Monday, October 28, 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. A Clown Show Climate Nebraska climate change study may go begging for scientists Nebraska politicians approve climate-denying study; scientists refuse to conduct it Nebraska scientists balk at GOP orders to ignore reality Miami Herald Story On City's Worsening Coastal Flooding Never Mentions Global Warming Or Sea Level Rise Flashback July 2013: Jeff Goodell - Why the City of Miami Is Doomed to Drown Blowing hot and cold: U.S. belief in climate change shifts with weather Global Warming Effects? Try More Severe Allergy Seasons in Nebraska Arctic temperatures highest in 44,000 years due to greenhouse gases Health Care Checkup Republicans set to grill Kathleen Sebelius over Healthcare.gov glitches this week Ezra Klein: Two huge questions about Obamacare already got answered Friday President Obama, in weekly address, blasts GOP that is still 'rooting' for ObamaCare failure Data Center Outage Hits Health Care Website Over Weekend A Month Of Fixes Ahead For HealthCare.gov Sarah Kliff: Goodbye, HealthCare.gov lady. We barely knew you. Greg Sargent: It's not impossible that the Obamacare website might get fixed. Then what will Rs do? Republicans' new anti-Obamacare tactic: Screaming 'It's a class war!' Johnathan Cohn: How Obamacare Is Already Changing Insurance Premiums - and Coverage Sarah Kliff: The feds have made 330,000 Obamacare subsidy calculations States Reporting Surge in Medicaid Enrollees After Health-Law Rollout How Kentucky Built The Country's Best Obamacare Website Insurance CEO Defends Obamacare: 'We're Not Cutting People, We're Transitioning People' Paul Krugman: Why Is Obamacare An Immense Kludge? Ideology. The Spying Game White House: Barack Obama did not discuss tapping Angela Merkel's phone with NSA chief President Obama 'not told of Merkel phone bugging' by NSA Report Suggests Spying on Merkel Dates Back to 2002 Report: U.S. NSA also spied on 60 million Spanish phone calls in a month Report: White House stopped phone tapping of foreign leaders this summer David Sanger: In Spy Uproar, 'Everyone Does It' Just Won't Do David Rohde: Our Fear of Al-Qaeda Hurts Us More Than Al-Qaeda Does Hillary Clinton: Government Must Not Go 'Too Far' With Surveillance Energy, Climate & Environment 'Nobody wants to pay': Post-Sandy flood protection funding hits wall Flood, Rebuild, Repeat: Are We Ready for a Superstorm Sandy Every Other Year? Big hedge fund managers now fighting on both sides of Keystone XL pipeline Nearly 300 Oil Spills Went Unreported In North Dakota In Less Than Two Years Nations In Turmoil Syria Meets Deadline for Submitting Destruction Plan for Chemical Weapons Violent spillover from Syria kills two in northern Lebanon Egyptian Update: As Egypt's Brotherhood retreats, risk of extremism rises Car bombs kill scores in Baghdad, in sign of crisis in Iraq The War Over There In Afghanistan, NATO Now Reducing Scope of Its Postwar Role International News Five killed as car ploughs into crowd in Beijing's Tiananmen Square Hurricane-Force Gusts Batter UK, France, the Dutch Decision 2013: Virginia Clinton says Dems can't be complacent in Virginia gov. race, with GOP more energized Pres. Clinton: Fanatical Right-Wing Ideologues Are Reliable GOP Voters Cuccinelli's status as Virginia attorney general has complicated his run for governor Midwest Roundup Neb. Gov. Heineman says legislature needs to address early release law for prisoners Nebraska now reviewing alternatives to carry out executions Gabby Giffords, Mark Kelly in Iowa to make pitch for enhanced gun buying background checks Ed O'Keefe: Looking for GOP disunity? Head to Iowa. Clown Show Climate While we're unsure of how long this respite will last, it appears that extremist right-wing stupidity on the national level experienced a bit of a lull this past weekend. Of course, there are always the exceptionally stupid and evil, and both Iowa's Rep. Steve King and Texas' Sen. Ted Cruz continued to  fill those roles. Still, most Congressional Republicans now appear to have finally joined their Democratic colleagues for once, getting serious by turning their attention to the federal budget and immigration bills. On both fronts, developments so far look promising, with some Republicans now finally acknowledging that new tax revenues must be part of any budget deal. Elected Republicans have also begun to admit publicly that immigration reform must happen soon. This positive turn of events at the national