The White House is keeping mum on which Afghanistan strategy President Obama favors, but if his daily schedule has anything to say, deciding time is near. Talking Points Memo reports that the president’s sit down with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Tuesday afternoon is likely a critical meeting in anticipation of a decision on Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s request for a troop surge. The meeting with Pelosi comes on the heels of a two-hour War Council huddle on Monday night, reportedly the ninth and final meeting of its kind. Aides have been saying for weeks that Obama wants to give a public speech once he makes up his mind, but so far, no speech has been scheduled. NPR reports that the announcement won’t come until December 1.

Paralyzed from the chest down, a groggy Maj. Nidal Hasan wavered in and out of consciousness during an hour-long hearing in his hospital room this weekend and lawyer John P. Galligan claims these circumstances that do not meet the accused's due-process rights. As pretrial proceedings for the most infamous military psychiatrist-turned-gunman begin, Army officials say Hasan requires "unique and tailored" proceedings, but Galligan doesn't trust it. "What does that mean?" Galligan, a retired colonel, asked. He continued, "Already on most basic fundamental parts of pretrial process, I am not saying it is totally derailed, but they need to do some maintenance to make sure we stay on track." Galligan says the military has ignored procedural requests and his request to question Hasan's unit commander, noting also that Hasan was transferred between units last week (while still in the hospital) for unclear reasons.

Iraq's effort to keep its parliamentary elections on schedule fell apart Monday when the current Parliament disregarded a vice presidential veto and pushed through new elections-related legislation that the veep swore to veto as well. The legislative deadlock has watchers wondering whether the troubled nation will be able to handle the challenges of America's coming troop withdrawal—or whether political and constitutional crises are on the horizon. The terms of the ethnically charged election were recently thought resolved, but deep-seated mistrust between Shiite leadership and Sunni underclass—as well as the Kurdish minority—have caused earlier deals to fall apart, and January's elections will likely be delayed. The current Parliament's constitutional mandate ends on March 15, and an election is supposed to happen 45 days before that; if elections fail to occur before the expiration date, it is unclear how the nation would proceed.

Doomed Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis' last day is December 31—and the "too big too fail" bank is at such a loss to fill his position, they may name a stopgap chief for the interim between Lewis and his permanent replacement. Bloomberg reports that "at least four external candidates," including Citigroup director Michael O'Neill, have turned down offers. BofA's search is complicated by the fact that their choices must be vetted by government regulators. House Oversight Committee Chair Edolphus Towns' gave internal BofA candidate Brian Moynihan the kibosh last week for insufficient leadership experience, and Treasury Department paymaster Kenneth Feinberg is reportedly keeping a close eye on the hiring process, too. What's more, warring shareholder factions—including the group that led the anti-Lewis revolt—aren't agreeing on favored candidates, other than ones that have already turned the position down.

Just in time for Thanksgiving: An ethics commission in South Carolina has charged  Governor Mark Sanford with breaking state laws more than three dozen times by misusing campaign money and airplane travel. It will be up to the state attorney general whether or not to file criminal charges against Sanford. Sanford’s attorneys insist the allegations involve minor and technical aspects of the law.

Next stop, mandatory reading of Going Rogue? Talking Points Memo reports that the Republican National Committee is considering a purity test for political candidates. The “Proposed RNC Resolution on Reagan’s Unity Principle for Support of Candidates” lays out 10 issues and, if adopted, would cut off party support and money from candidates who disagree with three or more of them. Issues include opposition to cap-and-trade legislation, a rejection of amnesty for illegal immigrants, and support for a troop surge in Afghanistan. The RNC will vote on the resolution in January.

Alexandra Kerry is off the hook for drinking under the influence, TMZ reports, as the L.A. City Attorney has declined to press charges. After being pulled over for expired tags, the daughter of Sen. John Kerry blew a 0.06 on a breathalyzer—under the legal limit of 0.08. The senator released a statement denying various rumors and expressing gratitude for the end of "a public episode we all wish had been avoided entirely or handled privately."

