Rick Perry's camp defends 1993 HillaryCare praise  —  Texas Governor Rick Perry has been among the most vocal critics of President Obama's health care reform initiative, and of Mitt Romney's preceding health care program in Massachusetts.  But in 1993, while serving as Texas Agriculture Commissioner …

Former Powell Chief of Staff: Cheney “Fears Being Tried as a War Criminal”  —  Former Vice President Dick Cheney's memoir, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,” is out Tuesday, and it's full of criticism and attacks on his Bush administration colleagues — from describing Condoleezza Rice as …

Never-Wrong Pundit Picks Obama to Win in 2012  —  Allan Lichtman, the American University professor whose election formula has correctly called every president since Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election, has a belated birthday present for Barack Obama: Rest easy, your re-election is in the bag.

How Bill O'Reilly Tried to Get His Wife's Boyfriend Investigated By the Cops  —  Last summer, Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly came to believe that his wife was romantically involved with another man.  Not just any man, but a police detective in the Long Island community they call home.

Daryl Hannah Arrested at White House  —  Much-arrested Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah was taken away from the White House in restraints Tuesday afternoon.  —  Hannah was taking part in an ongoing protest against the unbuilt Keystone XL oil pipeline.  —  “Sometimes it's necessary to sacrifice …

Sources: ATF Director to Be Reassigned Amid Fast and Furious Uproar  —  The acting director of the Justice Department division caught up in a firearms trafficking scandal is being removed from his post, sources told Fox News on Tuesday.  —  Kenneth Melson, who heads the Bureau of Alcohol …

New body ‘liquefaction’ unit unveiled in Florida funeral home  —  Resomation founder Sandy Sullivan explains how the machine works  —  A Glasgow-based company has installed its first commercial “alkaline hydrolysis” unit at a Florida funeral home.  —  The unit by Resomation Ltd is billed …

White House takes shot at Rep. Cantor over Hurricane Irene disaster aid  —  White House press secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday took a shot at House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor for insisting disaster aid for Hurricane Irene should be offset with other spending cuts.

Justice Ginsburg: If I Were Nominated Today, My Women's Rights Work For The ACLU Would Probably Disqualify Me  —  Justice Ginsburg During Her Time As Director of the ACLU Women's Rights Project  —  In a speech yesterday at Southern Methodist University law school, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg offered …

9/11 Coloring Book Draws Criticism for Portrayal of Muslims  —  As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, one publisher has memorialized it in a manner that's generating a lot of controversy.  Instead of appealing to kids with doe-eyed puppies and flowers, his new coloring book …

My First Blogiversary!  —  Today is the Zilla Blog's first birthday!  —  It was one year ago today that I opened this blog, which was originally named PolitiZilla but then I discovered that there was already a website with that name so I changed it to Zilla of the Resistance soon after.

Rick Perry's God  —  Does the Texas governor believe his idiotic religious rhetoric, or is he just pandering for votes?  —  I happened to spend several weeks in Texas earlier this year, while the Lone Star State lay under the pitiless glare of an unremitting drought.

43% Now View ‘Tea Party’ Label As A Negative  —  Looks like it's a little more popular to be a liberal or a progressive these days, although conservative remains the best political label you can put on a candidate for public office.  Being linked to the Tea Party is the biggest negative.

Thousands of public employees laid off in 2010  —  (Reuters) - Local and state governments axed more than 200,000 jobs in 2010, according to U.S. Census data released on Tuesday that showed the growing threat of public employee layoffs to the economic recovery.

Developments in Financial Markets and the Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet  —  The Manager of the System Open Market Account (SOMA) reported on developments in domestic and foreign financial markets during the period since the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) met on June 21-22, 2011.

Fischer: Make Homosexuality “A Criminal Offense”  —  On his radio show Focal Point yesterday, American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer called on all fifty states to criminalize homosexuality.  In 2003, the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas overturned anti-sodomy laws …

Seduced by the cult of experts  —  It isn't surprising that Obama and his economic advisors' predictions have been so wrong.  —  When asked what posed the greatest challenge to statesmen, Harold Macmillan, the former British prime minister, responded, “Events, my dear boy, events.”

ACLU battles schools over gay websites  —  Use of filters a rights issue  —  A fierce legal battle on free speech and family values is brewing about Internet filters used by school administrators to block students' access to gay educational and advocacy websites.

New CBO Report Finds Up to 2.9 Million People Owe Their Jobs to the Recovery Act  —  A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report estimates that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) increased the number of people employed by between 1.0 million and 2.9 million jobs as of June.  [1]

North Carolina Rep Paul Stam Likens Gay Marriage To Incest, Polygamy  —  North Carolina House Majority Leader Paul “Skip” Stam on Tuesday likened gay marriage to incest and polygamy.  —  The 61-year-old Stam made his remarks during a noontime press conference on a proposed constitutional amendment …

How The Economy Quietly Entered A Recession On Friday, And Why The GDP Predicts A Sub-Zero Nonfarm Payroll Number  —  While the key market moving event from last Friday may have been Bernanke's Jackson Hole speech which merely left the door open to future QE episodes, the most important event …

Beshear up big, could have down ballot implications  —  It doesn't look like there's going to be much to see in the Kentucky Governor's race this year.  Incumbent Steve Beshear leads by 27 points right now with 55% to 28% for Republican David Williams and 10% Gatewood Galbraith.

President Obama's uncle had Social Security ID  —  President Obama's accused drunken-driving uncle — who was busted after a near collision with a Framingham cop — has had a valid Social Security number for at least 19 years, despite being an illegal immigrant ordered to be deported back to Kenya, the Herald has learned.

Obama's New Jobs Man Alan Krueger Was a Terrorism Truth-Teller  —  In 2004, the Bush State Department had to wipe egg off its face after he made it correct a report that wrongly said terrorism was going down  —  Yesterday, President Obama announced his intention to nominate Alan B. Krueger …

President Obama Talks Jobs, King on the ‘TJMS’  —  CLICK BELOW FOR AUDIO:  —  President Barack Obama talks with the “TJMS” about Hurricane Irene, the Martin Luther King Memorial, jobs and health care.  —  The following is a transcript of “The Tom Joyner Morning Show's” Obama interview, which aired Tuesday morning.

It's not a Ponzi Scheme if you can't exit!  —  Pointing out Social Security's similarities to a Ponzi Scheme irritates Social Security's defenders.  Nick Baumann at the liberal Mother Jones created a cute Venn Diagram implying that the only overlap between a Ponzi Scheme and Social Security …

NM governor gets perfect score on renewal of her concealed-carry permit (12:36 p.m.)  —  SANTA FE - New Mexico's pistol-packin' governor is a sure shot.  —  Gov. Susana Martinez received perfect scores on recertification for her concealed-carry permit over the weekend in Las Cruces.