Quiet Town

++The shining village on the mound continues the government shutdown. The House GOP has been trying to pass piecemeal bills to open parts of the government they like. They particularly want to ensure the parks around D.C. and the operating budget for D.C. in in place because of the negative effect the shutdown is having on the "Cooch" election bid in Virginia. But they are not even passing their own bills.

++Andrew Sullivan hit it out of the park yesterday with his essay on "The Nullification Party" and he urged President Obama to treat this as the constitutional crisis that Lincoln faced. I happen to agree and think Sullivan's piece at the Daily Dish is worth reading.

++In the late night hours before the closedown, John Boehner shocked his colleagues by designating conferees to meet with the Democrats to negotiate the CR,shocking because for 18 times the House has refused to negotiate the budget with the Senate despite Senator Patty Murray's repeated request. What I missed until Louise Slaughter talked about it on the Rachel Maddow Show that with all the ping-ponging Harry Reid only needed 51 votes to kill the House initiatives. But with a call to conference, Boehner was trying to trick the Senate back into the 60 vote range for consideration and then shift the blame for the shutdown on the Senate. The public isn't buying.

++I repeat the CR is a compromise bill that showed the Democrats caved to the GOP's top budget line, which is an amazing $300 billion less than the President proposed.

++In the Fox "slim down", not shutdown,their own poll showed President Obama with 50% approval and 79% disapproved of the shutdown. CNN showed Congress with a stunning 10% approval rating, the lowest since modern polling began.

++Nationwide, editorials blasted the Tea Party for preventing a clean CR from coming to vote. Every pundit and political junkie is hip to the fact that a clean CR would pass the House if Speaker Boehner would allow it. For the first time in a while,the moral equivalency of the corporate media has disappeared with blame laying squarely on the House Republicans.

++Incredibly dangerous is this morning's statements from the Republican Caucus that they may link the CR to the debt ceiling vote. I think the President is on firmer ground than  he thinks to raise the debt ceiling himself.  Parry versus the United States in 1935 brought this issue to the Supreme Court. The United States failed in its bid not to pay its bills. The 14th Amendment is pretty absolute--more than the 2nd Amendment is--that you can not question the United States in terms of its debts. And I have yet to find any statutory basis for the "debt ceiling" at all. It's a myth that has been useful for three decades but doesn't have a legal reality. 

++President Obama has called the Congressional leaders to the White House to discuss the situation. Since he is the only reasonable person around, I fear like many he will give more than the Democrats already did by allowing the sequestration levels in the CR.  But so far the Democrats have remained united and the President firm. The same can't be said by the Republicans, who are in open civil war with themselves and against the country.

++Meanwhile Obamacare clicked in with perhaps its most important component the individual mandate. The exchanges and the federal website was so overwhelmed that the severs crashed. Over 2 million in New York logged onto the state's website, 2.8 million on the Federal website, and hundreds more thousand on the state exchanges. Some glitches were worse than others. I read several different accounts from computer geeks of the various problems with selected websites but can't understand a word they said. But the bottom-line is that demand for health insurance is far greater than people expected.

++The United Nations weapons inspectors are en route to Syria and face the shortest time-line to remove chemical weapons there. 

++The Iranian Parliament passed a resolution approving President Rowhani's overture to the West. John Kerry is expected to start the nuclear negotiations in Geneva next week.

++Just like with the BP oil spill, President Obama has had to postpone his trip to Malaysia and the Philippines. John Kerry will go in his place. The President has to hunker down and deal with Congress.

++Hurray for the Pirates . Russell Martin, picked up from the Yankees last year,hit two homers to eliminate the Cincinnati Reds. Tonight, the Cleveland Indians go against the Tampa Rays for an elimination game in the Wild Card race. Go Indians!