The image John Kerry WON'T want you to see: U.S. Secretary of State pictured dining with Assad and his wife at Damascus restaurant before war broke out in Syria  —  This astonishing photograph shows U.S Secretary of State John Kerry having a cosy and intimate dinner with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

How not to run a foreign policy  —  In March 2011, President Obama committed the United States to action in Libya that involved roughly 100 cruise missile firings, 12 U.S. Navy ships in the Mediterranean, and 75 U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft including B-2 bombers.

Syrian Electronic Army Hacks Marines Website  —  A collection of pro-Syrian government hackers apparently defaced a Marine Corps recruitment website Monday.  —  The Syrian Electronic Army, which has hacked a series of websites, posted a letter on the Marines.com website arguing the Syrian government is “fighting a vile common enemy.”

Obama To Meet With LGBT Activists While In Russia  —  After canceling a bilateral summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin while there for the G20 summit, Obama may anger the Kremlin further by meeting with Russian activists — including from LGBT groups.  —  Jason Reed / Reuters

Love for Labor Lost  —  It wasn't always about the hot dogs.  Originally, believe it or not, Labor Day actually had something to do with showing respect for labor.  —  Here's how it happened: In 1894 Pullman workers, facing wage cuts in the wake of a financial crisis, went on strike …

CITING OBAMACARE, 40,000 LONGSHOREMEN QUIT THE AFL-CIO  —  In what is being reported as a surprise move, the 40,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced that they have formally ended their association with the AFL-CIO, one of the nation's largest private sector unions.

CIA finds 1 in 5 flagged job applicants hail from Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda  —  An estimated one-fifth of a subset of all applicants for Central Intelligence Agency positions had significant ties to the terror groups Hamas, Hezbollah and al Qaeda, a newly released document from the Edward Snowden collection revealed Monday.

Rangel: 'Of course it's embarrassing'  —  Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) on Monday said “of course it's embarrassing” that President Obama warned Syria of a red line for using chemical weapons but then didn't move forward immediately with a military strike.  —  Rangel, who opposes a military strike …

RIP Frederik Pohl, the man who transformed science fiction  —  One of the leading lights of the science fiction world, editor and author Frederik Pohl, passed away this weekend after a career that defined the genre for decades.  —  His granddaughter Emily Pohl Weary confirmed the news:

Assad: If The West Attacks, ‘Risk Of A Regional War Exists’  —  Syrian President Bashar al-Assad dismissed evidence the United States and France said shows his regime used chemical weapons on Syrian civilians, warning that any planned military response could result in a “regional war.”

Labor union frustration boils over with president on ObamaCare  —  Unions are frustrated the Obama administration hasn't responded to their calls for changes to ObamaCare.  —  Labor has watched with growing annoyance as the White House has backed ObamaCare changes in response to concerns …

Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.'s  —  For at least six years, law enforcement officials working on a counternarcotics program have had routine access, using subpoenas, to an enormous AT&T database that contains the records of decades of Americans' phone calls …

To Authorize or Not to Authorize  —  Please also read “Against Symbolic Killing” our editor R. R. Reno's case against intervening in Syria. -ed.  —  Republicans should support some version of the authorization of force resolution.  They should do so even if they think that the President's policy …