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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

Gibson Guitars CEO: U.S. Government Urged Him to Use Foreign Labor  —  Press release from KMJ-AM in Fresno, California:  —  Tonight, in an interview on KMJ's “The Chris Daniel Show,” Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz confirmed that the US government wanted Gibson guitars to use foreign labor over American labor:

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 Daily News endorses Bob Turner over David Weprin for Congress to replace Anthony Weiner  —  The people of Anthony Weiner's old congressional district will elect a successor at a time when Washington faces historic challenges in cutting the national debt and creating jobs.  They should choose Bob Turner.

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

LIBERALS' VIEW OF DARWIN UNABLE TO EVOLVE  —  Amid the hoots at Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry for saying there were “gaps” in the theory of evolution, the strongest evidence for Darwinism presented by these soi-disant rationalists was a 9-year-old boy quoted in The New York Times.

How US firms profited from rendition flights  —  Court documents illustrate how US contracted out secret rendition transportation to a network of private companies  —  The scale of the CIA's rendition programme has been laid bare in court documents that illustrate in minute detail …

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 …

Michele Bachmann AWOL from N.H.  —  Bachmann's New Hampshire effort is led by state chairman Jeff Chidester, a radio host based in Rochester.  In an interview, he told POLITICO he's received assurances from the campaign's national leadership that the candidate will be back in September …

Chu signals support for proposed oil pipeline  —  Energy Secretary Steven Chu signaled this week that he supports a controversial proposed oil sands pipeline project being considered by the Obama administration.  —  The administration is reaching the tail end of its multi-year review …

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.