Cheney slams Obama for projecting ‘weakness’  —  MCLEAN, Va. — On the eve of the unveiling of the nation's new Afghanistan policy, former Vice President Dick Cheney slammed President Barack Obama for projecting “weakness” to adversaries and warned that more workaday Afghans will side …

Why I Parted Ways With The Right  —  1. Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan, etc.)  —  2. Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, Lew Rockwell, etc.)

UK climate scientist to temporarily step down  —  LONDON — Britain's University of East Anglia says the director of its prestigious Climatic Research Unit is stepping down pending an investigation into allegations that he overstated the case for man-made climate change.

Threat of reconciliation hovers over centrist Democrats on healthcare  —  Talk about using budget reconciliation to pass healthcare reform in the Senate has faded from public view, but Democratic leaders continue to hang the threat over centrists in private.

Job Cuts Loom as Stimulus Fades  —  WASHINGTON—Highway-construction companies around the country, having completed the mostly small projects paid for by the federal economic-stimulus package, are starting to see their business run aground, an ominous sign for the nation's weak employment picture.

State dinner crashers exchanged e-mails with Pentagon official  —  The special assistant to the Secretary of Defense, who was appointed by Obama, said she clearly stated in correspondence with the couple that she could not extend any kind of invitation.  —  Reporting from Washington …

Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public: Alice Schroeder  —  Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — “I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol.

The Worst Kind Of Scheduling Conflict.  —  President Barack Obama ...  ... is slated to deliver a prime-time address on Tuesday night in which he'll lay out his plans for the American war in Afghanistan.  —  The address before the United States Military Academy at West Point on Tuesday night …

Gutsy progressive congressman Alan Grayson leads a double life  —  Since defeating an incumbent in Florida's Republican-heavy 8th congressional district last year, Rep. Alan Grayson has emerged as one of the progressive movement's most vocal champions.  His attacks on Republican obstruction …

‘If it is to be fought, it ought to be paid for’  —  Who is going to pay for the $30 billion or more to be added to the cost of the Afghan war based on what President Obama discusses tonight?  —  Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) of the House Appropriations Committee has an answer …

Building at home and abroad  —  I was struck by Louis Uchitelle's article in the Sunday NY Times on the dearth of big public works projects here in the United States.  “For the first time in memory, the nation has no outsize public works project under way,” he says, and then reports that:

Climategate and Scientific Conduct  —  Everyone has heard about the “Climategate” scandal by now.  Someone leaked hundreds of megabytes of information from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, and the material (which appears to be authentic) is most interesting.

MoveOn Mobilizes Against Obama on Afghanistan  —  ABC News' Rick Klein reports: The liberal drumbeat against President Obama's new Afghanistan policy is about to get a whole lot louder.  —  MoveOn.org, the liberal advocacy group that claims 5 million members, today sent an e-mail blast urging members …

Grassley: 'I've lived off the public tit' as a congressman.  —  On C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was asked if he thought the health care reform bill before the Senate amounted to socialism.  “No,” Grassley said, but he then attacked the public option aspect of the bill, calling it “socialism.”

Huck: Political attacks ‘disgusting’  —  Under fire for commuting the sentence of suspected cop-killer Maurice Clemmons, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Tuesday called some of the criticisms “disgusting” and suggested they were attempts to score political points.

Palin blasts media for bus tour stories  —  Sarah Palin fired back at the media today for a series of stories on her travel arrangements.  —  Over the last few days, several outlets have picked up on the story that Palin actually flew to some of the stops on her “bus tour.”  (Here, here, and here, for example.)

D.C. Council votes to legalize same-sex marriage  —  The D.C. Council voted Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage in the District, as the city moves quickly to join five states in allowing gay couples to marry.  —  After months of debate, the council passed the bill 11 to 2.