Obama: Critics ‘talk about me like a dog’  —  President Obama strayed from his prepared remarks at a Labor Day rally Monday to accused his opponents of talking about him “like a dog.”  —  Obama was in Milwaukee to speak at the Milwaukee Laborfest, attended by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis …

Republicans making gains against Democrats ahead of midterm elections  —  Republicans are heading into the final weeks of the midterm campaign with the political climate highly in their favor, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.  Americans are increasingly frustrated by a lack …

It Pays To Be Crazed  —  A church in Florida is planning to burn copies of the Koran on September 11.  That proposal has been widely condemned, and now General Petraeus has entered the fray, warning that such a protest by the church could endanger American servicemen: … This strikes me as troubling.

Clerks Highlight Supreme Court's Polarization  —  WASHINGTON — Each year, 36 young lawyers obtain the most coveted credential in American law: a Supreme Court clerkship.  Clerking for a justice is a glittering capstone on a résumé that almost always includes outstanding grades …

Obama to Propose Tax Write-Off for Capital Investments  —  WASHINGTON - As part of his emerging program to jolt the economic recovery from its stall, President Obama will call this week for allowing businesses to deduct from their taxes through 2011 the full value of qualified capital investments …

Republican Runs Street People on Green Ticket  —  TEMPE, Ariz. — Benjamin Pearcy, a candidate for statewide office in Arizona, lists his campaign office as a Starbucks.  The small business he refers to in his campaign statement is him strumming his guitar on the street.

Rep. Childers has edge on GOP challenger in poll  —  Freshman Rep. Travis Childers has a five-point lead on his Republican challenger going into the pivotal post-Labor Day stretch of the campaign, according to an internal poll done for the Mississippi Democrat.

For the Jews in Israel, Money Trumps All?  —  I know it's commonplace to read in the latest issue of Time or Newsweek that Obama is a god, that Islamophobic Americans are collectively prejudiced against Muslims, that the response after 9/11 was overblown and unnecessary (over 30 subsequent terrorist plots …

New York's John Hall: A Rocky Reelection Road for a Rock Legend  —  THIELLS, N.Y. — John Hall — once the bare-chested guitarist for the 1970s band Orleans and the only rock musician ever elected to Congress as a Democrat — was asked whether his entertainment background helped inoculate …

Happy F**kin' Labor Day!  —  Dear Rahm Emanuel:  —  Happy F**kin' Labor Day!  I read this week that — according to a new book by Steven Rattner, your administration's former “Car Czar” — during White House meetings about how to save the tens of thousands of jobs that would be lost if GM …

Trumka: President, not Tea Partiers, can get country back to work  —  AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka pressed President Obama and the Democratic agenda heading into midterm elections, a day after steadfastly defending the administration's efforts in the face of stubbornly high unemployment.