FOUR MONTHS IN: TaxProf Roundup: The IRS Scandal, Day 120.

LOUSY JOBS NUMBERS: “The August jobs numbers are disappointing. The economy gained 169,000 non-farm payroll jobs, below the estimated figure of 175,000. Much worse, however, were the downward revisions for past months. July’s job numbers went down 58,000. The total revision for June and July is 74,000 less than previously expected. Then there is the labor participation rate: It dropped to 63.2 percent. It hasn’t been this low since 1978. Because so many people have left the work force, the percent of unemployed (i.e. those who haven’t checked out of the job market) went down to 7.3 percent. It is long since past the time that we can attribute feeble job growth to the financial collapse in 2008. The ‘recovery’ started in the second half of 2009. What we see now is the Obama economy — more people out of the job market, minimal growth and tepid job creation.”

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: If Obama Doesn’t Bomb Syria Now, He’s Toast.

It is precisely the President’s credibility as a spokesman for the “international community” (whatever that is) and for US foreign policy that is glaringly and horribly on the line. An effective leader would have consulted with key people in Congress and made sure of his backing before making explicit threats of force. Now the President is twisting lonesomely in the wind, and the question is whether Congress will ride to the rescue. If it doesn’t, it will be the closest thing the American system has to a parliamentary vote of “no confidence”, where Congress explicitly declares to the world that the President of the United States does not speak for the country.

That would be very dangerous. Foreigners will no longer know when and whether to take anything this President says as representing American policy rather than his own editorial opinions. We hate to say it, but that is so dangerous that there’s a strong argument for Congress to back the Syria resolution simply to avoid trashing the credibility of the only President we’ve got.

If Congress declines to support what even proponents of a Syria strike must agree is a massively screwed up policy, then the President will face another choice. He can do a “Clinton” (President Clinton bombed Serbia in the teeth of congressional disapproval), or he can fold like a cheap suit. If he chooses the latter course, Clint Eastwood’s “empty chair” stunt at the 2012 GOP convention will look eerily prophetic.

Oh, it already does. And Obama’s problem is that if he does bomb Syria, it will either do nothing much — underscoring his irrelevance — or it will topple Assad, which will likely lead to an Islamist Syria hostile to the United States. He really shouldn’t have departed from the teleprompter with that “Red Line” comment.

I.R.S. SCANDAL: Congressional committee demanding answers from IRS over veteran targeting.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Fred Pohl’s Great Fiction And Sketchy Economics.

ROLL CALL: John Kerry Getting Shelled on Twitter About Syria. Along with his foxhole buddy, John McCain.

JAMES TARANTO: Quagmire At Home: Did Obama even have a war plan for Capitol Hill?

The committee vote shows that both parties are divided. As the Washington Post notes, two of the panel’s 10 Democrats, Connecticut’s Chris Murphy and New Mexico’s Tom Udall, voted “no.” Three Republicans voted “yes.” The Senate’s most junior member, Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey (elected in June to fill the John Kerry vacancy), voted “present,” although his comments suggest he was leaning toward “no” owing to “my worry about a greater involvement in Syria.”

One is tempted to mock Markey for that old Obama gambit–“he vowed to make a decision by next week,” the Globe reports–yet one resists the temptation when one reads his rationale: “Asked why he didn’t just oppose the authorization, as did some of his colleagues who had similar concerns, he said, ‘A “no” vote would have indicated I had sufficient information on which to base the decision. Which I did not.’ ” Given the way this administration bullied through ObamaCare and other domestic legislation, it is easy to believe that concern is well-founded.

Committees are not necessarily representative of the Senate as a whole (except in terms of their partisan makeup), but if we assume for the sake of argument that this one is with respect to this question, Senate passage will be a very close-run matter. Seven “no” votes out of 17 amount to a hair over 41%, just enough to sustain a filibuster. Add in Markey to make it eight votes of 18, and you’re at 44%.

And that’s in the chamber the president’s party controls. . . .

Republicans also have reason to suspect that Obama’s decision to request congressional approval was an effort to put them on the spot–and his ludicrous denial yesterday that he “set a red line” or that his credibility is at stake reinforces that view.

