No Quick Deal, but Offer by G.O.P. on Debt Shifts the Tone  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama and House Republicans failed to reach agreement on a six-week extension of the nation's borrowing authority during a meeting Thursday at the White House, but the two sides kept talking …

NBC/WSJ poll: Shutdown debate damages GOP  —  The Republican Party has been badly damaged in the ongoing government shutdown and debt limit standoff, with a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finding that a majority of Americans blame the GOP for the shutdown, and with the party's popularity declining to its lowest level.

EXCLUSIVE: Just 51,000 people completed Obamacare applications during the website's first week, out of tens of millions of Americans in 36 states  — Obamacare's main signup engine attracted just 6,200 new customers on its launch day and 51,000 after the first week

Obama Should Just Give in to the Republicans  —  President Obama should give in.  Yes, this mess is all the Republicans' fault.  Yes, it's outrageous that they can hold the government hostage in order to reargue a law that's been voted on, signed, enacted, and upheld by the Supreme Court.

Blackfeet Elder Says Rick Reilly Misquoted Him; Wants ‘Redskins’ Banned  —  There are a few things I'm passionate about in life, and one is to share the true history of how our people have overcome the trauma of 150 years of attempts to erase the Blackfeet people.

John McCain regrets ‘wacko birds’ comment, worries about GOP infighting  —  SENATE REPUBLICAN PARTY TEA PARTY PENNAVE JOHN MCCAIN SEQUESTER  —  Sen. John McCain said Thursday that he's worried about the Republican Party's future and the infighting that is dividing it, calling efforts …

The Last Days of the GOP  —  We could be witnessing the death throes of the Republican Party  —  I once wrote about lobbying, and this week I called some Republicans I used to talk to (and some that they recommended I talk to) about the effect the shutdown is having on the Republican Party in Washington.

Reminder: Finishing the Removal of an Old Search Setting  —  Last year we announced the removal of an old setting called “Who can look up your Timeline by name?” along with new controls for managing content on Facebook.  —  The search setting was removed last year for people who weren't using it.

Dealing With Default  —  So Republicans may have decided to raise the debt ceiling without conditions attached — the details still aren't clear.  Maybe that's the end of that particular extortion tactic, but maybe not, because, at best, we're only looking at a very short-term extension.

PolitiFact to launch PunditFact, checking pundits and media figures  —  PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking website of the Tampa Bay Times, will soon launch PunditFact, a site dedicated to checking claims by pundits, columnists, bloggers and the hosts and guests of talk shows.

Cory Booker's father, 76, dies  —  Newark Mayor Cory Booker's father died Thursday morning after battling to recover from a recent stroke.  His death comes just days before the New Jersey Democrat faces voters in the state's Oct. 16 special Senate election.

The Six Big Takeaways From the Government Shutdown  —  FiveThirtyEight.com will officially relaunch in very early 2014 in cooperation with ESPN.  I've been spending most of my time recruiting and interviewing job candidates for the new site.  It's a labor-intensive process …

How the U.S. Is Spreading ‘Procedures of Totalitarianism’  —  What gives us the right to spy on innocents anywhere abroad without any constraints?  —  On Wednesday evening, Eben Moglen of the Software Freedom Law Center delivered the first in a series of lectures at Columbia Law School on Edward Snowden …