memeorandum: White House: Sy Hersh report ‘false’ (Dylan Byers/Politico)

1:40 PM ET, December 9, 2013

Top Items:

Spies' Dragnet Reaches a Playing Field of Elves and Trolls — Not limiting their activities to the earthly realm, American and British spies have infiltrated the fantasy worlds of World of Warcraft and Second Life, conducting surveillance and scooping up data in the online games played …

Discussion: Guardian, The Verge, Liberaland and TechCrunch

ProPublica:

World of Spycraft: NSA and CIA Spied in Online Games — by Justin Elliott, ProPublica, and Mark Mazzetti, The New York Times … Not limiting their activities to the earthly realm, American and British spies have infiltrated the fantasy worlds of World of Warcraft and Second Life …

Discussion: Techdirt, The Minority Report Blog, NPR, KDVR.com and Gawker

James Ball / Guardian:
Spy agencies in covert push to infiltrate virtual world of online gaming

Discussion: Computerworld, ProPublica, Discourse.net, Mashable, The Raw Story and emptywheel

Robert Pear / New York Times:

On Health Exchanges, Premiums May Be Low, but Other Costs Can Be High — WASHINGTON — For months, the Obama administration has heralded the low premiums of medical insurance policies on sale in the insurance exchanges created by the new health law. But as consumers dig into the details …

Discussion: Power Line, The Minority Report Blog and Hot Air

New York Times:
Amid the Uproar Over the Health Law, Voices of Quiet Optimism and Relief

Discussion: The Plum Line

Stephanie Kirchgaessner / Financial Times:
New Affordable Care US health plans will exclude top hospitals

Discussion: americanthinker.com

Beth Reinhard / NationalJournal.com:

Can Democrats Make 2014 About the Minimum Wage? — Shifting away from Obamacare is smart politics, but it won't be easy to lure GOP voters with a low-wages argument. — A prominent liberal think tank dubbed it a “political goldmine.” The New Republic called it “the issue that could take down Mitch McConnell.”

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Mediaite and National Review

New York Times:
Three Senators Try to Hold Off G.O.P. in South

Discussion: NBCNews, Talking Points Memo, Capitol Report and Prairie Weather

Bloomberg:
Warren Hits Banks, Expands Base to Solidify Senate Power

Discussion: First Read

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Year of living dismally

Discussion: CNN

Dylan Byers / Politico:

White House: Sy Hersh report ‘false’ — The White House is dismissing as “simply false” a new report from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, which states that the Obama Administration “cherry-picked intelligence” in order to make its case for a military strike against Syria.

Discussion: Mediaite and The Agonist

Seymour M. Hersh / London Review of Books:

Whose sarin? — Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts.

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Huffington Post, The Minority Report Blog, susiemadrak.com, Jihad Watch, The Agonist, Atlas Shrugs, Gawker, BuzzFeed and emptywheel, more at Mediagazer »

Justin Sink / The Hill: WH: Hersh report on Syria ‘simply false’

ThinkProgress:

There's Now A Coloring Book To Teach Your Children To Love Ted Cruz — Are you a new parent terrified that the liberal media will turn your child into an Obama supporter? Or do you just need something to entertain your kids during those long drives to Tea Party rallies?

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Hullabaloo, Mediaite and The Raw Story

Susan Page / USA Today:
Sibling rivalry? Zeke vs. Rahm Emanuel on Obamacare

Discussion: Firedoglake and Washington Free Beacon

Chris Wallace / Fox News:
Sen. Rand Paul on scrapping ObamaCare, saving Detroit; ‘Pik’ Botha on Nelson Mandela's life and legacy

Discussion: Althouse, BizzyBlog, Twitchy, Crooks and Liars and About.com US Politics

TIME:

The Top Ten Finalists for Person of the Year in 2013 — Here are the final ten contenders for TIME's Person of the Year (listed alphabetically): Bashar Assad, President of Syria Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder Ted Cruz, Texas Senator Miley Cyrus, Singer Pope Francis, Leader of the Catholic Church Barack Obama …

Discussion: Politico, Yahoo! News, Towleroad News #gay and Joe. My. God.

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Punishment Cure — Six years have passed since the United States economy entered the Great Recession, four and a half since it officially began to recover, but long-term unemployment remains disastrously high. And Republicans have a theory about why this is happening.

Discussion: msnbc.com, Washington Monthly, p m carpenter's commentary, Shakesville, Prairie Weather, Daily Kos and Post Politics

Reuters:

Israeli Top Leaders Not Attending Mandela Funeral — JERUSALEM — Neither Israel's prime minister nor president will attend South Africa's commemorations of the late Nelson Mandela this week, officials said, a notable absence at events expected to draw more than 70 world leaders.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Nedra Pickler / Associated Press:
Biden Signs Mandela Condolence Book at Embassy

Discussion: CNN

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:

Americans Discover They're Trapped In GOP's Medicaid Expansion Gap — With HealthCare.gov working better and the first deadline to sign up for health coverage that starts in January approaching, Obamacare's so-called navigators — the people and organizations receiving federal funds to help people enroll …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Liberaland and Progressive Eruptions

Joseph Curl / Washington Times:

Obama tells a whopper on IRS scandal — ANALYSIS/OPINION: — Fact: The IRS targeted conservative and tea party groups requesting tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election. That's a fact. — Congress held hearings — embarrassing hearings.

Discussion: Betsy's Page, The Other McCain and Power Line

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:

Budget deal expected this week amounts to a cease-fire as sides move to avert a standoff — House and Senate negotiators were putting the finishing touches Sunday on what would be the first successful budget accord since 2011, when the battle over a soaring national debt first paralyzed Washington.

Discussion: NBCNews, Wonkblog, A plain blog about politics, ABC News, Daily Kos, The Fix, Business Insider, Marginal Revolution and The Hill

Zach Carter / The Huffington Post:

Obama Faces Backlash Over New Corporate Powers In Secret Trade Deal — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration appears to have almost no international support for controversial new trade standards that would grant radical new political powers to corporations, increase the cost of prescription medications …

Discussion: National Review, Shakesville, Teamster Nation and susiemadrak.com

Susan B. Glasser / Politico:

Was Hillary Clinton a good secretary of state? — And does it matter? — Not so long ago, Hillary Clinton was being lauded as an exemplary secretary of state. After four years and nearly a million miles logged as America's top diplomat, she stepped down to a torrent of praise.

Discussion: TheBlaze.com and The Daily Caller

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
Worries about Hillary Clinton

Discussion: Taylor Marsh and Washington Monthly

Tomas Hachard / The Atlantic Online:

Finally, Some Films That Don't Make the 1960s Look So Groovy — While it's likely entirely coincidental, it's nevertheless fitting that the Coen brothers' latest movie, Inside Llewyn Davis, has its initial release on December 6. That was the day of the Altamont music festival in 1969 …