Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Heritage’s Mike Gonzalez, film critic Christian Toto and guest host Dan Bongino joined WMAL on Thursday morning.
Mornings on the Mall
Thursday, November 18, 2014
Hosts: Brian Wilson and guest host Dan Bongino
5am – A/B/C US, Cuba patch torn relations in historic accord as Alan Gross is freed. WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Cuba will start talks on normalizing full diplomatic relations, marking the most significant shift in U.S. policy toward the communist island in decades, American officials said Wednesday. The announcement comes amid a series of new confidence-building measures between the longtime foes, including the release of American Alan Gross and the freeing of three Cubans jailed in the U.S.
>> GOP Hill leaders balk at Obama Cuba policy. President Barack Obama’s plan to chart a “new course” with the Cuban government is being met with stiff resistance from congressional leaders. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday that U.S. relations with the communist nation “should not be revisited.”
5am – D Bowser and Chaffetz agree: 2024 Olympics would be great for Washington, D.C. (Washington Post) — The District’s incoming Democratic mayor and the Utah Republican soon to assume congressional oversight of D.C. affairs agree on this bipartisan goal: It would be great to bring the Olympics to Washington. “What a great thing it would be for the nation,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz said he told Mayor-elect Muriel E. Bowser. The prospect of bringing the 2024 Summer Games to the city was one of the topics covered during a 20-minute get-to-know-you session Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill between Bowser, who assumes the mayoralty Jan. 2, and the incoming chairman of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Chaffetz said in an interview that he would not only support the D.C. bid for the 2024 Games — having seen the impact of the 2002 Winter Games on Utah — but would urge Republicans in Congress to spend federal funds in support of a successful Olympics in the nation’s capital. “Clearly, it is a national event, and it would be appropriate, as it was in Salt Lake [City], for federal funds to be injected,” Chaffetz said. “It’s very difficult to pull it off otherwise.”
5am – E Army's blimp-like airships get East Coast test. (AP) — MIDDLE RIVER, Md. — The Army showed off a blimp-like airship Wednesday that is designed to help the military detect and destroy cruise missiles speeding toward the nation's capital or other major East Coast cities. The radar-toting vehicle will be launched next week as part of a three-year test of the system at Aberdeen Proving Ground, about 25 miles northeast of Baltimore. When fully deployed next spring, the system will feature two, unmanned, helium-filled aerostats, tethered to concrete pads 4 miles apart. They'll float at an altitude of 10,000 feet, about one-third as high as a commercial airliner's cruising altitude. One balloon will continuously scan in a circle from upstate New York to North Carolina's Outer Banks, and as far west as central Ohio. The other will carry precision radar to help the military on the ground to pinpoint targets. The aerostats won't carry weapons, military officials said. Enemy missiles would be destroyed by air-, ground- or ship-based weapons.
6am – A/B/C Sony cancels ‘The Interview’ amid terror hack threats. NEW YORK (AP) — Under the threat of terrorist attacks from hackers and with the nation’s largest multiplex chains pulling the film from their screens, Sony Pictures Entertainment took the unprecedented step of canceling the Dec. 25 release of the Seth Rogen comedy “The Interview.” The cancellation announced Wednesday was a startling blow to the Hollywood studio that has been shaken by hacker leaks and intimidations over the last several weeks by an anonymous group calling itself Guardians of Peace. A U.S. official said Wednesday that federal investigators have now connected the Sony hacking to North Korea and may make an announcement in the near future. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to openly discuss an ongoing criminal case.
6am – D/E Poll: GOP Favorability Up 14 Points; Obama, Dems Falter. (Newsmax) — The huge Republican gains in the midterm elections have resulted in a substantial increase in the party’s standing with the public, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. In the new poll, 47 percent said they have a favorable view of the Republican Party compared to 33 percent in October, the Post reported Wednesday. The new poll found that an equal percentage view Republicans negatively – the first time in six years that fewer than half of Americans expressed this view of the GOP. According to the poll, Republicans have a nine-point advantage over President Barack Obama on who Americans trust to handle the economy and are also nine points ahead of the president on handling immigration issues.
Arizona's McSally wins House race in recount, adds to GOP's historic majority. (Fox News) — Arizona Republican Martha McSally on Wednesday was declared the winner of the final 2014 congressional race — giving her party its largest House majority in 83 years when the new Congress convenes next month. McSally defeated Democratic incumbent Rep. Ron Barber by just 167 votes, in the third contest between them in three years. Barber was a staffer for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords when he and the congresswoman were wounded during a political event in Tucson in January 2011. Barber then won a special election to finish Giffords' term. He defeated McSally in 2012 to win a full term in Congress, in a race separated by fewer than 2,500 votes. McSally, the first U.S. female Air Force combat pilot, won this rematch in a year in which the GOP made big gains across the country. The results of the mandatory recount means Republicans will hold their largest House majority since the administration of President Herbert Hoover, controlling 247 seats to 188 for Democrats.
7am – A INTERVIEW — CONGRESSMAN CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD)
- Sens. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Rep. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-Md.) flew to Cuba to bring Gross back to the United States, where he was greeted at Andrews Air Force base by additional lawmakers.
