“One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America’s dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn’t mean it literally.” (Via Kos)

Pentagon protests Washington Post cartoonist.

Download the printable version here.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan wants to make the controversy about Bush’s warrantless domestic surveillance program a partisan issue. Last week, McClellan issued this statement:

The NSA’s terrorist surveillance program is targeted at al Qaeda communications coming into or going out of the United States”¦Senate Democrats continue to engage in misleading and outlandish charges about this vital tool”¦It defies common sense for Democrats to now claim the administration is acting outside its authority”¦

It’s not true. Some of the most conservative members of the Senate have said they think Bush broke the law. Now Grover Norquist, one of the most important leaders of the conservative movement, declared the program illegal:

Referring to what some see as a conflict between fighting vicious terrorists and upholding all civil liberties, Norquist said: “It’s not either/or. If the president thinks he needs different tools, pass a law to get them. Don’t break the existing laws.“

How does this work into Karl Rove’s 2006 strategy?

In a letter to Scooter Libby’s lawyers, Patrick Fitzgerald says he has learned “that many e-mails from Cheney’s office at the time of the Plame leak in 2003 have been deleted contrary to White House policy.”

When President Bush first launched his campaign to privatize Social Security last year, just 39 percent of Americans approved of how he was handling the issue. A year later, that number has dropped to 35 percent.

The sentiments of the majority of Americans was voiced last night when President Bush brought up his privatization plans. Bush’s statement that “Congress did not act last year on my proposal” was met with rousing, unexpected applause that clearly unnerved Bush. Watch it:

(Quicktime Streaming)

Ezra’s got our back.

Last night, President Bush conducted a one hour argument with himself, otherwise known as the State of the Union.

First, he warned of the dangers of isolationism. He is right. However, it has been the President himself that has pursued policies that have isolated the United States from the rest of the world. Beginning in 2001, the President retreated from international agreements regarding missile defense, the environment and non-proliferation. It was the Bush administration that retreated from engagement policies regarding North Korea and the Middle East Peace Process. It was the President who decided to rush into Iraq without a real international coalition, and then blocked open bidding on contracts that could have drawn the international community into efforts to reconstruct Iraq. It is the arrogance of the Bush administration that has turned world opinion against the United States and caused the world to fear rather than embrace us. Read more

“Embattled U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay raised more money for his legal defense in 2005 than ever before but still owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to lawyers.”