News Nuggets 1319

DAYEE PICTURE:  Barrio Triste in Medellin, Colombia.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Democracy Corps Survey Shows Growing Support for Obamacare (Joan McCarter) from Daily Kos
"The shifts Democracy Corps identifies are in the groups who have been most likely to see the benefits of the law so far: unmarried women, white non-college voters and seniors."

From the Right, Despair, Anger and Disillusion (Campbell Robertson) from the New York Times
"“I’m just totally blown away by everything. I don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong anymore.” JEAN NAPLES, a homemaker in Doylestown, Pa. For frustrated conservative voters, the end of the government shutdown was as much a surrender to reality as to Democratic demands."

Handicappers: Shutdown Puts House Majority in Play (Alex Seitz-Wald) from National Journal
"Republicans lose ground in 14 House districts, according to new rankings from Cook Political Report."

Conservatives, Get a Grip on Reality! (Charlie Cook) from National Journal 
"Those who thought shutting down the government was a winning strategy should have their heads examined. ... I heard my friend, the extremely able congressional reporter Dave McConnell, relate a conversation he had had with a Republican House member. This member told McConnell that allowing the debt ceiling to be breached might “get the leadership’s attention.” That sounded like a kid saying if he threw his mother’s priceless vase against the wall, she might start letting him do what he wants.  Political judgment this bad, coming from members of Congress, is a dangerous thing for a party."

For GOP, the Damage Is Undeniable (Stuart Rothenberg) from Roll Call 
"One GOP consultant — who clearly hails from the more conservative end of his party — didn’t hold back recently in slamming the “no compromise” conservatives who led House Republicans off the political cliff with a government shutdown and by flirting with a debt default. “We will be weaker when we negotiate with Democrats next time, and we proved that President Obama doesn’t need to negotiate with us,” he said on the condition of anonymity."

GOP Frees The Debt Ceiling Hostage -- Maybe For Good from Talking Points Memo
""There's nothing in this for conservatives. Not even a bright or shiny object," a despondent Rep. Tom Massie (R-KY) told TPM. "I don't know how you negotiate up from this capitulation. I think the long faces are a result of the realization, if not the vocalization yet, that this sets the precedent for this Congress.""

Republicans Walked Into Obama's Trap (Karl Rove) from the Wall Street Journal
"His goal was to discredit the GOP before 2014. The defunders fell for it. ... This all fits into the White House's desire to use the continuing resolution and debt-ceiling fights to punish the GOP House majority in order to flip the House in the 2014 midterm election. That's a long shot, but the Obama-Reid-Pelosi cause was helped by a minority of House Republicans who persisted in a failed tactic."
Now ... it has to be said -- most of what Rove says in this column is delusional right-wing pap.  But the piece I agree with is that Obama is INDEED using every opportunity to divide the GOP and to marginalize the Tea Party.  I view it as Obama's HIGHEST political priority!  In the political arena, it is what 2013 is about for the White House.  And I think rightly so.  

GOP’s McConnell Promises No More Shutdowns Over ObamaCare (Alexander Bolton) from The Hill
"“One of my favorite old Kentucky sayings is there’s no education in the second kick of a mule. The first kick of a mule was when we shut the government down in the mid-1990s and the second kick was over the last 16 days,” he said. “There is no education in the second kick of a mule. There will not be a government shutdown."

The Conservative War on the GOP (Molly Ball) from the Atlantic
"What was once an uneasy alliance between Tea Partiers and Republican loyalists is increasingly marked by hostility—and many on the right now want a divorce."

A Teachable Moment (Ross Douthat) from the New York Times
"There was no argument for the shutdown itself that a person unblindered by political fantasies should be obliged to respect, no plausible alternative world in which it could have led to any outcome besides self-inflicted political damage followed by legislative defeat, and no epitaph that should be written for its instigators’ planning and execution except: “These guys deserved to lose.”"

Confusing Politics With Religion (Rod Dreher) from the American Conservative
A view from a conservative columnist.
"... what kind of mind sees what just happened as either a victory, or a defeat that happened not because the cause was hopeless, but because the cause was betrayed, its noble defenders stabbed in the back by faithless RINO traitors. Because that is the emerging narrative within the right-wing bubble.  Can the Tea Partiers’ beliefs be falsified? I don’t think they can be. ... Religion requires us to believe the impossible; that’s what makes it religion. Politics is the art of the possible; that’s why it is not religion."
For those who appreciate Ross Douthat, David Frum, Kathleen Parker, and David Brooks -- (very sane and thoughtful conservative columnists) I refer you to Rod Dreher.  I'm beginning to think he is in their company.

Don't Rule Out the Democrats Winning Back the House in 2014 (Harry Enten) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"The party in the White House usually struggles in midterms, but the Republicans could lose their majority without a huge swing."

Donors' Frustration with GOP Mounts from Politico
"Republican donors were horrified in November after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into losing campaigns for president and Congress with nothing to show for it. A year later they’re appalled by how little has changed, angered by the behavior of Republican lawmakers during a string of legislative battles this year capped by the shutdown, and searching for answers."

Boehner’s Business Allies Eye Tea Party (Jia Lynn Yang and Tom Hamburger) from the Washington Post
Organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are standing behind the House speaker and are preparing to take on tea party Republicans in at least three states."

Mitch McConnell Is Now Tea Party Enemy No. 1 (Patricia Murphy) from the Daily Beast
"The Senate minority leader’s deal to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling (plus a couple of dams for Kentucky) has his right flank howling. By Patricia Murphy."

Tea Party Preps for Fight with ‘Surrender Caucus’ After Declaring Moral Victory from the Washington Times
"A surprisingly number of prominent Republicans are saying that if the GOP loses the 2016 presidential elections, the party will go the way of the Whigs — or formally split into a moderate party and a conservative party. ... “If we are not willing to fight on those issues, Republicans could become Whigs,” Mr. Yue said."

FreedomWorks CEO: 'A Real Possibility' That The GOP Splits In Two from Talking Points Memo
"FreedomWorks chief Matt Kibbe said Friday that divisions on the right could cause the Republican Party to split in two."

The Ted Cruz Armageddon Is Coming (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast 
"A new Pew poll shows Tea Partiers’ devotion to the otherwise divisive senator. Can the Republican establishment stop him before it’s 2016? By Michael Tomasky."

‘Walmart Moms’ Are Furious With Washington (Eleanor Clift) from the Daily Beast
"Two focus groups of American moms who shop at Walmart revealed deep, enduring pessimism about the state of American governance, and suggested Hillary might be the only one who could excite them again."

Hillary Clinton, Welcome to the White House (Michael Hirsch) from National Journal
"She has no Democratic challenger, and the Republican Party is no longer a credible opposition force."

BRAIN SCIENCE NUGGET!!
When we sleep, our brains get rid of gunk that builds up while we're awake, suggests a study that may provide new clues to treat Alzheimer's disease and other disorders from the Associated Press
"This cleaning was detected in the brains of sleeping mice, but scientists said there's reason to think it happens in people too. If so, the finding may mean that for people with dementia and other mind disorders, "sleep would perhaps be even more important in slowing the progression of further damage," Dr. Clete Kushida, medical director of the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, said in an email."

News Nuggets 1318

DAYEE PICTURE: A cafe in Japan called the Horse's Mouth.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Obama Wins from Politico
"What’s different this time, senior administration officials said, is that the playing field for Democrats was smaller. Obama was just playing for the status quo. The strategy was simple, but the plan for executing it wasn’t."

Obama's Stubborn Victory (Amy Davidson) from the New Yorker
"...  If the G.O.P. were a sunny, well-run juggernaut, it might push through policies that do a lot of damage to the country. But a divided, sour, reckless party that, as George Packer and Jelani Cobb point out, trades on racial bitterness ever more explicitly can poison our political culture in a way that should give no one pleasure."

