memeorandum: The Koch brothers are like the KKK: Harry Belafonte (New York Post)

2:55 AM ET, November 5, 2013

Top Items:

Two Days until Brief Explosion of Christie Mania — Only two states, New Jersey and Virginia, hold their gubernatorial elections in odd years. Since there's generally a dearth of other political news at that time, Washington-based reporters usually decide that whoever got elected in Virginia …

Discussion: Slate, Taylor Marsh, The Week, PostPartisan and The Dish

Politico:
Final sprint in Election 2013

Discussion: CNN, Guardian, Hullabaloo and First Read

Emily Schultheis / Politico:
Democratic poll: Gun issue helps Terry McAuliffe

Discussion: Weekly Standard, ThinkProgress and Public Policy Polling

Katie Glueck / Politico:
Joe Biden: Ken Cuccinelli's views ‘from another era’

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Weasel Zippers, The Hugh Hewitt Show and CNN

Ashley Killough / CNN:
Biden frames Virginia governor's election as race against the tea party

Discussion: protein wisdom and Hot Air

Lori Ziganto / Twitchy:

Despicable: WH smears cancer survivor who lost her insurance plan due to Obamacare — That can't be true, can it? … Yes. Yes it is. Check out Dan Pfeiffer's despicable tweet posted via his official White House Twitter account. … Beyond repugnant. As Twitchy reported, Edie Littlefield Sundby is a Stage IV cancer survivor.

Discussion: Ed Driscoll, Chicago Boyz and ProfessorBainbridge.com

Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post:

A dishonest presidency — The Wall Street Journal broke the news this weekend that, even as President Obama was telling the American people they could keep their health plans, “some White House policy advisors objected to the breadth of Mr. Obama's ‘keep your plan’ promise. They were overruled by political aides.”

Discussion: Liberaland, ABC News, National Review, Townhall.com, Hot Air, “The Lid” and Power Line

Roberta Rampton / Reuters:
In political messaging wars, White House deploys a Twitter army

Discussion: Hot Air, The Daily Caller, NationalJournal.com and “The Lid”

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

House GOP regresses on gay rights — Today John Boehner declared he opposes the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and senior House GOP aides said the bill is unlikely to get a House vote — putting its passage in doubt. — So perhaps it's worth recalling some historical context …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Politico, Talking Points Memo and Mock Paper Scissors

United States Senator Dean Heller:
Heller Announces Support for Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Raw Story, Washington Blade, Towleroad News #gay and Daily Kos

Jake Sherman / Politico:
Spokesman: Boehner against ENDA

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Blade, BuzzFeed, Outside the Beltway, MacRumors, PoliticusUSA and The Plum Line

Seung Min Kim / Politico:
Gay rights bill poised to advance in Senate

Discussion: TheBlaze.com and Mediaite

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
John Boehner Opposes ENDA, Dealing Blow To Bill's Chances

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, ThinkProgress, ABC News, DownWithTyranny!, Advocate, The Heritage Foundation, Towleroad News #gay, Weasel Zippers, Right Wing Watch, Taylor Marsh, Human Rights Campaign Blog, TheBlaze.com, Washington Monthly, CNN, Taking Note, Daily Kos and Poliglot

Steve M. / No More Mister Nice Blog:

WHAT EDIE SUNDBY LEFT OUT OF THAT WALL STREET JOURNAL OP-ED — The Wall Street Journal has published a health care op-ed that's getting a great deal of attention. It's by a California woman named Edie Littlefield Sundby, who's been fighting stage-4 gallbladder cancer for seven years …

Discussion: Hot Air, NewsBusters, The Daily Caller and The Impolitic

ThinkProgress:
The Real Reason That The Cancer Patient Writing In Today's Wall Street Journal Lost Her Insurance

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:
Special Investigation: How Insurers Are Hiding Obamacare Benefits From Customers

Discussion: The Commonwealth Fund Blog, Townhall.com, protein wisdom, Mediaite, The Impolitic, Daily Kos, Hullabaloo, susiemadrak.com and BillMoyers.com

Seth Borenstein / Associated Press:

Study: 8.8 Billion Earth-size, Just-right Planets — WASHINGTON (AP) — Space is vast, but it may not be so lonely after all: A study finds the Milky Way is teeming with billions of planets that are about the size of Earth, orbit stars just like our sun, and exist in the Goldilocks zone — not too hot and not too cold for life.

Ariel Edwards-Levy / The Huffington Post:

Wendy Davis Trails By Single Digits In Texas Governor's Race — Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) is running just 6 percentage points behind state Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) in the 2014 governor's race, according to an online University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll released Monday.

Discussion: Liberaland

Ross Ramsey / The Texas Tribune:
UT/TT Poll: Abbott's Lead Over Davis in Single Digits

Discussion: LifeNews.com, USA Today, PoliticusUSA and Politico

New York Post:

The Koch brothers are like the KKK: Harry Belafonte — He'll pander to any crowd! — Mayoral front-runner Bill de Blasio stood silently by as celebrity booster Harry Belafonte compared the Tea Party-supporting Koch brothers to the Ku Klux Klan inside a Harlem Church on Sunday …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Free Beacon, KochFacts.com, The Gateway Pundit and Politico

John Cassidy / New Yorker:
LIBERAL AGENDAS — New York is often described as a liberal city …

Discussion: Guardian, DownWithTyranny! and Questions and Observations

Hartford Courant:

Student Who Prompted CCSU Lockdown Apologizes, Says Incident Was Misunderstanding — Outfit That Alarmed Students Was Halloween Costume — NEW BRITAIN — A student still wearing his Halloween costume from the weekend caused alarm when he walked through Central Connecticut State University Monday …

Discussion: PIX 11 and Hit & Run

Simon Romero / New York Times:

Brazil Acknowledges Spying on Diplomatic Targets — RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil's government acknowledged on Monday that its top intelligence agency had spied on diplomatic targets from countries including the United States, Iran and Russia, putting Brazilian authorities in the uncomfortable position …

Discussion: The Daily Banter, National Review, The Hinterland Gazette, Talking Points Memo and Little Green Footballs

BBC:

‘Three killed’ in Norway bus hijack — A man wielding a knife has hijacked a bus in Norway and killed three passengers, media reports say. — The suspect, said to be in his 50s and of foreign origin, has been arrested, police told Norway's TV2 news channel. — The victims included the driver of the bus.

Associated Press:

Lawmakers push to keep Obama's health care pledge — WASHINGTON (AP) — Little more than a week after millions of consumers received health care cancellation notices, lawmakers in both parties are pushing legislation to redeem President Barack Obama's long-ago pledge that anyone liking …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and NO QUARTER USA NET

Sarah Boseley / Guardian:

CIA made doctors torture suspected terrorists after 9/11, taskforce finds — Doctors were asked to torture detainees for intelligence gathering, and unethical practices continue, review concludes — Doctors and psychologists working for the US military violated the ethical codes …

Discussion: Site RSS, Hit & Run, Firedoglake, ThinkProgress, BBC, Infowars, Liberaland, The Dish, NBCNews and Prairie Weather

RealClearPolitics Video Log:

Obama: “What We Said Was You Can Keep It If It Hasn't Changed Since The Law Passed” — PRESIDENT OBAMA: Now, if you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn't changed since the law passed.

Discussion: Twitchy, NewsBusters and Clayton Cramer's Blog