memeorandum: House votes to repeal 3 percent withholding rule, blunting Obama (Pete Kasperowicz/The Hill)

2:30 PM ET, October 27, 2011

Top Items:

Occupy Wall Street kitchen staff protesting fixing food for freeloaders — The Occupy Wall Street volunteer kitchen staff launched a “counter” revolution yesterday — because they're angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for “professional homeless” people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters.

Discussion: JammieWearingFool, NewsBusters.org blogs, The Crawdad Hole, Sister Toldjah, Don Surber, Pirate's Cove, Weasel Zippers, CARPE DIEM and The Gateway Pundit

Nicholas D. Kristof / New York Times:

Crony Capitalism Comes Home — Whenever I write about Occupy Wall Street, some readers ask me if the protesters really are half-naked Communists aiming to bring down the American economic system when they're not doing drugs or having sex in public. — The answer is no. That alarmist view …

Discussion: Concurring Opinions, Prairie Weather, Balloon Juice and Cafe Hayek

Zaid Jilani / ThinkProgress:
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan Says She Will Minimize Police Presence And That She Supports The Movement

Discussion: US Politics

Tim Mak / The Politico:
Gibbs: Obama gets ‘Occupy’ anxiety

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Daily Kos

Aimee Allison / City Brights:
Occupy Oakland: Mayor Quan Issues Contrite Statement after Police Crackdown

Discussion: Oakland North, The Raw Story and Daily Kos

Susan Saulny / New York Times:

As Cain Promotes His Management Skills, Ex-Aides Tell of Campaign in Chaos — If Herman Cain feels his management skills are up to any challenge, some of his former staff members think he should have started with the disorder in his own campaign. — Mr. Cain has hardly shown up in New Hampshire …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Mahablog, No More Mister Nice Blog, Swampland, GOP 12, Online NewsHour, msnbc.com, Outside the Beltway, Washington Post, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Business Insider, Hotline On Call, Campaign 2012, The Page, Chicago Boyz, Slate and Addicting Info

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Herman Cain, Outlier — Herman Cain, the Georgia businessman who has never held elected office, is tied for the lead in national polls of Republican voters — or perhaps even slightly ahead of Mitt Romney, as he was in Tuesday night's New York Times/CBS News poll.

Discussion: Business Insider, Ben Smith's Blog, Don Surber, The Daily Dish, The Mahablog, Balloon Juice, American Spectator, Fox News, Indecision Forever, Hot Air and The Daily Caller

Mj Lee / The Politico:
James Carville: Cain aide ‘drunk or stoned’

Discussion: CNN and The Raw Story

Massimo Calabresi / Swampland:

Hillary Clinton and the Limits of Power — Hillary Clinton argues in our cover story this week that America is not so much in decline as adjusting to a world of increasingly diffuse power, where like-minded networked individuals, non-governmental organizations and other non-traditional global actors …

Discussion: GOP 12, The Hill, Hot Air, CNN, The Politico, Taegan Goddard's …, Shakesville, New York Magazine and Business Insider

Kim Geiger / Los Angeles Times:

Rick Perry may skip some debates — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry argue during a GOP presidential debate. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson / October 18, 2011) — After a series of poor debate performances in the early months of his presidential campaign …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Indecision Forever and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Kevinliptak / CNN:
Rep. Steve King may stay on sidelines in Iowa race

Discussion: The Politico

Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:
What if Perry Skips the Debates?

Discussion: Washington Wire, Christian Science Monitor, The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly, Gawker, New York Times and New York Magazine

Dana Blanton / Fox News:
Fox News Poll: GOP Primary Voters Get on the Cain Train

Discussion: Washington Examiner, RedState, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Moderate Voice, The Page, American Power, Hot Air, msnbc.com, CNN, Nice Deb and The Politico

A.Killough / CNN:
Perry may pass on debates

Discussion: Bloomberg, Business Insider, ABCNEWS and The Politico

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis:

National Income and Product Accounts Gross Domestic Product, 3rd quarter 2011 (advance estimate) — Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the third quarter of 2011 …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Off the Charts Blog, The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly, Money & Company, ThinkProgress, Business Insider, BizzyBlog and Calculated Risk

Phil Izzo / Real Time Economics:

Economists React: ‘Where Are the Recession Calls Now?’ — Economists and others weigh in on the 2.5% growth in GDP at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. —Broad based gains indeed with consumer spending, business investment, structures and residential investment up... Modest growth …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Econbrowser and The Daily Dish

Shaila Dewan / New York Times:
Economic Growth in U.S., Though Still Modest, Speeds Up

Discussion: Jared Bernstein, Economix, Outside the Beltway, Gothamist and Gawker

Brad Plumer / Washington Post:
GDP grows. But how long until full employment?

