The Commentariat -- Nov. 5, 2013

Paul Kane & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "The Senate cleared a critical hurdle Monday on legislation banning discrimination against gays in the workplace, demonstrating the latest shift in a dramatic transformation of political views toward gay rights over the last decade. Seven Republicans joined 54 members of the Democratic caucus Monday evening in a vote to formally begin consideration of the bill -- virtually guaranteeing passage later this week -- on legislation that would prohibit discrimination in the workplace against gays." ...

... Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) speaks in favor of ENDA:

... Benjy Sarlin of NBC News: "Not a single Republican Senator delivered a speech opposing its passage." ...

... Thomas Ferraro of Reuters: "House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Monday opposed a bill to ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, dimming the chances of the White House-backed measure becoming law." ...

... Sarlin (linked above) explains why Boehner's opposition to ENDA is a BIG MISTAKE for the GOP. ...

... "Barack Obama Is a Terrible Blogger." Jonathan Chait: "Not long ago, Barack Obama gave a highly publicized speech in which he disparaged bloggers as a class of people who, along with lobbyists and talk-radio hosts, ought to be ignored. Just what Obama holds against bloggers was never entirely clear.... Today, Obama has a blog item of his own in the Huffington Post, urging Congress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. A consideration of its polemical merits makes clear the source of his mysterious resentment of bloggers: rank envy.... He resents bloggers because he is a failed blogger himself. Obama should not quit his day job. Whatever that is." Obama's post is here.

I can't always quote everything perfect. I'm not perfect. I do make mistakes. In the book in fact we made a mistake, it should have been blocked off or indented to show that it was a quotation. It was footnoted at the end. We didn't try to pass off anything as our own. And they're coming up with these absurdities. -- Sen. Rand Paul, to Sean Hannity Monday night ...

I can't always quote everything perfect. Look, adverbs and adjectives confuse me. And 'they' expect me to indent? -- CW Rough Translation

... The Plagiarist, Ctd. Linguakleptomania. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Sections of an op-ed Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul wrote on mandatory minimums in The Washington Times in September appear nearly identical to an article by Dan Stewart of The Week that ran a week earlier. The discovery comes amid reports from BuzzFeed that Paul plagiarized in his book and in several speeches. Paul also delivered testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 16, 2013, that included the copied sections.... Paul's office did not return a request for comment." ...

... Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who in recent weeks has had to explain how Wikipedia entries came to be incorporated into his speeches with no attribution, faced charges of direct plagiarism on Monday night.... Aides to Mr. Paul declined to comment about the apparent plagiarism, which was first reported by BuzzFeed." ...

... NEW. UPDATE. Wait, Wait, There's More! Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "A section of Rand Paul's 2012 book Government Bullies appears to be plagiarized from a Forbes article from earlier in that year. BuzzFeed had previously reported that more than three pages plagiarized from The Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute were the only instances of copying in the book. As was the case with cut-and-pasted sections from The Heritage Foundation and a Cato scholar, Paul included a link to the Forbes article in the book's footnotes, but made no effort to indicate that not just the source, but the words themselves, had been taken from Forbes." ...

... MEANWHILE. David Edwards of Raw Story: Paul's staff has been "scrubbing transcripts" from his Website to eliminate evidence of plagiarism.

The first time I came here to Cape Town I almost got in a fight with the president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, because he was refusing to let AIDS be treated.... That's the closest I've come to getting into a fist fight with a head of state. -- President Jimmy Carter

The Real Reason the Cancer Patient Writing in [Monday's] Wall Street Journal Lost Her Coverage," a terrific piece by Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "The [insurance] company, [United Healthcare,] packed its bags and dumped its beneficiaries because it wants its competitors to swallow the first wave of sicker enrollees only to re-enter the market later and profit from the healthy people who still haven't signed up for coverage." CW: We are all really fortunate to have bloggers like Volsky & Tommy Christoper of Mediaite to debunk &/or give nuance to these MSM stories. ...

... AND Steve M. of NMMNB finds convincing evidence -- some of it in the WSJ op-ed writer's own words from earlier pieces -- that the ObamaCare "victim" isn't telling the truth about her current health insurance. CW: Mind you, I feel great sympathy for anyone who is enduring a severe illness, but illness is still a poor excuse for trying to make oneself a minor celebrity. ...

... "The Memo that Could Have Saved ObamaCare." Ezra Klein on woulda, shoulda, (maybe) coulda on ACA implementation. They wuz warned. ...

... Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post emphasizes a key point: "What the GOP gleefully calls a train wreck was a self-fulfilling prophesy courtesy of Republican sabotage.... The federal exchange that Republicans said wouldn't work ended up not working because it was starved of the money needed to help make it work.... The federal exchange that Republicans said wouldn't work ended up not working because the GOP pressured Republican governors to not form their own state exchanges. This made the federal task more complex and difficult, thus ensuring its failure." CW: Which is more likely to get a rock to the top of a hill? -- Pushing it up the hill with help from the neighbors or pushing it uphill while the neighbors throw stones at you? ...

