Dan Calabrese

15-year-old orphan shows up at church, asks if anyone will adopt him

I'm sitting here watching the Tigers pound on the Red Sox in Game 4 of the ALCS, and I'm not really in that much of touch-my-heart type of mood, when I come across this.

Senate has deal, Boehner will allow it to pass House without conservative support

Per Politico, Reid and McConnell have struck a deal. But will it pass the House? Apparently it will, because Boehner is going to go ahead and allow a vote even though it will certainly not get the support of House conservatives:

In Iraq, Obama’s abandonment leads to Al Qaeda comeback

Despite the narrative you may have bought, here is the fact. America won the Iraq War under the leadership of George W. Bush and through the skill and courage of the U.S. Armed Forces. It took longer than we wanted, longer than we expected, but we won.

McConnell about to wave surrender flag

How bad? Worse than you even feared. Under a pending Senate deal that's got Mitch McConnell pretty darn excited, there would be:

Report: U.S. Army is now calling Christian group American Family Association a ‘hate group’

This comes via Todd Starnes of Fox News, and if true, it's clearly the latest attempt by the prevailing culture - with the U.S. government carrying the water in this case - to marginalize the Word of God by demanding denunciation of its pronouncements on homosexuality. Starnes says he was contacted by several members of the Army, including both active duty and reservists, who attended a briefing last week at Fort Shelby in Mississippi and were told that the American Family Association should be regarded by the Army as a "domestic hate group" every bit as much as the Ku Klux Klan, the Neo-Nazis, the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam.

Senate Democrats: Know what? We demand more spending!

How are talks going to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling? Funny you should ask. Not well.

Emerging GOP thought: Settle for medical device tax repeal, subsidy eligibility checks

An emerging idea among the so-called grownups we know and love as Beltway Republicans is that the GOP could end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling if Obama agrees to a) repeal the medical device tax; and b) agree to actually check the eligibility of those applying for ObamaCare subsidies.

Sweet video: Regular citizens enter national parks and dare Obama’s goons to catch them

In choosing to stage histrionics over the so-called "shutdown," the Obama Administration hoped to prove to everyone how vital and wonderful the government really is. Why, you won't have your parks! You won't have your veterans' memorials! We'll even close the ocean!

Tragedy: Life for federal employees not quite as awesome as it used to be

You know how you've got this job, and maybe it's a pretty good job, but you understand that you will only have the job so long as your company remains in business and performs well enough that it can afford you? Well, if you work for the federal government, no . . . you have no idea about that. Because it has long been the life of a federal employee not to have to worry about it. Your employer could be falling more than $1 trillion short of the revenue it needs to operate, and for you - no worries! Raises continue. Promotions continue. Benefits remain.

Democrat congressman (VIDEO): When I die I’ll come back as a ghost to fight for ObamaCare

And you thought things were already creepy enough on Capitol Hill. Congressman Al Green, a Democrat from Houston, raises the spectre of something of Poltergeist proportions. Via CNS:

Democrats refuse to deal because they’re pretty sure Boehner will cave

The statement from John Boehner sounds encouraging on the surface. He stands firm and declares that Republicans will not cave and give the Democrats what they want - a "clean" debt ceiling increase with no conditions, neither as a stopgap measure nor as part of some graceful exit from what the media insists is a political no-win situation. If Obama wants to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling, Boehner insists, he will have to negotiate.

Always entertaining lefty columnist: GOP shut down the government over birth control

You say to us, "Boy, I'm glad I don't live in Michigan like you two chuckleheads. The shootings and the drugs in Detroit. The unions. The 1-800-CALL-SAM commercials. Must be rough."

VIDEO: Extreme wacko bird Ted Cruz absolutely owns Candy Crowley on CNN

The Beltway crowd and the MSM have a problem where Ted Cruz is concerned. The cartoon character they have created and named Ted Cruz - a wild-eyed, extreme wacko bird - can only exist in people's minds until they actually interview him and people see the real Ted Cruz.

Democrats have demanded conditions for debt-ceiling increases 21 times since 1979

Why, those irresponsible Republicans, risking the full faith and credit of the United States by threatening not to raise the debt limit! It's unheard of! It's unprecedented! It's beyond the pale, I tell ya!

Layoff letter to NSA staff: Apparently national security is not essential

Even in a shutdown, some things have to operate. We all understand that, right? And chief among them is national security. That's obvious, right?

House passed measure guaranteeing no default; Reid stripped it out

The next time you hear Democrats shrieking about how irresponsible it is for Republicans to "risk default" on the nation's debt obligations, know this: Default would be impossible if the Senate passed, and if Obama signed, a House measure that makes debt payments the government's top priority in the event the debt ceiling is not raised. But they refuse.

Obama to Boehner, McConnell: Negotiate with you? I think not.

Apparently these Republicans don't understand how Washington is supposed to work. It works like this: You never pass a real budget. You just pass a succession of continuing resolutions, and the content of those is determined by the president's party. If the other party controls a house of Congress, that should not be mistaken for having a say in anything. They are supposed to just pass the "clean" CR the president likes and that's that.

Republicans finally show some fight, but where was this in 2011?

For all the establishment grumbling about Ted Cruz, I don't see how any of them can deny this: He's getting results. Do you really think they would stood up to Obama and Harry Reid long enough to even get to a second day of a shutdown if Cruz hadn't forced their hand with his 21-hour barnburner and insistence on defunding?

If you’re going to blame, blame for the right thing: ObamaCare

As Rob covered yesterday, the media are coming out with idiotic polls asking Americans who they "blame" for the government shutdown, and of course, informing us that Republicans are the dastardly culprits. To which we say . . . blame? Spread your arms and hug the shutdown, people.

Senate set to strip out ObamaCare delay, send CR back to House

No surprise, but just to keep you up to speed. The Senate will use a simple majority vote to strip out the ObamaCare delay language, while approving the funding to run the government. That, it will send back to the House, at which point the dopey media meme of the day will be that the "political hot potato is in Boehner's court" or some such thing. Reuters: