memeorandum: Colorado issues first medical-marijuana business licenses in U.S. (Denver Post)

3:30 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: USA Today, JammieWearingFool, Outside the Beltway, NewsBusters.org blogs, Wake up America, Sister Toldjah, New York Magazine, This ain't Hell …, Pirate's Cove, Weasel Zippers, Don Surber, The Crawdad Hole, The Gateway Pundit and CARPE DIEM

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 — After the first heavy-handed police crackdown on demonstrators in Oakland, Mayor Jean Quan wrote a statement on her Facebook page praising police for closing down the Occupy Oakland protest encampment.

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 …

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

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

Discussion: The Raw Story, CNN and Nice Deb

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, Money & Company, ThinkProgress, Business Insider, The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly, 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

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

Discussion: The Politico, MiamiHerald.com, Riptide 2.0, Ballot Box, CNN and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

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

Discussion: CNN

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

Discussion: Daily Kos

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, New York Times, Gawker and New York Magazine

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

Russell Berman / The Hill:

Boehner rejects Dem proposal, says it's time ‘to get serious’ — House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday rejected a proposal by the Democratic members of the congressional supercommittee on deficit reduction, declaring its $1.3 trillion in tax increases unacceptable.

Discussion: The Politico

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Boehner: ‘Great concerns’ Obama is exceeding Constitution

Discussion: Washington Monthly

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

Rebecca J. Rosen / The Atlantic Online:

Google Refuses to Remove Police-Brutality Videos — But the company could do more to explain why it chooses to deny certain requests to remove content and yet complies with others — Google's latest Transparency Report contains this tantalizing bit: … Good on Google.

Discussion: Betabeat, RConversation and CNET News, more at Techmeme »

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

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.

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

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, Metropolis and New York Magazine

The Republic:

Richmond tea party: Charge Occupy protesters or refund $10,000 we spent to rally in Virginia — Richmond, Va. — The Richmond tea party is demanding a refund of about $10,000 from the city, claiming it unfairly charged them for rallies while allowing the Occupy protesters to use the same space for several weeks for free.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Say Anything and The Gateway Pundit

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

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, Wonkette, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Rick Perry 2012 Campaign … and Gawker

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, Hot Air, Maggie's Farm, pandagon.net, americanthinker.com, Cafe Hayek, Money & Company and Guardian

Lisa Miller / Washington Post:

Justice Scalia speaks for himself on death penalty, not the Catholic Church — That Justice Antonin Scalia believes in execution as a moral form of punishment is a well-known fact. That he is an observant, traditional Roman Catholic is, similarly, well-known.

Peter Wallsten / Washington Post:

Marco Rubio on national ticket could be risky bet for Republican Party — Republicans who are eager to repair the party's battered image among Hispanic voters and unseat President Obama next year have long promoted a single-barrel solution to their two-pronged problem: putting Sen. Marco Rubio on the national ticket.