On Today's Hot Media Stories: Sherrod, “Journolist”  —  I go out of reach of internet-land for 48 hours, and the place blows up!  Let me be the last person in the Official Media to weigh in on two topics:  —  1) Shirley Sherrod.  I agree with my colleagues Coates, Sullivan, Green, Ambinder …

In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick.  Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected …

The Shame of the Daily Caller  —  I'd encourage everyone to read this Ann Althouse post on today's bogus Daily Caller story about JournoList.  Her bottom line: “The Daily Caller's article is weak.  And I'm inclined to think the material in the Journolist archive is pretty mild stuff.”

Congress Ranks Last in Confidence in Institutions  —  Fifty percent “little"/"no" confidence in Congress reading is record high  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup's 2010 Confidence in Institutions poll finds Congress ranking dead last out of the 16 institutions rated this year.

Key Democrat backs keeping tax cuts for rich  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A fiscally conservative Democrat who chairs the U.S. Senate's budget committee on Wednesday said he supports extending all of the tax cuts that expire this year, including for the wealthy.

Petraeus Sharpens Afghan Strategy  —  WASHINGTON—Gen. David Petraeus plans to ramp up the U.S. military's troop-intensive strategy in Afghanistan, according to some senior military officials, who have concluded that setbacks in the war effort this year weren't the result of the strategy, but with flaws in how it has been implemented.

Obama wins!  And Journolisters rejoice  —  DAVID ROBERTS, GRIST: It's all I can do not to start bawling.  —  LUKE MITCHELL, HARPER'S: I'm picturing something like VJ Day in Times Square.  Seriously!  —  JOHN BLEVINS, SOUTH TEXAS COLLEGE OF LAW: It's all I can do to hold it together.  —  Nov. 4:

Ballot slogan axed  —  Candidate with history of feuds with local officials says she plans to sue  —  By Jason Stein and Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel  —  Madison — State elections officials Wednesday narrowly rejected a Milwaukee Assembly candidate's attempt to run with the slogan …

Anti-mosque protests on the rise, say Muslim advocates  —  Opposition to the construction of mosques has skyrocketed in cities and towns across the country, scholars and advocates of Muslim culture tell The Upshot.  —  Public protests against three planned mosques have made news in the past week …

ACORN Missouri Assaults Bank As President Obama Signs Bank Bailout Bill  —  President Obama signed the financial regulations bill into law today.  At the exact time of the signing, leftist agitators from the former Missouri ACORN assaulted a Chase Bank sales branch in Chesterfield, a suburb of St Louis.

AL GORE SEX SCANDAL SHOCKER POLICE INVESTIGATE TWO MORE!  —  The ENQUIRER reports in an exclusive bombshell exclusive that police have investigated charges from TWO MORE WOMEN who claimed they were abused by former VP AL GORE!  —  The allegations come hot on the heels of an ongoing Portland …

As financial reform becomes law, SEC emerges with new powers and duties  —  The financial regulation law signed by President Obama on Wednesday will arguably affect no federal agency more than it does the Securities and Exchange Commission.  —  The SEC is required to issue 95 new regulations governing …

Senate Gives Final Approval to Jobless Benefits  —  WASHINGTON - The Senate gave final approval Wednesday evening to legislation providing added unemployment benefits through November to millions of Americans who have been out of work for six months or more, ending a politically charged fight.

Bernanke Sees No Quick End to High Rate of Joblessness  —  WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Federal Reserve, in saying that it had no immediate plans to provide additional support to the economy, dashed the hopes of some economists and executives who have been pushing for action to add momentum to the sluggish recovery.

Conflict Resurfaces With Lessons on Nation-Building  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama's team is busy these days managing a troop drawdown in Iraq and a troop escalation in Afghanistan, hoping in both cases to build governments that can manage their own countries.

DOJ: Prosecutor firing was politics, not crime  —  WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's Justice Department's actions were inappropriately political, but not criminal, when it fired a U.S. attorney in 2006, prosecutors said Wednesday in closing a two-year investigation without filing charges.

Video: Gibbs apologizes to Sherrod  —  Assuming she hasn't yet formally been offered her job back, consider this an official guarantee that she will be.  (Whether she wants it back is a another matter.)  Question: When was the last time a story blew up this forcefully in the faces of people on both sides?