"The Real News Is That TRUMP IS Broke.'

++Josh Marshall, being the nudge on this issue, explains how the Trump campaign has $2.4 million in the bank and can't bankroll ads in the swing states. Marshall goes further into this conundrum and suggest again that Trump is even broke himself.

++The Columbus Dispatch, who covers Ohio, reports that Hillary has been on the ground for at least three weeks with Obama's Ohio coordinator and the whole support staff of data processors and GOTV people. Trump isn't there but Republicans promise there will be something within a week.

++The Utah state chairman of the GOP flew to Las Vegas to meet with Trump to warn him of the effect his rhetoric is playing in Utah. He was told that "it was all just part of the act."

++Dana Millbank writes this morning about how the Trump campaign has become catastrophic. The campaign sort of manager was fired and the Trump team is supposed to be gathering in New York today to discuss the reorganization.

The Winds of War

** First, Robin Williams' suicide took a lot out of the last two days. Been enjoying watching his television talkshow appearances over the years and his "interview" at the Actors' Workshop. Defense Secretary Hagel released a statement today praising Williams' support for the troops. Williams constantly entertained troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan but never mentioned it in his interviews. In recent years, he has been frank about his alcohol and drug use and his various stays in rehab. His death provoked sick comments from the right. The Right to Life organization claims it was the abortion--we do not know if this event is even accurate--by Williams girlfriend in the 1970s that caused his suicide. Rush Limbaugh claimed it was his "leftist" views that drove him to suicide. Gee, I remember Robin Williams as a regular Noam Chomsky. Fox News said his act was cowardly.  If you never experienced severe depression, you are lucky. If you have,you can empathize with Robin. It feels like being in a dark tunnel that just gets darker as you walk along. What all his professional colleagues report is the tremendous generosity of the man. Take the time to look at the YouTube clips of his one-man concerts at Constitution Hall and the Metropolitan Opera House. 90 minutes of pure manic genius. He leaves behind four finished films. God Bless you, Robin.

++If you thought we escaped insanity because Congress is on a prolonged recess, we have entered the Twilight Zone of pundits of the past emerging again to lecture us on our responsibilities to engage in war again. Of course, Dana Millbank complains that President Obama's vacation shows he has a tin ear. The Imperial Post has been ginning up war fever in a town that has been emptied of everyone except people who work for a living.

++John McCain and Ms.Lindsey Graham weighed in pretending they told President Obama so--about what no one can remember. We are moving into dangerous territory again as America experiences amnesia about how events in both Iraq and Syria evolved and our culpability for these events.

++John McCain had tweeted after our last troops left Iraq that George W. Bush deserved some of the credit. Indeed he does. But so does Iraq Prime Minister Maliki who crushed the Sunni protests in their version of the Arab Spring. The only time I was in Iraq a few years ago Maliki had over 100,000 Sunni prisoners in prison without any charges. It's little wonder that the Sunnis felt that they were being liberated in the first waves of ISIS. Now the brutal killings and rapes by ISIS have turned the Sunnis against ISIS.

++We are at the stage--the first time since W's Administration--where you can't believe a word that you hear on the radio. And how much is that deliberate or because the media has been so conditioned to be for war--any war--that truth does become the first casualty.

++In Iraq, it got so serious that Ayatollah al-Sistani actually made two statements--one urging resistance to ISIS, and the second for the removal of Maliki.

++The United States and France are now arming the Kurds. America is providing airstrikes against ISIS and the Kurds have taken back some of the towns captured by ISIS. 

++The Imperial Post urges President Obama to appoint General Petraeus and former Ambassador Ryan Crocker as special envoys to Iraq. Ironically, some of those Iraqis who fought in the surge have joined ISIS as have veterans of Saddam army.

++Steve Coll wrote in Politico that beyond the humanitarian concerns in our defense of Erbil is our interest in their oil. Coll, who wrote a book about Exxon Mobil, enlarges on the issue. But actually President Obama for his whole term has discouraged both Exxon Mobil and Chevron from investing in Kurdish areas.

