memeorandum: George W. Bush on Keystone XL: “Build the Damn Thing” (Sharon Kelly/DeSmogBlog)

5:45 PM ET, November 18, 2013

Top Items:

Why Obamacare Is On Life Support — Democrats may begin calling for repeal if the law's problems don't get resolved soon. — President Obama will fight to preserve his signature domestic legislation, but Democrats may not let him. (Mandel Ngan/AFP) — There's nothing that Democrats …

Discussion: American Prospect, The Plum Line, The Moderate Voice, A plain blog about politics, The Fix, Reuters, Politico, Mediaite, Forbes, Power Line, Heritage Action for America, Hot Air, The Hinterland Gazette, Taylor Marsh, Conservatives4Palin and New York Times

Edward Luce / Financial Times:

The Obama presidency is not over, but it is failing — With the exception of the debt ceiling debacle, he has fallen at almost every hurdle — Anyone wondering about the scale of the anti-Obama backlash should look at its impact on the 2016 US presidential race.

Discussion: Hot Air and New York Times

Brian Beutler / Salon:

How to silence GOP nuts — and stop the Obamacare repeal campaign — One still-plausible scenario could stop attacks on the president's “You can keep it” comment dead in its tracks — Nobody, not even President Obama, is pretending that the rollout of the Affordable Care Act has been anything but a debacle.

Discussion: Mediaite

Todd S. Purdum / Politico:
Obamacare's threat to liberalism

Discussion: Mediaite, A plain blog about politics and CNN

Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Lesson Is Seen in Failure of Law on Medicare in 1989

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Daily Caller and National Republican …

Andrew C. McCarthy / National Review:
Obama's ‘5 Percent’ Con Job

Discussion: Conservatives4Palin

Orlando Sentinel:

Seminole deputies arrest George Zimmerman — Video: Zimmerman's wife calls 911, won't press charges — 911 audio: Shellie Zimmerman says George is threatening everyone — George Zimmerman's attorney gives statement — George Zimmerman's wife says he threatened her

Discussion: Associated Press, Rush Limbaugh, Talking Points Memo, Liberaland, The Raw Story, PoliticusUSA, Little Green Footballs, Crooks and Liars, Booman Tribune and Gawker

George Zimmerman / TMZ.com:

ALLEGEDLY ATTACKED GF — GUN INVOLVED — EXCLUSIVE DETAILS — 2:14 PM PT According to the Seminole County Sheriff, the woman was not pregnant ... but we're told she told the 911 dispatcher she was. The Sheriff says the woman claims Zimmerman pointed a DOUBLE BARREL SHOTGUN at her, pushed her out of the house.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Mediaite

WESH-TV:

George Zimmerman arrested for domestic violence — Zimmerman taken to jail for incident with girlfriend — George Zimmerman has been arrested in a domestic dispute involving his girlfriend, law enforcement said. — He was arrested at about 1 p.m. Monday and was being taken to the Seminole County Jail.

Discussion: PostPartisan, ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Plain Dealer:

Chat wrap: OUR Walmart rep answers your questions about this story — Is the food drive proof the retailer pays so little that many employees can't afford Thanksgiving dinner? — Norma Mills of Canton, who lives near the store, saw the photo circulating showing the food drive bins, and felt both “outrage” and “anger.”

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Unfogged, Behind the Storefront, Taking Note, Ramona's Voices, Guardian, BillMoyers.com and Working In These Times

ThinkProgress:
Walmart Holding Canned Food Drive For Its Own Underpaid Employees

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Mediaite, Liberaland, The Raw Story and Daily Kos

Walter Russell Mead / Via Meadia:

The Most Shocking Obamacare Revelation — It's been a grim month for fans of Obamacare, and perhaps especially for the red state Democrats in Congress who voted for it. Between the ghastly failure of the website, the waves of policy cancellations, and the grim realization that the 'wonks …

Discussion: Instapundit, Ed Driscoll, Vox Popoli, National Review and BizzyBlog

Ron Fournier / NationalJournal.com:

President Obama and His Gang That (Still) Isn't Shooting Straight — Incompetence, deception, and lack of accountability still hound White House and health reform. — Incompetence, deception, and lack of accountability doomed the Obamacare rollout. That's old news. What's new?

