And what's right with Obama?  —  The British have a saying about the twin rules of journalism: first simplify, then exaggerate.  —  Perhaps Barack Obama can comfort himself with the reality that his current travails are both more complicated in their causes and less dire in their consequences …

An Open Letter from Howard Schultz, ceo of Starbucks Coffee Company  —  Posted by Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman, president and chief executive officer  —  Few topics in America generate a more polarized and emotional debate than guns.  In recent months, Starbucks stores and our partners …

Obama distress signal: President seeks help from first-term A-Team  —  A struggling President Obama is calling for help from members of his first-term A-Team, who have left the White House for other jobs.  —  With his poll numbers falling and his second-term floundering so far …

Walgreen to Give Workers Payments to Buy Health Plans  —  Drugstore Chain's Move Underscores Shifting Burden on Insurance  —  Rising health-care costs and a climate of change brought about by the new federal health law are prompting American corporations to revisit the pact they've long had with employees over medical benefits.

Buddhist community ponders apparent link between their faith and Navy Yard shooter  —  In the aftermath of the Washington Navy Yard shootings, gunman Aaron Alexis's interest in Buddhism seemed at odds with conventional Western stereotypes of serene, nonviolent meditators.

House to Vote on Defunding Obamacare  —  Leadership sources tell me the House GOP will soon vote on a continuing resolution that simultaneously funds the federal government and defunds Obamacare.  Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor are expected to announce the decision at Wednesday's closed-door conference meeting.

IRS officials thought Obama wanted crackdown on tea party groups, worried about negative press  —  IRS employees were “acutely” aware in 2010 that President Obama wanted to crack down on conservative organizations and were egged into targeting tea party groups by press reports mocking the emerging movement …

Release Detail  —  September 18, 2013 - Virginia Voters Dislike Mcauliffe Less Than Cuccinelli, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Libertarian Could Be Key In Tight Race  —  With 7 percent of likely voters, Robert Sarvis, the Libertarian candidate in the too-close-to call Virginia governor's race …

The Money Behind the Shutdown Crisis  —  Representative Aaron Schock is a conservative Republican from Illinois, but not conservative enough for the hard-right activist group Club for Growth, which is seeking someone to run against him in next year's primary.  —  His crime?

White House gets ready for shutdown  —  The White House told federal agencies on Tuesday to prepare for a government shutdown.  —  President Obama's budget director Sylvia Matthews Burwell in a memo to agencies said they should set their plans in case Congress fails to pass a funding measure by the end of the month.

White House Shifts Debt-Ceiling Tone, Warning of Fiasco  —  In 2011, then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner repeatedly brushed off questions about whether Congress would raise the debt ceiling.  He wasn't worried, he would tell audiences.  Congress would raise it sooner or later.

Appeals court rules in favor of ObamaCare birth control mandate  —  The decision from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals represents a victory for the Obama administration in a series of ongoing fights over the contraception policy, which critics see as a violation of religious freedom.

The Man With Pink Hair  —  I was at a conference in Bern, Switzerland, last week and struggling with my column.  News of Russia's proposal for Syria to surrender its poison gas was just breaking and changing every hour, forcing me to rewrite my column every hour.

Undocumented LA County Parents On Pace To Receive $650M In Welfare Benefits  —  LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A projected $650 million in welfare benefits will be distributed to illegal alien parents in 2013, county officials said Monday.  —  Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich announced …

Photos: Raising the Costa Concordia  —  After spending more than 600 days partially submerged near Isola del Giglio, Italy, the wreck of the Costa Concordia was successfully rolled upright last night.  The cruise ship capsized after striking a reef on January 13, 2012, killing 32 passengers and crew members.

Darrell Issa: I can call Hillary Clinton back  —  Rep. Darrell Issa says the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee can “certainly” call back former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to testify on Benghazi.  —  “We can certainly have Mrs. Clinton back; our view is that we need to get to the facts …

It's Time For the New and Improved Every Other Year Daily Pundit Fund Raiser  —  Well, phooey.  I hate doing this sort of thing, but....  The last time I ran a fundraiser was two years ago.  Things have changed in some ways since then.  For one thing, Amazon reinstated …

Time to Give America a Raise  —  It's been a good week for the nation's numerous poverty-wage workers.  They've been way overdue for a good week.  —  On Tuesday, the Labor Department issued a much anticipated and delayed extension of the federal minimum wage and overtime regulations to the nation's 2 million homecare workers.

Congress Has No Clothes: A Quick and Dirty Summary of the New FISC Opinion  —  Today's release of two important FISC documents probably won't generate the media frenzy that previous releases of NSA materials have sparked.  As of this writing, the New York Times did not even have the story on its website's home page.