memeorandum: Paul: NSA ‘Could Be Spying’ on Obama (Robert Costa/National Review)

9:55 PM ET, October 31, 2013

Top Items:

Ryan Lizza / News Desk:

Obamacare's Three Per Cent — While President Obama was in Boston on Wednesday to deliver a speech at Faneuil Hall, he was also scheduled to attend a private meeting with friends and supporters. One of the well-wishers in attendance was Jonathan Gruber, an M.I.T. economist and an architect …

Discussion: Health Care Policy …, BREITBART.COM, Business Insider, Washington Monthly, Hot Air, BillMoyers.com, The Plum Line, The Dish and ABC News

Igor Bobic / Talking Points Memo:

CHART: ‘Winners And Losers From Obamacare’ — University of Michigan professor and senior Brookings fellow Justin Wolfers on Thursday created a chart depicting the “winners and losers” under the Affordable Care Act, sourced to a Ryan Lizza article that used estimates from M.I.T. economist Jon Gruber, a former adviser to Mitt Romney.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Liberaland

Avik Roy / Forbes:

Obama Officials In 2010: 93 Million Americans Will Be Unable To Keep Their Health Plans Under Obamacare — On Wednesday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius testified before Congress about the continuing issues with the rollout of Obamacare's health insurance exchanges.

ThinkProgress:

How To Spot A Fake Obamacare Horror Story — Since insurers have begun informing beneficiaries that their health care plans do not meet the new federal requirements of Obamacare, and will be either cancelled or significantly altered, the media has profiled countless middle class Americans …

Discussion: Liberaland, The Week, The Dish and Washington Monthly

David Firestone / Taking Note:
The Uproar Over Insurance ‘Cancellation’ Letters

Discussion: The Impolitic, The Raw Story and Right Wing News

Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Pelosi pushes back hard on dropped plans

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Daily Caller, americanthinker.com and The Lonely Conservative

David Corn / Mother Jones:

WATCH: Ted Cruz's Dad Calls US a “Christian Nation,” Says Obama Should Go “Back to Kenya” — Want to understand where the tea party champion's hardcore views come from? Meet his father, Rafael. — In April, Rafael Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), spoke to the tea party of Hood County …

Discussion: Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, Trail Blazers Blog, The Huffington Post, dallasmorningviewsblog …, Politico, Taylor Marsh, The Raw Story, The Moderate Voice, CNN, theGrio, The Lead with Jake Tapper, Mock Paper Scissors and PoliticusUSA, more at Mediagazer »

DSWright / Firedoglake:
Ted Cruz's Father Tells Obama to “Go Back to Kenya”

Discussion: Mediaite and Hullabaloo

Rebecca Shabad / The Hill:
Reid: Cruz nomination would destroy GOP

Discussion: Sabato's Crystal Ball, Daily Kos, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Comment, Connecting.the.Dots, CNN, Politico, Taegan Goddard's … and The Moderate Voice

Irin Carmon / msnbc.com:

'I'm showing my son mercy' — On their last night in Dallas, the ramen noodles and microwave popcorn were finished. The money for the motel had run out too. So on a hot August night Jessica and Erick Davis and their three young kids slept in the Mazda rented for the trip.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, NewsBusters blogs and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:

GOP State Rep. Calls Clarence Thomas ‘The Black Judge’ — Oklahoma state Rep. Mike Ritze (R) seemed to forget Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' name, and instead referred to him as “the black judge” in an interview for an MSNBC piece on abortion restrictions in Oklahoma.

Discussion: Liberaland

Sharyl Attkisson / CBS News:

Obamacare enrollments got off to very slow start, documents show — (CBS News) WASHINGTON - For 31 days now, the Obama administration has been telling us that Americans by the millions are visiting the new health insurance website, despite all its problems.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Scared Monkeys, Conservative Intelligence …, Hot Air, Doug Ross, Twitchy and Weasel Zippers

ThinkProgress:

BREAKING: Senate Republicans Block Vote On Key Judicial Candidate, Daring Dems To Go Nuclear — Senate Republicans voted to hold up a key federal appeals court nominee Thursday, daring Senate Democrats to invoke what is known as the nuclear option and change the Senate rules with a simple majority vote.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Liberaland

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
GOP Threatens Mass Blockade Of Obama's Top Judges

Discussion: American Prospect, Daily Kos, PoliticusUSA, The Impolitic, Mock Paper Scissors, National Review and Mother Jones

Paul Sherman / Forbes:
Will The U.S. Supreme Court Defend Free Speech For The Little Guy?

