Michele Bachmann rally draws over 1,000 in Sarasota, but some prefer Rick Perry  —  SARASOTA — Hurricane Irene bypassed the state and spared Michele Bachmann's first campaign foray in Florida this weekend, but now she has to contend with Hurricane Perry.  —  Even as the Minnesota congresswoman …

Is Rick Perry dumb?  —  Another Texas governor who drops his “g's” and scorns elites is running for president and the whispers are the same: Lightweight, incurious, instinctual.  —  Strip away the euphemisms, and Rick Perry is confronting an unavoidable question: is he dumb - or just misunderestimated?

Labor Economist to Fill Key Post  —  President Barack Obama on Monday plans to nominate Princeton University's Alan Krueger to be chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, a White House official said.  —  If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Krueger, a labor economist …

Republicans Against Science  —  Jon Huntsman Jr., a former Utah governor and ambassador to China, isn't a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination.  And that's too bad, because Mr. Hunstman has been willing to say the unsayable about the G.O.P. — namely, that it is becoming the “anti-science party.”

Memo On Upcoming Jobs Agenda  —  MEMORANDUM  —  As you know, we released The House Republican Plan for America's Job Creators earlier this year.  While the debt crisis has demanded much of our attention, our new majority has passed over a dozen pro-growth measures to address …

Postal Service paying fewer workers to do nothing  —  The U.S. Postal Service, expecting $7 billion in losses this year amid slumping mail volume, is still paying thousands of its workers millions of dollars each year to do nothing.  —  But it's paying tens of millions of dollars less for …

American Theocracy Revisited  —  During George W. Bush's presidency, many liberal and secular Americans came to regard religious conservatives not merely as their political opponents, but as a kind of existential threat.  The religious right, they decided, wasn't a normal political movement.

Ugly?  You May Have a Case  —  Daniel S. Hamermesh, a professor of economics at the University of Texas, Austin, is the author of “Beauty Pays,” published this month.  —  BEING good-looking is useful in so many ways.  —  In addition to whatever personal pleasure it gives you …

New Blue Nightmare: Clarence Thomas and the Amendment of Doom  —  Lord of the Rings aficionados know that the evil lord Sauron paid little attention to the danger posed by two hobbits slowly struggling across the mountains and deserts of Mordor until he suddenly realized that the ring …

Mayor Making It No Secret: He'll Endorse Quinn in 2013  —  It is the worst-kept secret in City Hall.  Michael R. Bloomberg has told almost everyone who asks — but only privately, so far — that he hopes the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, will succeed him as mayor in 2013.

Barack Obama's uncle has been arrested and held as illegal immigrant  —  President Barack Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, at a closed immigration hearing last year.  Onyango, half-sister of Obama's late father, moved to the United States in 2000 and she was ordered deported in 2004.  Source: AP

Americans Rate Computer Industry Best, Federal Gov't Worst  —  Image of federal government is at an all-time low  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Americans view the computer industry the most positively and the federal government the least positively when asked to rate 25 business and industry sectors.

The City: Beijing  —  Ai Weiwei finds China's capital is a prison where people go mad.  —  Beijing is two cities.  One is of power and of money.  People don't care who their neighbors are; they don't trust you.  The other city is one of desperation.  I see people on public buses, and I see their eyes, and I see they hold no hope.

Teachers Get Little Say in a Book About Them  —  Can an education reform movement that demeans and trivializes teachers succeed?  It's hard to imagine, but that is what is going on in parts of America today.  —  In Steven Brill's new book celebrating the movement, “Class Warfare …

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — August 2011  —  The August tracking poll examines the views of Americans without health insurance, with a particular focus on how they think the health reform law will affect them.  Findings from the poll include:  — Although estimates are that 32 million …

Dangerous White Stereotypes  —  ONE of the most noteworthy movies of the summer is “The Help.”  Set in Jackson, Miss., in the early 1960s, it focuses on the relationships between white upper-middle-class women and the black domestics who took care of them and their children.