South Korea Pushes Back -- House GOP Averts Shutdown -- Obama Pays For GOP Outreach Dinner -- Rand Paul Holds Senate Floor...For 12+ Hours! -- Menendez Scandal: How? -- Giffords Returns To Shooting Scene -- Arkansas Bans Abortions Past 12 Weeks -- Can President Obama Kill Americans? -- Study: More Gun Laws = Less Crime
SOUTH KOREA PUSHES BACK ON NORTH'S THREATS
SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean military warned on Wednesday that if it was provoked by North Korea, it would strike the North’s “command leadership,” escalating a war of words and hinting at an attack on a North Korean headquarters.
The day before, the North Korean People’s Army threatened to attack the United States and its ally South Korea with “lighter and smaller nukes,” apparently in reaction to the United Nations Security Council’s consideration of new, toughersanctions against the North over the nuclear test it conducted in February.
HOUSE GOP PASSES SHORT-TERM BUDGET DEAL TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
Washington — House Republicans approved legislation Wednesday to avoid a government shutdown at the end of this month while creating more flexibility in cutting $85 billion from this year's budget.
The budget bill, passed 267-151 mostly along party lines, would fund the government until the new fiscal year in October at the reduced levels set by the automatic sequester.
"We have won an important battle in the war to wean our nation off of this addiction of debt," said U.S. Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Milford.
GOP OUTREACH DINNER: OBAMA PICKS UP TAB
As part of his effort to improve relations between the White House and Capitol Hill, President Obama dined with a small group of Republican senators this evening and, according to the White House, he paid for the dinner out of his own pocket.
Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; John Hoeven, R-N.D.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; Bob Corker, R-Tenn.; Mike Johanns, R-Neb.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Richard Burr, R-N.C.; Dan Coats, R-Ind., Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; and Pat Toomey, R-Pa.; are among the senators who joined the president for dinner tonight. The group dined at the Jefferson Hotel a few blocks from the White House.
RAND PAUL (R-KY) USES RARE FILIBUSTER TO BLOCK OBAMA CIA NOMINEE
WASHINGTON — A Republican senator and tea party favorite from Kentucky used an old-style filibuster lasting nearly 13 hours to take control of the chamber and block Senate confirmation of John Brennan’s nomination to be CIA director.
Sen. Rand Paul ended his filibuster Thursday shortly after midnight, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, also a Kentucky Republican, said he would continue to oppose Brennan’s confirmation and resist ending the debate on President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the spy agency.
MENENDEZ PROSTITUTION SCANDAL: HOW IT HAPPENED
New Jersey Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez is demanding an investigation into the political operatives who may have been behind an elaborate plot to embroil him in an international sex scandal.
"I have no idea who is behind these efforts, but I hope that the press will pursue them as vigorously to find out who was behind these efforts as they did in the first place," Menendez said Tuesday. "All I know is obviously there must be interests [who] were trying to defeat me in my election and who obviously did not want to see me in my role as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."
GIFFORDS URGES BACKGROUND CHECKS IN EVENT AT SHOOTING LOCATION
TUCSON, Ariz. — Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords returned to the scene of the horrific shooting that wounded her and killed six people two years ago, urging senators Wednesday to pass background checks for gun purchases in her first public event at the site since the rampage.
Giffords, who is still recovering from her injuries, spoke fewer than 20 words in the parking lot of the Safeway grocery store in her hometown of Tucson in a brief but emotional call for stricter gun control measures.
ARKANSAS ADOPTS RESTRICTIVE BAN ON ABORTIONS AFTER 12 WEEKS
Arkansas adopted what is by far the country’s most restrictive ban onabortion on Wednesday — at 12 weeks of pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can typically be detected by abdominal ultrasound.
The law, the sharpest challenge yet to Roe v. Wade, was passed by the newly Republican-controlled legislature over the veto of Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, who called it “blatantly unconstitutional.” The State Senate voted Tuesday to override his veto and the House followed suit on Wednesday, with several Democrats joining the Republican majority.
KILLING AMERICANS ON U.S. SOIL: ERIC HOLDER'S EVASIVE, MANIPULATIVE LETTER
On December 7, 1941, Japanese war planes bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Six decades later, Al Qaeda terrorists flew hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Neither President Franklin Roosevelt nor President George W. Bush targeted and killed Americans on U.S. soil in the aftermath of those attacks. Doing so wouldn't have made any sense.
How strange, then, that Attorney General Eric Holder invoked those very attacks in a letter confirming that President Obama believes there are circumstances in which he could order Americans targeted and killed on U.S. soil. "It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws ... for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States," he wrote. "For example, the President could conceivably have no choice but to authorize the military to use such force if necessary to protect the homeland in the circumstances of a catastrophic attack like the ones suffered on December 7, 1941 and on September 11, 2001."
How strange, then, that Attorney General Eric Holder invoked those very attacks in a letter confirming that President Obama believes there are circumstances in which he could order Americans targeted and killed on U.S. soil. "It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws ... for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States," he wrote. "For example, the President could conceivably have no choice but to authorize the military to use such force if necessary to protect the homeland in the circumstances of a catastrophic attack like the ones suffered on December 7, 1941 and on September 11, 2001."
STATES WITH MORE GUN LAWS HAVE LESS VIOLENCE
States with more gun laws have fewer gun-related deaths, according to a new study released Wednesday by Boston Children's Hospital.
The leader investigator behind the research hopes the findings will drive legislators to pass gun reform across the country and increase federal funding to research on gun laws and violence. However, at least one critic argues that the study fails to take into account several important factors such as the types of laws, enforcement of laws, and gun ownership rates in states.
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