memeorandum: Battery maker A123 got U.S. funds as it sought bankruptcy (Ayesha Rascoe/Reuters)

8:40 PM ET, November 16, 2012

Top Items:

Twinkies Maker Hostess Going Out of Business, CEO Blames Union Strike — “It's over. This is it,” Gregory Rayburn tells “Today.” — Hostess, the makers of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread, is going out of business after striking workers failed to heed a Thursday deadline to return to work, the company said.

Discussion: KCRG-TV, Dallas News, iOwnTheWorld.com, Mock, Paper, Scissors, The Democratic Daily, The Moderate Voice, Politico, Gawker, Michelle Malkin, The Gateway Pundit, The Lonely Conservative, The Other McCain, www2.wkrg.com, The PJ Tatler, Washington Examiner, Washington Free Beacon and Guardian

Kevin Cirilli / Politico:

Union: ‘Bain-style’ killing of Twinkie — The Bain attack is back. — This time it's being used against Hostess Brands, the Twinkies and Wonder Bread maker that announced Friday it was closing. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka drew the comparison in a public statement Friday.

Discussion: CNBC, Weasel Zippers and The Greenroom

CNNMoney.com:

Hostess Brands closing for good — NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Hostess Brands — the maker of such iconic baked goods as Twinkies, Devil Dogs and Wonder Bread — announced Friday that it is asking a federal bankruptcy court for permission to close its operations, blaming a strike by bakers protesting a new contract imposed on them.

Discussion: Click Orlando l Orlando News …, Daily Kos, Gawker, Wonkette, Weekly Standard, Addicting Info, The Seattle Times, The Agonist, Outside the Beltway, Weasel Zippers, The Right Scoop, LewRockwell.com Blog, Washington Examiner, This Just In and Patterico's Pontifications

David White / International Brotherhood of Teamsters:
TEAMSTERS: BAKERY WORKERS SHOULD HOLD SECRET BALLOT VOTE AT HOSTESS

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Associated Press, Hot Air, The Heritage Foundation, Washington Examiner, ProfessorBainbridge.com and The Greenroom

Byron Tau / Politico:
Petition wants Obama to save Twinkies

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit and The Greenroom

Rachel Feintzeig / Wall Street Journal:
Twinkie Maker Hostess to Close

Discussion: Washington Wire, Real Time Economics, Deal Journal, American Power, Weekly Standard, Concurring Opinions, Law Blog and Roger Ailes

Hostess Brands is Closed:
Hostess Brands is Closed.

Discussion: nbcnews.com, Firedoglake, BBC, The Hinterland Gazette and msnbc.com

AP Member Choice Limited / Reuters:
No more Twinkies? Hostess plans to shut down

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Marathon Pundit

USA Today:
No more Twinkies? Others could buy Hostess' brands

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Forbes, Fox Business and Washington Post

Fox News:

Petraeus testifies CIA's Libya talking points were changed, lawmaker says — Former CIA Director David Petraeus testified in a closed-door hearing Friday morning that his agency determined immediately after the Sept. 11 Libya attack that “Al Qaeda involvement” was suspected …

Discussion: CNN, Politico, Roger L. Simon, Weekly Standard, Hot Air, Riehl World News, Fox News Insider, www.wnyc.org, The Right Scoop, Power Line, National Review and Jihad Watch

Hayes Brown / ThinkProgress:

GOP Rep Admits CIA Approved U.N. Ambassador's Talking Points On Libya — Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has admitted that the CIA and intelligence community approved U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice's talking points before she made her much-derided Sept. 16 appearance on several Sunday news shows to discuss the attacks in Benghazi.

Discussion: Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes', Hullabaloo, CNN, Wired, FP Passport, Little Green Footballs and Hot Air

Donna Cassata / Associated Press:

DOZEN HOUSE WOMEN DEFEND RICE OVER LIBYA COMMENTS — WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators' angry criticism of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice over her initial account of the deadly Sept. 11 attack in Libya smacks of sexism and racism, a dozen female members of the House said Friday.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Nice Deb, The Gateway Pundit and Althouse

Jeremy Herb / The Hill:
In testimony, Petraeus says he always saw Benghazi as terrorism

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Politico and Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes'

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

In U.S., Views of Obama, Democrats Improve After Election — Favorable opinions of Obama highest in three years — PRINCETON, NJ — Now that the presidential election is over, Americans look a bit more positively toward both the winner (Barack Obama) and the loser (Mitt Romney) …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes', Politico, Talking Points Memo and Taegan Goddard's …

Kevin Robillard / Politico:

Chris Christie unwraps Mitt Romney's ‘gift’ claim — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday joined the chorus of Republican governors and other officials criticizing Mitt Romney's assertion that “gifts” from President Barack Obama helped the Democrat win reelection.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Associated Press

Meghan McCain / The Daily Beast:
Meghan McCain on Why the Republican Party Needs to Wake Up

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Chris Moody / Associated Press:
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez: Comments like Romney's set ‘us back as a party’

