U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power said Thursday that Russia is holding the U.N. Security Council "hostage," forcing the U.S. to act alone in response to a chemical weapons attack carried out by the Syrian regime.

"Russia continues to hold the council hostage and shirk its international responsibilities, including as a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention," Power told reporters at the U.N. in New York, as quoted by Politico.

Power accused the council of protecting Russian interests at the expense of Middle East stability, calling Russia "the patron of a regime that would brazenly stage the world's largest chemical weapons attack in a quarter-century, while chemical weapons inspectors sent by the United Nations were just across town," according to Politico.

She added that the U.S. has attempted to address the Syrian conflict through the U.N.'s diplomatic channels for the past two and a half years, but said the country must resort to using force on its own due to Russia's position.

Attorneys for a Florida man who allegedly killed two people at a Labor Day barbecue filed a motion to have their client's murder charges dismissed under the state's "Stand Your Ground" law, Florida Today reported Wednesday.

Police said William T. Woodward "snuck up" on the barbecue and opened fire on three neighbors, killing two men and injuring one, according to the newspaper. In addition to the state's 'Stand Your Ground' law, Woodward's legal team also argued that the three men posed an imminent threat to Woodward because they had been threatening to "get him" in the hours prior to the shooting.

The motion argued that Woodward could have expected an attack based on those words alone. It cited the "Bush Doctrine" to justify Woodward's response to the perceived threats, referring to George W. Bush's concept of waging pre-emptive war against potential threats before they metastasize into imminent threats.

“I think legally that term has sort of been evolving especially given changes of our government’s definition of ‘imminent,’” Robert Berry, one of the attorneys representing Woodward, told Florida Today. “It’s become more expansive than someone putting a gun right to your head. It’s things that could become, you know, an immediate threat.”

[Image via Varlanov Anatoly / Shutterstock]

President Barack Obama called a bipartisan group of five senators on Wednesday as part of "continued engagement with members of Congress on Syria," according to Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes. 

Obama said Wednesday at a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden that he believes lawmakers will ultimately approve a resolution allowing him to move forward with limited strikes against Syria, although he does not believe he was required to consult Congress on the matter.

TPM is keeping track of where members of Congress stand on the Syrian intervention vote.

The Louisiana National Guard plans to ignore a Pentagon order directing the military to process benefits for same-sex couples because the state Constitution does not recognize gay marriage, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Wednesday.

"The state of Louisiana does not recognize same-sex marriage, nor does it allow state officials to take part in an act that recognizes same-sex marriage. We would refer those individuals interested in applying for such benefits to seek guidance at a federal military installation," Lt. Col. Michael Kazmierzak, a spokesman for the state's National Guard, told the newspaper.

Gays in the military were able to begin applying for benefits on Tuesday, following the Pentagon's announcement that it would recognize same-sex marriages. Since that announcement, Texas and Mississippi appear to be the only other states with a ban on gay marriage that have also decided to limit benefit requests from same-sex military couples.

Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) on Wednesday criticized newly-elected Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA)'s decision to vote "present" on a resolution to authorize military strikes in Syria.

Brown called Markey's vote "unreal" in a Facebook post, slamming him for not taking a side even though he has access to the information available to him as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"Please let him know that the people of MA did not send him down there to vote 'present', they sent him down there to at least vote," Brown wrote. "He gets a check, he should vote."

After the committee's vote to pass the resolution, Markey explained “a 'no’ vote would have indicated I had sufficient information on which to base the decision. Which I did not," as quoted by the Boston Globe.

“I want to make sure I make an informed, correct vote,” he added. “The people of Massachusetts expect their senators to have analyzed all the facts, and I want to make sure I have all the facts before I cast that vote.”

The National Rifle Association on Wednesday weighed in on the American Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit to end the federal government's phone data dragnet.

The NRA filed a friend of court brief in federal district court that argued the government's interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act could lead to the creation of a "national gun registry."

"Under the government’s reading of Section 215, the government could simply demand the periodic submission of all firearms dealers’ transaction records, then centralize them in a database indexed by the buyers’ names for later searching," the brief read.

