In the ruins of Gadhafi's lair, rebels find album filled with photos of his ‘darling’ Condoleezza Rice  —  Msnbc.com and Associated Press report:  —  “Deeply bizarre and deeply creepy.”  —  That's how the State Department is describing a surprising find inside the compound …

Kinky for Perry  —  Kinky Friedman once ran against Rick Perry for the Texas governorship.  So would the singer and writer vote for him for president?  Hell, yes!  The world's most famous Jewish cowboy on why he wants to live in Rick Perry's America.

Cheney Says He Urged Bush to Bomb Syria in '07  —  WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney says in a new memoir that he urged President George W. Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007.  But, he wrote, Mr. Bush opted for a diplomatic approach after other advisers …

Steve Jobs: America's Greatest Failure  —  Steve Jobs's announcement that he is stepping down as CEO of Apple is not surprising.  He's a very sick man; and running the world's largest market-cap technology firm can't be easy for someone with pancreatic cancer and who-knows-what other ailments.

Cantor Says No Earthquake Disaster Relief For His Home State Unless Spending Is Cut Elsewhere  —  This week, Virginia experienced a magnitude 5.8 earthquake, one of the most powerful tremors on the east coast since 1897.  As Virginians scramble to assess the damage, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor …

Majority of NJ voters say Obama doesn't deserve reelection  —  The majority of voters in New Jersey say President Obama does not deserve a second term, according to a new Rutgers poll.  —  Only 43 percent of New Jersey voters in the poll said Obama deserves to be reelected, while 47 percent said he deserves to be voted out of office.

U.S. May Back Refinance Plan for Mortgages  —  The Obama administration is considering further actions to strengthen the housing market, but the bar is high: plans must help a broad swath of homeowners, stimulate the economy and cost next to nothing.  —  One proposal would allow millions …

Kate Marshall expresses support for Israel, says “useful” to do so because “timely topic”  —  You don't see this too often: A campaign puts out a statement by a candidate on an issue she has never talked about and then helpfully explains the political strategy at play at the end.

Why Libya sceptics were proved badly wrong  —  Let us do a thought experiment.  Imagine the UN did not vote to authorise the use of force in Libya in March.  Nato did nothing; Colonel Muammer Gaddafi over-ran Benghazi; the US stood by; the Libyan opposition was reduced to sporadic uprisings, quickly crushed.

AP-GfK poll: Views on economy, Obama role sour  —  WASHINGTON - Americans' views on the economy have dimmed this summer.  But so far, the growing pessimism doesn't seem to be taking a toll on President Barack Obama's re-election prospects.  —  More people now believe the country is headed …

Special prosecutor: No charges for Prosser, Bradley in fracas  —  By The Associated Press and Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel  —  Madison - Neither Supreme Court Justice David Prosser nor fellow Justice Anne Walsh Bradley will face criminal charges for an altercation this summer involving the two …

Expect a Third-Party Candidate in 2012  —  Ross Perot in 1992 and John Anderson in 1980 garnered exceptionally high levels of support.  —  The United States is in the midst of what we would both call a prerevolutionary moment, and there is widespread support for fundamental change in the system.

Market crash ‘could hit within weeks’, warn bankers  —  A more severe crash than the one triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers could be on the way, according to alarm signals in the credit markets.  —  The cost of insuring RBS bonds is now higher than before the taxpayer was forced to step in and rescue the bank in October 2008

The Nice Guy And The Manic Pixie Dream Girl  —  This is a bit off topic, but it's my blog and my last week here so bear with me.  I recently watched The Adjustment Bureau, a sort of sci-fi romance where the world is regularly nudged away from extinction by a covert bureaucracy of otherwordly chaperones …

Asking Candidates Tougher Questions About Faith  —  If a candidate for president said he believed that space aliens dwell among us, would that affect your willingness to vote for him?  Personally, I might not disqualify him out of hand; one out of three Americans believe we have had Visitors and, hey, who knows?

AFL-CIO head: Labor to ditch Democrats  —  The growing rift between labor and their Democratic allies was on full display Thursday, as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters that labor groups are planning to scale back their involvement with the Democratic Party in advance of the 2012 elections.

Obama and the ‘Competency Crisis’  —  Like many Americans who supported him, I long for a triple-A president to run a triple-A country.  —  The rising impatience with the leadership of President Obama was epitomized on Aug. 8 in the middle of one of the now-habitual Wall Street roller coasters.

Rep. Steve Chabot Criticized By Tea Party Activists For Seizing Cameras From Democrats At Town Halls … WASHINGTON — After banning and confiscating cameras at his town hall events, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) is taking heat from all sides — including from Tea Party activists Eric Odom and Judson Phillips.

What Happened to Howard Dean, Anti-War Champion?  —  After making a name for himself by speaking out against the invasion of Iraq, the former DNC chair is praising Obama's mission in Libya — an unconstitutional mission that transgresses against values he once touted

Irene an extremely dangerous storm surge threat to the mid-Atlantic and New England  —  Back in 1938, long before satellites, radar, the hurricane hunters, and the modern weather forecasting system, the great New England hurricane of 1938 roared northwards into Long Island, New York at 60 mph …