memeorandum: NRCC's “Happy Holidays Is What Liberals Say” Shirt Removed From Website (Rosie Gray/BuzzFeed)

9:20 PM ET, December 2, 2013

Top Items:

Insurers Claim Health Website Is Still Flawed — Weeks of frantic technical work appear to have made the government's health care website easier for consumers to use. But that does not mean everyone who signs up for insurance can enroll in a health plan. — The problem is that so-called …

Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post:

For Democrats in 2014, the Web site is not the problem — Democrats are praying that this weekend's relaunch of the Obamacare Web site will save them from an electoral bloodbath in 2014. Their hopes are misplaced. Here are five numbers that suggest that public anger over Obamacare will only grow as Election Day 2014 approaches:

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and National Review

Julianna Goldman / Bloomberg:
Obamacare Website Sign-Ups Said to Reach 100,000 in Month

Discussion: Washington Post, PoliticusUSA, The Hill, Reuters, ThinkProgress, Weasel Zippers, Shakesville, Hot Air, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, Mediaite, The Plum Line, Los Angeles Times, Jammie Wearing Fools, First Read, Politico, ABC News and Wonkblog

Ben Jacobs / The Daily Beast:
Is the HealthCare.gov Fix Too Late to Save Obamacare?

Discussion: Connecting.the.Dots

Brian Beutler / Salon:

R.I.P. Obamacare repeal movement: Crusade is officially dead — Back in July, long before we knew just how turbulent the rollout of the Affordable Care Act would be, and even longer before we knew just how committed Republicans were to the idea that Congress shouldn't boot people out of health insurance …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, msnbc.com, Speaker.gov, Liberaland, The Huffington Post and A plain blog about politics

Karoli / Crooks and Liars:

CA Assembly GOP Puts Up Fake California Health Exchange Site — California Republicans are desperate and shameless. In the past two weeks, GOP Assembly members have sent mailings out on what appears to be the state's dime to their constituents about health insurance.

Discussion: Daily Kos and Hullabaloo

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

The Rise Of Obamacare McCarthyism — When House Republicans unveiled a proposal in the fall aimed at avoiding a dead-end government shutdown over Obamacare, the conservative backlash was swift and brutal: they called it a surrender, a betrayal, an appeasement of the health care law they all abhor.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Ron Fournier / NationalJournal.com:

Fire Your Team, Mr. President — A White House shake-up can't stop with a sacrificial lamb. Obama needs to change the people around him to change how he governs. — President Obama needs to fire himself. Not literally, of course, but practically: He needs to shake up his team so thoroughly …

Discussion: Mediaite, Hot Air, Booman Tribune, TIME, VodkaPundit, naked capitalism and VentureBeat

The Hill:

Democrats admit reboot needs stronger White House team — Former administration officials and Democratic operatives say President Obama is ill-served by his current White House staff and must reboot his second term team following the disastrous ObamaCare rollout.

Discussion: Power Line, Hot Air, The Moderate Voice, PostPartisan, A plain blog about politics, VodkaPundit, Weasel Zippers, The Hinterland Gazette, Jammie Wearing Fools and The Reaction

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:
Issa Fishes For Proof Obama Knew He Lied About Obamacare

Discussion: Liberaland

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:

Drones Could Be Amazon's Undoing — Tonight on 60 Minutes, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced rather hazily that the company is working on trying to hone unmanned aerial vehicles as a last-mile delivery solution that could make ultra-fast same-day delivery a reality.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, Marginal Revolution, The Dish and New York Times

Charlie Rose / CBS News:
Amazon's Jeff Bezos looks to the future

Politico:
Obstacles to the Jeff Bezos drone dream

Discussion: BuzzFeed, iOwnTheWorld.com, The Daily Caller, Boing Boing, Jezebel and TheBlaze.com

Lawrence Hurley / Reuters:

U.S. justices decline to hear another Obamacare challenge — (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a broad new legal challenge to President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare law. — The court rejected a petition filed by Liberty University, a Christian college in Virginia …

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:

NRCC's “Happy Holidays Is What Liberals Say” Shirt Removed From Website — War on Christmas? — Twitter: @NRCC — WASHINGTON — The National Republican Congressional Committee appears to have removed a t-shirt from its website that advocates against saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”

Discussion: Liberal Values, Business Insider, Mediaite and Liberaland

Nate Cohn / The New Republic:

Scott Walker Could Reunite the GOP — Unlike Chris Christie or Ted Cruz, Scott Walker can appeal to the entire party. — There's a real case that Chris Christie is the front-runner for the 2016 Republican nomination. That's pretty remarkable: He's for gun control, hails from the northeast …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

Joan Walsh / Salon:
GOP's massive 2013 mistake: How the party ignored its terminal illness

Discussion: Brains and Eggs, Liberaland, Associated Press and Taylor Marsh

Scott Kaufman / The Raw Story:

Black female professor reprimanded for pointing out existence of structural racism to white male students — A faculty member at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Shannon Gibney, received a formal reprimand for her handling of a discussion about structural racism in her Introduction to Mass Communication course.