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Hit & Run, Hot Air, Mediaite, Heritage Action for America and Business Insider

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

NSA spying challenge turned aside — The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a challenge to the National Security Agency's global sweep of telephone and electronic communications — the first such test case to reach the Court since former NSA analyst Edward Snowdon began releasing publicly …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and The Hinterland Gazette

David Kravets / Wired:
Supreme Court Rejects Case Challenging NSA Phone Spying

Discussion: Techdirt and TechCrunch

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
SCOTUS passes up surveillance case

Discussion: Washington Post, The Verge, Talking Points Memo and Little Green Footballs

Cameron Joseph / The Hill:

Cheney defends daughter on gay marriage — As his two daughters publicly feud over gay marriage, former Vice President Dick Cheney is stepping in to defend daughter Liz Cheney (R), who is running for the Senate in Wyoming. — Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, released a statement saying Liz …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Balloon Juice, TheBlaze.com and The New Civil Rights Movement

Politico:
Dick Cheney takes Liz's side in marriage spat

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, Advocate and DownWithTyranny!

Sharon Kelly / DeSmogBlog:

George W. Bush on Keystone XL: “Build the Damn Thing” — Make private companies happy. Don't worry about the environment. Stop fretting about long-term sustainability. Forget renewables, property concerns, the safety of our water and air. Make private companies happy.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Washington Free Beacon and National Review

Joseph Curl / Washington Times: The beginning of the end for Barack Obama

ThinkProgress:
George W. Bush: Building The Keystone XL Pipeline Is A ‘No-Brainer’

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Josh Rogin / The Daily Beast:

Exclusive: John Kerry Defies the White House on Egypt Policy — The secretary doesn't agree with Obama's team, especially Susan Rice, on how to deal with Egypt. Unfortunately for Rice, Kerry is the one on the ground—and he's doing things his way. — Before Secretary of State John Kerry's recent trip …

Discussion: Jihad Watch, The PJ Tatler, Mediaite and National Review

Joy Wilke / Gallup:

Majority in U.S. Say Healthcare Not Gov't Responsibility — Republicans' attitudes on this measure have changed significantly since 2000 — PRINCETON, NJ — The 56% of U.S. adults who now say it is not the federal government's responsibility to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage continues to reflect a record high.

Discussion: Conservative Intelligence …, Weasel Zippers and The Daily Caller

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

A Permanent Slump? — Spend any time around monetary officials and one word you'll hear a lot is “normalization.” Most though not all such officials accept that now is no time to be tightfisted, that for the time being credit must be easy and interest rates low.

Discussion: Washington Center …, AEIdeas, The Reaction, The Week, Hullabaloo, naked capitalism, Marginal Revolution, Business Insider, Economist's View and Paul Krugman

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Elizabeth Warren: Don't cut Social Security. Expand it! — “The most recent discussion about cutting benefits has focused on something called the Chained-CPI. Supporters of the chained CPI say that it's a more accurate way of measuring cost of living increases for seniors. That statement is simply not true.

Scot J. Paltrow / Reuters:

Special Report: The Pentagon's doctored ledgers conceal epic waste — (Reuters) - Linda Woodford spent the last 15 years of her career inserting phony numbers in the U.S. Department of Defense's accounts. — Every month until she retired in 2011, she says, the day came when the Navy …

Discussion: The Verge

David Edwards / The Raw Story:

New Mexico cops open fire on minivan full of kids at traffic stop for speeding — Several New Mexico State Police officers are under investigation after at least one of them fired shots at a minivan full of children last month. — According to KRQE, an officer pulled over Oriana Ferrell …

Discussion: Hit & Run, The Taos News, Colorlines, NBCNews and The New Civil Rights Movement

Kevin Liptak / CNN:

Administration offers more details on month-end website goal — Washington (CNN) - A pool of Americans who attempt to obtain new health insurance through HealthCare.gov will never be able to complete their transaction online, even after the November 30 deadline for repairing the faulty website …

Discussion: Politico

Evan Vucci / Washington Times:

Obamacare Medicare fallout: UnitedHealth cuts doctors, rations care — The unfolding Obamacare disaster is proving to be a fast-moving target. Even as an armada of techies and programmers attempt to make the disastrously constructed healthcare.gov site functional, security worries grow …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and The New Civil Rights Movement

Josh King / Politico:

Dukakis and the tank — The inside story of the worst campaign photo op ever. — Matt Bennett can still hear the reporters laughing, all 90 of them. He can still picture Sam Donaldson doubled over, guffawing, on a riser that looked out over a dusty field in suburban Detroit.

Discussion: Weekly Standard and Outside the Beltway