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.

The Commentariat -- Nov. 2, 2013

The President's Weekly Address:

Ben Geman of the Hill: "President Obama on Friday demanded 'new strategies' to boost the nation's resilience to powerful storms, drought, heat waves and other dangerous weather linked to climate change. Obama issued a wide-ranging executive order designed to support 'climate resilient' infrastructure investment in states and communities. It also calls on federal agencies to change their policies and rules 'to make the Nation's watersheds, natural resources, and ecosystems, and the communities and economies that depend on them, more resilient in the face of a changing climate.'"

Sarah Wheaton of the New York Times: "A federal court on Friday ruled that the health care law's mandate that employers provide free coverage for contraception infringed on individual religious liberty. The case, Gilardi v. the Department of Health and Human Services, was the latest setback for the Obama administration as it struggles to fix the crippled insurance enrollment website, HealthCare.gov. However, the fight over the mandate long preceded the law's enactment and will most likely go to the Supreme Court." CW: Here's a surprise: the two judges ruling in favor of the plaintiffs are Republican appointees; the dissenting judge is a Democratic appointee. Now try to guess why Republicans are filibustering President Obama's nominees to the D.C. court. Give 'em hell, Harry. ...

... ** Laura Tillman & John Schwartz of the New York Times: "On Monday, Judge Lee Yeakel of United States District Court in Austin blocked enforcement of the [Texas anti-abortion] law's requirement of physician-admitting privileges, saying it is 'without a rational basis and places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion.' On Thursday, three judges on the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans -- Priscilla R. Owen, Jennifer Walker Elrod and Catharina Haynes -- allowed enforcement to begin.... [Friday] many clinics across the state said they had stopped providing abortions and were preparing to shut down, leaving women seeking their services distraught." CW: All three of these compassionless judges are George W. Bush appointees. ...

... Charles Blow on federal judicial appointees: "This week we were reminded once again of how much sway federal judges hold as they dealt several setbacks to liberal causes." ...

... ** How did we get these winger judges? Rachel Maddow elaborates on the horrors of Dubya judicial nominations. Thanks to contributor safari for the lead:

... Emily Bazelon & Dahlia Lithwick of Slate have more. Read it all.

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Next week -- soon after the [Supreme C]ourt's marshal announces a new session with the phrase 'God save the United States and this honorable court' -- the justices will once again tackle the role of religion in the public square."

Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times debunks "another ObamaCare horror story.... The sad truth is that [ACA 'victim' Deborah] Cavallaro has been very poorly served by the health insurance industry and the news media.... The reporters who interviewed her without getting all the facts produced inexcusably shoddy work -- from Maria Bartiromo on down. They not only did her a disservice, but failed the rest of us too." ...

... Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "Television news, the medium with the widest audience, has yet to get one of these stories right.... Maybe TV news reporters should just take to reading The LA Times on air." ...

Rich Guy Must Pay Higher Premium! Tommy Christopher: Best-selling author David Frum, who makes more giving one speech than the cost of his annual premium, will have to pay almost $200 more a month under ObamaCare for his family's health policy for approximately the same benefits as he had before. But Frum also has "some pre-existing condition," "so he's getting insurance he couldn't get before." In addition, Frum will be able to keep his adult kids on the policy, & all family members are now covered for "routine preventive care." Christopher calculates that Frum is actually saving out-of-pocket expenses, assuming the family avails itself of some of the routine benefits under ObamaCare. In other words, another crock. Read the whole post. ...

... Fox "News" Stars: Women should pay more for health insurance than do men because women are hypochondriacs or pregnant or something. Anyway, they're always going to the doctor, and they live longer and it isn't fair to be a rich white teevee star. Kat Stoeffel of New York reports. ...

... CW Healthcare.gov Question: If I get sick listening to these ObamaCare sob stories, will my new policy cover my illness? ...

... ** Jonathan Chait of New York: "If you believe the healthy are entitled to keep the financial benefits of their good health, then you must also believe the sick must be denied medical care. Should that principle be the foundation of our health-care system?"

Can the Major TV Media Get Anything Right? Media Matters: "Following the revelation that a key 'witness' featured in this week's CBS 60 Minutes report on Benghazi previously claimed that he never got near the besieged diplomatic compound on the night of the attacks, Media Matters chairman David Brock is calling on CBS to retract its story. On October 27, CBS aired a report on the Benghazi attacks that featured the claims of a supposed eyewitness using the pseudonym 'Morgan Jones.' Today, the Washington Post revealed that Jones, whose real name is Dylan Davies, previously filed a report with his security contractor employer saying that he 'could not get anywhere near' the compound the night of the attack. The flawed CBS report has since been trumpeted by conservative media and Republican politicians." The WashPo report, by Karen DeYoung, is here.