Discussion: The Confluence and Eschaton

Neil Irwin / Washington Post:
GDP: good expectations for growth

Discussion: Daily Kos and americanthinker.com

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Democrats are increasingly calling it a ‘Republican Congress’ — President Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill are increasingly referring to the Congress as “Republican” even though their party controls one-half of the unpopular institution. — Obama and his allies have started to deploy the phrase …

Discussion: The Politico, Washington Monthly and NewsBusters.org blogs

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

House votes to repeal 3 percent withholding rule, blunting Obama — The House voted Thursday to repeal the requirement that governments at all levels withhold 3 percent of payments to government contractors. — The vote represents the first time the GOP House has approved a provision of President Obama's jobs package.

Discussion: CNN

Alex Leary / St. Petersburg Times:
Adviser: Connie Mack to enter U.S. Senate race

Discussion: The Politico, Riptide 2.0, MiamiHerald.com, Ballot Box and CNN

Seung Min Kim / The Politico:
Cantor: ‘Boom of activity’ in House

Discussion: Daily Kos

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Judge rejects Edwards attempt to have charges of illegal payoff dismissed — A North Carolina judge has rejected motions from former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) to have charges stemming from his cover-up of an extramarital affair dismissed, according to multiple media reports.

Discussion: The Politico and CNN

Chris Seward / Raleigh News & Observer:
Judge won't dismiss case against former Sen. John Edwards

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, USA Today and Election Law Blog

Mark Halperin / Time:

The Big Questions: By Mark Halperin — Is President Obama on the ropes? — If the election were held today, the Obama-Biden ticket would not win the 270 electoral votes required to hold the White House. The coalition that helped elect the President—fired-up liberals, independents …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog

James Pethokoukis / The Enterprise Blog:

7 reasons why Obama is wrong on income inequality — As if ordered up directly by the Obama White House and Occupy Wall Street, the Congressional Budget Office has produced a timely report looking at income inequality. The CBO found that between between 1979 and 2007 …

Discussion: Power Line, Democracy in America, The Greenroom, Maggie's Farm, pandagon.net, Hot Air, americanthinker.com, Cafe Hayek, Guardian, Money & Company and The Huffington Post

Ed O'Keefe / Washington Post:

Gay troops to file suit challenging Defense of Marriage Act — Gay and lesbian service members and veterans plan to file suit Thursday challenging the constitutionality of the federal ban on gay marriage and federal policy that define a spouse as a person of the opposite sex.

Discussion: Shakesville, ThinkProgress, The Politico, News Desk, Towleroad News #gay and Joe. My. God.

Anne Saker / Oregonian:

Occupy Portland fears it has lost up to $20,000 in donations — Organizers of Occupy Portland say they fear as much as $20,000 donated to the group through a PayPal account has disappeared. — They also say the group's finance committee has hijacked the demonstration's Internet domain name …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Say Anything and The Powers That Be

William K. Rashbaum / New York Times:

10 Arrested in $1 Billion L.I.R.R. Disability Scheme — Ten people, including a doctor and a former union president, were arrested early Thursday and charged in a major fraud scheme in which hundreds of Long Island Rail Road workers made false disability pension claims costing a federal agency …

Discussion: msnbc.com, Gothamist, New York Magazine and Metropolis

Charles P. Pierce / Esquire:

Paul Ryan Is Living in a Fantasy Land Older Than Ayn Rand — Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you today's worst paragraph in political rhetoric, courtesy of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Dickens), in an appearance at the Heritage Foundation, which must be like seeing The Beatles at The Cavern in Liverpool, back in the day.

Discussion: tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com, Connecting.the.Dots, Balloon Juice, Grasping Reality …, New York Magazine and TBogg

Washington Examiner:

Despite ‘ban,’ fat-cat lobbyists bankroll Obama — President Obama doesn't take campaign contributions from lobbyists — unless you count the owners and CEOs of lobbying firms, corporate vice presidents for government relations, or managing directors for public policy.

Discussion: The Crawdad Hole and americanthinker.com

Paul Krugman:

The Truth Has A Well-Known, Well, You Know — Greg Sargent takes us to Paul Ryan's latest speech, in which Ryan expresses outrage over what President Obama is saying: … Just for the record: why is this petty? Why is it anything but a literal description of GOP proposals …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Hullabaloo and Eschaton

standupamericanow.org:

Dr. Terry Jones for President — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: — MEDIA CONTACT: 352-371-2487 or 352-871-2680 (Stephanie Sapp) or info@standupamericanow.org — Announcing: Dr. Terry Jones for President — Our campaign promises or agenda: — 1. Stop overspending immediately.

Discussion: Riptide 2.0, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Wonkette, Rick Perry 2012 Campaign … and Gawker

Lawrence Weschler / The Huffington Post:

A Guy Can Dream, Can't He? — Have you noticed how Hillary is looking increasingly exhausted lately? She's no longer even bothering to shape-shift her hair on a regular basis. Not without good reason, mind you: hers has been one busy tenure over there at State.

Robert Frank / The Wealth Report:

Millionaires Support Warren Buffett's Tax on the Rich — Warren Buffett isn't the only rich guy who wants to higher taxes on the rich. — A new survey from Spectrem Group found that 68% of millionaires (those with investments of $1 million or more) support raising taxes on those with $1 million or more in income.

Discussion: Washington Monthly