The fierce watchdogs of the press, confronted with this brazen falsehood, show themselves once again to be Obama’s pet hamsters. Instead of giving a “pants on fire” rating, PolitiFact.com’s Jon Greenberg claims Obama was “reframing comments rather than denying them.” Greenberg can’t even say the statement is half true, so he withholds a rating altogether. Peter Baker of the New York Times has his own euphemisms, writing that Obama was “citing longstanding international norms” and “trying to break out of his isolation.” The funniest dodges come from Shawna Thomas of NBC News, who on Twitter calls Obama’s whopper “a definite change in tone” and an attempt “to unilaterally widen the circle of responsibility.”

That last one is priceless. Next time someone accuses you of trying to weasel out of a commitment, say you’re just trying to widen the circle of responsibility.

The press will abandon Obama last. Their loyalty is their honor.

HEY, THEY FORGAVE HIM FOR THE FIRST ONE: Will Democrats Forgive Obama for Blowing His Second Term? “Obama’s most stalwart fans will blame ‘obstructionist Republicans’ who they will say managed to overcome broad public mistrust to block the president’s agenda. But this, too, is a damning verdict on Obama’s presidency. If an unpopular GOP can govern the country from one chamber of Congress where a relatively popular president could not, what does this say about the president’s competency in office?”

Everything.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Home education is just going to gain more and more traction in the coming years.

SAY, I NOTICE THAT JOE’S BEEN KEEPING KIND OF A LOW PROFILE LATELY. Flashback: A year ago, Biden accused Romney of wanting war with Syria.

NONSENSE — GLOBAL WARMING’S CONSEQUENCES MUST ALL BE BAD, BY DEFINITION: Could Global Warming Reduce the Threat Posed by Atlantic Hurricanes? Also, we were promised an endless array of Katrinas.

HOW TO KEEP STUDENT LOAN DEBT under control.

NEW FRONTIERS: Tackling The Scourge Of Lookism.

NEWS FROM ACADEME: Michigan State U. Reassigns Professor Who Blasted Republicans in Class.

THE HILL: Obama needs game-changer to win House vote on Syria.

Related: The Hill’s Syria Whip List: Tough work for Obama to win votes for strike.

Also: Obama cancels LA trip as ‘no’ votes on Syria resolution pile up. Canceling a fundraiser??!! Shit just got real.

If I were the GOP — in both the House and Senate — I wouldn’t let a single Republican vote be cast until all the Democrats have voted.

J.D. TUCCILLE: Maybe a Government That Constantly Violates Rights Is More Rotten Than We Realize.

MICKEY KAUS: How Amnesty Goes Away.

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: Dem Congressman Charges Intelligence “Manipulated” To Promote War.

TOURISTS SHOULD CONSIDER SPENDING THEIR DOLLARS ELSEWHERE: Warning: D.C. cops under orders to arrest tourists with empty bullet casings.

COMING SOON: The all-new Kindle Paperwhite. I’ve got the current generation, and it’s replaced the iPad as my favorite reading device. The new feature that lets you flip through without losing your place — like a book — seems like a nice addition.

AT AMAZON, Game Day Kitchen & Dining Gear. Bar tools, grills, blenders and more.

Also, 50% or more off on USB Flash Drives.

Plus, Designer Necklaces under $50.

YA THINK? Michael Barone: “Blunder after blunder. That’s been the story of Barack Obama’s policy toward Syria.”

Well, to be fair, it’s been the story of his policy toward the United States, too . . . .

JIM BENNETT & MICHAEL LOTUS’S BOOK, America 3.0: Rebooting American Prosperity In The 21st Century, gets a very nice review from Daniel Hannan.

LIVING LIKE IT’S 1986.

And they’re doing it because their kids – Trey, 5, and Denton, 2 – wouldn’t look up from their parents’ iPhones and iPads long enough to kick a ball around the backyard.

That’s why their house has banned any technology post-1986, the year the couple was born.

No computers, no tablets, no smart phones, no fancy coffee machines, no Internet, no cable, and – from the point of view of many tech-dependent folks – no life.

“We’re parenting our kids the same way we were parented for a year just to see what it’s like,” Blair said.

They do their banking in person instead of online. They develop rolls of film for $20 each instead of Instagramming their sons’ antics.

They recently traveled across the United States using paper maps and entertaining their screaming kids with colouring books and stickers, passing car after car with TVs embedded in the headrests and content infants seated in the back.

The plan is to continue living like it’s 1986 until April 2014.

Clever, but count me out.