++The situation in Iraq and Syria has brought the worst out on both sides. Hillary Clinton danced away from President Obama by saying she opposed his policy in Syria and if he had supported the "moderate" Syrian rebels then ISIS would not have grown so fast. It's true she dissented while as Secretary of State but no one can explain how further militarizing the situation would have ameliorated the situation. 


++In the Gaza War, we have experienced a ping-pong of ceasefires. Today,Egypt proposed a longer ceasefire with a slight lessening of the embargo against Gaza by Israel. They are offering a broader solution also. So naturally, the Imperial Post says the Obama Administration must get tougher on Egypt for its massive crushing of dissent. While the same Post backs Bibi in his actions against Hamas. No one mentions the deaths of the children,the deliberate targeting of the schools and hospitals. Since the Israeli response to the Hamas rocket attacks,Palestinians on the West Bank have protested throwing stones while met with gunfire.

++To give you some flavor of the wayback machine and its reoccurrence, Lady Lindsey Graham warned that an American city would be in flames if President Obama didn't do more against ISIS. He wasn't talking about Ferguson, Missouri when he talked about a city in flames.

++President Obama was criticized for taking a vacation among rich white people in Martha's Vineyard. I don't remember George W. Bush being criticized for meeting Tony Blair in Crawford to plot invading Iraq. 

++The Dixie Chicks must be jealous. Every Republican and conservative,except Laura Ingraham. has criticized President Obama during a war-time situation without any blowback about their patriotism.

++With Republicans urging sending more troops to Iraq, how is that going to turn out when Maliki refuses to step down and has Iraqi social forces defensing him in the Green Zone? Feels like Diem and Mossadegh all over again.

++The religious right has sided with ISIS calling the beleaguered Yazidis, devil worshippers, and Bryan Ferry says it is natural President Obama would want to save them.

++There are certain elements that seem to escape our American pundits. We seem to be giving air cover to the Iranian forces who are already in Iran in big numbers. And the troops that have rescued the Yazidis in the last two days are apparently Kurdish members of the PPK, whom the United States had put on our terrorist list. 

++The Kurds have asked for Humvees and tanks to fight ISIS. As Yogi used to say,it's deja vu all over again.

When the Going gets weird, The Weird Goes Pro

++ Dick and Liz Cheney attacked President Obama for not caring about terrorism today in the Wall Street Journal. Bless her heart, Jennifer Rubin let the cat out of the bag at the end of her column saying that the father and daughter team was shilling for their new front group Alliance for a Strong America. Their op-ed read like Dinesh D'Souza.

++The GOP hellbent on saving their last monument wants Ahmed Abu Khattala sent to Gitmo. The DOJ says No way, Jose. 

++The GOP wonders why getting Abu Khattala so long. The Daily Beast has an article about why the Delta Force took its time. They were rehearsing at Fort Bragg on a fortification like the man's home and planned the operation for a year. The go-ahead was held up until the FBI and the DOJ felt they had gathering sufficient evidence to try Khattala in a court of law.

++The Center for American Progress wants the Obama Administration to bomb Iraq as a counter-terrorism measure. General Petraeus doesn't like the idea because that would make us a Shiite Air Force. But remember his surge troops are the ones now fighting Baghdad.

++Anne Marie Slaughter, who used to be a member of the Obama Administration, writes an op-ed in today's New York Times advocating American actions in both Syria and Iraq and believes that such actions are in line with the UN General Charter and if we can't get approval then we should act and get approval later. This is the problem "humanitarian interventionists" have. They run up against the same problems as the neo-cons.

++Andrew Sullivan finds more about the Iraqi neo-cons hawks he doesn't like. His article in The Dish on the neo-Straussian strains of Wolfowitz and Billy Kristol is worth reading.

++Rand Paul doesn't quite know what to say because he thinks President Obama needs congressional approval to take any actions. Senators Graham and Ayotte do not.

++None of this matters because Sweeney Todd declared the Obama Presidency dead today on Morning Joe. He later told Matt Drudge that he really never became distant from the President.

