Category Archives: Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals

Our wiretap-happy government didn't pay its wiretap bill.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.

A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. Poor supervision of the program also allowed one agent to steal $25,000, the audit said.

In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation “was halted due to untimely payment,” the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government's most sensitive and secretive criminal investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies.

Lots more where that came from.

Even when it's difficult.

George W. Bush has set a new record of unpopularity:

Bush reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they “strongly disapprove” of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974.

This seems as good an occasion as any to re-open the debate started here almost two years ago. In Discourse.net: Worst President Ever? I asked if GWB was the worst President ever. Readers were pretty persuasive that he was only a runner-up to James Buchanan.

But a lot has happened in two years: torture, politicization of every office of government, beating drums of war with Iran, poor management of relations with Pakistan, the dollar collapse, the deficit, the increasing inequality, the vetoes, the quagmire in Iraq (and the stop-losses), the forgetting of Afghanistan and New Orleans, one could go on and on and on.

So now I am prepared to remove the question mark.

What say you all?

By my count, a new administration will be inaugurated in 'just' 500 days. I count differently from some of the popular countdown clocks, because I know that inaugurations happen at noon, not midnight.

Scott Horton, in the conclusion to an article on the parts of the US Attorney mess that we don't think enough about:

Biskupic, Canary and Martin, among the group of U.S. Attorneys who have sold their professional souls, need to be put in a jail cell for thirty days to read Robert H. Jackson’s “The Federal Prosecutor.” It’s still the best statement of the ethical and professional responsibilities of a prosecutor that we have, and this crew make plain from their conduct that they haven’t an inkling of what their obligations to the country are. At this point I don’t know how many rotten eggs are out there, but one thing’s for certain: it’s not the dozen cashiered prosecutors we need to be worried about, but the more than eighty who were retained.

“I do tears.” – President George W. Bush

Yes, it's enough to make you cry.