Senate Republicans: GOP Didn't Gain Anything By Forcing Shutdown from the Huffington Post
"None of the aforementioned Republicans would say whether they think Cruz and other tea party lawmakers have learned anything from the debacle. "I don't know. You'll have to interview them," McCain said. "I'm sure they're always happy to be interviewed." Still, some pointed out how flawed the plan from the far right was from the beginning."

Republicans Shut Down the Government for Nothing (Molly Ball) from the Atlantic
"After two weeks of closed government and a debt-limit freakout, a deal is on the horizon—and the GOP has little to show for the crisis caused by its demands."

The Tea Party Shut Down the Government and All They Got Were These Lousy Poll Numbers (Alex Seitz-Wald) from the National Journal
"Support for the conservative grassroots movement has plunged to an all-time low, as even GOP voters have soured."

For House Conservatives, a Time to Face Up to Defeat (David A. Fahrenthold) from the Washington Post
"Hard-core conservatives hoped to take down Obamacare, but at last, there was nothing to do but wait. And then lose. ... For House conservatives, Wednesday was a day unlike many others in the giddy period since Republicans took the House in 2010. They had lost all control of the standoff ... “I’m going to commit candor here,” Massie said. “I think we have less leverage on the next CR, and on the next debt-limit [debate], than we do right now.”"

Conservatives Learned The Wrong Lessons From The Shutdown Debacle from Talking Points Memo
"... what they're taking away from the 2013 crisis is: They didn't go far enough.  They aren't angry with Speaker John Boehner for ultimately capitulating to Democratic demands. They're frustrated with their more mainstream colleagues who put him in that position."
No surprise.  This will feed the internecine firefight that is now brewing for the GOP's 2014 election primary season.  Don't be surprised if the GOP House and Senate primaries next year are the UGLIEST and MOST EXPENSIVE (for off-year elections) in living memory.  

Can We Govern Now? (E.J. Dionne) from the National Memo
"As long as Boehner permits this lunatic fringe — there’s no other way to describe it — to have a virtual veto power in his caucus, we will descend into chaos again and again. And as long as more middle-of-the-road conservatives hang back because they fear primary challenges, scoldings from Heritage Action, or occasional insults from the talk-show barons, the Republican Party will remain in receivership."

Will Debt-Ceiling Extortion Ever Return? (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"The surrender terms negotiated by Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell have an interesting provision, which would change the way Congress votes on the next debt-limit increase: ... Instead of needing Congress to approve a debt-ceiling increase, Congress has to override an Obama veto in order to prevent it. So now it would take a two-thirds vote to trigger the kind of terrifying failure that before could have been triggered by a 50 percent–plus–one vote. That mechanism would utterly defang the debt ceiling, returning it to its historical place as an opportunity for ineffectual posturing rather than extortion."

Winners and Losers of the Government Shutdown (Chris Cillizza) from the Washington Post
"... with an event as all-consuming and high profile as the shutdown has been in the last three weeks in Washington, it’s ridiculous not to see some winners and, yes, some losers emerging."

Losing a Lot to Get Little (Jeremy Peters) from the New York Times 
"... in a futile campaign to strip the law of federal money, the party focused harsh scrutiny on its own divisions, hurt its national standing and undermined its ability to win concessions from Democrats. Then they surrendered almost unconditionally."

Boehner and his Majority are in Disarray from the Washington Post
"The outcome left the speaker without any clear plan for governing or for unifying a wickedly fractured GOP caucus that has repeatedly divided when it needed to unite.  ...  The inability to do that has left the House GOP effectively incapable of exerting power beyond the walls of HC5, the cramped Capitol basement meeting room where the Republicans usually gather once a week — and convened almost daily during these tense few weeks."

Republican Collapse (Charles Blow) from the New York Times
"This is an embarrassment for the country, yes, but it’s also an embarrassment for the Republican Party that lays bare their motives, tactics and intention. It may not be so easy for voters to forget this come next November. As the conservative Matt Drudge tweeted on Wednesday: “Speaker Pelosi Part 2: Opening Jan 5, 2015.” If only."

GOP Shutdown Disaster Could Give Dems a Big Lift (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"With the news breaking that John Boehner will allow a House vote on a Senate deal to end the crisis, meaning Republicans surrendered with nothing to show for weeks of crisis brinkmanship, how does that impact GOP fortunes heading into 2014? ... In an interview, DCCC chair Steve Israel told me a number of new recruits would be announced in coming days, thanks to GOP damage sustained in the crisis."

That's How You Treat a Bully! (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"GOP is finally surrendering. But it will try more extortion soon -- and Democrats will have to stand just as strong."

Poll: Rift Forming Between Tea Party, Rest of GOP (Aaron Blake) from the Washington Post
"The poll shows moderate Republicans' views of the tea party have dropped from 46 percent favorable in June to 27 percent favorable today -- a 19-point decline in just four months time."

Finally! The Republican Fever Is Broken (Jamelle Bouie) from the Daily Beast
"Today’s deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling is a complete and utter loss for Republicans. Has the far right finally learned its lesson? ... It was clear, from the start, that Boehner’s heart wasn’t in the shutdown or the fight to defund the Affordable Care Act. But now his caucus has lost its desire to fight as well."
I think Bouie is mistaken here -- the fever will last until (at minimum) 2016.  More brutal thumpings will be in order to get the Tea Party fanatics to even begin truly reassessing their strategies and tactics.

The ‘Gotham Theory’ of the Republican Party (Chris Cillizza) from the Washington Post
"The theory goes like this: The party can’t sustain itself in its current state. It needs to bottom out in order to begin rebuilding successfully. “Sometimes when a system is broken, it’s better to let it/push it to failure rather than prop it up and let it limp along,” ... The theory is that Gotham has fallen too far to be saved and that the best thing that can be done for it in the long run is to hasten its demise."

A Tea Party Purge Among the GOP (Harold Meyerson) from the Washington Post 
"Like the Stalinists and the Jacobins, today’s tea party zealots have purified their movement — not by executing but by driving away those Republicans who don’t share their enthusiasm for wrecking their country if they can’t compel the majority to embrace their notions. ... Also like the Stalinists and Jacobins, today’s Republicans devour their past leaders."

John Boehner's Shutdown Endgame: "The Final Spasm of a Corpse" (Noam Scheiber) from the New Republic
".. don’t mistake it for anything other than what it was: the final spasm of a still-fresh corpse, the corpse being the GOP’s legitimacy as a political entity, to say nothing of its negotiating position in this particular conflict."

Congressman Says GOP Can’t Pass Immigration Reform Because Obama Will Destroy Them from Think Progress
"President Obama has made clear he intends to redouble efforts on immigration reform. Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID), once a key Republican in immigration talks, does not intend on making that easy.  ... His theory why Obama will pivot to immigration reform is to deliver a final blow to Republicans reeling from the latest fiscal crises: “I think what he has done over the past two and a half weeks — he’s trying to destroy the Republican party. I think that anything we do right now with this president on immigration will be with that same goal in mind, which is to destroy the Republican party and not to get good policies.”"

BOATING NUGGET!!
The Super Yacht of the Future: Stunning Ship with a Skeletal Structure that's Set to be on Every Billionaire's Shopping List from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"The stunning superyacht has been designed by multiple-award-winning Iraqi-born Briton Dame Zaha Hadid.  Dame Zaha was the brains behind the Aquatic Centre for the London Olympics and Glasgow's Riverside Museum.  She has teamed up with German shipbuilders Blohm+Voss to create a fleet of six different superyachts."