++President Obama's foreign policy approval fell to 41% but like anything Obama polls show that the majority of Americans support his ideas on Iraq over Senator McCain's.

++Rachel Maddow did an excellent segment last night on the loony-tune Iraqi war boosters coming back in the media and how the right ignored the one piece of news about Benghazi that they should have cheered about--the capture of Abu Khattala. Instead Drudge has a story about meat and chicken prices going up.

++Dana Millbank and Politico got into a pissing war over Dana's excellent op-ed on the Heritage Foundation's bizarre Benghazi program which had all the conspiracy crowd there.

++Libya said today that the operation to capture Abu Khattala violated their sovereignty. 

++David Ignatius calls for a peace conference to re-draw the map of the Middle East. Basically, the Sykes-Picot agreement is defunct.

++With the architects of the Iraq war back in the news,I wish reporters would ask them about their own actions. For example, how did Wolfowitz so grossly underestimate the cost of the war--$86 billion to $2-4 Trillion. That's not just a rounding error. Or Paul Bremmer--why did he dissolve the Iraq army and aren't they the ones fighting Baghdad now? Or General Petraeus--aren't the members of the Sunni Awakening allies of ISIS now? Or Dick Cheney--Didn't our invasion bring in Al Qaeda to fight in Iraq when it had never been there before? Instead,reporters might dance around issues of the Status of Force Agreements and who sign the withdrawal agreements but the rest of the issues remain buried. 

++The only one that I saw really get beat up was John Bolton and that was on Fox News and it was by libertarians who didn't know what they were talking about.

++At least John Bolton went back to how bad Saddam Hussein was. But there is a big question: When the United States was threatening war and wanted Saddam to go, why did we not take him up on his offer?--He would go as long as he could keep $1billion. In retrospect, that was a great deal.

++The summer is turning into another BP summer. Remember the oil spill in the Gulf and the whole summer news converge about whether Obama was doing enough. This Iraq situation feels the same way. Getting Bergdahl back--bad. Capturing Abu Khattala--bad. Iraq conflict--really bad. 

++Remember shutting down the government over Obamacare? Well now, the Republicans in the Senate want to shut down the government in September over the debt ceiling because of the new EPA carbon emissions regulations. So crash the world economy because regulations will take place in a year. Good move. At least a new Depression will cut greenhouse gases, since the factories will shut down.

++Since Willard Romney was so clairvoyant on a number of issues. Willard said we just a tad away from losing the gains in freedom we earned over all the years of fighting. Whose "we" white man since no Romney has ever fought for the country. Since Willard is the man, the GOP are now counting him as a Presidential candidate again. Time to get Steve Benen out of mothballs at the Rachel Maddow Show and back on the Romney beat.

The Morning Blat

++The House GOP will bring a clean debt ceiling bill up today because they couldn't get agreement on the ransom demand.

++Janet Yallin makes her first public appearance as FED chair and will say that the jobs recovery hasn't been enough.

++The Obama Administration has altered its stand on leaving Afghanistan. They now want to wait until Karzai is out of office. Afghan troops are now restless for a security agreement, which Karzai has refused to sign.

++President Obama has set a dubious record--deporting 2 million people, which is greater than all the Presidents from the late 19th century through l999 combined.

++Chuck Schumer this weekend proposed that the House GOP pass an immigration reform bill and make it applicable when President Obama leaves office since they claim they do not trust President Obama to enforce the law. I guess 2 million people doesn't convince them. Carnival Crux said today that he wants to discuss immigration in 2015.

++Dana Millbank today reports in the Washington Post that the Heritage Foundation's latest conference on new policy ideas had none.

++The South Dakota GOP stopped Medicaid expansion in that state.

++Efforts by conservatives to prevent Arizona from expanding Medicaid failed.

++Chris Christie continues to be beleaguered by the subpoenas over Bridgegate.

++His money tour for GOP candidates isn't panning out as Texas and Illinois Republicans are avoiding him.

++Iran has agreed to share information on their experiments with triggers with the international atomic energy commission. Iran successfully tested a long-range missile and has two ships to get near US waters. 

