FISA fights back.

The secret court overseeing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) rebuff Ashcroft’s plea for increased wiretap powers, and declares the FBI has misled the court over 75 times. Never thought I’d be on the side of a secret court, but there you go. It must be getting really ugly over at Justice if somebody’s leaking this bad boy.

The Dubya Motel.

Surprise, surprise. Apparently the Bushes have been having tons of big donors over for sleepovers at the White House. (Dubya’s defense is they’re not sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom, as if that makes a difference.) Let’s prep those congressional investigations, people! C’mon, Dan Burton, get a move on. Why do I have a feeling hypocrisy will remain the order of the day here?

Et tu, Scowcroft?

While Maureen Dowd reads Oedipal strife into Brent Scowcroft’s recent decision to pooh-pooh Dubya’s bellicose policy on Iraq, Tom Oliphant thinks the rift’s been overstated. In related news, Trent Lott belatedly sees the wisdom in a congressional debate on an Iraq war.

Ashcroft’s “Hellish Vision.”

Jonathan Turley, Constitutional Law professor at GW and television staple during l’affaire Lewinsky, lashes into John Ashcroft for his recent plan to create extraconstitutional internment camps of “enemy combatants” (re: US citizens) in and around the country. (Via Caught in Between.) Y’know, I do believe John Ashcroft is the scariest man in the country right now.

Are we done yet?

In related news from the NYT, Bush gets bored at yesterday’s Photo-Op economic summit. “He dutifully scribbled some notes as participants talked, looking as happy as a high school kid in trig class, and bounded out of his chair when Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill told him he could be excused.” Meanwhile, the Dow dropped 200.

A Tale of Two Ranches.

The NYT contrasts the LBJ and Dubya ranches. “While Lyndon B. Johnson used his 2,700 acres as a political tool and power base to both stroke and dominate guests at his barbecues along the Pedernales River, Mr. Bush, the gregarious former fraternity president, has used his 1,600 acres as an isolated retreat to entertain family and a few old Texas friends.” Hmmm…perhaps it’s because the channels of power usually flow around rather than through our Dauphin, eh?

Talkin’ the Talk.

“The era of low standards and false profits is over…No boardroom in America is above or beyond the law.”. And with that, Bush signs the corporate reform bill. He then leaned into the microphone, made the Dubya face, and declared, “You can run but you can’t hide, Dick Cheney. We’re going to hunt you down like the agent of evil you are. You hear me talkin’, Halliburton boy?