memeorandum: The real Navy Yard scandal (Charles Krauthammer/Washington Post)

10:50 AM ET, September 20, 2013

Top Items:

Actually, Senate GOP can't filibuster to defund Obamacare — BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL CONGRESS OBAMACARE SENATE HEALTH CARE TED CRUZ — Senate Republicans, along with GOP lawmakers in the House, know that Sen. Ted Cruz and his colleagues don't have the votes to pass a continuing resolution to defund Obamacare.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, National Review and Outside the Beltway

Robert Costa / National Review:

Ted Cruz Punches Back — Even among Republicans, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is one of Washington's most divisive figures. Activists love him, but leadership staffers and many of his colleagues can't stand him — especially his latest effort to connect a government-spending bill with the defunding of Obamacare.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, Commentary Magazine, Hot Air, The Lead with Jake Tapper, The Hill, Balloon Juice and BuzzFeed

Tim Alberta / NationalJournal.com:

Inside Boehner's Plan To Avoid Shutdown (And Wound Obamacare) — Forget Friday's big spending bill vote. House leaders know the Senate will reject it and are ready to respond. Here's the GOP playbook. — House Republicans have orchestrated a master plan to avoid a government shutdown …

Discussion: USA Today, NBCNews, First Read, The World's Greatest … and Politico

Alex Roarty / NationalJournal.com:

The Republicans Who Fear a Shutdown — They aren't in Washington—and they're very worried about driving away independent voters. — Thirty-three percent. That's President Obama's approval rating among white voters, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released this week.

Discussion: First Read and Politico

David Weigel / Slate:
Welcome to the Republican Party's make-believe fight to defund Obamacare.

Discussion: Achenblog, Fox News, Post Politics, American Thinker and Talking Points Memo

Niels Lesniewski / The World's Greatest …:
Why Ted Cruz Might Be Right About Defunding Obamacare in the Senate

Discussion: The Hill, The Huffington Post and Roll Call

Ron Nixon / New York Times:
House Republicans Pass Deep Cuts in Food Stamps

Discussion: The Week, The Raw Story and National Review

Bryan Koenig / CNN:
Rep. King on defund plan: ‘Custer, Kamikaze’

Discussion: Politico, Business Insider, DownWithTyranny!, Connecting.the.Dots and The Hill

New York Times:
The March to Anarchy — Until now, the only House Republicans pushing …

Discussion: naked capitalism, Connecting.the.Dots, The Week, msnbc.com and CNN

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

The real Navy Yard scandal — In the liberal remake of “Casablanca,” the police captain comes upon the scene of the shooting and orders his men to “round up the usual weapons.” — It's always the weapon and never the shooter. Twelve people are murdered in a rampage at the Washington Navy Yard …

Discussion: The PJ Tatler and Betsy's Page

Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Americans Fault Mental Health System Most for Gun Violence

Discussion: Post Politics and Politico

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Firm that ran background check on Snowden also vetted Navy Yard shooter

Discussion: ABC News

Ashley Halsey III / Washington Post:
Navy Yard rampage began with gunman's colleagues, sources and witnesses say

Discussion: WJLA-TV and The Hill

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Not all mass shootings are equal in the eyes of the media or the public

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers and TheBlaze.com, more at Mediagazer »

Tamara Cohen / Daily Mail:

World's top climate scientists told to ‘cover up’ the fact that the Earth's temperature hasn't risen for the last 15 years — Scientists working on the most authoritative study on climate change were urged to cover up the fact that the world's temperature hasn't risen for the last 15 years, it is claimed.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Climate Depot and Vox Popoli

Owen Bennett / Daily Express:
What climate change? Fewer people than EVER believe the world is really warming up

Discussion: Althouse and Daily Pundit

Associated Press:
Warming lull haunts authors of key climate report

Discussion: PlanetSave

Andrew Rafferty / First Read:

Rand Paul says recent GOP wins a roadmap for party's future — CHANTILLY, Va. — Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said on Thursday that Republicans have been “winning” recent Washington battles and laid out a roadmap for how the party can use the victories to appeal to key voting blocks that fueled President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Prairie Weather

Lucy McCalmont / Politico:
Rand Paul: ‘We are winning’ like Charlie Sheen

Discussion: Daily Kos

Wall Street Journal:

Pricing Glitch Afflicts Rollout of Online Health Exchanges … Less than two weeks before the launch of insurance marketplaces created by the federal health overhaul, the government's software can't reliably determine how much people need to pay for coverage, according to insurance executives and people familiar with the program.

Discussion: Forbes, National Review, The PJ Tatler, Washington Free Beacon and Corrente

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Crazy Party — Early this year, Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, made headlines by telling his fellow Republicans that they needed to stop being the “stupid party.” Unfortunately, Mr. Jindal failed to offer any constructive suggestions about how they might do that.

Discussion: The Federalist, Power Line, msnbc.com, PostPartisan, PoliticusUSA, American Spectator and Daily Kos

Politico:

Pelosi unplugged — Striking a tone of disgust, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi ridicules the GOP as obsessed with its loathing of President Obama and hell-bent on hurting him politically, regardless the cost. She assigns little to no blame to the president (even though Democrats privately …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, msnbc.com, The Gateway Pundit, Right Wing News, The Hill and Daily Kos

James Chapman / Daily Mail:

Poison at the heart of Labour: Damaging questions for Miliband and Balls as explosive book reveals Brown's spin doctor ran smear campaigns from Downing Street — The toxic culture of spin, smears and feuding at the heart of New Labour is laid bare today in an explosive political memoir.

Discussion: Guardian, Spectator and BBC

Patrick Wintour / Guardian:
Blair's fight to stop Brown's coup

Discussion: BBC, Spectator and Telegraph

Politico:

Hillary Clinton all but running — Dismissive sighs, weary eye-rolls, mocking rejoinders: these have been the favored tactics of Hillary Rodham Clinton's team of aides and allies when confronted with questions about the state of her thinking on whether to run for president again in 2016.

Laura Collins / Daily Mail:
EXCLUSIVE: Two decades after her affair with Bill Clinton, Gennifer Flowers reveals they'd be together …

Discussion: Jezebel, Right Wing Watch, Weasel Zippers, Rush Limbaugh, The Jawa Report, Little Green Footballs, The Daily Caller, American Spectator, Taegan Goddard's …, Gawker and No More Mister Nice Blog

Hassan Rouhani / Washington Post:

Why Iran seeks constructive engagement — Hassan Rouhani is president of Iran. — Three months ago, my platform of “prudence and hope” gained a broad, popular mandate. Iranians embraced my approach to domestic and international affairs because they saw it as long overdue.

Discussion: New York Times, Politico, Talking Points Memo, Consortiumnews.com, Gawker, NBCNews, Via Meadia, The Hill, CNN and The Week

Rebecca Leber / ThinkProgress:

Republican Launches Personal Attack Against Keystone XL Activist At Congressional Hearing — On Thursday, a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on the Keystone XL pipeline ended with an ugly exchange between a Republican congressman and a Nebraska grassroots organizer.

Discussion: Rolling Stone and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Katie Pavlich / Townhall.com:

Spitting on Their Graves: Democrats Leave Benghazi Hearing Before Testimony From Families of Victims — During the second portion of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing about Benghazi Thursday on Capitol Hill, the majority of Democrats on the Committee left the room and refused …