Got this and some additional info on the 301 (vs 302 redirect) update from Rae Hoffman at http://outspokenmedia.com.  My first install had something error and I did not receive the plugins settings but did get a flush of info on my admin page. So without further delay, I give you “How To Easily Create Your Own URL Shortener With WordPress.”

Since it’s entirely possible to shorten our own URLs and I’m not super technical, I went in search of a WordPress plugin that could help me along in the process and came across Link Shortcut. This appeared to have all the functionality I wanted (you can define random strings or generate your own, you can specify a sub-folder if you want and you can set a default length for the URL to ensure you don’t go over the “Twitter max”.)

via How To Easily Create Your Own URL Shortener With WordPress.

Here is a manually generated short URL:
http://davorado.com/8e

Which was created using the following URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishing

Download Plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/link-shortcut/