Racism Out of Context  —  I had planned on ignoring the furor over North Carolina Republican precinct chairman Don Yelton, who was pushed into resigning after stupidly making racist remarks to a Daily Show camera.  I mean, the guy is a precinct chairman, not a county chair or an elected official …

Leader Of HealthCare.Gov Tech Surge: We'll Have It Fixed In A Month  —  Enrollment site for Obamacare should be good to go by “the end of November,” says Jeff Zients.  —  President Obama and Jeffrey Zients in April.  —  Larry Downing / Reuters  —  WASHINGTON — The man in charge of fixing …

Strassel: Democrats Run for ObamaCare Cover  —  After weeks of vowing they wouldn't cave on the president's signature legislation, some Democrats are doing just that.  —  Jeanne Shaheen doesn't sound like a Democrat who just won a government-shutdown “victory.”

CNN Anchor Challenges Congresswoman To Substantiate Obamacare Criticism, Hilarity Ensues  —  On Friday morning, CNN anchor Carol Costello challenged Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) to substantiate her claim that HealthCare.gov will endanger Americans' medical privacy.

House GOP plans no immigration vote in 2013  —  House Republican leadership has no plans to vote on any immigration reform legislation before the end the year.  —  The House has just 19 days in session before the end of 2013, and there are a number of reasons why immigration reform is stalled this year.

How Ted Cruz Can Win in 2016  —  Forget what you think you know about the next presidential election.  David Frum details how the junior senator from Texas can take the White House.  —  Three years out, few bets in U.S. politics looked as sure as Hillary Clinton's election to the presidency in 2016.

NSA site down due to alleged DDoS attack  —  The website for the United States National Security Agency suddenly went offline Friday.  —  NSA.gov has been unavailable globally as of late Friday afternoon, and Twitter accounts belonging to people loosely affiliated with the Anonymous hacktivism movement …

The Science of Tea Party Wrath  —  Jonathan Haidt on the psychology of politics, the emotions behind the Tea Party—and why as a self-described centrist, he thinks a Republican crackup may be coming.  —  Fibonacci Blue/Flickr  —  If you want to understand how American politics changed for the worse …

Over 10 Percent Of America's Largest Companies Pay Zero Percent Tax Rates  —  Among companies listed on the S&P 500, almost one in nine paid an effective tax rate of zero percent — or even lower — over the past year, according to an analysis by USA Today.  —  There are 57 separate companies listed …

Shepard Smith's Office Romance: A 26-Year-Old Fox Staffer  —  Shepard Smith, the endlessly endearing (and easily angered) Fox News anchor, has likened the right-wing channel to a “family,” with president Roger Ailes as its domineering father.  Which makes it only slightly awkward that in early 2012 …

Arrival of Obamacare forcing insurers to drop customers with low coverage  —  The Affordable Care Act was signed by President Obama in 2010 and since then he has repeated one reassuring phrase: “If you like your insurance plan you will keep it.  No one will be able to take that away from you.

Marines shoot down Internet story on Obama's alleged push for ‘girly hats’ … The story is sweeping the Internet: President Barack Obama is trying to emasculate male Marines by making them wear a girly cover with their famed dress uniforms.  The only problem?  It's not true.

Obamacare Fiasco Isn't a Single-Payer Conspiracy  —  I'm spending my morning listening to various contractors testify before Congress.  Back in the day, when I worked for a tech consultancy, the technical term for what is going on in this hearing was “Not it!”

Sen. Paul threatens to hold Yellen nomination: Source  —  Sen. Paul threatens Yellen nomination  —  CNBC's Steve Liesman reports Sen. Rand Paul has threatened to put Janet Yellen's Fed nomination on hold in exchange for an audit of the Federal Reserve.  —  Sen. Rand Paul is threatening …

Obama's Top Economic Adviser Tells Democrats They'll Have to Swallow Entitlement Cuts  —  This morning, Gene Sperling, director of the White House's National Economic Council, appeared before a Democratic business group for what was billed as a speech about the economy after the shutdown, followed by a Q&A session.

Dear Journalists: Your privilege is clouding your perspective on Obamacare website glitches  —  If I see one more journalist symbolically log on to the Obamacare website, I'm going to scream.  If you're making faux calls into the call center, only to complain about the lack of hold music …

GOP Lawmaker Says Obama Not a Traitor to Kenya  —  North Carolina state Rep. Larry Pittman (R) was videotaped telling a crowd of supporters that President Obama isn't a trator to his country — if that country is Kenya.  —  Said Pittman: “Someone had posted something with a picture …

MSNBC Panel Brawls Over Who to Blame for Obamacare Website Failure: Obama or GOP  —  The guests and fill-in host on MSNBC's Now tangled during a discussion over just which party was to blame for the failed roll-out of HealthCare.Gov. Some of the guests suggested that the White House was solely …

The implosion of the GOP brand, in one chart  —  Republicans successfully converted the 2010 elections into a referendum on President Obama, the economy, and liberal overreach.  As a result, they won big.  Now Democrats are hoping to turn the 2014 elections into a referendum on the GOP brand …

‘Joe The Plumber’ Says Democrats ‘Have A History Of Lynching Black Americans’  —  Samuel “Joe The Plumber” Wurzelbacher, the conservative activist and failed Ohio congressional candidate who rose to prominence after he had a campaign trail confrontation with President Barack Obama before his election in 2008 …

Addicted to the Apocalypse  —  Once upon a time, walking around shouting “The end is nigh” got you labeled a kook, someone not to be taken seriously.  These days, however, all the best people go around warning of looming disaster.  In fact, you more or less have to subscribe to fantasies …

Doug Gansler party attendees say attorney general couldn't have missed drinking  —  (WJLA) - Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler was not telling the truth in his response to allegations that he did nothing to stop a teen drinking party that he attended this past summer, according to two women who attended the June bash in Delaware.