Why America Is Saying ‘No’  —  Syria and Obama: Wrong time, wrong place, wrong plan, wrong man.  —  It is hard, if you've got a head and a heart, to come down against a strong U.S. response to Syria's use of chemical weapons against its civilian population.

President Obama could lose big on Syria in House  —  If the House voted today on a resolution to attack Syria, President Barack Obama would lose — and lose big.  —  That's the private assessment of House Republican and Democratic lawmakers and aides who are closely involved in the process.

N.S.A. Able to Foil Basic Safeguards of Privacy on Web  —  The National Security Agency is winning its long-running secret war on encryption, using supercomputers, technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy …

Pentagon Is Ordered to Expand Potential Targets in Syria With a Focus on Forces  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama has directed the Pentagon to develop an expanded list of potential targets in Syria in response to intelligence suggesting that the government of President Bashar al-Assad …

Iran Plots Revenge, U.S. Says  —  Officials Say Intercepted Message to Militants Orders Reprisals in Iraq if Syria Hit  —  WASHINGTON—The U.S. has intercepted an order from Iran to militants in Iraq to attack the U.S. Embassy and other American interests in Baghdad in the event of a strike on Syria …

Black lawmakers won't be rubber stamp for Obama on Syria strike  —  Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) will be no rubber stamp for President Obama's proposal to strike Syria.  —  Black Democrats were among the most consistently vocal opponents of the Iraq war a decade ago …

The Right Vote  —  The statesmanlike case for voting Yes on the congressional resolution to use force against the Assad regime has been made widely and well by conservative foreign policy thinkers.  At the end, the case boils down to this: As a policy matter, a Yes vote may be problematic in all kinds of ways.

Did Obama even have a war plan for Capitol Hill?  —  The Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday voted 10-7 to approve President Obama's request for an authorization to use military force in Syria.  The Boston Globe reports the vote gives “more momentum to the White House plan.”

Years of Tragic Waste  —  In a few days, we'll reach the fifth anniversary of the fall of Lehman Brothers — the moment when a recession, which was bad enough, turned into something much scarier.  Suddenly, we were looking at the real possibility of economic catastrophe.  —  And the catastrophe came.

The Bush Burden  —  He's there in every corner of Congress where a microphone fronts a politician, there in Russia and the British Parliament and the Vatican.  You may think George W. Bush is at home in his bathtub, painting pictures of his toenails, but in fact he's the biggest presence in the debate over what to do in Syria.

New Inquiry for Bachmann on Her Presidential Race  —  Representative Michele Bachmann's presidential hopes ended 20 months ago, but her brief and chaotic campaign continues to be the focus of ethics investigations.  —  The latest is a federal inquiry into whether an outside “super PAC” …

Rep. Alan Grayson: Syria Intelligence Manipulated  —  Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., who is aggressively lobbying against a military strike on Syria, says the Obama administration has manipulated intelligence to push its case for U.S. involvement in the country's two-year civil war.

Bad Bet: Why Republicans Can't Win With Whites Alone  —  Obama lost key groups of white voters by the largest margins since the 1980s, but that doesn't mean Republicans can rely on whites to retake the White House.  —  This much is undisputed: In 2012, President Obama lost white voters …

The Obama administration should stop pretending it's easy.  —  After almost 30 years in the Senate, Secretary of State John Kerry should've known that Senate hearings are supposed to be free of news.  As Sen. John McCain proved, you can even sit through them and play online poker.

Manchin, Heitkamp float alternative  —  The United States would give Syria 45 days to sign an international chemical weapons ban or face the wrath of American military might, under a draft resolution being circulated by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.).

The Federal Reserve Nomination  —  In July, when news broke that President Obama might nominate Lawrence Summers to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, several Democratic senators wrote a letter to the president in praise of Janet Yellen, the current Fed vice chairwoman who many presumed would be the nominee.

GOP lawmaker brings fried chicken to poverty hearing in ‘silent protest’  —  DENVER — Two weeks ago, the last meeting of a Colorado task force on economic opportunity and poverty exploded into allegations of racism when Sen. Vicki Marble, a Republican, attempted to explain high poverty rates …

Weiner's inner circle says he's prepping for comeback after NYC campaign  —  Anthony Weiner's friends believe that while his campaign for mayor may have become a joke, it will set him up for a future political comeback.  —  New York voters puzzle over why Weiner (D) stays in the race despite constant ridicule.