The Avenging Angel, punisher of the rascals of the right, had yet another busy week delivering payback. Out in Big Sky country, GOP Montana Senator Conrad Burns found himself in hot water this week for insulting firefighters who had been battling blazes in his state. In the midst of a tough reelection bid against Democrat […]

As the crisis in the Middle East spirals out of control, President Bush jumped into action on Friday. Not by taking control of Secretary of State Rice's failed talks in Rome or by announcing a major American initiative during his press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. No, Bush mobilized the White House to […]

In Washington today, President Bush signed a bill extending by 25 years the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In so doing, Bush once again succeeded in having it both ways. While publicly proclaiming his support for the Voting Rights in public, the Bush Justice Department has blocked its enforcement at every turn. The President's rhetoric, […]

For most watchers of the CIA, the return of Steven Kappes to Langley as the agency's number 2 man is a welcome development. Fluent in Farsi and Russian, the 23-year veteran of the clandestine service can bring a renewed focus on the CIA's core intelligence-gathering mission. Unfortunately, Kappes' return almost certainly signals the resumption of […]

In a bizarre Washington Post op-ed ("Surveillance We Can Live With") pitching his ill-conceived NSA eavesdropping compromise, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) shows all of the hallmarks of a man in the throes of severe cognitive dissonance. While essentially pronouncing the illegality of George Bush's illegal domestic surveillance program, he cannot bring himself […]

In the latest sign that Republican class warfare is alive and well in Washington, the IRS is planning draconian cuts to its team of estate tax lawyers handling the audits of the wealthiest Americans. In the next 70 days, the IRS will shed almost half of the 345 lawyers assigned to monitor the gift and […]

Bush Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt headlines another week of wrongdoing by the miscreants of the right. The HHS chief earned the wrath of the Avenging Angel this week for proving that charity does indeed begin at home. Bush's go-to man on blocking the morning after pill used a non-profit foundation to enrich […]

Back in May, Perrspectives described how inquiries by both the FCC and the DOJ into illegal domestic surveillance by the Bush NSA had been blocked. With Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' testimony today before the Senate Judiciary Committee, we have a much clearer picture as to why. In a nutshell, President Bush personally insisted that the […]

This week's G8 Summit in St. Petersburg marked the end of the five-year romance between George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin. With festering disagreements over Iran, Russia's entry into the WTO, the North Korean crisis, and Moscow's descent into autocracy, tensions between Bush and Putin were on public display. Ironically, the exchange of barbs took […]

Former CIA agent Valerie Plame and her husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson publicly unveiled their lawsuit against Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby in a Washington press conference today. But while the Wilson's action offers the potential to bring President Bush's "Politics of Payback" under the microscope, its prospects for success seem remote. That […]