++After a stall, more Syrian chemical weapons left the country.

Lunch

++One fact that tells a lot about the United States. 
     68 million Americans do not have checking or savings accounts.

++This fact emerged in the discussion of Senator Warren's proposal that the Post Office provide paycheck cashing and same day loans to Americans. It is estimated that poorer Americans spend over $2,200 on checking cashing privileges and interest on same day loans per year. Her proposal would put a huge dent in the usury business.

++Elizabeth Warren's idea dates back to Theodore Roosevelt's view of the function of the Post Office.

++Meanwhile,for the strict constitutional Teabag crowd, if you really want smaller government, why not wait until 2017 when one third of Federal employees are eligible for retirement. They are demoralized as of now.

++John Boehner said this morning the United States will not default. If he let the whole house vote, they would pass a clean debt ceiling bill. I doubt it.

++The Speaker of the House also announced the House was creating a new website and releasing all the documents on Benghazi--since this will be an issue in the 2014 election for the right-wingers.

++Unlike the Washington Post and commentators on the Left,I support Obama signing the Farm Bill because a veto would plunge Congress into a morass. The Bill actually took 3 years to do.

++Dana Millbank has a column in the Post about his attending the House hearings on Obamacare and another on the IRS. He says the GOP are still devoid of reality.

++But that doesn't seem to matter much. The Koch Brothers' created Americans for Prosperity have already spent $20 million in ads against vulnerable Democrats.

++James Carville has now signed up as a Fox News Contributor. 

++kos of the Daily Kos beat the drum again today that the Democratic base outnumbers the GOP and should vote this year. It is actually true and Democrats really become fatalistic on off-year elections. But Virginia should feel them that a mini-Obama coalition can be organized in an off-year and win.

++Harry Reid wants President Obama to sign an executive order to end discrimination in federal hiring. Unfortunately he can't override restrictions in the majority of the States.

++In Georgia,the big rumor is that the federal government created the snowstorms that hit Atlanta.

++The Great Dictator Obama has signed the fewest executive orders of any President since FDR, who was the King of executive orders.

What Did Ben Say?

++If you want to read a piece on what is the biggest drag on the economy, check out Dana Millbank in the Post this morning. It's Congress.

++What did Ben Bernacke say yesterday? Interest rates will stay low through 2016. There would be a gradual taping of the FED's stimulus package but the FED would still use all its tools to stabilize growth in the economy. Asked why the employment situation wasn't better, he responded by saying the biggest problem was the fiscal policy of the government or the Congress. 

++As I have argued in this blog many times,if Congress had passed a jobs bill and infrastructure spending, we would be close to full employment. Remember the recent budget passed was $200 billion less than the President had asked for. What Bernancke argued yesterday was that in normal recessions in the past the government has added on the average 400,000 employees but since 2009 it has cut 600,000, which means a total of 1 million jobs have been missing in this recession.

++What Bernancke did yesterday was give Janet Yellin a Christmas gift by beginning the tapering without here having to take the heat the first time out. He also blasted libertarians for their views on the FED and pointed out that the FED gave the Treasury $300 billion from their profits. He also pooh-poohed the idea that the Fed was never audited.

++Wall Street reacted with relief. Home Construction hit a five year high and other indicators saw the economy growing at about 3%. I guess the main story was that few on the Fed boards indicated any desire or need to raise the interest rates. If you remember the Fed had been more split on this last year. But now only 2 of the boards favor raising interest rates so Bernancke was safe in saying there would be none for the foreseeable future.

++Businessweek reports that the GOP staff in the House wants nothing to do with a debt ceiling fight and that Paul Ryan was just playing games. We will see.

GOP Alternative to Obamacare--Impeachment!

++Yesterday, I commented on Andrew Sullivan's remarks about "nihilistic extremism" but now Dana Millbank came up with the new craze among the House GOP--Impeachment. During the government shutdown, there was alot of good writing on how the House GOP was trying to "nullify" the last election. Now they are embarking on the real deal, even though they are reluctant to use the "I" word.