... Amy Goodnough of the New York Times: Kentucky demonstrates how ObamaCare was supposed to work. CW: You won't be hearing this story from Goodnough's report on Fox "News":

The woman, a thin 61-year-old who refused to give her name..., had come to the public library here to sign up for health insurance through Kentucky's new online exchange. She had a painful lump on the back of her hand and other health problems that worried her deeply ... but had been unable to afford insurance as a home health care worker who earns $9 an hour. Within a minute, the system checked her information and flashed its conclusion on [an ACA navigator's] laptop: eligible for Medicaid. The woman began to weep with relief. Without insurance, she said as she left, 'it's cheaper to die.'

... CW: A Washington Post headline writer is a liar. The headline, which is attached to a Sarah Kliff video: "Kliff Notes: Will Obamacare cancel my plan?" If Kliff wrote the headline, & she may have, no one knows better than she that the headline is misleading. "ObamaCare" can't cancel a policy; only an insurance company can. The ACA mandates that health insurance policies provide certain basic benefits. This forces carriers to enhance substandard policies, not to cancel them.

Gentlemen don't read other gentlemen's mail. -- Secretary of State Henry Stimson, 1929 ...

... Pew Research Center: "In the wake of reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been listening to phone calls of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other heads of state, a 56% majority of Americans say it is unacceptable for the U.S. to monitor the phones of allied leaders, while 36% say the practice is acceptable. There are virtually no partisan differences in these opinions."

David Sanger of the New York Times: "The Obama administration has told allies and lawmakers it is considering reining in a variety of National Security Agency practices overseas, including holding White House reviews of the world leaders the agency is monitoring, forging a new accord with Germany for a closer intelligence relationship and minimizing collection on some foreigners. But for now, President Obama and his top advisers have concluded that there is no workable alternative to the bulk collection of huge quantities of 'metadata,' including records of all telephone calls made inside the United States."

New York Times Editors: "Secretary of State John Kerry's trip to Egypt, included in his Middle East itinerary at the last minute, served only to add to the confusion over the Obama administration's policy toward this critically important Arab nation. Mr. Kerry was the highest-ranking American official to visit Cairo since Mohamed Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president, was deposed in July. Mr. Kerry seemed to go further than necessary or prudent to make common cause with the authoritarian generals who led the coup and are now running the country." CW: The U.S. has a long, inglorious history of bolstering Middle East tyrants. Let's call Kerry a traditionalist!

Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "In an important, if likely temporary, victory for abortion rights, the Supreme Court took a major abortion case off its docket on Monday. The Court's brief order does not explain the justices’ reason for doing so -- it simply provides that '[t]he writ of certiorari is dismissed as improvidently granted.['] Nevertheless, it is likely that the justices decided that a recent Oklahoma Supreme Court decision muddied the issues presented by the case to such an extent that it made sense to wait to decide an important question regarding the ability of states to restrict the use of medication abortions.... the fact that the justices turned aside an opportunity to uphold the very broad Oklahoma law may offer a small ray of hope to supporters of abortion rights. For the moment, the justices seem uninterested in endorsing an expansive ban on medication abortions, even if there may be five votes to uphold a narrower ban like the one in Texas." CW: See also Local News below re: Texas anti-abortion law. ...

Local News

Matt Sloane of CNN: "On Monday abortion-rights groups filed an emergency motion asking the Supreme Court to block Texas from enforcing part of the [anti-abortion] law, which is considered among the most restrictive in the country. Justice Antonin Scalia has given the state until November 12 to respond.... The motion comes four days after a federal appeals court reinstated a key part of the law -- a provision that requires doctors to obtain admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic at which they're providing abortion services. The appeals court's decision allowed that provision to remain in place, but Monday's motion asks the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling." ...

... Jesse Wegman of the New York Times: "On Monday morning, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia allowed the charade to continue for at least another week when he declined to grant an emergency request by the law's challengers to stay the appeals court's ruling, and ordered the state to file a response by Nov. 12. (Justice Scalia hears all emergency-stay applications out of the Fifth Circuit.)

Already we have lost 14 states in this union to the most corrupt group of citizens I've ever known. They make up the heart and the thinking in the minds of those who would belong to the Ku Klux Klan. They are white supremacists. They are men of evil. They have names. They are flooding our country with money. They've come into to New York City -- they are beginning to buy their way in to city politics. They are pouring money into Presbyterian Hospital to take over the medical care system. The Koch brothers, that's their name. -- Harry Belafone, at a campaign event in Harlem for mayoral candidate Bill De Blasio

Seth Masket of Pacific Standard on the Northern Colorado secessionist effort. "Secession is the conservative equivalent of moving to Canada.... It represents a rejection of representative democracy. It's a refutation of the idea that if you're losing, you make better arguments, recruit better candidates, and run better campaigns until you win." Via Jonathan Bernstein.

