Stories to Watch: 11/1/13

Food stamps get cut for 47 million Americans today -- a large percentage of those Americans being children. According to the report, this cut amounts to "the loss of 21 meals per month for a family of four." This is an inexcusable and immoral shirking of our responsibilities not just as American citizens, but as human beings. It's also a needless and idiotic hit to the economy.


The BENGHAZI!! "scandal" falls apart once again.


Greg Sargent argues -- rightly -- that the effort to repeal Obamacare is "now 100 percent dead." Which begs the question; what are Republicans going to do with their lives now?


It looks like the Chamber of Commerce is going to war with the Tea Party.


The head of the Pakistani Taliban is killed by a drone strike. That's great I suppose, but can we please have a conversation about the bazillion other drone strikes that only seem to take out wedding parties and farm kids?


PolitiFact rates Rachel Maddow's claim that Rand Paul's "Gattaca" speech was plagiarized from Wikipedia as "True'"


Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist will run against current Gov. Rick Scott as a Democrat. Crist was formerly a Republican.


An appeals court says Texas can go ahead with most of their abortion law, because forcing women to give birth against their will is liberty, I guess.


New Mexico has the plague.


Finally, the latest on Paul Ciancia, the antigovernment nutbag who shot up LAX with an assault rifle, killing one and injuring six.


[cartoon via Truthdig]