Shutdown, Day 2: President Obama this morning cancelled his planned trip to the Philippines and Malaysia because of the government shutdown. He’s still going to the Asian summit in Bali.

  The Senate yesterday rejected a piecemeal House bid to re-open the national parks, pay veterans benefits and keep the District of Columbia running. Majority leader Harry Reid said the Republicans have to fund the whole government, or nothing. “The government is shut down,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “And if they think they’re going to nit-pick us on this, it won’t work.”

President Obama was both partisan politician and product pitchman yesterday speaking about the government shutdown at The White House. He described the political impasse as a “Republican shutdown.” Then he urged Americans who need health insurance to go online and shop, which he said is as easy as buying a “plane ticket on Kayak or a TV on Amazon.” But high traffic caused slowdowns and glitches on Healthcare.gov as more than a million people logged on by 7am EST.

Tough Talk: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly yesterday that Iran should be required to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons program before economic sanctions are lifted. Iran’s president is asking for sanctions to be lifted first. Paraphrasing President Ronald Reagan’s famous “Trust, but verify,” Netanyahu said, “Distrust dismantle and verify.” He said that if the world cannot disarm Iran, “Israel will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons.”

Breakthrough: The FDA has approved a new pre-surgery breast cancer drug designed to shrink a tumor and reduce the need for a full mastectomy. Surgery usually comes first, chemotherapy second. As part of approval, the drug company Genentech is required to conduct a study to determine whether this pre-surgery drug lengthens life or improves quality of life for patients.

Hunger: A UN report shows an improvement in world hunger, but 1 in 8 people around the world are chronically hungry. About 842 million people don’t get enough to eat, a significant drop from 848 million in the previous such report.

Road Rage: NY police have arrested two motorcyclists in that strange case of road rage over the weekend in which a swarm of motorcycles confronted an SUV with a family inside. The incident is still under investigation and the SUV driver could face charges for running over one of the cyclists, who suffered two broken legs and might be paralyzed.

Rockslide: The bodies of five people have been recovered from the rubble of a rockslide that happened Monday on a popular Colorado hiking trail. Gracie Johnson, 13, the only survivor, said her father, Dwayne, shielded her from the slide. She lost her father, mother, sister and two cousins. The parents were popular schoolteachers in the Buena Vista schools.

The Obit Page: Tom Clancy, the prolific author of “The Hunt for Red October” and a string of military thrillers, has died at age 66.

Table Hopping: After more than 30 years on ABC’s Sunday morning “This Week”, conservative columnist George Will is jumping to Fox News, where more of his fellow talk panelists and salary are likely to be more agreeable.

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