It’s customary that after the nominating conventions, the opposition candidate for president begins receiving regular intelligence briefings on national security issues. This is about to begin for Mitt Romney.

But a new AP report suggests that the reason the Romney campaign repeatedly lied about the order of events in Egypt and Libya Tuesday night (US time) was because he wasn’t yet getting those briefings. Read More

Romney immigration advisor Kris Kobach trying to boot Obama off Kansas ballot on birther grounds.

Congress’ own nonpartisan research and analysis arm, the Congressional Research Service, has concluded that a Republican bill making its way through the House will have the effect of sidestepping the work requirements that are one of the pillars of welfare reform.

Let me say that again.

While launching a series of withering, racial tinged attacks that accused Obama of gutting welfare reform (when in fact his changes to welfare would strengthen the work requirements), Republicans have been pushing through a bill that the independent CRS has now found actually does have the effect of gutting welfare reform’s work requirements.

The CRS reached its conclusion in a memo dated Sept. 4, but it’s gotten scant if any attention until now.

This morning’s new NYT/CBS poll has Obama up by 3 points. But note that this is the first of their polls with a likely voter screen. If you look at registered voters — so an apples to apples comparison with their last poll, which was taken in July — it’s an 8 point move for Obama. Read More

From a Foreign Service Officer …

It’s probably not a surprise. But can I just say that if Mitt Romney wins in November, he is going to have a very chilly reception from his employees every time he goes abroad? I don’t think I can quite state the rage we’re all feeling towards him.

Historical documents released this week by the National Archives provided further evidence of what historians have long known: The U.S. government turned a blind eye toward the massacre of more than 20,000 Polish soldiers in the Katyn Forest during World War II because it was allied with the perpetrator: Stalin’s Soviet Union.

The newly revealed documents show, among other revelations, that the two American POWs whom the Germans brought to the site — to prove that the Soviets and not the Nazis were the culprits — were able to send coded messages back to the U.S. government confirming that the Soviets were to blame.

We’ve put together a slideshow of Katyn then and now.

Ed. Note: Some of the images are disturbing.

Jennifer Granholm on the Dating Game in 1978. After the jump …. Read More

AKA, condemns the anti-Muslim film now roiling the Middle East, like the White House and State Department did.

Stipulated that many of Ben Bernanke’s critics, particularly on the left, are elated that the Fed’s going to flex more muscle to boost the economy.

But if you detected a hint of annoyance among those same people, here’s why. Read More

President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton receive the remains of the U.S. diplomats killed in Libya.