After thousands of hours of his staff poring over details from individual cases, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has approved clemency in 78 criminal cases, including the commutation of Willie Knighten Jr.'s life sentence for a high-profile 1996 murder. Strickland considered 296 cases, meaning he approved 26 percent of his clemency requests. Strickland says he is not worried about political fallout from the unusually large number of clemencies—but his staff is. Nonetheless, he took pride in the decision and cited rehabilitation as his chief rationale: "In every case, these pardons have been granted to individuals who have completed their entire sentence, usually many years ago. ... The individuals granted pardons today have demonstrated that they have been rehabilitated and have assumed the responsibilities of citizenship."

Between the recent Maclaren stroller recall and a new Stork Craft crib recall, the world has become perilously dangerous for infants: ABC reports that the Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced one of the largest-ever crib recalls in history, following the deaths of at least three children. 2.1 million units are being recalled due to problems with dropdown crib sides: "The hardwood can crack, a depression is made in the bed, and the baby's head gets caught in that depression the baby can strangle and die," said a former CPSC chairperson. The Stork Craft recall reflects a growing sense of risk related to dropdown-side cribs, which have been the source of large-scale recalls for other companies, as well.

Guess who's coming to dinner: Sarah Palin! Evangelist Billy Graham entertained the former governor of Alaska on Sunday night, when the two talked and ate a meal of chicken, roast beef, and green beans. According to Graham's son Franklin, Palin asked the religious leader about the presidents he had known, and picked his brain about foreign policy, soliciting his reading of the Bible as it pertains to Israel, Iran, and Iraq. Franklin told reporters that his father was a fan of Palin's "strong stand on faith," saying, "Daddy feels God was using her to wake America up." Though Graham's age restricts his ability to visit with politicians as he used to, a private visit with the man is still seen as an important gesture—President Obama called Graham from Air Force One on November 12, and wished him a happy belated birthday.

Sarkozy and the camera may love her, but French auction houses don't. A nude photograph of French first lady and former model Carla Bruni was yanked from a Parisian auction block after it failed to surpass its undisclosed reserve price. Taken by famed photographer Michel Comte, the image—a full-body depiction of a nude Bruni, her hands folded demurely in front of her nethers—sold for $91,000 at New York's Christie's auction house in April 2008. This time around, bidding started at 4000 euros and ended at 5800 euros, the equivalent of $8700. Later, a private, behind-the-scenes sale put the image in the hands of an anonymous buyer for a scant 6000 euros.

Joe Mauer became only the second catcher in 33 years to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award on Monday. The Twins catcher earned 27 out of 28 first place votes, and was followed in the voting by Yankees teammates Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter. Mauer batted .365—a major-league record for a catcher—and became the first repeat batting champion since Nomar Garciaparra won in 1999 and 2000.

Overrun by a rapidly expanding bison herds, California's Catalina Island is taking a revolutionary approach to population control: Bovine birth control. Whereas traditional methods for reducing overpopulated herds have including controlled hunting, killing, or shipping strategies, Catalina Island Conservancy—a nonprofit that owns 88 percent of the island—is pioneering a non-hormonal birth control shot for female bison. "Males will continue to compete for females, and females will continue to go into heat. The only difference is that we can control how many calves they have," explains the conservancy's chief. "For bison in love, this means romance without responsibilities." For the sake of eco-sustainability, the conservancy aims to quell the herd's current annual growth rate of 15 percent.

On Monday, a federal judge in Minneapolis plans to unseal documents charging up to eight people with terror-related offenses connected to the recruitment of young Somali Americans by a terrorist group in Somalia. The FBI says these people helped some two dozen Somali Americans from the Twin Cities join a terrorist group in Somalia called al Shabab. Five Minnesotans who joined the group in Somalia have already died in fighting. The FBI, meanwhile, has arrested and charged six other people with terror-related crimes.

