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WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY By Jonathan Alter Newsweek Updated: 6:17 p.m. ET Dec. 19, 2005 Dec. 19, 2005 - Finally we have a Washington scandal that goes beyond sex, corruption and political intrigue to big issues like security versus liberty and the reasonable bounds of presidential power. President Bush came out swinging on Snoopgate—he made it seem as if those who didn’t agree with him wanted to leave us vulnerable to Al Qaeda—but it will not work. We’re seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator, or in his own mind, no doubt, like Abraham...

It must be said that subsequent events have not made life easy for those of us who were so optimistic as to support the war in Iraq. There were those who believed the Government's rubbish about Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction. Then the WMD made their historic no-show.Some of us were so innocent as to suppose that the Pentagon had a well-thought-out plan for the removal of the dictator and the introduction of peace. Then we had the insurgency, in which tens of thousands have died.Some of us thought it was about ensuring that chemical weapons could never again be...

After the love (for Bill) is gone THE WAY WE WERE Writer recalls the betrayal that ended their political affair I BROKE up with Bill a long time ago. It's always hard to remember love — years pass and you say to yourself, was I really in love or was I just kidding myself? Was I really in love or was I just pretending he was the man of my dreams? Was I really in love or was I just desperate? But when it came to Bill, I'm pretty sure it was the real deal. I loved the guy. As...

Controversial film-maker Michael Moore is planning to make a hard-hitting documentary based on US President George W. Bush's handling of the Hurricane Katrina rescue operation. Moore grabbed international acclaim with his scathing 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11, which studied Bush's handling of the September 11th terrorist attacks. The Oscar winner is now "seriously considering" documenting the catastrophe in America's Gulf Coast region. He tells the New York Daily News, "There is much to be said and done about the man-made annihilation of New Orleans, caused not by a hurricane but by the very specific decisions made by the Bush administration in...

The quagmire in Iraq and the precariousness of conditions in Afghanistan provide wars enough for discussion, should anyone want a serious one. Nonetheless, the ghost of Vietnam rises again in an odd footnote to the 2004 presidential campaign. This is the belated decision by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry to release his complete military record to media organizations. If you count yourself among those who have no interest in how the college grades of former Yale men Kerry and George W. Bush compare - they both turn out to be poor - perhaps you missed the point.

Interesting irony on Larry King last night. First King interviewed Woodward & Bernstein, the two men responsible for breaking one of the biggest stories of the century with the help of an anonymous source we now know was the number two man at the FBI. In the next hour King interviewed Dan Rather, the man responsible (at least in part) for one of the bigger journalistic bungles in the modern era, rushing to air a story based on forged documents from very dubious sources to try and influence the outcome of a presidential election. It's clear that Rather is still...

Between his return Friday from Pope John Paul II's funeral in Rome and his meeting Monday with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, President George W. Bush spent an hour and a half Saturday riding a mountain bike at his Texas ranch. With him, as usual, was his indispensable new exercise toy: an iPod music player loaded with country and popular rock tunes aimed at getting the presidential heart rate up to a chest-pounding 170 beats per minute. Which brings up the inevitable question. What, exactly, is on the First iPod? In an era of celebrity playlists - the New...

Heads roll at CBS over Bush report Network's probe blames staffers' 'myopic zeal' ANTONIA ZERBISIAS Four big heads — but not the fat talking one called Dan Rather — are rolling at CBS. The axings come after an independent study found "myopic zeal" was behind last September's questionable 60 Minutes Wednesday report on gaps in President George W. Bush's National Guard service records. Yesterday, CBS announced that Mary Mapes, who produced the story about Bush getting "special treatment," was fired. Senior broadcast producer Mary Murphy, executive producer Josh Howard and Betsy West, who supervised CBS News primetime programs, have all...

NEXT YEAR, 1.3 million college students will receive reduced Pell grants for college aid. Another 89,000 currently eligible students will get no aid at all. These cuts will save the Bush administration about $300 million, a small part of what it needs to pay for its tax cuts and military forays.

Arab astrologer predicts Bush assassination Oracle famed for prophesying deaths of Diana, Yassin, Arafat © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com A Tunisian astrologer who reportedly predicted the deaths of Princess Diana, Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Yasser Arafat says President Bush will be killed by an assassin's bullet in 2005. So seriously are Hassan al-Sharibi's predictions taken in the Arab world that a similar prophecy about Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Mahmoud Abbas has resulted in increased security around the candidate to replace Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority. Abbas' aides put a "great deal of credence" in the prediction, according to...

