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 …

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.

Putin, Obama unlikely to budge on Syria after talks in Russia  —  A Free Syrian Army fighter looks through a hole from behind sandbags, while a fellow fighter reads the Quran in Deir Ezzor, Syria, on Tuesday, September 3.  The United States and other Western nations blame the Assad regime …

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.

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.

Biden wants Napolitano on Supreme Court  —  (CNN) - Vice President Joe Biden made it clear Friday how he feels about departing Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.  —  “I think Janet Napolitano should be on the Supreme Court of the United States,” he said Friday morning at her going away ceremony.

Obama Has No ‘Intention’ To Strike Syria If Congress Says No … “The president of course has the authority to act” even if Congress does not support his plan for a military strike on Syria, White House deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken told Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep earlier today.

Ignore the headlines.  This was a very bad jobs report.  —  View Photo Gallery —If you're on the job hunt, employment opportunities are no longer limited to the East or West Coast.  Job aggregation Web site Bright.com recently ranked metro areas with the highest number of job openings.

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.

Middle-Aged White Males: No Longer the Ones Who Knock  —  As AMC's superlative-burdened Breaking Bad inches toward its September 29 finale—and honestly, would it kill series creator Vince Gilligan to include even one fast-paced scene to vary the endgame?—viewers are bidding adieu to more than just one show.

Jobs Day: Tapering Is Still Insane  —  For reasons that are a bit unknown to me there was a surge of enthusiasm this week about the likely state of the American labor market, a surge that's been popped by today's mildly disappointing jobs report that shows a continuation of the long-term trend …

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” …

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 …

Obama: I'm Bypassing the ‘Hocus Pocus’ of the United Nations  —  President Obama said that the U.S. talk of military action in Syria is bypassing the “hocus pocus” of the U.N.:  —  “Frankly, if we weren't talking about the need for an international response right now, this wouldn't be what everybody …