewart and discussed how "The Daily Show" is put together. [http://huff.to/nOVoiV]
- That Taiwanese animation studio made a fake trailer for the Angry Birds movie that is in the works and they have a very ... interesting interpretation. [http://bit.ly/oi0VPT]
TWITTERAMA
@dandresner: I have it on good authority that Hezbollah is in league with the Parti Quebecois
@TPCarney: Lesson # 15,225 in keeping personal/professional twitter accounts straight. (Pun intended). http://twitpic.com/6sd2rg
@LEBassett: Do you ever stop and think to yourself, wait, why am I watching this Youtube video of a gypsy horse giving birth?
ON TAP
TONIGHT
6:00 pm:
TOMORROW
Tomorrow - Saturday: Jim Sensenbrenner hosts an "Erin Hills Golf Tournament and Dinner" at the Erin Hills Country Club in Wisconsin. It's Wisconsin in early October, so bring 8 sweaters. [Erin Hills Country Club - 7169 Country Road O, Hartford, WI].
Tomorrow- Sunday: LET THE EAGGGLEEEEEE SOOOAAAARRRRRRRR. Lamar Alexander is the host of a "Nashville Songwriters Weekend." The invite doesn't mention any specific songwriters, but it does says that Orrin Hatch, John Barrasso, Richard Lugar, Roger Wicker, Olympia Snowe and Scott Brown will be on hand. [Nashville, TN]
Tomorrow - Sunday: Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas continues his California agrarian shakedown tour with a "Weekend In Napa." Pay up, you stupid winos! [Avia, 1450 First Street, Napa, CA]
Tomorrow - Sunday: Nick Rahall hosts a weekend fundraising retreat at the Greenbrier, the famous resort/congressional Cold War post-Apocalypse retreat. [Greenbrier Hotel, White Sulphur Springs, West Spring, WV]
Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com), Ryan Grim (ryan@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill). Sign up here: http://huff.to/an2k2e
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