Morning Reads: Hillary Fundraising Will "Astound and Intimidate"

Good morning — and happy Friday! Today is National Pie Day — you know what to do.

On this date in 1964, the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibited the use of discriminatory poll taxes in elections, was ratified by Congress. In 1973, Richard Nixon announced that a peace agreement had been reached with North Vietnam, and in 1997, Madeleine Albright became the first woman ever sworn in as secretary of state.

Stat of the day: 94 percent — 15 of the 16 Republican House members who took to the Congress floor Wednesday night to urge passage of an abortion ban after 20 weeks were men, according to The Hill.

“The next ruler of the House of Saud has a full plate” –> Saudi Arabia’s monarch, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud, died on Thursday at age 90. At Foreign Policy, Yochi Dreazen looks at the potential ramifications of his passing at a tumultuous time for the country and the region.

Sentenced –> Journalist and former Anonymous member Barrett Brown was sentenced to 63 months in prison and ordered to pay $890,000 in fines for linking to hacked material on the Internet and then withholding information from investigators. Nicky Woolf has the story at The Guardian.

Bait-and-switch –> After a high-profile fumble on a 20-week abortion ban on Wednesday, the House, on a party-line vote, voted to ban all federal funding of abortions. WaPo’s Dana Milbank says the push to pass these bills is a “classic bait-and-switch. Abortion got barely a mention in last year’s campaign, which led to unified Republican control of Congress,” he writes. “Voters in exit polls said their top priorities were the economy (45 percent), health care (25 percent), immigration (14 percent) and foreign policy (13 percent) — not surprising, given that these are the issues Republicans talked about.” AND: HuffPo’s Jennifer Bendery explains how an obscure provision in the bill would hit “the bulk of small businesses” with a tax hike.

Like shock and awe? –> The Hill’s Amie Parnes reports that Hillary Clinton “plans to astound, intimidate with fundraising ‘like nothing you’ve seen.’” An announcement whether she’s running is expected in March or April.

In post-racial America… –> A dozen employees at three McDonald’s in Virginia are suing for racial discrimination. At The Root, Breanna Edwards reports that, according to the suit, “when the sweeping firings of 17 minority staff in May occurred, managers said that the restaurants were ‘too dark’ and that they ‘need to get the ghetto out of the store.'” They were replaced with white workers.

The world’s greatest deliberative body –> Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, the new chair of the Senate Environment Committee, began his tenure with a lengthy rant about how global warming is a hoax.

“Three cheers for the death tax” –> At The Daily Beast, Michael Tomasky writes that “the work conservatives have put into protecting great fortunes and making sure that poor Paris Hilton gets her fair shake” has been “amazing,” given that “there is no moral basis whatsoever for shielding large estates from taxation.”

Walking it back –> On Wednesday, Tamir Pardo, the head of Mossad — Israel’s intelligence service — made news when he said new sanctions on Iran would scuttle the chances of a peace deal. Barak Ravid reports for Ha’aretz that Pardo issued a “rare” press release the following day denying that he opposed new sanctions. The turnabout is indicative of the stakes as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to address a joint session of Congress on March 3, just two weeks ahead of Israeli elections. AND: According to Reuters, neither Barack Obama nor John Kerry will meet with Netanyahu when he’s in DC, saying that they don’t want to appear to be influencing Israeli politics.

“On the verge of mass extinction” –> That’s the MoJo headline. Tom Philpott describes the state of the world’s oceans. But he also writes that it’s not too late to avoid disaster if we act now.

“Do the religious beliefs of Supreme Court justices influence their decisions?” –> For the first time in history, the highest court is presided over by three Jews and six Catholics, several of whom are devout. At Moment Magazine, a panel of court-watchers and religious analysts consider whether — and how — the justices’ faith guides their jurisprudence.

OK, then! –> This Raw Story headline says it all: “Kentucky Republican says 1891 law lets him drive drunk while he’s in office.”

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