Southeast Asia Ponders What is Going on in China (Fareed Zakaria) from the Washington Post
"China scholars have noted in recent years that the Communist Party is deeply concerned about its legitimacy and grass-roots appeal. That led many to believe it would address these issues by opening up its political system, with political reforms that would accompany economic reforms. Instead, it appears that the party is choosing older, Mao-era methods of crackdowns, public confessions and purification campaigns."
Is Your Aircraft Carrier a Lemon? (David Axe) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"... many of the world's best-armed countries are acquiring them. China, Russia, India, Brazil, the U.K., France, America. But just getting your hands on a flattop is hardly enough. For every example of a country that succeeds in deploying a functional carrier and matching air wing, there's a counter-example: a flattop hobbled by mechanical problems, stricken by age, sidelined by bad design or stuck with warplanes that simply don't work. What follows are not the success stories."
In Search of Republican Grown-Ups from the Editorial Board of the New York Times
"The leaders of the Republican Party, in full flight from their disastrous and juvenile shutdown stunt, now want to restock their ranks with grown-ups. ... A mature and responsible political party would do more than prevent a government default; it would offer serious solutions to the nation’s most pressing problems instead of running from them. And it is there that Republicans — whether adults or Tea Party members — continue to let the public down."
Addicted to the Apocalypse (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"Once upon a time, walking around shouting “The end is nigh” got you labeled a kook, someone not to be taken seriously. These days, however, all the best people go around warning of looming disaster. In fact, you more or less have to subscribe to fantasies of fiscal apocalypse to be considered respectable. ... Washington has spent the past three-plus years in terror of a debt crisis that keeps not happening, and, in fact, can’t happen to a country like the United States, which has its own currency and borrows in that currency. Yet the scaremongers can’t bring themselves to let go."
Patience, Obamacare will work (Sally Kohn) from CNN
"You know what's relatively easy? Fixing a website. You know what's really hard? Ensuring access to affordable, quality health insurance for every single American and improving our broken health care system in the process. In the back-and-forth about the Obamacare exchange websites, let's not lose sight of the ultimate goal of health care reform -- a goal that, even with the exchanges problems, we are steadily achieving."
Vicious Rift on the Right (Eli Lake, Ben Jacobs) from the Daily Beast
"Ryan Ellis is the latest Conservative to attack Ted Cruz and his fellow Tea Partiers—only this time, he’s likening them to terrorists."
The Implosion of the GOP Brand, in One Chart (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"Republicans successfully converted the 2010 elections into a referendum on President Obama, the economy, and liberal overreach. As a result, they won big. Now Democrats are hoping to turn the 2014 elections into a referendum on the GOP brand and the destructive excesses of Tea Party governance. The GOP just might help Democrats succeed."
GOP Fights on Against Obamacare, at its Peril (Jules Witcover) from the Chicago Tribune
"The House Republicans and their tea party allies, unbowed by their failure to defund President Obama's Affordable Care Act, have signaled that they have just begun to fight. In so doing, however, they may be keeping alive the flawed and self-destructive strategy that took the country to the brink of financial default."
Establishment GOP Gets Ready to Battle Tea Party: 'It's going to be like divorce court' (Jed Lewison) from Daily Kos
"When former spokesmen of the GOP are enthusiastically talking about taking the party to divorce court, you know things are about to get even more entertaining, so break out the popcorn and get ready for the GOP's Great Divorce of 2013."
McCain Says GOPers Resent Cruz and Lee's Fundraising Against Them from Talking Points Memo
"Asked in an interview with with radio station KFYI's Mike Broomhead whether he considers Cruz and Lee part of the Republican "team," McCain said his colleagues are not happy about attacks coming from an outside organization with the tea party senators' support. "We're on the same team, but I can tell you what is resented amongst Republicans," McCain said. "And that is that Senator Cruz and Senator Lee are raising money for an organization that is running ads attacking Republican senators.""
Obama, Congress Get Back to the Immigration Fight (Eleanor Clift) from the Daily Beast
"From Obama to the Chamber of Commerce, everyone’s pushing House Republicans to move now on immigration reform. The sticking point: 11 million undocumented people."
President Obama Heads into Intensive Fall Fundraising Stretch from the Washington Post
"The flurry of events will help Obama fulfill a pledge he made early this year to intensively raise money for the party committees – particularly the two congressional committees, which did not get much of his time during the 2012 election."
The Highlander Theory of the GOP (Marin Cogan) from the Atlantic
"What's a GOP presidential hopeful to do? In the past year, the party has cycled through one favorite aspirant after another before running into a problem: There's no longer a single consensus about what makes a good candidate. Inevitable deviations from conservative orthodoxy are seen as disqualifying sins. Republicans have a habit of killing their darlings."
They only badly wound their darlings -- those darlings then get six figures hosting their own shows on FOX. Who's taking odds on where Ted Cruz will ultimatley end up: being elected to the White House or signing a contract in Roger Ailes' executive suite? It's a no-brainer.
In Virginia, a Swing State Turns Against the Tea Party (Molly Ball) from the Atlantic
"The Republican divisions laid bare by the government shutdown are playing out in the gubernatorial race, and the result appears to be a Democratic rout."
How Kirsten Gillibrand Shed Her Past on the Way to Liberal Stardom (Ben Terris) from National Journal
"New York's junior senator was once a rural populist. Now people call her the next Hillary Clinton. How she got from there to here."
NEW YORK CITY NUGGET!!
Where is the Second Avenue Subway Going? from Capital New York Magazine
"The 30-plus blocks of new subway, the three new stations and the $4.45 billion outlay comprise only the first of a four-phase subway plan that has been nearly a century in the making."
HOTEL NUGGET!!
World's oddest hotel complex where you can stay on a military transport plane, a ship or a Hobbit hole from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Site is the brainchild of New Zealand hotelier Barry Woods. He started by buying and converting an old train carriage. The 35 hectare site in Waitomo, NZ, has four unique lodgings."
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