Obama Rolls Out a Jobs Plan That Doesn't Need Congress  —  The president has asked federal agencies to find solutions on their own.  His message to lawmakers: We can do this without you.  —  President Obama is either fed up with Congress or he's testing his own administration's mettle.  Or both.

Perry 44% Obama 41%; President Leads Other GOP Hopefuls  —  For the first time this year, Texas Governor Rick Perry leads President Obama in a national Election 2012 survey.  Other Republican candidates trail the president by single digits.  —  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone …

Pima County Repubs Raffle Glock As Fundraiser; Same Gun Type Used in Tucson Shooting … Talk about a killer gimmick.  —  An Arizona Republican fundraiser is offering as a prize the same type of gun used in the attempted assassination of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

FEMA'S use of term ‘federal family’ for government expands under Obama  —  Posted: 6:17 p.m. Wednesday, Augt.  31, 2011  —  Don't think of it as the federal government but as your “federal family.”  —  In a Category 4 torrent of official communications during the approach and aftermath …

Is Obama Playing Rope-a-Dope?  —  Here was the headline on Yahoo from Wednesday night: Obama bows to Boehner on jobs speech.  —  I can tell you what any progressive who has been paying attention thought, “Oh boy, here we go again.”  —  President Obama has now changed the day of his address to Congress to accommodate the Republicans.

New CNN Poll: 65% give Obama thumbs down on economy  —  Washington (CNN) - Only a third of all Americans approve of how President Barack Obama is handling the economy, according to a new national survey.  —  And with a CNN/ORC International Poll also indicating that more than three-quarters …

Gore urges Obama to block pipeline for ‘dirtiest source of fuel on the planet’  —  Former Vice President Gore called on President Obama late Wednesday to reject a pending permit application for a controversial pipeline project, calling the oil that it would carry “the dirtiest fuel on the planet.”

Exclusive: Condoleezza Rice fires back at Cheney memoir  —  (Reuters) - Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday she resented what she viewed as an attack on her integrity by former Vice President Dick Cheney in his just-published memoir.  —  Speaking in an interview with Reuters …

Gibson Guitar Wails on Federal Raid Over Wood  —  Gibson Guitar Corp., a big user of ebony and other scarce woods, for years has allied itself with Greenpeace and other environmental groups to show it was serious about preserving forests.  —  That didn't stop the Nashville-based company …

WikiLeaks: Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head, U.N. says  —  This cell phone photo was shot by a resident of Ishaqi on March 15, 2006, of bodies Iraqi police said were of children executed by U.S. troops after a night raid there.  A State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks quotes …

Deputy mayor quit after being busted for domestic violence  —  The blizzard didn't bury him — roughing up his wife did.  —  Former Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith — who drew sharp criticism for bungling the Christmas storm that shut down the city — actually resigned in disgrace after his wife …

Perry has plenty of ideas on Supreme Court, including term limits  —  One solution the governor embraces is to end lifetime tenure — a cornerstone of the Constitution, whose drafters worried far less about activist or senile judges than about meddling tyrants and political pressure.

Howard Dean: Right On Foreign Medical Students  —  Justin Elliott has a kind of exposé piece in Salon about Howard Dean's post-DNC work as a de facto lobbyist and PR man for McKenna Long & Aldridge.  Elliott's interest in the topic stems, I believe, from Dean's advocacy on behalf …

Iceland Exits  —  Iceland is no longer under an IMF program; here's the IMF report (pdf) pronouncing the adjustment program successful.  Indeed.  Iceland still has high unemployment and is a long way from a full recovery; but it's no longer in crisis, it has regained access to international capital markets …

Obama Stands by Renewable-Energy Aid After Panel Maker Solyndra's Failure  —  President Barack Obama is standing by his support for renewable energy after Solyndra Inc., a maker of solar panels that received a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee, shut its doors, a White House spokesman said.

Another Republican Rebukes Cantor: Chris Christie Demands Hurricane Aid Without Offsetting Cuts  —  Last week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) shockingly said that Congress should not approve emergency aid to states battered by Hurricane Irene unless it makes offsetting budget cuts elsewhere first.

Justice Department Tougher On Abortion Protesters … The Obama Justice Department has been taking a more aggressive approach against people who block access to abortion clinics, using a 1994 law to bring cases in greater numbers than its predecessor.  —  The numbers are most stark when it comes …

LIBERALS' VIEW OF DARWIN UNABLE TO EVOLVE  —  Amid the hoots at Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry for saying there were “gaps” in the theory of evolution, the strongest evidence for Darwinism presented by these soi-disant rationalists was a 9-year-old boy quoted in The New York Times.

Huntsman fires New Hampshire campaign manager  —  Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) has fired his New Hampshire campaign manager, Ethan Eilon, and replaced him with Sarah Crawford Stewart.  —  “She'll be taking over many of the day-to-day responsibilities,” Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller said.

Apple loses another unreleased iPhone (exclusive)  —  Cava22, the San Francisco bar where another unreleased iPhone apparently went missing.  —  In a bizarre repeat of a high-profile incident last year, an Apple employee once again appears to have lost an unreleased iPhone in a bar, CNET has learned.

Obama and the Burden of Exceptionalism  —  Post-'60s liberals, with the president as their standard bearer, seek to make a virtue of decline.  —  If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times: President Obama is destroying the country.  Some say this destructiveness is intended …