He's No Twit. I don't twit. I only walk. I don't email. I don't Facebook.... I'm an old-school politician. I return calls. I know neighborhoods. I know Mrs. Lopez. -- Newark Mayor Luis Quintana, who replaced newly-elected Sen. Cory Booker

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Democrats and unions, fearful that a landslide victory by Gov. Chris Christie will reshape New Jersey's political landscape, have poured tens of millions of dollars into a record-breaking outside spending campaign that has transformed the state's election season. The effort, designed to preserve Democrats' dominance of the State Legislature and complicate Mr. Christie's plans to build a record of legislative achievement as he considers a presidential bid in 2016, has inundated some legislative districts with millions of dollars in negative ads on a scale never before seen in New Jersey." ...

Guns, Governors & Angry White People

Emily Schultheis of Politico: "New polling finds that the gun control issue favors Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor's race." ...

... Ben Pershing of the Washington Post: "How McAuliffe became the frontrunner: 8 turning points in the race for Virginia governor." CW: Not sure any of these is a "turning point"; let's call them "significant events."

Tom Jacobs of Pacific Standard: "A research team led by Kerry O'Brien of Monash University in Australia reports a high score on a common measure of racial resentment increases the odds that a person will (a) have a gun in the house, and (b) be opposed to gun control. This holds true even after other 'explanatory variables,' including political party affiliation, are taken into account." ...

... Charles Pierce: "The obviously coded subtext of a great deal of the NRA and general gun-mongering propaganda concerns scaring white people about black criminals.... The election of a black president, I suspect, acted merely as what the arson squad would call an accelerant. The fire already was lit and, frankly, the NRA didn't light it."

CW: Yesterday I was applauding Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine), a candidate for governor, for coming out of the closet, albeit for practical political reasons. But now -- via Charles Pierce -- I learn that he may be all for his own sexual rights, but for women, not so much. Republican Sherry Huber elaborates in the Portland Press Herald.

An Angry White Man. Darryl Isherwood of NJ.com: "Gov. Chris Christie's official Facebook page is awash in comments attacking him for his treatment of a teacher during a campaign stop this weekend.... Accounts differ, but [teacher Melissa] Tomlinson said the governor snapped at her, telling he is 'tired of you people.'" CW: Accounts may differ, but here's a snapshot of Christie during the exchange with the teacher. You be the judge:

How Not to Run for President. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie chats up a New Jersey schoolteacher. He's a shoo-in for the masochist vote. ...

... CW Update: Contributor Patrick credibly argues that the picture doesn't tell a thousand rants because "... the off-kilter framing gives the viewer the initial impression that CC is leaning into, towering over, his interlocutor. Straighten the frame and he is not so intimidating.... With that canted frame, it also appears that CC is gesturing aggressively...." See Patrick's full comment below. Here are two more photos taken by Dave Weigel of Slate, who also posted the one above (I wasn't certain about this earlier, so didn't give proper credit):

Ah, you put the proper angle on your pic & Christie looks like a real sweetheart.... Weigel writes, "... here's what I saw. After the rally, Christie made his way back to his campaign bus, flanked by low-key security guards. Tomlinson, who had been carrying a sign and handing out fliers from her Badass Teachers Association, asked Christie why he'd called New Jersey schools 'failure factories.' Christie rounded on her, blurting out that he was sick of 'you people.'" Weigel goes on to the report the entire exchange he overheard. CW: I've found Weigel, a libertarian, to be a fair reporter. I'll go with his first-hand report. This is a confrontation, not a conversation. Contrast Christie's response to the schoolteacher with Romney's response to hostile, jeering fair-goers -- "Corporations are people, my friend" -- & you realize that even Mitt Romney is a better politician than Christie -- unless you have a fondness for boors.

... Presidential Election 2016

Paul Waldman of the American Prospect on the coming (brief) "explosion of Christie mania." CW: Read it & enjoy. ...

... Charles Pierce: "If anything drives me out of political blogging before my time, it [will be] ... a full two-years of fiery bro-love among the media for Chris Christie, not merely among Republicans looking for a winner, but for Democrats who are prepared once again to fall for a straight-talkin', two-fisted man o' the people who you'd like to have a beer with.... Chris Christie's only claim to being a Republican 'moderate' is that he condescended to accept the president's help when half of Christie's state had been blown out to sea. Beyond that, he's a rich guy who will do what richer guys than he is want him to do. He has a gender gap wider than the Dardenelles."

CW: So far the GOP's top choices for its 2016 presidential nominee include a megalomanic (that would be Tailgunner Ted), a zombie-eyed granny starver (see Charles Pierce), an unrepentant kleptomaniac & a serial bully. On the Democratic side, we have Hillary Clinton or Hillary Rodham Clinton. I am not at all convinced she can beat each & every one of the deranged boys on the other team.

Congressional Race

Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "The long-running battle for the heart and soul of the national Republican Party will play out [in Alabama] on Tuesday in the form of a nasty little House special-election primary, pitting business-oriented establishment Republicans against angry and energized tea party insurgents who have become a dominant voice in the GOP. Dean Young is the insurgents' candidate. Bradley Byrne is the establishment choice."

