More than a year ago, The New York Times first revealed that the Bush administration had authorized intelligence agencies to bypass Congress and the courts by eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without first obtaining permission from the courts. As 2005 turned into 2006, further disclosures followed: The administration had whisked terrorism suspects into secret CIA prisons overseas. The National Security Agency, with the cooperation of telecommunications companies, was "data mining" international phone calls and e-mail. In signing ... [full story]

Uncle Sam holds a paper labeled 'National Security Letter' from the Department of Defense. The caption says: 'I watch you.' [full story]

The voracious hunger of the Internet for information is like nothing else in history. It sustains itself in part on titillation, sucking up huge quantities of text and images and displaying them for the use and entertainment of the public. All this has been aided by the development of inexpensive, portable cell phones that can record sounds and images and post them immediately, on the World Wide Web, before the eyes of the world. Some ... [full story]

President George W. Bush is dressed like Gen. George Armstrong Custer at Little Big Horn. His hat is pin-cushioned with arrows and more arrows fill the sky. Bush yells: 'Surge!' [full story]

Late last year, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Treasury Department to redesign the nation's paper currency to accommodate the blind. A redesign makes perfect sense, but the government doesn't see it that way. Four years ago, the American Council of the Blind filed a lawsuit arguing that American currency was "inaccessible" to blind people and violated a law prohibiting discrimination in government programs against people with disabilities. Judge James Robertson of the U.S. District ... [full story]

A corporate CEO sits in his well-appointed office with a view of high-rise buildings behind. He holds a newspaper headlined: 'Minimum wage.' He says to the cleaning woman pushing a vacuum: 'Oh yeah? Have you ever tried to survive on $5.15 a second?!' [full story]

The plight of the polar bear, together with a lawsuit, has forced an admission from the Bush administration: Global warming is real. The reality-adverse administration has had to come to grips with a hard fact: The bears' icy habitat is melting - and due to climate change. The Interior Department is proposing to declare the bears a threatened species. This acknowledgment of global warming ought to be the first step of a more aggressive approach ... [full story]

Two polar bears float, facing each other, on small ice floes. One says: 'How's that New Year's resolution coming?' The other answers: 'Still looking for new habitat ...' Editorial cartoon by Bruce Beattie. [full story]

As the nation mourns President Gerald R. Ford, it is worth remembering part of what it has lost with him - a political style in which battles are hard-fought, but without rancor or personal animosity. After all, Ford entered politics as a congressman from a western Michigan district with bipartisan help. He came back from World War II believing the United States must be actively engaged in world affairs. The congressman from his district was ... [full story]

A odometer rolls over from 3,000 to 3,001. The number '1' is represented by a flag-draped coffin. Caption says: 'Speaking of a surge in troops ...' [full story]

Perhaps the best reason to heed former Secretary of State Colin Powell now is because no one did before in a Bush administration that has taken multiple wrong turns in its war in Iraq. Powell, author of the Pottery Barn principle - "You break it, you own it" - has turned out to be something of a reluctant prophet on Iraq. Powell also is author of the Powell Doctrine, which says that America should only ... [full story]

George Bush is at the end of a line at a department store returns window; he is carrying a large, damaged, smoldering box labeled 'Iraq War.' [full story]

History may show the 109th Congress ranking among the lamest of ducks. Lawmakers had dragged themselves out of a post-Thanksgiving stupor and reluctantly waddled back to Washington, D.C., for a session to deal with the oh-so-boring task of governing. Well, sort of. See, Congress controls the nation's purse strings. Appropriations bills set funding levels for everything from education to veterans care to national parks. But this year the Fightin' 109th, focused more on the mid-term ... [full story]