Top Items:
McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Obama plans to send 34,000 more troops to Afghanistan — WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama met Monday evening with his national security team to finalize a plan to dispatch some 34,000 additional U.S. troops over the next year to what he's called “a war of necessity” in Afghanistan, U.S. officials told McClatchy.
Discussion:
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Mike Allen / The Politico:
Obama makes a Ron Brownstein blog post mandatory reading for the …
Obama makes a Ron Brownstein blog post mandatory reading for the …
Discussion:
The Foundry, Mediaite, Ben Smith's Blog, The New Republic, Corrente, The Washington Independent and National Review Online
CNN:
CNN Poll: Americans divided over troop buildup in Afghanistan
CNN Poll: Americans divided over troop buildup in Afghanistan
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Caucus, The Confluence and DownWithTyranny!
Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:
Obama Plans Afghan Address Next Week
Obama Plans Afghan Address Next Week
Discussion:
Josh Gerstein's Blog, Danger Room, Top of the Ticket, Stop The ACLU, VetVoice, Hotline On Call, Indecision Forever and Think Progress
Toby Harnden / Telegraph:
Barack Obama to host first state dinner in huge tent
Barack Obama to host first state dinner in huge tent
Discussion:
Obama Foodorama, JammieWearingFool, The Moderate Voice, Row 2, Seat 4, The Page, Israel Matzav and American Power
Carol E. Lee / The Politico:
Obama: I'll ‘finish the job’ in Afghanistan
Obama: I'll ‘finish the job’ in Afghanistan
Discussion:
Power Line, Commentary, Washington Post, The Corner on National …, Politics Daily, The Page and Weasel Zippers
Rowan Scarborough / Fox News:
Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist — Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004.
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, The Jawa Report, Townhall.com, Hot Air, BLACKFIVE and JammieWearingFool
Robert Stacy McCain / The Other McCain:
NEWS ALERT: Kentucky State Police Will Announce Sparkman Investigation Result UPDATE: Official: It Was Suicide — UPDATE 2:15 p.m.: It's now official: Bill Sparkman committed suicide. So much for “Southern populist terrorism” — and the credibility of Andrew Sullivan.
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, CBS News, The Jawa Report, WKYT-TV, RedState, AmSpecBlog, The Washington Independent and Confederate Yankee
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Michelle Malkin:
When will the Left retract the Kentucky census worker case smear? — Reminder: This was the smear graphic spread on far Left blogs that accuses prominent conservatives of contributing to the death of Kentucky census worker Bill Sparkman. Note the caption at the bottom: “He reaped what they sowed.”
Bill Estep / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Census worker in Kentucky killed self, officials conclude
Census worker in Kentucky killed self, officials conclude
Discussion:
Raw Story
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
The Failure Option — Josh Marshall puzzles over what's changed in American politics to make the 60 vote threshold so difficult to overcome, and argues that “we're also deluding ourselves if we do not figure in a large role for larger structural changes in our politics.
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Lynn Sweet:
Obama State Dinner Official Food and Wine Menu — Place card at the Obama first state dinner (photo by Lynn Sweet) — Desert plate, Obama first state dinner (photo by Lynn Sweet) — Potato and Eggplant Salad — White House Argula with onion seed vinaigrette
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Matthew Dowd / Washington Post:
Yes, she can: Palin has a shot at the presidency — How Sarah Palin might win the White House — President Sarah Palin. To many pundits and late-night comedians, this sounds like a punch line, and to many die-hard Democrats it sounds like a reason to leave the country.
Leo Hickman / Guardian:
Professor rubbishes leaked email row — Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia denies emails provide evidence of collusion by climatologists to fix data — The climatologist at the centre of the leaked emails row said today that he “absolutely” stands by his research and that any suggestion …
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David Brooks / New York Times:
The Values Question — It's easy to get lost in the weeds when talking about health care reform. But, like all great public issues, the health care debate is fundamentally a debate about values. It's a debate about what kind of country we want America to be.
Andy Barr / The Politico:
Palin to Obama: Acknowledge troops — Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin on Monday accused President Barack Obama of not acknowledging the sacrifices made by the men and women in the U.S. military. — “There's been a lack of acknowledgement by our president in understanding …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Daily Dish, The Swamp, The Awl, The Huffington Post and VetVoice
Iain Murray / Pajamas Media:
Three Things You Absolutely Must Know About Climategate — This could prove to be climate science's Vietnam. — They're calling it “Climategate.” The scandal that the suffix -gate implies is the state of climate science over the past decade or so revealed by a thousand or so emails …
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CNN:
RNC official resigns — Washington (CNN) - A senior aide to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has resigned his post less than one month after the GOP scored major victories by winning the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia, CNN has learned.
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Wall Street Journal:
1 in 4 Borrowers Under Water — The proportion of U.S. homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than the properties are worth has swelled to about 23%, threatening prospects for a sustained housing recovery. — Nearly 10.7 million households had negative equity in their homes in the third quarter …
Discussion:
The Corner on National …, Gawker, Scared Monkeys, The Big Picture, Clusterstock, TigerHawk, Associated Press and The Page
Elizabeth Williamson / Wall Street Journal:
Quietly, the President Finds That Golf Is No Slam Dunk — A Star on the Court, He's Called a Hacker On the Course; Fans Miss the ‘Original Guy’ — One day last summer, Gene Mulak, observing carnage in the sand trap, decided it was time to rescue the Leader of the Free World.
Ezra Klein:
The small-d democratic case against the filibuster — “Are progressives really willing to take their chances with a future GOP-controlled Senate empowered to pass whatever they have 51 votes for?” asks Scott Winship. “With the Supreme Court nominees who could be seated (to say nothing of other judgeships)?
The State:
Impeachment panel wants detailed answers on Sanford's trip — A House panel taking up an impeachment resolution against Gov. Mark Sanford Tuesday said it wants detailed answers about the governor's secret trip to Argentina last June. — The committee, in its initial meeting …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
Joshua Green / Washington Monthly:
True Lies — The best recent memoir from Republican Washington is a hoax. That should tell you something. — I Am Martin Eisenstadt: One Man's (Wildly — Inappropriate) Adventures with the Last Republicans — by Martin Eisenstadt Faber & Faber, 366 pp.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
Chris Ariens / TVNewser:
Good Morning America Cancels Adam Lambert Concert — First on TVNewser: American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert won't be appearing on “Good Morning America” tomorrow. — TVNewser has learned ABC News canceled the concert after Lambert's sexually charged performance at the American Music Awards Sunday night.
Discussion:
FishBowlDC
Felix Gillette / New York Observer:
Doc Maker, Moore Collaborator, Shopping Film on Bush's Murky Military Service — Documentary filmmaker and longtime Michael Moore collaborator Meghan O'Hara is currently working on a feature-length documentary about George W. Bush's military service in the Texas Air National Guard, The Observer has learned.
Discussion:
The Political Carnival
Paul Krugman:
Gee, that's De Pressing — Second estimate of third-quarter GDP out; growth rate marked down to 2.8%. — This is really quite grim. At this growth rate it's far from clear that we're doing anything to reduce the output gap — the gap between what the economy could produce and what it's actually producing.
The Huffington Post:
Mark Halperin's Mary Landrieu Photoshop: Pure Class — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — As many of you know, Mark Halperin is this babbling idiot whom Time magazine hired to cobble together this insipid web product called “The Page,” which is designed to scam people looking for trenchant …
Discussion:
Mediaite