LINK

News Nuggets 1317

DAYLEE PICTURE: A stretch of the Sahara Desert in Egypt.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

Stop Fretting: The Debt-Ceiling Crisis Is Over! (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"... the events of yesterday amounted to utter success. The debt ceiling will be lifted, the crisis is over, and so, too, may be the larger Constitutional struggle it unleashed. ... Ted Cruz and his minions may have undertaken a hopeless crusade, but they dragged along the Paul Ryan Republicans who all along seemed to think their extortion scheme was a simple business deal. Its collapse is one of the brightest days Washington has seen in a grim era."

John Boehner’s 'Moment of Truth’ Arrives (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"There was never any compromise that could prove acceptable to both Tea Party conservatives on one side, and Obama and Senate Dems on the other. One side believes it must reserve the threat of widespread damage to the country as leverage to cripple the Obama presidency before it destroys the country. The other wants to end use of that as leverage for good. That core difference was inherently unbridgeable."

Boehner Raises the White Flag in Republican Shutdown (Joan McCarter) from Daily Kos
"House Speaker John Boehner wanted to get there first. McConnell decided to give him the chance to do so, and Boehner spent the whole day trying to get a deal—and ended up failing miserably."

John Boehner, GOP Savaged: 'Humiliating Failure,' 'Disaster' from the Huffington Post
HOORAY!!
"John Boehner and his House Republicans woke to a round of epically horrible press about their role in the ongoing shutdown and debt ceiling crisis. ... Politico called Boehner's efforts a "disaster." The Washington Post described it as a "humiliating failure," and said Boehner and his leadership colleagues had " lost all control of their majority.""

The Final(?) Collapse of the House Republicans (David Weigel) from Slate
"... you can already see how the conservative base will remember this episode. It won't be a story of Republicans making a huge strategic error and bumbling into an Obamacare-defunding fight without the votes to ever win. It will be a story of wimpy party leaders selling out. The shutdown would have been winnable if they hadn't sold out."

Has The Right Learned Its Lesson? (Andrew Sullivan) from the Daily Dish
"I remain skeptical that a party in this deep an ideological hole – with so many forces still arguing for more digging even up against a national default – is able to climb even slowly out. But this horrible political disaster for them must surely have some impact on purely political animals. Rarely has such a radical move been so definitively quashed (even if at the last minute) – and abhorred so broadly by the American people."

Now let's touch base with some conservative pundits:
The Strangelove Republicans (Rod Dreher) from the American Conservative 
"Maybe there won’t be a long-term fallout from this, but I tell you, it’s very hard to see entrusting power to a party that behaves this way, that manufactures crises like this for its own short-term political gain. The Republicans, having lost their mind, have destroyed their brand. ... Yes. I cannot believe I’m saying this, but I hope the House flips to the Democrats in 2014, so we can be rid of these nuts."

From another very conservative source:
House Republicans Show Themselves To Be Dangerously Incompetent, Again (Josh Barro) from Business Insider
"There is no serious argument for Republican governance right now, even if you prefer conservative policies over liberal ones. These people are just too dangerously incompetent to be trusted with power. A party that is this bad at tactics can't be expected to be any good at policy-making."

And another:
Why Should the Public Trust Republicans With Power? (Daniel Larison) from the American Conservative
"... the House majority cannot do its job, and has to rely on the intervention of the other chamber controlled by the opposing party to save it from its own blundering. This “works” only in the sense that it avoids the worst consequences of the House majority’s pointless and destructive behavior. ... After watching the display of the last few weeks, it is hard to argue that Republicans should have control over any part of the government. It is even harder to believe that they should increase what control they have."

And another:
Senate Deal Takes Shape, Kneecapped House Leadership to Cave
from Townhall.com
"Yesterday's events were calamitous for Republicans. Once the House GOP revolted -- to no particular end -- the onus was shifted back to the Senate, with Harry Reid holding every trump card."

And finally, from from Mr. Tea Party himself, Erik Erikson:
Bridge Burning and Bridge Building (Erick Erickson) from Redstate.com 
"We only need a few good small businessmen and women to stand up and challenge these Republicans who are caving. If they refuse to fight for us, we must fight them. ... So what good is the GOP? It is time to fight this out in primaries in 2014. Given just how poorly Crossroads performed in 2012, I like our odds with Heritage Action, Senate Conservatives Fund, Madison Project, Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, For America, and others."
YOU TELL'EM MAN!! Really!  What good IS the GOP anyway!?  I've been wondering that for years.  Throw money at the really nutty primary challengers.  That'll show'em!!

Tea Party Donors Push Back (Patricia Murphy) from the Daily Beast
"Business leaders are warning about the dire consequences of default, but in some ways they’re getting what they paid for—they overwhelmingly backed GOP congressional candidates in 2012, including Ted Cruz. ... “I sit through meetings now with Republican lobbyists and it’s grim...they made this investment in the Republicans in the House, and this is what they have to show for it.”"

Is Cruz Causing a Democratic Wave? Maybe, but Don’t Jump the Gun (Stuart Rothenberg) from Roll Call
"Last week I observed that I hadn't yet seen 'compelling evidence' that a Democratic political wave could be developing. I can no longer say that after seeing the recently released NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll."

Stunned Republicans React to Canceled Vote (Jonathan Strong) from National Review
"Referring to his plan to preemptively send the Senate a House-passed bill, Speaker John Boehner told his conference this morning that he’d “rather throw a grenade than catch a grenade.” But with his right-wing troops abandoning him again, it was the speaker who was left holding the bomb."

Republicans May Be Ready To Take Senate Deal: 'It's All Over' from the Huffington Post
"After House Republicans withdrew their proposed debt deal on Tuesday evening, Senate Leaders Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said they were ready to reopen negotiations to end the shutdown and avert a default. Now, House Republican lawmakers and aides are saying they're ready to throw in the towel and accept a Senate deal: ... Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), chairman of the Rules Committee, told The National Review that House Republicans are now just "waiting for the Senate to get their work done.""

John Boehner’s Bad Night Clears Path For A Deal (Alex Altman and Zeke J. Miller) from Time Magazine
"...in the perverse ways of modern Washington, the Tuesday night defeat may soon be marked in the history books as a step forward. It was the latest expression of the Boehner doctrine, a playbook for governing the ungovernable.  Stripped of earmarking grease, reluctant to rule by fiat, and with a conference that fears only its right flank, Boehner has long since realized that he must be bloodied first before he can steer the country to safety."

How Bad Is It? Even Ann Coulter Has Turned On Conservatives (Michelle Cottle) from the Daily Beast
"The right-wing gadfly is on the attack again—but this time she's going after her fellow nutjobs. ... Forget the shopworn Yeats’s lament about how the center cannot hold; in the current GOP internecine cage match, even the fringe is starting to come apart. ... as the chaos spirals, Republicans seem to be having an ever-harder time figuring out where it is they want to point fingers or lob bombs. Everyone in the party is fed up with everyone else, and no one seems to have any idea how to stop the madness."

The GOP Can't Survive Without the Tea Party (Nate Cohn) from the New Republic
"If Republicans think they have a pathway to victory without the tea party, they’re sorely mistaken. ... Once a Republican realized there aren’t enough opportunities to win without the tea party, the centrist fantasy would come to an end."
I think both Cohn and Frum (who Cohn is reacting to here) are missing what's staring them in the face: the GOP is coming apart ... and the only real question is how bitter, bad and complete the falling apart is going to be.  

Eric Cantor Blamed By Virginia Colleagues For Prolonging Government Shutdown from the Huffington Post
"Two Virginia congressmen fumed Tuesday about the damage being done to their state by the ongoing government shutdown and laid the blame squarely on a fellow Virginian, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R), for preventing lawmakers from voting on a bill to immediately end it."

