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WASHINGTON - Congressional Republicans and Democrats demanded answers from the Bush administration Thursday about a government spy agency secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country. Facing intense criticism from Congress, President Bush did not confirm the work of the National Security Agency but sought to assure Americans that their privacy is being "fiercely protected." "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans," Bush said before leaving for a commencement address in Mississippi. The disclosure, reported in USA Today, could complicate Bush's bid...

Dick Morris writes a stinker today in the beltway newspaper, The Hill, in which he says: “The only way for a Republican to survive in 2006 is to run like a Democrat. The GOP line on oil companies totally misses the fact that voters see a vast conspiracy by big oil companies to manipulate the price to feather their own nests. All talk of supply increase or demand decrease is quite beside the point for the average voter. The issue is whether or not you are part of the conspiracy to fix and raise prices. “The Republican position on climate...

A flood of income tax payments pushed up government receipts to the second-highest level in history in April, giving the country a sizable surplus for the month.

To All, I just received a Republican Party Census Document in the mail. Reading through the questions and the selectable answers I begin to understand that the GOP is in a similar dilema to that of the Dems. They seem to be trying to figure out strategy based upon polls rather than trying to actually stand for something...

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In a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday, former Ku Klux Klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd, pledged to put President Bush on trial in the Senate if the House impeaches him. Addressing the president in absentia, Sen. Byrd began by warning that Congress retains all its original powers under the Constitution. "You better read that again in the Constitution," Byrd said, declaring that the Senate's powers include "serving as a court of impeachment. "You better believe it, Mr. President," Byrd continued. "The Senate can send you home. You better believe that." The ex-Klansman then added: "If the House impeaches you,...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused European countries for whipping up fears over the reliability of Russian energy supplies. Speaking after meeting German leader Angela Merkel, Mr Putin said Russia and Europe must agree "rules of the game". Russian firms could seek new markets in Asia if they were not free to operate in Europe, he said in a veiled threat. European anxieties on the issue have been growing since Russia briefly cut gas supplies to Ukraine in January. The stoppage had a knock-on effect, hitting supplies to other European countries further down its pipeline. Fears about Russia's supplies resurfaced...

Isn't this like Republicans working to grow Federal bureaucracy? Oh, wait. Never mind.

WASHINGTON House Democrats want President Bush to say whether he knew of what they call a "fundamental constitutional problem" with the $39 billion deficit reduction package he signed last month. A letter to Bush, signed by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Henry Waxman of California and released Thursday, is the latest challenge to a bill that was passed in slightly different forms by the House and Senate before it was sent to Bush. "A bill is not law unless the same version is passed by both the House and the Senate and signed by the president," top Democrats...

The United Arab Emirates is planning to switch 10pc of its foreign reserves from dollars to euros in the first sign of fall-out from Washington's snub to Dubai Ports World last week.Sultan bin Nasser Al Suwaidi, the governor of UAE's central bank, said the plan was designed to achieve a better balance in the $19.1bn reserves of the oil-rich Gulf federation, almost entirely held in dollars. "This policy initiative has nothing to do with the controversy over DP World's bid for P&O operations in the US," he said. In the same breath, however, he denounced the move by the US...

WASHINGTON - The Republican-led push to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling is back on Congress’ table, after the Senate included that provision in its $2.8 trillion budget bill. Democrats were unable to block the provision after one of their own, Sen. Mary Landrieu, supported the budget bill, which passed 51-49 on Thursday. The Louisiana Democrat sided with Republicans after winning concessions to help her hurricane-damaged state of Louisiana and rest of the Gulf Coast. She won inclusion of a proposal that could provide up $2 billion a year for levee and coastal restoration projects....

This is a partial transcript of "Special Report With Brit Hume" from March 10, 2006, that has been edited for clarity. JIM ANGLE, GUEST HOST: Different people draw different lessons from the two-week debate over port security and whether to let a company from the United Arab Emirates own the unloading operations at six U.S. ports. Several experts repeatedly tried to tell Congress that it was focusing on the wrong thing. One of them is John Carafano of the Heritage Foundation and author of "Winning The Long War." He argues that the U.S. is less safe without the deal than...

WASHINGTON – A Dubai-owned company said Wednesday it plans to sell all its U.S. port operations within four to six months to an unrelated American buyer and laid out new details about how it plans to pursue the sale under pressure from Congress. DP World said that until the sale is finalized, its U.S. businesses will be operated independently.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Russell Feingold on Tuesday blamed fellow Democrats for inaction on his stalled resolution to censure President Bush for his authorizing the National Security Agency's electronic terrorist surveillance program. "I'm amazed at Democrats ... cowering with this president's numbers so low," said Feingold, D-Wis. "The administration ... just has to raise the specter of the War on Terror, and Democrats run and hide."

In the past three weeks, there has been a political firestorm caused by misreported facts about the purchase of P&O by Dubai Port Works, and scurrilous attacks on the UAE by pundits, which has led to the betrayal of America's most loyal and useful an ally in the Persian Gulf. The fallout from this betrayal will make it difficult to recruit future allies in the war on terror. The attacks on the UAE have the potential to do what Osama bin Laden has not been able to do with over a decade of bombings, the hijacked airliners, and fatwas. Just...