Ted Cruz Now Ruining John Boehner's Life, Too  —  The Republican Party right now most closely resembles a Weatherman gathering from about 1969, with various factions debating the feasibility of immediate communist revolution versus building a working-class movement as a prelude to smashing the state.

Who Are the Real Suicide Bombers?  —  This is really too easy: President Obama is willing to negotiate with Iran, but not with the House of Representatives.  Commentators have been all over it, and I don't really have much to add.  Except to note that not only has Obama refused to negotiate with the House …

Your False-Equivalence Guide to the Days Ahead  —  A kind of politics we have not seen for more than 150 years  —  Two big examples of problematic self-government are upon us.  They are of course the possible partial shutdown of the federal government, following the long-running hamstringing …

The One Weird Law That Dictates How Government Shutdowns Work  —  A shutdown would end up costing more because of the price of restarting the government — and other odd facts about the late-1800s Antideficiency Act.  —  If rogue Republicans do not relent over the budget impasse by October 1 …

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: September 2013  —  As the clock counts down on open enrollment and the rollout of the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), in the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll we asked people who say they don't have enough information about the law …

The House GOP Wants to Throw a Temper Tantrum, and Boehner Can't Stop Them  —  Here's the question to ask yourself while watching the government shutdown/debt-limit insanity play out these next few days: Is the congressional GOP a global menace, bent on destruction of an epic scale …

Obamacare fight reenergizes tea party movement  —  The clash in Congress over efforts to derail President Obama's health-care law has lit up tea party groups across the country, reenergizing activists who had drifted away from the movement while intensifying the divisions tearing at the Republican Party.

U.N. Security Council OKs Syria resolution  —  In a vote Friday night, the Security Council's 15 members voted unanimously in favor of the resolution its five permanent members—Russia, the U.S., Britain, France and China—agreed on Thursday.  —  Its 10 other members are Argentina, Australia …

Worse Is the New Normal  —  A few years ago, after the publication of my book America Alone, an exasperated reader wrote to advise me to lighten up, on the grounds that “we're rich enough to be stupid.”  That's to say, Western democracies and their citizens are the wealthiest societies ever known …

Exxon to Offer Benefits to Same-Sex Couples in US  —  Exxon says it will begin offering benefits to legally married same-sex couples in the U.S. for the first time as of Jan. 1.  —  The company says it will recognize “all legal marriages” when it determines eligibility for health care plans …

GOP Official Says Obama ‘Shucking And Jiving’ On Health Care Law  —  The Republican National Committeeman in Arizona used the phrase “shucking and jiving” on Thursday in a Facebook post intended to mock the Obama administration's decision to delay certain parts of the Affordable Care Act.