Some semblance of sanity broke out among the Republicans on Capitol Hill. But it may not last long. And the president turned down the first offer because of a postponement of the debt ceiling raise for six weeks because the GOP insisted on keeping the entire federal government shut down. We got some more clarity on why Obamacare’s federal website is so inexcusably awful.  And we imposed some unaccustomed accountability from all those who confidently decried any notion that the Assad regime was serious about turning over its chemical weapon stockpiles.

A non-English speaker tried to figure out what a party-pooper is; readers pitched in to a suddenly popular thread on animal welfare; and we passed our 30,000th subscription (30,043 right now). Join the experiment [tinypass_offer text=”here”] – and help forge a new business model for online journalism from the ashes of the old.

The most popular post of the day was The Depravity Of The Pro-Torture Right, as leading neocons lined up to joke about waterboarding prisoners at a roast of the war criminal, Dick Cheney. In a strong third place came a YouTube that still cracks me up. Booo Wendy!

See you in the morning.

(Photo: Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) leaves the U.S. Capitol for a meeting with House Republican leaders and U.S. President Barack Obama October 10, 2013 in Washington, DC. By Win McNamee/Getty Images.)