memeorandum: The Obama Administration and the Press (Committee to Protect Journalists)

5:15 PM ET, October 10, 2013

Top Items:

Erick Erickson / RedState:

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 …

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Business Insider, Politico, The Hinterland Gazette, Talking Points Memo, The Lonely Conservative, neo-neocon, Hot Air, The PJ Tatler, Washington Post and The Dish

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

GOP's New Strategy: Avert Default But Keep Government Shut — Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced Thursday that the House will move forward with a six-week debt limit extension after pitching the idea to his Republican conference during a closed-door meeting.

Discussion: American Prospect, Roll Call, Little Green Footballs, Washington Monthly, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Dish and Shakesville

Politico:

John Boehner's bet: Democrats will talk — Speaker John Boehner's latest gambit — to lift the debt ceiling for six weeks while leaving government shut down — isn't exactly a magic bullet. — It's a bet that President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders will want so desperately …

Discussion: Wonkblog, CNN, National Review, NewsBusters, New York Times, Washington Examiner, ABC News, NationalJournal.com, Daily Kos, Taylor Marsh, The Hill, The Impolitic and The Hill

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:

The House GOP's Little Rule Change That Guaranteed A Shutdown — Late on the night of Sept. 30, with the federal government just hours away from shutting down, House Republicans quietly made a small change to the House rules that blocked a potential avenue for ending the shutdown.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Balloon Juice

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

New GOP strategy: Offer deal on debt limit, but keep shutdown fight going — BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL REPUBLICAN PARTY JOHN BOEHNER DEBT CEILING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN — Many House Republicans, including some key leaders, have decided they can live with a government shutdown but not with the threat of default.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Associated Press, The Moderate Voice, National Review, Wall Street Journal, The Plum Line, Hot Air, Firedoglake, Washington Monthly, The Daily Caller, Taylor Marsh and The Lead with Jake Tapper

Just Sink / The Hill:

White House: No budget talks until government reopens — The White House on Thursday said it was “willing to look at any proposal” to lift the debt ceiling but insisted President Obama will not engage in budget negotiations until the government reopens. — House Republicans are discussing …

Discussion: Reuters, The Plum Line, National Review and The Week

Jim Acosta / CNN:
Official: Obama will sign short term debt ceiling extension

Discussion: Politico, Outside the Beltway and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:
Ted Cruz Backs House GOP's Temporary Debt-Limit Plan

Discussion: The Raw Story and Washington Monthly

Ben Domenech / The Federalist:
Boehner's Smart Debt Ceiling Play

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Hill and Politico

Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:
GOP offers short-term debt-limit increase, but wants negotiations before ending shutdown

Discussion: Bloomberg, Wonkblog, The Plum Line, Los Angeles Times, The Fix, Post Politics and Voices

Ian Swanson / The Hill:
House GOP unveils six-week debt hike that continues shutdown

Discussion: Politico

Igor Bobic / Talking Points Memo:
Carney: Obama ‘Happy’ That House Is Willing To Raise Debt Limit

Discussion: Daily Kos

MJ Lee / Politico: Stocks surge on reports of possible debt ceiling deal

Tim Mak / Washington Examiner:

John McCain regrets ‘wacko birds’ comment, worries about GOP infighting — SENATE REPUBLICAN PARTY TEA PARTY PENNAVE JOHN MCCAIN SEQUESTER — Sen. John McCain said Thursday that he's worried about the Republican Party's future and the infighting that is dividing it, calling efforts …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Taegan Goddard's …, The Daily Caller, National Review and The PJ Tatler

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Senate GOP rallies around rival plan on debt ceiling, shutdown — Senate Republicans are unhappy with a House GOP plan to raise the debt ceiling for six weeks without funding the federal government. They are coalescing around their own proposal to pair a short-term debt-ceiling increase …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

We're not gonna take it! Americans use 1st Amendment to storm shutdown barriers — Taking their lead from the veterans who first pushed through the barricades to visit the World War II Memorial, Americans nationwide are defying the federal government shutdown, tossing aside traffic cones …