level allowed us to turn our eyes back to our state offices, where the level of political idiocy seems to be on the rise. Surprisingly, the level of stupid in Florida politics seems to be at the lowest of our three locations right now - even if a bit of ridiculousness did happen surrounding the funeral of U.S. Rep. Bill Young last week. Virginia's level of political stupid has been ramped up recently thanks to the ugly gubernatorial race, where Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe solidly leads current Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Since Cuccinelli also oversees the state's voting laws, this race could get far more nutty before it's all over in a little more than week. The climate of political stupid in our home state of Nebraska, however, reached new levels recently. That fact became evident to the whole world last week, as the clown show that will certainly be the 2014 elections spilled over into action commissioned this past spring by the Nebraska legislature... To continue reading... click here. And now, for your Daily Felltoon preview for October 28, 2013 (Click the preview cartoon above to see the full version of the cartoon) Jobs & The Economy Factory Production in U.S. Increases, Though Less Than Forecast Shutdown shrinks economists' optimism for rest of 2013 Timothy Noah: Don't blame 'Washington' for the economy E.J. Dionne: First, admit the problem is not the deficit. It's slow economic & job growth. Wall Street Watch Fed tightens security around monthly data release after Sept. high-frequency traders incident How the "Navy SEALs" of trading are taking on Wall St's predatory robots In & Out Of The Fed, Many Now Think Some Inflation Would Help Economy NYTimes: Americans Should Get Reparations From Banks Budget Battles Top House Republican Backs New Tax Revenues In Budget Deal Push for Transportation Funding Gains Steam Jonathan Chait: Bipartisan Budget Love Suddenly in the Air Congressional Budget Talks Begin Amid a Sea of False Assumptions From Both Sides | Obama's Top Economic Adviser Tells Dems They'll Have to Swallow Some Entitlement Cuts Nine Democrats who are already selling out on Social Security cuts After Year of Working Around Federal Cuts, Agencies Face Fewer Options Konczal: Making govt simpler is complicated - especially in the budget Immigration: Reform Coming? GOP Rep. Jeff Denham of California joins Democrats in immigration overhaul push GOP Sen. Marco Rubio: Time To Scale Back Immigration Reform | Immigration Poses Threat of Another Republican Rift Greg Sargent: They keep saying immigration reform is dead. Maybe it isn't. Ethics & The Media Phone-hacking trial of ex-Murdoch media executives opens in London today Bill Keller, Glenn Greenwald, and the Future of News in America Media Matters Atlantic Wire to relaunch, with a new(-ish) name: The Wire Buffett-owned Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper introduces paywall Here It Is! Your HuskerNutz Preview for October 28, 2013 (Click the preview cartoon above to see the full version of the cartoon) White House Update White House Spars With Congress Over New Iran Sanctions Ezra Klein: Would the White House accept a budget deal without taxes? Maybe! News From Capitol Hill Sen. Graham Promises To Block All Senate Nominations Over Benghazi Ian Millheiser: Get Ready For The Filibuster Wars To Resume This Week In The Senate On The Left Paul Wellstone's Revenge: How Minnesota Democrats Took Their State Back | Cillizza: If Hillary Rodham Clinton passes in 2016, which Democrats might run? On The Right In Iowa, Sen Ted Cruz calls for 'grassroots army' to trample ObamaCare Iowa's Steve King: We're not done 'beating on' ObamaCare Republican Senator Ted Cruz on Dick Cheney's infamous shooting incident: 'Look, it happens' | Ramesh Ponnuru & Rich Lowry: Against Despair Of The Right Ex-GOP senator unloads: Says there's A "total disconnect...between reality and Republican Party" John Judis: The Tea Party is going down, but dysfunction is not States Of Confusion Poll Shows De Blasio in Position to Win New York City Mayor�€™s Race by Historic Margin What's In a Name? In Texas, Maybe a Problem as Voter ID Takes Effect | After Kansas Slashed Mental Health Funding, Suicides In The State Jumped 30 Percent North Dakota Town Approves Building Ban Aimed At White Supremacists We hope you enjoy "The Daily Felltoon" every business day. Thanks for continuing to be a member! Paul Fell Shawn "Smith" Peirce Paul Fell Cartoons, Inc.