Obama Says Afghan Policy Won't Change  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama removed Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal as commander of American forces in Afghanistan on Wednesday, and tapped as his replacement the general's boss and the architect of the 2007 surge in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus.

‘Joe Barton was right,’ Joe Barton tweets  —  Hours after getting a respite from House Republicans, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) has cheekily responded to criticism over his “apology to BP” by tweeting a link to an American Spectator article titled “Joe Barton was right.”

EXCLUSIVE: GORE SEX SCANDAL  —  ENQUIRER WORLD EXCLUSIVE: AL GORE has been accused of sexually attacking a masseuse in Portland, Oregon - and is named in the official police report about the alleged assault, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively!  —  The bombshell story will appear …

First Female Governor Possible in Eight States  —  Numerous Female Candidates Seek Statewide Office  —  As she begins her general election race for South Carolina's top statehouse job, Republican Nikki Haley is part of a group of candidates this year who are simultaneously pursuing another goal …

Federal Gov't Halts Sand Berm Dredging  —  Nungesser Pleads With President To Allow Work To Continue  —  NEW ORLEANS — The federal government is shutting down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand berms in the Gulf of Mexico.  —  The berms are meant to protect the Louisiana coastline from oil.

Gulf oil spill: Boat captain, despondent over spill, commits suicide  —  William Allen Kruse, 55, a charter boat captain recently hired by BP as a vessel of opportunity out of Gulf Shores, Ala., died Wednesday morning before 7:30 a.m. of a gunshot to the head, likely self-inflicted, authorities said.

For immediate release  —  Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in April suggests that the economic recovery is proceeding and that the labor market is improving gradually.  Household spending is increasing but remains constrained by high unemployment …

Sharia Comes to Michigan  —  Under Sharia law, it is forbidden to proselytize to Muslims, and no Muslim can leave the faith.  Dearborn, Michigan, is home to a substantial Muslim population, and there is strong evidence that local authorities now enforce sharia in preference to the Constitution of the United States.

Problem With Cap Causes More Oil to Gush in Gulf  —  BP suffered another setback in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, when a discharge of liquid and gases forced the company to remove the containment cap that for three weeks had been able to capture a large portion of the oil gushing from its damaged well.

Graphic Sex Ed Class Under Fire  —  Parents are outraged after young teenagers were instructed on graphic sexual acts during a Planned Parenthood sex education class at the local high school in Shenandoah, Iowa.  —  “It was horribly inappropriate,” Colleen Dostal told Fox News Radio.

MoveOn Scrubs “General Betray Us” Page From Website . . . Update: Flashback to 2007, Obama Skipped Senate Vote to Condemn MoveOn . . . Update 2: Rationale Page Also Flushed. . .  It was there the last time Google cache took a screen shot of it (June 18th), so it was scrubbed sometime between then and today.

Spitzer, Parker to host primetime CNN show  —  CNN announced Wednesday that Kathleen Parker and Eliot Spitzer will host its new 8 p.m. program.  —  Washington (CNN) - Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Kathleen Parker will co-host …

The Last Ironing Board to Die for a Mistake  —  Yesterday, The Washington Post told the sad story of the last ironing board factory in the United States.  To protect the jobs of 200 workers, imported Chinese ironing boards are hit with tariffs from 70 to 150 percent.

Pelosi asks for donations to fend off potential GOP investigations  —  Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is asking supporters for contributions to help prevent the “subpoenas and investigations” that would result from a GOP majority.  —  In a fundraising letter for the Democratic Congressional …

Nurse being kissed in iconic wartime picture dies, aged 91  —  Edith Shain was photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt in Times Square in 1945 being kissed by a sailor  —  Edith Shain is kissed by an American sailor while thousands jam Times Square, New York, to celebrate victory over Japan in 1945.

WSJ/NBC Poll: Voters Support GOP Takeover of Congress  —  The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll has some encouraging news for Republicans: Voters increasingly prefer a Congress controlled by the GOP.  —  Some 45% said they preferred a Republican controlled Congress as the outcome …

How Is It That We Have Lost the Argument?  —  Martin Wolf: … That fiscal contraction is expansionary when it is part of a package including substantial real exchange rate depreciation and substantail interest rate reductions by the central banks is something I have believed ever since I first started thinking about these issues.