Discussion: Hot Air

Matthew Daly / Associated Press:
APNewsBreak: Feds to Let States Pay to Open Parks

Discussion: CNN and Associated Press

Benny Johnson / BuzzFeed:
Insane Tourists Blatantly Defying The U.S. Government's Demands

Discussion: Hit & Run

Fredrick Kunkle / Washington Post:

McAuliffe among investors in Rhode Island insurance scam that preyed on dying people — Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe was one of dozens of investors with a Rhode Island estate planner charged with defrauding insurers by using the stolen identities of terminally ill people …

Discussion: Politico, The Providence Journal, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, Associated Press and Washington Free Beacon

Harry J Enten / Guardian:
What the Virginia governor's race tells us about the 2014 midterms

Discussion: Balloon Juice

James Hohmann / Politico:
Virginia governor election: Less money, more problems for Cuccinelli

Discussion: CNN and Right Wing Watch

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

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 …

Discussion: The Grumpy Economist, Balloon Juice, Shakesville and Weekly Standard

Niall Ferguson / The Huffington Post:

Krugtron the Invincible, Part 3 — In my previous two articles, I have shown that Paul Krugman - revered by his acolytes as the Invincible Krugtron - failed to anticipate the financial crisis and wrongly predicted that the single European currency would fall victim to it.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Mediaite and msnbc.com

Michael Kinsley / The New Republic:

Obama Should Just Give in to the Republicans — President Obama should give in. Yes, this mess is all the Republicans' fault. Yes, it's outrageous that they can hold the government hostage in order to reargue a law that's been voted on, signed, enacted, and upheld by the Supreme Court.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Taegan Goddard's …, Capitol Report and Shakesville

Peter Baker / New York Times:

The Final Insult in the Bush-Cheney Marriage — In the final days of his presidency, George W. Bush sat behind his desk in the Oval Office, chewing gum and staring into the distance as two White House lawyers briefed him on the possible last-minute pardon of I. Lewis Libby. — “Do you think he did it?”

Discussion: emptywheel

ThinkProgress:

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 …

Discussion: in.gov, The Hill and Shakesville

Eric Trager / The New Republic:

Obama Just Made a Terrible Mistake on Egypt — In a certain sense, the Obama administration's decision to withhold much of the $1.3 billion in annual aid given to Egypt isn't surprising. U.S. law mandates cutting off aid to countries in which a coup has taken place, and the Egyptian military's ouster …

Discussion: WorldViews, The Dish, Jihad Watch, VodkaPundit and New York Times

New York Times:

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 …

Discussion: CNN, Firedoglake, OpenSecrets.org, Washington Wire, Liberaland, Prairie Weather, Taegan Goddard's …, The Reaction and DealBook

ThinkProgress:

Los Angeles Police Dogs Only Bit Blacks And Latinos In The First Six Months Of 2013 — A new report on the Los Angeles Sheriff Department Canine Special Detail finds that the number of minority individuals bitten by police dogs has dramatically increased between 2004 to 2012.

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette and The Raw Story

Eric Lach / Talking Points Memo:

California Officials Raid Offices Of Obama Mega Donor — The Orange County, Calif. District Attorney's Office this week raided the offices of Landmark Medical Management, whose president and CEO, Kareem Ahmed, was one of the largest individual financial backers of President Obama's 2012 re-election effort.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

PRWeb:

Ancient Confession Found: ‘We Invented Jesus Christ’ — Biblical scholars will be appearing at the ‘Covert Messiah’ Conference at Conway Hall in London on the 19th of October to present this controversial discovery to the British public. — American Biblical scholar Joseph Atwill …

Discussion: Liberaland, The Raw Story, The New Civil Rights Movement and The Daily Caller

Kevin Derby / Sunshine State News:

Charlie Crist's Lead Within Margin of Error Against Rick Scott in New Poll — A new poll released Thursday finds Gov. Rick Scott at the heels of former Gov. Charlie Crist, the front-runner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, in a possible 2014 match-up.