False Equivalence: How 'Balance' Makes the Media Dangerously Dumb (Bob Garfield) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"We've seen it in climate change reporting; we see it in shutdown coverage. Journalists should be unbiased, yes, but not brainless."

And for a complete change of pace -- a dog rescue video!
HOPE-FOR-PAWS DOG RESCUE NUGGET!!
An abandoned dog on the railroad tracks gets rescued from Hope-for Paws 

News Nuggets 1316

DAYLEE PICTURE: Farmers watching an approaching thunderstorm in Nebraska.  From National Geographic.

The Russia Left Behind: A Journey Through a Heartland on the Slow Road to Ruin from the New York Times
"The reasons are many, but his view boils down to this: “Gradually,” he said, explaining his view of Lyuban, “everything is rotting.”  Vladimir G. Naperkovsky explains how ambulances are unable to reach patients across the tracks in Lyuban, a city bisected by the high-speed rail link between St. Petersburg and Moscow.  At the edges of Russia’s two great cities, another Russia begins."
This story indirectly supports something I have been saying for some time: that the media narrative about Russia (as one of BRICS countries) that it "is on the rise" is complete nonsense.  Russia has the patina of a modern high-tech economy -- but it is very thin and is overlaid on a rotting foundation left over from the soviet era.  It is all the Moscow bureaucrats and fixers can do to keep the country from declining even further.

The Rapid Advance of Artificial Intelligence from the New York Times    
"Scientists and engineers are creating a world in which cars drive themselves, machines recognize people and humanoid robots travel unattended."

Why College Costs Will Soon Plunge (Barton Hinkle) from Real Clear Politics
"College costs will drop because of market forces politicians will be powerless to stop. In his new book Average Is Over, George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen explains why: Thanks to the Internet, you no longer have to sit in a lecture hall to get a superb education. ... He can take the class online. Just as deregulation made air travel available to (nearly) all, online education will make college available to nearly all as well."
This is complete BS.  A "superb education"?!  I don't think so. Everything I have seen and read tells me that the quality of online courses falls somewhere between barely adequate and complete rip-off waste-of-time-and-money with the majority falling in the latter category.  The "benefits" of online education put forward by this author are mostly hypothetical and do not reflect the current reality.  Moreover, in a backhanded kind of way, Hinkle touts the benefits of online education by claiming that big-name state universities don't provide a very good education anyway.  Who knows?  Maybe someday, online courses can provide students with intellectual rigor, probing dynamic discussion, and make students truly active rather than passive learners.  Most of what I see out there now is either deeply passive learning or con jobs designed to take students' money and give them as little of value as possible.

What Barack Obama, Republicans Get with a Deal from Politico
"It’s not a perfect deal for the White House — but it’s a worse deal for Republicans. Democrats won’t say it too loudly just yet, but the emerging budget agreement leaves Republicans with remarkably little to show for forcing the first government shutdown in 17 years: They barely nicked Obamacare and their poll numbers are in tank."

Thirteen Things that Define the New American Center from the Editors of Esquire Magazine
"An exclusive Esquire-NBC News survey shows us that everything we are told about politics in America today—that there is no middle ground between left and right, blue and red, us and them—is wrong. The data, compiled by the Benenson Strategy Group (pollster for Obama for America '08 and '12) and Neil Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies (lead pollster for Romney for President), show us there is a large group of American voters—even a majority—who make up a New American Center that is passionate, persuadable, and very real. They are merely waiting for Washington to find them."

Debt Ceiling Deal May Be Struck, but the Crisis Is Not Over Yet (David Frum) from the Daily Beast
"Congress is heaving a sigh of relief over a reported deal to avert a default—but the crisis is nowhere near ended. David Frum on why the ruthless politics won’t stop until the larger crisis in American life finds some resolution."

A Tea Party Exit Would be a Blessing for GOP (David Frum) from CNN 
"Maybe the right answer to the threat, "Shut down the government or we quit" is: "So sad you feel that way. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.""
It will be interesting to see if Frum's view here takes hold among the "establishment" GOPers out there.  Until now, the Tea Party crowd has overwhelmingly been the folks looking to leave the Republican Party.  When deeply implanted moderates like Frum urge the Tea Party folks to hit the road, it further deepens the risk of a major party schism.  For a schism to be meaningful and long lasting, both sides need to conclude that they are better off without the other.  Frum's view as stated here suggests we are moving into that territory.

Democrats Up the Ante on GOP’s Poor Hand (Eugene Robinson) from the Washington Post
"A crazy thing is happening in shuttered, dysfunctional Washington: Democrats are pushing back.  This phenomenon is so novel and disorienting that many Republicans in Congress, especially the tea party bullies, seem unable to grasp what’s going on. They keep expecting President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to fold like a cheap suit because, well, such a thing has happened before. I guess it’s understandable that the GOP might have forgotten the difference between bluffing and actually holding a winning hand."

How the Tea Party Broke the Constitution (Timothy B. Lee) from the Washington Post
"Obama has offered concessions to help reach agreement with Republican leaders, but they haven't reciprocated. To the contrary, each time Democrats have agreed to cut spending, House Republicans have used the new figure as a new baseline for the next round of negotiation. ...  In short, Obama is negotiating with a party that always demands further concessions and is never willing to reciprocate. After a certain number of rounds of this, any rational negotiator is going to dig in his heels and refuse to give more ground."

Government Shutdown Unleashes Racism (Roger Simon) from Politico
"Question: If Ted Cruz and John Boehner were both on a sinking ship, who would be saved? Answer: America.  Harsh? Look around you at what is happening to America and you will see harsh. ... Boehner does not bend to the will of his Kamikaze Caucus because he is an evil man. He does so because he is a weak man. To borrow a line from Theodore Roosevelt, I could carve a better man out of a banana."

Conservatism Meets Occupy Wall Street (Michael Gerson) from the Washington Post
This conservative columnist is SPOT ON both with his description of the Tea Party leadership and (hate to say it) of the Occupy Wall Street movement.  And (in my view) this Tea Party tantrum will end in roughly the same place as OWS: disillusionment and a lot of people just walking away.  The next several weeks will I think tell the tale. 
"Sen. Ted Cruz’s straw poll victory at the Values Voter Summit on Saturday, just as his strategy to block Obamacare was collapsing in recrimination and desperation on Capitol Hill, indicates that some voters don’t place much value on political realism. While it is difficult to call Cruz’s 317 votes significant by itself, the summit measured the mood in a portion of the right. Two themes were common: apocalyptic diagnosis and utopian solutions. ... When intentions are all that matter, no outcome can be discrediting."

Tea Party Wants to Take America Back -- to the 18th Century (Joseph Ellis) from the Los Angles Times
"... their ultimate destination, I believe, is the 1780s and our dysfunctional government under the Articles of Confederation. The states were sovereign in that post-revolutionary arrangement, and the federal government was virtually powerless."

How the Shutdown Derailed the Republican Rebranding Campaign from the Washington Post
"In choosing to take the hard-line stance favored by its most conservative wing, Republican leaders in Congress have not only alienated electorally critical independents and other key demographic groups that their 2012 presidential nominee won but also further revealed the deep schism within their own party."

Poll: Republicans Losing No-Win Game from the Washington Post
"All of Washington’s elected leaders earn negative marks for handling budget negotiations, but the public’s ire toward Republicans in Congress has hardened quicker than disapproval of President Obama and Democrats through a fortnight of failed negotiations."

Senate Republicans Don't Get It: The Democrats Aren't Bluffing (Jonathan Cohn) from the New Republic
"Democratic aides I interviewed over the weekend kept stressing one thing: Democrats won’t make a swap that doesn’t make sense on its own terms. ... Republicans have heard this before. Many hoped it was just a bluff. So far, at least, it hasn't been."

