Is Obama Playing Rope-a-Dope?  —  Here was the headline on Yahoo from Wednesday night: Obama bows to Boehner on jobs speech.  —  I can tell you what any progressive who has been paying attention thought, “Oh boy, here we go again.”  —  President Obama has now changed the day of his address to Congress to accommodate the Republicans.

Perry 44% Obama 41%; President Leads Other GOP Hopefuls  —  For the first time this year, Texas Governor Rick Perry leads President Obama in a national Election 2012 survey.  Other Republican candidates trail the president by single digits.  —  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone …

Obama Rolls Out a Jobs Plan That Doesn't Need Congress  —  The president has asked federal agencies to find solutions on their own.  His message to lawmakers: We can do this without you.  —  President Obama is either fed up with Congress or he's testing his own administration's mettle.  Or both.

Pima County Repubs Raffle Glock As Fundraiser; Same Gun Type Used in Tucson Shooting … Talk about a killer gimmick.  —  An Arizona Republican fundraiser is offering as a prize the same type of gun used in the attempted assassination of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Perry Proposed A Bi-National Health Insurance Plan With Mexico In 2001  —  Gov. Perry with then-Mexican President Vincente Fox.  —  The ghosts of Gov. Rick Perry's (R-TX) more moderate past have come back to haunt him in recent days, particularly when it comes to health care.

Exclusive: Condoleezza Rice fires back at Cheney memoir  —  (Reuters) - Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday she resented what she viewed as an attack on her integrity by former Vice President Dick Cheney in his just-published memoir.  —  Speaking in an interview with Reuters …

FEMA'S use of term ‘federal family’ for government expands under Obama  —  Posted: 6:17 p.m. Wednesday, Augt.  31, 2011  —  Don't think of it as the federal government but as your “federal family.”  —  In a Category 4 torrent of official communications during the approach and aftermath …

Dude!  Free weed lying on San Jose street snatched up by bystanders  —  It was a pot head's dream: Free marijuana lying on the street for the taking, without a cop in sight.  —  San Jose police say a truck illegally carrying marijuana crashed and ended up on its side near Oakridge Mall early Wednesday …

Gore urges Obama to block pipeline for ‘dirtiest source of fuel on the planet’  —  Former Vice President Gore called on President Obama late Wednesday to reject a pending permit application for a controversial pipeline project, calling the oil that it would carry “the dirtiest fuel on the planet.”

The 2011 New Establishment List: And the Top Spot Goes to...  This year's New Establishment list identifies the top 50 of an innovative new breed of buccaneering visionaries, engineering prodigies, and entrepreneurs—"The Age of Information gives way to a burgeoning Age of Technology," as Graydon Carter puts it.

Obama and the Burden of Exceptionalism  —  Post-'60s liberals, with the president as their standard bearer, seek to make a virtue of decline.  —  If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times: President Obama is destroying the country.  Some say this destructiveness is intended …

Florida Republicans Fight To Keep ‘Cohabitation’ Of Unmarried Couples Illegal  —  Thousands of unmarried couples who are living together in Florida may be surprised to learn that they are actually breaking the law.  Under outdated and rarely enforced state laws that have been on the books since …

Deputy mayor quit after being busted for domestic violence  —  The blizzard didn't bury him — roughing up his wife did.  —  Former Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith — who drew sharp criticism for bungling the Christmas storm that shut down the city — actually resigned in disgrace after his wife …

Justice Department Tougher On Abortion Protesters … The Obama Justice Department has been taking a more aggressive approach against people who block access to abortion clinics, using a 1994 law to bring cases in greater numbers than its predecessor.  —  The numbers are most stark when it comes …

White House downgrades 2012 jobs, economic forecasts; cites ‘turbulence’  —  The Obama administration downgraded its forecast for economic growth Thursday, predicting turmoil in the economy will likely keep unemployment above 9 percent through next year's election.

WikiLeaks: Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head, U.N. says  —  This cell phone photo was shot by a resident of Ishaqi on March 15, 2006, of bodies Iraqi police said were of children executed by U.S. troops after a night raid there.  A State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks quotes …

The Freelance Surge Is the Industrial Revolution of Our Time  —  Welcome to the Gig Life.  The boom in independent work is changing the way we think about jobs and careers.  Does Washington get it?  —  REUTERS  —  It's been called the Gig Economy, Freelance Nation, the Rise of the Creative Class …

TURNER VS. WEPRIN - IN THEIR OWN WORDS  —  By: … The Jewish Press: You're running in a heavily Democratic district, yet a recent poll showed you ahead by just 6 points.  —  Weprin: Turner ran [last] November and got 40 percent [against Anthony Weiner] and this latest poll has him at 42 percent - just a two-point increase.

Perry has plenty of ideas on Supreme Court, including term limits  —  One solution the governor embraces is to end lifetime tenure — a cornerstone of the Constitution, whose drafters worried far less about activist or senile judges than about meddling tyrants and political pressure.

Iceland Exits  —  Iceland is no longer under an IMF program; here's the IMF report (pdf) pronouncing the adjustment program successful.  Indeed.  Iceland still has high unemployment and is a long way from a full recovery; but it's no longer in crisis, it has regained access to international capital markets …

Lieberman: Obama's concern with offending Muslims hurts war effort  —  The Obama administration's fear of offending Muslims will hurt the U.S. war against terrorism, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Thursday in a speech blasting the president's new counterterrorism strategy.

Apple loses another unreleased iPhone (exclusive)  —  Cava22, the San Francisco bar where another unreleased iPhone apparently went missing.  —  In a bizarre repeat of a high-profile incident last year, an Apple employee once again appears to have lost an unreleased iPhone in a bar, CNET has learned.

Howard Dean: Right On Foreign Medical Students  —  Justin Elliott has a kind of exposé piece in Salon about Howard Dean's post-DNC work as a de facto lobbyist and PR man for McKenna Long & Aldridge.  Elliott's interest in the topic stems, I believe, from Dean's advocacy on behalf …

Another Republican Rebukes Cantor: Chris Christie Demands Hurricane Aid Without Offsetting Cuts  —  Last week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) shockingly said that Congress should not approve emergency aid to states battered by Hurricane Irene unless it makes offsetting budget cuts elsewhere first.