Discussion: The Blotter and Jezebel

Dylan Byers / Politico:

MSNBC's Martin Bashir ‘on vacation’ after Sarah Palin remarks — Martin Bashir, the MSNBC host who has come under fire for the controversial remarks he made about Sarah Palin, is “on vacation” and will not host his namesake afternoon program on Monday, POLITICO has learned.

Discussion: his vorpal sword, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, FishbowlDC and NewsBusters

Bruce Horovitz / USA Today:

Applebee's to serve tablets at every table — Hoping to appeal to younger diners, restaurants see a future in tablets for viewing menus, ordering and paying bills. — CONNECT — That endless wait for the restaurant check soon may be over. — Applebee's, the nation's largest casual dining chain …

Discussion: Liberaland and Business Insider

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Report: Obama Arranging Tehran Visit for Next Year — The Kuwaiti news outlet Al-Jarida reports that President Obama is seeking to arrange a trip to Tehran, Iran next year. — The headline of the article reads, “Obama would like to visit Tehran, official invitation after details resolved.”

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Hill, Hot Air, Mediaite, Yahoo! News, Weasel Zippers and Politico

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

GOP member: Iran deal like Chamberlain's appeasement of Nazi Germany — Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) on Monday compared the Obama administration's short-term deal on Iran's nuclear capability with former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's attempt to appease Nazi Germany.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Liberaland

Kevin Gosztola / Firedoglake:

NSA Sent Home Talking Points for Employees to Use in Conversations With Family & Friends During Holidays — A sheet of talking points for employees of the National Security Agency and Central Security Services, was sent out ahead of Thanksgiving to help guide conversations with family and friends during the holiday season.

Discussion: Guardian, The Verge and emptywheel

Nicole Flatow / ThinkProgress:

Elderly Man With Alzheimer's Shot Dead After Wandering Onto Resident's Property — A 72-year-old who suffered from Alzheimer's was shot dead after wandering onto a man's property early Wednesday morning, ringing the doorbell and turning the door handle. After Joe Hendrix's fiancé called 911 …

Jason Redmond / The Star-Ledger Editorial Page:

Christie's flip-flop on immigration: Editorial — Star-Ledger Editorial Board By Star-Ledger Editorial Board — If Gov. Chris Christie thinks voters won't notice if he promises one thing when he's running for governor, then another when he's running for president, he's dreaming.

Discussion: CNN, ABC News and Post Politics

Darlene Superville / Associated Press:

5 NEW THINGS ABOUT OBAMA — You are here — Home » United States government » 5 new things about Obama — WASHINGTON (AP) — The man who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is more than just another celebrity, or the famous face behind the government's troubled health care website.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, TheBlaze.com, Liberaland and Jammie Wearing Fools

Paul Krugman:

Immaculate Stability (Wonkish) — David Andolfatto, understandably, rises to Steve Williamson's defense against the barbarians. But I'm sorry to say that he still doesn't get the point. — He says that he's simply offering an alternative model — and Noah Smith takes him at his word.

Discussion: TheMoneyIllusion, Stephen Williamson, Washington Center …, MacroMania, Not Quite Noahpinion and Worthwhile Canadian Initiative

ThinkProgress:

Private Prison Company Allegedly Put 73-Year-Old Grandmother In Solitary Confinement For 34 Days — Carol Lester, a 73-year-old grandmother serving time in New Mexico Women's Correctional Facility in Grants, is suing Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest private prison companies …

Discussion: The Impolitic and The Raw Story

Alex Pareene / Salon:

Why mass transit is doomed in America: Politicians don't know people who use it — If big, liberal cities can't adequately fund their transit systems, what hope does anywhere else have? — If you want to know why mass transit is doomed in the United States, look at the place where it is undoubtedly …

Discussion: The Dish, The Awl and Eschaton

Sean Michaels / Guardian:

Bob Dylan sued for alleged racism — French-based Croatian community organisation file a complaint following controversial remarks made in 2012 — Bob Dylan has been sued by a French-based Croatian community organisation for alleged racism. Representatives from the Council of Croats in France …

Discussion: TIME, FP Passport, Mediaite, NPR, National Review and Gothamist

Alexandra Jaffe / The Hill:

Cochran passes deadline on announcing reelection bid — Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), a veteran Republican facing a conservative primary challenge, passed this weekend his self-imposed deadline on announcing whether he would seek reelection. — According to a WTVA report from early November …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:

Pope Francis Tells Faithful He Worked As A Nightclub Bouncer — As head of the Catholic church, Pope Francis is charged with bringing people into the faith. — But the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reported the pope told churchgoers Sunday that he used to make money by kicking people …

Discussion: Liberaland and Outside the Beltway

Maria Bello / New York Times:

Coming Out as a Modern Family — When my 12-year-old son, Jackson, asked me if there was something I wasn't telling him, I replied, “There are a lot of things I don't tell you.” — “Like what?” — “Adult stuff.” — He persisted: “What kind of adult stuff?”