House GOP Preparing to Give Up  —  I'm being told by several sources that Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor are plotting to give up trying to either defund or delay Obamacare.  —  This comes at the same time the Obama administration admits it will be months before their Obamacare website …

Scarborough: A NYT Editor Told Me Krugman's Column Is ‘Their Biggest Nightmare’ (VIDEO)  —  MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said Thursday that a public editor at the New York Times considers liberal columnist Paul Krugman's work to be an ongoing “nightmare.”  —  During a segment on “Morning Joe …

Republican Party Favorability Sinks to Record Low  —  Falls 10 percentage points from September's 38%  —  This article is part of an ongoing series analyzing how the government shutdown and the debate over raising the debt ceiling are affecting Americans' views of government, government leaders …

CBS' Jan Crawford: Obama Rollout “Nothing Short of Disastrous”  —  From Tami.  Jan Crawford is one of the few reporters in the media who calls things as they are, without prejudice or favor.  —  This is a tough report.  Tough, but honest.  Look below the fold for it.

Business Groups See Loss of Sway Over House G.O.P.  —  WASHINGTON — As the government shutdown grinds toward a potential debt default, some of the country's most influential business executives have come to a conclusion all but unthinkable a few years ago: Their voices are carrying little weight …

Rebels kidnap Libyan PM Ali Zeidan, his office says  —  (CNN) — Armed men kidnapped Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan at dawn Thursday and took him to an undisclosed location, his office said.  —  The gunmen escorted the prime minister from the Corinthian Hotel in Tripoli into a convoy of waiting cars …

Let's Get Cynical  —  Why should we trust the government—especially now?  —  “An old friend who has been active in politics for more than 30 years tells me he's giving up,” claims Robert Reich in a Puffington Host post: " 'I can't stomach what's going on in Washington anymore,' he says.

WE PAID $634 MILLION FOR THE OBAMACARE SITES AND ALL WE GOT WAS THIS LOUSY 404  —  It's been one full week since the flagship technology portion of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) went live.  And since that time, the befuddled beast that is Healthcare.gov has shutdown, crapped out …

Indiana Sues To Prevent Its Own Residents From Receiving Obamacare's Insurance Subsidies  —  Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller (R)  —  This week, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) challenging its authority …

Oops: Azerbaijan released election results before voting had even started  —  Azerbaijan's big presidential election, held on Wednesday, was anticipated to be neither free nor fair.  President Ilham Aliyev, who took over from his father 10 years ago, has stepped up intimidation of activists and journalists.

Alice Munro Wins Nobel Prize in Literature  —  Alice Munro, the renowned Canadian short-story writer whose visceral work explores the tangled relationships between men and women, small-town existence and the fallibility of memory, won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.

Virginia governor election: Less money, more problems for Cuccinelli  —  Ken Cuccinelli is getting crushed on the Virginia airwaves, and it's probably only going to get worse - a major factor thwarting the Republican's hopes of a comeback in a governor's race that's been slipping away.

When Does Wall Street Cast Its Vote?  —  NOTABLES  — A GLIMMER OF A DEAL?:  A House Republican leadership source says House GOP leaders are coalescing around a plan to provide a six-week extension of the debt limit - putting off the threat of default until early December and allowing …

Documents: Va. gov. candidate misled investigators  —  NOTE: The Associated Press has retracted this earlier story, which USA TODAY ran online.  —  RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Documents in a federal fraud case allege that Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe lied …