Discussion: Hit & Run and SCOTUSblog

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:

Book Details Obama Aides' Talks About Replacing Biden on 2012 Ticket — President Obama's top aides secretly considered replacing Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. with Hillary Rodham Clinton on the 2012 ticket, undertaking extensive focus-group sessions and polling in late 2011 when Mr. Obama's re-election outlook appeared uncertain.

Discussion: Washington Wire, Yahoo! News, Politico, Talking Points Memo, Weasel Zippers and The Week

Kristie Greco / FAA:

Press Release - FAA to Allow Airlines to Expand Use of Personal Electronics — For Immediate Release — WASHINGTON- The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Michael Huerta today announced that the FAA has determined that airlines …

Discussion: NBCNews, TIME, Business Insider, iDownloadBlog.com, The Week, Taking Note, Wonkblog, The Switch, Gawker, Mashable, TechCrunch, GeekWire, White House.gov Blog, Guardian, AllThingsD and CBS DC

Matthew L. Wald / New York Times:
F.A.A. Moves to Ease Electronics Ban, Opening the Runways to Angry Birds

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Business Insider and Josh Blackman's Blog

ABC News:

Israeli Warplanes Strike Inside Syria for Fifth Time This Year … Israeli warplanes conducted an airstrike early today on a Syrian military facility near the northern Syrian port city of Latakia along the Mediterranean coast, a U.S. official confirms to ABC News.

Discussion: NNA

Yasser Okbi / Jerusalem Post:
Reports: Syrian air base destroyed in missile attack from sea

Discussion: Business Insider, The Jawa Report and Israel Matzav

Todd Starnes / Fox News:

Pentagon training manual: white males have unfair advantages — A controversial 600-plus page manual used by the military to train its Equal Opportunity officers teaches that “healthy, white, heterosexual, Christian” men hold an unfair advantage over other races, and warns in great detail about a so-called “White Male Club.”

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers and The Right Scoop

Ezra Klein / Businessweek:

How the iPod President Crashed: Obama's Broken Technology Promise — In the 2008 election, President Obama's advisers talked of their boss's belief that it was time for an “iPod government.” Obama, a technology addict who tools around on his iPad before going to sleep and who fought …

Discussion: TheBlaze.com, Business Insider and Yahoo! News

US News:

Top Hospitals Opt Out of Obamacare — Americans who sign up for insurance on the state exchanges may not have access to the nation's top hospitals, Watchdog.org reports. — The Obama Administration has been claiming that insurance companies will be competing for your dollars under the Affordable Care Act …

Discussion: National Review, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, The Lonely Conservative, The Right Scoop and Reuters

Townhall.com:

Debunking the Debunkers: Yes, Obamacare Rate Shock is Real — On October 26, The Los Angeles Times ran a story by Chad Terhune, documenting how many Californians feel lied as they are being forced out of their current health care plans due to Obamacare. — “All we've been hearing …

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, protein wisdom and NewsBusters blogs

Michael Hiltzik / Los Angeles Times:
Another Obamacare horror story debunked

Discussion: The Week, Mediaite and Crooks and Liars

John Stanton / BuzzFeed:

Senate Blocks Nomination Of Sitting Member Of Congress For First Time Since Reconstruction — Senate Republicans block Obama's Housing Authority nominee — and show just how bad relations are in Congress these days. — Yuri Gripas / Reuters — WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans Thursday …

Discussion: Colorlines

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
Thursday: Cory Booker and Mel Watt in the Senate

Discussion: Reuters, Politico, CNN and Daily Kos

Peter Nicholas / Washington Wire:

Hillary Clinton's Ratings Slip in New WSJ/NBC Poll — Hillary Clinton's public image has slumped in recent months, with younger voters, Democrats and independents taking a less enthusiastic view of her, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows. — Overall, 46% registered a positive view …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Politico

Katie Glueck / Politico:
Hillary Clinton: I'm ‘minded to do it’

Discussion: TIME

Alex Pareene / Salon:

Obamacare is a mess, and liberals need to fix it — Democrats need to acknowledge that, and make it work for everyone — It has been a pretty lousy month for the idea that the American government is capable of expanding access to healthcare to the uninsured and underinsured.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

Norm Ornstein / NationalJournal.com:

The Right to Vote — It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which eviscerated the Voting Rights Act, is leading to a new era of voter suppression that parallels the pre-1960s era—this time affecting not just African-Americans …

Discussion: Guardian, A plain blog about politics, Balloon Juice and First Read

Jurassicpork / Welcome Back to Pottersville:

Assclowns of the Week #96: Treat or Treat, Kiss My Ass edition — (Thanks to Tengrain linking to this during his turn on Mike's Blog Roll at Crooks and Liars, this posting will get some decent exposure. After making the rent on November 1st, Mrs. JP and I will be seriously wiped out.