memeorandum: Snowden Persuaded Other NSA Workers To Give Up Passwords, Sources Claim (Reuters)

10:15 AM ET, November 8, 2013

Top Items:

Chuck Todd / U.S. News:

Exclusive: Obama personally apologizes for Americans losing health coverage — In an exclusive interview with NBC's Chuck Todd, President Obama said that he is “sorry” that some Americans are losing their current health insurance plans. “We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear …

Ron Fournier / NationalJournal.com:

I'm Sorry, Too, Mr. President — Obama apologizes for breaking promise on health care reform. — I'm sorry, too, Mr. President. — I'm sorry you couldn't finesse a single Republican vote for health insurance reform in 2010. — I'm sorry Republicans decided to re-litigate the law rather …

Discussion: Right Turn, Associated Press, The Gateway Pundit, Politico and Conservatives4Palin

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
It's True: Obamacare Will Force Some People to Pay More for the Same Coverage

Discussion: Forbes, Hot Air, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal

Peggy Noonan / Wall Street Journal:

Noonan: 'I'm Gonna Be the Republican Nominee' — Mitch McConnell on the shutdown's failure, ObamaCare's future, and his own primary challenge. — Washington — It is a month since the government shutdown and a day after the election. The minority leader of the U.S. Senate …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hot Air and First Read

Andrew Kohut / Wall Street Journal:

The GOP Is in Better Shape Than You Think — Independents favor the GOP on handling the economy by a whopping 46%-30% margin. — Tucked away in recent polls—which have documented the extraordinary anger directed at the Republican Party during the shutdown crisis—are measures of clear disappointment with the Democratic Party.

New York Times:

Accounts Differ to F.B.I. and CBS on Benghazi — Dylan Davies, a security officer hired to help protect the United States Special Mission in Benghazi, Libya, told the F.B.I. he did not go there the night terrorists attacked it on Sept. 11, 2012, an account that contradicts a version of events …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, CNN, Politico, Liberaland, The Raw Story, AMERICAblog News, Business Insider, Capital New York and Little Green Footballs, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:
CBS Correspondent Apologizes for Report on Benghazi Attack

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Raw Story and The Huffington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Mutilated Economy — Five years and eleven months have now passed since the U.S. economy entered recession. Officially, that recession ended in the middle of 2009, but nobody would argue that we've had anything like a full recovery. Official unemployment remains high …

New York Times:

Kerry Joins Iran Nuclear Talks in Push for Initial Deal — GENEVA — Secretary of State John Kerry and foreign ministers from France, Britain and Germany planned to join the push here on Friday for an interim agreement that would freeze Iran's nuclear program.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, First Read, Mondoweiss, BBC and Hot Air

Peter Foster / Telegraph:
US offers short-term nuclear deal allowing Iran to continue enriching uranium

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Israel Matzav

Wall Street Journal: Iran Nuclear Deal Expected as Early as Friday

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Most Uninsured Americans Ignoring Health Exchange Sites — Three in 10 are familiar with the exchanges — PRINCETON, NJ — In the midst of widespread news coverage of problems with the federal health exchange website, relatively few uninsured Americans (18%) — the primary target population …

Discussion: Politico, First Read and Right Wing News

Agoldberg / The Smoking Gun:

Fraternity Pledge Loses Testicle In Hazing Ritual — Ohio cops probe battering in basement of “Gobbler House” — Ohio cops are investigating a college fraternity hazing incident that left a 19-year-old pledge short one testicle, records show. — Three Wilmington College students seeking induction …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Raw Story, Liberaland and Balloon Juice

Ari Fleischer / Politico:

Why the House must pass ENDA — On Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to protect gay employees from job discrimination with an overwhelming bipartisan vote. Republicans should support these protections, and I hope the GOP leadership in the House schedules the bill for a vote.

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Booman Tribune, The Plum Line and Talking Points Memo

ThinkProgress:
BREAKING: Senate Passes LGBT Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)

Discussion: aflcio.org

Ted Barrett / CNN:
Senate's Reid wants to pass minimum wage hike this month

Discussion: Politico, Hot Air and PoliticusUSA

Tal Kopan / Politico:

Bill O'Reilly: Chris Christie won't do my show — Fox News host Bill O'Reilly complained Friday that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie refuses to appear on his show. — “He won't submit to an interview with me,” O'Reilly said on “CBS This Morning.” “Christie will not. He just won't do it.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

New York Times:

Rules to Require Equal Coverage for Mental Ills — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday will complete a generation-long effort to require insurers to cover care for mental health and addiction just like physical illnesses when it issues long-awaited regulations defining parity in benefits and treatment.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Post Politics

Jenn Taylor / Twitchy:

Freak-out in full swing over ‘rich, white’ racists mocking Obamacare at the CMAs — Once again, Twitter was prescient. — After Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood mocked Obamacare on the CMA Awards, whiners immediately twisted their knickers over the stars who “slandered” Obamacare.

Discussion: Mediaite, Weasel Zippers and Washington Free Beacon

Sasha Bogursky / Fox News:
CMA Awards 2013: Country singers rip ObamaCare website, ‘Duck Dynasty’ stars surprise with ‘Blurred Lines’ cover

Discussion: Firedoglake, Scared Monkeys and Politico

Reuters:

Snowden Persuaded Other NSA Workers To Give Up Passwords, Sources Claim — Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden used login credentials and passwords provided unwittingly by colleagues at a spy base in Hawaii to access some of the classified material he leaked to the media, sources said.

Discussion: Liberaland

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Joe Biden Called A Second Wrong Number Searching For Boston Mayor-Elect Marty Walsh — WASHINGTON — If your phone number has a 617 area code, check your messages — there's a chance you got a call from Joe Biden Tuesday night. — That's because the vice president was having all sorts …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Michael Levenson / The Boston Globe:
Vice President Biden congratulates the wrong Martin Walsh

Discussion: Hot Air and Boston Globe

New York Times:

Hollywood's Ready to Cast Clinton in Top Role — LOS ANGELES — In the prelude to the 2008 Democratic presidential primary season, the split between the Hollywood mogul David Geffen and Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton represented an early and embarrassing sign of trouble for Mrs. Clinton.

Discussion: ABC News

Noah Rothman / Mediaite:

Former MSNBC Host's Health Plan Cancelled, New Plan Costs 3.5 Times More — “Thnx Mr. President.” That's all former MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan had to say to President Barack Obama on Thursday when he announced that the health insurance plan he purchased on the individual market after leaving the news network was being cancelled.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Instapundit

Sarah Posner / Mother Jones:

George W. Bush to Raise Money for Group That Converts Jews to Bring About Second Coming of Christ — The former president follows in the footsteps of Glenn Beck, who addressed the group last year. — Courtesy of Messianic Jewish Bible Institute — Next week, former President George W. Bush …

Discussion: Salon, Trail Blazers Blog, Talking Points Memo, American Prospect, Balloon Juice, Booman Tribune, Washington Monthly and Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

GOP Blockade Sells Even Old-School Dems On Nuking Filibuster — From young newbies to the old guards, Democratic senators are clamoring for filibuster reform, and insist that a mass Republican blockade of three judges to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals may be the final straw before going nuclear.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Liberaland and Daily Kos