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 …

Harry Reid's son leaves last name out of first campaign ad  —  Nevada gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid (D) is on the air with his first campaign ad and it's missing one thing: his last name.  —  Reid, the son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), doesn't say his name at any point during the ad …

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 …

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:

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 …

The Emerging Republican Minority  —  The Center for American Politics' Ruy Teixeira, one of the top political demographers in the country, has a new paper out in which he examines the two major party coalitions, with a focus on the current and future prospects of the Republican Party.

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.

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.

Group of youths attack Jewish dance group  —  BERLIN - A Jewish dance group was attacked with stones by a group of children and teenagers during a performance at a street festival in the Germany city of Hannover, police said Thursday.  One dancer suffered a leg injury and the group then canceled their performance.

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” …

It's official: Kim Reynolds of Osceola is Republican Terry Branstad's running mate for Iowa governor  —  Republican candidate for governor Terry Branstad named state Sen. Kim Reynolds of Osceola as his running mate today, elevating the southern Iowa freshman legislator to the statewide political stage.

Praise for the military  —  The McChrystal controversy has reflected extraordinarily well on the military as an institution.  McChrystal's comments themselves amounted to impolitic and unwise gripes about his bosses in front of a reporter.  In any other context, it'd be a story, but not all that interesting of one.