++Given the fact we only have 7 congressional days left in the year to accomplish things like a Defense Authorization Act,Farm Bill,and unemployment extension,what better way to spend Congress' time then to hold four sessions on Obamacare, talk about Space Aliens and discuss grounds for impeachment?

++While Republicans are dancing around the word,13 out of 22 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have at one time threatened impeachment. Texan Steve Stockman has circulated Articles of Impeachment. Just last month, 20 members of the House filed Articles of Impeachment against Eric Holder. Strange how the majority came from Texas,which is under DOJ investigation for Voter Rights violations. 

++So what are the gripes? Rep. Chaffetz and Senator Inhofe claim it's "Benghazi". Duncan Hunter came up with threatening to bomb Syria without congressional approval. Others denounce the bombing of Libya without congressional approval. Some argue his delay of provisions in the Affordable Care Act. Fox News even said that the healthcare website was an impeachable offense. Rep. Goodlatte believes that not since Nixon has a President selectively enforced the law. 

++Choose your law. The refusal to defend DOMA or DADT. His selective waiving of immigration restrictions to allow young people from continuing their education without deportation. Easing federal enforcement of drug laws and evading the mandatory sentencing policies on drugs. And, of course, allowing the IRS to examine the 501-c-4 status of Tea Party groups. 

++Trey Radel from Florida before he was busted for cocaine,said Obama's gun policy was impeachable. Michelle Bachmann said Obama is writing his own constitution to radically change America. Ted Cruz and Charles Krauthammer said Obama is basically lawless. 

++Steven King argues for impeachment on the grounds Obama defaulted on the debt--which he has not. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina argues if Obama unilaterally raised the debt ceiling it would be impeachable. 

++Fox news commentator Eric Rush urged Americans to remove Obama by "any mean necessary". 

++But this is now out of the Beltway as Hearst News and Fox broadcast these deliberations. So far the meaty items are "Benghazi talking points", the healthcare website and the promise you can keep your insurance. Really heavy stuff.

++The GOP through its endless attacks on Obama have lowered his approval rating, which encourage the House GOP to go for the kill. The House Judiciary Committee is --just a little taken back--by the absolute lack of interest in the Senate for their idea.

++But this is the logical end to the "nihilistic extremism" Andrew Sullivan wrote about. There is no there there. It is no coincidence that the bulk of the impeachment fans come from South of the Mason and Dixon. 

What Is It You Are For?

++As the ACA ramps up and people start enrolling,the GOP venom has just gotten more potent. As the Iran Deal continues on,the GOP screams "appeasement" but will not offer any alternative. With 7 days left in Congress this year, Tan Man Boehner actually says that the GOP will offer an alternative to Obamacare. Yeah, right.

++Rachel Maddow has an instructive segment last night where she compared Harry Truman's "Do Nothing" Congress with today's Congress. Then they passed 395 laws--Now this Congress is at 55.

++Jay Carney said that there had been 375,000 visitors to the Healthcare website by noon yesterday. By the Lawrence O'Donnell show it was 750,000. But by midnight it was up to 1 million. 

++Dana Milbank basically said the GOP should throw in the towel since the website is working and Obamacare is here to stay.

++Bob Cesca in the Daily Blather called out Ron Fournier, the AP Washington Bureau Chief for saying that Obamacare was Obama's Iraq and Katrina both.

++The New York Times this morning printed an article that said the cost of ACA was well below expectations. In short, the ACA will save $220 billion.

++Talking Points Memo says that an additional 1.5 million Americans have signed up for Medicaid since October.

++This has not stopped the GOP. Darryl Issa is trying to say that Obama lied all along about the website and keeping your plan if you wanted. He has demanded from the insurance companies all their correspondence with the White House to prove this point.

++John Cornyn of Texas says that "Obama has taken lying to a whole new level." He was referring to Obamacare and not to W's statements on WMDs in Iraq or how waterboarding was not torture.