Do-Nothing Congress Decides to Do Less. Rachel Maddow reports. Next year's schedule isn't going to give the House much time to pass laws against lazy poor people:

CW: I've occasionally called Ted Cruz the Republican Party Leader. I've done so to be snide, but I didn't think the characterization was necessarily wrong. Turns out Republicans are happy with my snark. Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "PPP's newest national survey finds that in the wake of the shutdown, Republican voters now view Ted Cruz as their party's leader.... 21% picked Cruz to 17% for Chris Christie, and 15% for John Boehner."

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "In a warning shot to outside conservative groups, the National Republican Senatorial Committee this week informed a prominent Republican advertising firm that it would not receive any contracts with the campaign committee because of its work with a group that targets incumbent Senate Republicans. Even more striking, a senior official at the committee called individual Republican Senate campaigns and other party organizations this week and urged them not to hire the firm, Jamestown Associates, in an effort to punish them for working for the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group founded by Jim DeMint...." ...

... Bill Barrow: The GOP civil war plays out in an Alabama primary race for the Congressional seat vacated by Rep. Jo Bonner.

The Plagiarist, Ctd. Alexander Burns of Politico: "A top adviser to Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday night that the Kentucky Republican would be 'more cautious in presenting and attributing sources' in the future, after Politico confronted the senator's office with fresh examples of Paul speeches that borrowed language from news reports without citing the original source." In one speech, Paul borrowed word-for-word from an AP report; in another, he spoke verbatim from a Focus on the Family publication. In neither case, did he attribute his source. "And even as Paul's chief adviser promised greater caution in the future, the senator's political operation also disputed the idea that he had done anything wrong.... 'Only in Washington is something this trivial a source for liberal media angst,' said Paul adviser Doug Stafford, the senator's former chief of staff." CW: Yes, Politico is part of the "liberal media." Ha!

Alison Smale of the New York Times: "Edward J. Snowden ... has appealed to Washington to stop treating him like a traitor for revealing that the United States has been eavesdropping on its allies, a German politician who met with Mr. Snowden said on Friday." ...

... Dorothy Wickenden of the New Yorker speaks with Ryan Lizza & Steve Coll about the NSA spying:

Frank Rich talks about things.

Edward Wyatt of the New York Times: "The Federal Communications Commission, seeking to revive the sagging fortunes of AM radio, has proposed removing or updating regulations that station owners believe have left many AM channels on the precipice of death. The commission is seeking public comment on numerous changes, required before it adopts its final rules."

Presidential Election 2012

Jonathan Allen of Politico: "President Barack Obama 'never considered' replacing Vice President Joe Biden on the 2012 ticket with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Friday in response to a report in the forthcoming book 'Double Down: Game Change 2012.' ... 'The president never considered that,' Carney said, adding that if it had been brought to Obama, 'he would have laughed it out of the room.'"

Gubernatorial Races

Dana Milbank: "If Ken Cuccinelli II loses his bid to be the next governor of Virginia on Tuesday..., the date of the Republican defeat will be traced back to May 18.... Supporters of Cuccinelli, the state attorney general, had scrapped the GOP gubernatorial primary, which probably would have resulted in the nomination of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a mainstream conservative who likely would have cruised to victory. But Cuccinelli's supporters forced the party to cut the electorate out of the process, replacing the primary with a convention. There, a smaller number of tea party activists handed the nomination to Cuccinelli...." ...

... Washington Post Editors: "... Mr. Cuccinelli's interest in jobs and the economy is an 11th-hour political makeover, developed for electoral purposes, that bears no resemblance to the agenda he has pursued aggressively in public office for more than a decade. Mr. Cuccinelli did not become a hero to the tea party by accident; he earned that distinction with a sustained focus on conservative social issues. As a state senator, his motivating passions were God, guns, gays and abortion; as attorney general, he won notoriety mainly by fighting the Obama administration over health care and climate change.... There's no reason to be fooled now."

     ... CW: I absolutely love that this ad, which liken Cuccinelli to Rick Santorum, centers on Google searches ... because you know what you get when you Google Santorum.com

Adam Smith of the Tampa Bay Times: Charlie Crist, the former Republican governor of Florida turned-Democrat, has officially filed as a Democratic candidate for governor. He will make an announcement Monday morning in St. Petersburg, Florida.

News Ledes

Guardian: "Pakistan's security forces have been put on high alert after a CIA drone attack killed the leader of the country's Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, in the lawless tribal areas. A Pakistani government minister said the strike by an unmanned aircraft on Friday had destroyed attempts to hold peace talks with the militants which began this week."

Los Angeles Times: Witnesses recount their close encounters with the LAX gunman