Hobbled by drone attacks in Pakistan, al Qaeda may not pose a "direct national-security threat," but its existence still puts the U.S. in danger from "al Qaeda-trained or -inspired" terrorists, writes al Qaeda expert Peter Bergen in Foreign Policy. Examining the stories of several terrorists, both native and foreign-born, who operated in the United States since 9/11—including the Afghan-American Najibullah Zazi, who was allegedly planning what one terror commentator described as "Mumbai-on-the-Hudson," and the suspected Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan—Bergen finds an "interesting mix" of militants who run the gamut from "lone wolves" to those "plug[ged] directly into al Qaeda central." Bergen concludes that there is still a "small minority of American Muslims [who] are not immune to the al Qaeda ideological virus." Bergen writes that the Patriot Act, in easing agencies' ability to share intelligence, may be the strongest post-9/11 force in preventing a serious domestic terror attack—along with a belief in the "American Dream," prevalent among the largely well-educated and wealthy community of American Muslims.

President Obama may not have turned Washington, D.C. into the celebrity destination like some had predicted, but the showbiz bigwigs will be back in town on Tuesday night to help welcome Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Nikki Finke reports that Obama has invited to his first state dinner former DreamWorks partners David Geffen, Steven Spielberg, and Jeffrey Katzenberg; Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman Michael Lynton; and WME Entertainment Agency co-CEO Ari Emanuel. Invitations to the dinner are largely handed out as “thank yous” to important political donors.

Is there anything Chesley Sullenberger can't do? After executing a perfect landing on the Hudson River earlier this year, the airline pilot flawlessly executed in other areas, as well. "I had joked the other day that... hero sex really helps a 20-year-old marriage," Laurie Sullenberger told Matt Lauer, responding to a question about how the captain's sudden celebrity had affected their marriage during the taping of a Thanksgiving Day special. Sully, cool as a cucumber, confirmed his wife's assessment of the situation: "Rock star sex."

Thanks to last year's especially horrible shopping season—the worst in more than four decades—malls are going on spending sprees designed to lure customers. In addition to sprucing up old decorations, many malls are throwing events such as tree lightings. One California shopping center even held a free aerial performance with acrobats. The idea is that about two-thirds of people who show up to a specific event will end up shopping in a store, eating at the mall, or both, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. Other customer-friendly promotional offers include gift card, shopping spree, and laptop giveaways, free champagne flutes with minimum purchase, and complimentary gift wrapping.

How much would an Afghan surge cost? The Pentagon estimates that sending additional troops to Afghanistan will cost $500,000 per year for each additional service member sent over, but the White House estimated a cost of twice that much, underscoring the different priorities and calculation methods for each group. As the Pentagon pushes for an increase of as many as 40,000 troops, sticker shock is a consideration, while the White House wouldn't want to underestimate costs and then lose the public's faith. For Obama's part, he's promised not to take war costs off the federal budget books. The White House's assessment includes everything it deems necessary to wage war, including troop housing and equipment. Pentagon budgets tend to include higher combat wages, extra aircraft hours, and other operations, but generally omit new weapons purchases—a one-time cost, support equipment, and the cost of new bases. Although this time around, the Pentagon broke with tradition and included construction and equipment in its current estimates. It's not easy to make up a budget by looking into the past either—many chunks are paid through emergency measures, and thus omitted from budget totals.

At an auction at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York on Saturday, the rhinestone-encrusted glove Jackson wore during the 1983 Motown 25th anniversary TV special when he performed the moonwalk for the first time, fetched $350,000, ten times its pre-sale estimate and more than 10,000 times its original $30 purchase price. Hoffman Ma, the deputy chief executive of the five-star Ponte 16 casino resort in Macau, China won the glove, and intends to open a gallery next year to display the glove and the nine other Jackson artifacts he purchased at the auction, including sequin-encrusted socks, Jackson’s childhood drawings, and the shirt Jackson wore in the “Thriller” video. Other big-ticket items at the auction included the fedora Jackson wore for the moonwalk ($22,000), a black jacket from the 1989 Bad tour ($225,000), and the handwritten lyrics to “Beat It” ($60,000).