++You would think the GOP would step back from the brink. But no, the Mississippi Governor ordered the state website for health insurance shut down, which has led to only one provider agreeing to cover people in the state. The California GOP has started a fake healthcare website to discourage California citizens from registering on CoveredCa. Anti-ACA groups, primarily conservative Republicans have spent $9.4 million against the ACA in the deep South. The Post printed the article with an interactive map to chart where the money has been spent.

++The House GOP claims that de-funding Obamacare will not be the cause for any government shutdown. Instead,they are demanding that the Pentagon sequester cuts be rescinded for cuts in Social Security.

++Andrew Sullivan yesterday in the Dish captured the mood of the GOP and conservatives when he blasted Erick Erickson of Red State for his blog post, which said that millions would lose their insurance and that conservatives should do nothing to help fix the law but let the public see government fail and then repal it. Sullivan rightfully noted the nihilistic extremism in this statement. Further along he quoted Norm Ornstein, the usually moderate Republican at AEI, saying the conservatives are eating themselves. As evidence of this was a TPM piece yesterday about the rise of Obamacare McCarthyism, which attacks Republicans who might like elements of the healthcare law or who want to improve it.

++Jonathan Capehart last night penned," The GOP might as well be Dead". Capehart notes that after the 2012 elections, the RNC conducted an autopsy on the Party and autopsy is conducted on someone who is dead. Capehart notes that the GOP is dead to African-Americans. He notes the weird tweet on the RNC hailing Rosa Parks in her struggle that ended racism, a remark that set up howls of laughter and outrage. He notes the campaigns for voter suppression and the   daily campaign of insults to the first African-American President. He highlighted the fact that during the government shutdown high-ranking Republican elected leaders and officials picketed the White House with Confederate flags waving. Capehart says the GOP is dead to Latinos also. While the Senate passed immigration reform,House Republicans have pronounced immigration reform dead. He notes that the GOP point to Chris Christie winning re-election with 51% of the Hispanic vote. But he also notes that at the time Christie backed the Dream Act. Now that he is running for President he has changed his position.

++House Republicans now claim they will get around to immigration reform late next year. So,what exactly does the GOP believe? They are willfully sabotaging the ACA. Andrew Sullivan now calls the GOP a "cult" driven by an anti-government agenda. A National Journal poll out today says the last two priorities the American people have today are the deficit and Obamacare. The debate is over. 

Republicans Back Junk Insurance

++The Upton bill passed the House with 39 votes from Democrats. The bill basically was another attempt to repeal Obamacare. That's what Boehner says "It's the first step in repealing Obamacare". Basically, the political problem with the GOP is that they have utterly no position on healthcare.

++Last night Ed Shultz came back from his afternoon rant about President Obama and listened to President Obama's Ohio speech. Ed was right that the President should have delivered it in Washington, instead of his mea culpa at the press conference.

++Rachel Maddow went into her wonky mode and explained how Romneycare was rolled out in Massachusetts and concluded the current Obamacare roll out actually has gotten five times the enrollment Massachusetts had. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney himself claims Romneycare was deliberately slow in its roll-out.

++The Hill printed today an article how the healthcare website is down to 1% errors and will probably make the end of the month deadline.

++Talkingpointsmemo and Washington Monthly spends the day analyzing whether Obama's fix is really such a thing and how it will impact on getting the right mix of young and older people into the exchanges.

++Dana Millbank speculates that the Obama presidency is done and that he only has a year to salvage his Presidency.

++The GOP is energized for 2014,saying that it will be Obamacare 24/7 and they will campaign on this as if it is his Hurricane Katrina. What happens if by March Obamacare hits the necessary figures? Would you like to start campaigning on taking away healthcare from millions of people? It's not the same thing as taking foodstamps away from poorer Americans because they have no representation.

++Rinse Penis of the RNC says the GOP will pick up more seats in the House because of the fiasco with Obamacare. But then again, would that mean anything since the House hasn't passed anything in two years?

++Kaiser Health estimates that GOP sabotage of ACA will cost about 13 million the chance at health insurance. 

++Meanwhile the Dow is heading to 16,000 . Totally ignored throughout Obama's presidency, now analysts are saying it is the Obamacare boom because of the botched roll-out. Where were they while under Obama's watch, the Dow rose by over 9,000 its?

