Have you noticed that there seems to be a revolving door at the top of the GOP presidential polls? First it was Michele Bachmann, replaced shortly by Rick Perry, only to be supplanted by Herman Cain and/or Mitt Romney (depending on the poll you are reading.) You know who else has noticed this? Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough who repeated his “flavor of the month” mantra in an entertaining exhibition of “I told you so” style commentary.

In the wake of the killing of Al Qaeda operative Anwar Al-Awlaki, many have raised questions as to the legality of executive military actions against US citizens such as Al-Awlaki, who lived for most of his terrorist tenure in the Middle East. In discussing the killing of the Al Qaeda leader this morning, Chris Hayes and his panel discussed the scope of the law President Obama used for his actions, with American Conservative contributor Michael Brendan Dougherty concluding that, in matters of national security, such actions were near-monarchical in nature.

Candidate Sen. Barack Obama faced plenty of criticism for being wet behind the ears on national security issues, particularly in contrast to his war hero opponent. And yet the highlight of his tenure so far has been the near eradication of Al Qaeda. On last night’s program, Rachel Maddow looked back on the Obama administration’s terror victories and asks whether the fact that the two leaders killed this weekend had American citizenship should change the legal status of the attacks that killed them.

President Barack Obama had long planned to be in Falls Church, Virginia today, to thank say farewell to outgoing Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, but his appearance went from a standard ceremonial one to that of a newsworthy foreign affairs moment. After welcoming other dignitaries in attendance, Obama opened with comments on the recent killing of U.S. born al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki.

At 5:15 a.m. ET, ABC News reported that the Yemeni government has confirmed that American-born Al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed in Yemen.

Further ABC News reports from White House correspondent Jake Tapper reveal that there had been a “flurry of activity” on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Anwar Al-Awlaki, the terrorism suspect who was controversially placed on the United States’ kill or capture list (the first US citizen to be so “honored”), has been killed, according to reports confirmed by government officials. Al-Awlaki was killed by a US missile strike in Yemen, near the Saudi border. A high-level operative of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Al-Awlaki was linked to the Fort Hood shooting, and unsuccessful underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Recently, while speaking to the UN General Assembly, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated a bunch of terrible stuff including his belief that the 9/11 attack was actually perpetrated by the US government to create cause to invade Middle Eastern countries. Obviously, this kind of talk is a direct slap in the face to every man, woman, and child who lost their lives on that day.

Apparently though, that also includes the, uh, terrorists themselves. It turns out that al Qaeda is pretty annoyed the Iranian president said these things. It makes sense if you think about it. I mean, say what you will about al Qaeda but those guys put a lot of work into that thing.

Fox News contributor and former Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters expressed his hope on Fox News today that people would not give in to “scaremongering” and stop “seeing al-Qaeda under every prayer rug and be proud.” Host Megyn Kelly cited a recent column by Charles Krauthammer arguing that al-Qaeda has been weakened because of the “massive and unrelenting war on terror.”

While defending the United States’ current military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, Senator John McCain acknowledged that most Americans are not in favor of further military intervention in the Middle East, and discussed how changing mores in the region have affected the influence of terrorist groups.

To quote Rod Serling, submitted for your approval: Friday afternoon, presidential helicopter Marine One is forced to land in an “undisclosed location” en route to Camp David due to bad weather that no one can see. As President Obama and daughter Sasha are transferred to a motorcade for the remainder of the trip, a civilian aircraft is intercepted by F-15 fighters. Also on Friday, the FBI issues a warning about the possibility that al Qaeda may use small aircraft in a terror attack.

Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, was killed today in Pakistan from a U.S. missile strike, according to a Pakistani intelligence official. After Osama bin Laden was taken out in May, the SEALs that raided his compound discovered information about al-Rahman’s ties to al-Qaeda. Last month, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed hope that the defeat of the terrorist organization is “within reach” given previous successes in taking out al-Qaeda leaders.

David Letterman isn’t afraid of your jihadist threats. Last week, the late-night funny man became the target of jihadists on Shumukh-al-Islam, a website which, according to SITE Intelligence Group, frequently posts messages from Al-Qaeda and their supporters, after he made an ill-received joke wherein he mocked the death of senior Al-Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri by [...]

A report by chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross on tonight’s ABC World News suggests the Department of Homeland Security has become concerned of potential attacks by insiders at American utility plants–chemical facilities, oil refineries and even nuclear plants. The threat presents al Qaeda with what Ross describes as its best opportunity for a massive attack on U.S. to mark the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks. “The only way you can actually kill the large scale number of Americans that [bin Laden] literally was calculating was through the use of this critical infrastructure,” former DHS chief of staff Chad Sweet tells ABC News.