House Republicans are Falling for the Sunk Cost Fallacy (Neil Irwin) from the Washington Post
"In extremes, the sunk cost fallacy can be disastrous. World War I and the Vietnam War were examples of nations falling for the error, with combatants doubling down on failed strategies, in part because they had already invested so much, making decisions based on what had happened in the past rather than solely on the costs and benefits for the future."
Saving face ... or saving the country?  I know it's a tough choice.

Republicans Aren't The 'Daddy Party' Anymore from Business Insider 
"If Republicans were once the daddy party, now they're the abusive ex-husband with a substance abuse problem party. Instead of telling hard truths, Republicans are wildly misleading voters, both about policy ("America is going to be destroyed by Obamacare") and political reality ("Democrats are feeling the heat" because Republicans shut down the government)."

What This Cruel War Was Over (Ta-Nehisi Coates) from the Atlantic
"It is not so much the behavior of the lone idiot that matters, but the tenor of the crowd around him. ... the Confederate flag does not merely carry the stain of slavery, of "useful killing," but the stain of
attempting to end the Union itself. You cannot possibly wave that flag and honestly claim any sincere understanding of your country. It is not possible."

News Nuggets 1315

DAYLEE PICTURE: A red squirrel in Cairngorms National Park in Scotland.  

From the Daily Mail of the UK.

The Kurtz Republicans (Ross Douthat) from the New York Times
"...  there is still something well-nigh-unprecedented about how Republicans have conducted themselves of late. It’s not the scale of their mistake, or the kind of damage that it’s caused, but the fact that their strategy was such self-evident folly, so transparently devoid of any method whatsoever. Every sensible person, most Republican politicians included, could recognize that the shutdown fever would blow up in the party’s face. ... It’s clear, right now, that the populists can’t be trusted not to drive their party into a ditch."

Tea Partiers React With Fury To World They Can’t Control (Cynthia Tucker) from the National Memo
"If anything has been surprising, it’s been the potency of their hatred, the irrationality of their tactics, the venom in their backlash. But, as they see it, they are fighting for their way of life — their control, their power. This is an existential battle, and they’re willing to burn down the country to save it from people of color. That’s why they’re willing to risk defaulting on the nation’s debt for the first time in history."

The Inevitable Republican Collapse That Will End the Shutdown (Noam Scheiber) from the New Republic
"The grim, angry, loopy, and predetermined conclusion to Washington's crisis. ...  Boehner will reprise the same formula he deployed in resolving last year’s fiscal cliff fight. I know this because it’s how the GOP has gotten out of pretty much every self-inflicted PR disaster of the Obama era, and it’s where the best reporting available suggests we’re headed today."

Democrats vs. Republicans vs. Tea Partiers (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"... Democrats, Republicans, and the tea party. The struggle between two parties is overlaid on top of a struggle for control within one of the parties. Compounding matters is that the terms of the internal struggle between the Republican Party and its ultraright party-within-a-party are themselves almost completely irrational. ... The tea partiers have demanded the party charge into a shoot-out it can’t win. But the respectable mainstream Republicans, the Paul Ryans and Charles Krauthammers, have urged it to stage a nuclear confrontation it can’t win."

Shutdown Politics: Support for Democratic Takeover of House Spikes (John Nichols) from the Nation
"Those poll numbers explain why there has been at least some movement on the part of House Republicans—who engineered the shutdown as part of a scheme to derail implementation of the Affordable Care Act—to back down from their most hardline positions. The latest data from NBC News and The Wall Street Journal is devastating for the GOP"

Truckers Ride For The Constitution Failing To Beat Out Everyday Beltway Headaches So Far from the Huffington Post
"As of midday Friday, a much-anticipated protest spearheaded by a group of tea party truck drivers appears to be causing minimal disruptions. The Washington Post reports that the "Truckers Ride For The Constitution" added little fanfare to traffic on the Capital Beltway."

The Shutdown is a Total Disaster for the GOP (Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas) from the Washington Post
"It's hard to overstate the magnitude of the GOP's strategic failure here: Obamacare's launch has been awful. More than a week after the federal insurance marketplaces opened, most people can't purchase insurance on the first try. But Republicans have chosen such a wildly unpopular strategy to oppose it that they've helped both Obamacare and its author in the polls."

Depths of Irresponsibility: GOP on the Debt Limit (Jonathan Bernstein) from the Washington Post
"Republicans do seem to be getting ready to surrender (although they seem to have only reached the stage at which they’re asking for rewards for surrendering; it may take a while longer for them to fully understand the concept). A true economic disaster may yet be avoided. But everyone should remember just how irresponsible they’ve been on this one."

Will the Kamikaze Caucus Doom the GOP? (Ronald Brownstein) from the National Journal
"The frenzied push from House Republicans to derail Obamacare, shelve immigration reform, and slash food stamps all point toward a steadily escalating confrontation between a Republican coalition revolving around older whites and a Democratic coalition anchored on the burgeoning population of younger nonwhites."

The Tea Party Is Damaging Its Credibility in the Way It Can Least Afford (Conor Friedersdorf) from the Atlantic
"Tea Partiers should nevertheless understand that, fairly or unfairly, they're saddled with a reputation for unusual recklessness. Voters aren't sure whether they can be trusted to govern. That's why their behavior in the debt-ceiling standoff is so idiotic."

The Republican Fever Is Down. It Hasn't Broken Yet (Jonathan Cohn) from the New Republic
"...it’s clear Senate Republicans are desperate to get past this episode. It's also clear why. ... His message on this has been consistent and it has been right. The Republicans can get concessions on all kinds of things—entitlements, taxes, even Obamacare. But they can’t get more concessions by threatening to wreak economic havoc. Until Republicans accept that, prospects for agreement seem slim."

Cruzification of the GOP (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post 
"At least so far, the standoff has been a political bloodbath for Republicans. And maybe that’s exactly what was needed to right the political system: The effort to gut Obamacare had to crash like this so that Republican leaders and lawmakers would find the courage to stand up to tea party toughs ..."

At the Values Voter Summit, It’s YOLO Conservatism (Jamelle Bouie) from the Daily Beast
"It was pure, unbridled, conservative id. And it was celebrated. Moreover, as we’re seeing now, no one in the mainstream of the Republican Party is going to challenge it. Indeed, it’s hard to think anyone will even try to co-op it."

Nice Civil War You Have Going There! (Markos Moulitsas) from Daily Kos 
"The ranting and raging over at Breitbart.com is put on full display here!! "... when the primaries happen the GOP Establishment will be destroyed....I cannot wait to vote and I will be sending money to candidates all over the US that Challenge Incumbent GOP Senators and Congressmen. I want Boehner gone, Cantor gone, Ryan gone, McConnell gone, Alexander gone, Graham gone....and I will be looking for Conservatives to challenge more House Reps as well...I will spend as much as I can....I want that GOP Establishment destroyed. The RNC can go to H!!!"

The GOP Civil War...The Role Of Outside Groups And The Empire Strikes Back from The Ace of Spades
"In many ways the current shutdown/debt ceiling/ObamaCare battles are merely proxy fights for the leadership and direction of the Republican Party. It's a fight that's been awhile in the making and is as ugly as it is necessary.

For the GOP, Rightward Ho!  Former Sen. Jim DeMint Wants 'True Conservatives' Only (By Doyle McManus) from the Los Angeles Times
"... here's what's different about DeMint and his allies: They are eager to target Republican incumbents, even to the point of challenging them in Republican primaries. ... And DeMint is helping to build an impressive and apparently permanent infrastructure of fundraising organizations with the avowed goal of displacing the GOP's traditional business backers.  ... As a result, some of the toughest, most expensive campaigns in next year's congressional election cycle may not be between Republicans and Democrats but in primaries that pit Republicans against each other — with the future of the GOP at stake."

