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.

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.

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.

Obama's liberal predecessor  —  Matt Yglesias and Kevin Drum are chewing over the hefty bipartisan support Bush got for his various domestic initiatives.  The roll call is impressive: No Child Left Behind, the 2001 tax cut, the post-9/11 war resolution, Sarbanes-Oxley, McCain-Feingold …

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

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 …

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 …

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.

Is Obama's star dimming as U.S. stock drops?  —  His celebrity is not enough to reverse an erosion of our global dominance  —  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India and President Barack Obama listen to the playing of the national anthems during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday in Washington.

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.

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 …

“Hope Is Fading Fast”: A Devastating Take on The Iconic Obama Poster  —  A new offensive has been launched against President Obama, and if it catches on it may make as much noise as a Birther at a Town Hall.  It's the new “Hope Is Fading Fast” t-shirt from LA streetwear company Freshjive …

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 …

Poll: More Americans growing skeptical of global warming  —  Majority of respondents still support legislation on emissions  —  The percentage of Americans who believe global warming is happening has dipped from 80 to 72 percent in the past year, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll …

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.

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)?

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.

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.

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.

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 …

Hoffman concedes, again  —  For the second time this month, Doug Hoffman conceded the New York special election to Rep. Bill Owens (D-N.Y.), and said he will not legally challenge the results of the race.  —  “Yesterday, the remaining ballots were counted in the 23rd Congressional District special election.

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.