Shutdown: Day 10. House Republicans today are considering a short-term raise in the debt limit to prevent the financial markets from taking a suicide jump. The Dow Jones is up almost 200 points on the news.

  Treasury Secy. Jack Lew told a Congressional committee this morning that the government will quickly run out of tricks to pay its bills if the debt ceiling is not raised. Lew also said it would be difficult to reprogram automatic payment systems to pay some obligations but not others. “Our systems were not designed to not pay our bills,” he said.

  President Obama met with Democratic leaders late yesterday and told them that if he buckles now, Republican demands will be limitless. According to the NY Times, the President said, “The only thing not on their list is my own resignation.”

Charity Steps In: A private charity called Fisher House is picking up the slack for the federal government paying the $100,000 death benefit to military families while the shutdown continues. The government will repay Fisher House later. But, to read this in reverse, the federal government is relying on a charity to pay its obligations while the politicians fight.

Payback: Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was abducted from a Tripoli hotel today and freed several hours later. A group calling itself the Operations Room of Libya’s Revolutionaries said they took the prime minister after Secy. of State John Kerry said Zeidan gave permission for US special forces to snatch a wanted Al Qaeda operative in Libya.

Scribe: Canadian short story writer Alice Munro has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Considered a master of the short story, Munro writes about everyday events that lead to revelations about life. The Swedish Academy called her “the Canadian Chekhov”.

The Wendy Chronicles: Texas right-to-life groups already have gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis in their crosshairs. They say they will raise and spend as much money as it takes to defeat Davis, a proponent of abortion rights. Davis has raised only $1 million so far against her Republican opponent’s $25 million.

Arctic Green: Russian authorities say the found hard drugs aboard the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise they seized last month. A Greenpeace statement said, “We can only assume the Russian authorities are referring to the medical supplies that our ships are obliged to carry under maritime law.” The Greenpeace ship was seized and 30 activists were accused of piracy after trying to board a Russian oil rig.

Hail Yeah: Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder wrote a lengthy letter to fans defending the team name, saying “The name was never a label. It was, and continues to be, a badge of honor.” Snyder said Native Americans were on the original Redskins team and helped design the team’s Indian face logo. He said a poll shows that 90 % of Native Americans do not find the name offense. But his opposition is not likely to fold. Indian names and logos for sports teams have been disappearing since the early 1970s under relentless pressure from groups that say the names are insulting.

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