GOP Battle Each Other on Fiscal Deal from Politico
"The House-Senate GOP divide is the latest sign of the growing Republican anxiety over how to end the first government shutdown in 17 years. Some polls indicate the fiscal standoff is sending the GOP to a historic nadir, a result that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) described as “devastating.”"

Establishment Republicans Assail Tea Party Over Government Shutdown (Thomas Beaumont) from the Huffington Post
"From county chairmen to national party luminaries, veteran Republicans across the country are accusing tea party lawmakers of staining the GOP with their refusal to bend in the budget impasse in Washington. The Republican establishment also is signaling a willingness to strike back at the tea party in next fall's elections."

GOP Voters, Business Interests, And Governors Are Abandoning Congressional Republicans (Igor Volsky) from Think Progress
"In yet another sign of trouble for the GOP, business interests are also showing signs of discontent, signaling a possible rift with Republicans ahead of the 2014 mid-term elections."

Baby Boomers Ruined The Government (Joe Klein) from Time Magazine
"The U.S. can lay the blame for its current political mess at the feet of my generation."

Ted Cruz’s Debacle (Daniel Larison) from the American Conservative 
"Cruz was so determined to ignore the views of anyone outside the party and even the views of many of those inside it that he led fellow Republicans into a disaster while remaining oblivious to the danger. Cruz’s debacle has been much more significant for the GOP because the party’s leaders ended up going along with his losing strategy."

Ted Cruz Is Living On Another Planet (Josh Barro) from Business Insider 
"Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) spoke to the Values Voters Summit, and his speech was really weird. It's like he's living on another planet. On Planet Cruz, there is a massive outpouring of public support for a government shutdown over Obamacare and it's scaring the hell out of Democrats. .. Losing one election wasn't nearly enough to wake Republican voters up to this problem. Ted Cruz isn't alone on his strange planet; much of the Republican Party is right there with him. And that's likely to be true for a long time."

The John Birchers' Tea Party (Adam Gopnik) from the New Yorker
"In their new book, “Dallas 1963,” Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis demonstrate in luxuriant detail just how clotted Dallas was with right-wing types in the period before Kennedy’s fatal visit. The John Birch Society, the paranoid, well-heeled, anti-Communist group, was the engine of the movement then, as the Tea Party is now—and though, to their great credit, the saner conservatives worked hard to keep it out of the official center, the society remained hyper-present."

Should the Tea Party split from the GOP? With popularity for a third party at an all-time high, maybe it’s time for Cruz and Co. to go it alone (Frances Weaver) from The Week
"Third parties tend to fail because people are worried about wasting their votes on candidates that often have no name-recognition, says The Economist. But there are many reasons why the magazine thinks the Tea Party could buck that trend:..."

News Nuggets 1314

DAYLEE PICTURE: The Holi Festival performance in Vrindavan, India.  

From National Geographic.

UP-FRONT PUNDIT NUGGETS!!
The Day the Mad Dogs Took Over the Republican Party (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
A long excerpt is in order here!
"It was a head-spinning day in Washington, yesterday was, as the story seemed to change from hour to hour in terms of who was proposing or accepting or refusing what and who seemed up and who seemed down. But through it all, one constant did not change and doesn’t seem likely to change: The Republicans are wrecking themselves.  Indeed, historically so. This is one of those turning points in American political history, the kind you’ll tell your grandkids you were around to see: a once-respectable party that finally was eaten alive by the cultural rage it had so long used to its advantage but held in check in order to win elections. It was a long time coming and it’s a grand thing to watch, provided they don’t wreck the country along with themselves."
Tomasky is really the first pundit I've seen who has captured PRECISELY the view I have had of this shutdown/debt ceiling for many weeks now!!

Others are close behind!
The Last Days of the GOP (John Judis) from the New Republic
"I once wrote about lobbying, and this week I called some Republicans I used to talk to (and some that they recommended I talk to) about the effect the shutdown is having on the Republican Party in Washington. The response I got was fear of Republican decline and loathing of the Tea Party: One lobbyist and former Hill staffer lamented the “fall of the national party,” another the rise of “suburban revolutionaries,” and another of “people alienated from business, from everything.” There is a growing fear among Washington Republicans that the party, which has lost two national elections in a row, is headed for history’s dustbin. And I believe that they are right to worry. ... Under pressure from grassroots radicals and the new outsider groups, the old Republican coalition is beginning to shatter."

Polls Show the GOP Is Now Losing Their Faithful (Kirsten Powers) from the Daily Beast
WHO CALLED IT!!
"Ted Cruz may be trying to spin it otherwise, but the numbers show the GOP is even losing the support of Republican voters. ... Jim Kessler, one of the founders of the centrist think tank Third Way, put it this way to me: “It’s like the two campers in the woods. A bear shows up and one guy is putting on sneakers and the other says, ‘You aren’t going to outrun the bear’ and the other says, ‘I just have to outrun you.’ Right now, Republicans are the barefoot camper."
I knew that there were several possible outcomes from this shutdown/debt ceiling battle -- but the one I was betting on (and I didn't hear anyone seconding my view on this) was that the anti-establishment Tea Party folks will feel so steamed with their own leadership and their more sane members of Congress that they will actually spend this next year directing as much fire at them as at the Dems and, in the process, induce a major party schism.  Without knowing the outcome of the current crisis, there are already signs of this happening (if you heard second hand about the attacks Ted Cruz had to face in his own closed-door caucus meeting earlier this week).

Republicans are Even More Screwed Than You Thought from Daily Kos
"In case you're wondering just how epic the GOP's failures are, head below the fold as we take a closer look at at that NBC/WSJ poll yesterday that shattered GOP talking points and the political conventional wisdom."

Default Doubters Repudiated by Republican Economists (Rich Miller) from Roll Call
"Republican lawmakers have played down the significance of hitting the debt limit, saying the U.S. can avoid default by putting aside funds to pay bond holders. Economists affiliated with the party aren’t so
sanguine."

House Republicans’ Ransom Demands Falling (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"The single most implausible element of the House leadership’s "let’s negotiate" gambit is the premise that a bipartisan budget deal would satisfy the Republican base. Any bipartisan deal, even one heavily slanted to the Republican side, would enrage conservatives. Even the tiniest concession — easing sequestration, closing a couple of token tax loopholes — would be received on the right as a betrayal."

Anger Can Be Power (Thomas Edsall) from the New York Times
"One of the key factors pushing Republicans to extremes, according to Greenberg’s report, is the intensity of animosity toward Obama. ... Take the findings of a Pew Research Center survey released four weeks ago. They show that discontent with Republican House and Senate leaders runs deep among Republican primary voters: two-thirds of them disapprove of their party’s Congressional leadership."

Republican Party Favorability Sinks to Record Low (Andrew Dugan) from Gallup
"With the Republican-controlled House of Representatives engaged in a tense, government-shuttering budgetary standoff against a Democratic president and Senate, the Republican Party is now viewed favorably by 28% of Americans, down from 38% in September. This is the lowest favorable rating measured for either party since Gallup began asking this question in 1992."

Fed Up with House, Senators Grab at Reins of Fiscal Debate from The Hill 
"Senate Republicans have become fed up with fellow Republicans in the House and are meeting with Democrats to find a way out of the current fiscal impasse."

Christian Delusions are Driving the GOP Insane (Amanda Marcotte) from Salon
"Why aren't Republicans more frightened of a shutdown and a default? Part of the reason is magical thinking."

