NSA Spying Part of Broader Effort  —  Intelligence Chief Says Bush Authorized Secret Activities Under One Order  —  The Bush administration's chief intelligence official said yesterday that President Bush authorized a series of secret surveillance activities under a single executive order in late 2001.

Stevens threatens to block ethics bill  —  Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, whose home back in Alaska was raided by federal investigators Monday in a wide-ranging corruption investigation, has threatened to place a hold on the Democratic-drafted ethics legislation just passed by the House and expected on the Senate floor by week's end.

'Conflict' keeps Rumsfeld from Tillman hearing  —  Update: This story has been updated to reflect comment from the Oversight Committee's Republican staff.  Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will not testify at a hearing scheduled for Wednesday on the friendly fire death …

Cheney On Whether He Ordered Hospital Visit To Ashcroft: I Have 'No Recollection'  —  On Sunday, Josh Marshall pointed out that the New York Times editorial on the potential need to impeach Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said that "Vice President Dick Cheney sent Mr. Gonzales and another official …

I just returned from Falafel Bill's house  —  After O'Reilly provided an "accountability moment" to the JetBlue CEO at his home, I decided to provide O'Reilly with his own accountability moment at his home.  —  I've just returned to home base.  —  I've got video of O'Reilly in his sleepwear (red shorts and a white t-shirt).

Republicans Should Skip the YouTube Debate  —  Republican hesitancy to a YouTube debate does not stem from the party's unwillingness to engage the internet community, nor does it come from any perceived ignorance of the community's power and import.  —  In fact, Republicans are taking the internet quite seriously.

Biglaw and Big Politics: Which Way Does Your Firm Lean?  —  With the 2008 presidential campaign dominating the airwaves, despite being over a year away, everyone is talking about politics (and watching awesome, politically-themed music videos).  Here's a question that a law student posed to us:

BEAUCHAMP  —  After a helicopter ride around Baghdad, this afternoon I arrived at Forward Operating Base Falcon, where the mood was somber.  The Army has begun an official investigation into The New Republic articles of the "Baghdad Diarist", Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp.

U.S. Attorney Became Target After Rebuffing Justice Dept.  —  The night before the government secured a guilty plea from the manufacturer of the addictive painkiller OxyContin, a senior Justice Department official called the U.S. attorney handling the case and, at the behest of an executive for the drugmaker …

Too uninformed to vote?  —  We test immigrants before they can go to the polls; why not everyone else?  —  Can you name all three branches of government?  Can you name even one?  Do you know who your congressman is?  Your senators?  Do you even know how many senators each state gets?

U.S. checking possibility of pumping oil from northern Iraq to Haifa, via Jordan  —  The United States has asked Israel to check the possibility of pumping oil from Iraq to the oil refineries in Haifa.  The request came in a telegram last week from a senior Pentagon official to a top Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem.

BET founder blasts 'class war' on tax  —  Democratic presidential hopefuls are "playing the class warfare card" by supporting tax increases on private-equity and hedge-fund managers, says Robert L. Johnson, the billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television, who warns the hike would hit minority-run investment firms.

Cheney admits was wrong about "last throes" in Iraq  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney acknowledged on Tuesday he was wrong in 2005 when he insisted the insurgency in Iraq was in its "last throes."  —  It was Cheney's most direct public admission of how badly …