Putin: Syria chem arms handover will work only if US calls off strike  —  Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Syria's chemical arms handover will only work if the US and its allies renounce the use of force against Damascus.  —  “Certainly, this is all reasonable …

House GOP Pushes New Gambit To Defund Obamacare  —  House Republican leaders are proposing a plan in a conference meeting Tuesday to force a symbolic Senate vote on defunding Obamacare but will stop short of shutting down the federal government if the Senate vote fails, as expected.

McConnell to Vote ‘No’  —  In remarks this morning on the floor, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) will announce that he's voting against on the Syria resolution.  National Review has obtained the text of his remarks (see below).  In the speech, McConnell says that even though he's voting “no,” he's not an isolationist.

Kerry's claim that he opposed Bush's invasion of Iraq  —  “You know, Senator Chuck Hagel, when he was senator, Senator Chuck Hagel, now secretary of defense, and when I was a senator, we opposed the president's decision to go into Iraq, but we know full well how that evidence was used to persuade …

Business Insider CTO Forced to Resign Following Twitter Firestorm [Updated]  —  Pax Dickinson has been forced to resign as chief technology officer at Business Insider following an online firestorm over his long history of controversial tweets, according to a source who has been in contact with him.

Bride: I pushed my husband off cliff  —  (CNN) — A woman in Montana is accused of pushing her husband off a cliff after an argument.  The pair had been married for just more than a week.  —  Jordan Linn Graham made an initial appearance in court Monday to face a charge of second-degree murder.

The United States of weakness  —  Red lines that may or may not be real, retaliatory strikes that may or may not be hours from launch, congressional debates that may or may not be necessary for the president to do what he wants—whatever that happens to be this hour.

A True Liberal Mayor At Last?  —  New York City is on the verge of electing its first progressive mayor in a generation.  —  In most polls, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is well over the 40 percent threshold required to avoid a runoff in the Democratic Primary.

Bus rider's face smashed in during ‘hate attack’  —  An attacker pummeled a bus passenger so hard he smashed the bones in his face after calling the victim a “cracker” in Manhattan - marking the second time in two days that people appeared to be randomly targeted in racial tirades against white people, authorities said.

Crossfire Review #1  —  The Daily Caller feels compelled to present our first, and hopefully last, review of the new version of CNN's vaunted ‘Crossfire.’ For Review #1, we will focus on the show's Monday debut starring President Obama's 2012 deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter …

Syria: Government Likely Culprit in Chemical Attack  —  New Evidence based on Rocket Analysis, Witness Accounts  —  (New York) - Available evidence strongly suggests that Syrian government forces were responsible for chemical weapons attacks on two Damascus suburbs on August 21, 2013.

Your Annual Reminder to Ignore the U.S. News & World Report College Rankings  —  The list's real purpose is to “exacerbate the status anxiety” of prospective students and parents.  —  The annual college rankings by U.S. News & World Report are out today, and with their release will come …