An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore  —  Do you really want to be the new “war president”?  If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president.  Pure and simple.

The right hammers Huck over shooting  —  The conservative blogosphere unleashed a torrent of criticism against Mike Huckabee Monday after a man whose sentence he commuted as Arkansas governor was suspected of gunning down four police officers in Washington state over the weekend.

Palin's Latest Rogue Gaffe  —  There have been so many lies and distortions pointed out in Sarah Palin's Going Rogue since it was released last week that her memoir has already become something of a gag line.  —  But perhaps the most embarrassing gaffe so far is her mis-attributed quote to UCLA basketball legend John Wooden.

Palin particularly popular among fans of Limbaugh and Beck  —  Sarah Palin may or may not run for president in 2012, but she is already the overwhelming favorite in the Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck primaries.  —  In a new Washington Post poll, Palin beats other GOP leaders on two questions …

Washington Times Runs Anti-Obama Birther Ad Featuring Racial Undertones  —  This latest national edition of the Washington Times features a full-page ad that claims that President Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States.  The ad was purchased by the anti-Obama website ProtectOurLiberty.org.

Video Shows Romanian President Hitting Boy  —  Romania's government “has collapsed and its economy is in shambles but its presidential campaign has been dominated in recent days by a video that appears to show the president striking a 10-year-old boy in the face,” the AP reports.

Come Fry with Me — By: Mark Steyn  —  In order to save the planet from global roasting, it seems entirely reasonable to ask Mr. and Mrs. Joe Peasant to subordinate their freedom of movement to an annual “carbon allowance” preventing them flying hither and yon and devastating the environment.

Rick Warren, Silent Enabler Of Hatred  —  One of Rick Warren's (and president George W. Bush's) longtime allies in Uganda, Martin Ssempe, is the author of a classic piece of minority-baiting legislation.  Its details belong in the history of genocidal hatred:

A surprisingly dark day for gay rights in New Jersey … Support for gay marriage in Trenton is draining away like water from a tub as nervous legislators scurry towards safer political ground.  —  “I can't say I'm confident now,” says Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), a lead sponsor.

Did Obama Inadvertently Excuse Palestinian Violence?  —  This is what the President had to say after the Israeli announcement that 900 apartment units would be built in the South Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo: … Two issues.  The first is that this Administration, unlike previous Administrations …

CBO report predicts hike in insurance costs  —  Individual insurance premiums would increase by an average of 10 percent or more, according to an analysis of the Senate healthcare bill.  —  The long-awaited report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation …

Obama's Winning First Year—And Palin As Worst Veep  —  Over at Slate, my friend Jacob Weisberg makes a compelling argument that Obama is having the most successful first year of any president since FDR.  He notes that a lot of that argument depends on the passage of health care reform, which, I think, remains a pretty good bet.

Swiss voters back right-wing minaret ban  —  Swiss voters defied their Government and clerics yesterday and approved a ban on building minarets — reflecting an alarming hostility to a rising Muslim minority.  —  Fifty-seven per cent of voters in a referendum supported the direct democracy initiative …

More on Climategate  —  In my previous post on Climategate I blithely said that nothing in the climate science email dump surprised me much.  Having waded more deeply over the weekend I take that back.  —  The closed-mindedness of these supposed men of science, their willingness …

Now HuffPo gets in the pool  —  When I reported last month on Talking Points Memo joining the White House in-town press pool — a move that followed additions this year of Salon and Ebony — a Huffington Post spokesperson said that Arianna's site also had plans to join, too.  And now they have.

Things to come  —  What's going to happen, economically and politically, over the next few years?  Nobody knows, of course.  But I have a vision — what I think is the most likely course of events.  It's fairly grim — but not in the approved way.  This vision lies behind a lot of what I've been writing …

On Climate Data, Trends and Peer Review  —  The reverberations continue from what the University of East Anglia says was the illegal dissemination of thousands of files from its Climatic Research Unit (CRU).  Over the weekend university officials put out an update saying 95 percent …

Supreme Court Overturns Decision on Detainee Photos  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday set aside a lower court's order that called for the release of photographs of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan being abused by American military personnel.  The high court told the lower court to re-examine the issue.

NORTH STAR  —  Populism, politics, and the power of Sarah Palin.  —  The last time the publication of a political memoir aroused as much interest as Sarah Palin's “Going Rogue: An American Life” (Harper; $28.99) was probably in 1995, when Colin Powell's autobiography, “My American Journey,” came out.

Pelosi spends $2,993 on flowers  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) spent $2,993 in taxpayer money on flowers between June and October.  House Majority Whip James Clyburn has a thing for Chantilly Donuts, spending about $500 at the Virginia shop in the past quarter.

Mark Kirk Wrongly Claims That Health Reform Could Make It “Law” For Gov To Deny Mammograms  —  A new incarnation for the death panels?  —  GOP Rep Mark Kirk, who's running for Senate and facing a primary challenge from the right, is now claiming that if health care reform passes, it …

The American Way of Empire  —  Actually, the existence of any such imperial ambitions is generally denied, even though the US has been an expansionist power almost since its inception.  The inter-war years of “isolationism” are the great exception, not the natural way of things.  At least not in Washington.