Holding Firm  —  The same question keeps popping up: why doesn't Speaker John Boehner just pass a “clean” continuing resolution to fund the government?  It's a ubiquitous query at the Capitol, and it was asked many times this afternoon as House Republicans left their closed-door conference meeting.

US government shutdown: Barack Obama looks like a bitter, petty and partisan president  —  The American Left's hatred for all things conservative has been on full display in Washington in recent days, with the White House and its allies in Congress heaving with anger and indignation …

With Traditional GOP Allies Defecting, Big Business Takes Sides With Obama  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Having failed to persuade their traditional Republican allies in Congress to avert a government shutdown, business leaders fear bigger problems ahead, and they're taking sides …

Sources: Author Tom Clancy dead  —  Tom Clancy: The Cold War's novelist  —  (CNN) — Author Tom Clancy, whose novel, “The Hunt for Red October” propelled him to fame, fortune and status as a favorite storyteller of the American military, has died, according to sources with his publisher and family.

What We Need to Fix Congress: More Partisanship  —  Stronger political parties would have avoided this week's shutdown  —  The shutdown of the federal government, we're told, is a result of “partisanship” or even “hyperpartisanship,” as the centrist group No Labels puts it.

Rand Paul: ‘Goons’ blocked WWII Memorial  —  Sen. Rand Paul blasted the federal government for trying to block World War II vets from visiting their memorial, saying “some idiot in government sent goons out there to set up barricades.”  —  “If Harry Reid and the President want to keep the parks closed …

Intelligence Chiefs: Shutdown Threatening National Security  —  WASHINGTON — Leaders of the U.S. intelligence community said the government shutdown creates opportunities for U.S. enemies and is compromising American national security.  —  The comments at a Senate hearing …

What Happens to Conservatism When the Obamacare War Is Over?  —  When we look back decades from now, one of the keys to understanding this period in our political history will be the story of how a set of market-based health insurance reforms that started as a proposal from the Heritage Foundation …

Exclusive: Mia Farrow and Eight of Her Children Speak Out on Their Lives, Frank Sinatra, and the Scandals They've Endured  —  See a slide show of Mia's children and quotes from Orth's piece.  —  Twenty years after Vanity Fair special correspondent Maureen Orth reported on the sexual-abuse …

America flirts with self-destruction  —  The fallout of a US government default, particularly one that lasts, is beyond prediction  —  Is the US a functioning democracy?  This week legislators decided to shut down a swath of the federal government rather than allow an enacted health law go into operation at the agreed moment.

Shutdown coverage fails Americans … U.S. news reports are largely blaming the government shutdown on the inability of both political parties to come to terms.  It is supposedly the result of a “bitterly divided” Congress that “failed to reach agreement” (Washington Post) or …

Rick Perry: Implementing Obamacare “a Criminal Act”  —  HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, N.J. — In a campaign appearance Tuesday on behalf of New Jersey Republican Senate nominee Steve Lonegan, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said the government's implementation of the national health care reform law constituted “a criminal act.”