Why John Boehner Might Have No Choice but ‘Unconditional Surrender’ (Sean Sullivan) from the Washington Post
" “What the president said today was, if there is unconditional surrender by Republicans, he’ll sit down and talk to us,” said Boehner. The thing is, it might be Boehner’s best and only option for ending the standoff that has seized Washington. Let’s take a closer look at why."

GOP Splinters Over Hostage Strategy As Default Looms from Talking Points Memo
"The GOP is splintering over its strategy to force conservative reforms by sustaining the government shutdown and threatening default. Republican leaders don't know what they want, other than for Democrats to accede to some sort of policy concessions in order to avert the crises. And they're divided on which of the two must-pass bills is the better one to hold hostage."

The Shutdown Prophet (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"In our Founders’ defense, it’s hard to design any political system strong enough to withstand a party as ideologically radical and epistemically closed as the contemporary GOP. (Its proximate casus belli—forestalling the onset of universal health insurance—is alien to every other major conservative party in the industrialized world.) The tea-party insurgents turn out to be right that the Obama era has seen a fundamental challenge to the constitutional order of American government. They were wrong about who was waging it."

Republican Rebranding? What Republican Rebranding? (Beth Reinhard) from National Journal
"The GOP says it wants to broaden its appeal and reach more Americans, but Republicans in Congress are doing everything they can to unwind those efforts."

News Nuggets 1313

DAYLEE PICTURE: A rare species of dung beetle in South America.  From National Geographic.

State Obamacare Markets Attract Tens Of Thousands Of Customers from Reuters via the Huffington Post
"Tens of thousands of uninsured people have begun to sign up for health coverage through online Obamacare private insurance marketplaces in California and New York, officials said on Tuesday, while problems still plagued the federal online system. California and New York are two of the biggest markets for signing up millions of uninsured Americans under President Barack Obama's healthcare law. State officials said the data they provided on Tuesday was an early indicator of strong demand for new insurance plans that will take effect in 2014."

What Moderate Republicans? (Andrew Sullivan) from The Dish
"We need to see what is in front of our nose: a cold civil war has broken out between those properly called conservatives, defending the credit of the government, empirical reality, and adjustments to modern life and those properly called radical reactionaries declaring our current elected president and Senate as illegitimate actors, bent on the destruction of America, and therefore necessitating total political warfare, even to the point of threatening to destroy the global economy."

Heritage Action Bails On Debt Ceiling Fight (Howard Fineman) from the Huffington Post
"A crack appeared Wednesday morning in the conservatives' united front against President Barack Obama in the budget-and-borrowing crisis of 2013. Michael Needham, CEO of the powerful group Heritage Action, said that he opposed conditioning a crucial vote to increase the government's borrowing authority on the group's main goal: defunding Obamacare. Under questioning at a breakfast with reporters, hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Needham, a product of the Stanford Business School, conceded that failure to raise the debt ceiling would indeed disrupt the global economy."
This is actually big news!  Heritage Action is one of those hard-right organizations that have not only been pushing the Defund Obamacare strategy, they were one of the KEY AUTHORS of it!  At least for the moment, they seem to be retreating.  I will have to say, though, that the Defund movement will be ALL OVER Needham and anyone else who tries to walk back from the steep hill they're trying to charge up.  

Speaking of those who were pushing the Defund campaign:
Koch Industries: We Are Not Behind The Government Shutdown from Talking Points Memo
"In a letter to U.S senators dated Wednesday, Koch Industries denied ever advocating for a government shutdown as a way to force the defunding of Obamacare. The letter was in response to comments on the Senate floor Tuesday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in which he blamed Koch for the shutdown ..."

Right-Wing Nutjobs’ Last Stand: The Debt Limit Endgame Arrives (Brian Beutler) from Salon
"As the debt limit deadline approaches, conservatives are trotting out the real nonsense. The fantasy is almost over."

John Boehner Doesn't Have the Confidence of the House from Daily Kos 
"Boehner doesn't have a majority constituency in the House. President Obama leads a Democratic Party that is fully behind him. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has the full, united support of the Democratic Senate Caucus. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has the near unanimous support of House Democrats."

U.S. Fringe Festival (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
" the only thing standing between mainstream Republicans and a hellish future of kowtowing to Ted Cruz, never seeing the inside of the White House and possibly losing the House is President Obama’s refusal to give in to the shutdown blackmail that Cruz & Co. have cooked up. ..."

Poll: The GOP Gets the Blame in Shutdown from the Associated Press 
"The Associated Press-GfK survey, out Wednesday, affirms expectations by many in Washington — Republicans among them — that the GOP may end up taking the biggest hit in public opinion from the fiscal paralysis, just as that party did when much of the government closed 17 years ago. But the situation is fluid nine days into the shutdown and there's plenty of disdain to go around. Overall, 62 percent mainly blamed Republicans for the shutdown."

Congress Approval Rating Drops To Dismal 5 Percent In Poll from the Huffington Post
"A poll released Wednesday found Americans' approval of Congress dropping near all-time lows as the government shutdown continues with no solution yet in sight. The Associated Press-GfK survey found that just 5 percent of the public approves of the job being done by senators and representatives, while 83 percent disapprove. 11 percent said they neither approved nor disapproved."

The Self-Sabotage of Small-Government Republicans in Congress (Conor Friedersdorf) from the Atlantic
"The GOP amassed such a poor record while governing that voters ousted it. Finding itself in a much weakened position, the party tried to substitute intransigence for the long, hard work of clawing its way back into power. The strategy has brought them to a moment where its negotiating ploy may well end up hurting the country far more than it would be helped even if Republicans won."

Republicans Are Awfully Close to Violating the Constitution (Kristen Roberts) from National Journal
"Have Republicans forgotten that they too must abide by the Constitution? The document is explicit in its instruction to America's federally elected officials – make good on the country's debts. "The validity of the public debt of the United States," the 14th Amendment states, "shall not be questioned.""

Small-Government Conservative Self-Sabotage (Daniel Larison) from the American Conservative
"Toying around with default threatens to impose greater costs on American taxpayers rather than reduce them. It is the perfect example of striking a symbolic blow against fiscal irresponsibility while adding to the country’s fiscal problems."

Democrats’ Biggest 2014 Weapon: Ted Cruz (Zeke J Miller) from Time Magazine
“Die-hard Republicans will consider him their best surrogate, and we consider him our best surrogate too,” says Democratic National Committee spokesman Mike Czin. “Wherever he goes now, I think he’s a political liability for all Republicans.”"

Suicide of the Right (John Podhoretz) from the New York Post
"I dislike what they dislike. I want what they want. But I fear they are very, very wrong about the existence of this silent majority, and that their misperception is leading them to do significant damage to the already damaged Republican “brand.” ...  It may not have been a very good vehicle in the first place, and you may think it couldn’t drive worse, but oh man, could it ever. And it’s the only one you’ve got."

The GOP is Losing Young Christians (Matt Lewis) from The Week
"Big-hearted youngsters looking to "do unto others" won't find their calling in today's rancorous politics."

HOPE-FOR-PAWS VIDEO NUGGET!!
Rescuing a Terrified Abandoned Dog - The Transformation Will Amaze from Hope-for-Paws

News Nuggets 1312

DAYLEE PICTURE:  An elephant in a zoo in Colorado.  From National Geographic.

U.N. Begins Process of Destroying Syrian Chemical Weapons (Daniel Politi) from Slate
"International weapons experts began what is expected to be a long, complicated process to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal as well as any machinery that can be used to create them, a United Nations official tells the Associated Press."

A New Type of Growing City: "This is Where the Talent Wants to Live" (James Fallows) from the Atlantic
"... the regional metropolis -- the place where people come to do their shopping, get their medical care, and in many cases pursue their business ambitions. Something similar is of course true of Burlington, Vermont: tiny by national standards, dominant within its state and much of the environs."