News Ledes

Another Day in the Land of the Free. New Jersey Star-Ledger: "Hours after a volley of shots were fired in Garden State Plaza, trapping customers and store workers for hours as police searched for the gunman, the suspect was found dead inside a construction zone within the mall, authorities said this morning." ...

... Star Ledger: "The sound of shots fired inside one of New Jersey's largest shopping malls just before closing last night triggered a lockdown and frantic evacuation, as police launched a massive manhunt to find the apparent lone gunman. Police preliminarily identified the suspect in the shooting at the Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus as Richard Shoop, 20, of Teaneck...."

Washington Post: "Roughly one in every five sunlike stars is orbited by a potentially habitable, Earth-size planet, meaning that the universe has abundant real estate that could be congenial to life, according to an analysis of observations by NASA's Kepler space telescope. Our Milky Way galaxy alone could harbor billions of rocky worlds where water might be liquid at the surface, according to the report, which was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and discussed at a news conference in California."

Reuters: U.N.-Arab League "Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi met U.S. and Russian officials on Tuesday to discuss convening long-delayed Syrian peace talks this year despite disputes over President Bashar al-Assad's future and whether his ally Iran can attend. Hours earlier, Damascus reiterated that Assad will stay in power come what may, casting doubt on the political transition that is the main focus of the proposed 'Geneva 2' conference."

AP: " India on Tuesday launched its first spacecraft bound for Mars, a complex mission that it hopes will demonstrate and advance technologies for space travel."

Guardian: "A court in Bangladesh has sentenced 152 people to death for their actions in a 2009 border guard mutiny in which 74 people, including 57 military commanders, were killed.... Human rights groups have criticised Bangladesh for the mass trial.... New York-based Human Rights Watch last week said at least 47 suspects have died in custody while the suspects have had limited access to lawyers, and to knowledge of the charges and evidence against them."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 4, 2013

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "A major test of how carefully Republicans can navigate the perilous intraparty politics of sexuality will come on Monday, when the Senate holds a crucial vote on a bill to outlaw workplace discrimination against gay men, lesbians and transgender people."

Reed Abelson & Katie Thomas of the New York Times: "Millions of people could qualify for federal subsidies that will pay the entire monthly cost of some health care plans being offered in the online marketplaces set up under President Obama's health care law, a surprising figure that has not garnered much attention, in part because the zero-premium plans come with serious trade-offs.... The bulk of these plans are so-called bronze policies, the least expensive available. They require people to pay the most in out-of-pocket costs, for doctor visits and other benefits like hospital stays." ...

Ariana Cha & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: Americans who face higher ­insurance costs under President Obama's health-care law are angrily complaining about 'sticker shock,' threatening to become a new political force opposing the law.... The growing backlash involves people whose plans are being discontinued because the policies don't meet the law's more-stringent standards.... If the poor, sick and uninsured are the winners under the Affordable Care Act, the losers appear to include some relatively healthy middle-income small-business owners, consultants, lawyers and other self-employed workers who buy their own insurance. Many make too much to qualify for new federal subsidies provided by the law but not enough to absorb the rising costs without hardship. Some are too old to go without insurance because they have children or have minor health issues, but they are too young for Medicare. Others are upset because they don't want coverage for services they'll never need or their doctors don't participate in any of their new insurance options." ...

People who are afraid of the ACA should be much more afraid of the insurance companies who will exploit their fear and end up overcharging them. -- Donna, an individual policyholder whose insurance company substantially raised her premium & didn't tell her about the healthcare exchange ...

... Dylan Scott of TPM: "Across the country, insurance companies have sent misleading letters to consumers, trying to lock them into the companies' own, sometimes more expensive health insurance plans rather than let them shop for insurance and tax credits on the Obamacare marketplaces -- which could lead to people like Donna spending thousands more for insurance than the law intended.... The extreme lengths to which some insurance companies are going to hold on to existing customers at higher price, as the Affordable Care Act fundamentally re-orders the individual insurance market, has caught the attention of state insurance regulators." ...

... Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic talked to Dianne Barrette, the Florida woman who was the media's favorite ObamaCare "victim" until Greta Van Susteren & others checked out a few facts. Barrette's current plan is a hope-you-don't-get-sick plan that doesn't even cover hospitalization & pays $50 for an MRI (which costs $1,000 or more here in Florida). Cohn examined Barrette's options -- she's eligible for a hefty tax credit -- & shared his findings with her. Now Barrette thinks "losing" her junk plan just might be "a blessing in disguise." ...

All of that is well and good, but if the Web site doesn't work, nothing else matters. -- President Obama, often, after staff meetings on the progress of ACA implementation ...

... Amy Goldstein & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post on why Healthcare.gov is such a collossal failure: "... the project was hampered by the White House's political sensitivity to Republican hatred of the law -- sensitivity so intense that the president's aides ordered that some work be slowed down or remain secret for fear of feeding the opposition. Inside the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the main agency responsible for the exchanges, there was no single administrator whose full-time job was to manage the project. Republicans also made clear they would block funding, while some outside IT companies that were hired to build the Web site, HealthCare.gov, performed poorly." CW: Goldstein & Eilperin dig deep; an interesting report. ...