HOLLYWOOD has-been Chevy Chase lashed out at President Bush at a liberal love-in Tuesday night, calling the commander-in-chief a "dumb f - - k." Chase was master of ceremonies at People for the American Way's Defender of Democracy awards gala at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. But the organization got more than it bargained for when Chase went off the rails in a potty-mouthed rant, the Washington Post reports. "This guy in office is an uneducated, real schmuck," Chase fumed, "and we still couldn't beat him with a bore like [John] Kerry." He then joked about Cabinet changes,...

Washington, DC, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The remembrance of Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor took on partisan political spin Tuesday with a Democrat leader using it to attack House Republicans. Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, in a special Pearl Harbor Day statement, said national unity 63 years ago enabled Americans to go forward and defeat the country's enemies, but the same kind of unity needed now was being undermined by Republican disagreements over provisions of the yet-to-be-voted on intelligence reform bill. "While we as a nation are united in this fight, there are clearly deep divisions within...

No Apologies Helen Thomas has been shaking up the White House press corps since George W. took office. She talked to Real Change about power, truth, and women in Washington interview by Adam Holdorf For most of her four-decade career covering the White House, journalist Helen Thomas stuck to the straight facts. Lately, though — having left United Press International, where she wrote wire stories, and taking on a new role as a columnist for Hearst Newspapers (like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, where she’s regularly printed) — she’s loosened the lid on her own opinions. But unlike other columnists, she has...

Rather deserves respect By Ray Richmond There was a telling moment in a telephone interview I conducted with Dan Rather a little more than a year ago in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of CBS. "I'm not a large part of the legacy (of CBS)," Rather offered. "But whatever part of it that I am and have been, I'm very proud of. At the same time, I'm humbled by the fact that I know that I'm undeserving. I know that I'm still working to be worthy of it." Anyone who knew Rather will tell you this wasn't false modesty. He...

Some retailers had luxurious weekend But discounters report sales were disappointing By DAVID KAPLAN Retailers use the Thanksgiving weekend to gauge how the Christmas season will go. ADVERTISEMENT This year, though, it's hard to spot a general trend. "I think the start was very mixed," said Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a national retail consulting and investment banking firm in New York. Some retail segments did a booming business, including luxury, electronics, online retail, certain specialty apparel chains and department stores like Sears and J.C. Penney that had early bird specials. However, discounters didn't perform well. For example,...

What the Republicans did, cleverly, was to establish effective "memes" in the minds of the public and the pundits... Bush became the "winner" of a dead heat, in the midst of an incomplete recount, when a premature victory was declared on her own unnecessary deadline by his Florida campaign co-chairwoman, who also held the crucial post of secretary of state... [I]t was clearly a shameless ploy to slam the door before the election escaped. A meme was born. The other effective GOP meme was the mantra, "we counted, and counted again, and then a third time." These words were chanted...

THE last presidential election in the United States is as American as apple pie. Even till the last second before the event started, nobody in the US or elsewhere knew for sure whether George Bush would retain his job or whether he would be defeated by John Kerry. Characteristic of American presidential elections in recent history, the last one was tough, rough and sometimes acrimonious, although some degree of razzmatazz was also noticeable.Key issues in the run-up to the election were security, the war against terror, the American misadventure in Iraq and the worrisome state of US economy. Generally speaking,...

Between the end of the Republican National Convention and Election Day, the Houston Chronicle spent roughly 50,000 words on President George W. Bush and his campaign for re-election. Perhaps most impressive, one of its own columnists had major news to break on the race. He just didn't, umm, break it to the Chronicle. Russ Baker, a New York-based freelance journalist and contributing editor at Columbia Journalism Review, had been circling the reporting waters around President Bush for several months, dialing up hundreds of possible sources for material on the commander in chief. "I just didn't think we really knew enough...

By Hunter S. Thompson Page 2 "The Summer is over the harvest is in, and we are not saved." -- Jeremiah 8:20 Well, the election is over now, and I was pitifully wrong on my public prediction about the outcome. George W. Bush won handily; and my friend, John Kerry, lost by three percentage points -- which was every bit as big in a vicious presidential election as it was on the football field last night when the low-riding Indianapolis Colts kicked a last-second field goal to beat Minnesota 31-28. That field goal was just as good for the Colts...

Page 2 George McGovern called Saturday night from New Orleans and said he was ready to rumble. "This is it, Hunter. This is the day we've been waiting for all our lives," he cackled. "Nixon was nothing compared to these bastards. This is the most important election of my lifetime, including my own race."What do you think is going to happen on Tuesday?" "I think Kerry will win," I answered. "Yes, I think so, too. He is about the greatest thing since God created you and me," he laughed. His voice became serious then, and he said, "I think he...