Vouchers Don’t do Much for Students from Politico
"Taxpayers across the U.S. will soon be spending $1 billion a year to help families pay private school tuition — and there’s little evidence that the investment yields academic gains."

How to Solve the Debt-Ceiling Crisis Forever (Joshua Green) from Bloomberg 
"The way out of the crisis for Boehner and Obama is to agree on a deal that allows a modest, face-saving concession to Boehner -- medical-device tax repeal? -- in exchange for reimposing the Gephardt Rule. True, Obama says he won't negotiate over the debt ceiling. But his rationale is that doing so would fatally weaken future presidents, who'd be shaken down every time a debt-ceiling vote approached. If such votes were eliminated, Obama would have nothing to fear--and this damaging showdown could finally come to a close."

Senate Dems to Call GOP’s Bluff on Debt Limit (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"Senate Democrats are planning to start the process this week for a Senate vote on a clean debt limit increase, sources tell me – a move that could call the bluff of Republicans in both chambers and force them to take a stand on whether they will allow default and economic destruction if Dems don’t accept their unilateral demands. The move has the backing of the White House, according to a source familiar with discussions."

GOP Unity Frays, Frustration Builds (Jake Sherman) from Politico
A reality is beginning to dawn on — and eat away at — many House Republicans: They aren’t at all sure of their party's strategy to re-open government and lift the debt ceiling. After forcing leadership to pick a fight it didn’t want to pick, sitting through hours of meetings with lots of internal hand-wringing and failing to force Democrats to negotiate, the path to avoid a prolonged government shutdown and the first debt default in American history is completely uncertain."

The 13 Reasons Washington is Failing (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post 
" The sooner we recognize that something is wrong with Washington, the sooner we can begin the hard work of fixing it. Here, then, are 13 of Washington's problems — ordered, subjectively, from small to big — and there are, of course, many more."

Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Political Parties (David Frum) from the Daily Beast
"When it comes to major policy battles, since 2009 the GOP is 0-3. Before it fails again, David Frum offers up seven ways the party is shooting itself in the foot."

Shutdown: The Tea Party’s Last Stand (E.J. Dionne Jr.) from the Washington Post
"If the nation is lucky, this October will mark the beginning of the end of the tea party.  The movement is suffering from extreme miscalculation and a foolish misreading of its opponents’ intentions. ... Only now can we fully grasp that politics on the right has been driven less by issues than by a series of gestures. And they give up on even these as soon as their foes try to take what they say seriously."

Extremely Conservative and Incredibly Out of Touch (Kirsten Powers) from the Daily Beast
"Has the shutdown made the Tea Party go bipolar? Some of them want our pity; others are too busy celebrating to care about real people. Kirsten Powers calls for an end to the madness."

Republicans Still Have No Idea What They Want (David Graham) from the Atlantic
"With the Obamacare fight seemingly over, there's no one who can put forward a strategy and rally the party around it."

Democrats Deserve this Victory (Matt Miller) from the Washington Post 
"Trying to equate these mandates as a “fairness” issue is to assume the press and the public are idiots. Crafting a message that works only if people are idiots is a grim way to do politics — and deeply cynical. ... John Boehner may look tanned and rested, but the suave speaker has a Dorian Gray problem. Somewhere in the attic, his likeness in a painting is rotting.  There’s a wonderful poster from World War II in which Churchill exhorts British citizens to “Deserve Victory.” In this clash, Democrats do."

GOP Congressman: We Stumbled into War Over Obamacare (Byron York) from the Washington Examiner
"The crisis that House Republican leaders didn't see coming is now consuming them, with unpredictable consequences. "We're not in a situation that has been planned out and war-gamed and plotted, OK?" said the congressman. "We stumbled into a situation like Gettysburg that nobody planned, and all of a sudden each side is feeding more troops into it, and it's turning into a much bigger deal.""

GOP Shutdown Shenanigans Giving Dems a Big Recruiting Boost? (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"Rep. Steve Israel, who is in charge of winning House races for Democrats, told Dem lawmakers at a closed door meeting today that GOP shutdown shenanigans were giving Dems a big recruiting boost, by prompting reluctant Dem candidates to express renewed interest in running in very tough GOP-held districts."

The Boehner Bunglers (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"Conservative leaders are indeed ideologically extreme, but they’re also deeply incompetent. So much so, in fact, that the Dunning-Kruger effect — the truly incompetent can’t even recognize their own incompetence — reigns supreme."

Some Tea Party Congressmen Find Signs of Political Backlash at Home from the Washington Post
"Nearly three years after a band of renegade congressmen brought the tea party insurgency to Washington, there are early rumblings of a political backlash in some of their districts."

GOP Faces 20 Years in Desert Without DLC-Like Moderation (Morton Kondracke) from Roll Call
"What ideological purists — the anti-defense, anti-business, social liberal left led by Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader — did to the Democrats, their purist counterparts are doing to the GOP. These are the
pro-austerity, small-government, anti-immigrant, social conservatives led by Rush Limbaugh, the tea party, the Club for Growth and Heritage Foundation chief Jim DeMint. The purists are willing to default on the national debt, let student loan interest rates skyrocket, deny disaster aid to hurricane-hit communities, permanently alienate Hispanics — and defeat in primary elections Republicans who waver from the right-wing line."

GOP Rebels Scour the Back Pages of the Rule Book (David Hawkings) from Roll Call
"In competition of all kinds, it’s reliably true that folks on the losing side are far likelier to reach for the rule book — hoping some procedural wrinkle can be found to save them in time from a shortage of skill or good fortune. ... Lacking the legislative clout within their own party to win on the merits, at least on their own, these GOP quasi-moderates have been scouring the parliamentary back alleys for help advancing legislation to end the government shutdown with no strings attached."

Why The Shutdown Will Last Another Week (Matthew Yglesias) from Slate 
"...the government has to stay shut down all the way until the chaotic 11th hour of the debt ceiling which is still almost two weeks off. That means at least another week of stalling and posturing on the shutdown while various people lose access to important services."

Far-Right Republicans Could Hit A Tipping Point As Support Falters (Ashley Alman) from the Huffington Post
"Tension is brewing in the Republican Party as the federal government shutdown enters its seventh day and far-right members of the GOP show no sign of letting up."

Reid’s Silver Lining (Jessica Taylor) from MSNBC
"Sen. Ted Cruz’s hardline on the government shutdown is forcing Republicans to decide whether to embrace heated rhetoric ahead of the 2014 Senate primaries — music to Harry Reid’s ears. Republican primaries in states like Georgia, Alaska and North Carolina are turning into the kind of tea party-driven fights that put winnable races for the GOP in Democrats’ column the past two elections. And as the shutdown drags on and Republicans dig in on the debt ceiling, Republicans are only digging the hole deeper, endangering what should be their year to take back the Senate, with early warning shots that they could nominate candidates who will have a tough time winning a statewide election."

Shutdown Aversion: Republicans May Have Just Lost the House (Eleanor Clift) from the Daily Beast
"Boehner’s scrambling and the electorate says Republicans just aren’t acting rationally. Next year’s midterm elections may be a referendum on House management—and give Obama the Congress he wants."

Bill Ayers: I was Sarah Palin’s Road Kill (Bill Ayers) from Salon
Years of attacks didn't prepare me for the charge that Obama was "palling around with terrorists" -- meaning me."

DOG NUGGET!!
Dog are People Too from the New York Times
"FOR the past two years, my colleagues and I have been training dogs to go in an M.R.I. scanner — completely awake and unrestrained. Our goal has been to determine how dogs’ brains work and, even more important, what they think of us humans. Now, after training and scanning a dozen dogs, my one inescapable conclusion is this: dogs are people, too."