Perry Zooms to Front of Pack for 2012 GOP Nomination  —  Leads Romney by 29% to 17%  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Shortly after announcing his official candidacy, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has emerged as rank-and-file Republicans' current favorite for their party's 2012 presidential nomination.

Norman Rockwell painting sends rare White House message on race  —  President Barack Obama has taken a decidedly low-key approach to racial issues since he became America's first black president two years ago.  But in a hallway outside the Oval Office he has placed a head-turning painting depicting …

Steve Jobs resigns from Apple, Cook becomes CEO  —  (Reuters) - Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs on Wednesday resigned as chief executive of Apple Inc in a stunning move that ended his 14-year reign at the technology giant he co-founded in a garage.  —  Apple shares dived as much as 7 percent …

BUDGET AND ECONOMIC OUTLOOK: AN UPDATE  —  Text-only.  —  The United States is facing profound budgetary and economic challenges.  At 8.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the $1.3 trillion budget deficit that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects for 2011 …

Tea Partier Tells Rep. Lujan, Life-Long American, To ‘Get Out Of Politics And Make Room For An American’  —  The Tea Party continues to claim that racism, ethnocentrism, and xenophobia are not driving forces in its movement, but the actions of its members continues to belie those claims.

Cheney: My book will have ‘heads exploding’ in D.C.  —  Revelations include resignation letter kept locked in a safe in case of heart attack or stroke  —  Below:  —  updated 2011-08-24T19:33:23  —  When former Vice President Dick Cheney releases his memoir early next week …

Paul Krugman's Google+ Account is Fake, I Know because I Created It  —  Approximately a month ago, having been laid off and having too much time on my hands, I finally decided to create my own personal account on Google+.  I found it to be extremely boring, mostly because no one I knew …

Marco Rubio: Medicare, Social Security ‘Weakened Us As People’, Made Us Lazy  —  Potential vice president running mate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) dismissed the importance of programs like Medicare and Social Security during a speech at the Reagan Presidential Library this afternoon, arguing that the initiatives “weakened us as people”:

Flashback: Obama in 2008: Adding $4 Trillion to National Debt ‘Unpatriotic’  —  (CNSNews.com) - Although the national debt under President Barack Obama has increased $4 trillion since he took office in 2009, as a presidential candidate in 2008 Obama criticized then-President George W. Bush …

With CIA help, NYPD moves covertly in Muslim areas  —  NEW YORK (AP) — In New Brunswick, N.J., a building superintendent opened the door to apartment No. 1076 one balmy Tuesday and discovered an alarming scene: terrorist literature strewn about the table and computer and surveillance equipment set up in the next room.

National Zoo Animals React to the Earthquake … Great Apes  — The earthquake hit the Great Ape House and Think Tank Exhibit during afternoon feeding time.  — About five to ten seconds before the quake, many of the apes, including Kyle (an orangutan) and Kojo (a Western lowland gorilla) …

Keynesian Economics vs. Regular Economics  —  Food stamps and other transfers aren't necessarily bad ideas, but there's no evidence they spur growth.  —  Keynesian economics—the go-to theory for those who like government at the controls of the economy—is in the forefront of the ongoing debate on fiscal-stimulus packages.

If you're a famous guy with a head full of deep thoughts and nobody to tell you when it might be in your own best interest not to express them, Twitter is the best thing ever.  As long as you've got your iPhone in hand, you can give the whole world instant, unfiltered access to your keenest insights …

Obama, Tiger, Golf and Politics  —  Despite the carping by critics, I'm glad the president went on vacation because one of the most useful things he could do right now is play golf — a lot of golf — but not that friendly foursome thing with his aides that he usually does.

It's the household debt, stupid  —  Ken Rogoff wants to call our economic malaise “the Great Contraction.”  Richard Posner wants us to at least call it “a depression.”  I tend to dismiss arguments over semantics, but in this case, I agree.  If it were up to me, we would call what we're in a …

Leaked Cable: McCain Promised Qaddafi To Help Secure Military Equipment From U.S.  —  For all the braying by the Senate's top three hawks about how the U.S. wasn't doing enough to oust Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Qaddafi from power, one might be surprised to learn that exactly two years ago …