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First Lady Michelle Obama was booed in Florida today as she made the traditional "Gentlemen, start your engines!" call at the final NASCAR race of the season.

The front page of Saturday's Washington Post featured a story titled "Obama looks to harness anti-Wall St. angst" directly below a picture of a wild-looking protester strangling a police officer with this caption: "A man affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street protests tackles a police officer during a march in New York. Police arrested 15 people during demonstrations Friday, but the movement gained a victory after a plan to clear people from a Manhattan park was halted."  This, it turns out, is an element of President Obama's reelection strategy. "President Obama and his team have decided to turn public anger at...

New applications for unemployment benefits sank by 37,000 last week to 391,000 to mark the lowest level since April, but a government official suggested the surprising drop may have stemmed from a variety of "technical" issues...

As a way to solve the national debt crisis, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue recommends suspending Congressional elections for the next couple of years. “I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,” Perdue said at a rotary club event in Cary, North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. “I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.” Perdue said she thinks that temporarily halting elections would allow members...

It's a prank favoured by kids and college students but today President Obama was an unwitting culprit. He committed the ultimate photographic faux pas while posing for pictures with other leaders during the Open Government Partnership event at the United Nations, accidentally blocking the face of the man to his right while waving. The act of hijacking somebody's photograph is known as 'photobombing' and the most common example is for a person who is not supposed to be in the picture to pull a silly face behind the people posing.

CBS News recently got their hands on secret recordings of conversations about Fast and Furious that took place between an ATF agent and a gun store owner, both of whom were located in the Phoenix area (and both of whom were thoroughly acquainted with Fast and Furious). The recordings captured agent Hope McAllister talking with Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company, at a time when Howard was noticeably worried that Fast and Furious was going to become public knowledge or be put under the microscope of a congressional investigation. Howard especially feared that Senator Charles Grassley might push...

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Speaker Boehner to Host Private-Sector Job Creators in House Gallery for President Obama’s Address Speaker’s Guests Include More than a Dozen Job Creators Who Have Run Into Government Barriers in Their Efforts to Create New American Jobs WASHINGTON, DC (Sep 8) House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today announced he will host more than a dozen private-sector job creators in the House gallery during President Obama’s address to a Joint Session of Congress tonight. Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam (R-IL) recruited these job creators as part of Republicans’ effort to reach out to American employers being hampered by excessive regulations from...

The Attorney General of New York has been on the receiving end of what seems like an unusual amount of pressure from Obama Administration officials to accept a settlement with mortgage lender rather than pursue the criminal fraud investigation that he opened several months ago: Eric T. Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, has come under increasing pressure from the Obama administration to drop his opposition to a wide-ranging state settlement with banks over dubious foreclosure practices, according to people briefed on discussions about the deal. In recent weeks, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and...

" ... A nationwide Zagat survey of diners says 60 percent of foodies favor putting time limits on people eating at restaurants during peak hours. "

The Obamas' summer break in Martha's Vineyard has already been branded a PR disaster after the couple arrived four hours apart on separate government jets. But according to new reports, this is the least of their extravagances. White House sources today claimed that the First Lady has spent $10million of U.S. taxpayers' money on vacations alone in the past year. Branding her 'disgusting' and 'a vacation junkie', they say the 47-year-old mother-of-two has been indulging in five-star hotels, where she splashes out on expensive massages and alcohol. The 'top source' told the National Enquirer: 'It's disgusting. Michelle is taking advantage...

As the economy continues to teeter on the precipice of a double-dip recession, there is a growing demand for the president and Congress to rush back from their vacations and do something. But why? What is it that we really think the president can do? While the president’s latest economic plan remains a deeply held secret until after his vacation, pretty much everyone in Washington expects him to call for . . . drumroll please . . . a stimulus plan. Now why haven’t we thought of that before? Oh, that’s right. We have. In fact, we have now had...

No one in the Obama Administration was hanging a "Mission Accomplished" sign in front of the White House yesterday as it became obvious that the Libyan rebels had all but taken complete control of the country. But, this isn't a game of "capture the flag." The rebels now have control of nearly all the land area of Libya, but it is not at all clear they control the sewer systems, the electricity production facilities, or a police force. The man recognized by NATO forces as the opposition leader is named Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who is the chairman of the Transitional...

The Obama administration on Tuesday announced plans to streamline hundreds of regulations across all government departments and said that the review will “likely” save at least $10 billion over five years. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), however, called the effort "underwhelming." The regulatory review does not address the kinds of major items the GOP would like to eliminate, such as those associated with the Dodd-Frank financial reform, the Obama healthcare reform or a raft of new environmental regulations, including the possible regulation of greenhouse gases. [snip] Cass Sunstein, the chief of regulations at the Office of Management and Budget...

Standard & Poor's President Deven Sharma is leaving the credit-rating firm at the end of the year, according to a person familiar with the matter. The credit-rating firm plans to announce Mr. Sharma's exit on Tuesday before the markets open, the person said. Douglas Peterson, chief operating officer of Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank unit, will succeed Mr. Sharma on Sept. 12, that person said.

Disgusted by late night text messages, embarrassing blow-offs, and never receiving the phone call you were promised? Leading dating site Chemistry.com has a list of the top ten cities full of romantic, expressive, “high estrogen” men who probably wouldn’t slip into cad territory. Though bursting with government employees, politicians, political journalists, and all things polarizing and serious, Washington, D.C. is tenth on the list, nine spots below perpetually romantic San Francisco. Asked how bureaucratic, soulless Washington ever earned a spot on a list of romantic cities, Chemistry.com’s Dr. Helen Fisher told The Daily Caller that D.C. draws a lot of...

Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry visits the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, Aug. 15, 2011, where Perry spoke of "that big black cloud that hangs over America -- that debt, that is so monstrous." (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) Any incumbent wants to define his opponent before the opponent defines himself. The Obama campaign seems intent on painting Rick Perry as a Southern white racist -- a tired line of attack that is angering conservatives and inspiring them to rally behind Perry.

U.S. intelligence analysts, like most American observers, have often referred to the process unfolding in the Middle East as the "Arab Spring," with its implicit message of democratic rebirth and freedom. But some senior analysts are said to have argued for a more neutral term, such as "Arab Transition" — which conveys the essential truth that nobody can predict just where this upheaval is heading. The uncertain transition rumbled on last week in Syria: President Bashar Assad's hold on power appeared to weaken, with his military stretched to the breaking point in an attempt to control the protests. President Obama,...

When Gov. Rick Perry returns to Austin this weekend, he’s likely to return to a hero’s welcome. He launched his campaign in a flawless rollout in South Carolina last weekend, captured the top spot in Rasmussen by double-digits, and is off to a dominating start in the GOP primary. Perry’s welcome will take all of that into account, as well as something else: Those of us who have watched him campaign have seen him blitz like this before, and in the past it has been a prelude to a long, entertaining campaign and ultimate victory. The first week since Texas...

A Pennsylvania man and his son were arrested Thursday on charges of harassing Sarah Palin's family and lawyers in a case a prosecutor said went beyond "merely creepy to truly threatening." Craig Christy, 47, and his son, Shawn Christy, 19, were placed under arrest at the FBI office in Allentown. The pair was indicted by a federal grand jury in Alaska on Wednesday. They are accused of harassing members of the former Alaska governor's family as well as her attorneys and employees of the law firm. Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, is also a possible presidential candidate. The...