Friday, October 25, 2013   Published Weekday Mornings   To see the full version of today's cartoon, click on the preview graphic of the cartoon (below the Commentary) to be taken to the full version in your favorite web browser. Ghost In The Machine Contractors Assign Blame, but Admit No Faults of Their Own, in Health Site In hearing, a startling agreement on who to blame for HealthCare.Gov - someone else Full testing of HealthCare.gov began too late, contractors say Sarah Kliff: The biggest fight at the Obamacare hearing? Was over these 47 lines of code Rep. Pallone: House health-care hearing a 'monkey court' Ben Jacobs: Congress Warms Up for the Sebelius Circus next week How Uncle Sam can avoid another HealthCare.gov; Lessons from the pains of the ACA website Flashback: GOP Wanted To 'Fix' Medicare Part D After 'Horrendous' Rollout In Early 2000s Five other botched rollouts of government programs Lydia Depilis: Government did a poor job on HealthCare.gov. A private firm might've been worse. Related: Joan Walsh - How I became the poster girl for liberal agitprop Ed Kilgore: Criticizing Government Dysfunction Is Not a "Conservative Idea" Bad Week For The GOP Greg Sargent: The implosion of the GOP brand, in one chart Steve Benen: Public support for GOP continues to collapse CNN Poll: GOP & tea party unfavorables at all-time highs Another Poll, More Historically Bad Numbers For The GOP G.O.P.'s Hopes to Take Senate Are Dimming Republicans have hurt themselves in the battle for the House. Here's how. Ed Kilgore: Signs of GOP Erosion Where They Can't Afford It Larry Sabato shifts U.S. Senate race in North Carolina to 'leans Democratic' Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball: Ratings Change - A Democratic Tide In Virginia Budget Battles Lawmakers now focusing on replacing sequester spending cuts Reid & Ryan agree: There will be no 'grand bargain' Sec of State Kerry warns that another budget gridlock will damage U.S. leadership abroad Sahil Kapur: New Budget Numbers May Kill A Medicare Age Hike Steve Benen: As the facts prove, raising Medicare age eligibility doesn't work to save money Paul Krugman: Raising The Medicare Age, Revisited The Spying Game NSA monitored calls of 35 world leaders after U.S. official handed over contacts German Chancellor Merkel says U.S. spying an unacceptable breach of trust Officials alert foreign services that Snowden has documents on their cooperation with U.S. Activist Tweets Former NSA Chief's 'Off Record' Phone Call On Train Nations In Turmoil Syria: Blast near Damascus airport triggers blackouts Death toll rises in northern Lebanon clashes Hardships Mounting for Refugees Inside Syria International News China court upholds life sentence for former Communist Party leader Bo Xilai International Criminal Court rules Kenyan VP must attend his trial UN envoy slams Myanmar's anti-Muslim violence Mid-East lags as worldwide gender gap 'narrows' Money in Politics NY court frees PAC to collect unlimited contributions in NYC mayor race Koch brothers' Arizona allies fined $1 million over hidden California campaign funding National Politics SEC, DOJ charge Diebold in foreign bribery case Ezra Klein:Does the Tea Party make America a less safe investment? Midwest Roundup Neb. climate change study moving forward - but not without dispute Nebraskans to get new notice when vehicle plates are due Sen. Ted Cruz Caps Post-Shutdown Tour With Speech In Iowa Iowa Gov. Branstad suspends some rules for propane transport No Need To Monkey Around There are few experiences more frustrating than when some idiot purposely monkeys around and tries to sabotage something you care about at the same time you're trying to fix that item. We know that many of the people in both the White House and HHS empathize with that frustrating feeling right now, even as they continue rushing to fix the problems with the federal health insurance enrollment website, Healthcare.gov. That frustration was also evident at Thursday's mostly pointless hearing in the House - or as Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey called it, a "monkey court." Multiple software contractors for the new federal health insurance system spent hours ducking responsibility, even while some Republican House members seemed to almost revel in the problems of the Obamacare website. Even as reliable reports of repairs to the healthcare website pop up daily, more people continue to enroll, and the positive opinion of Obamacare continues to grow. That hasn't kept the right-wing media or extremist Republican politicians from acting like a bunch of crazed monkeys about the Obamacare website problems. Unfortunately, as Ed Kilgore noted in Washington Monthly on Thursday, the insane right-wing reaction to the health insurance rollout has begun to spread like a disease. Now, some of our colleagues in the left-leaning media have even begun to get caught up in the metaphorical poo-throwing - which is actually the most dysfunctional thing anyone on the left could do. To paraphrase Napoleon, "Never interfere with the opposition when they're in the process of destroying themselves... To continue reading... click here. And now, for your Daily Felltoon preview for October 25, 2013 (Click the preview cartoon above to see the full version of the cartoon) Jobs & The Economy New Claims by Jobless Fall Less Than Hoped This Week Joblessness: A chronic drag on the economy and social stability Research: Lawmaker Squabbles Cost U.S. 1.75 Million Jobs | Hiltzik: How the GOP govt shutdown killed the economic recovery Steven Rattner: The Biggest Economy Killer? Dysfunction In Our Government. Krugman: Addicted to the Apocalypse Wall Street Watch Twitter Seeks $1.4 Billion in Biggest Web IPO Since Facebook Fed Proposes New Rules The Would Require Big Banks To Hold More Cash and Assets Economic Inequality Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty: Why the 1% should pay tax at 80% Josh Eidelson: How corporations hijack government, with GOP help, in the name of creating jobs Health Care Checkup Feds finalize latest update to ObamaCare rules FDA Recommends New Limits on Pain Drugs Irin Carmon: Right-to-life movement split on health care for the poor Marijuana: America's Next Medical Political Wedge Issue Immigration: Reform Coming? Obama On Immigration Reform: 'Let's Go Get It Done' House GOP leaders say they have no plans for immigration vote in 2013 Eleanor Clift: Obama, Congress Get Back to the Immigration Fight Macgillis: 7 Reasons To Stop Being Fatalistic About Immigration Reform Communications Breakdown How Google hopes to beat countries cracking down on Internet freedom Media Matters New York Times Editor Rick Berke Joins Politico Energy, Climate & Environment Arctic Temperatures Measure Highest in at Least 44,000 Years Bright Lights, Big City: NYC Swapping All 250,000 Street Lights To LED | Eight-state coalition plans incentives for zero-emission vehicles Pres. Obama's former climate czar predicts Keystone XL will be rejected Here It Is! Your Paul Fell PREDICTION preview for October 25, 2013 (Click the preview cartoon above to see the full version of the cartoon) White House Update President Obama to chide Republicans for fanatical focus on spending cuts at school event today Pres. Obama: House Republicans must prove they can govern again | Chart of the Day: Obama Torpedoing Deficit Levels, In Part Through Massive Budget Cuts J.Bernstein: Fix the broken executive branch nomination process. Really. On The Left Maryland Democratic Attorney General Gansler says he should have checked drinking at party George Soros Backs Hillary Clinton For President In 2016 Jonathan Cohn: Why Liberals Should Fuss About Obamacare On The Right Beth Reinhard: Inside the Messy but Moneyed Republican Plan to Neutralize the Tea Party E.Isquith: Next stop, impeachment? GOP intransigence is here to stay NYTimes: In Search of Republican Grown-Ups States Of Confusion Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler says he made 'a mistake' at teen's party Gansler now says he should have checked drinking at party | Texas and Oklahoma May Redraw the Border, Again National Guardsman Accused of Shooting and Wounding 2 in Milllington, Tennessee We hope you enjoy "The Daily Felltoon" every business day. 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