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 …

Delay Obamacare?  Not as easy as you think  —  More and more Democrats worried about the 2014 election are beginning to join the Republican call to delay the Obamacare enrollment season.  —  But it's not as easy as bumping things back a few days on the calendar.

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.

NSA site went down due to ‘internal error’, not DDoS attack, agency claims  —  The website for the United States National Security Agency suddenly went offline Friday.  —  NSA.gov had been unavailable globally as of late Friday afternoon, and Twitter accounts belonging to people loosely affiliated …

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.

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 …

Wow: This is How Sarah Palin ‘Politely’ Refused Piers Morgan's Invitation  —  It's Friday, and Sarah Palin and Piers Morgan are fighting on Facebook and Twitter.  It all started with a late morning Facebook post from Palin, “politely” declining Morgan's many “invitations” …

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 …

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.

Obama says he doesn't want to hear about spending cuts  —  President Obama told Republicans in Congress that he doesn't want to hear about additional cuts to government programs after the 16-day shutdown.  —  The president said the country can afford to make investments in areas like education …

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 …

Former Guantanamo detainee was on ground in Benghazi during terror attack, source says  —  A former Guantanamo Bay detainee with Al Qaeda ties was in Benghazi the night of the Sept. 11 attack, according to a source on the ground in Libya.  —  The source told Fox News that ex-detainee Sufian bin Qumu …

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 …

GOP Civil War  —  Oh, it's on: … RINO hunt!  This is astonishing, and can only be driven by an ideological mindset so impervious to reality that it would rather destroy political conservatism's chances of actually running the country than succumb to the least impurity in the ranks.

Leaked memos reveal GCHQ efforts to keep mass surveillance secret  —  Exclusive: Edward Snowden papers show UK spy agency fears legal challenge if scale of surveillance is made public  —  The UK intelligence agency GCHQ has repeatedly warned it fears a “damaging public debate” …

Small tsunami reaches Japan after earthquake  —  A small tsunami triggered by a quake has hit Japan's eastern coast - where the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is located - but no damage is reported.  —  The 30cm (1ft) waves reached the region after the 7.1 magnitude tremor struck at a depth of 10km …

Michelle Obama's Princeton classmate is executive at company that built Obamacare website  —  First Lady Michelle Obama's Princeton classmate is a top executive at the company that earned the no-bid contract to build the failed Obamacare website.  —  Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of '85 …

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!”

Woman Forced To Strip And Serve Jail Time For Overdue Ticket  —  NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A North Texas woman was handcuffed, stripped down and booked into jail - all because of an overdue traffic ticket.  —  It was just a ticket.  Sarah Boaz was cited in August after an officer said she ran a stop sign.

Medicaid enrollment spike a threat to Obamacare structure?  —  (CBS News) The disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov may have another serious problem: A CBS News analysis shows that in many of the 15 state-based health insurance exchanges more people are enrolling in Medicaid rather than buying private health insurance.

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.

Germany wants a German Internet as spying scandal rankles  —  (Reuters) - As a diplomatic row rages between the United States and Europe over spying accusations, state-backed Deutsche Telekom wants German communications companies to cooperate to shield local internet traffic from foreign intelligence services.

Chris Christie doc certifies health is A-OK  —  (CNN) - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is in good health, his cardiologist certified Friday.  —  Thought to be mulling a 2016 Presidential run, Christie's health has been a constant subplot of discussions around the Republican's political future.