The recession is ending but the debt pile only grows: The U.S. is now more than $12 trillion in the red. Servicing that national debt will cost the country $202 billion this year, and more than $700 billion per year by 2019, according to White House estimates. For comparative purposes, $500 billion in interest expenses could cover the federal budgets this year for education, energy, homeland security, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and still have some left over. While this year's spending surge is widely believed to be a necessary response to the financial crisis and recession, the long-term budget crisis, which arrived just as baby boomers are beginning to retire en masse, has sent the Treasury is scrambling to lock in today's low interest rates by shifting short-term borrowings to long-term bonds. But much like overstretched homeowners with a subprime mortgage, the government can probably look forward to payment shock.

Looking for a little breathing room, Democrats are targeting Maine's two centrist Republican senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, hoping they can attract them to vote for the coming health-care reform bill. President Obama sent a member of his cabinet, former Colorado Senator Ken Salazar, to meet with Collins. On Saturday, the Senate passed a vote to move forward with the health-care debate along party lines, 60-39. “I have ruled out voting for this bill, but I still very much want to vote for a bill and that is why I am continuing to have discussions,” Collins told The New York Times. “I still cling to the belief that it is possible for a group of us to come together and rewrite the bill in a way that would cause it to have greater support.”

Perhaps she’ll go rogue and speak anyway? The Army has asked Sarah Palin to not make a speech, pose for photos, or personalize the notes in books she signs when her Going Rogue book tour stops by Fort Bragg on Monday. The Army is worried that she would grandstand against President Obama. A spokesman from Fort Bragg told local news that so far sales of Palin’s book have been weak.

There must be something in the water at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Seniors Henry Spelman and Libby Longino will be heading to Oxford as a couple after each of them won a Rhodes Scholarship on Saturday. The prestigious Rhodes award, won by the likes of former President Bill Clinton, pays tuition, board, and living expenses for two years of study at Oxford, an annual value of about $50,000. Each year about 80 students are chosen worldwide for the honor, and this year, 32 U.S. students won. Spelman said that the "really cool" part about winning the prize was that his girlfriend won too. Spelman will use his the opportunity to pursue a doctorate in Latin and Greek while Longino will study human trafficking.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is making the first visit to Brazil by an Iranian head of state, during a diplomatic tour through South America and Africa. The U.S. government worries that by welcoming Ahmadinejad, who was forced to cancel a scheduled visit to Brazil last May after protesters took to the streets alarmed by Ahmadinejad's views on the Holocaust and Israel, Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva could signal implicit approval of Iran's resistance to international pressure surrounding the country's nuclear ambitions. Ahmadinejad and Lula are expected to sign a number of agreements during the visit, including cooperation pacts in biotechnology, energy, and agriculture. Tehran is also seeking to up its petrochemical, energy, agricultural, and medical trade with Brazil from $2 billion to $15 billion.

With Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's popularity waning on Capitol Hill as frustration with the Obama administration's handling of the economy grows, J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has emerged as a potential replacement. As the New York Post put it, Dimon "achieved rock-star status" by leading J.P. Morgan through the financial crisis and by serving as the "go-to guy" when the government needed industry help last year as Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual collapsed. Although Dimon has publicly said that he intends to stay at J.P. Morgan for another six or seven years, in recent weeks he's traveled to Washington frequently, and White House visitor logs show that he has been a frequent guest. Earlier this month Dimon raised his profile by publishing a high-profile op-ed in The Washington Post arguing the virtues of letting big banks risk collapse rather than receive government aid.

Four U.S. service members have been killed in Afghanistan in the last 24 hours. Three Americans died Sunday in southern Afghanistan, two after a bomb attack and a third in a separate firefight, while a fourth service member died after a bomb exploded in east Afghanistan on Monday. So far, 15 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan during the month of November. Last month 58 Americans died in Afghanistan, making it the deadliest month for U.S. troops to date in the eight-year war.