... Hunter Schwartz of BuzzFeed: "The Oregon healthcare exchange website, CoverOregon.org, was 'built and tested for use with Internet Explorer,' and may 'not work properly' if used on other browsers, according to the site.... Internet Explorer ... was discontinued on the Mac platform a decade ago." ...

... E. J. Dionne: "The administration has never adequately defended the law or explained why government will inevitably have to play a larger role in guaranteeing health insurance to all our citizens -- as the public sector does in every other wealthy democracy. Now, everyone is paying attention. The way to still the noise is to challenge opponents of Obamacare. Can they really make the case that the country would be better off without it? And what would they do instead?" ...

... CW: The current brouhaha is a result of unforced errors. (1) The most technologically-savvy administration ever did not know how to develop a complicated Website, & (2) the President repeatedly made a false claim: "If you like your current insurance, you can keep it." Incompetence & false presidential bromides undermine Americans' confidence in government nearly as much as any Tea Party yahoo does. ...

... Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "... [Mitt] Romney said the Affordable Care Act, and the immediately troubled rollout of its federal exchange website, had 'undermined the president's credibility in the hearts of the American people'." CW: Sadly, Romney is right. ...

... AP: "Mitt Romney isn't including tea party favorite Ted Cruz among the Republicans' most electable potential presidential candidates in 2016. Who does the 2012 GOP nominee put on his list of 'very capable people?' His ex-running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. But Romney says New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie 'stands out as one of the very strongest lights.'" CW: You heard it here first. My pick would be Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Besides being governor of the swing state, he was a member of the House for 18 years, where he was something of a pragmatist. AND he's a Fox "News" alum, so he might be able to pull in the crazy vote. His recent criticism of the GOP for not caring about the poor is a sure sign he's running for something & maybe not just re-election.

... Digby: Bullyboy Chris Christie likes to abuse teachers. "He did it again, just this weekend."

The Plagiarist, Ctd. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "A speech on Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's website has been updated to include footnotes linking to Wikipedia following reports by BuzzFeed, Politico, and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow the senator had plagiarized several speeches from the Internet encyclopedia."

Nicholas Lemann of the New Yorker profiles SEC Chair Mary Jo White.

Brendan Sasso of the Hill: "Senior military officials are leaning towards removing the National Security Agency director's authority over U.S. Cyber Command, according to a former high-ranking administration official familiar with internal discussions. Keith Alexander, a four star general who leads both NSA and Cyber Command, plans to step down in the spring."

Michelle Martin of Reuters: "In 'A Manifesto for the Truth' published in German news magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday, [Edward] Snowden said current debates about mass surveillance in many countries showed his revelations were helping to bring about change." ...

... Brian Knowlton of the New York Times: "If Edward J. Snowden believes he deserves clemency for his disclosures of classified government documents because they provoked an important public debate about the reach of American spying, he has failed to sway the White House and at least two key members of Congress," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) & Mike Rogers (R-Michigan). ...

... Andrew Osborne of Reuters: "The British government's response to leaks of intelligence information by former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden has eroded human rights and press freedoms, rights groups said on Sunday. In an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron published in Britain's Guardian newspaper, 70 different press advocacy and rights groups from 40 countries said they were alarmed at the way his government had reacted, saying it had invoked national security legislation to try to suppress information of public interest." The letter is here.

Paul Krugman: "German officials are furious at America, and not just because of the business about Angela Merkel's cellphone. What has them enraged now is one (long) paragraph in a U.S. Treasury report on foreign economic and currency policies. In that paragraph Treasury argues that Germany's huge surplus on current account -- a broad measure of the trade balance -- is harmful, creating 'a deflationary bias for the euro area, as well as for the world economy.'... Treasury was right, and the German reaction was disturbing." CW: In case you are of the impression that the interests of the U.S. & our ally Germany are exactly the same, look no further than Krugman's column.

Tom Kutsch of Al Jazeera: "Since Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. government agencies have weakened traditional ethical injunctions against the infliction of intentional harm by medical professionals in its policies of holding detainees as a part of the war on terror, a new report argues. The assessment came from The Task Force on Preserving Medical Professionalism in National Security Detention Centers, a team of experts from legal, medical, military and ethical backgrounds with funding from the Open Society Foundations and the Institute on Medicine as a Profession." The Guardian report, by Sarah Boseley, is here.

Gubernatorial Races

Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "PPP's final Virginia poll finds Democrats leading in all three statewide races. In the Governor's race Terry McAuliffe has the advantage with 50% to 43% for Ken Cuccinelli and 4% for Libertarian Robert Sarvis." CW: Based on previous polling, it appears Cuccinelli scraped off half of Sarvis's vote. Cooch & I agree on this: if voter turnout is really low, he could still win.

Philip Elliott & Josh Lederman of the AP: "President Barack Obama cast Republican Ken Cuccinelli on Sunday as part of an extreme tea party faction that shut down the government, throwing the political weight of the White House behind Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the final days of a bitter race for governor." Here's a clip:

Presidential Race 2012

Peter Hamby of CNN reviews Double Down for the Washington Post. The review is filled with fun dirt. ...

