The NBC poll also shows how damaging the shutdown has become for the GOP – 55% of those surveyed blame Republicans for the shutdown, while 31% point the finger at President Obama. That 22-point margin is even wider than the one Republicans received in the 1995-96 shutdown. And in even worse news for the GOP, while Obamacare still isn’t popular, it’s becoming less unpopular over time. Last month, only 31% of the public thought the Affordable Care Act was a good idea; that number has now climbed to 38%…

On its webpage, the Trial Lawyers Association explains to its members that donations from its PAC are made to “candidates to office who share your interests.”

GALLUP: Amid the government shutdown, 60% of Americans say the Democratic and Republicans parties do such a poor job of representing the American people that a third major party is needed. That is the highest Gallup has measured in the 10-year history of this question. A new low of 26% believe the two major parties adequately represent Americans.

FRIENDS OF JUSTICE: In the 1950s and 60s, the unofficial public theology of America was dominated by theologians associated with what we now call “the Protestant Mainline”. A public theology makes biblical teaching relevant to the pressing political, economic and social issues of the day; it gives the Church a public voice.

All three Republicans had indicated a willingness to vote for a “clean” spending bill to reopen the federal government, a position that put them deeply at odds with House GOP leaders, who want conditions attached.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the US would withhold delivery of certain “large-scale military systems”, as well as cash assistance to the Egyptian government, until “credible progress” is made toward an inclusive civilian government set up through free and fair elections…

WASHINGTON POST: Disapproval of congressional Republicans’ budget wrangling after a weeklong shutdown has shot up to 70 percent, with 51 percent disapproving “strongly,” according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The pace of permafrost thawing is “accelerating,” says Vladimir Romanovsky, who runs the University of Alaska’s Permafrost Laboratory in Fairbanks. He expects widespread degradation will start in a decade or two.

The report also said Pennsylvania was among 28 states and the District of Columbia that have implemented six or fewer of 10 “indicators” of specific drug-abuse prevention strategies that the trust considers promising…

…”I believe a clean CR would pass the House comfortably,” [U.S. Rep. Charlie] Dent, , R-Pa., told CNN, though he would not predict a specific vote tally….