Perry Jumps To The Top Of GOP Pack, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Perry, Romney Each Run Neck And Neck With Obama  —  Texas Gov. Rick Perry has zoomed to the front of the line of GOP presidential candidates with a 24 - 18 percent lead over former Massachusetts …

Getting Away With Torture  —  Dick Cheney's memoir shows the importance of the law, not of torture.  —  This week Dick Cheney invites us all to join him again in a game he likes to play against the rest of us called Tedious Torture Standoff.  He continues to assert—this time in his memoir …

Judge blocks parts of Texas abortion law on sonograms  —  (Reuters) - A federal judge temporarily blocked key provisions of a Texas abortion law on Tuesday that would require women seeking the procedure to view a sonogram and listen to the heartbeat of their fetus.

The New Resentment of the Poor  —  In a decade of frenzied tax-cutting for the rich, the Republican Party just happened to lower tax rates for the poor, as well.  Now several of the party's most prominent presidential candidates and lawmakers want to correct that oversight and raise taxes …

Obama targets GOP for fall offensive  —  “Kill the body, and the head will die.”  — Joe Frazier  —  President Obama is preparing to fight a political war this fall on two fronts — the first against Republicans who want his job and the second against Republicans who want to make his job more difficult.

TIR Exclusive: Palin to Fly to New Hampshire Following Iowa Appearance  —  High level Iowa Republicans tell TheIowaRepublican.com that Sarah Palin will fly to New Hampshire following her September 3rd appearance in central Iowa.  —  Speculation has been swirling about whether or not Palin …

Some companies pay their CEOs more than Uncle Sam, study says  —  It has become a bipartisan article of faith in some quarters that the income tax on U.S. corporations must be lowered.  —  But for many large U.S. companies, the burden of U.S. taxation pales in comparison with what they pay …

Never-Wrong Pundit Picks Obama to Win in 2012  —  Allan Lichtman, the American University professor whose election formula has correctly called every president since Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election, has a belated birthday present for Barack Obama: Rest easy, your re-election is in the bag.

How The Economy Quietly Entered A Recession On Friday, And Why The GDP Predicts A Sub-Zero Nonfarm Payroll Number  —  While the key market moving event from last Friday may have been Bernanke's Jackson Hole speech which merely left the door open to future QE episodes, the most important event …

Labor leaders must pay for parade if GOP banned, mayor says  —  (Reuters) - The mayor of a Wisconsin town said on Tuesday a local labor council would have to reimburse the city up to $2,000 for a Labor Day parade if organizers exclude Republican lawmakers from attending.

Andre Carson: Tea party wants blacks ‘hanging on a tree’  —  A top lawmaker in the Congressional Black Caucus says tea partiers on Capitol Hill would like to see African Americans hanging from trees and accuses the movement of wishing for a return to the Jim Crow era.

Obama's uncle is called a fugitive  —  Said to ignore '92 deportation order  —  Onyango Obama is now being held on an immigration detainer in the Plymouth County House of Correction.  —  FRAMINGHAM - The uncle of President Obama arrested here last week on drunken driving and other charges …

Babysitting bill in Calif. Legislature  —  Office of Sen. Doug LaMalfa  —  How will parents react when they find out they will be expected to provide workers' compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time for...babysitters?  Dinner and a movie night may soon become much more complicated.

White House to push new highway bill  —  President Obama on Wednesday will push Congress to pass a new surface transportation bill when it returns from recess next week, the White House announced Tuesday night.  —  The current version of the federal highway bill, which among …

ATF head removed by Justice Dept. after ‘Fast and Furious’ controversy  —  The head of the ATF has been removed after months of speculation about his role in a botched gun-tracking operation that could have contributed to the death of a Border Patrol agent.  —  The Department of Justice …

Muslims, police scuffle at Rye Playland over amusement park's head scarf ban; 15 arrests made  —  Rye Playland was shut down Tuesday after cops scuffled with Muslims upset that women wearing head scarves were barred from the rides, witnesses said.  —  Fifteen people, including three women …

NASA fears leaving space station unmanned  —  WASHINGTON — The possible first-ever evacuation of the International Space Station, if a Russian spacecraft is not launched in November, would risk the loss of the orbiting lab, a NASA official has warned.  —  “There is a greater risk of losing …

Tripoli Divided as Rebels Jostle to Fill Power Vacuum  —  TRIPOLI, Libya — Fighters from the western mountain city of Zintan control the airport.  The fighters from Misurata guard the central bank, the port and the prime minister's office, where their graffiti has relabeled the historic plaza “Misurata Square.”

Choi Takes the Stand, Delivering Tense Testimony and Impassioned Speeches  —  Former Army Lt. Dan Choi took the witness stand today during the second day of his federal trial for failing to obey a lawful order by a police officer, where he delivered several impassioned speeches protesting …

Jane Jamison, R.I.P.  —  Dell Hill from Uncoverage.net called today to tell me that the blog's founder, Jane Jamison, died Saturday.  Dell told me — I hadn't previously known — that her name wasn't actually Jane Jamison, but that this was a pseudonym she used to keep her life …

Leaders of 9/11 Panel Call Action Plan Unfinished  —  In the decade since the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. has failed to make sufficient progress on nine counter-terrorism actions, ranging from border screening to terrorist-detention standards, according to the former leaders of the commission that investigated the hijackings.

How Bill O'Reilly Tried to Get His Wife's Boyfriend Investigated By the Cops  —  Last summer, Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly came to believe that his wife was romantically involved with another man.  Not just any man, but a police detective in the Long Island community they call home.

New body ‘liquefaction’ unit unveiled in Florida funeral home  —  Resomation founder Sandy Sullivan explains how the machine works  —  A Glasgow-based company has installed its first commercial “alkaline hydrolysis” unit at a Florida funeral home.  —  The unit by Resomation Ltd is billed …