... New York has an excerpt from Double Down. It's about Obama's debate prep & is pretty interesting -- if you can stomach the purple prose. ...

... Rick Hertzberg has a short, funny piece about Double Down. With a quiz!

Local News

** Terry Evans & Anna Tinsley of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "Former House Speaker Jim Wright was denied a voter ID card Saturday at a Texas Department of Public Safety office.... The legendary Texas political figure says that he has worked things out with DPS and that he will get a state-issued personal identification card in time for him to vote Tuesday in the state and local elections. But after the difficulty he had this weekend getting a proper ID card, Wright, 90, expressed concern that such problems could deter others from voting and stifle turnout. After spending much of his life fighting to make it easier to vote, the Democratic Party icon said he is troubled by what he's seeing happen under the state's new voter ID law." ...

... Missed this one. AND HaHaHaHaHa. Aviva Shen of Think Progress: "As early voting begins in Texas, the state's new, strict voter ID law has thus far flagged a judge, gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, and another state senator as potentially illegitimate voters. Attorney General Greg Abbott (R), voter ID's most strident defender, was also flagged as a suspicious voter under his own law's strict criteria. Abbott was flagged because his license lists his name as 'Gregory Wayne Abbott' while his voter registration record simply calls him 'Greg Abbott.' ... Thanks to an amendment added by Wendy Davis, voters who clearly have 'substantially similar' names can still cast a regular ballot by signing an affidavit affirming their identity. If the law had gone through unmodified as Abbott originally supported, he would have disenfranchised himself." ...

     ... CW: The determination of "substantially similar names" is subjective. The dumb-as-doornails partisans who man polling places are almost certainly going to "suspicion" that "Willie Brown" and "William Brown" (D) are not the same guy whereas "Gregory Wayne Abbott" & "Greg Abbott" (R) are one & the same. Brown won't be able to cast a regular vote; Abbott will.

Gubernatorial Race

Yeah, So? Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed: "Rep. Mike Michaud, a Maine Democrat, told residents of the state he is hoping to govern that he is gay on Monday in op-eds running in newspapers across the state":

... I wasn't surprised to learn about the whisper campaigns, insinuations and push-polls some of the people opposed to my candidacy have been using to raise questions about my personal life. They want people to question whether I am gay. Allow me to save them the trouble with a simple, honest answer: 'Yes I am. But why should it matter?' -- Mike Michaud

News Ledes

New York Times: "... on Monday, federal prosecutors announced that ... SAC Capital Advisors, had agreed to plead guilty to insider trading violations and pay a record $1.2 billion penalty, becoming the first large Wall Street firm in a generation to confess to criminal conduct. The government has also forced SAC to terminate its business of managing money for outside investors."

New York Times: "As Egypt's new military-led government consolidates its power, Mohamed Morsi, the deposed president, went on trial on Monday in a makeshift courtroom, facing charges of inciting the murder of protesters. But soon after the trial opened, news reports said..., state television said the case was adjourned until Jan. 8."

New York Daily News: "A high-powered U.S. Navy officer faces charges he traded secrets for prostitutes, luxury travel arrangements and tickets to a Lady Gaga concert. Commander Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz is accused of running the alleged pay-to-play scheme along with a Navy investigations special agent and the CEO of a private defense company who was milking hundreds of millions of dollars from military contracts."

The Commentariat -- Nov. 3, 2013

The Plagiarist, Ctd. Andre Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "An entire section of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's 2013 book Government Bullies was copied wholesale from a 2003 case study by the Heritage Foundation.... The copied section, 1,318 words, is by far the most significant instance reported so far of Paul borrowing language from other published material.... In this case, Paul included a link to the Heritage case study in the book's footnotes, though he made no effort to indicate that not just the source, but the words themselves, had been taken from Heritage."

Wherein the Plagiarist Prepares to Throw Down the Gauntlet. I take it as an insult, and I will not lie down and say people can call me dishonest, misleading or misrepresenting -- I have never intentionally done so and like I say, 'If dueling were legal in Kentucky,' if they keep it up, you know it'd be a duel challenge. -- Rand Paul, Actual U.S. Senator

Any person who shall ... either directly or indirectly, give, accept or knowingly carry a challenge to any person or persons to fight in single combat, with a citizen of this State, with a deadly weapon, either in or out of the State, shall be deprived of the right to hold any office of honor or profit in this Commonwealth; and if said acts, or any of them, be committed within this State, the person or persons so committing them shall be further punished in such manner as the General Assembly may prescribe by law. -- Kentucky State Constitution

Aw, c'mon, Li'l Randy. Do challenge Rachel. You are a United States Senator. A lowly teevee lady has defamed your honor. You must demand satisfaction. -- Constant Weader

You have to wonder if Stephanopoulos knows what plagiarism is. He never challenges Paul's defense, which is laughable. -- Constant Weader

Nicholas Kristof: "This is why we need ObamaCare." CW: I would like to force Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, et al., to read & reread Kristof's column during a 21-hour filibuster. Every GOP Senator would have to sit in their seats & listen. Over in the House, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan & every single teabagger MOC would have to take her/his turn reading the column into the Congressional Record. I'd like the nitwits on "Fox & Friends" to have to read & reread it for the duration of an entire show. I'd like to stand Limbaugh & Hannity in the public square & force them to read it to each other till they fell on their fat faces. Do you think they'd get it then? I doubt it. ...

