Romney: Chick-Fil-A, Huma Abedin ‘not ... part of my campaign’  —  POLITICO's Ginger Gibson reports from the Romney press avail in Vegas:

RNC sends DNC 'you didn't bake this' Obama birthday cake  —  The Republican National Committee sent a birthday cake to the Democratic National Committee on Friday.  The cake reads, “you didn't bake this” over a picture of President Obama.  Icing text reads, “Happy birthday, Mr. President.”

July jobs report: America's labor market depression continues  —  Only in a world of lowered, New Normal expectations was the July jobs report anything less than another disaster for U.S. workers.  Nonfarm payrolls rose 163,000 last month as the unemployment rate rose to 8.3%.

Dems Nominate Anti-Gay Conspiracy Theorist for Senate  —  Update, 2:55 p.m.: Via the Tennessean, the Tennessee Democratic party has condemned Clayton, saying in a statement that he is “associated with a known hate group” (a reference to Public Advocate of the United States) …

TPMDC  —  Dem Lawmakers Want Answers About Romney's Enormous IRA  —  Leading House Democrats want to turn Mitt Romney's enormous IRA into more than just a political problem.  —  Romney's most recent financial disclosure form revealed that his tax-deferred individual retirement account holds upwards …

EXCLUSIVE: THEBLAZE INTERVIEWS THE GUY FIRED FOR BERATING A CHICK-FIL-A EMPLOYEE (UPDATED WITH QUOTES)  —  Editor's note: Additional quotes from Adam Smith have been added below the video.  —  Should someone be fired from their job and threatened with violence, torture, even death because they have an opinion different than yours?

Porn star Jenna Jameson endorses Romney  —  “I'm very looking forward to a Republican being back in office,” Jameson said while sipping champagne in a VIP room at Gold Club in the city's South of Market neighborhood.  “When you're rich, you want a Republican in office.”

Carbonite CEO admits dropping Limbaugh hurt growth more than expected  —  Carbonite famously dropped Rush Limbaugh on a Saturday Night at the height of the Sandra Fluke controversy.  Carbonite became the poster child for the Rush boycott movement organized by Media Matters …

Buying up all the free speech they can find  —  This story in Mother Jones about the small handful of gazillionares who are trying to buy the election is astonishing.  I honestly don't know how anyone can call this democracy anymore.  —  Click over to read the story, but here are the accompanying charts.

Aug. 3: A Good Week for Obama in Forecast  —  The past week of polling and economic data was relatively newsworthy by our forecast model's standards, and most of the news was good for President Obama.  —  On Tuesday, Mr. Obama was helped in the forecast by a report showing an increase in personal income …

New SuperPAC, FightBigotry.com, Smears President Obama For ‘Racism Against White Folks’  —  FightBigotry.com, a new Super PAC registered with the Federal Election Commission this week, makes no bones about its aim.  It intends to run an attack ad that it says will hit President Barack Obama for …

Did NBC Just Air A Racist Commercial?  —  After Gabby Douglas won the gold and Bob Costas spoke about how amazing this was for the first African-American to win the women's all-around gymnastics title, NBC aired a commercial of a Monkey doing gymnastics which has caused quite a stir.

Comeback Nation: Why the U.S. Economy Is Much Stronger Than You Think  —  Quite like an Olympic sport, hand-wringing about “America's decline” is popular, practiced all around the world, and often dominated by Americans, themselves.  Unlike an Olympic event, it's wasted energy.  —  Reuters

Judge guts vote registration law  —  GALVESTON - A federal judge in Galveston on Thursday partially blocked new Texas registration laws that critics say amount to vote suppression because they prevent large voter registration drives.  —  U.S. District Judge Gregg Costa blocked the state …

Rafalca Delays VP Pick  —  Almost two weeks ago, I speculated on Fox News Sunday that Mitt Romney would announce his vice presidential pick early next week, on August 6 or 7.  It was, if I may say, a reasonably well-informed forecast at the time.  But I didn't take into account the existence …