When that government-mandated data is combined with phone call logs obtained by the National Security Agency -- including gun owner's calls to shooting ranges, gun stores or the NRA -- the government could predict with "near certainty" who owns a firearm, the organization argued.

The NRA brief acknowledged Congress' legislative efforts, both before and after the authorization of the Patriot Act, to prevent the creation of a national firearms registry and respect gun owner's privacy.

But the organization argued it would be "absurd to think that the Congress would adopt and maintain a web of statutes intended to protect against the creation of a national gun registry, while simultaneously authorizing the FBI and the NSA to gather records that could effectively create just such a registry."

[h/t The Hill]

A Republican county clerk issued Los Alamos County, N.M.'s first same-sex marriage license Wednesday after a judge ruled she must in district court.

Los Alamos County Clerk Sharon Stover declined to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple last week, telling TPM on Friday that she would review a judge's order to issue licenses with her attorneys. On Tuesday, she decided to fight the order.

For Wednesday's ruling, district court Judge Sheri Raphaelson based her decision on the language of the New Mexico statute addressing marriage licenses and stated that the law refers only to "the couple" without making any gender distinctions, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Raphaelson ruled Stover, as the clerk, "has no discretion" when a couple asks for a marriage license.

The ruling made Los Alamos the eighth New Mexico county to begin offering same-sex marriage licenses, according to the Journal.

Correction: This post originally described Stover as having defied the court order. In fact, the judge had directed the clerk to either issue licenses or appear at a court hearing to make the legal arguments for why licenses should not be issued. Stover decided to argue the case in court and the judge ruled against her.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) rejected a request to meet with Russian lawmakers to discuss the situation in Syria, CNN reported Wednesday.

"The Speaker has declined the Russian embassy's request that he meet with a delegation," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told CNN.

Russian President Vladimir Putin supported sending a delegation of lawmakers to lobby Congress to take a more balanced position on the issue. A spokesman for the Russian embassy in Washington told CNN that diplomats sent a formal request to congressional leaders, but did not say which lawmakers would travel with the delegation or when and where the meeting would take place. It's unclear if any members of Congress have agreed to the meeting.

Boehner announced Tuesday that he would back President Barack Obama's plan to use limited military strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Liberal advocacy group MoveOn announced Wednesday that 73 percent of its members voted they were opposed to military intervention in Syria.

The group said in an email to supporters that following its members' vote it would launch a "major effort" calling on lawmakers to vote against a proposed resolution authorizing the use of military force in Syria. 

"We have seen the rushed march to war before. We cannot allow it again," MoveOn's executive director of civic action, Anna Galland, wrote in the email. "Congress, and the nation, should not be forced into a binary debate over strikes or nothing. In response to the tragic reports of chemical weapons use in Syria, the US needs to lead in the way in engaging with the international community, while rigorously exploring alternatives to military action, including negotiations, economic sanctions, diplomacy, and promotion of humanitarian aid."

Boston Mayor Tom Menino apologized Wednesday for a "poor choice of words" when he said in an interview that were he the mayor of Detroit, he'd "blow up" the city and "start all over."

Menino made the comments in a recent New York Times magazine interview. Asked where he would relocate if he could live in any other U.S. city than Boston, Menino answered Detroit.

"I’d blow up the place and start all over," Menino told the magazine. "No, seriously, when it takes a police officer 90 minutes to answer a call, there’s something wrong with the system. Forty percent of the streetlights are out, most of the buildings are boarded up. Why? Inaction, that’s the problem — leadership."

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing did not take kindly to the remark, calling Menino's comment insensitive in light of the Boston Marathon bombings.

“It is extremely regrettable that Boston Mayor Thomas Menino used such an unfortunate choice of words to describe what he would do if he came to Detroit," Bing said Tuesday in a statement, as quoted by Detroit's WWJ. "I would think the mayor of a city that recently experienced a deadly bombing attack would be more sensitive and not use the phrase ‘blow up.'"

Menino told Boston radio station WBZ Wednesday that he stood by the comment about Detroit's police response time but admitted he "made a mistake" and used a "poor choice of words."