The competition was stiff, but 19-year-old Taylor Swift managed to beat out Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Kings of Leon, and Eminem for Artist of the Year at the 2009 American Music Awards. Swift also took home awards for favorite female pop/rock artist and best country album. Jermaine Jackson accepted favorite male soul/R&B artist, best soul/R&B and pop/rock album, and favorite pop/rock male awards on his brother Michael's behalf. Other winners included the Black Eyed Peas and Green Day. Sunday night's show included a few notable showstoppers. Rihanna took to the stage to perform a single from her new album Rated R. Lady Gaga put on one of the night's most memorable performances when she sat down to play a grand piano and it caught fire. Jennifer Lopez had a blooper moment when she slipped up on a dance move and landed on her bottom.

The head of the Federal Reserve takes a lot of heat, but this year the U.S. central bank is taking more criticism than ever. Amid higher unemployment and bank bailouts, the Associated Press predicts that the Senate confirmation hearings for Ben Bernanke may be the site of heated debate. The hearings could begin as early as next month. Adding to the Fed's trouble is Congress's effort to strip it of many of its regulatory powers, spreading them out to other organizations.

Has Wikipedia's ethos of crowdsourcing sabotaged the Web site? In the first quarter of the year, the Internet encyclopedia lost more than 49,000 editors, compared to one-tenth of that number during the same period in 2008. Contributors to the site speculate that the open democracy has led to infighting among them when it comes to controversial topics, a "too many cooks in the kitchen" dilemma. Another problem with crowdsourcing is that at some point, after inaccuracies, spammers, and "virtual graffiti" littered the site’s entries, executives from the Wikimedia Foundation had to tighten the reins on contributors. The renewed approach led to hundreds of rules and a byzantine hierarchy in which it became difficult to post or edit information at all. The open policy that was the foundation of the service has slowly narrowed, but executives from the Wikimedia Foundation aren’t too worried about the dwindling number of contributors. They say their concern is quality, not quantity.

One month into an offensive designed to rid the South Waziristan region of the Taliban, Pakistan is greeting new costs of war as the growing conflict hurts the nation's economy and scares off investment from abroad. Some Taliban militants have settled in other regions of the country forcing companies, like a London-based oil group, to leave Pakistan. “Naturally, this violence is not good for the investment climate, but the government’s decision this year to tackle the Taliban is a good one for the long term,” said a Karachi-based asset manager. The effort has cost the military $8.5 billion a year and the number is rising, according to Pakistani officials.

An escort girl to Silvio Berlusconi says the Italian prime minister has direct ties to Mafia dons in a soon-to-be-published memoir. Patrizia D'Addario also says she was attacked and threatened after she slept with Berlusconi. The Italian leader's lawyer said the claims are "baseless and can be in no way verified." D'Addario says that her mother was attacked by a man who said, "This is to teach your whore of a daughter a lesson." In another incident, she said a car tried to run her off the road. She writes in the new book, “It was a miracle that I survived and did not hit another car." Berlusconi has faced allegations revolving around his relationships with escorts since last spring.

Microsoft and News Corp. have met about plans to help the media company "de-index" its Web sites so that their stories could not be detected by Google. News Corp., the Rupert Murdoch company that controls The Wall Street Journal, approached Microsoft, according to the Financial Times. But Microsoft has gone to other publications offering its services to remove their sites from Google's search engine, the paper said. “This is all about Microsoft hurting Google’s margins,” said one online publisher.

Thanks in part to a tax credit that lured first-time home buyers, sales of existing U.S. homes rose 10.1 percent in October to a 6.1 million annual rate, the highest level since February 2007. September's rate of 5.54 million was only expected to rise to around 5.7 million, but cheaper homes and an $8,000 tax incentive that the Obama administration had juiced up seemed to have increased consumer confidence and a willingness to "take the plunge," as one economist put it. Despite the good news, the foreclosure rate was higher than 300,000 for the eighth straight month, due in part to high levels of unemployment. The stock market rallied Monday morning, partly on the strength of the housing figures, and gold rose to a new high on the back of a weaker dollar.