Obama unaware as U.S. spied on world leaders: officials.  —  The National Security Agency ended a program used to spy on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a number of other world leaders after an internal Obama administration review started this summer revealed to the White House the existence of the operations, U.S. officials said.

60 Minutes: Benghazi  —  The following script is from “Benghazi” which aired on Oct. 27, 2013.  The correspondent is Lara Logan.  Max McClellan, producer.  —  When Chris Stevens was killed in Benghazi, Libya, on the anniversary of September 11th last year, it was only the sixth …

House leaders plot new fall GOP strategy  —  For the first time in months, House Republicans are facing no immediate cataclysmic deadlines, and GOP leaders are struggling to come up with an agenda to fill the 19 legislative days that are left in 2013.  —  Need evidence?

PARTY CRASHERS  —  In the late nineteen-sixties, Mitch McConnell came to Washington to work as an aide to Senator Marlow Cook, a Kentucky Republican.  Cook backed clean-air standards and limits on strip mining.  It was a time of political diversity among Republicans: in 1970 …

The Big Kludge  —  The good news about HealthCare.gov, the portal to Obamacare's health exchange, is that the administration is no longer minimizing its problems.  That's the first step toward fixing the mess — and it will get fixed, although it's anyone's guess whether the new promise …

Why is broadband more expensive in the US?  —  Home broadband in the US costs far more than elsewhere.  At high speeds, it costs nearly three times as much as in the UK and France, and more than five times as much as in South Korea.  Why?  —  Men's haircuts, loaves of bread …

GOP is deluding itself on spending  —  In Playboy magazine's current issue, Sen. Bernie Sanders offers an “Emperor Has No Clothes” view of Washington's current budget talks.  —  Later he added: “You would think that before you cut health care, education, nutrition or Social Security, you might want to take a hard look at that issue.

Rubio vs. Comprehensive Immigration Reform  —  I'm not sure it has ever happened before that an architect of major legislation in the Senate has basically opposed its passage in the House.  But that's where Marco Rubio is.  Breitbart has more on this, getting a statement from Rubio's spokesman Alex Conant:

A model for Hillary Clinton 2016: Hillary Clinton 2000  —  The most urgent question Hillary Clinton would face if she runs for president again is whether she could avoid the blunders — the bitter staff rivalries going public, the poisonous relationship with the press, the presumption of inevitability …

How Kentucky Built The Country's Best Obamacare Website  —  Kentucky did it right.  The state's online health insurance marketplace has become Obamacare's city on a hill while the federal HealthCare.gov has been flummoxed by a month of glitches and bad press.

Outsider Whose Dark, Lyrical Vision Helped Shape Rock ‘n’ Roll  —  Lou Reed, the singer, songwriter and guitarist whose work with the Velvet Underground in the 1960s had a major influence on generations of rock musicians, and who remained a powerful if polarizing force for the rest of his life …