... The New York Times Editors explain to shut-ins & Republicans how the ACA is reforming the individual health insurance market.

Prof. Mark Rank, in the New York Times: "... poverty is a mainstream event experienced by a majority of Americans. For most of us, the question is not whether we will experience poverty, but when." ...

... Evan Halper & Cindy Chang of the Los Angeles Times: "Some 47 million poor Americans who rely on food stamps for their meals will have to get by on less, after their benefits were cut Friday. In California, which struggles with nearly 9% unemployment, local officials are girding for the fallout after the benefit for a family of four receiving food stamps was lowered by $36 a month.... Even before Friday, government statistics show, the benefit fell short of keeping those on food stamps well-nourished.... About 14% of Americans are on food stamps. The program has grown rapidly in recent years, attracting the attention of deficit hawks, who note it now costs taxpayers $75 billion a year."

Governor Kumbaya (R-N.J.)? Steve M. of NMMNB: Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post thinks that Chris Christie is the Bill Clinton of the GOP who will bring Republicans together just as Clinton united the Democrats of 1992, who were then just as riven as the Republicans of today. Uh, no they're not. CW: There's reason I never even read Cillizza's stuff: he's a glib ignoramus. Also, there's a reason he's a regular on Andrea Mitchell's MSNBC show: he's a glib ignoramus.

Scott Shane of the New York Times: "From thousands of classified documents, the National Security Agency emerges as an electronic omnivore of staggering capabilities, eavesdropping and hacking its way around the world to strip governments and other targets of their secrets, all the while enforcing the utmost secrecy about its own operations. It spies routinely on friends as well as foes, as has become obvious in recent weeks; the agency's official mission list includes using its surveillance powers to achieve 'diplomatic advantage' over such allies as France and Germany and 'economic advantage' over Japan and Brazil, among other countries." ...

... Ewen MacAskill & James Ball of the Guardian: "... the NSA, intent on exploiting the communications revolution to the full, develop[ed] ever more intrusive programmes in pursuit of its ambition to have surveillance cover of the whole planet: total command of what the NSA refers to as the 'digital battlefield'." ...

... You should probably take a look at this Guardian story by MacAskill & Gabriel Dance, if for no other reason than its cool format (created by Feilding Cage & Greg Chen). But don't believe everything you read. For instance, the authors claim, "Americans struggling to get health insurance through Obamacare's new health exchanges are entering some of their most intimate details into computer systems." That's bull. Except for revealing their smoking habits, the "intimate details" Americans are entering on Healthcare.gov are the same things they already tell the government when they establish a post office address, fill out their tax returns, etc." Every means-tested government program obviously requires the applicant to reveal his means (if the government agency hasn't done so on its own). If the writers mean by "computer systems" the "intimate details" applicants may give to insurance companies, here's a newsflash: every time you file a healthcare claim, the insurance company knows what it's for. It's just that now they can't use those "intimate details" to hike your premiums or cancel your insurance. ...

... CW: Yesterday the New York Times reported that Ed Snowden "has appealed to Washington to stop treating him like a traitor." ...

... Geir Moulson & Kirsten Grieshabe of the AP: "The U.S. refused to show any leniency to fugitive leaker Edward Snowden on Friday.... Snowden made his appeal for U.S. clemency in a letter released Friday by a German lawmaker who met with him in Moscow. In it, the 30-year-old American asked for international help to persuade the U.S. to drop spying charges against him and said he would like to testify before the U.S. Congress about the National Security Agency's surveillance activities. Snowden also indicated he would be willing to help German officials investigate alleged U.S. spying in Germany [emphasis added], said Hans-Christian Stroebele, a lawmaker with the opposition Green Party...."

... AFP: "Intelligence leaker Edward Snowden is free to speak with whoever he chooses, including foreign authorities, a Kremlin spokesman said on Saturday, after the US fugitive said he was ready to help a German probe into US spying. 'He has temporary refugee status. That status does not foresee any restrictions on his moving around the country or speaking to anyone,' President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP." ...

... Spy Rules, Ctd. AFP: "Germany and the United States are to strike a two-way deal not to spy on each other in the wake of the diplomatic furore sparked by the Edward Snowden revelations, a German newspaper reported. A delegation of German chancellery and intelligence officials reached the deal during talks at the White House this week, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) reported in its Sunday edition." ...

... Mark Hosenball of Reuters: "British authorities claimed [David Miranda,] the domestic partner of reporter Glenn Greenwald, was involved in 'terrorism' when he tried to carry documents from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden through a London airport in August, according to police and intelligence documents."