- US, Cuba patch torn relations in historic accord as Alan Gross is freed. WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Cuba will start talks on normalizing full diplomatic relations, marking the most significant shift in U.S. policy toward the communist island in decades, American officials said Wednesday. The announcement comes amid a series of new confidence-building measures between the longtime foes, including the release of American Alan Gross and the freeing of three Cubans jailed in the U.S.
- GOP Hill leaders balk at Obama Cuba policy. President Barack Obama’s plan to chart a “new course” with the Cuban government is being met with stiff resistance from congressional leaders. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday that U.S. relations with the communist nation “should not be revisited.”
7am – B BlackBerry courts fans with new 'Classic' smartphone in last-ditch effort to stay relevant. BlackBerry is returning to its roots with a new phone that features a traditional keyboard at a time when rival Apple and Android phones — and most smartphone customers — have embraced touch screens. With the Classic, BlackBerry is courting its core customer, the business user. The physical keyboard is something traditional BlackBerry users prefer because they find it easier than touch screens to type with. The company is also emphasizing battery life and security. "A lot of people say the Classic is aiming for loyal customers. And that is true," CEO John Chen said at the gadget's launch event, tellingly held in New York City's Financial District. But he also invited people who haven't used a BlackBerry "especially people who are young," to try the BlackBerry Classic. Pioneered in 1999 with the launch of the RIM 950, BlackBerry changed the culture by allowing on-the-go business people to access email wirelessly. Then came a new generation of competing smartphones, and suddenly the BlackBerry looked ancient. Apple showed that phones can handle much more than email and phone calls. Blackberry was late in overhauling its operating system to compete. BlackBerry now holds a small fraction of the U.S. smartphone market after commanding a nearly 50 percent share as recently as 2009.
7am – C If you live in this area north of Logan Circle, don't drink your tap water. (WTOP) — WASHINGTON – DC Water is warning customers in the Shaw and upper Logan Circle area not to drink the water. The water utility has received reports of a petroleum smell in the area’s water. Anyone who notices a petroleum smell in their tap water should not drink the water nor bath or shower in it. Customers in the area should use bottled water for drinking and cooking until tests confirm that the water is safe. The do-not-drink order was issued at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. The area in blue is affected by the do-not-drink order. The affected area is borded by: South – Q Street NW and Rhode Island; East – 8th Street NW; West – 13th Street NW; North – S Street NW between 9th and 13th; Streets NW and T Street NW between 7th and 9th streets; But customers who live outside of the affected area should also not drink the water if they notice a petroleum-like smell.
7am – D/E The Obamas Cry Racism over Target shopping and Valet incidents. Was it really racism? Michelle Obama: I Was Asked to Take Something Off a Shelf at Target. (Weekly Standard) — The Obamas talked with People magazine about dealing with their "own racist experiences," as the magazine described. Michelle Obama told one story that recently took place, even as she was first lady of the United States. "I tell this story – I mean, even as the first lady – during that wonderfully publicized trip I took to Target, not highly disguised, the only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf. Because she didn't see me as the first lady, she saw me as someone who could help her. Those kinds of things happen in life. So it isn't anything new," Michelle Obama, who is 5'11", said. She also said that her husband, Barack Obama, was asked to get coffee when he was wearing a tux. "He was wearing a tuxedo at a black-tie dinner, and somebody asked him to get coffee," she told People. The president told his own experiences. "There's no black male my age, who's a professional, who hasn't come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn't hand them their car keys," Obama told the magazine.
8am – A INTERVIEW – MIKE GONZALEZ – Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation and the author of “A Race for the Future” How Conservatives Can Break the Liberal Monopoly on Hispanic Americans.”
- A native of Cuba, Mike Gonzalez escaped the Castro regime at age 12. He is a senior fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Davis Institute for International Studies and the author of “A Race for the Future” How Conservatives Can Break the Liberal Monopoly on Hispanic Americans.”
- Obama hands Cuba's Castros a major victory, but Congress can still stop it. (By Mike Gonzalez/FoxNews.com) — Establishing ties with Cuba has been on President Obama’s bucket list for some time. Health care — done. Amnesty for illegal immigrants — done. Cuba — next. This last one also has the added bonus point that it puts him right with the international left, which lionizes Castro. And the president will go on picking off the next items on the bucket list for the next two years of his term unless Congress decides to stop him. Should they work up the gumption, lawmakers will find they can do many things to stand up for the prerogatives of the legislative branch.
8am – B/C US, Cuba patch torn relations in historic accord as Alan Gross is freed. Marco Rubio Fires Back On Cuba: Obama Is The 'Worst Negotiator' In My Lifetime.
8am – D INTERVIEW – CHRISTIAN TOTO – Movie critic and editor of www.HollywoodInToto.com
- Sony cancels ‘The Interview’ amid terror hack threats
- Christian Toto: 5 Takeaways from ‘The Interview’ Cancellation (So Far)
TOMORROW: Amb. John Bolton, Bret Baier and WMAL’s Redskins analyst Trevor Matich and guest host Heritage’s chief economist Steve Moore
