Crazy Talk at the Republican Debate  —  Eleven presidential candidates had three prime-time hours on the national stage on Wednesday to tell the American people why they should lead the country.  —  Nobody forced them to be there.  They were there freely, armed with the best arguments …

What Is Hillary's Greatest Accomplishment?  —  Carly Fiorina dared Democrats to name it. 20 top Dems accepted the challenge.  —  Getty  —  “If you want to stump a Democrat, ask them to name an accomplishment of Hillary Clinton,” Carly Fiorina quipped at Wednesday's Republican debate.

Go ‘nuclear’ to stop Obama's Iran deal, urge 57 House Republicans in letter  —  Dozens of House Republican lawmakers are making a late stab at pressuring Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to abandon the filibuster on legislation to block the nuclear deal with Iran.

Finger-Pointing, but Few Answers, After a Syria Solution Fails  —  WASHINGTON — By any measure, President Obama's effort to train a Syrian opposition army to fight the Islamic State on the ground has been an abysmal failure.  The military acknowledged this week that just four or five American-trained fighters are actually fighting.

Trump Lets Comment About Muslims Being ‘Problem’ in US Slide  — Shares-

Summer was the hottest on record  —  June through August of this year was the hottest summer in recorded weather history, federal scientists said Thursday.  —  Surface temperatures around the globe were 1.53 degrees Fahrenheit above their average for those months throughout the 20th century …

Biden may not decide soon  —  <p>DETROIT — Joe Biden may have more time to make up his mind about running for president than most people assume.  He and the people planning his potential campaign certainly think so.</p><p>Running a primary race — particularly against Hillary Clinton …

Why I Am Boycotting Pope Francis' Address to Congress  —  It is difficult to convey the excitement I first felt when it was revealed that His Holiness Pope Francis was invited to Washington D.C. to address the world from the floor of the House of Representatives.

Bristol Palin Rages: Obama ‘Needs To STAY Out Of’ Ahmed Mohamed's Case  —  Bristol Palin wrote on her blog Thursday that President Obama “needs to STAY out of” the case of a 14-year-old Muslim student in Texas who was wrongly arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school.

Donald Trump May Not Have a Second Act  —  In 1998, David Mamet, the acclaimed playwright, published a short treatise, “Three Uses of the Knife,” on “the nature and purpose of drama.”  The book, based on lectures he delivered the previous year at Columbia University, is well regarded …

An ultrathin invisibility skin cloak for visible light  —  1NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.  —  2Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

Scott Walker On The Media “Narrative”: They'd Say Carly Had “A Big Night No Matter What”  —  Unintimidated.  —  Frederic J Brown / AFP / Getty Images  —  Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who once topped Republican polls but is now beginning to languish at the bottom of many …