Remember when you used to watch Sunday morning cartoons? You know, the shows about superheroes who used their powers for good to defeat the forces of evil in a mere 22 minutes? Well, our enemies may have discovered this weapon of mass distraction, and are using it to brainwash future generations of jihadists. According to [...]

Mayor Mike Bloomberg made his first appearance on television since his state passed a law allowing same-sex couples to marry civilly, and Bloomberg was proud of his state. Bloomberg, a former Republican, told Last Word host Lawrence O’Donnell that he was happy to see the law pass because it was “not contrary to the things Republicans stand for,” including “marriage stability” and personal responsibility.

President Obama’s announcement tonight that he would be withdrawing 33,000 troops from Afghanistan within the next year may come as good news to many who wish to see an end to the conflict, but the fact that his timeline for withdrawal is faster than that proposed by Gen. David Petraeus has Bill O’Reilly concerned about whether President Obama could escape being labeled an opportunist reacting to political forces rather than a commander in chief acting in the nation’s interest.

Bill O’Reilly introduced his first guest of tonight’s show emphasizing the bizarre position she now found herself in: “does it make you queasy that you are now in agreement with some on the far left about Afghanistan?” Naturally, when put that way, Ann Coulter was spooked, though “even a broken clock is right twice a day,” and argued that Democrats now wanted to stay in Afghanistan only because it “is not in America’s national security interest.”

While we were all enthralled by the epic Weinergate saga, a different tale of unsecured weaponry went virtually unnoticed. On Thursday’s The Big Picture, liberal radio and TV host Thom Hartmann discussed a recent call by Al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn for aspiring terrorists to exploit weak US gun control laws. Hartmann debated the topic with The Weekly Standard‘s Daniel Halper and Jamie Weinstein of The Daily Caller, who didn’t object to closing the loophole, but weren’t that fired up about it, either.

Among the wonderful tidbits U.S. officials have discovered sifting through the materials seized in Osama bin Laden‘s Pakistan compound is this: he totally hogged the house’s one-and-only air conditioner. “Bin Laden’s rooms did have the only air conditioner in the compound, in a region where summer temperatures can top 100 degrees,” reports the Associated Press. Oh, you bastard.

Former Special Advisor to President Obama for Green Jobs, Van Jones, is always outspoken and is now trying to stir the pot again when it comes to discussing Republican Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget plan. Speaking yesterday at an event for for Yes! Magazine, Jones seriously suggested Ryan’s budget proposal is more threatening to America than Al Qaeda and therefore represents a “cheap patriotism.”

The inevitable Osama bin Laden porn scandal has launched a thousand giggles within the news community, and even Lawrence O’Donnell couldn’t keep a straight face discussing the matter. On The Last Word yesterday, O’Donnell made “the official position of this show” that the pornography found on the compound was definitely bin Laden’s, and repeatedly deadpanned his shock that the Al Qaeda leader had hoarded illicit materials.

Among the various items recovered from Osama bin Laden‘s Pakistan compound is a handwritten journal kept by the terrorist leader.

The journal includes revealing information about the state of Al Qaeda. For instance, bin Laden, evidently concerned over increased fragmentation within the terrorist network, encouraged the group’s members to find new ways of attacking the United States, urging them, for example, to look into targeting smaller American cities and trains in addition to airplanes.

On CNN’s Reliable Sources, ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross looked back at the reporting on terror–and terror threats–in the days (and years) after 9/11. Reviewing the many potential threats that made for frightening news reports (such as a report of Ross’s in 2006 about a possible attack by suicide bombers on a “major sports facility” in the U.S)–but, in looking back, never came to the point of an attack–Ross had few regrets.

National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, making the rounds of the Sunday shows, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss the large amount of data recovered in the raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. While Americans have been treated to video of bin Laden the (non)couch potato channel-surfing from his creepy uncle den, Donilon told David Gregory that there’s a lot more where that came from, and summed it up colorfully, saying of the find, “”It’s about the size, the CIA tells us, of a small college library.”

The federal government is starting to slowly release items from what is now history’s single largest intelligence treasure trove, Osama bin Laden‘s Pakistani compound, today making public home videos of the al-Qaeda mass murderer’s daily life. Among them, the first to make it on air is that of a frail-looking bin Laden watching himself on television.