The Outlaw Presidency

"In place of the formal status-of-forces agreement negotiators had hoped to complete by July 31, the two governments are now working on a 'bridge' document, more limited in both time and scope, that would allow basic U.S. military operations to continue beyond the expiration of a U.N. mandate at the end of the year.

"The failure of months of negotiations over the more detailed accord -- blamed on both the Iraqi refusal to accept U.S. terms and the complexity of the task -- deals a blow to the Bush administration's plans to leave in place a formal military architecture in Iraq that could last for years.

"Although President Bush has repeatedly rejected calls for a troop withdrawal timeline, 'we are talking about dates,' acknowledged one U.S. official close to the negotiations. Iraqi political leaders 'are all telling us the same thing. They need something like this in there. . . . Iraqis want to know that foreign troops are not going to be here forever.'"

And Steven Lee Myers writes in the New York Times: "The Bush administration is considering the withdrawal of additional combat forces from Iraq beginning in September, according to administration and military officials, raising the prospect of a far more ambitious plan than expected only months ago....

"One factor in the consideration is the pressing need for additional American troops in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other fighters have intensified their insurgency and inflicted a growing number of casualties on Afghans and American-led forces there."

Iran Watch

Uzi Mahnaimi writes for the Times of London: "President George W Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon official.

"Despite the opposition of his own generals and widespread scepticism that America is ready to risk the military, political and economic consequences of an airborne strike on Iran, the president has given an 'amber light' to an Israeli plan to attack Iran's main nuclear sites with long-range bombing sorties, the official told The Sunday Times."

Cheney and Global Warming

Juliet Eilperin writes in Wednesday's Washington Post: "Members of Vice President Cheney's staff censored congressional testimony by a top federal official about health threats posed by global warming, a former Environmental Protection Agency official said yesterday.

"In a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), former EPA deputy associate administrator Jason K. Burnett said an official from Cheney's office ordered last October that six pages be edited out of the testimony of Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gerberding had planned to say that the 'CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern.'¿

"Several media outlets, including The Washington Post, reported at the time of Gerberding's testimony that the administration had revised her proposed remarks. White House officials justified the changes by citing doubts about the scientific basis of her testimony."

Andrew C. Revkin blogs for the New York Times about how it's all very reminiscent of a 2001 incident he reported in a 2004 story about how Cheney reversed Bush's campaign pledge to restrict carbon dioxide emissions.

And what about the ostensible agreement on global warming at last week's G8 summit? Revkin writes in the New York Times: "Nearly everyone had something to cheer about on Wednesday after the major industrial powers and a big group of emerging nations pledged to pursue 'deep cuts' in emissions of heat-trapping gases in coming decades....

"But behind the congratulatory speeches on Wednesday, some experts said, was a more sobering reality. The documents issued by the participating countries had very few of the concrete goals needed to keep greenhouse gases from growing at their torrid pace, they said....

"Mentions of mandatory restrictions on emissions were carefully framed. Caps or taxes were endorsed where 'national circumstances' made those acceptable. The statement urged nations to set 'midterm, aspirational goals for energy efficiency.'"

And by the end of the week, there were yet more signs of the Cheney influence.

James Gerstenzang and Janet Wilson write in the Los Angeles Times: "The Bush administration Friday rejected its own experts' conclusion that global warming poses a threat to the public welfare, launching a comment period that will delay action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least until the next president takes office.

"The Environmental Protection Agency published a 588-page examination of the issues surrounding greenhouse gases but refused to adopt its staff's finding that such gases could cause disastrous flooding and drought and affect food and water supplies¿.

"Environmentalists angrily denounced the White House for what they said was political interference with government experts' proposed rules."

Juliet Eilperin writes in The Washington Post that EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson "had initially sided with his staff last year and concluded that the Clean Air Act legally obligated the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases on the grounds that they endangered public welfare. But after the White House refused to open an e-mail from the EPA making that finding, and President Bush signed legislation tightening national fuel economy standards, Johnson announced that he would shift course and simply solicit public comment."

Felicity Barringer writes in the New York Times that the EPA decision, combined with a new federal court ruling, means that "[a]ny major steps by the Bush administration to control air pollution or reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases came to a dead end on Friday....

"John Walke, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a leading environmental group, said, 'As a result of today, July 11, the Bush administration has failed to achieve a single ounce in reductions of smog, soot, mercury or global warming pollution from power plants.'"

The New York Times editorial board writes: "The Bush administration made clear on Friday that it will do virtually nothing to regulate the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. With no shame and no apology, it stuck a thumb in the eye of the Supreme Court, repudiated its own scientists and exposed the hollowness of Mr. Bush's claims to have seen the light on climate change."

Access for Sale?

Daniel Foggo writes for the Time of London: "A lobbyist with close ties to the White House is offering access to key figures in George W Bush's administration in return for six-figure donations to the private library being set up to commemorate Bush's presidency.

"Stephen Payne, who claims to have raised more than $1m for the president's Republican party in recent years, said he would arrange meetings with Dick Cheney, the vice-president, Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, and other senior officials in return for a payment of $250,000 (£126,000) towards the library in Texas.

"Payne, who has accompanied Bush and Cheney on several foreign trips, also said he would try to secure a meeting with the president himself.

"The revelation confirms long-held suspicions that favours are being offered in return for donations to the libraries which outgoing presidents set up to house their archives and safeguard their political legacies....

"During an undercover investigation by The Sunday Times, Payne was asked to arrange meetings in Washington for an exiled former central Asian president."

Here's the sting video.

