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Good morning, folks. Steve Carell is indeed leaving The Office after next year. Now, your morning constitutional: General Petraeus appears for confirmation hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee today to lead the war effort in Afghanistan. His confirmation is basically assured, but questions will arise about the President\’s strategy for the war. Kagan taking questions during her confirmation hearing; seems to be getting at least a little bipartisan support on the committee; Scott Brown glowingly called her \”undoubtedly a brilliant woman who has served her country in a variety of capacities.\” Dahlia Lithwick at Slate on...

Good morning, folks. Steve Carell is indeed leaving The Office after next year. Now, your morning constitutional: General Petraeus appears for confirmation hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee today to lead the war effort in Afghanistan. His confirmation is basically assured, but questions will arise about the President\’s strategy for the war. Kagan taking questions during her confirmation hearing; seems to be getting at least a little bipartisan support on the committee; Scott Brown glowingly called her \”undoubtedly a brilliant woman who has served her country in a variety of capacities.\” Dahlia Lithwick at Slate on...

Good morning, everybody. The U.S. and England are out. Now, your morning constitutional: Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the longest-serving senator in history, is dead at 92. FiveThirtyEight looks at how the W.V. senate seat will be filled. Elana Kagan\’s confirmation hearings begin today. How Republicans are struggling for a line of attack. Slate wonders: How many votes will Elena Kagan get? A new study shows that Supreme Court hearings do address real substance; also, women and minority nominees are more closely questioned than white males. The people of Kyrgyzstan voted to approve a new constitution...

Good morning, everyone. Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker are going to bring you the news on CNN this fall. Now, your morning constitutional: Kevin Rudd has stepped down as Prime Minister of Australia after his deputy Julia Gillard secured enough votes to overthrow him. FiveThirtyEight looks into the downfall of Rudd, who was very recently Australia\’s most popular PM. Gillard becomes Australia\’s first female prime minister. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is in Washington today to discuss the global economy with President Obama. Russia plans to resume supplying Belarus with natural gas after Belarus paid its debt to...

Good morning, everybody. Jerry Seinfeld thinks Lady Gaga is a jerk. Now, your morning constitutional: Gen. Stanley McChrystal\’s fate, now unknown, will likely be determined today in his meeting with President Obama today. Some inside the White House may be suggesting he might be on his way out, which would not make Afghan leaders particularly happy. And how the debacle highlights, yet again, the split over Afghanistan between Gen. McChrystal and Vice President Biden. Regardless of what happens, the president is still stuck with the same counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan McChrystal put into place. Shady: U.S. District...

Good morning, folks. Did Toy Story 3 make you cry? Well, there\’s always your morning constitutional: Gen. Stanley McCrystal, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, was called back to Washington after making critical remarks in an interview about administration officials including the president and vice president. Former federal prosecutor Michael Bromwich on Monday took over as director the agency that oversees offshore drilling. The agency was formerly known as the Minerals Management Service, but was renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement in a shakeup by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. Peter Orszag,...

Good morning, everybody. As I write this, Portugal just creamed PRK by a whopping 7-0. Sweet Jesus. Anyways, here\’s your morning constitutional: A worker on the Deepwater Horizon rig claims to have told BP that he found a leak on the rig just weeks before the explosion. Russia has begun to cut off natural gas to its neighbor Belarus, saying Belarus owes it over $200m. Poland\’s presidential election is heading into a runoff, after no candidate was able to win enough votes to win outright. In Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos easily won the presidency yesterday with 69...

Good morning, everybody. The NBA has a new champion. Now, your morning constitutional: The interim leader of Kyrgyzstan says that the toll of the recent ethnic violence could be as much as ten times worst than previously believed. Democrats, while trying to restrict special interests, make loopholes for special interests. Liberal Senators threaten to abandon energy legislation if it does not include a price on carbon. Slate: Pick up just about any novel and you\’ll find a throwaway reference to a dog, barking in the distance. North Korea fans actually Chinese actors. A Republican-led filibuster was successful...

Good morning, everyone. Charlie Sheen\’s car has been driven off a cliff — again. Now, your morning constitutional: In a speech from the Oval Office, President Obama last night urged action on new energy legislation and promised to make BP pay for damages related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Judge Vaughn R. Walker will hear closing arguments today in a long-running trial on a lawsuit hoping to overturn California\’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriages in the state. A series of six earthquakes, ranging from 4.8-7.0 magnitude, hit Indonesia Wednesday, killing at least...

Good morning, folks. Ubisoft is making a Michael Jackson video game. Now, your morning constitutional: Ethnic violence in Kyrgystan is beginning to wane as aide arrives in the southern city of Osh. Britian prepares Tuesday to release a report of the government investigation into the 1972 Bloody Sunday killings of demonstrators in Londonderry, which lead to three decades of violence in Northern Ireland known as The Troubles. President Obama tries to lift the mood is in the Gulf region today, ahead of his televised speech tonight, in which he will attempt to reassert the image of control...