For Obama, Decision to Remove General Came Quickly  —  WASHINGTON — By the time he woke up Wednesday morning, President Obama had made up his mind.  —  During the 36 frenetic hours since he had been handed an article from the coming issue of Rolling Stone ominously headlined “The Runaway General …

Al Gore A “Crazed Sex Poodle?”  —  Masseuse's claims read like R-rated vice presidential fan fiction  —  In a bizarre statement to police, the Oregon woman who claims that Al Gore fondled and groped her during a massage session described the former Vice President as a giggling “crazed sex poodle” …

GOP POISED TO KILL TAX-EXTENDERS BILL.... For weeks, Senate Democrats have tried to pass what's called the “tax-extenders bill” — a key economic package that extends unemployment benefits, maintains popular tax breaks, protects doctors from Medicare cuts, and boosts state aid to prevent massive job layoffs in the states.

Confidence Wanes in Obama, U.S. Outlook  —  Americans are more pessimistic about the state of the country and less confident in President Barack Obama's leadership than at any point since Mr. Obama entered the White House, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Bank execs panic over proposed change to orderly liquidation authority — Dodd unhappy with Brown — Zero hour arrives as derivatives, ‘Volcker rule’ remain unresolved  —  Presented by Merchants Payments Coalition  —  DOUBLE SIREN EXCLUSIVE - Bank executives were panicking last night …

Supreme Court casts doubt on ex-Enron CEO Skilling's conviction  —  The Supreme Court Thursday restricted one of federal prosecutors' favorite tools for pursuing corrupt politicians and self-dealing corporate chiefs, and cast doubt on the conviction of former Enron chief Jeffrey Skilling.

Key House Republican: If gaffes were reason to resign, Biden would be gone  —  If gaffes were a legitimate reason to resign, Vice President Joe Biden would already be out of office, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said Thursday.  —  The second-ranking House Republican appeared on MSNBC's …

Liberal Dems' battle to cut defense spending reaches a turning point  —  A growing number of centrist Democrats say they're open to trimming Pentagon spending in the face of record budget deficits and mounting public debt.  —  Liberal Democrats for years have called for cuts to the massive defense budget to no avail.

Germany and the International Austerity Debate.  —  This weekend, President Obama will be in Canada for G-20 summit meetings of the largest world economies.  There, the U.S. agenda will focus on a number of international issues, but among the most important will be encouraging other countries …

BP Is Pursuing Alaska Drilling Some Call Risky  —  The future of BP's offshore oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico has been thrown into doubt by the recent drilling disaster and court wrangling over a moratorium.  —  But about three miles off the coast of Alaska, BP is moving ahead …

Senate ready to hang states, the unemployed, the economy out to dry  —  Harry Reid is going to try one more stab at passing the tax extenders/unemployment/aid to states bill.  He filed for cloture last night and the vote will be Friday.  A Democratic Senate aide tells me that “the outlook is grim” …

Mandatory Bar Parking  —  I've complained often about the scourge of mandatory parking minimums and the damage they wreak on our economy, our communities, our public health, and our environment.  Jonathan Hiskes raises the particularly absurd example of mandatory parking at bars:

General McChrystal's Twitters  —  Get short, timely messages from Gen. Stanley McChrystal on Twitter:  —  DAY 1  —  In Paris with my Kabul posse — Bluto, Otter, Boon, Pinto, Flounder.  Plus some newbie.  Guys call him Scribbles.  —  ∗  —  Suite's getting pretty crowded.

Video-Rep. Kanjorski: ‘Finance bill will help good Americans, not minorities or defective people’  —  Connie Hair at Human Events has posted this shocking video of Rep. Paul Kanjorski, Pennsylvania Democrat, at a Wednesday conference committee hearing to merge the House and Senate versions …

Focus U.S.A. / ‘The U.S. will have to confront Iran or give up the Middle East’  —  Amitai Etzioni, professor of International Relations at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., believes the only option available to contain Iran's atomic ambitions is a series of assaults on its non-nuclear facilities.

California welfare cards can be used in many casino ATMs  —  Times review finds that in more than half of the state's casinos and gaming rooms, welfare recipients can get cash from state-issued EBT cards.  Officials say they're moving to block such transactions.

Harkin hints ‘card-check’ bill could move during lame-duck session of Congress  —  Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) suggested Thursday that Democrats might attempt to move “card-check” legislation this year, perhaps during a lame-duck session.  —  Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education …