++The President is meeting with the health insurance companies today because they aren't too happy with the one year fix. Also,the insurance commissioners of various states are resisting the change.

++Meanwhile California keeps plugging along and thinks they will have 500,000 in the exchanges by the deadline.

If It's Halloween, it must mean--BENGHAZI

++So John McCain is going to hold up Janet Yellin's nomination to the Fed Chair until he gets more information on Benghazi. He joins Lindsey Graham who will put a hold on every Obama nominee until he gets to meet the survivors of Benghazi.

++The Senate GOP are trying to put a hold on all of President Obama's justices because they believe Obama is stacking the courts because he's filling vacancies. Beauregard Sessions has attacked Supreme Court Justice Roberts as not being a true conservative because he supports having the Senate confirm judges to end the huge backload of cases.

++Senator Thune is relieved that Obamacare has taken attention away from the government shutdown.

++27 Republican Senators passed a resolution condemning their own personal vote to raise the debt ceiling.

++GOP pollster Fred Sleeper has warned the Republicans from playing the race card by referring to Hispanics in derogatory terms and urges the GOP to get behind immigration reform. Fat chance.

++As I wrote during the shutdown, the GOP has given up on national elections and will concentrate on Congressional and state elections because they now want the executive branch to be weaken. Yesterday, Ted Cruz came out openly in favor of curtailing the powers of the executive branch.

++E.J. Dionne has an excellent column in today's Washington Post saying America is sick of the extreme right. It's a good read and I agree with it. 

++Romney supporter Dana Millbank went after the brainless GOP for their charade with Kathleen Sebelius. He noted that this was their chance to crucify Sebelius and they looked like a bunch of clowns. Oh and no,Congressman, Kathleen Sebelius can not join an exchange because she has employer-provided health insurance. It would be illegal for her to do so.

++Rachel Maddow had an excellent interview with Harry Reid last night where Senator Reid talks about the GOP imploding during the shutdown. Among topics were ENDA, which he is proud of and will bring to a vote,and he says the GOP will not shutdown the government again. He says if he wanted the GOP to disappear he would like to see Ted Cruz nominated as their presidential candidate.

++Make sure you keep reading Charles Pierce at the Esquire political blog because he is writing some of the best and vicious commentary these days.

++For anyone interested in Obamacare, if you are over 50,click into the AARP website. It's fast and will walk you through all the healthcare options. You can enroll but save the information for when you can.

++President Obama hit it out of the ballpark on healthcare during his speech at Feneuil Hall. He also lit out against the GOP for their support of "junk" insurance. He argued again about the various components of the law. So if you are annoyed that he said If you like your plan, you can keep it, then you are less than 5% of those actually affected. And if you are affected, you can get a better policy.

++Tomorrow food stamps will end for millions of Americans. The next chance they can be restored is in mid-November when Congress goes back to negotiating the FARM bill. Old-time Republicans are furious at Heritage Action,Club for Growth,and Americans for Prosperity because they are going to score Congressman on whether they support such a bill. This was an old mainstay for GOP congressional types in the Farm Belt and would seriously damage the agricultural industry.

++ADP reports only 130,000 jobs were created this month. The FED job report will be confusing because government employees during the shutdown will be counted twice--as unemployed and employed. But contractors will be unemployed. We'll see whether we have entered a new recession.

++The FED isn't taking any chances and have signalled that they are not letting up on their stimulus until next Spring.

++What is amazing is this recovery is the fifth longest in American history but the weakest because of the loss of government jobs. The size of our federal government is now at the same level as 1967. Meanwhile the national debt is lower again this year, declining the fastest rate in 60 years.

++Harry Reid deserves the last option. The Simpson-Bowles Commission recommended $4.2 trillion in cuts to our deficit. Congress has already cut the budget by 2.5 trillion and if you pass Immigration Reform this would be another $1 trillion. So,the whole problem comes down to $700 billion, and subtract the gains in Obamacare, you are down to about one-half a trillion dollars. So problem almost solved in a rational time.