As Rioting Widens, Cameron Deploys 10,000 More Police  —  By ALAN COWELL, RAVI SOMAIYA and JOHN F. BURNS  —  LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron pledged on Tuesday to flood the streets of London with 10,000 extra police officers and said Parliament would be recalled in emergency session …

Obama's job approval  —  President Obama's job approval rating is 50% or higher in 16 states and D.C. Roll over each state to see how each rated Obama.  The darker the shade of the state, the higher his overall approval rating.  —  Source: Gallup  —  WASHINGTON — Another “wave” …

Obama plan: Destroy Romney  —  Barack Obama's aides and advisers are preparing to center the president's re-election campaign on a ferocious personal assault on Mitt Romney's character and business background, a strategy grounded in the early stage expectation that the former Massachusetts governor is the likely GOP nominee.

The most powerful man on Earth?  —  A familiar air of indecision preceded President Obama's pep talk to the nation.  —  The first draft of his schedule for Monday contained no plans to comment on the downgrading of the U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor's.

Who ‘made $10bn on 10/1 bet that U.S. credit rating would be downgraded’?  —  A mystery investor or hedge fund reportedly made a bet of almost $1billion at odds of 10/1 last month that the U.S. would lose its AAA credit rating.  —  Now questions are being asked of whether the trader …

Michael Moore to Obama: ‘Show some guts,’ arrest S&P head  —  Liberal firebrand Michael Moore called on President Obama to respond to the U.S. credit downgrade by arresting the leaders of the credit-ratings agencies.  —  On his Twitter feed Monday, the Oscar-winning film director also blamed …

Rick Perry to make 2012 intentions clear Saturday  —  Rick Perry intends to use a speech in South Carolina Saturday to make clear that he's running for president, POLITICO has learned.  —  According to two sources familiar with the plan, the Texas governor will remove any doubt …

The Day of Reckoning in Wisconsin Recall Fight  —  Outside groups, finger-pointing and acrimony have nearly eclipsed the original reason six state senators face voters today  —  Wisconsin is tired of standing.  —  First the state was told to “Stand with Walker.”  —  Ever since then, it's been “Stand with Rob Cowles.”

Conquering the Storm  —  In the coming days we'll sort through the repercussions of S&P's downgrade of our credit rating, including concerns about the impact a potential interest rate increase would have on our ability to service our suffocating $14.5 trillion debt.

Is Obama Smart?  —  A case study in stupid is as stupid does.  —  The aircraft was large, modern and considered among the world's safest.  But that night it was flying straight into a huge thunderstorm.  Turbulence was extreme, and airspeed indicators may not have been functioning properly.

The National Organization for Women defends Bachmann against Newsweek  —  One of presidential candidate Michele Bachmann's major political opponents is defending her against what it says is blatant sexism on the part of Newsweek magazine.  —  Monday, the National Organization for Women …

Stop Sticking Our Heads in the Sand!  A Plan for Action on Jobs  —  Despite the claim that last week's jobs numbers were “better than expected,” they were in fact an abysmal indictment of US economic policy over the past two years.  The unemployment rate has remained near or above 9 percent …

Court allows torture lawsuit against Rumsfeld  —  (Reuters) - Two American men can go ahead with a civil lawsuit against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, an appeals court said Monday, over allegations they were tortured in Iraq at the hands of the U.S. military.

The contenders and dark horses to land on debt ‘supercommittee’  —  Speculation about who will be selected to serve on the debt “supercommittee” is rampant on Capitol Hill, K Street and Wall Street.  —  The four congressional leaders of the House and Senate have until Aug. 16 to make their appointments.

Judge Foust plans to appoint special prosecutor in Wisconsin Supreme Court dispute  —  Dane County Chief Judge Bill Foust said Monday he will appoint a special prosecutor to complete the investigation of the alleged June 13 incident between Supreme Court justices David Prosser and Ann Bradley Walsh …

Obama to Announce Fuel Standards for Big Vehicles  —  Fire trucks and concrete mixers, semis, heavy-duty pickups and all trucks in between will, for the first time, have to trim fuel consumption and emissions of heat-trapping gases under new efficiency standards being announced Tuesday by President Barack Obama.

Who has got the margin call?  —  Bronte Capital tends - as this blog has said many times - to be long large cap and relatively liquid companies at 10-16 PE ratios.  —  And we are short the wildest range of frauds, fads and failures you can imagine.  —  Our shorts are small and relatively illiquid.