Government Assessment of the Syrian Government's Use of Chemical Weapons on August 21, 2013  —  The United States Government assesses with high confidence that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs on August 21, 2013.  We further assess that the regime used a nerve agent in the attack.

David Miranda was carrying password for secret files on piece of paper  —  A journalist's partner who was detained carrying thousands of British intelligence documents through Heathrow airport was also holding the password to an encrypted file written on a piece of paper, the government has disclosed.

White House, Republican senators give up on budget talks  —  The Obama administration and a group of Republican senators abandoned efforts Thursday to hammer out a budget deal and avoid a showdown over the national debt, saying they had failed to resolve their long-standing dispute over taxes.

Pelosi: I Don't Want to Be Speaker Again  —  “No, that's not my thing.  I did that.”  —  D.C. is a wait-and-then-hurry-up kind of town.  After more than a month away, Congress returns to a full plate.  Legislators need to find a way—and quickly—to pass some kind of short-term budget and deal with the debt ceiling.

Liz Cheney: ‘I am not pro-gay marriage’  —  Wyoming Senate hopeful Liz Cheney said bluntly on Friday that she is “not pro-gay marriage.”  —  Cheney, who is mounting a Republican primary challenge to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), made the remark in a statement, which is posted on her website.

Alabama Republican Wants to Ban Toni Morrison's ‘The Bluest Eye’ from Schools  —  Bowing to Tea Party pressure, Alabama State Senator Bill Holtzclaw said this week that he thinks The Bluest Eye, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison's novel about a little black girl who wishes for blue eyes, should be banned in schools.

O'Reilly Admits He Made a ‘Mistake’ Saying No Republicans Invited to March on Washington  —  Hey, what do you know?  Bill O'Reilly actually kind of apologized for saying something that wasn't true on the air.  After one media outlet after another reported on the fact that Senator Tim Scott …

Some News and Thanks  —  I will soon pass the Twitter General Counsel torch to Vijaya Gadde (@vijaya).  Vijaya has been managing Twitter's corporate and international legal work, and I've gotten to know her well over the last fourteen years.  I couldn't be happier with her appointment as General Counsel of Twitter.

Standing Together for Greater Transparency  —  General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft  —  To followers of technology issues, there are many days when Microsoft and Google stand apart.  But today our two companies stand together.

Miliband was governed by narrow political interests - not those of Syrian children.  I have left the Labour Party  —  Whatever your view of last night's defeat for the Government over Syria - for what it's worth mine is it was a catastrophe for the cause of progressive interventionism …

The Unsaved World  —  The rupiah is falling!  Head for the hills!  On second thought, keep calm and carry on.  —  In case you're wondering, the rupiah is the national currency of Indonesia, and, like many other emerging-market currencies, it has fallen a lot over the past few months.