He Speaks  —  Video highlight: Perry says he has decided he wants to be president.  —  Video highlight: Perry on 43's advice to him. Transcript of Mark Halperin's Interview with Rick Perry  —  Halperin: Tell me what being a Texan means to you.  —  Perry: (Laughs.)

Taxes key to Mitt Romney's '04 pitch to Standard & Poor's  —  Gov. Mitt Romney lobbied the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's in 2004 to raise his state's credit rating in part because Massachusetts had raised taxes during an economic downturn two years earlier.

Peter King on Osama bin Laden movie: ‘I hit a sensitive nerve’  —  Rep. Peter King begs to differ with White House press secretary Jay Carney's jab that it's “ridiculous” for the congressman to suggest the Obama administration could be endangering national security by cooperating with filmmakers working on a movie about Osama bin Laden.

Years of liberal dogma have spawned a generation of amoral, uneducated, welfare dependent, brutalised youngsters  —  A few weeks after the U.S. city of Detroit was ravaged by 1967 race riots in which 43 people died, I was shown around the wrecked areas by a black reporter named Joe Strickland.

More Educated People Spend More On Booze  —  Your Bureau of Labor Statistics trivia fact of the day is that educational attainment is strongly correlated with alcohol expenditures:

Poll: Spreading gloom about government; most dissatisfied with political system  —  In the aftermath of the tumultuous debate over raising the debt ceiling, Americans give Washington a strong vote of no confidence, with barely a quarter saying the federal government can fix the nation's economic problems …

FLASHBACK: In 1990 Campaign Ad, McConnell Said ‘I Think Everyone Should Pay Their Fair Share, Including The Rich’  —  Today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) named three Republicans to the fiscal super committee that was created by the debt ceiling deal.

Hear me now?  Union picketers ‘ridiculous’  —  A Quincy mom has disconnected her support for striking Verizon workers yesterday after a group of mouthy picketers surrounded non-union repairmen and turned a phone-line fix at her home into what she is calling a “ridiculous” protest scene.

Secret peace talks between US and Taliban collapse over leaks  —  Secret exploratory peace talks between the United States and the Taliban leadership have broken down after details of the negotiations were leaked, Western diplomats have told The Daily Telegraph.

D.C., Hawaii Most Democratic, Utah Most Republican State in '11  —  North Dakota and Louisiana tilt more Republican than they did in 2010  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Hawaii shows the largest advantage for the Democratic Party over the Republican Party among U.S. states, along with the District of Columbia, in the first half of 2011.

Anarchy and Austerity: Why London Won't Be the Last City to Burn  —  The Great Recession gave birth to a lost generation across the world, where youth unemployment rates stretch into the 20s, 30s and even 40s.  Those millions have responded with violence.  —  REUTERS

Claire McCaskill Comes Out Against Further Unemployment Benefits [UPDATE] … During a Tuesday visit to a factory in St. Charles, Mo., Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill said she opposed extending federal unemployment benefits.  —  “I'm not for extending the unemployment benefits any further …

Europe Considers Ban on Short Selling  —  BRUSSELS — A European market regulator is considering recommending a temporary ban on negative bets against stocks across the continent, in an effort to stop the tailspin in the markets, according to two people with knowledge of government discussions.

Sorry, Guys, There Are No More Kings  —  The romance is gone.  But don't worry.  It's not him; it's you.  —  It turns out we are the ones who failed Him.  We weren't prepared for a mega-dosage of awesomeness.  We were too dimwitted to grasp the decency of central planning.

Supercommittee gives Kerry chance to shine, worrying liberals  —  Sen. John Kerry's appointment to the debt-reduction supercommittee is his big moment to shine as a dealmaker and silence critics who have questioned his modest record of legislative accomplishments.

Assemblyman's Vehicle Is Hit by Gunfire in Brooklyn, but He Is Unharmed  —  A sport utility vehicle driven by Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr. was hit by gunfire in Brooklyn on Wednesday evening as he rode with his 7-year-old son, a police spokeswoman said.

America's debt is not its biggest problem  —  For a few days there it seemed like President Obama was the master of the bond market.  This is a Triple-A nation, he intoned on Monday, and always will be a Triple-A nation no matter what some rating agency says.

The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy  —  As Jenny lay on the obstetrician's examination table, she was grateful that the ultrasound tech had turned off the overhead screen.  She didn't want to see the two shadows floating inside her.  Since making her decision, she had tried hard not to think about them …

Telling It Like It Wasn't  —  Former Times reporter looks back on coverage of the event, and what went wrong.  —  Twenty years ago next week, on the night of Aug. 19, 1991 — the night that Gavin Cato and Yankel Rosenbaum were killed — my editor called me at home to tell me that riots had broken out on the streets of Crown Heights.

Wisc.  Results Suggest Recall of Governor Would Be Close  —  Close doesn't count in elections — just ask Al Gore or Norm Coleman.  —  It appeared as late as midnight on Tuesday that Democrats had a chance to win the three seats necessary to give them control of Wisconsin's State Senate in an unusual and expensive recall election.

White House photo sparks protest  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House photographer was allowed to take and widely distribute a photo from the ceremony Tuesday for the return of the remains of 30 American troops killed in a weekend helicopter crash in Afghanistan despite the Pentagon's claim …

Dem leader wants jobs ‘supercommittee’  —  With national unemployment hovering above 9 percent, a leading House Democrat is pushing to establish a “supercommittee” for creating jobs.  —  Rep. John Larson (Conn.), chairman of the Democratic Caucus, wants to amend the recently passed debt-limit package …

Poll: New Yorkers want same-sex marriage law to stay put  —  Washington (CNN) - Just weeks into a new law that recognizes same-sex marriage in New York, a new poll finds a majority of voters in the state not only support the legislation but would resist efforts to overturn it, as well.