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 …

Prosecutor: Al Gore was focus of sex crime inquiry in Portland  —  The Multnomah County District Attorney's Office confirmed today that a woman who alleged unwanted sexual contact by Al Gore reported it to police in 2006, and the prosecutor's office was briefed by the Portland Police Bureau in late 2006 and January 2007.

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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.

Obama and the Woes of the Democrats  —  The president's low ratings mean he can't lift his party by campaigning.  —  Democrats are acknowledging they'll lose ground in the midterms.  The only question is how much.  Today, the evidence points to quite a lot.  —  The most important indicator is the president's job approval.

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.

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.

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:

Video: Cops arrest Christians for handing out gospel at Dearborn Arab festival?  Update: Pushback  —  Via Powerline, so insane is this that I'm paranoid there's a key detail missing somewhere that might explain the whole thing.  Could the Christians have been trespassing on private property, maybe?

Chicken Little-ing Lieberman's ‘Kill Switch.’  —  If you track tech politics closely, there's a good chance you can spot a Declan McCullagh column before you glance at the byline.  McCullagh, a reporter and commentator for CNET, has a tendency to hang any tech news of the day on an anti-government framework …

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 …