Mitt Romney Told an Obama Joke in Iowa.  Here It Is.  —  WEST DES MOINES, Iowa - Mitt Romney wanted to tell a joke.  “Now when you're running for office people tell you, you shouldn't tell jokes,” he said at a political rally here on Sunday.  “But I'm not running for office, so I can tell one.”

Ebola Vaccine Would Likely Have Been Found By Now If Not For Budget Cuts: NIH Director  —  BETHESDA, Md. — As the federal government frantically works to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and as it responds to a second diagnosis of the disease at home, one of the country's top health officials …

How Republicans Lost the Culture War  —  Perhaps Republicans were impatient with incremental progress.  Perhaps the party lacked a strong leadership figure who could keep fringe players in check.  But Republicans made a decision on abortion strategy that they didn't have to make.

Brutal New Ad Blames GOP Spending Cuts For Ebola Deaths (VIDEO)  —  A new TV ad blames prominent Republicans for Ebola deaths, attacking them for championing spending cuts that have gone after emergency public health funding for containing disease outbreaks.

An Obamacare October surprise?  —  Obamacare premiums aren't rising everywhere.  They just have a way of finding the states with the biggest Senate races.  And that could be very bad timing for Democrats in two of the party's key contests.  —  Double-digit rate hikes for individual health insurance plans …

U.S. CDC head criticized for blaming ‘protocol breach’ as nurse gets Ebola  —  (Reuters) - Some healthcare experts are bristling at the assertion by a top U.S. health official that a “protocol breach” caused a Dallas nurse to be infected with Ebola while caring for a dying patient …

Turkey Says No Deal Yet on U.S. Use of Bases in ISIS Fight  —  ISTANBUL — A day after American officials said Turkey had agreed to allow its air bases for operations against the Islamic State, which they described as a deal that represented a breakthrough in tense negotiations …

Leaning Forward, MSNBC Loses Ground to Rival CNN  —  Rachel Maddow, the biggest star on the MSNBC cable network, just posted her lowest quarterly ratings results ever.  —  “Morning Joe,” MSNBC's signature morning program, scored its second-lowest quarterly ratings, reaching an average …

What the Next Two Awful Years Will Look Like  —  The five things to fear about a Republican Congress  —  I. The Gutting of Dodd-Frank  —  If Republicans take control of the House and Senate, many of their members will call for the outright repeal of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms.

The Big Lie Behind Voter ID Laws  —  Election Day is three weeks off, and Republican officials and legislators around the country are battling down to the wire to preserve strict and discriminatory new voting laws that could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans.

Cheney: ‘Very Dangerous Period ... More Threatening Than the Period Before 9/11’  —  Vice President Dick Cheney opened up for a nearly two hour interview with Bill Kristol, as part of the latest installment of Conversations With Bill Kristol:  —  The two discussed Cheney's time as secretary of defense …

Accused College Rapists Have Rights, Too  —  The victims deserve justice.  The men deserve due process.  —  This August, Columbia University released a new policy for handling “gender-based” misconduct among students.  Since April, universities around the country have been rewriting …

Debate Night in Kentucky Gives Grimes Chance to Shake Things Up  —  Good Columbus Day morning from Washington, where the focus is on a prime-time Kentucky debate, four too-close-to-call governors' races, and the intensifying battle for control of the Senate, where Republicans have a 64 percent chance of taking the majority.

Braced for Voter Fraud in Colorado  —  Perhaps the most hard-fought Senate race this year will be Colorado's showdown between Democratic senator Mark Udall and Republican congressman Cory Gardner.  The RealClearPolitics average of polls in the race shows Gardner holding a lead of 1.3 percentage points.

Synod14 - Eleventh General Assembly: “Relatio post disceptationem” of the General Rapporteur, Card.  Péter ErdÅ'  —  Listening: the context and challenges to the family  —  The gaze on Christ: the Gospel of the Family  —  The gaze on Jesus and gradualness in the history of salvation

How Righteousness Killed the World Economy  —  Stop me if you've heard this before: The world economy appears to be stumbling.  For a while, things seemed to be looking up, and there was talk about green shoots of recovery.  But now growth is stalling, and the specter of deflation looms.

The Planet Just Had Its Hottest September On Record  —  Graph of NASA temperature data via @thingsbreak.Click to enlarge.  —  Last month was the warmest September globally since records began being kept in 1880, NASA reported Sunday.  January through September data have 2014 already at the third warmest on record.

U.S. Voters Give GOP Edge vs. Dems on Handling Top Issues  —  Prefer GOP on seven of 13 election issues; Democrats, on just four  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republicans in Congress hold significant leads over the Democrats on four of the six issues that U.S. registered voters say are most important …