With the confirmation hearings for his CIA director nomination set to begin on Thursday, General Michael Hayden will no doubt be grilled on the broadening scope and dubious legality of the domestic surveillance programs during his tenure at the NSA. As we learned last week, Hayden's NSA not only conducted warrantless electronic eavesdropping on Americans, […]

A new poll from the Washington Post suggests that the President Bush may be winning a double victory with his illegal NSA domestic surveillance programs. Americans seem willing to buy the White House's "tough on terrorism" hype at the expense of the law and their own civil liberties. And as an added ironic bonus, the […]

As predicted, President Bush nominated Air Force General Michael V. Hayden to replace Porter Goss as head of the CIA. And while the Hayden nomination brings with it a growing laundry list of problems, that's just fine with President Bush. After all, a fight is exactly what the Bush White House wants right now. The […]

In a surprising and welcome announcement today, CIA Director Porter Goss abruptly tendered his resignation to President Bush. Effective immediately, Goss' quick exit was unusual, to say the least. But not necessarily totally unexpected. Since the story broke about Republican congressmen involved in the Hookergate scandal of Duke Cunningham moneymen Mitchell Wade and Brent Wilkes, […]

As predicted yesterday, the Senate Intelligence Committee today confirmed its status as a rubber stamp for the White House. The Committee, led by staunch Bush ally Pat Roberts (R-KS), rejected vice-chairman Jay Rockefeller's call for an investigation of the President's illegal NSA domestic spying program. Bowing to pressure from the White House, Majority Leader Frist […]

Tomorrow is shaping as "Showdown Tuesday" for the Senate Intelligence Committee. On Tuesday, the Intelligence Committee led by Kansas Senator Pat Roberts will decide whether to investigate President Bush's illegal NSA domestic wiretapping. At this point, the vote could go either way. Whether Roberts' committee once again abdicates its oversight role likely comes to down […]

I tend to agree with Kevin Drum over at the Washington Monthly that the Dubai port deal is not necessarily the grave and gathering security risk its opponents decry. (The shocking political tone-deafness is another matter altogether.) But it certainly smells bad, in no small part because of the cronyism and close ties the Bush […]

When it comes to President Bush's illegal domestic spying program, his Republican allies over the last several days have shown that discretion is indeed the better part of valor. From the beginning, the administration's amen corner has aggressive claimed that the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) and the wartime Commander-in-Chief powers […]

President Bush has flip-flopped once again. Just 24 hours after Vice President Cheney firmly declared the administration would not more broadly share information with key Congressional committee members regarding Bush's NSA domestic spying program, the White House reversed course - sort of. The seeds of the turnabout were sown with yesterday's challenge from House Intelligence […]

Faced with negative polls and a pessimistic American nation, President Bush's just completed 2006 State of the Union Address naturally focused on the theme of "the Hopeful Society." But like the stillborn "Ownership Society" vision before it, Bush's 2006 SOTU will be remembered not for its policy program, but for its partisan political purposes. The […]