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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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.

Russia cancels Syria lobbying mission to D.C.; More Russian war ships reportedly head for Mediterranean  —  The speaker of Russia's national legislature said Friday that a plan to send a parliamentary delegation to Washington to try and convince U.S. lawmakers that a unilateral military intervention …

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.

THE LIBERTARIAN RACKET IN A NUTSHELL.  —  Ole Perfesser Glenn Reynolds likes to call himself a libertarian.  Now, his libertarianism is effectively anti-abortion, but that's no contradiction because, as libertarians constantly tell us, libertarians don't have to support a woman's right to choose …

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.

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.

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” …

EXCUSE MICHAEL GERSON WHILE HE WHIPS THIS OUT  —  Michael Gerson made his bones by strategically placing verbs and things in the sentences for the least literate president in the history of the Republic.  Famously, Gerson was the Christian conscience of the administration that brought …

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.