Jamie Doward of the Guardian: "Chilling new evidence that Britain and America came close to provoking the Soviet Union into launching a nuclear attack has emerged in former classified documents written at the height of the cold war. Cabinet memos and briefing papers released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that a major war games exercise, Operation Able Art, conducted in November 1983 by the US and its Nato allies was so realistic it made the Russians believe that a nuclear strike on its territory was a real possibility."

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center: "The 23-year-old man who allegedly killed a TSA official at Los Angeles International Airport yesterday was carrying a one-page 'manifesto' that included references to the 'New World Order,' the Federal Reserve and 'fiat currency,' according to a knowledgeable source with ranking law enforcement contacts.... Ciancia's note called former [Homeland Security] Secretary [Janet] Napolitano a 'bull dyke' and contained the phrase 'FU Janet Napolitano,' the source said. Ciancia's language and references seemed to put him squarely in the conspiracy-minded world of the antigovernment 'Patriot' movement."

Soumya Karlamangla of the Los Angeles Times: "In a move that could ignite a legal battle, the Florida city where Trayvon Martin was killed will discourage neighborhood watch volunteers from carrying firearms, part of an effort to overhaul its police department and improve the city's tarnished reputation.... Now [Sanford]'s new police chief, Cecil E. Smith, who took over in April, is trying to revamp the department. At a community meeting in Sanford on Tuesday, Smith will formally announce changes to the city's neighborhood watch program, including background checks for all volunteers, a six-week training program for block captains and monitoring by the Police Department. The department also will recommend that program volunteers not be armed while in the streets."

Governor's Race

Poor Kenny! Marc Fisher & Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Given the obstacles Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has faced this year -- some beyond his control, some of his own making -- the surprise in Tuesday's vote for governor may be that the Republican candidate has kept the race as close as he has. Two days before the vote, Cuccinelli finds himself lagging in the polls. He's so far behind financially that the Democrats outspent his campaign on TV ads by 10-to-1 last week. As he crisscrosses the state this weekend, speaking mainly to his conservative base, Cuccinelli is presenting himself as the scrappy underdog, the fighter who thrives on coming from behind." ...

... Alexander Burns of Politico: "Well before the last votes are cast in [Virginia's] off-year governor's race, GOP leaders are already engaged in a spirited debate over why, exactly, a fight against a Democrat as flawed as Terry McAuliffe has turned into such a painful slog of a campaign. Even Republicans who haven't yet counted out their nominee, state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, view the governor's race as a profile in frustration for the GOP -- an election that should have leaned toward the Republicans, but where Democrats have held a persistent lead in polling, money and tactical prowess." CW: I'll count my chickens Tuesday night.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Pakistan's political leaders have reacted with unusual vehemence since missiles fired by American drones killed the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, on Friday."

Telegraph: "A total eclipse was visible for a few seconds over Nairobi in Kenya this afternoon as the Moon blocked out the Sun":

New York Times: "Americans spend an estimated $5 billion a year on unproven herbal supplements that promise everything from fighting off colds to curbing hot flashes and boosting memory. But now there is a new reason for supplement buyers to beware: DNA tests show that many pills labeled as healing herbs are little more than powdered rice and weeds."

AFP: "Winston Churchill feared that France was about to declare war on Britain in 1940, according to a telegram sent from the British prime minister to governors of the colonies and sold at a London auction on Sunday. The message, dated July 4 1940, was sent the day after Britain attacked the French fleet in west Algeria to prevent its assets from falling into enemy hands. In the top-secret message, Churchill justified the raid, which claimed the lives of 1,297 French sailors."

AP: "U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Cairo on Sunday pressing for reforms during the highest-level American visit to Egypt since the ouster of the country's first democratically elected president." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "In the highest-level American visit since the Egyptian military removed President Mohamed Morsi from power, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that Egypt appeared to be on a path toward democracy and emphasized that the Obama administration wanted to improve relations."

Washington Post: "The suspect in the killing of a TSA screener during a shooting rampage at the Los Angeles International Airport was charged with murder Saturday, and authorities said he had signed a letter to TSA employees saying that he wanted to 'instill fear in your traitorous minds.'" The Los Angeles Times story is here. ...

     ... AP Update: "The gunman charged in the deadly shooting at Los Angeles International Airport lay bloodied and handcuffed on the floor of Terminal 3 after being gunned down by police, but he replied to critical questions that helped authorities lock down the scene. Paul Ciancia, 23, was hauled away moments later on a stretcher and later heavily sedated for medical reasons, but not before he told investigators he had acted alone when he opened fire in the terminal."

... AP: "Friends and family remembered slain Transportation Security Administration officer Gerardo I. Hernandez as a family man who constantly smiled at travelers passing through the Los Angeles airport."

CW Note: A few days ago, a commenter complained that the "E-Mail Article" function, which appeared at the bottom of each day's RealityChex post, wasn't working properly. Several of you tested it. In every reported test, it worked just fine. Thank you all for your help on this.