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, msnbc.com, NBC Latino, The Moderate Voice, Outside the Beltway, Election 2012 and New York Magazine

Michael A. Memoli / Los Angeles Times:
At Republican governors' gathering, plenty of blame for Romney

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Crooks and Liars

Donovan Slack / Politico:

Broadwell, Kelley visited White House — Both women at the heart of the Petraeus scandal have visited the White House on multiple occasions, a White House official confirmed to POLITICO. — Petraeus's biographer Paula Broadwell attended an Afghanistan briefing, while Tampa socialite Jill …

Discussion: Gothamist, Weekly Standard and Business Insider

Neil Munro / The Daily Caller:
House GOP: Obama officials using secret emails to avoid oversight

Discussion: Politico and The Lonely Conservative

Brian Beutler / Talking Points Memo:
John Boehner Lengthens The Fuse On The Austerity Bomb

Discussion: msnbc.com, Firedoglake and Eschaton

The Daily Caller: Woman in Petraeus scandal visited White House

George Bennett / Post on Politics:

Judge denies Allen West's recount request; focus now on 4 p.m. canvassing board meeting — FORT PIERCE — A judge today denied U.S. Rep. Allen West's request that he order a recount of 37,379 ballots from early voting in St. Lucie County — effectively leaving the decision …

Discussion: The BRAD BLOG, Ballot Box, Mock, Paper, Scissors, The Fix, Politico and The Right Scoop

Politico:

Judge denies Allen West recount request — A judge on Friday denied Rep. Allen West's request for a recount of more than 30,000 early votes — a blow to the Florida Republican's bid to overcome a 1,907-vote, or 0.58 percent, deficit in his race against Democrat Patrick Murphy.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Matthew Hendley / Valley Fever:

Obama Voters No Longer Allowed at Pinetop Gun Store — “Effective Immediately” — If you're one of the 736 people in Pinetop who voted for President Obama last week, let it be known that you are no longer welcome inside one of the town's gun shops. — At least, that's according to the store's owner …

Discussion: Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes', Gawker, Weasel Zippers and Mediaite

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Arizona Gun Store: No Obama Voters Allowed — A gun shop in Arizona has a clear message to would-be customers who happened to vote for President Barack Obama: take your business elsewhere. — The Southwest Shooting Authority in Pinetop, Ariz. took out an advertisement last week in the local newspaper …

Discussion: Valley Fever and Booman Tribune

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Roger Ailes on Election Night: ‘Rove was wrong. He backed down. Our guys were right.’ — On election night, Fox News co-founder and chairman Roger Ailes watched election coverage in the News Corp. Sports Suite, down the hall from his second floor office.

Discussion: Politico, Mediaite, JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Daily Caller and New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

John O'Brien / Syracuse Post-Standard:

Cortland County district attorney admits acting in porn movies in 1970s — Mark Suben, the Cortland County district attorney, said today he acted in pornographic movies in the 1970s. — In a 3 p.m. news conference today, he admitted that he lied about his history to The Post-Standard …

Discussion: Gothamist, New York Magazine and The Raw Story

Ryan Grim / The Huffington Post:

Democratic Solution To The Filibuster: Make Them Talk … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Elections 2012, Harry Reid , Congress, Democrats, Elections 2012, U.S. Senate, Video, Democrats Filibuster Reform, Politics News, Democratic Filibuster Reform, Democrats Fillibuster Reform, Filibuster, Filibuster Reform, Politics News

Discussion: Firedoglake and Addicting Info

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:
Congressional Leaders Optimistic, Say Revenue, Spending On The Table

Discussion: Hot Air

Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

When the Nerds Go Marching In — How a dream team of engineers from Facebook, Twitter, and Google built the software that drove Barack Obama's reelection — Three members of Obama's tech team, from left to right: Harper Reed, Dylan Richard, and Mark Trammell (Photo by Daniel X. O'Neil).

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Mother Jones and The Daily Dish

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Life, Death and Deficits — America's political landscape is infested with many zombie ideas — beliefs about policy that have been repeatedly refuted with evidence and analysis but refuse to die. The most prominent zombie is the insistence that low taxes on rich people are the key to prosperity.

Discussion: msnbc.com and Connecting.the.Dots

Dylan Matthews / Wonkblog:
How to sort out Social Security's finances while making it more generous

Discussion: Firedoglake, Hullabaloo and Mother Jones

Jon Walker / Firedoglake:

Most Republican States Won't Build Exchanges and That Is a Good Thing — Map showing party affiliation by Governors, current — Now that we have approached what should have been the deadline for states to say whether or not they plan to build state exchanges to comply with the Affordable Care Act …

Discussion: TIME, Wall Street Journal and Politico

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:

The Iron Dome, Press Bias, and Israel's Lack of Strategic Thinking — Some observations as the Gaza crisis continues to unfold: — 1. The Iron Dome anti-rocket and missile defense system seems to work better than most people expected. Israel is becoming very good at shooting down missiles.