Mark Silva blogs for Tribune: "Payne, who told the newspaper that he intended nothing untoward, maintained [Sunday] in a statement delivered to the Tribune that he has been the victim of a 'confidence game'' played by the British newspaper, which has taken his comments out of context in a bid to 'entrap'' him."

FISA Watch

The New York Times editorial board blogs: "The results were so thoroughly precooked that there was no surprise in the Senate's 69-to-28 vote [Wednesday] to gut a law that has protected Americans from spying by their own government for 30 years.

"Still, it was distressing - and depressing - to watch Congress wrench Americans' civil liberties back to where they were in the days before Watergate, when the United States government listened to our phone calls whenever it wanted."

Michael Isikoff writes for Newsweek: "The domestic spying measure approved by Congress last week will impose new rules on government wiretapping. But it will leave largely untouched what some experts say is the most sweeping part of the secret surveillance activities ordered by President Bush after 9/11: the National Security Agency's collection of phone records and other personal data on millions of U.S. citizens. The NSA's massive 'data mining' program--in which the agency's computers look for call patterns that might point to suspicious behavior--has never been publicly confirmed by the Bush administration. But industry and government officials, who asked not to be identified talking about classified matters, say the practice is a big part of what the telecoms did for the spy agency, and a key reason the companies fought so hard for the immunity from lawsuits granted by the new bill.

"After 9/11, the White House asked MCI (now Verizon), AT&T, Sprint and Qwest for help obtaining call records on U.S. numbers found in laptops and cell phones captured in Qaeda hideouts. Normally such data is easy to come by for law enforcement, but in the post-9/11 world, the premium was on speed. So the White House bypassed the established legal protocols. Qwest balked, but the other three carriers went along -- because, as one industry official put it, 'nobody wanted to be responsible for the next terrorist attack.'

"Over time, requests for call records grew into the thousands -- often two or three calls removed from the original targets. And, without court oversight, the demands for these and other personal data ultimately sparked fierce protests from inside the Justice Department itself."

Chris Hedges writes in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "This law will cripple the work of those of us who as reporters communicate regularly with people overseas, especially those in the Middle East. It will intimidate dissidents, human rights activists and courageous officials who seek to expose the lies of our government or governments allied with ours. It will hang like the sword of Damocles over all who dare to defy the official versions of events. It leaves open the possibility of retribution and invites the potential for abuse by those whose concern is not with national security but with the consolidation of their own power....

"I know the cost of terrorism and the consequences of war. I have investigated Al Qaeda's operation in Europe and have covered numerous conflicts. The monitoring of suspected terrorists, with proper oversight, is a crucial part of our national security. But this law is not about keeping us safe, which can -- and should -- be done in a constitutional manner and with judicial oversight. It is about using terrorism as a pretext to permit wholesale spying and to silence voices that will allow us to maintain an open society."

Rove Watch

Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post about Karl Rove's decision to ignore a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee last week: "He had no intention of appearing before Congress, and he had sent the panel the equivalent of a doctor's note -- from no less a medical authority than White House counsel Fred Fielding -- saying he did not have to respond to the congressional subpoena."

Back in August, Rove similarlly refused to show up before Senate Judiciary Committee.

E-Mail Watch

Lyndsey Layton writes in The Washington Post: "Federal officials inconsistently preserve government e-mail, creating gaps in the public record and making it difficult for the public to understand the activities of the government, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office yesterday."

The New York Times editorial board writes: "After watching wholesale lots of the Bush administration's most important e-mails go mysteriously missing, Congress is trying to legislate against any further damage to history. The secrecy-obsessed White House is, of course, threatening a veto - one more effort to deny Americans their rightful access to the truth about how their leaders govern or misgovern....

"We fear we may never find out all that has gone missing in this administration, although we urge Congressional investigators to keep trying."

Bush in Private

Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times: "It would not be a G-8 without a microphone mishap...

"At [last] week's gathering on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, the lunchtime microphones were on again. The life-of-the-party president, mingling before the meal, chatted animatedly about his parents' health, his birthday and the corruption charges facing one of his best buddies in Europe, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy."

Michael Abramowitz writes in The Washington Post: "'Amigo. Amigo,' he called out in Spanish when he saw the Italian. Bush seemed to delight in pronouncing his name slowly, with an accent on each syllable: 'Ber-lu-sco-ni!' His friend seemed to chuckle.

"Could have been another Yale beer bash."

Robert Winnett and Urmee Khan write in the Telegraph: "George Bush surprised world leaders with a joke about his poor record on the environment as he left the G8 summit in Japan.

"The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: 'Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter.'

"He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock."

Bugliosi's Book

Tim Arango writes in the New York Times that celebrated prosecutor and bestselling author Vincent Bugliosi "could be forgiven for perhaps thinking that a new book would generate considerable interest, among reviewers and on the broadcast talk-show circuit.

"But if he thought that, he would have been mistaken: his latest, a polemic with the provocative title 'The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder,' has risen to best-seller status with nary a peep from the usual outlets that help sell books: cable television and book reviews in major daily newspapers....

"Mr. Bugliosi, in a recent telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles, said he had expected some resistance from the mainstream media because of the subject matter - the book lays a legal case for holding President Bush 'criminally responsible' for the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq - but not a virtual blackout...

"The editor of Newsweek, Jon Meacham, said he had not read the manuscript, but he offered a reason why the media might be silent: 'I think there's a kind of Bush-bashing fatigue out there.'"

Cartoon Watch

Lee Judge and Joel Pett on FISA; Mike Luckovich and Tony Auth on a supine Congress; Don Wright on Bush's legacy; Daniel Wasserman on Bush and Maliki; Mike Lane on Bush at war.