Shortly before noon today, General Stanley McChrystal will face President Obama in the White House over derisive comments made by him and his aides in a Rolling Stone profile. Rumor in the beltway this morning says the U.S.'s top commander in Afghanistan is prepared to tender his resignation. McChrystal's insubordination is hardly the first case of tension between him and the president. According to Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter, there is a history of personal conflict between these two that dates back to at least last fall. That story and this morning's headlines.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal meets with President Obama today, as the fallout from a Rolling Stone article remains front and center in Washington. In his article, journalist Michael Hastings (who was on The Takeaway yesterday) quotes the general and his aides making disparaging remarks about various administration officials, including Vice President Biden and the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.

Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation Kenneth Feinberg—more popularly referred to as the "Wall Street Pay Czar"—has a long history of arbitrating over contentious and sensitive issues. From determining the fair market value of the Zapruder film of John F. Kennedy's assassination to determining the fair market value of the lives of victims of 9/11, Feinberg's history of mediation made him a logical choice to administer the $20 billion escrow fund for victims of BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

General Stanley McChrystal is scheduled to meet with President Obama later this morning. The general will answer for comments made by him and his aides in a now infamous Rolling Stone profile. This morning the question on everybody's mind is, will those quotes cost the general his job? Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich has been gathering reactions from the political class on Capitol Hill, and many of them are staying mum over what they think lies in McChrystal's future.

With all of the enormous tasks that President Obama is juggling – oil gushing into the Gulf, two wars, a recession – he decided to add another big one to the mix yesterday: ending homelessness. The president announced the first ever national plan to end homelessness on Tuesday at the White House. It’s ambitious: the 74-page plan aims to end chronic homelessness and homelessness among veterans within five years, and homelessness for families and children within ten years.

When President Obama assumed office in January 2009, one of the many facets of his ambitious agenda was to "press the reset button" on relations with Russia. A year and a half later, the U.S. appears to have indeed pressed that button, and is seemingly on the path to forging the sort of closer relations with Russia that have eluded the president's predecessors. Obama and his Russian counterpart, President Dmitry Medvedev reportedly have a great deal of personal affinity for one another, so all eyes are on Medvedev as he visits the U.S. this week.

It's summer time, and what better time to enjoy a fruit pie or the triumph of culinary competition? We're doing both in The Takeaway's summer fruit pie smackdown.

Melissa Clark from the New York Times is ready to rumble with her sour cherry pie. And Deb Perelman of smittenkitchen.com brings her own strawberry rhubarb pie to the competition.

Serving as the judge is Emily Elsen, third-generation pie maker, featured chef on the Cooking Channel's Unique Eats, and owner (along with her sister Melissa Elsen) of Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Shop in Brooklyn, NY.  (recipes after the jump.)

Today meeting between President Obama and General Stanley McChrystal won't be the first time the president has had to dress his top commander in Afghanistan down. Retired U.S. Army Colonel Jack Jacobs taught McChrystal as a cadet at West Point. He says this is most likely both a personal and policy dispute, but that McCrystal is "probably the wrong guy" for the job. That story, and this morning's headlines.

General Stanley McChrystal is in quite a pickle, after comments from him and his aides insulting Obama administration officials were published in Rolling Stone magazine, by writer Michael hastings, who spoke on our show yesterday:

"I was with General McChrystal when he checked his Blackberry, and he said, ‘oh no, not another email’ from Holbrooke, Richard Holbrooke, who’s the special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. And then he said, ‘I don’t even want to read it.'"

For more than two months, we've tracked news and developments of the Gulf oil spill. But is it technically a "spill?" The broken pipe is spilling (or gushing, or spewing, or leaking) as many as 30,000 to 60,000 gallons of oil a day. Is it time for some new terminology? What would you call the oil spill, and why?

A federal judge in New Orleans has overturned a moratorium on deepwater oil drilling, instituted by President Obama at the end of May. The judge said the Interior Department's decision to suspend drilling in the Gulf was arbitrary. Obama, on Tuesday, vowed to appeal the decision.

It’s been an exciting World Cup for the U.S. soccer team so far, but today's match is the crucial one. The winner of today's match against Algeria will advance to the second round while the loser will be eliminated. "The U.S. is ranked 14th and Algeria is ranked 30th and it really doesn't matter," says New York Times sports columnist, George Vecsey.

Immortality has always been a dream of humanity, though in movies and books, we are often told that our mortality is somehow integral to the human experience. If you could live longer – much, much longer than our expected 79 years — would you want to?  Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner examines the science of longevity in his new book, Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality.

The Library of Congress announced its list of the most culturally significant recordings to be added to the National Recording Registry. Among the selections were classic songs like "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard, Loretta Lynn's autobiographical tune "Coal Miner's Daughter," Tupac Shakur's "Dear Mama," and Patti Smith iconic 1975 album "Horses." But not all of the selections were musical. Bill Cosby's comedy record "I Started Out as a Child" and recordings of battle sounds from World War II also made the cut. (Click the jump to hear three of our favorites.)